Friday, March 17, 2017

Uncle Seth Visits

Uncle Seth came to town for a whirlwind visit. We got him for just 24 short hours, so we packed in as much visiting as we could.  Lucy didn't leave his side (or lap!) the entire time. She even asked to watch him shower (Seth: "Nah."), and was waiting outside the door to check that he'd washed his hands after he went potty.  Malcolm was smitten, as well.  Seth had some great ideas for our house, too. I can't wait for another, longer visit -- hopefully this summer! We love you, Seth! 



Hi, I love yo' face! 


Malcolm channeling Uncle Seth with the epic drool. 

Look who else came for a visit! "Gran-pahyer"

Lucy taking good care of her uncle

Keeping Malcolm busy at the restaurant. Right before he managed to get this open. ha! 

Reading "Lady & The Tramp"

Enduring Lucy's faaaavorite cartoon, Daniel Tiger like such a good uncle! 


Sunday, March 5, 2017

Lucy Lately



I just love this little girl! These are some of my favorite moments and photos of her over the last couple of months. 

Her reaction to going through the car wash

Waiting for church to start

First time getting up on the potty all by herself: no stool, no potty seat! Big girl status. 

Mischief Maker! She got into the bandaids and I woke up to this! 

She's getting really good at puzzles! 

She loves to play the "pi-nano"


Planting and watering her very own flowers
FaceTime with Auntie and cousins

Valentine's Day Love!
Her sign says "I love Jesus"

Valentine's Day flowers from her daddy

Trying to sneak a picture of her, and she caught me. This is what I got. 

She's got style: snow bibs, helmet, sunglasses. She's ready for every contingency!

My wild sleeper

When at Ikea...

My park date



Headed to church on a rainy day

The queen of dress up

Watching the kids go to school

First time using scissors 

Her jaw bone's connected to her finger bones... She chomped along in rhythm to her cutting

Making brother hold still for a kiss

Little screams
 

First time using scissors





The Rehab Diaries - Part 1

We hit the ground running to make this house our home!  Our first project was getting the trees removed.  Second on the list was paint, and lots of it. I've dubbed it Operation: Paint All the Things, and it's a doozy!  I may never be entirely done, but I've made a good dent in All The Things. 

We've realized this will be an on-going, multi-year project, so we wanted to break the renovation into phases and share our progress along the way!  We feel like we've made huge changes already. We still have several pages filled with projects to be completed, but for now we are savoring the homey feel that Phase 1 has brought.  Sure, the baseboards are only half-installed, there's still lots of green carpet (and pink and blue), ceilings to be repaired, a cottage to build, a kitchen to renovate...  But it's ours and it's also lovely while we wait! 

Meantime, Isaac replaced our toilets, put up shelving, organized the garage, started the demo on the future mother-in-law unit (aka "the cottage"), replaced the carpet in all the main areas with vinyl, and replaced all of the outlets and light switches with new white covers.  I'm sure there's a long list of things I've forgotten, but those were some of the biggies. 

So here goes the before/after pictures: 
Even Malcolm wants to get in on the helping! 




Starting to feel homey!  New flooring makes me so happy! Goodbye, green walls and green carpet! 



So relaxing! 
The dining room got a fresh coat of paint, we ripped out the carpet, and removed the china hutch.

Our dining room feels huge now!

I'm contemplating reinstalling the big mirror
Our playroom without the nasty orange carpet that, as it turns out, was harboring thousands of ants. When Isaac pulled it back there were ants EVERYWHERE. We knew we had an ant problem, we had a pest guy come out and spray and bait, and thought we were getting it under control...  Not so much. Isaac was a trooper, though, and persevered with ripping out the carpet, killing the ants, and sanitizing the subfloors.



The playroom with new carpet, new paint, and some decor


We repainted the bedroom and put up some new pictures from our wedding.




Oh, that green carpet... 

We painted, rearranged, and decorated Malcolm's room (aka the guest room)


Painting jail. 




Lucy's room has been one of the most dramatic changes! No more wallpaper, all the holes patched, new art, new blinds, and pelmet boxes over the blinds. Oh, and paint. Lots of bright pink and gray paint.


Here's a little glimpse into the process! I got a little impulsive and started picking at the wallpaper in Lucy's room... Turns out it came off in two layers. The first came off in strips. The second required a bit more muscle. 

My helper! She wasn't quite sure if this was okay. 


Always eager to be in on the action! 

She got a little TOO eager to get in on the painting, and got into the paint by herself... 

Lucy's contribution: painting with a paint stick. Right after I asked her not to touch the paint! 


We also painted all of our bathrooms. Here's a shot of just one of them! I love the light gray with the dusky blue.