Hated by all and loving it!

Say what? Yeah you know it's true. Any time you go to a sporting event you automatically hate the referee. You think they make some pretty awful calls and can't see worth beans. Jeff is now one of those guys you all love to hate so much.

This past week, and this week as well, Jeff is refereeing at the Gonzaga summer camps. I took Mason down to Gonzaga on Saturday night, so he could see Jeff "at his basketball game". Mason had a lot of fun! He kept telling the people sitting next to us that Jeff was Mason's daddy. All I wanted was to tell Mason, "shh don't tell them that, they probably don't like your Daddy". Mason was really mesmerized by all the really BIG BOYS, he just couldn't stop starring at all of them. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Mason's face when we walked into the Martin Center, he was so amazed at everything around him that he didn't even see Jeff standing right in front of him.

So check out Jeff in his really cool referee outfit. I must say, not the most flattering outfit I've ever seen.

Crystyne

Electrical and furnace

This week my Dad, my brother Michael, Jeff's parents Curtis and Teresa, and Curtis and Teresa's neighbors Brenden, Katie, and Brady walked with us from Curtis and Teresa's house to our new house (about ten blocks).

There are not many noticeable changes to the appearance of the house. The only thing that has changed to the outside is some of the trim along the windows has gone up. On the inside though, some bigger changes have taken place. We now have electrical wires run and a furnace.

Front of the house with some of the trim up

Electrical wires run and we believe the big silver square on the wall is for the ventilation system for the stove.

Our furnace

Look at my Dad- he's so silly

The 2x4's on the floor are covering up the vents on the floor.

The electrical box in the garage

Trim around the front door and window

Mason's favorite part about coming to look at "our new house up the hill by Papa's" is being able to look at all the big tractors, diggers, and back hoes. He is absolutely amazed at all the big machinery. He is really going to enjoy himself once we move in. As far as we know we will be the first ones to move in on the block. So there will be a lot of construction going on for probably a year to year and a half after we move in. And Mason will probably be outside watching all the construction and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets up the courage to ask the construction workers if he can help them drive a back hoe or something.

Crystyne

Biker Man

If you know Mason very well, or any toddler for that matter, then you know that he does not share very well. Mason really doesn't like it when Cooper tries to play with his toys. So today while Mason was sleeping, Cooper took advantage of that time to play on Mason's bike.

Crystyne

I caught you sleeping

Today nap time was a bit of a challenge. I got Mason down for his nap at around 1:30pm. I was talking to my step-mom on the phone around 2:30pm when Mason can walking out of his room, wide awake, not looking like he had just woken up. I got him back into bed, again, and again, and again. Finally around 4:30pm I realized that I had not heard anything for him in a while. I went into his room to see if he had finally fallen asleep. I looked in his top bunk, no Mason. I looked in his bottom bunk, no Mason. I looked under his bed and look at what I found. These pictures didn't come out very well because of the lack of light in his room, but hopefully you can see it, if not click on the picture and you might be able to see it better.

Crystyne

Swinging

We were at Addison Simpson's First Birthday Party at Shadle Park on Monday night. We put Cooper in the little swings for the first time. As you can see from this picture he really enjoyed himself.
As did Mason

I think what Mason enjoyed most was having Cooper to swing with.

Do we have the cutest little boys or what?

Crystyne

Cooper crawling

I think the last time I updated everyone on Cooper's mad crawling skills, he was doing an army crawl putting one arm over the other while kicking his legs. He is still doing an army crawl, but has started to actually use his knees and legs to get arouund. Every once in a while he will get up on his hands and knees, crawl a few feet, and then he gets back down on his stomach.

Also, if you listen carefully, you can hear Mason in the background calling out, "JEFF....JEFF"

Crystyne

Plumbing and bath tubs

As it is every week, we were excited to see the progress that has happened at our house. It is beginning to become easier to see the layout (of the bathrooms at least) with having the bath tubs and other plumbing in place.

front of the house (of course) with roofing material on top

Who is that cute boy? This picture was taken from inside the garage. You can see the plumbing that has been installed. The window in the far right corner is the kitchen, and the slider is the eating nook.

Kitchen with the plumbing for the sink

Bath tub/shower and other plumbing in the main bathroom upstairs

Laundry room

Tub in the master bath room

Shower in the master bath room

Another view of the shower, tub, and plumbing for the toilet (the round-black thing) in the master bath room.

Crystyne

A day at Mobius

Thursday Mason, Cooper, and I were fortunate to go to Mobius with some friends of ours, the Millwards. The Millwards have a membership at Mobius and had given us some guest passes for Mason's second birthday. Yes, that's right his second birthday, eleven months ago.

We finally committed our selves to going. Mason had a great time spending the morning with his pal Benjamin, and Cooper spent a lot of his time in the stroller, eating cheerios, and going what all teething babies do best, drooling.

Mason (and Benjamin in the background) riding, well more like scooting, on the bikes.

future fire fighter?

Cooper and Abram finally out of their strollers getting in on all the fun!

One of the activity centers with water, rocks, shovels, cups, and other fun toys. Mason wasn't quite sure what to do here, he had more fun watching Benjamin play the water and rocks.

We had a great day! Thanks to the Millwards!

Crystyne

My new cell phone

I know, I wasn't going to get a cell phone, once I was able to cancel the plan I was on, but I got one anyways. Well, it can all be blamed on Jeff. He doesn't like it when I am out and about and he can't get a hold of me. So, he (being kind of like the little red devil on my right shoulder, trying to persuade me to do wrong) said' "oh just get a new phone...it will only cost us $15.00 a month. So I did. Here is a picture of the one I got. It is really small, just a little bit longer that a credit card and literally 3/8 of an inch thick. It is not only a phone, but also an MP3 player. If you are familiar with Jeff's phone, it's the same phone, with all the same functions, just the newer (and smaller) model.

