Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all!! The Lynch children awoke with the sun, literally, to see what the bunny had left. P. was thrilled beyond belief to see that the bunny had given him the Lego Star Wars Sith Infiltrator ship (these are VERY hard to find). That bunny has some connections! K. was equally thrilled to find her new Barbie Clean Up Pup doll. She has not stopped giving the puppies a bath.

The bunny left M. her very own Gertie Ball and a Magna Doodle of her own, too. She was so excited to get a new "ball, ball" (as she said all morning). M. was a big fan of the candy, too!
We decided to take pictures of the kiddos prior to church, as afterwards they are all in a hurry to change and play. The first one turned out great! We do have several of P. frowning and being a grouch as he was embarrassed at how handsome he looked. After he got over his shock of how handsome he is, he was good to go. I asked him later why he was being so goofy and he said he wasn't used to looking like a man and it made him feel embarrassed because he is really only a boy. Needless to say, he looked great! K. picked out her entire outfit (shocker) and believe it or not, she wore the hat nearly the entire time we were at mass. Kevin and I realized that M.'s dress was the same one K. wore on her first Easter here in St. Louis. My how a few years can really change things. We reflected today on how truly blessed we are and for this we are extremely grateful. We hope that these Easter greetings find you and yours equally blessed and equally grateful. Happy Easter everyone!

Birthday Present is a Huge Hit

M. received a ball pit for her birthday and 100 balls for Easter. We blew it up this past week, as it was rainy and cold just about everyday. She LOVES it. She frequently nose dives into the pit and comes up giggling. Her siblings have been having fun in it too. Thanks to the Burns family for the pit and to Grandma and Papa for the balls!

Lots to Catch Up On

Well, let's start with this first picture of the SNOW we woke up to last Sunday morning! K. asked if meant Santa was coming...try explaining that one to a three year old. She associates snow with Christmas and we had to tell her that this snow was a mistake. A big mistake if you ask me!

P. had spring break last week and we spent a few days at my mom and dad's house. We had a great time, as always! Kristen loves to see the kids and she probably watched more kid's movies that week than she has since she was a kid herself! We went and had lunch in Grandma's cafeteria and I don't think we could have hand picked a better menu for P. There were Chicago Style hot dogs and Chicken Parmesan (with a side of broccoli) . He had to really think hard about which he was going to choose, as they are two of his favorites. He and K. loved their first experiences with the cafeteria. After that lunch, Kristen and I took the kids to the children's museum and all three had an awesome time. As you can see in the photos, they got to paint their own faces and for a snack, they each made their own pretzels, complete with chocolate chips and marshmallows! YUM-O!!! We also went and got our bridesmaid/ flower girl dressed and K. looks adorable in her's. They are beautiful dresses and the color is great. Can't wait to wear them on the big day!



Who is happier in this picture? K. or Kristen?








This last photo is of a table my Uncle Jerry made for us. My mom and dad decided to have Jerry make each of us kids a piece of furniture and we chose to have a table for the front entryway. It turned out beautifully. The drawers on the front are made of zebra wood. It is truly a gorgeous and unique piece. Thanks mom and dad!!! As for this week, we are back to the grind. P. has a full week of school and starts soccer tonight with the first game on Sat. K. finished gymnastics last week. M. just cut her fourth tooth on top, so she will have a full smile (on top) very soon! Kevin just got back from a meeting in Chicago and it looks like we will have to fit in a vacation for the two of us this summer as he won Vice President's Premier Club and a trip to St. Kitts!!!!! He won two other regional awards as well. We are all VERY proud of him. Basement is well underway. The HVAC was completed this morning and Kevin says the insulation should be up in the next two weeks. I think we may wait a few week before we drywall, as I will have the furnace turned off to cut down on the mess and I want the weather to warm up a bit before we do that. No need to freeze anyone while they sleep! It is coming along and will be awesome once it is finished. I am sensing there may be a party to celebrate it's completion. Stay tuned for more details!

Updated Page Design

I decided to try and update our page to look more Irish. I think I succeeded! I am going to try and get some new pics of the kids at my mom and dad's house this past week, along with some stories of the trip. A preview...and probably my favorite story: K. likes to turn on the light in the powder room herself and Grandma holds her up so she can do it. The light is on a dimmer and somehow she not only turned it on, but dimmed the lights too. We tried to turn the lights up, but she quickly stopped us and told us to leave the lights low as she was "romance pottying". K. then left the lights low so Papa could "romance potty", too! Where does she come up with these things?

