Repairs and Remodel

So as I mentioned before, our house flooded back on Mother's Day. And the repair/remodel process was VERY LONG. It took about two months before they were finally through. This wasn't because the work to be done was extensive, but rather because they only came about once a week (if that) to work on it. Apparently the restoration company was working with several different other companies to subcontract the work. So when you are dealing with so many different schedules, it seems the progress moves like molasses.

 

Here are some pictures I took to record the progress. I took these first three pictures right after we got back into the house after they had been drying the carpet and walls for a week. You can see where they had cut holes in the walls and ceiling and pulled back baseboards to help the wettest areas dry faster. If you look closely at the first picture, you can also see where the water seeped through the ceiling and left a yellowish stain.

I took these next two pictures after the sheet rock had been replaced. It hadn't been painted yet, and the putty to texture the ceiling/walls was still wet.

Since the carpet had been partially torn up already, we decided to go ahead and pay the extra cost have them replace the carpet in our dining room with laminate flooring. We have wanted to get rid of the carpet in the dining room for quite some time. So now seemed like a great opportunity to just get it done.

After we picked out the new flooring we wanted, it was several more days before they came to remove the carpet. And then it was another 2 1/2 weeks before the flooring man came to install the laminate flooring. So for all that time, our dining room table was in our living room. And our dining room looked like this.

That 2 1/2 weeks without a dining room was probably the worst stretch of this process. We couldn't use our dining room. And we had to be careful because we would often find nails that had been left on the floor. We also didn't really have a living room either because the dining room table was in the middle of it. So there was no place to really play or lay down on the floor. And the dining chairs were stored in the kitchen along with the ceiling fan. If you've seen our kitchen area, you know there's not a lot of space. So about half the kitchen floor was used to store stuff during the remodel process.

Needless to say, we felt pretty cramped during that time. Not to mention that our furniture upstairs in our bedroom was still crowded around our bed. It had been moved away from the walls and hadn't been put back yet because the carpet padding needed to be replaced first. So many times during those two months I felt like I was living in an episode of "Hoarders." Our house seemed like an obstacle course. Definitely not an ideal situation for a toddler and a baby.

We were so excited when they finally replaced the dining room floor! Leah "skated" all over the new laminate floor. And then when we moved the dining room table out of the living room, she ran all over living room carpet just because she could.

We have really enjoyed having this laminate floor. But you can definitely see all the crumbs Leah leaves behind after she eats. I can only imagine how dirty the carpet was with all the crumbs that were getting lost in it after meals with a toddler.

Doesn't it look good! After the floor was replaced, then they could paint walls, replace padding and clean the carpets. It all looked so good when it was done. It almost made all the hassle over the previous two months worth it.

5 Months Old

Our little man just keeps growing! He's 5 months old now. And we still love this little guy so much. He's such a good baby. He is so sweet and chill. And he's great at "going with the flow."

 

Here's Corbin with two of his cousins that were recently born also. Braylee was born about 3 months before him. And Taysom was born exactly 11 weeks after him.

And here's the babies with their big sisters. Kaylynn (Braylee's sister) was born about 3 months before Leah. And Makynlee (Taysom's sister) was born exactly 6 weeks after Leah. I think it's fun that the three families all had babies around the same time...twice!

We were in Leah's room one evening and Corbin had fallen asleep in my arms. I put him down on Leah's bed while we were doing something. So she decided that he needed to sleep with her Kermit like she does. I thought the image of the two of them laying there together was too cute to pass up.

This is how you'll see Corbin a lot of the time. This kid loves to chew on his hands. He still isn't a fan of the binky. But he does like his fingers.

Corbin is getting much better with his hands and fingers. He has started reaching out to grab things more. And he really enjoys playing with toys that he can grab onto. He has also figured out how to roll from his back to his belly.

Corbin is such a happy baby who smiles a lot. He makes all kind of happy babbling sounds. And can squawk pretty loud when he wants to. I finally got him to laugh just before he turned 5 months. It was such a sweet sound! But I've only been able to get him to do it a handful of times since. He likes when I tickle and play with him and I can tell that he wants to laugh. But it's almost like he won't relax enough to just let it come out. Sometimes he seems like he's trying too hard to laugh and ends up just squealing instead. Maybe he'll get it figured out soon.

Corbin and Leah love each other so much. Corbin will watch Leah whenever he can. He smiles at her all the time and you can see his eyes light up when she talks to him. Leah is so good with him too. Except when he spits up or she is touched by his slobber. Then she gets grossed out and quickly moves away from him.

I think this picture of them is so funny! It looks like Corbin was trying to "fish hook" Leah.

Here's a few more cute shots of our handsome boy from his 5 month photo shoot.

This teddy bear is actually Leah's, but Corbin loves to play with it whenever we put it by him.

The day that he turned 5 months old we tried giving him rice cereal for the first time. He was pretty hungry and a bit fussy when we gave it to him. So he wasn't too amused. By the time he realized we were giving him food, he was getting upset that it wasn't coming fast enough like his milk does. So we tried again after I fed him and he was much more calm and willing to eat it.

This cute little guy melts my heart every day! We're so glad to have "Corbin the Boy" in our family!

Pioneer Day and Lagoon

We had a great time celebrating Pioneer Day this year! We woke up early that morning and traveled to Salt Lake to join my family for the "Days of '47" Parade. I've gone to that parade with my Tucker family (aunts, uncles and cousins, grandparents) since I was a kid. It is one of my favorite parts of Pioneer Day.

 

I always love when everyone stands for the flag when it comes through at the beginning of the parade.

Here's pictures of some of our family watching the parade.

This was Leah's favorite float! She loves to see Cosmo and waved to him the whole time they were going by. Makynlee was pretty excited too!

