.hibernation

It’s getting colder and colder outside and we are really regretting our enormous driveway nowadays! So much shoveling it never ends! Ok, I should admit I enjoy shoveling a little bit… it gives me an excuse to go outside and play in the snow now and then. And there is just something about the sound of a metal shovel scraping the cement echoing in the silent winter air that’s just so soothing to me.

Air has been sick going on three weeks! I have been a bit sick… off and on I guess. Ames has seemed to dodge all illness other than a small cold. Smart boy.

We mostly really love snuggling up in our warm indoors.

Flannel sheets are the best thing ever.

And we all love the warm glow of our new tree the best.

 

Ames is interested in lights as you can see:

 

We decorated early this year. As in, during Halloween we were already pulling out some lights to admire the way they make the house feel. We love Christmas!

I found myself simultaneously baking cookies and wrapping presents today…

Root beer float cookies!

Ames watched it all happen while he screamed at his doggy toy.

.lately

This is the view out my front window on Halloween night… I just love our neighborhood… but the view of Ames inside the house was even better.

We had so much fun handing out candy from our own home for the first time this year.

*****

We finally got a new TV! (our old one broke a few months ago) It has a fun 3D feature too… here we are watching “Brave” upconverted to 3D.

*****

This is Ames’ impersonation of Rip Van Winkle

*****

We had a ridiculous snow storm last week. The snow was so wet and heavy it took Air and I all evening taking turns to shovel.

and the world looks so beautiful covered in the snow these days…

*****

Tessa braided my hair on Monday… pretty sure I was in heaven the whole time

*****

This boy is loving his tummy time, finally!

*****

After 11 months of having our second car sitting in our driveway not running, we finally had it towed to a shop today. Praying that it won’t be too expensive to repair! Otherwise, I don’t know.

.third month

Ames is now a little three month old! I use the word "little" very loosely since he’s actually pretty big for a three month old. 16 lbs now. This boy has grown so fast he's been in the 3-6 month clothes for a few weeks already! He's already growing out of some of them too!

Gosh I had so many cute little outfits and jammies for him in the 0-3 size. Unfortunately, we don’t have many clothes in this size so he spends lots of time in his adorable diapered nudeness until I get some laundry done. It's awesome. 

We love Ames at this age!! He is so aware and loves to "talk". He squeals and coo's at us and we do it back. It just goes back and forth for hours every day and we all enjoy it equally. 

His neck is getting so strong. He does crunches trying to sit up whenever he's in his boppy. 

He makes me laugh when he slams his legs down on the bed over and over again until I wake up and feed him. 

We don't know who Ames looks like? Air or me? He has so many features from each of us, but he definitely has Air’s feet. No question. 

Know what? I like it best when Ames looks at me with a smile in his eyes and so much love in his heart. I know he is happy and loves me. And that's the most important thing in the world to me now.

This boy is incredible...

.project four: kitchen

I understand that a simple “before and after” shot of our kitchen would suffice for most of you, but this kitchen renovation was such a long time coming. And I have pictures from all along the way. Do you know what it is to live without a decent kitchen for almost 6 months!? How could I not share this craziness with you guys??

This is what the kitchen looked like when we found it (ugly, dirty and really stinky):

During our very first viewing we designed a plan for renovating it. We did this in every house we viewed. We were so excited about the potential in this house, we *had* to buy it!

First, the wall separating the kitchen and living room had to go. That meant taking out the pantry (new pantry here), fridge and all the cabinets on the wall. We had a lot of fun demolishing it back in April.

 

 

it was a mess…….

Then the wall was GONE! Yay!

We were able to sell the old appliances pretty quickly and for a pretty good price on kijiji; but then we moved in and had to live with it like this until we could get new appliances and cabinets, and get the electrical and plumbing all prepared. Could we have planned this better? Probably.

It looked like this for so long:

here it is with some of the new appliances. We finally had a stove in June!!!

Air became an expert electrician through all of this. Completely self-taught, and he did an EXCELLENT job!

…Then we had a baby…

The cabinets finally arrived in August while my parent’s were in town!

…unfortunately, they had given us some wrong sizes and we were missing all kinds of panels and doors… and they were a bit damaged in some places… uck

Our living room looked like this for a while:

Then Air had to replace the plumbing lines with pex instead of the poly butylene… long story.

We finally pulled the rest of the old cabinets out and then we were racing to get a new sink in! We really didn’t want to live without a sink for too long!

This is a weird pic to see:

And here are the first of the new cabinets going in, most importantly a fresh new SINK!

We pulled out the horrible laminate stickers floor tiles and put in some nice strong vinyl ones. They are amazing!

Air and I had an adventure wallpapering this wall at the end of the kitchen one night. It turned out nice:

And another adventure tiling our backsplash another night:

Another six weeks later and we finally had all of the cabinets arrive at the end of September… The cabinet company sent us an installer for free to finish for us since they made so many mistakes! Thank goodness!

(I also convinced them to give us a little discount for all of this trouble)

AND, here is our kitchen as it sits today! Still not quite completed. We haven’t grouted the backsplash or installed the valence or under-cabinet lighting yet, but CLOSE ENOUGH!

appliance garage:

 

hidden garbage cabinet:

 

deep pots and pans drawers in the peninsula:

new fridge:

I can’t believe how big and bright and open it feels in there now. I knew it would be awesome when it was done, but it has exceeded all expectations. It feels so good to be (mostly) done with this project! We love it and we loved doing it! Come over and enjoy it with us sometime!?

So here we are. Before and After:

 

…more to come!