The Shop

Richard is building a shop. Ever since we moved out to this house with a big yard, he has been dreaming about it. About a month ago, he realized that part of his dream of having a shop was building it, too. And so it has begun...
The best part, besides seeing Richard in power tool heaven, has been watching Jane help him. Richard has been so good about finding little things for her to do, or figuring out how she can watch from a safe distance.
Here is the progress in pictures:

Posts and framing in place for the floor

Mixing concrete to set the piers (after digging 12 holes).

Gatorade break

Wheel barrow break

Back to work, nailing in the floor joists

At this point, we drove to Memphis to drop Jane off for the week of Spring Break so Richard and I could have a "staycation" back in Nashville. Yes, Richard's idea of a break from work is manual labor. So, we picked up a ginormous trailer load of cypress boards on our way back across Tennessee (only one flat tire).

Nickel enjoyed this new jungle gym.

Thanks to our very skilled and generous friend, Jack,
the walls went up in a day.

And all the rafters in one day, too! The weather was amazing,
as you can see by the sunny blue sky.

Another project that happened over spring break was that we had some guys cut down a dead tree on our property line. Their job was simply to cut the tree down, which means that Richard gets to saw/chop/drag all the pieces. So, as soon as Jane was back in town he put her to work, too.

Cool, sawdust! (Only Daddy's chainsaw can make that.)

So many legs

I love the way Jane observes the world at age two. She is fascinated by things that I never even think about.

Yesterday she and Maggie were running around in the back yard when Jane said, "She has so many legs!" Then she looked down at her own legs and said, "Jane has two legs... Maggie has a lot of legs." Ha ha!  

Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day! Or, as Jane probably understands it, Happy Heart Day. Between school and home celebrations, Jane has been inundated with the heart shape today. It all started with a note that her teachers sent home last week asking Jane to bring in eight Valentines for her classmates. So we got to work...

I may have helped a little

Today she wore a sweater with hearts on it, and came home with a heart sticker covered bag full of Valentines from her classmates...

and this awesome creation...

Then we ate heart shaped pancakes for dinner. Actually, Jane got the only heart shaped one because I forgot to use the mold until I was down to one scoop of batter, even though the only reason I decided to make BFD was so I could make heart shaped pancakes. The best laid plans...

And last but not least, a heart shaped cookie. This was my first attempt to make cut out sugar cookies. I highly recommend this recipe. It was easy and worked the first time I tried it, which is really good for my record in the kitchen.

On an unrelated note, I dressed Jane up as an old lady last week.

This picture cracks me up. It looks like
she is waiting for the bus or something.

In case you are wondering, this was for Golden Girl Day, which was part of a Spirit Week that one of my friends put on to help another friend get through a difficult week. Isn't she nice?!

An Adventure Science Center adventure

Richard took Jane to the Adventure Science Center last Saturday. Although it was a little loud and Jane had her fingers in her ears most of the time, she still enjoyed running around and pushing lots of buttons, and going down a giant intestine slide that makes a delightful digestive noise each time you go down. Here they are having a blast (pun sort of intended).

Fluffy white snow

It was fun while it lasted!  

Two years old

Happy Birthday, Jane!

Well, after two years I still haven't figured out how to work out the whole Christmas/Birthday situation. Poor girl is definitely overshadowed by the former festivities. She did great, though, and was such a good sport with our humble celebration (not that she knew the difference, of course). It was sweet and simple: a little lunch at home with Fancy, who came to town, and some chocolate chip cookies that Jane helped make that morning.

Another great smile by Jane

Jane was so funny blowing out the candles. The first time, she was sad that they went out. I guess she didn't remember from last year when she turned one... oh well. Anyway, once she realized that we could relight them and do it again, that made her day. This video shows times number six and seven, I think. You can tell that the "Happy Birthday" is lacking enthusiasm at this point.

Let me know if y'all have any ideas about making December 26 a special day. I am considering playing up the half birthday in June...  Either way, we sure are happy she was born!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This is what Jane does when you
ask her to smile. Nice, hunh?

Although the commercial world started gearing up for the big day in October, we're going on about ten days of Christmas spirit in our house now!

Trimming the tree

Trimming her nose

E.T. phone home...

Placing candy on gingerbread house

Removing candy and licking the icing

Ta da!

Jane had her Christmas program at school today. They wrote a script based on the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? So it went like this: 

"Angels, Angels, what do you see?" 

"I see shepherds looking at me." 

Then the shepherds would come on and be asked what they see, and they'd cue the next group, etc. It was pretty cute! Here is an overview of the manger scene once everyone had been herded on stage. Jane's class is dressed as sheep on the bottom left (stage right... any theater geeks reading this?). 

Fashionistas, take note:
turtleneck tucked in to ruffle bootie leggings.

Jane brought this home from school today:

I can't even think of a caption... it's just awesome.