No Booster

My boys were eating breakfast this morning and making some funny faces:

Then I realized...Tommy wasn't sitting in his booster seat! For the past few months he's sat on this green booster on a kitchen chair, but this morning he sat in a regular seat--and he was fine!

Logan had informed me on Sunday that Tommy was 2ft, 11.5" tall, but until this moment I didn't realize it meant my little boy was growing up!

A Grand Adventure

Ever since Logan began staying 4 days a week down in Roanoke for the police academy, he's been talking about having the rest of us come down and stay with him for a night. For the past five months he's stayed at the same hotel (the staff knows him by sight), and he gets pretty lonely and bored not having the rest of us around. Due to work and other scheduling conflicts we'd never made it down, but on Tuesday night we decided it was now or never! He graduates in a week and a half (yay!), and so time was running out.

It was a blast! Tommy was so excited to be at a hotel (it was a Comfort Inn), and was giddy most o of the night. Both boys were very excited to see their Daddy, and were crawling all over him most of the time. We ate at an IHOP near the hotel (another fun outing for the kids...and parents), and then the boys got to take a bath, which they LOVE doing. The hotel gives Logan a little rubber ducky every week, which he usually brings home, and Tommy kept talking about it and Jack was splashing every which way. I wish I'd had my camera to get pictures, but it was great fun!

Getting to sleep was a little tricky, since everyone had so much energy, but both boys did end up falling asleep once the lights went off. Tommy really liked the continental breakfast the next morning, too!

I have to admit, I still get pretty excited when I get to stay in a hotel. It is a grand adventure, after all.

Growing up

The boys are growing up so fast, and I don't take nearly enough photos of it! Here are some of the latest:

Tommy likes water

He likes water a LOT

Jack and his new towel (Thank you, Christy!)

Jack and his cheerios (he's moved on to animal crackers lately)

My happy boy!

Modern Convenience

Hot Water.

It's really something that you don't realize is important...until it's not there. On Thursday night, I noticed that the boy's bath wasn't heating up. I assumed it was because I had recently run the washing machine, and just hadn't allowed the hot water heater enough time to recover. No biggie--it was warm, and the boys were fine. Later that night I went to wash a dish, and realized that the water seemed very cold...and it wasn't getting any warmer.

Uh oh.

It turns out that our water heater had died. Dead as a doornail. The pilot light wouldn't stay lit, and there was no piece that could be replaced to fix it. Looking online, it turns out that the water heater installed in our house frequently has this problem, and most people didn't keep it past two years or so (we've lived here for four years, and are unsure when it was purchased). Saturday Logan went to Home Depot and picked up our new (rather unexpected) water heater, and then he and my Dad had the fun task of installing it. Don't you just love little unexpected hiccups like this?

When Logan and I first got married and we moved into the house, our gas got shut off due to an error, and we were without hot water for three days. We have funny stories of boiling water to take showers and whatnot, but the stories are funnier to tell than to live. Hot water really is a "luxury", but I forget that in my day-to-day use of it. It seems weird to think that throughout most of history, people had to boil water themselves, taking a long time to do so, and had to think out ahead of time how much they would need to accomplish their task. I just turn on a faucet.

Such a little thing--but, boy! do I miss it when it's not there.

Finally!

My new kitchen floor was finally installed! After two years of waiting (and having a lumpy, icky floor), everything now looks so pretty!

Our kitchen has come a long way in the past two years. Some comparison shots:

Before

After