Papou's Visit and The Worst Mom Award

Papou came to visit us this weekend and this is how excited Daci was about it.....
He got in at 3am on Saturday morning. Daci was so excited when she saw Fred walk down the stairs in the morning! She was a little shy at first even though it was clear she was so happy to have him there. After about five minutes she was completely warmed up and being her bossy self :) It seems she is bossiest with Fred. She loves to lead him around and tell him what to do. It was so funny, almost the whole time he was there she was holding his hand and pulling him around.

We went downtown for the first half of Saturday.

The famous cupcake shop "Sprinkles" was right across where we parked downtown so of course we had to stop for one....even if it was 10am :) Fred and Rick got a chocolate peanut butter cupcake. I went in with them while they ordered and at the last second saw the words "gluten free"!!! I almost jumped out of my shoes I was so excited. They had a Red Velvet Gluten Free Cupcake!! Of course I got it and of course it was TO DIE FOR!!!




We went to the Apple store and Daci pulled Fred up and down the staircase over and over again

Fred and Daci with the famous Water Tower in the background

Daci pulling Fred around downtown





Then, Saturday afternoon we came home, took a nap, and then Daci was up and ready to go some more. She told Fred she wanted to go outside with her stroller and bear and she ran around like a crazy person :)





We decided to go Downtown Naperville for the evening. This is us playing outside before we left.


Downtown Naperville. Daci would not stay in her stroller. She insisted on holding Fred's hand and leading him around the city.

We were sad to see Fred go. Especially Daci. She had big alligator tears when she said good bye. Rick left the same time as Fred did to go back to Texas. It sure is hard living apart during the week. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. We miss him!

Now, we are back to just Daci and and of course, it wouldn't be a regular day without a little drama. I went out to the garage this morning to get something out of the car. When I went to go back in the door was locked! I was locked out of the house and Daci was stuck inside! We usually have a spare key outside but I had just given it to Fred the night before when he went on a walk with Daci so it was back inside. After about three minutes of me not coming back in Daci got scared and was screaming her head off. I was frantically running around the house trying to find a way in but all the windows and doors were locked! I ran up and down my whole street trying to find a phone I could use and not one person was home. Finally I got into a house across the street and called the police. They came minutes later and couldn't get in either. Apparently we have a very good lock. So, he called the fire department. All the while Daci is inside screaming her head of saying "MooooommmmM!" The fire dept came and used a door seperator and finally got in the house. Daci was a big mess with a puffy, red face, snot everywhere and a poopy diaper. The poor thing. It broke my heart!!! She saw the men and ran in the opposite direction screaming. I finally got through the group and ran to her. She clung to me for at least 20 minutes. The nice officer gave her a Sheriff Sticker though and she loved it. It definitely calmed her down. Thanks Naperville Police and Fire Departments!

Worst Mom Award goes to me :(
Here is Daci with her new Sherrif Sticker. This was after she calmed down and finally let go of my neck. As you can see...she is still not very happy with what happened to her. Poor baby!

Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now!

So remember how in my last post I said Daci's new favorite thing is to put her teddy bear in the trash can or shoe basket and push him around the house? I decided it was time to go get her a doll stroller and she has been in absolute HEAVEN today! She hasn't stopped pushing the stroller around the house.

Everyday when Daci wakes up from her nap I put her in her stroller and we go on a walk to get the mail. Today when I said, "Daci, you ready to go get the mail!?" She ran straight to her new doll stroller. I knew she wanted to take Bear on a walk to get the mail. She thought she was such a big girl being the one to give a walk, rather than getting the walk. It took about 5X longer than it would have if I had just packed her up in the stroller but it was so worth it :)

I posted a video at the end of the post. It may be boring to most people but I happen to know that there are two sets of grandparents and a daddy who has been gone for way too long that will just melt when they see her walking up the street like a big girl :) (At one point in the video she can't get the stroller over a bump in the sidewalk so she lifts it all the way up...silly girl)

No Husband and a Custom Made Cabinet

So last Monday Rick got a surprise call from work saying that they were putting him on a plane that night to Dallas, TX. They have a client out there and they wanted Rick to work on their Mobile App. He left a few hours after the call and was gone all week :( He will be doing this for a few weeks so looks like I have to suck it up and be a single mom during the week. I missed him really bad this week and was really looking forward to having him home for the weekend! Now, most people would think that working on the house for the few precious hours we have together is boring and sad. Well, it is exactly what Rick and I wanted to do! It has been so fun working on projects together and making our new house a home. We woke up early Saturday morning and went to Home Depot. Rick bought all the materials he needed to make the cabinet for the hole he made in the wall last week.

