Baby's Here!

It's been a little crazy around here this last week.

Baby Anderson arrived on Dec 10, only 3 days over. We've never gone over, so it was a new adventure. All is well, and we're slowly adjusting to the new era of sleep deprivation.

Sorry, any more details at the moment would ruin the Christmas cards.

Email me if you want one. =)

Excuse me now, it's nap time.

Here we go...

I've decided posts aren't much fun without a picture. I can't find the charger for my camera battery, which is dead, dead, dead. So, I don't have any pictures, and this might not be such a fun post. You have been warned. (After I get that Christmas letter finished, I'll look for the charger....)

Anyway. One morning I was hurrying to get the kids out the door to catch the bus. (Actually, this is most mornings as of late...) We had prayers without H. I could hear him in the kitchen rustling something plastic. After I got the two out the door and on their way I went to the kitchen to see what little H was up to.

Imagine a super proud grin on a 2-year old's face as I see him standing on a stool next to the counter. A juice box (that didn't make it into the lunch sack) with a straw poked into it is in front of him...at just the right height for him to suck on the straw.

Yes, while we were praying, he was unwrapping a straw and poking it into the juice box.

Upside: He's got remarkable fine motor skills.
Downside: Now he knows juice comes in an unwatered-down version.

Life

*sigh*

Yes, folks, I'm still here.

Our year has been quite a rush of crazy activities all strung together. But, really, whose hasn't?

I don't even think I can begin to recap it all, and I have to save that for the Christmas cards anyway...so don't look for it here!

Big setback was the computer crash the end of February which took until March/April to figure out (er, fix....yeah warranties?) and all data was lost. So, no fun pics, which takes the joy out of blogging and sharing. No record of my children as babies, no record of all the house remodeling, no desire to charge the camera battery and clear out the memory stick for new pictures. (I think I'm just getting around to forgiving the computer for dying.) All my fun posts and ideas gone, erased, nada. But the time for wallowing in self-pity and sorrow is over. Finally.

I may post random thoughts in the next bit, but there's no guarantee. Especially after reading my friend's post about lowering standards and bi-annual posting. =)

We're still here. We're all alive. I still have too many projects for time and I still hate to clean the bathroom.

Oh, yeah, and baby #4 is due in December.

I'll see ya back in six months for an update.

(If you want the readers digest condensed version of my life, email me your address and I'll put you on the Christmas list.)

It will go out this year.

Seriously.

I'm writing the card now.

Merry Christmas!

What do you mean this is late?!?

And no, this wasn't taken at the Sears Portrait studio with the winterwonderland background. This is the real deal, folks. Real snow, real trees, and real tired, real happy kids sledding on Christmas Eve.

It's an annual tradition that we love. Even the smallest among us.

So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From our little corner of the world to you, we hope your holidays were merry and bright, and that the New Year didn't steam roll you like it did us.

Looking In My Front Door

This is the moment you've all been waiting for, a tour of my house. (I'd much rather be showing pics of the lights we took the kids to see, or cutting down our Christmas tree, but since I forgot the camera, you'll have to view these instead!)

In the beginning.

The front entry.

Welcome to my hallway, er, house.

With carpet and lovely brown linoleum.

Without carpet and linoleum.

Eww....put it back!

(Just be thankful you can't smell this picture. I still can.)

Suprisingly effective drywall demolishers.

The finish crew. Aren't they beauties?

The bare studs.

(Note the section of flooring that is missing?)
Since this was a load bearing wall (for the garage) we had to re-inforce the beams in the ceiling (attic) before we could proceed forward. And do a little re-wiring.

No studs at all!!

But, where did they go?

Ta-da!

We recycled them into a wall in the former hall to really create an entry to the house.

This is the back view.

This is the front view.

Note the subfloor is gone, too.

Drywalled, mudded and waiting for texture.

Hardibacker down on the floor.

OOoooh, pretty paint!

Pretty paint all around.

(This is after we kilzed the entire house.)

A new foyer with 16" tiles.

Shocking that it took us a long time to come up with this design.

Simple really is best.

Close up of the beautiful tile.

Almost finished, with grout and flooring.

Not suprisingly we still don't have the transition piece in place, so this is still what it looks like. Maybe I'll get it all finished by March.

So, there you have the first mini-transition-tour. Look for more starring the kitchen, the family room, and the bathroom, with minor roles going to the laundry closet, hallways and bedrooms.

Now, you must remember, we only had minimal tiling and painting experience before this project (I'm talking the entire house). Most of the things we did here were new skills that we acquired or faked. Some things we hired out, due to time/safety constraints, but alot of things we tried on our own. Definetly a learning curve.

Sometimes

...I just open up my blog page so I can listen to the jukebox. *sigh* It's such a delightfully random collection of songs that I love. Each time a new one comes up I think, wow, that's a great song! I think it's especially good since I haven't heard it for three months!

Maybe next year I can make a Christmas song list that is just as good....

I'm BACK!

Yes, I know. This is the moment you've been waiting months for. So have I. FINALLY we got internet hooked up at our new house. Only three months, four days, six hours and 22 minutes. But who's counting, eh?

During that time we have started school, missed the first birthday of H, didn't miss the first steps, entertained Grandma, pulled of the Children's Primary Program at church, celebrated dad's birthday (by dad I mean S), gotten sick, traveled to see Grandma & Grandpa in Nauvoo, gotten sick (again, or still?), trick-or-treated, been called as Primary Pres., raked leaves, eaten turkey, raked more leaves, lost first and second teeth and swept the floor--alot. I think S has been to vegas for a couple business trips (hey, gotta fund the new digs somehow!). The kids are taking swimming lessons at the Y and A is in dance (again). I also managed to get over 1,000 pictures off of my camera (backlogged since March), and attempted to consume an entire refridgerator worth of food single-handedly as part of a new exercise and eating program. (Didn't work--had to throw the green stuff out. Funny, since most of it was green to start, teeheehee.) This year has been insane for our family. I'm hoping to post some house pics before 2010. I'll try to get the progression of a room. It's seriously amazing...and there are some things still left to finish. We've started not noticing them (baseboards, door trim, floor trim, dangling bulbs in nak--exposed wires on the ceiling, that one fritzing light in the kitchen, blurry paint edges, wiggly doorknobs, upside down doorknobs...the cementboard hearth...)

Isn't homeownership grand?

Now, if I could just find some horizontal surfaces besides cardboard boxes, I might be able to get those Christmas decorations out...

(seriously love it)

ps. did I mention a new hairstyle?