Our t.v. show air date!

Ok, it's official...the premiere of our show is this Saturday (March 12th)! So exciting! It has been 3 months since we filmed it and I can't wait to see how they decided to edit a week's worth of footage into a 30 min. episode. Here's the link to our show page where it says all the air dates and times it will be on throughout the month:
http://www.diynetwork.com/renovation-realities/the-reukert-job/index.html

Hope you have the DIY channel. Set your DVR's!!

February

We signed Jake up for a beginning karate class every Tuesday night for 5 weeks. It was really cute...he learned to stand at attention, do punches and kicks while saying "ha-ya" and then ran through an obstacle course at the end (his favorite part). But...if this was any glimpse into how he'll be as a student in school...we'd better gear up for many parent-teacher conferences:) He was a wild child running all over the room constantly and bouncing off the walls, while all the other kids stood still practicing their exercises. At least he's still got a couple years to let that energy run loose:)
Hallelujah! The trash pile in our yard got cleaned up! I was beginning to wonder if we'd just leave it there forever. This is the before picture. I just realized I didn't take the "after" picture...but you can imagine it:) I'm just so happy kids can go outside and play again, without the danger of old rusty nails sticking out from pieces of wood.

We went to Knotts with Shannon and Lindy for the day...the boys had a ton of fun. This is them on a ride that brought back childhood memories for me. I remembered being a little girl going on this ride and feeling like I was in the backwoods of a thick forest, on my own, moving my car along, and yes...enjoying nature. Now as an adult I stood and looked at it...the whole track is in full view from the park and there's a couple trees...haha. That was funny to see. But it still gave me full satisfaction to now be sending my child on the nature ride experience. Of course about two-thirds of the way through he gave up on pumping and just laid back in his car.

This airplane ride was the first one they did. You have to pull a lever towards you to make the airplane fly up high. Jake was in a plane with some random girl and they both couldn't figure it out. Every other plane was up high in the hair and Jake's was riding along the ground. He was pushing the lever the wrong way with all his might and looking up at Luke in his plane yelling "it won't go up!" over and over. He finally gave up and just started waving hi at Luke and Seth in their plane. I felt bad for him but it was the funniest thing to watch. Me, Shannon and Lindy were all trying to yell through the gate to pull the lever the other way.

Don't these boys look so big? It's like they're riding a real roller coaster

This is Valentine's Day...a very happy boy with his candy
We made heart shaped sugar cookies during the day and took some over to friends. Jake likes to help me in the kitchen...especially when he gets to keep dipping his finger in the sugar:)

Christmas, New Years, and my birthday

Wow do I have major catching up to do! So this post is going to be a lot of pictures since it'll include Christmas, New Years and my birthday...but then I'll basically be caught up:) Here's Jake with Santa at our ward party:

My goal was to have a functioning kitchen by Christmas...we ended up getting the stove hooked up on the 23rd...my one and only appliance...but hey, that's all you really need to cook! So I was excited to be able to make sugar cookies with Jake the next day on Christmas Eve. (He's all about making silly faces for pictures now)


But don't get all excited that I became Suzy homemaker instantly (since our sink wasn't in working order yet I still had to wash dishes in the bathroom sink)...so for our Christmas Eve dinner we headed to IHOP. Jake had gotten a cold and he must have sneezed a million times during dinner--we cleared our section of the dining room after not too long:) Jake is pretty picky about a lot of foods...and I could not coax the kid to eat pancakes...I knew if he'd just try it he would love it. So I didn't let it go...I kept trying and trying and finally tricked him into taking a bite. Not a minute later he threw up onto his plate...guess I deserved that one...well, everyone who hadn't left from the sneezing, definitely left at that point!


We went home and opened our Christmas pj's...he loved his slippers and kept doing this shuffle around the floor like the Lightning McQueen cars were racing.


Marc got a Jazz tshirt as part of his pj's. And Marc had specifically gotten me pj pants I asked for. I saw them online and thought they were cute...and he'd gone to the store and gotten them. When I opened them, I realized they had a picture on them I hadn't noticed on the online picture. The brand is Skin and with that is a provocative sillhouette of a naked girl...not the kind of pants I want to be lounging in when the home teachers come over, eh? So I ended up trading them...I guess Marc saw no problem with it when he bought them though...hmmmm

We went to drive around and look at lights, but my sick boy fell asleep right away in the car...so he missed it. And he loves the lights!


