Garage Sale Weekend

James is a true boy -- loves his "choo choo"
Choppity Choppity Hair -- I finally got at least 8 inches to donate it. I went with Children with Hairloss because they take hair that has been highlighted...it was crazy to see my hair not attached to my head! Below :: James and I are rockin' our sunglasses inside (mine are new because he broke my old pair the weekend before) and I'm rockin' the new 'do! I am really enjoying it although it has a whole mind of its own -- wants to go all wave in every direction -- but I can still get it all off my neck if I go with two pony tails (clutch for school).

Ahhh, the life -- haven't gotten a sleeping picture of James lately -- his pants are all camo-like with his sheets

Rachel was nice enough to let us throw some things at her garage sale, so Gma Chele came over to play with James on Friday, July 30 :: James was fascinated with the "trucks" that started working on our street (taking the curbs out and re-pouring them) and actually added "trucks" to his repertoire of words!

Saturday we went to LaVilla with Aunt Jen, Uncle Dom and Aunt Amanda met us....so yummy and we got to show James where we got married. It was nice to see Chris, Sam and Joann (Dominic's family) too -- they couldn't believe how big James has gotten!

Aunt Amanda's Surprise Party

The rest of the week involved some water table fun (mostly dumping the water out onto Mommy's feet) and Friday we went to the Farmer's Market with Laura S. and Rachel and Abby Wehrle. James was a huge fan of the apple pie bread I bought -- he kept saying "Yeah Yeah Yeah" and emphatically doing the sign for "more" during lunch. Saturday we attended a Surprise 30th Birthday party for Aunt Amanda! Ada and Gunnar had a luau theme -- James loved the lei's and insisted on wearing one until it got itchy because it was warm. I even dressed him in his White Sox outfit, just for Aunt Amanda.
Waiting for Aunt Amanda to come with Daddy

Playing Nok Hockey with Davin (who just started taking some independent steps himself)

I hope they share this nicely in a few years!

Hanging out with the Birthday Girl

Sunday, July 25 :: Gma Chele's birthday, so James and I called her to wake her up in Utah to start her day :-) James also started doing his version of the sign for "please" today -- patting his belly or chest with both hands repeatedly. He also discovered how to "blink" on purpose -- soooo funny to catch him as he tries to do it :-D

Monday, July 26 :: we joined the Wehrle's again for James' first trip to the Public Library!!! The kid's section is fabulous there -- he, Abby and Bella enjoyed "returning" books at the wooden book return the most today. Then we went to Applebee's and James munched on some of my chicken tenders (he only likes to get the whole big piece now, gets mad when I break them up, even if burning hot).

Tuesday, July 27 :: James went on a field trip with his class to Pet Smart! They all enjoyed getting out of the buggy to play with the kittens ;-) James also came home that night saying "oof" as he pointed to Easton!!! I've been trying to get him to make an animal noise -- guess all I needed to do was take him to the pet store!

Wednesday, July 28 :: my mother's day present came through -- a house cleaning by Molly Maids!!! Thank you so much to Jim and James and Easton!!! The house looks great and I love not seeing so much dust around :-)

Back Home

James was excited to see Daddy -- and Daddy was thrilled to see his bug and bud (Easton)! July 20 -- James was happy to go back to school. Later that day we went to Stonewood Ale House to see Gma Chele before she left for Utah for her birthday weekend -- Uncle John and Aunt Bailey met us there, too. July 21st was a big day for James -- his school had their annual Birthday party in the parking lot. James actually got in and "jumped" around in the bounce house! There was a petting zoo, face painting and balloon animals too but James was really not too interested in them. Daddy met us at school for some yummy dinner.
James and his girlfriend, E, enjoying some delicious watermelon. He said "Mmmmm" every bite -- I think he's become a big fan of watermelon :-D

James is in a very affectionate stage (which Mommy and Daddy love). Easton may not be such a big fan of the stage, but James has become much much more gentle with him for the most part (although he thinks it's hilarious to pull Easton's tail and to try and touch his eye balls)...but Easton is often the recipient of James' love hugs (especially when Mommy and Daddy encourage it). There's just nothing like a big hug, with his head down on your shoulder as he pats your back and a big, open mouthed, sloppy slobbery kiss (the best are the ones where he goes for your mouth, haha).