Dancing Queen

We have another dancer in the house. K. frequently requests songs to dance to from I Tunes and we generally oblige. Now it appears as if the youngest has an affinity for dancing, too. She doesn't get her moves from her mom or dad...she's actually quite a good dancer! (Sorry the video flips...I cannot figure out how to edit the movie to get it turned right).

OK, let's see how my first blog attempt goes. I thought I would add a few photos to go along with what Erin wrote in the previous post. I have some before and after shots of the framing work. Let's start in what will be the toy room/storage area. Here are the before and after shots:

Now we move into the main room of the basement. This is the big room that you entered into when you went through the door at the bottom of the basement stairs. My neighbor Chris is starting the first wall of the project....the back bedroom wall. In the photos you can see the north side of the basement (front of house) where Chris is working and the south side of the basement (back of house) where Erin and Meghan are heading back upstairs. So here is before:

And after Day1 of framing: The picture on the top is the new bathroom for the basement. The 3 pipes you see in the foreground were the position of the rough in bath.....more on that later. The picture on the bottom is where Erin and Meghan were exiting

So now on to those three pipes. The small one in back is for the shower drain, the middle one is for the toilet, and the tall one in front is for the sink with a vent to the roof. The small room framed just behind those is the new bathroom. It seemed like a better location than RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BIGGEST FREAKING ROOM IN THE WHOLE BASEMENT. Seriously, who designs that and thinks it is a good idea. The shower drain was too close to the toilet drain anyway.... unless you prefer to keep your left foot in the shower when you sit on the toilet. It had to be moved some anyway, so we covered the difference between the one hour of work for the small move and the 5 hours of work I proposed. It is amazing what a guy with a jackhammer and a skilled plumber can get done in 5 hours. Let's start with the jackhammering of the floor and digging out the rock:

I worked for about 2.5 hours on Friday night and Sat. carrying all of that basement slab and displaced rock out of the basement to the dumpster. It was 12 5 gallon buckets (4 wheelbarrows) of rock to carry up the stairs.

Here is the new bathroom with the plumbing in place:
The 3 blocks behind the pole show the old location.


And now the grand finale. Yes I shot a nail though my finger. The boards I was nailing had knots. The top board had a visible knot that I avoided, but the stud had a hidden knot that bent the nail 90* out into my L index finger. It went in the thumb side and out on the middle finger side. I didn't know until 2 hours later that it actually hit my middle finger and just started to go in it. I thought the blood on my middle finger was from where it was touching the index finger. Remarkably, it did not really hurt. I felt it of course, but thought maybe the wood splintered. The tetanus shot I got on Monday hurts more than the finger. Who would have guessed that? No tendon, bone, nerve, or vascular damage. So without further ado, here are the photos of my finger with a nice little hole through it.



I have to go take one of my two antibiotics I am on now to keep my finger from falling off. Not bad for my first post. Now I know to add all the photos first, then type where you want the words. Our love to everyone.

-Kevin

And the basement project is underway

Kevin started working on the basement last weekend with the neighborhood "construction crew". After 12 hours, they had framed the first section. This past Thursday the plumbers came and relocated the bathroom drains that they had originally put in the wrong place. Yesterday Kevin and crew finished the framing (with the exception of a few soffets). They were just about finished when I hear a few choice words and Kevin comes running up the stairs to the bathroom. He said there was a knot in the wood he was attempting to nail (with the nail gun). When the nail went into the board, it hit the knot and shot out at an angle and right through his finger. Literally, all the way through. There was not much bleeding (surprisingly so) and he said it didn't hurt at all. He is headed to the MD today for a tetanus shot and to see if he needs some antibiotics or anything. So, first injury out of the way, and we hope it is the last one, too.
The job they are doing looks great and I can't believe we are to the point of plumbing, electrical, and HVAC already. Once all the "guts" are in place, we can hang the drywall and from there we will be in the home stretch! The deadline for basement completion is July 11th so P. can have his b-day party in the "batcave" with his buddies! If we continue in the present vein, I imagine he will get his party in the batcave.
On another note, M. has cut three teeth on top. It has been a hairy few weeks, as she was very uncomfortable while they were coming in, but we ae hoping she will be feeling better soon. Just one left to come in and then she will go from having just 2 teeth on the bottom to having 6 total! It will look funny to see her with a mouthful of teeth!