Brice's sheds

I guess this could also be part of the summer, but it certainly deserves its own post. Brice started up a business this summer (licensed and everything) building sheds. I think I may have posted about the first one he built. The monster one that I helped him with? Does it ring a bell? I'll check. Hang on.... Hmm. I guess not. Anyway. This is the first one Brice built:

Well, technically, he built this little one before the monster shed and put it in the driveway with a for sale sign on it: But the big one was the first one he was hired to build. It was enormous! It's beautiful, isn't it? We made it a family affair and the homeowners were nice enough to watch the kids most of the time so I could help. It took AAAAALLL day long! I gained a lot of appreciation for what Brice does for a living. I also realized how much this job lends to injury. He's still accident prone, just not as much as I always thought he was. The other amazing thing is that he calculated the material perfectly. The only thing he ran out of was roofing nails and he had nothing (and I mean nothing) leftover. It also meant there was no room for mistakes and he didn't make any. I was impressed!

Poor Ryker. One of the first things that happened the day we built this shed was that I was carrying a piece of plywood when suddenly the wind kicked up and started twisting it out of my hands. I quickly had to put it down so it wouldn't rip my arms off. Unfortunately, I put it down right on Ryker's leg. I scraped his leg and foot up pretty good and we were worried he might have some internal damage, but he was walking on it after an hour or so. Poor little guy.

After our California trip, Brice had several jobs right in a row.Another monster one.
The monster ones have a HUGE loft inside. This is the son of the homeowner who is over 6 feet tall! These two monster sheds are both 10'x14' and they are 14' tall. Now you know why we call them monster sheds.

Here's an average sized one.
And another average sized one.


And a little one that I was able to help with.
He also built another medium sized one this past weekend (with windows! It looks great!) and another little one yesterday. I haven't seen that one but my sister took pictures. Her husband has been helping Brice on some of the sheds. I'll have to post pictures of the last two when I get them on the computer. Or, I could just get the ones I have now...This shed was quite the project! The boys (Brice and Toby) did a bunch of concrete work to create pillars for the beams to sit on and a concrete pad for the ramp to attach to and they built the ramp and made a skirt to cover the pillars and on and on! It turned out really nice, don't you think?

I'm so proud of my husband! He can make amazing things with his hands and I love watching him build these sheds. They turn out so professional! I'm also proud of him for starting up an official business. It's exciting and he loves owning his own business. He hopes it can be something he can do for years to come (even after he's an engineer) and that his teenagers can help him with. We'll see just how far it will go! Good work, Brice!

Random--Last summer post

This post is mostly going to be pictures. I take LOTS of pictures of my kids and here are some of my favorites from this summer.

The kids have been so fun to watch grow this summer. I am amazed at how much they have bonded and grown to love each other lately. Raelin and Ryker play so well together and they are such good buddies. They both love Alaina and love to help with her and play with her. Alaina is just learning that they are fun to "play" with and she follows them around wherever they go.

Raelin's shirt is fitting for her pose, but I don't think she did it on purpose. She was just hamming it up for the camera.

Our sunflowers were pretty amazing this year. They were enormous!

Brice started off playing with Alaina, but anytime Brice is on the floor (which is often to play with all his kiddos--he's such a good daddy), Zuma thinks she should have all the attention. Jealous box!

I was playing with Ryker's hair and then he looked at it. His eyes went way crossed and I said, "Oh, Ryker, you have to let me get a picture so you can see what you look like!"

What is it with kids and dog water? I can't tell you how many pictures I have of Ryker drinking out of the dog bowl when he was little. At least Alaina tried to clean it up (with her bum and a towel).

I could take pictures of this baby all day. Okay, I'll admit it; sometimes I do.

She loves to chew on Otter Pops when she's teething.

But by the end, her little cheeks are all red from the edges of the wrapper rubbing on her face.

One day, Brice set the kids up on the porch with some tomatoes and tomatillos from the garden along with a few other ingredients and let them make their own salsa. They had a blast! I love how the pictures show their personalities so well; Ryker's cutting board is a jumbled mess of veggies while Raelin's is neat and organized.

It's been fun to watch what Alaina chooses to play with. She loves trucks and cars and tractors and she also loves stuffed animals and plastic animals. Actually, whenever she sees a real animal she squeals with delight and giggles whenever they get close to her. I love it! And of course, everything goes in the mouth. The dogs don't seem to mind slobbery tails or ears...

One day I found the kids playing camping. The little sneaks managed to get a hold of some real marshmallows and they were upstairs (another no-no for food!) roasting them on pens over their paper fire. I just couldn't scold them; it was too cute and clever!

Ryker loves to help in the kitchen. He calls it his special day whenever he gets a chance to help. One day, Brice let him (at least I think Brice let him--he may have done it of his own initiative...) make pancakes. He was so happy!

For some reason I don't have many pictures of us camping this year. But I promise we went a bunch of times. I think Zuma was hoping Ryker was going to share. Little beggar.

Well, that's about it. It was a busy, crazy, whirlwind of a summer and we had a great time!

