Building the Deck

We got our backyard deck built over this memorial day weekend! It came out awesome, I'm loving it! Here's a picture review of all the work:

On Friday at lunch time the concrete came...4 wheelbarrels full:

Ben and I worked together Friday afternoon getting the concrete in the holes, and setting the base piers for the corner posts to go in later:

It is an exact science making sure they're all not only in the correct spot, but also at the right hight, and level!

Last view of our pre-deck backyard:

Andi watching us from her high chair with her new outside toys:

Playing on the redwood boards:

Eric Garris stayed with us for the weekend, and was a tremendous help getting it all done! While the concrete was setting Friday evening he and Ben went to Cheyenne to buy the rest of the redwood lumber for the decking, and on Saturday they worked together ALL day long.

The beginning is there!:

Measure twice, cut once! :)

Andi and I were there pretty much to make sure the men stayed fed and hydrated well enough to get their work done, but on Saturday afternoon Andi got sick and threw up, and was just feeling miserable. Because the weather wasn't all that fantastic outside anyway, I sat her in her highchair in recliner position by the window so she could rest and watch her daddy and Eric work. It was a pretty nice spot...

The progress by Sunday morning...the 'skeleton' is up! :

Sunday morning Ben and Eric went to church (I had to stay home with sick Andi), and after church Tom and Marilyn came over, and we had a delicious lunch of home made fried chicken, cole slaw, corn on the cob and bread. The three of us:

After food, it was time to get to work again! (fltr: Eric, Tom, Ben)

While the men worked, us ladies did our share of visiting and stitting in the sun! In shorts and a Tshirt enjoying the beautiful day! We brought out the playpen for Andi to sit in (thistles and dog poo in the grass), but she didn't last very long in there.

Soon she was back playing on the boards:

Our cutie in her pink shorts:

Practising her walking:

By Sunday afternoon Ben and Tom noticed that we were starting to run low on screws, so I went to town to buy some more... we needed about 20 lbs more of screws ... I went to ACE hardware, but they were almost out of stock. I ended up buying their last 2 lbs. I then went by Bloedorn and Probuild, but since it was a holiday weekend and a Sunday, they were both closed. Since we needed screws to continue the work, our only option then was to drive all the way to Cheyenne to get more. I wasn't too happy about this, since it was SUCH a beautiful day out, but alas, Marilyn, Andi and I packed up the car and headed out. On the way towards the highway though we drove by Probuild again, and I noticed the owner of the store out in front marking his parking lot. The store was still closed, but I figured it was worth asking, so we pulled over and I asked the nice man if he maybe had some screws for us to buy so we didn't have to drive all the way to Cheyenne. And he said yes! And, he had plenty of screws in stock! Yay! Praise!

On Sunday evening some more of the crew came out to help .... fltr: Eric, Tom W., Travis, Ben, and they finished putting up all the decking:

The progress by Monday morning: the decking is done, now "all" that's left is building 2 benches, and the 2 stairs!

Hauling in more redwood:

Andi enjoying the deck, the men in the background working on the bench.

Working on the other bench: Tom, Travis and Ben

By Monday afternoon she was all done! Isn't it a beauty!?!

Sideview with another set of stairs and a bench:

Of course we had to break in the new deck right away, so we had a little bbq!

Tom and Marilyn:

A few friends were there also, the Linds and the Watsons:

Jo and Sarah playing with a few blocks:

Having some burgers and hotdogs with friends...I think we'll have to do this a lot more this summer!

Eating some food on the bench:

Thanks everyone who helped us build it! I love my new outdoor living room!

Moving on ...

For one, from a not so user(kid)friendly back yard to a fun one! We are finally all set to build a deck, and are so excited about it! We have been wanting to do this ever since we moved in (what is a Bryan/Mooiweer family house without an outdoor living room?), and especially since having Andi, a nice deck for her to play on would be very nice. Last weekend we went to Cheyenne to buy the first bits of lumber for it, of course to be inspected by miss Andi:

Telling us all about how we should go about building this deck....

Moving on ....