Sorry if the video doesn't work, blogger changed it up a bit and I'm trying to figure it out because it shows me the first frame but won't let the video play....working on it!

Weekend Around Indy with Mommy

I went to pick up James after our vacation and him, Easton and I stayed a few extra days. Thursday I got him from Gma Sharon's (Brian's mom) because I had to take Pops to get an injection in his back (which isn't helping, poor Daddy). Friday we hung out and played and then he played with Lauren (babysitter) while Pops and I went on a double date with Sherry and Dave Wood to see the Brooks & Dunn Last Rodeo concert (amazing)!
The Stage

Mom hooked Dad up with a golf cart ride back to his car -- his back just couldn't hack it but I was proud of him for going to the concert and having a good time still!

Me and the 'rents!

Dad and Mom, Dave and Sherry :-)

Saturday we went down to Ellettsville, IN (near Bloomington) to see Aunt Cassie and Uncle Brian's new house. Super cute house -- although you can't park on the street -- ever -- so they park visitor's cars on the lawn -- which I just find odd -- crazy southern IN towns :-)

James was a big big fan of Uncle Larry's new cowboy hat (he picked it up from the Brooks & Dunn concert) -- we should have known as he only liked country music when he was a baby :-)

Sunday we threw Aunt Kristen and Uncle Larry a baby shower! GG made an awesome taco bar for everyone to enjoy and they got some much needed baby gear. I can't wait to meet my new niece!!!! Mid-September will get her quickly though, so get ready, new Momma and Poppa!

Maddie was soooo excited to give Kris her present -- a "sisters" picture frame and a onesie that says "I'm the Little Sister."

I got everyone to decorate duckies for Mini Motesie -- I think they had fun and hopefully they can use them to decorate her bathroom or something :-) James went bonkers when he saw the ducks -- "DUCK DUCK DUCK" and doing the sign over and over.

Look at that baby belly and the excited Mommy and Aunties!

James gives Pops the best hugs. Here, he is saying "bye" to Pops at his lunch break because we were about to embark on our long journey home to Chicago. Pops, trust me, he misses you too! He goes around honking his nose, just like you taught him :-)

James Vacations in Indy with Pops and GG

After the 4th of July, James was busy cracking us up as I packed up for him to join GG and Pops in Indy for a week while Jimmy and I vacationed in Las Vegas, NV. July 6 -- James was in a fit of laughter as he started trying to "jump" -- a very exaggerated bend at the waist, then full body extension with arms raised above his head and an "ahh" screech (didn't get video on this camera yet). July 7 -- James points to his chest when Mommy asks him "where is your heart?" July 8 -- Laura S. joined us for the trip down to Indy to drop James and Easton off for their vacation (only had one melt down at the end, overall, not too bad).
Above :: turning 16 months old (thanks GG and Pops for getting this pic for me)
Below :: laying down with Pops

Telling Pops he needs to put his new fire pit outside and make him a S'more
Hamming it up with Charlie
James is obsessed with shoes -- he goes and gets people their shoes (even without a request for said service), loves to place his shoes on his "shoe shelf" and gets very excited now and says "shoes" even when he just sees a pair of socks -- I guess that is much improved from the 10 minute screaming fit he had when we first tried to put real shoes on him :-) Below, trying on Mommy's shoes.
Being silly and putting his shorts on his head -- must have gotten Aunt Cassie's genetic matter there as we have lots of pictures of her with things on her head :-)
Slide show of my pictures from Las Vegas -- not too many as we've been a few times now, but some new things we saw (City Center, Encore, Vegas at night from the top of the Eiffel Tower) and you can never have enough pictures of the Bellagio fountains :-) We stayed at the Monte Carlo -- not a fan of the room at first, but it grew on us -- good location kind of in the middle of the MGM properties and close to the trams to help get you places with ease...only went to the pool once, but had a lazy river and wave pool (which made me rock for about 2 weeks, not sure if it's the flying or the water, but last 3 vacations I've been a dizzy mess by the end, not cool).

