Kaimon & Fiona

Kaimon & Fiona

Kaimon is very sad as Justin & Fiona will not be moving to our new house with us. Justin & Fiona will be moving in with his brother Stevie. Kaimon wanted one last picture with the 2 of them together so he can carry it around. I told Kaimon that Fiona will be able to come and visit any time. Kaimon will be like a brother and me & dad will be like grandma & grandpa. Fiona can spend the weekends with us and get spoiled.

Decisions .... Decisions

We are in the process of figuring out what we want our RV gate to look like and what kind of stone we want to get for around the house. We've been driving around looking at houses in the area. Paul & I typically having opposing opinions!!

This is the RV Gate I like. Pretty scrolling "things" with some manly stuff at the bottom.

This is the gate Paul likes. Total man gate, heavy wrought iron, no frills, etc.

This one might work for both of us, but neither one of us really wants to give in any.

This is the concept we like for the garage to be in the backyard.

This is the stone we like to be around the house.

Working on New House

We've been working on the house for the past couple of weeks. It's starting to look nice. We are painting the living room, dining room & up the stairs, kitchen, & family room. We are getting RV access put in the side.

Paul painting the entry way --- way up there!

This is the living room.

kitchen

Kaimon painting the family room.

The existing wall is getting knocked down in preparation for the new RV access. It's really hard to see all that good block get busted up and thrown away.

Camping - Ocotillo Wells

We went camping with our neighbors to Ocotillo Wells. It's about 3 hours southeast of us. It was an incredible place to camp. Out in the desert with awesome riding. The weather was perfect -- not too hot during the day so we could enjoy riding, and just right at night to site outside by the fire. There were 6 families that went -- all of them had about 2 children and 2 dogs each. The campsite was always busy. The kids mostly road around campsite. On Saturday all of us went on a 4 hours ride -- all over the place. It was a great ride.

Pinewood Derby

The was Kaimon's first Pinewood Derby, which is a racing event for Cub Scouts. Kaimon, with the help from his dad and I, built his own car from a block of pine wood, plastic wheels and metal axles. The cars have to be less than 5 ounces, the axles have to be a certain length apart, the car cannot exceed a certain width -- other than that the kids get to use their imaginations. Once they build their cars they race against each other. Each child gets 4 tries. We had so much fun.



Kaimon and his dad building the car. First they came up with the design, then they formed the car, then Kaimon sanded it nice and smooth, then Kaimon painted it and put the finishing touches on it.



The weith in -- exactly 5 ounces -- sweet.




Kaimon showing off his Grandpa's cars, while his mom held his car.
- a practice run to see how fast it will go. Kaimon got first place almost everytime. He was so exciting.



The actual race. All cars in Kaimon's heat are lined up and ready to go. Kaimon's car is the green one with the black stripe (2nd from the right). Nerves on all excited!



Kaimon's car came in 3rd place everytime. It was disappointed as it got first place in all the practices. Regardless, it was a lot of fun. The boys were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Everyone got an award.

Kaimon's grandpa came and brought his 2 cars he built when he was in Boy Scouts. He even got to race -- in the Old Timers group.

My Mom's Birthday Celebration

Great Grandma Czarnecki - 88 years old!

Tony & Mason

Kaimon & Mason

We all met at Mom & Bill's house to celebrate mom's, Nichole's and Rachel's birthday. It was lots of fun. My mom, as usaual, made an awesome dinner -- crab legs, steak, scallops, shrimp scampi, and baked potatoes. While the men watched a movie (with the volume so loud the neighbors could hear it) the women had a great time yik yaking and playing with the babies.

Mason is almost 1 year old and he is walking. He's a spitting image of Tony. Such a cutie pie.

Rachel came up for the weekend. It's always such a pleasure to see her. Of course, I didn't get many pictures. Was too busy socializing. The amazing thing is we didn't play any games or cards.

Family Time

Amber, Chris & Family came over for dinner. Both Amber and Chris are off on paternity leave. Amber is off for 3 months and Chris is off for 1 month. Cooper is so good. He never fusses or cries. He just sits there content. Kenzie LOVES Kaimon. She follows him around yelling .... "Kaimon, come here". Kenzie is such a tom-boy. Her and Kaimon played Cops - chasing each other around with guns shotting each other. Loads of fun!

APPROVED to Purchase New Home!!

My Mom, Paul, Lori with Kaimon, Amber holding Cooper, Chris holding Kenzie


Paul & I have been looking to purchase a house for about 2 years now. It seems like everytime we would find a house we liked and wanted to put a bid in, the home was already in escrow or the seller was accepting many bids and would accept the highest bid. Every door was closed. That's how we ended up renting for a year, which was such a blessing. In the year that we have rented home prices have dropped dramatically. The house that we are purchasing a year ago would have been at least $100k more. When we found this house and called our realtor we were expecting the same result -- either the house was already in escrow or they were wanting many offers. Much to our surprise there weren't any offers on the house at all. It's a foreclosure home so we figured because there were no offers, maybe the home was in bad shape -- no applicance, no flooring, etc. Again, much to our surprise the home was in awesome shape. The bank had just repainted the entire house, all the applicance and flooring was in take, it was perfect. We decided to put in an offer, figuring it would take the bank at least 2 weeks to get back to us. Another surprise, the same day we made the offer the bank made a counter offer. The next day we countered the counter offer and the bank accepted our offer. So within 2 days everything was settled. We have received loan approval, we're getting our down payment together, the house was appraised yesterday, the inspection is scheduled for next Tuesday, closing is scheduled for March 31st. Everything is coming together. Our lease doesn't expire until May 31st, so we will have some time to move slowly versus the rush of having to move everything in a weekend. The other great part is our new house is in the same neighborhood we live in now. Kaimon will go to the same school, ride the same bus, have the same friends. God is soooo Good!!

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Dinette

Kaimon Becomes a Cub Scout

Last night was Kaimon's first Pack meeting, where the kids get any awards, badges, pins, belt loops, etc for the achievements they have been working on. As of that meeting, Kaimon is officially a Cub Scout. As you can tell from the below picture he is VERY excited.

Dad pinning his achievement on Kaimon's shirt.

Proud family!

One of the pack leaders giving Kaimon an award.

Kaimon's pack leader giving him some other awards.

Kaimon is giving the final flag ceremony instructions at the end of the evening.


Kaimon at home in full uniform after the event.