Showing off our gingerbread house creation...which would have had twice as much candy if it weren't for a little boy on a sugar high


So back in October we were in JCPenney and Jake saw this blue race car and really wanted it. Throughout the month of November when I started prepping him for asking Santa for toys, all he would talk about was the blue race car. And still in December when he sat on Santa's lap...that's what he said he wanted. I realized I'd probably better go hunt this item down..thank goodness they still had it when I went. So that's what he had sitting out from Santa along with a tricycle (which he'd actually seen the tricycle in the trunk of my car by accident like a week earlier...luckily he's little enough I could still claim it was from Santa:)

Marc got him his own tools to help Daddy work on the house
Yay! Here's me Christmas morning making our traditional eggs benedict. It took longer than usual, because I had to keep walking back and forth between our bedroom and the kitchen looking for pans and ingredients. But I was still excited to be cooking in it.

Jake with his Geotrax

Chocolate smeared on his face...probably his favorite part of the day...having his own tube of M&M's

Here's Marc with his presents...he got a ping pong table. I was just taking it of Marc but then Jake insisted on getting in the picture and did this perfect pose...who's child is this??

And...my husband gave me a huge surprise on Christmas...he got me a wedding band to go with my ring!!! I have been talking about this for years, and when I have looked I have never been able to find a band that I liked with my ring. But with the house I hadn't even thought about it for the whole year...so this was nothing I'd even talked about at all with him. He totally surprised me...and it was a gutsy move on his part to pick it out without me...but I totally love it! It goes perfect with my ring. Props to Marc...he gets major points for that one:) And it was very sweet and thoughtful and romantic.

Now, onto the next holiday. For New Years all the family came down for our annual reunion. Here's some people at our house trying out the ping pong table.

The group shot

Grandma with her great grandkids (except for Emily)

Jake and Luke got matching Toy Story pj's

with Grandpa Mark and Terry

We played our white elephant game. Marc was very excited to try on a Snuggie that was in the game and Emily put on hers so they could be twins (P.S. more to come on Snuggie's with my birthday)

me and Annie with our kids...who'd have thought when we were 13 with zits and perms...this day would come!

Trina, me and Tricia

me and Shannon

Happy New Year

We ran outside and banged pots and pans. Then some neighbors set off a bunch of illegal fireworks in the sky. Fireworks are another one of Jake's very favorite things.

I was so excited to have our 1st official house guests where we had a guest bedroom to offer...because the kitchen cabinets weren't stacked in there anymore...yay! Tricia, Lauren, and Alex stayed with us for a few days and it was SO fun. I didn't want them to leave and Jake definitely didn't want them to leave either!

I turned 31 this year...CRAZY! I'm totally in my 30's now. Now I'll go from being cool (don't laugh) to an embarassment, for doing the exact same things I've always done: ie...dancing like I'm in a club to some song on the radio, pretending I'm a popstar, thinking I can rap and be taken seriously...

Anyway, the day started off excellently with Marc getting donuts:) Then we got ready and headed to Disneyland.

First we had to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride...Jake's favorite

We also walked around Downtown Disney a little. I went into Sephora and told the worker to show me some cool new products. I expected to walk out of there with some fun new makeup. Instead I ended up with pore minimizing cream and concealer for dark circles. Happy 31st birthday...feeling old yet??

After that we met up for dinner at BJ's with some of the fam. I was one happy camper with my avacado egg rolls. Dinner was great except for a small bill fiasco at the end, and the mysterious disappearance of my birthday pizookie. But, if it's the last thing Shannon does...I will get that birthday pizookie. I love having her around!

While this picture may not look all too exciting, more of the family joined up at our house after dinner for cake and games. We had a good time hanging out.

And...I got a Snuggie! Ever since I saw Marc looking so happy in that Snuggie at New Years I knew I wanted one...haha

And Marc got me a t.v. for the kitchen! While this might look like a gift for me, he actually benefits greatly...cuz I do way more cooking with entertainment in the kitchen.