How's the house?

Thanks to everyone who read the first entry of my blog. And also, thanks to everyone who emailed. I realized that between having two babies, moving to a new city, buying a house, etc... lots of important people in our lives have NO idea what is going on with the Tovars.

The biggest question has been, "What's happening with the renovations to the house?"
Great question!

Jason and I bought our new-to-us house in June of 2008. It is a solid ranch-style house built in 1971. It is the perfect size for our family of four... but definitely needed some renovation. So before moving in we:

• installed a new staircase to the basement (there was no staircase inside the house, just via the garage)
• tore down the wall between the living room and dining room
• took down wallpaper in every room upstairs and painted all the walls
• recarpeted the entire basement and the living room, dining room, hallways and bedrooms upstairs
• tiled the kitchen, entry and two upstairs bathrooms

And then we were finally able to move in! Of course, the renovations didn't stop there... but the house was livable. Since then we have been unpacking, creating fun bedrooms for the boys, and renovating the kitchen. We have moved the laundry room from off-the-kitchen to the basement. And now we are making the old laundry closet into a space for our new double oven (god bless Craigslist) and a coffee bar.

It's always a little chaotic at our house, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We are hoping to have the major projects finished by the holidays.

So... that's the scoop on the Tovar house.

Halloween is this week so I will have pics of Grey and Miles to post soon. Jana and Ryan and I took the boys to a elementary school fall festival on Friday night. Grey was dressed as a bat and Miles was a super cute cow. At first Grey was a little overwhelmed with all the people, but once he realized there was free candy he was happy. (Yes, I am a pretty "crunchy" mama. Grey doesn't really get candy... ever. He does get to have ice cream with Grandpa Doug, but that is the extent of his encounter with sweets. So you can understand why he was so impressed to eat several twix bars and some M&Ms.) But his favorite part of the evening was the hayrack ride. He really didn't care about the ride, just the opportunity to get a close look at the tractor. He looked like a crazed Beatles fan as he stood at the chain-link fence as the tractor went by, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Truckie! TRUCKIE!!!"

Sunday night we went to our first event with the playdate group I joined online. It was fun to meet so many other parents of young children. I think 75% or more of the families there had at least two kids under the age of 4. Grey was not in a great mood because he missed his afternoon nap. But he did enjoy the trick-or-treating part of the evening, he loved the homemade cookies and he likes holding his jack-o-lantern bucket.

Jason and I were laughing that 10 years ago I remember dressing as Baby Spice of the Spice Girls and entering some crazy costume contest at America's Pub. Now our lives are a little bit different. hahaha! This Friday we are both taking the day off work to take the boys around to see all our friends and family. So this weekend I will have pictures of the lil' Bat and the lil' Wizard.