Happy Father's Day II

We had a great Father's Day, we were able to spend time with both of our dads.

My family went to Shadle Park, we enjoyed some root beer floats but I think the kids enjoyed playing on the toys most.

This is one of Mason and Cooper's cousins, Natasha

Another cousin, Connor

Another cousin, Zachary (Connor's brother)

And now....a moment with Mason....

I hope everyone had a great father's day!

Crystyne

Happy Father's Day

I wanted to wish all the fathers a Happy Father's Day! I especially want my husband to know how much I love and appreciate all he does for me and our two boys. I also want everyone to know how wonderful Jeff is, so I have an example I would like to share about just how wonderful he is.

Last night was a rough night for us here at the Borders household. Cooper went to bed around 8:00pm. Jeff and I watched a movie and then went to bed about 11:20pm. I could just about feel myself falling asleep when Cooper woke up at 12:00am wanting to eat. So as Jeff usually does, he got Cooper up and brought him to our room so he could nurse. After he nursed for about a half an hour I took him back to his crib. Usually he will go right back to sleep, but last night he decided he didn't want to go to sleep. So he began to cry, I would have just let him cry, but with our current situation of being in an apartment, I picked him up and rocked him for about twenty minutes. He finally fell asleep, so I put him back in his crib. I just about got out of his room when he began to cry again. This time I decided to let him cry for a bit. I went back to my room and laid there waiting for him to fall back to sleep. Well, he didn't go back to sleep, so I got up again, went to his room, and rocked him untill 3:00am when he finally did fall asleep.

I went back to bed, Jeff said good night to me, I replied with, "there is nothing GOOD about it, because Mason will be awake in four hours!".

Sure enough Mason and Cooper were both awake at 7:00am and Jeff got up with them letting me sleep until close to 9:00am. So even though it is Father's Day and Jeff should have been the one who got to sleep in, he thought of me and how tired I was and got up with the boys.

This is just one example of what a wonderful husband and father Jeff is. So thank you Jeff for being a wonderful husband to me and father to Mason and Cooper.

Happy Father's Day Jeff

Love Crystyne

Mason and sponge bob square pants

Yesterday after Mason finished with his lunch, he had about twenty minutes until his nap time, Cooper was ready for bed, so I turned on the t.v. to one of the cartoon channels. It was on commercial, so I didn't know what cartoon was on. A few minutes later, while I was nursing Cooper in his bedroom I heard Mason yelling something to me from in the living room. I couldn't quite make out what he was saying. Once I got Cooper asleep, I went into the living room to find Mason yelling to me to turn the channel because sponge bob square pants was on.

On a few different occasions while we were flipping through the channels trying to find Mason something to watch, I have told Mason that I didn't want him to watch this (stupid) show.

I am amazed that he remembered that I didn't want him to watch sponge bob, and was yelling to me to change it. I guess he really does listen to what I say (he just doesn't always DO what I ask in to do). I was very impressed with the desire he showed in wanting (and trying) to do what I want him to do.

Crystyne

Roof and windows and doors oh my....

This week we were pleasantly surprised to see a roof, all the windows installed, and the front door as well as the man door on the inside of the garage. Also, the stairs that lead to the second floor were installed, so we were able to take some pictures of that. So, if you are ready for the second half of the tour...here you go!front of the house

Jeff and Mason are standing behind the framing for the full bathroom upstairs. I didn't get a very good picture that would show the size of the bathroom, but it will be a normal (good) size bathroom.

This is the loft. The loft is to your left once you come up the stairs. In the bottom left corner of this picture you can see the top of the stairwell. (the stairwell at the top is a half wall). We could have had the loft framed in with a closet to make our house a four bedroom house. We chose to leave it the loft for now so the boys will have a play room. We may frame it in later, once our kids are grown up, and don't have a need for a play room.


Mason and I are inside the master bedroom. I am standing in front of the entrance into the master. The other doorway leads into the master bathroom.

This picture was taken from in the loft, looking at the full bathroom in the middle left hand side, one of the secondary bedrooms just behind that, and the other secondary bedroom in the top right of the picture, and this half wall is the top of the stairs. Also, this little bit of framing that you can see on the very left of this picture is part of the laundry room. So once you come up the stairs, the laundry room will be basically right in front of you.

Down stairs from in the family room, looking into the formal dinning room and living room (and of course the front door).

Back of the house

Mason, Cooper, and I are standing in the back yard, just about where our property line is.

Well, this concludes another wonderful tour. I hope you were able to understand the layout of the second floor. If not I'm sure we will soon have actually walls, it should be easier to understand then.

Crystyne

Hair by Jeff

As you know Jeff and I are having a house built, along with that we are trying to save as much money as we can for our down payment and furnishings for the new house. We have cut back on a lot of our monthly expenses including: Internet service, my cell phone, Jeff and Mason getting their hair cut "by the professionals", eating out, frivolous purchases... and the list goes on.

Well, I really needed my hair cut, but I didn't want to spent $20+ getting it cut, so I asked Jeff if he would be willing to trim it for me. Call me cheap...or crazy... I don't care. So tonight after we finished up with dinner and got Cooper in bed Jeff trimmed my hair. Yes, I was a little nervous that he would cut it uneven, I think Jeff was more nervous though. Overall I trusted him that he would do a good job.

all my hair on the floor

after...wet

after...dry

I know my hair in the "after...dry" picture looks uneven, it's not, my hair just has some weird cowlicks in it.

Crystyne