Deck Party... Days 4 and 5... DONE

Days 4 and 5 were a blur, to say the least, but it's done now... THE DECK IS DONE!

Ryan measuring boards for the stairs

Matt shaved his beard into a man 'stache just for the day...

Tracy's tightening the bench brackets

Jake, Laine, and Luke sitting on the benches so that Lee can screw them in place

Finishing the benches

The stairs are in place!

Matt and Tracy screwing in the rest of the kick boards

Matt showing a nervous Tracy how to use the compound miter saw

SHE DID IT!!!
(and still has all her fingers... attached)

Sparky loved hanging out in the sun on his new deck

Lining up the hand rail with the supports

Stairs' hand rail

Matt's screwing in the railing for the stairs... notice the pink Crayon behind his ear (Tracy couldn't find a pencil)

Sara being pretty darn cute...

I just wanted to try a black and white.... she's too cute

Lee's screwing in the last little bit of railing

DONE!

The Boys are tuckered out!

26... Really?

I woke up early this morning to go to work... like every other day, but today Matt groaned, "Happy Birthday," as I got out of bed and he rolled over and back to sleep. Of course he was just playing it cool. On the seat of my car was a birthday card filled with a lottery ticket and a scratch off... I won $15! He makes me smile in the best, and sometimes most simple, ways!

In other news, my sister confirmed my suspicions tonight... the third trimester is the most uncomfortable! While I love feeling the little man kick and squirm around, it's definitely getting to the point where it is becoming increasingly more uncomfortable. Overall, I am feeling pretty good... just uncomfy!

I will have more pictures after this weekend of the ever-growing and expanding belly (and everything else). We are expecting family this weekend for the Ga Tech v. Va Tech football game Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium... GO JACKETS! Then Sunday, my two sisters are throwing me (and little man) our first baby shower!

Thank you to everyone for the kind birthday wishes... and stay tuned for baby belly pictures!

Deck Party... Day 3

Day 3... Mike, Matt's brother, came over again to lend his hands-- big help! Now that the frame work was up, the boys really got into high gear doing the "finishing" work... of course everyone was moving a little slower on Day 3.

Luke's holding screws for Mike as he drills in the board, man he's Incredible!

Matt is teaching Jake how to use a circular saw... Tracy watches from a distance

Matt and Lee are holding up the board, waiting for Mike to screw it in place

Laying out the decking

Screwing decking in place

Even with a bum foot, Jake was a PRO with the drill!

Lee and Matt starting to install the brackets for the benches

By the end of Day 3, this was what has been finished...

Oh yeah, and this side of benches too

After the sun had gone down and the sprinkles started to become a little more frequent, the boys called it quits and the girls made dinner... steak, smashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, rolls, and brownie bites, YUM! Matt is pretty sure they are about 8 hours from being done... we shall see. One more Saturday...

The Deck.. Day 2

Matt and I woke up early Saturday morning and headed straight towards Krispy Kreme.... no major construction project, like a deck, can start without a healthy dose of KK doughnuts... YUM. Then it was off to Tracy and Lee's to continue work on the deck. Matt has loved working on the deck with Lee and the boys, and Tracy and I have loved "supervising."

The dumpster was ordered...

The wood was stacked...demolition had begun...

After Matt would cut the deck, Jake would knock down the boards

or pull them down if he needed

Ryan too

Even Luke helped in the demolition-- with his Krispy Kreme hat!

almost gone

Matt showed Ryan how to use the circular saw

Lee held the post for support

The first injury... Jake stepped on a nail. He handled it like a "man" and drank his chocolate milk comfort! Don't worry, Mom... he's fine!

Mary Clare filled her day with a worm search

no more deck!

Ryan holding one of the old deck supports... other than the rusted out holes, notice anything wrong with this old support? There's no concrete footing, not to mention the fact that it was not actually connected to the deck at all-- the deck was "resting" on all of the steel support poles.

Laine tightening the bolts connecting the post holder to the footing

support frame is starting to take shape

Matt snagged my camera and took a picture of the "supervising"

Lee and Matt brought in the giant support trusses

Tracy traced the old stair pattern on the new board so Matt could cut

Tracy loaded the decking on top as the kids brought it out to her

Lee screwed the trusses in place

and Saturday is done.

Stay tuned for what happened Sunday.

Why we can't have house plants...

Mary and her husband, Matt, gave us a very nice house plant as a housewarming gift (thank you Mary and Matt). I thought I had the perfect place for it too... on the kitchen counter! Leela thought it was perfect also. So I moved the plant a little higher, out of her reach. No good. She found it again. I realized the only place where this plant might survive would be outside... away from Leela. Nope. She has since snuck out to the deck a few times and become more stealth in her actions. I'm sorry, Mary, I give up... but Leela thanks you for the treat!She chomps on the leaves while hiding under the window so I can't see her doing it from inside.

GOTCHA!

She doesn't seem to care that I can see her chew'n

She jumped up onto the table to get a better angle and a bigger bite!

Lickin' her lips.

Yummyness

We've been wanting to make these for QUITE sometime, and as I have seen more and more versions of our "original brainstorm," I decided we better get started!

What are these delicious looking morsels of yummyness? They are chocolate chip walnut cookie brownie cupcakes! All I did was mix up some brownie batter (from the box), fill the cupcake tins half full-- I used jumbo and regular cupcake sizes. Then I dropped in one mini chocolate chip cookie dough square (Tollhouse pre-made dough) into each reg. size cupcake tin-- push it down a little. I used two dough bites for the jumbo cupcakes. Then bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. After I pulled them out of the oven, I spread Hershey's chocolate fudge sauce over the top (the heat from the brownies helps the sauce spread), then sprinkled chopped walnuts over the top.

Matt didn't have a problem being the test stomach for this experiment! Yummyness!