The latest on the house

Moving on from floors and paint to the kitchen. Jack is building all of the cabinets and fabricating all of the counter tops. A true craftsman, he isn't rushing anything (especially during this season when he's able to ski with the kids three days a week...) but it paying attention to every detail. I'm celebrating every little step toward a completed kitchen.

Last Saturday was an exciting day when Jack started cutting up one of the 1000 pound soapstone slabs that will eventually be our counter tops.


First piece in and oiled.

Recent Aidan pictures

These are just random...

Our hardwood floors were completed just in time. Aidan was crawling as soon as we got back from our Christmas travels. I frequently see him in this position as he plays throughout the day. He thinks he's so big.


This is what happens when Aidan plays in the girls' bedroom with them


This is what happens when Daddy gets a hold of Aidan


He's not always happy in his high chair, but he does eat. He devoured a grilled cheese sandwich tonight.

three

Our little girl turned three today. As I look back through the journal I kept when Lauren was a baby, I'm reminded that she was not an easy baby. And now here we are. She's a delightful three-year old!

In a perfect world, we would live close enough to our parents that they would be able to celebrate our children's birthdays with us. As it is, we live far away - but the up side is the packages that arrive before a birthday. It seems that Lauren was opening presents all day. I don't think she minded.

a pillow pet and a new outfit from G&G Ruble


Grammy made Lauren a Little House style bonnet. Annie squealed with joy and exclaimed, "OOOOOO, I want one of those!" In this picture Lauren is wearing a new outfit from Grammy (Lauren immediately tries on any new outfit she gets) as she talks to Grammy.


We invited family friends over for dinner and cake this evening. Very low key. Lauren (who is wearing yet another new thing...) smiled in this same goofy way for almost every picture today.


Friends


gifts from Mom and Dad and finally! a real smile

This morning

Rather than succumb to the guilt of being "behind" on blog updates, I'll just pick up with what is happening now in our house and in our family. There may be a time when I have a chance to catch up on Christmas pictures and Aidan pictures (he's 7 months old! and crawling!), but if not it will be OK. So here's the update for now.

Our hardwood floors were sanded and finished throughout the downstairs while we were traveling for Christmas. They're beautiful. As Jack and I walk around the house these days, our heads are down just looking at the floors. And we've gotten a lot of mileage out of slippery floors - the kids are coming up with all kinds of slide-on-the-floor kind of games.

We're also in the middle of having all of the downstairs walls painted. What a difference that makes along with the hardwood floors. This looks like a totally different house. Painting will get finished up this week and then it's on to the kitchen!

Before we put everything back into the school room last night, the girls had a lovely dance studio. I love the color in this room, so warm and fun.



And these next two pictures are from this morning. The color, the floors, the sun coming in.... love love love.