Tyler Has Changed

Tyler loves my mom's dishwasher
Look Mom, I can crawl now

He loves his bath and will stay in there for ever!

My boys!

Tyler at Sea World!

Many people have said they haven't seen any pictures of Tyler in a long time. Well, here he is at 8 1/2 months. He is 23 pounds, eats anything he can, has fully weened himself and loves his bottle, just started crawling and pulling up on furniture on Friday, finally sleeps through most nights, loves his sister's to make him laugh, loves to touch people's faces, gives great hugs, loves to be kissed, and the biggest thing I've noticed lately is that he has this look in his eyes of no fear, of curiosity and the longing to be crazy.....he just can't move that fast yet. I am enjoying this new crawling stage for as long as possible, because once he is faster...my calm days with Tyler are over.

Ode To The Isas

The kitchen window (compare last post with the pictures before)
The two blue colors in Tyler's new room

No more dark purle....just a pretty light pink

A new connected arch way doing into the family room

A wider arch way going into the dining room. And look, a new ceiling!

This past week we have made an imense amount of progress on the house....mostly due to a HUGE amount of help from our friend Shawn Isa, a member of our ward. His wife Julie has been so gracious to let him help us. I think David, Shawn and Percy (another guy from our ward helping out with the lights) worked on the house from 7am until midnight Saturday morning. Shawn then took his work crew over there yesterday and put in another full day for the drywall. As you can see from the pictures, a lot of progress has been made. Having so much help with this house has been truly a miracle and blessing, but very humbling at the same time. I think it is in our nature to want to help others, no problem, but when it comes to asking and accpeting help, it becomes really difficult. I think the biggest thing I have learned from this whole experience is that we are never to busy to help out someone else. These guys, our families, and friends have been answers to our prayers during this whole process....and if everyone wouldn't have been willing and wanted to follow that premonition to help the Hunts, then we would be stuck still praying for help. The point is, I have learned that when we feel inspiried to do something, to help someone, to call someone, to babysit their kids, we really just need to do it, because we may be the answer to someone else's prayers. It is through eachother, I believe, that the Lord truly works and without eachother, things wouldn't get done and many miracles would go unperformed.

So thank you for your support, your love, your calls, your emails and your prayers! We are making progress and it is amazing.

I am alive.....just barely!

Sitting on the mantle watching David work and giving Tyler a bottle. He has decided to wean himself this month......what timing
View from the mantle in the family room into the kitchen

Kitchen with torn out ceiling into the dining room

Kitchen Wall with no more yucky moldy cabinets

David and our friend Robert ripping out the old light box in the kitchen to raise up the ceiling

Demolition is a great way to take out your agression....David has punched many holes so far

Trying to demo red clay tile is a nightmare. It took my brother and David a really long time to do this!

We took out the 20 year old tub and got a great deal on a new one

The garage is filled with old cabinets, countertops and lots of tile

The girls don't want to keep a purple room...think we are going pink

So it has been a month since I posted last....and so much has happend. We did finally close escrow on January 28th. It was supposed to be on the 15th but because of the first time home buyer funds we were using from the county of San Diego...everything got delayed. We were very excited though to qualify for that program, which gave us enough to put down on the house and even be able to fix it up.

We have been staying at my parent's home, which has been great, but crazy. With my parents, sister, the dog, my grandparents who live in an apartment attached to my parent's home, my brother Cory who came home from Africa and needed a place to stay for a week, and my elderly grandmother that came and needed full care for a week, it is a FULL house! Living out of suitcases is not ideal, but great for the girls, because they only have so many options for clothes to year. I had to go shopping because I couldn't stand just wearing the same pair of jeans every day.

The girls are having a blast and don't understand why we aren't going to stay here forever.....and that brings us to the house. The reason why they want to stay at Mimi's forever is because they don't like the new house. They think it is ugly and that we should knock the whole thing down and start over.......so if you are wondering.....we are still going through a HUGE adjustment period with the girls.

What was going to start out as a few small housing projects has turned into a big remodel. We started demolition this last week...which was fun, tiring, painful, and hard all at the same time.We are so lucky to have so many people around us that have helped with plumbing, electrical, drywall, etc. The biggest bummer was that we now have to redo the bathrooms. When David pushed on the shower tile, and the tiles fell off and the drywall crumbled beneath them, we knew we couldn't shower there any more

The exciting thing is that this house (still with very vivid unpleasant memories of the people that used to live there) really feels like it is becomming a home.

I haven't really been able to even sit down and think. We have had so much to do, I feel like I am in survial mode....doing what is needed, just to get by.

I hope I can be better about new posts and the progress we are making on the house.