Number Two

Hope you two (yeah, the two people that read this) don't get tired of posts about concrete, because here's another one. Heath was able to pour the second section of the apron out next to the garage last Friday, August 12th. He, again, rushed home from a full day at work to spend three hours getting seven more yards of concrete down and finished. He did have some help this time, which was great. 

There it comes down the chute. The boys, of course, were there watching the whole time.

I love this hard working guy. I really don't think I give him enough credit for all he does.

He'll stop at nothing short of perfection.

This is our friend, Joel. He works for the same company as Heath, and has helped us out on a few things while building the house. As a single guy with no kids, he gets a kick out of our two rambunctious boys. There's always a laugh involved when he's around them.

There you have it - three hours later - beautiful!

Heath decided on footprints for this section, so the boys got to put their "pootfrints" (as Cash says it) in the wet concrete, and then Heath scratched in the year. Memories in the making...

Inexpensive fun

Last summer, I found these colorful bowls on the clearance rack at Target. They were originally 4 for $2, and they were marked down to 4 for $1.23. What a deal, right? I figured they would be fun homemade ice cream bowls, fruit bowls, or whatever else summery I wanted to use them for.

A year later, someone else has another idea in mind for these bowls. Baylen found them in the cabinets in the kitchen the other morning and went running with them into the living room. He sat down, and no kidding, for about fifteen minutes, was completely occupied by them. (This may not seem like a long time for some of you, but for an almost-seventeen-month-old, it's a long time to play with the same thing.)

At first he was just taking them apart, playing with them, turning them over, and then stacking them together. Then, I sat with him for awhile and we had fun stacking them to make a "tower." 

He got the hang of it pretty quickly and began making his own towers. He got pretty good at it, too.

He had to learn to be very careful, and he was say, "Easy, easy."

In this picture, he's saying "Cheese!" :)

But his favorite part of building the tower, of course, was getting to knock them over.

So next time you're around the clearance rack, see if they have any "toys" for your little one.

Note: This is not a normal outfit for Baylen. In these pictures he's wearing his pajama shirt and his Sunday shorts. Not sure why...

Fancy Concrete

If you've learned anything about our family through reading this blog, I hope that you've picked up on the fact that Heath is a concrete finisher by trade. He's always worked with concrete, but only with our new house has he gotten into making his concrete look a little fancy. Take a look at these two pictures of our garage, and you'll see what I mean.

Here's our garage floor before Heath stained and sealed it.

And here it is after. Nice, right? He used a dark grey stain on it and finished with a water based sealer. Like I said, fancy concrete.

Wordless Wednesday

Ag Night - always a fun time!

August 5th was Chaney's annual Ag Night. We went last year, and Cash had so much fun sitting on all the tractors, playing on the swings and slide and running around. Here are some pictures from last year:

Cash on one of the old tractors. Happy boy!

Look at baby Baylen - so happy in his stroller. Enjoying the fun, too!

And here are some pictures from this year:

Cash going down their tube slide. He couldn't get enough of this slide! 

 

I decided to give it a try, too, with B. Honestly, it was a lot of fun!

B took a ride on this "tractor."

This is actually the only thing they climbed up in this year. Last year, Cash and Heath tried out every single tractor and piece of equipment. There was just too much to do this year to fit it all in.

For example, they had to try out the four wheelers and rangers that were there. Heath picked out the one that he wanted, too.

Yes, you're not seeing things. This is a huge plastic cow named Kentucky Kate. The boys got to try their hand at milking her.

As you can tell, the did a pretty good job and had fun doing it.

In case you're wondering, Kentucky Kate only has water to give, not milk. Cash thought that was a little odd, too.

At the end of our evening, we rode a wagon to the dairy barn to see their newest arrival, Chloe. Carl Chaney warned us that she doesn't bite, but only eats little kids' shirts. This alarmed Cash. He was wearing his new Cranky the Crane shirt. Taylor, a friend from church, didn't seem too worried about Chloe. :)

Here's Baylen looking for little Chloe.

Heath helped Baylen find Chloe and give her a friendly pat, 

and Cash cautiously gave Chloe a quick scratch on the back. He didn't want her to "eat my Cranky shirt."

It was a great night. The weather was cooler, we ran into lots of friends, and even met some neighbors. I'm sure we'll try to be a part of Ag night next year, too.

Kennick's big day

Today was my nephew (Cash's best, best friend), Kennick's, first day at Montessori in Glasgow. This past weekend when we got together, Cash and Baylen had decorated a gift bag for Kennick with a few things in it for him. They were both excited for their cousin, as you can tell.

Inside the bag was a new shirt to wear to school and a book, Twas the Night Before Preschool.

Here he is ready to go to school. Hope you had a great first day, Kennick!

We love you!

One down, three to go

On August 2nd, Heath rushed home from work to pour the first of four sections of concrete for the pad out by the garage. Cash had been excited all day about the "contrete trut" coming to the house, and from the time he woke up from his nap all conversations were about daddy coming home to pour that concrete. Honestly, I was a little excited about it, too. I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm hoping that when we get the concrete finished, the amount of gravel dust on the hardwood floors will decrease. We'll see. 

Here we go. 7 yards of concrete and one man. Can it happen?

He was working hard getting it down. Part of me thought I should get out there and help, but the smarter part of me knew that I should just stay on the side and watch with the boys.

And that's what we did.

"Daddy! Hey, daddy! Can I help?" After hearing this for the millionth time, Heath brought a shovel full of wet concrete over to the side for Cash to work with. Needless to say, it made Cash's day!

Looking nice -- so proud of my hard-working man.

We decided to let the boys put their handprints in the corner of it. 

Getting B to relax and not dig his fingers into it was the tricky part.

Afterwards, the driver poured out some extra in case Heath needed it. It didn't take long for lil' man to grab a trowel and get busy.

He had the moves. Maybe he'll be the next generation concrete finisher.

With a little help from daddy (beaming with pride) he slicked down a spot in the driveway. Impressive!

Of course, what ever big brother does, little brother has to do, too. Maybe one day they'll have a business together finishing concrete. 

C & B Concrete 

Oh, dear.