I have written a post before about how Andi has a favorite drawer in almost every room of the house that she likes to empty out all the time. Of course there is also one in our bedroom. It is almost a daily routine that she goes in there and does her thing....see pictures. Though I was not quite sure about posting these pictures showing the contents of this drawer on the world wide web for whomever to see (since Andi of course picked as her favorite drawer my underwear drawer), I thought to myself "well, what's the big deal...everyone knows what underwear looks like, nothing to be embarrassed about :) " ... they were too cute :)

Riddle me this though: as soon as she gets her hands on a pair of my underwear she immediately puts it on her head, and parades around with it endlessly like it is the prettiest, most fashionable piece of headwear yet, but, when we are out in the sun and she has to wear an actual hat, as soon as she realizes it is there, she hates having it on, and will fight me for it taking it off!

Notice one pair around her neck, and one pair on her head:

Two pairs around her neck, 1 on her head :)

On a different note, this has been quite our week: Andi and I have both been battling a pretty stout cold, and on top of that Andi got mastitis! Her little nipple and surrounding area were red and inflamed, and she had almost a pea sized lump in there as well. I thought this was something *fun* reserved just for nursing moms, but apparently even little baby girls can get this. Pretty amazing to know that everything in her anatomy is already there! She is on the mend now though, and feeling better.

Also moving on, on a bittersweet note: Andi is almost weaned. I think it will only be a matter of days now and she will be done nursing. We had been down to two nursings a day for a while now, that she and I still really enjoyed. It was always my intention to keep nursing her for as long as she wanted to (within a certain limit of course). I had heard from others that at some point their kids started to wean themselves and figured that would be a good option for us too. That however never seemed to be the case with Andi, as she has always been a fantastic nurser, just loving every minute of it, snuggling up. So, I was starting to wonder if this whole weaning thing was something I had to be more active about by actually cutting her off?...I mean you have to stop at some point...but what point? ... but I didn't really feel like cutting her off! We were doing just fine :) But, I guess a praise to me: starting this week, all of a sudden she is taking control herself I guess, and showing FAR less interest in nursing, and things are coming to an end quickly. We nurse once a day now, but really I think that is more for my sake than hers. :) Again, bittersweet. I think it is so fun that she is getting older, moving on and developing (she is SO close to walking!), but those moments with just the two of us will definitely be cherished.

Snap Happy

I've been a little picture snap happy lately, and here is the result :)

The guys before leaving on their road trip to Minneapolis to help move the Winegars:

A little bird flew into our window, and Andi and I had fun watching it recover out on the concrete...first I thought it was about to keel over, leaning on one leg, but after about 10 minutes it flew away :)

Climbing the stairs with daddy:

A couple of days in a row Andi wasn't very keen on taking a morning nap. After not being able to run for 2 weeks with shin splints, then bad weather, after 2 days of very short treadmill runs due to no naps, on the 3rd day I was *ITCHING* for a nice sweaty run, so I finally just decided to give the TV a try...parked Andi in front of it. Sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do :) First run watching Dora the Explorer :)

On Friday we went swimming with Lori and Jaime....Love the pool!

And...sleep, sweet sleep:

The weekend.

Friday afternoon after work we and the Ennists headed up to Guernsey and stayed with Debbie's parents (John and Kathy) for a night because the guys wanted to install a hitch (that John had) in the back of their pickups. I guess this is the place to install a hitch, because not only is John an excellent mechanic, but apparently he also has a shop many men dream of, with a tool for every job. Of course while the men worked, us ladies and kids did our own thing, and at mealtimes all of us were treated to absolute feasts prepared by Kathy.
I can see why Debbie loved growing up here, because the place is absolutely gorgeous: rolling hills of green, fields of wheat and fields of prairie with cows, small canyons in between, all with snowcapped mountains in the background. Of course it is still in Wyoming and it was quite windy, but that is beside the point.
Saturday morning Debbie's grandpa took us ladies and kids all in his pickup to go feed their cows. Quite the little search hunt to find all 67 cows to feed on such a large chunk of land! It was a beautiful drive. Andi didn't like the ride that much, since it was bumpy and during her naptime, but as soon as we would spot a cow coming up over a hill, she'd start smiling and pointing her little finger in excitement! It really was fun to see all those cute little baby cows walking alongside their mommas!

Andi sitting on the back of the pickup next to Debbie, pointing her little finger at the cows, with Debbie's grandpa feeding the cows in the background.

Cutie.

Little miss tongue and I

Debbie feeding the cows. Moo...

On the ride back home to Laramie, Tyler wanted to ride in the pickup with us. After a little while though we noticed things sure got quiet on the back seat:

One more random picture from the weekend...the little ruffle butt playing in the kitchen drawers: