Trains, trains, trains!

We went out to visit Martin's parents again.  It was a wonderful time!  Charlie just loves to see them.

While there, we headed over to the train museum again.  I don't think that Charlie could have been happier.  He was SO excited!  He is still talking about it!

 This is my FAVORITE!

 This little guy is so curious.  He loved getting to see "couplings" up close and check out every little detail of the cars.  

 Love this one, too!

Peeking in the passenger car window.

Charlie loved getting to walk up and down the tracks!

Now this is neat!

Mommy and Match hanging on the caboose.

Checking out the buffer with Mommy!

This one is just beautiful.  They are so cute together!

Messes are the BEST

Charlie and I have been up to all kinds of fun messes lately.  We painted toast for St. Patrick's Day, played in some puddles, made a cardboard racecar, blowing bubbles, played in the sandbox at the playground, and planted some seeds for our garden!  What little boy wouldn't love playing in dirt INSIDE?

Riding my tricycle!

Charlie is figuring out so much as he becomes a full blown three year old boy!
On one of the super warm days we had (70's in March!) we went up to Mema and Gaga's and he decided he was going to ride his tricycle.

LOVE LOVE LOVE his face in these pictures.  He had so much fun but was SO focused!

Matthew was happy to just hang out in the pack!  He is so happy to watch everything that is going on!

Mom and Dad were watching Charlie ride his tricycle.

Boy Toys

I had barbies.  And dolls. And all kinds of pink and girly toys.  I LOVE having boy toys all over my house.  Trains, Blocks, Cars, Boats, Firefighters, Construction Toys.  It is so fun!  Anyway, Charlie and I were playing and he asked me to take a picture of his train.  Here's what we ended up with:


In case you were wondering, this is MightyMac.

This is Emily.

And let's not leave out that cheeky Thomas!

 Charlie will set up tracks and play for hours.  It is so cool to watch.

Charlie got this cool set of roads/boats/construction/firemen stuff for Christmas and his birthday.  Martin found pieces of brio track that allow the road system to work with the train tracks.  Some mornings we set ALL of it up and then you can't walk through our living room.

 I love the whimsical style and colors that the hearthsong set brings in- its a cool contrast with the trains, but still very fun!

 It is so neat that he is finally getting to the point where imagination kicks in.  His play is more than just pushing trains- they are talking to each other and having fun!

Love seeing those chubby fingers!

Match

My niece calls Matthew "my Matchew," so Match is starting to stick as a bit of a nickname for our cutie pie!

The poor kid gets called, "the other one" more than anything else!  Anyway, he is a smiley, happy boy that gives you this look like he's in on a joke with you.  Here a few pictures from the past month (not many, but more are coming in other posts).  He also popped out his first tooth on March 27th!

The end of another one of "Martin and Kathleen's" Sap Seasons

Last year during the maple syrup season, I was pregnant and nauseous- I am only just now finally able to enjoy syrup again!  This meant the big project fell onto my Dad.  At the end of the season, he pulled the taps and said, "That's the end of Martin and Kathleen's Sap Season!"   

 He enjoyed it enough that this year he tapped more trees.  We were again pretty useless in the help department- though we brought Charlie up to gather sap with Gaga a few times.

 Dad cooked down most of the syrup outside this year. 

I just love this picture of Charlie and my dad.  Charlie just adores him!

When the going gets slow.... yell at your builder!

So after they set the house, we went in to check it all out.  Its been a few weeks since then.  The outside work is now finished, but the inside looks sadly the same!  I got on the phone with the manufacturer to tell them how unhappy we were with our builder- mostly the fact that they haven't been there to do any work!  I won't bore you with details regarding the other issues.  We are simply at the point everyone who builds a house gets to.  We are anxious to move, and frustrated with our builder over issues we shouldn't even have to think about!

Anyway, ten years from now this won't matter.  We'll be in our home and it will be a story to laugh about.

The kitchen is essentially done.  We have our stove and are just waiting on the rest of our appliances.  One thing we realized is that we never picked out hardware for the cabinets- I guess that will be a project for us to complete later on down the road!

The living room is mostly done.  The floors are even in under that pad!

These stairs will be stained and finished to match our floors.

Charlie's room.  And no, this isn't a fancy photo technique- the left half of the picture looks torn because the door frame isn't up yet.

Master bedroom from the doorway.  All that wood flooring piled in the middle of the room- it is still piled in the middle of the room.

 Master bedroom closets.  The bathroom is beyond them.

I will say that the basement stairs are a lot nicer than anything I expected they would provide.  For whatever reason, this part of the house just fascinates Charlie.  "Can I go to the basement?"

Anyway, after a lengthy conversation and being on the receiving end of more attitude and swearing than I wanted, there are actually a few guys there working this week.  If they keep it up it could be just a few weeks- but we have been hearing that for awhile, so if we are in by the end of April I will be thrilled!