California Trip

Still catching up on life. Sorry for the delay in summer story-telling. Okay, so, California. Brice has been bound and determined to get the kids to the beach this summer. It took some serious finagling, but we made it. Unfortunately, Raelin came down with a nasty flu bug the day before we were to leave. She was throwing up and had a fever. Here she is asleep in the doorway of the bathroom. Poor thing was tired of going back and forth, I guess.We kept an eye on her and prayed that she would stop puking because no one wants to spend 8 hours in the car when they are puking and no one wants to spend 8 hours in the car worried about puke getting on the car--it's a disaster to try to clean. Been there, done that. We also checked with family to be sure that they weren't opposed to hosting us despite the illness. Alternatively, we were willing to camp until Raelin was better (we love camping, so that wouldn't have been a big deal). Anyway, she slowed down with the throwing up just in time for us to decide to go. We had hoped to go for the whole 2 weeks Brice was out of school, but then we found out that Raelin's school started in the middle of Brice's break. So it was a much shorter trip than we'd hoped, but we went anyway. When we got there, Raelin was still sick and she started burning super high fevers. When I say high I mean 104.5 and 105 degrees! She had several cold baths to get that temp down fast. We took her to the doctor who said she had a virus and that it just had to run its course. Fortunately, when her fever was down, Raelin was happy and playful. She only felt yucky when she was burning up. We went through more medicine in that week with this one child than we have with all three of our kids combined over the course of their lives. I don't give medicine easily because I think it helps people to have a stronger immune system to let our bodies fight illnesses on their own, but with a fever that high, I wasn't willing to just let it burn or even to give a half dose to bring it down a little without killing it like I normally do. We were on her ever 6 hours with the Motrin whether the fever was back or not. Just keep it away.

Ryker was also still crawling from his see-saw injury the day we got there. I think he started walking (tentatively) the next day. So we were pretty much laid up at Brice's parents' house for the first 3 or 4 days. Brice's sisters both came up with their kids so we could all play and have fun together. It was great to see everyone and I love watching all the cousins play together. They have a ball!

We spent another fun-filled afternoon with Jack and Sue. They are some friends of ours that we just love! Brice helped frame their amazing house and Jack has been working on the finish work himself for a long time. It's the most intricate, ornate work I've ever seen and it's beautiful! SO we love to visit and see the progress they've made on the house. This time they took us to the pool for a swim and a BBQ. We had a blast! Thank you Jack and Sue!!!

At the end of the week we finally made it to the beach. Both kids were well and could play and run and we had a great time. We stayed at my grandma's house in Agoura, so we were close to the beach I went to when I was a kid. I love Zuma beach (that's why I named my puppy Zuma).

It was kind of a chilly day. I chickened out about really getting in the water, but I taught Raelin how to catch sand crabs and she LOVED it.

Raelin didn't like the cold water much either.

Ryker and I build some cool sand castles.

Ah, here's Raelin catching crabs.

We dug a really deep hole. I think it's the deepest one I've ever helped dig. The kids are standing up in it and it's as deep as Raelin is tall.

Then we buried Brice, Raelin, and Ryker in it. Raelin was getting a bit smashed and was not happy, but I had to get some pictures before I let her out! She was pitifully sad, but it had to be done.

And Alaina was a little sand monster! I gave up after about five minutes of trying to keep her from eating the sand. There was just no hope. Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job of catching her poops in the days that followed so it was awful to wipe off her little tushie. Sand poop is a pain in the rear. (hardy har har. Yes, I can hear you moaning at my awful pun.)

I love the sand goatee.

Eating sand.

Eating more sand.

And seaweed.

We took the playpen because she doesn't sleep so well in my arms. It's a pain to lug, but she got a good nap so it was worth it. Here, she is just waking up, ready to...You guessed it! Eat more sand.

A couple of artsy pictures.

And last but not least, my wonderful husband. I just love him! He's the best.

My grandma and grandpa were headed for a cruise in Alaska right when we were heading out to California. It was quite a bummer to miss them, but they let us stay at their house and it was wonderful! We had such a great time there. They have worked on the yard a ton and it beautiful! Complete with a fountain and a little... what do you call that thing? A pergola? There were walking paths all through the garden and orchard and the kids had a blast running and playing and riding scooters.

I went to get things ready to go at the end of our stay and I left Alaina downstairs playing with some toys. When I went to check on her, this is what I found:

What!? Climbing stairs at 7 months!? No way.

So, that was our Cali trip. Thanks to all you who hosted us and put up with us and our sick kids. Sorry to those of you we couldn't visit due to Raelin's cold and the small window of time we had to stay out there. We miss you!

Epilogue
Incidentally, Alaina came down with a different cold when we got home (runny nose and cough) from the one Raelin had and then, right as she was getting over that, she came down with Raelin's high fever throwing up cold. Ugh! What a mess! There have been more sicknesses going around our family in the last few months (Hellloo! It's SUMMER! Not fair!) than ever before. What's the deal?

P.S. I'm not in the mood for proofreading today. Sorry for the typos. Maybe I'll come back and fix them another day if they bother me too much, which they probably will. I'm such a nerd.