Sunday, March 15, 2015

Sunday Best!

I thought it would be cute to get a picture of my baby girl in her Sunday finery today...  Below were the results from my camera phone at church: clearly she was not having it!


This much cuteness all in one package had to be memorialized, though, and since it had been a while since I'd done a mini-photoshoot, I pulled out the real camera when we got home.  I waited until she was fresh from her nap (the sweater, sadly, did not make it past lunch despite a bib), and bribed her with cheese.  

So worth it: 

Lord Montgomery (the giraffe) is a staple accessory for this girl! 

That little chubby profile gets me every time
(hence her getting away with touching mama's glasses)
Cheesy face

Bathroom mini makeover

Likely this post won't interest most of you.  I am writing mostly for myself to chronicle our renovation journey. ;)  We re-did the bathrooms -- woohoo! I love what fresh paint and a hard-working husband can accomplish (I help where I can, but there's NO substitute for a servant-hearted handyman husband!)

The last couple of weekends Isaac and I have been finishing projects I've had in mind since I bought this place three (plus!) years ago.  Up next on the infamous honey-do list was fixing the bathroom backsplashes.  They were so very tacky and falling off the wall.  The guest bath also needed a fresh coat of paint.  While I loved the green color, we didn't have any left for touch-ups and so we decided to use the same neutral cream I'd used in the master.  So fresh, so clean, so finished!

I'd previously taken out the old lights and covered the gold on them with a silver spray paint.  I updated the towel bars, lights, and toilet paper holder in the master (spray paint for the win!), too so you don't see the ugly gold accent, but the faucets chipped and needed a more durable fix.  My hubby agreed to install new faucets for me and what a difference!  We tiled, then replaced the faucets.  The new faucets really draw the whole look together. It looks so finished and clean and modern! No more half-finished bathrooms!! 


Yikes! This is what happens when you buy a condo "as-is" -- don't worry,  Papa fixed this first thing! :)  This is the only shot of the ugly backsplash I have.   
So fresh! 

More modern and clean! Small changes can make a big impact!
Loving the new tile! It draws everything together! 

All told we've updated all the fixtures in the bathrooms now (by makeover or replacement), removed 3 extra towel bars from the master, installed new faucets, new toilet seats, and now new glass tile backsplashes, and painted.  Then I deep-cleaned (thank you, e-Cloth for making this so easy!) the linoleum floors and realized they didn't need replacing after all! Woo, woo!

I've heard (and generally believe) that if you DIY the repairs/updates in your house yourself, your job will never be done.  I recently took the stance, though, that we can get everything done -- and before we sell!  Sure, some of these updates are being made to make our place more appealing to a seller, but really we should enjoy the updates while we're here!  Why put off all the renovations until just before selling and deprive ourselves of enjoying what our money and hard work can do? We want to avoid the "why didn't we do that sooner?" cry of DIY'ers everywhere!  So we're enjoying the fruits of our labors, be they big or small.  

Another aspect of this perspective is choosing joy and contentment in our current living situation.  We'd love to own a home, but for now we're blessed to own a cute condo.  We want to make it as lovely and functional as we can, while staying well within our means.  My hope is to have the last few projects completed in the coming couple of months (the list is getting SHORT!), then post a final retrospective "then vs. now" to chronicle all our hard work in our first home! 


Friday, March 13, 2015

My Auntie

I love all my aunties (and great aunties) -- and I have plenty.  But Auntie Lorna holds a special place in my heart as my second mom.  If I ever needed a mom-like-thing, but needed an "outside" opinion, I could go to her.  I look like her.  In fact, I often got mistaken for her daughter when I was younger and we were out together.  I grew up at her house, just as my cousins grew up at our house.



I love her so, so, SO much!  She is an example and an inspiration to me.  She chooses joy (her life motto), and it's been a choice that has often been hard to make, but she makes it.  She taught me that choosing joy means praising the Lord while washing dishes, while loving your kids and your husband, by loving Jesus in everything, with everything.  She's fun and creative and introduces me to fun new foods and wines.  

