Changes.

I've always sworn that I'd never have a house covered with kids toys... Whenever we'd go to a friend's house who had kids I'd always think, "Geez, clean up all these toys..." But as it almost always happens, things change, and here I am, staring at 5 large child contraptions in my living room alone. This, and the fact that our guest room is a bed set up in the unfinished basement, prompted us to start finishing the basement. It's going to double the size of our house, and it will also prevent our guests from hearing their own voices echo when they're getting ready for bed. We're planning on adding a bedroom, an office, a theatre/great room, bathroom, and storage room. I want to do a wet bar area down there, and possibly some dart boards, but we'll see how far we get with the money we have now. Our tax return is funding our renovation adventure, and thanks to Jack and our rental property we have a good start money-wise.

J.R.'s mom and dad (along with my niece Addy) came to visit a few weeks back and helped us get the framing started on the basement. After a lot of profanity, and a lot of beers later, half of the basement was done.

My little brother Trevor also came to visit last weekend. He's going to Alaska for the summer so he wanted to spend some time with his nephew before he left. Trevor is so cute with the baby... I never imagined he would love Jack so much. It's awesome seeing them together.

J.R.'s Grandpa came out on Monday to help with the basement. He's been building houses for almost 50 years, and is still working, so when he heard we were finishing the basement, he said we had no choice but to let him help. I enjoy having him here... he is hilarious and somewhat inappropriate, which is a combination that I love. To give you an idea, yesterday I was helping him flip a chalk line. I'd never done it before, so when we flipped it, it was a little off. Gramps looked at me and said, "Boy, Mandy... if you were J.R. or Dallas you'd be knocked to the other side of the room and covered in my piss." J.R. said that he used to say similar things to him when he'd help him build houses in the summer, my favorite being, "I'm going to rip off your head and shit in the hole." See... Hilarious and inappropriate... just how I like it. He is also a perfectionist when it comes to building, so I know our basement is going to look awesome when he is done with it. He is planning on staying about another week, so by then he should have all of the framing, electrical, and plumbing done.

Well, I will post some pictures of the basement once I take some. For now, here's a picture of Jackman doing what I like to call "That face." Usually his little teeth show, too, but I couldn't get him to show them to me this time... I love him.