March Madness

This seems to be muchly about Ranne this time. He's just been very dynamic and fun! Here he is enjoying the last? snow of the season. Also, a tower he built was very exciting for him, definitely worthy of a picture.

In bible class, they celebrated Day 5 of creation with face paint. He kept it on his face for three days. His Uncle Darrell joked for hours about that shark biting his nose. After that, he washed it off.

We traveled to Amarillo for a week to both visit my grandmother and have a temporary home while Scott moved forward on the kitchen remodel. It was such a long week!

The sweet toes of my nearly five-year-old. When will they cease to be precious to me? All mothers of boys tell me there does in fact come a day. Ranne sleeping under Grandma's famous quilts: I asked her, do you have some blankets we could put down for a pallet? "Amanda, there are no blankets in this house. There are Quilts.", was her very serious response. Ooops.

Nearing breakfast-time at Grandma Johnson's:

Not flattering BUT Ranne does take very well-centered pictures.

The boys became VERY adoring of this special woman during our stay in her home. Ranne expressed deep concern about leaving her alone. He woke early the day we were to go home to write her a love letter all by himself.

One of Grandma's recent projects. She impresses me.

So, for Ranne's birthday, sweet Uncle D and Aunt A brought Ranne and Toby life-saver of gifts: HotWheel tracks! They kept the boys sane all week. I did not get a picture of them that day, but Uncle R was helping to put the tracks together so he's present. HA! That was probably their favorite time of the trip: boy time with their great uncles. Aunt A made a great cake for him too. Here's a picture of the sweet gift-givers that Ranne took later on the trip.

Uncle R helping assemble the tracks.

Cutie Pie birthday boy.

Day-to-day routines at Grandma's:

This was so touching to me. This little boy making faces with his toothbrush in the mirror on his birthday will soon been 17 and worrying about his hair before going out.

This guy may never worry about his hair.

Trey had quite a time pulling up on every object possible. He's not figured out how to get down, however, so would be there a long time and then start yelling for help.


The trip home was unfortunately very eventful before even getting out of town. However both on the way to Amarillo and on the way home, the boys were PERFECT for the whole five-hour drive. They are the best travelers.

Oh Yeah! And since getting home: WOW! There is a new floor I've yet to see. It's under cardboard to protect it from the paint that's being applied. Scott and others did the tile, electrical, plumbing, gas etc. There are so many details! Scott's done an awesome job of mapping it all out so there have been very few surprises.

Since getting home, Trey has been wanting to be attached to Scott. He's a Daddy's boy for sure! Here he's as close as he can physically get, watching him sand the walls.

The kitchen in it's current state.

The Laundry Room:

the Progress:

Goodnight, all! I'm off to paint.