After the parade, we went to my aunt and uncles for a family BBQ. There was lots of yummy food (3 or 4 kinds of barbequed meat), Dutch oven potatoes (aka, heart attack potatoes) and for dessert I even made a Dr. Pepper Bundt cake for my dad that turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

 

They have an above ground pool in their backyard that we also enjoyed. And the kids had a great time launching and throwing water balloons.

 

The next day the kids and I went with my mom, my sisters, Makynlee and Taysom to Lagoon. We had a great time riding rides. Leah loved being there! She was a little more timid about riding than Makynlee who wanted to ride anything and everything. Leah would sometimes get to the front of a line and then make a fuss about not wanting to ride. But we would make her get on anyway and she would end up having a great time on the ride (well, most of the time--with the faster, more intense rides, once was enough for her). Corbin was good all day long too. He and Taysom would hang out in the stroller and chill while the girls rode rides. 

 

A little later in the afternoon Ross and my dad joined us. Having more adults allowed for us to take turns going on the adult rides while others stayed with the kids. This was Ross's first trip to Lagoon. He ended up enjoying it a lot more than he thought he would. Although both of us agreed that we had more fun riding rides with Leah and watching her have so much fun.

 

This car ride was one of Leah's very favorites. It is probably the ride that she wanted to ride the most.

It is hard to tell in this picture of Leah and Makynlee riding this little roller coaster ride, "Puff the Little Fire Dragon." But it totally shows their personalities. Makynlee (who is right about in the middle of the picture) is waving at us as they zoomed by with a huge smile on her face. Leah (who is in the cart right behind her) is clinging to my sister and definitely does not have a smile on her face. She did ride the ride a couple more times with me later (mostly because I made her go on it again with me). But when she got in, she would immediately brace herself against me and held on has tight has she could. I'm pretty sure this wasn't her favorite ride. Although, recently, out of the blue, she told me that she has decided that she does like it afterall.

This Dumbo ride was another one of Leah's favorites. But the funny thing about this ride is that the kids can use the joystick in front of them to make their character fly up and down as they went around. Leah never even bothered touching the joystick in all the times she rode it. She just sat back and chilled all through the ride as she went around and around. Makynlee, on the other hand, would immediately pull her joystick back and keep her character as high up as she could all through the ride.

Leah always loves riding carousels!

Riding the boat ride with Grandma and Grandpa. Another picture showing these girls' personalities on rides.

This water ride, "Rattlesnake Rapids," was a favorite for everyone. It always feels good to cool off with a wet ride on a hot summer day. We rode it twice in a row so that those staying off with the baby boys wouldn't miss out.

Here's a picture of the girls pretty wet after riding the ride twice.

These Jeeps were another favorite for Leah. As the Jeeps would approach the ends of the track, they would zip around the corners really fast, like doing a really fast U-turn.

The spinning tea cups!

Here we are riding Tidal Wave with my "adrenaline junkie" niece, Makynlee. This big boat rocks back and forth until it is almost vertical. Makynlee loved it. She wasn't afraid to ride any rides. And the ones that were more intense (i.e., went faster or higher) were her favorites.

By the end of the night, we were ready to slow things down a bit with a little train ride. This ride was so calm, even the baby boys got to ride it--twice! Once with Grandma and Grandpa and then again with all us girls.

Our last ride that night was the carousel again. This was Corbin's first merry-go-round ride.

On Friday, before heading back home, Ross and I were able to go to the temple while my mom watched the kids for us. It's always nice when we can go to the temple together. We didn't leave as early as we wanted, of course. And it seemed like there were several small challenges (as usual) that made getting there harder. One of them being that Ross had forgot his temple recommend back at home. So we had to wait for them to contact the bishop.

And I was worried when the temple worker told me that the wait for sisters to do initiatories was 40 minutes because I knew Corbin would be wanting to eat as soon as I got back (if not before). An extra 40 minutes would mean 40 more minutes of trying to keep a hungry baby calm. So I said a silent prayer that things would go smoothly and that Corbin would be ok while we were gone. And my prayer was answered! Instead of waiting 40 minutes, I only had to wait about 10. And by the time I got to my last 2 names, I was the only patron in the booth. So they could get me through a lot quicker. Instead of waiting 40 minutes just to start, I was done with all my temple work in just 45 minutes. And Corbin was ok with my parents while we were gone. I love simple miracles!

So Lagoon has this great deal in the summer that if you come back again within 10 days, you can get in for a highly discounted price. So, we decided to "bounce back" as they call it about a week later. This time Ross wasn't able to come because of some bishopric duties. But there were enough other family members there to help me with the kids. So here's a few more pictures of our second day at Lagoon.

The girls had a great time banging around in these bumper cars. We laughed at Makynlee because she didn't know how to work the steering wheel (it's kind of tricky) so she spent almost the whole time with her little car going around and around in a little circle. But she was laughing the whole time.

Here's Grandpa trying to get the girls to lift up their arms on the boat ride. Notice one of Leah's hands is up and the other one is still hanging on to her Grandpa's shirt.

Leah loved being able to ride the rides with her Grandpa!

I love this picture of them on Rattlesnake Rapids. They are all trying to duck for cover as they went under the waterfall. You can't see Leah in this picture because she is hiding under her Grandpa's shirt trying not to get wet! I don't think it worked very well though. When the boat goes under the waterfall, everyone gets wet! 

This time I took Leah on some of the bigger, faster rides with me. She did remarkably well considering the nature of the rides. She sure held on tight when the rides were going (she pinched me so tight one time, that it gave me a little bruise on my arm), but she never cried and was still willing to try other things. When it was time to go home, we were having so much fun, that I let Leah ride a few more rides and we left much later than I had planned. But I'm so glad we got to go. I'm not sure when we'll get back there again. So in the mean time, we'll just treasure the fun memories.