Remember this hole???


It now looks like this!

Let me tell you how he did it....

First he drilled holes in the side of the box so that we can adjust our shelves to the height we want.

Then he sanded all of the sides of the box

Then he put all the sides together (now don't forget that I am his assistant and I hold it all together while he drills, etc. I don't just sit around and take pics of him working his butt off :)

Daci wanted to come out with us but it was too dangerous for her to be walking around so we brought her high chair out so she could watch us out of harm's way (I did not put two headbands on her head...she did it herself. Once again, evidence that she loves to have things on her head)

Then he put the back on it

And screwed it all together



My cute hubby and his masterpiece

We slid it in the hole and of course it fit perfectly...I would expect nothing less from Rick. It is Daci's perfect size and she just had to climb up in it.

I think we better hurry and get the shelves in it so Daci can't keep climbing up into it. We wouldn't want her to get hurt :)

Next weekend when he comes home we plan on working on shelves and painting the whole thing!

I know I haven't posted any fun outings lately. I was planning on taking Daci out to do things this week but she ended up getting sick on Saturday and I started getting sick on Sunday so we have been cooped up in the house. All I want to do is rest and relax but even when she is feeling miserable she is still going a million miles a minute. Had to share this cute pic of her puttering around the house in her pj's. She found my hat and of course had to put it on :) Her new favorite thing to do is put her teddy bear in a basket or trash can and push him around the house like she is taking him on a walk. I guess I need to get her a doll stroller so that she quits dumping out our shoes out of the basket and trash out of the trash can!

My Very Own Handy Man!

So now that we own our home we have decided to get to work on changing it! Rick wasted no time cutting into the walls :) I always knew that Rick was pretty handy around the house. If I ever need anything fixed I always just ask him and know it will be good as new when he is done with it. However, I have to say that I had no idea that he was a full on electrician and carpenter! He decided he wants to have a HTPC (Home Theater PC) in our house. This meant that he had to wire our whole house for it, and boy did he dig right in! First things to go were the baseboards. He ripped them right off (good thing we are replacing all of our baseboards with thicker, white ones) and cut a line along the whole bottom of the wall. He wired Cat 5E cables throughout and also an HDMI cable from the TV through the walls. We have a closet in our hall by the kitchen that he is going to turn into his "control panel". Once he cut a line along the whole bottom of the wall he had to make it go from the family room into the closet. I don't even know how his brain figured out how to do it all but it did and he got the cables stringed into the closet......

Before:

Baseboards off....cutting the hole

Cutting around the sliding glass door

Running the wire around the glass door

After all the wires were strung through the walls.


Now onto the "control panel" closet! Before he cut out the wall...

Starting to cut into the wall in the closet

Half of the hole cut out

The whole hole is now cut out, he also had to cut out a 2X4 that ran through the hole


Now he is putting the frame of the cabinet in

Working on the frame in our extremely cluttered garage





Is anyone else in awe of all that my handy husband did? I can't believe he figured out how to do it all on his own. Can't wait until it is "pretty" :) We will keep posting updates of our remodel!

It's Peanut Butter, Jelly Time!!

I decided to make Daci a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich and let her eat it all by herself. Normally I don't want to deal with the mess so I just feed it to her myself. Well, let me tell you, she was pretty excited to eat it all by herself. She started out timid and polite.....


Then she got a little more into it....

Now its all over....

Yum...lick those sticky fingers!

Extremely pleased with herself and the mess that she made!

Now, for all my Drill Team girls...can we please just take a moment and remember our dear Tricia Pollard doing the Peanut Butter, Jelly Time dance in the middle of practice? Gotta love the good ol' days!