We missed our Bug dearly, but it was nice to have a vacation by ourselves. And from the sounds of it, Pops and GG are missing the little troublemaker :-)

4th of July Weekend

We had a busy busy 4th of July weekend here at the Montalbano household! The week started with James finally getting a new tooth :-D #5 came through the bottom left while he was napping at the Wehrle's because we still didn't have any air conditioning in our house (I believe the final tally was +18 hours for two people to do the install, 3 overall days). They got our siding finished on Friday, so we didn't have to worry about it raining over the weekend (whew). Friday we went to Gma Chele's for a 2nd of July pool party and fireworks. James loved both! He had so much fun playing with Vince, Tom and Dominic -- they were troopers to entertain him. On Saturday, James attended his very first parade! It was an hour and a half long but he had fun watching the floats and playing with Abby and Bella. His favorite things were the marching bands and the truck and "choo-choo" floats. Sunday brought another first for James -- a trip to Arlington Race Track to see the "shoes" (as James called them). That night we saw some more fireworks with the Wehrle Family. I guess the fireworks got his blood pumping, because James decided to wake up at 4:15am on Monday (so not cool) but I still heard some fireworks going off then -- crazy people, GO TO SLEEP! We met up with family again for some yummy Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza -- YUMMY! What a fun, family-and-friend-filled holiday weekend -- wish they were all 3 days long :-)

House Makeover

We came home from Cass & B.Rosie's wedding to find our house a nice, comfy 88 degrees -- with the A/C supposedly running. Had a guy come out to check it out (Sunday of course, luckily they charge same amt for weekend checks) and found the short power outages we'd had the week before probably caused the A/C capicitor (or something all technical) to blow and we had to start from scratch with a new A/C unit. OK, we were on borrowed time for a few years with our as they only last about 20 years and it was closer to 25. CHA-CHING! The hail storms from a few weeks prior had done some significant damage to the siding (the hail was peach-pit sized and bouncing halfway back up the height of the house) and the roof had wind damage on the top level -- so thank God we have insurance because CHA-CHING! Really happy with the way things went and had the siding done before our vacation. Getting lots of compliments from the neighbors and even the old owners love it!
Above :: I forgot to get a "before" picture and can't find one now either - but the siding was a very faded, 30-year old light blue, big 70s style pieces of aluminum. They put in insulation and then Tyvek wrapped the house.
Below :: CHA-CHING! The back corner of the house had water/mold damage from the sunroom gutter not being properly installed since, oh, probably 1997 or so. So the inspector wouldn't let them continue in that corner until we got a contractor out to fix it. Had to find a contractor, pronto, to do the work...had some issues with that and permits, etc, but it all got done.

The first 2x4 in was completely rotted out, it didn't even touch the ground anymore, so it got replaced; the subflooring was also rotting out from water damage so a good piece of it got replaced; the joint boards were replaced in that corner; the inside panelling had to be pulled off, cut down to remove the mold and was somewhat salvageable; the trim was just disgustingly moldy and had to be throw away (hmmm, mold is not good for someone with mold allergies, weird). But the siding guys hopefully fixed it (thank you, Will!!!) and they totally ripped off that gutter and cut a new one, installed it with the proper pitch to go AWAY from the house and it doesn't run flush with the house, so if the water overflows because of such heavy rains, it will be outside onto the dirt. YIKES -- WHAT A FRIGGIN' MESS THAT WAS!!!!

View from the inside of the damaged corner subflooring.

All finished on the inside! Not too bad, considering!

New, dark grey siding and new white, non-slatted shutters (love them)! Looks like a whole new house!

CHA-CHING! Insurance only covered the top level of roofing and we didn't want them to a) be different ages and b) not match, so we got both levels done after vacation. It's the multi-colored shingles which give the roof lots of texture -- even a hint of green in there with the right sunlight. We had them take the ugly wooden widow's peak off the top level too, so the house actually looks taller. Good thing because they had to replaced 3 sheets of plywood up there because where the wooden posts were, there was water damage -- go figure! Also had to replace some plywood in the back by the sunroom! Message here :: if you are getting an addition -- make sure they are doing it properly or you'll have BIG BIG problems 10 years down the line!

View of the back of the house all re-finished :-) So happy with it! Everything is nicely finished and caulked up -- love how even the water spiggots are trimmed and caulked, so pretty!