What more can I say? She's just lovely!  My auntie-mom.  So, naturally she loves my baby, and Lucy has taken right to her as well!  I cannot wait for Lucy to get to know her and love her as I do, and to love her Auntie Sarah as her very own auntie-mom! 








Enjoying a rare Lucy snuggle: these are reserved for only her most favorite people:


Sunny Day, Sweeping the Clouds Away!

Just a few pictures from our day today because the weather was beautiful (and so is my child)...









Climbing up the stairs like a boss! 

Clearly she's cooler than I am! 


She loves to go bye bye and to tell people to leave...


This is for the grandparents: look how well she's walking now!


Thursday, March 12, 2015

Lucy moments - 14 months


This is mainly a photo-dump of all the cuteness from the past month or so, but I also have a couple of Lucy-isms I want to remember.

The first is that she can say "nurse" and now has added "night night" to the mix -- both in sign language.  A few mornings ago she came to me with a paci in her mouth and started patting her chest.  I asked her if she wanted to nurse, nurse -- she grinned and patted her chest.  I then asked her if she wanted to go night night and signed "sleep".  She put her hand on the side of her face and tilted her head.  This girl knows what she needs!  It was a total melt my heart moment! 

Another morning I went in to get Lucy up from her nap. I could hear her chatting in her room.  I walked in and she was standing in her crib, grinning at me and chatting.  As I got close, instead of putting her arms up to be lifted out, she dove back into her crib.  What?  I looked for her paci, which sometimes falls out during her nap: nope, no paci. She sat up and I realized she had both giraffes in her hands already.  Weird.  Then she turns and dives again into another part of the crib.  This time I see it -- a purple paci tucked into the corner by the bookshelf.  Girl wanted all THREE pacifiers before she'd get up!


My little mischief maker!


So tired! 

Ava's play kitchen is her favorite place at Auntie's house!  This girl gets seriously busy in here! 

She's halfway there with the fork:
still can't spear food herself,
but she can self-feed once it's there. 

Black beans: plate-licking good! 

This is how we roll in Washington in winter: Shades, a blanket, and paci. 

Hot husband alert! 

Showing off her walking
AND her new hand-knit sweater from mama

My most favorite: she puts her hands up whenever she wants to be held now. If I don't immediately respond, she signs "come here" with her fingers, like she's drawing me in -- works. every. time. 

So much cousin love!
"She loves when I give her kisses on the nose!" - Caleb
My little mama

"In the dirt dad, the DIRT!" 



She's discovered peek-a-boo toes in the bubble bath! Pretty entertaining for both of us! 





Baby steps!

We have a walker!  Lucy still alternates between walking and crawling, but more and more she's choosing walking -- at least when the terrain is flat!



On February 3rd Lucy took multiple steps!  She stood up by herself and then took 3 steps!  She's transitioned from holding onto furniture and taking a step or two to standing up on her own so slowly it's hard to pinpoint exactly when she took her "first steps", but these were among the first multiple steps she took.  She was 13.5 months.

The turning point really came when Nana bought her a little push cart.  She loves to stop and fill it with her treasures and then push it around.  Within a few days she'd figured out how to turn it around when she reached a wall (critical since we live in a very small space). A month later and she still loves her cart and takes it all through the house (yes, I've found it parked in both the kitchen and the bathroom).

  

At 14.5 months she's 50/50 on walking and crawling, and loves to hold a hand and trot around the house or the store! She thinks she's hot stuff walking through the aisles!
Confidently toddling around home.
Walking with daddy on uneven terrain

So excited to "run" after the big kids at the park -- er, the Arnolds' backyard! 
Her first day pushing the cart.  This served as a great helper for getting her to walk.  It gave her confidence and showed her the advantage of walking around the condo.  She can (and does) also use it as a mobile seat and a treasure chest.

Lucy is a master at pushing her cart around, turning corners, and collecting treasures! She fills and empties it many times a day!

GG Nancy got her a popper for Christmas, and Lucy is finally able to push it around by herself.  She loves it!