What's Been Goin' on at the Willis House?

So things kind of quieted down after New Year's. Allen got back to his school work. Ben got back to work. Charlie got back to beating up Shaelynn and Shaelynn got back to being cute and not sick! YEA! I, on the other hand, became quite busy right after I was called to be the Ward Relief Society President. Candice and Sally are my counselors and I can already see why I was impressed to recommend them. They are so helpful and in tune. They also know everything there is to know! Hee hee! I'm looking forward to my new calling.

We started going back to the park after Shaelynn was better. Here she is on 1-14-09

And Charlie too!

and three!

And Jarrett Too!

This was so cute... Shaelynn pushed the Foot stool over to the piano and climbed up and started playing. Adorable! 1-19-09

Charlie was showing Shaelynn how to sing "the wheels on the bus" and she just loves doing everything Charlie does. They're doing the wipers. 1-21-09

Allen is giving free Superman rides and Charlie has a cow if he stops!

So, here's "The Project" for this week: Over Christmas Ben and I did a little trial to see if we would like having a wall divide the dining room and the living room. We moved our couch into the walkway and put the Christmas tree opposite it. I didn't like walking around, but I like the idea of making a space in the kitchen for more cabinets and putting the piano opposite the couch once the tree was out. (And we also decided to move the doorway to the right end of the couch, so we don't have to go that far around.) So, since my friend Kristen acquired some free base cabinets and has them sitting in her garage waiting for us to pick up, I decided to build the wall while Ben was at camp this week. Here's the before picture. 1-24-08

...and from the other side. That's the frame laid out on the floor and Shaelynn is dumping out my nails.

Thank you! What a helper!

Nailing the frame together

Charlie wanted to try it.

So then Shae thought she needed to try too. "Hey, the nail's over here!"
I let Allen actually drive a couple, made him feel like part of the action.

Then since he wanted to help, I let him do the grunt work!

And he also marked the studs for me then I screwed the dry wall down and he took pictures, cause that's fun too!

Almost done!

And then the battery in my camera died and the joints and screw holes were magically mudded! And here's the other side and then we sits and we waits for Monday.

Allen passed the time by playing a game of "Skulley" that he made up, of course. 1-25-09

Shaelynn passed the time (and some gas) in my rocking chair.

Allen decided it was time to compose a masterpiece.
And then I decided I had a big enough head ache and we should take a walk to the park. I also thought that since my kids are descendants from the monkeys on TV (according to my dad I am too) that I should place them in their natural habitat for some photos. Don't they look at home? So natural... ...so comfortable up there!I guess Shaelynn is grafted into the family from some ground-loving ape family because she did not like the tree.

Maybe she will try the tree next week.

As for me, tomorrow brings another day of putting up dry wall. I talked to Ben on the phone today and we decided to drywall the adjacent wall too. So, until next week...

(We monkeys lovingly fling all our poop in your general direction!)