our kitchen

Our current kitchen facilities:

Carter- 7 weeks old

No kitchen, a "still two-and-a-half" year old and a 7 week old... good times!

Well, we're now without a kitchen. For the past 3 months we've pretty much been able to live our regular lives inside our house with construction going on outside. But, since demo is about to begin for the kitchen remodel portion of our project, we had to clean out the kitchen (and dining room too!). It is amazing how much "stuff" is in a kitchen! Needless to say, the Vales family will be eating take-out quiet a bit for a while!

Answered prayer!

We are thrilled to share great news about our friend Manish! As many of you may remember, Manish was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in May 2007 and had his left hand and a portion of his arm amputated, followed by chemo. He and his wife Emily have been an amazing example of how to put your trust in God and what a strong marriage looks like through difficult times.
On Thursday night we got terrible news that the cancer had returned in an aggressive way and the doctor did not think Manish had much chance of surviving. We were devastated and could only imagine how our dear friends were feeling. Our prayers began for a miracle and that his body could be healed.
Last night (Friday), Eric got a call from Manish. He is fine! The short story is that a meeting with another doctor called the recent diagnosis into question. Later, the doctor who had made the first diagnosis called Manish to say that he was wrong and it was not cancer he had seen. Praise God! It was not how we expected things to turn out when we prayed... really it is better! We now look forward to spending many years to come with our friend!

The latest (construction)

My window seat corner in our room
Looking from the new family room into the dining room
From the living room, through the dining room, into the addition (yes, there's now just plastic!)

Eric and Carter

Proud daddy!

Girls' Day Out and other fun

Ashlynn has had some hard moments adjusting to life at our house these days so we had a girls' day out the other day. We went to a park in Sierra Madre and then picked up lunch from "the starfish place" (Carl's Jr.) and had a picnic on a blanket at Temple City Park. We enjoyed getting out "with no baby". She decided she wanted to climb a tree at the park because she saw some big boys doing it... something she would have never thought to do on her own.
Ashlynn is starting to learn to ride her tricycle at Nana and Papa's house. Her legs are not quite long enough to push the pedals all the way around... but she's almost there.
She LOVES swinging... and Nana and Papa have TWO swings at their house: a baby swing and a big girl swing (she's on the big girl one in the photo).
Our cute kids!

Construction update

There have been many people asking about the progress on the house, so here are a couple of photos. As you can see above, the windows are in and they are working of reroofing the house. Most all of the plumbing and electrical has been roughed in. In the next week (or so) they will be getting to stucco on the outside and drywall on the inside. They will also be opening up the wall between our dining room and the new family room, so with drywall going up, things might start getting messier than we'd like!
Here's the firebox in its place in our family room. There will be bookshelves on both sides of the fireplace. Eric is thrilled because he's complained for years that he likes our house but it is missing a fireplace... not for much longer! He can't wait to hang out on a rainy, fall, Monday night, watching football and eating spaghetti with the fireplace going.

Carter is one month (and 4 days) old

Carter is a month old! The time sure flies. Sometimes it seems like he just arrived and other times it's like he's been here for a long while.

He had his one month check-up on Monday. He's certainly growing! He went from 6 pounds and 12 ounces at birth to 8 pounds and 6 1/2 ounces and grew an inch and a half. We weren't totally surprised because he's a good eater, drinking 3 ounce bottles about every three hours. He is still a little guy and doesn't yet fit into his 0-3 months clothes well (without swimming in them), but I'm sure he'll be there soon.

Carter loves to be held and can sleep for quite a while IF he's being held. He seems to know that night is for sleeping, but still wakes up to eat every 3-4 hours. He's quite a noisy kid, but we should have known that the moment he was born because he was crying before he was out enough to confirm that he's a boy. He seems to make noises almost all the time, unless he's in a deep sleep. Like his dad, he has a sensitive stomach and is a big spitter-upper, so after having Ashlynn, who almost never spit up, we're learning the skills needed for dealing with those surprises. Above all, we feel very blessed to have our sweet little boy and are looking forward to watching him develop into a wonderful guy!

Fourth of July!

On the Fourth of July we went to the Sierra Madre parade, as we do every year. As with the Camellia Parade, Ashlynn had a great time and especially enjoyed dancing to the music. Carter especially enjoyed sleeping in the Baby Bjorn.

Waiting for the parade to start
Dancing!
Ashlynn and Nana
The firetrucks were a little too loud for Ashlynn...but nothing was going to wake Carter until he was ready! Carter drinking his bottle... no parade will stop his appetite!
The kids got to try out one of Jeremy and Jonathan Mo's mini Shriner cars. Pretty cool!