Here is the latest progression of our breakfast bar. Last night Jon whipped out the jigsaw and curved the end of the bar. Then we putty-ed the imperfections along the bar and the trim, and we have it all sanded, waiting now for primer and paint.
I love this thing!
After a lazy and leisurely Christmas Eve and Christmas, I put the men in my house to work on some house projects. The old faucet on my kitchen corner sink was a pain. It was low and didn't reach very far into the sink, so was hard to rinse pans and bigger dishes. We bought this new faucet a couple months ago, but waited for my dad and his expertise to come before installing. I love it!
This is the old faucet. Bluh. It was no easy thing getting underneath. It involved sawing cupboard walls and crazy undercounter body contortions by Jon to get the job done. The guys did such a great job on my faucet that I casually mentioned to my dad how I'd like to open up the kitchen to the dining room to make the whole space more open and flowey.
There is a heater vent in this wall, so we had to make sure the pipes didn't go upstairs from here. Once we found the upper part of the wall was clear of potential plumbing disasters, my dad enthusiastically took up the demolition challenge. On a whim.
Here is the wall taken down. This morning we are working on trim and a breakfast bar to go over the half wall. We are crossing our fingers we can get the hard work done before my dad has to leave this afternoon!
My mom looked so pretty today in her turquoise sweater, I had to take some photos.
Loving the Hope.
I love you, mom!
We have had a great Christmas. My parents and brother are here for a few days, and we are enjoying them thoroughly. Jason got to play the part of Joseph in our nativity re-inactment.
This morning Hope was the last to wake up. She was the only one who slept soundly through the night. Too much excitement for things to come. My baby didn't know at first what to do with the wrapped presents. She figured it out, and before long was unwrapping things not belonging to her, and eating the tape. And the puzzle pieces. And just about everything.
Emma's babies all got left behind in Abu Dhabi, so she was very happy to get a new friend for Christmas.
Cailin got a new friend, too. It was pretty much love at first sight.
Emma has been concerned for some time now that our fireplace is in the basement, but our tree is on the main floor. How will Santa know where to put the presents after he emerges from the hearth? Emma got down to business this evening, determined to ensure precise present placement. She created a diagram of our home, labeling placement of floors and tree. She taped her diagram in the family room window in case of a low fly by, but then moved it downstairs directly across from the fireplace, so Santa would get his directions immediately following chimney descent.
I love free prints, because it inspires me to get some scrapbooking done. I put together this quick layout tonight to get my free Walgreens 8x10's. I am slowly working my way through all my summer photos. I only have a few more to do... maybe I'll get lucky and get more coupons soon.
We woke up to a lot of snow on the ground and more to come during the day. School was closed, so we got to begin our winter break a day early. I'm not sure Jon would consider shoveling our driveway twice today a break, however. The girls were disappointed to miss their class parties, but got over it once they realized they could eat for breakfast all the powdered sugar doughnuts that we had bought for the parties.
Tonight we went to our local library to hear the Boogie Woogie Babies. They are a fabulous trio that feature "tight vocal harmonies and swing sounds of WWII in the style of the Andrews Sisters." They were really fun to watch and listen to. A couple of the local senior citizen groups were there, so our small kids were in the minority - but there were lots of grandmas and grandpas casting loving eyes our way. Especially Hope's way. She was an attention-getter, as we were in the front row, and she was making herself heard and seen throughout the performance. Cailin was the heroine of the moment when one of the babies asked what "acapella" meant, and she was able to deliver the correct response. She knows acapella, since we've been listening to a fun CD in the car from "Voice Male Music", given to us from a friend. There is one song in the CD that sounds like they are using tamborines. Emma, expecting the whole CD to be without accompaniment, said, "Hey! That's cheating!"
Hope's latest trick is to climb up on all the chairs and couches,
up on all the boxes and tubs,
and up on the tables. She is enjoying herself way too much.
We are excited to have an addition to our extended family. Shawn and Marti's little boy is incredibly sweet. We were so happy to take a little drive today and spend the afternoon getting to know my new nephew.
A proud poppa
Welcome, little one.
Tuesday night was very stormy and snowy. Our Relief Society had a cookies and carolling evening planned, which was cancelled last year due to snow. I think they felt bad about having to cancel two years in a row, so they went ahead with the gathering. I have a sweet visiting teacher who offered to give me a ride (otherwise there is no way I would have ventured out), so we swept out to the country and had a lovely evening with a few other brave souls. One thing we talked about was Christmas traditions, and there were some great ideas. I have heard before of wrapping Christmas stories and opening one a day leading up the 25th, but never got around to the actual wrapping. This year I hadn't even unearthed my books - but this comment inspired me. I located my stack and added a couple more books that I found for 1/2 off at Salvation Army. I wrapped them in pretty gold paper and added a stamped tag to count down the rest of the days we have left till Christmas. This morning my girls were excited to begin a new tradition - anything to do with unwrapping before Christmas is favorably looked upon.
Another bonus to my week was getting my free snapfish book in the mail (thank you Oprah!)
It was so fun and easy to put together.
Scrapbooking has never been so easy or stunning. I'm converted, although I've heard shutterfly has a slightly better product. I can also upload my own designs, which is very cool.
We double checked this morning - it is a snow day for real. After shoveling the driveway we had a good enough hill for a little sledding.
These girls love their snow.
Angel.
Speaking of decorating; I've taken my little gourds down and replaced them with nesting Santas.
Emma brought this work of art home yesterday from school. She said her teacher told the class to write, "Turkey is good to eat". Emma, however is a confirmed meatball chicken turketarian. Meaning she refuses to eat any of those things. Her honest dislike for all things turkey is reflected in her modified title of the turkey picture above.
Sunday night we got a nice covering of snow. Several inches piled up in our yard, with more to come this week. Rumors were flying that school would be cancelled on Monday, and our girls were excited. They normally don't get home from school until after 4 p.m, which doesn't leave a lot of time for building snowmen and shoveling our driveway with their new "Black Friday" kid shovel purchases.
We called the elementary school in the morning to find out the snow day prognosis and were happy to hear a recording informing us the schools were closed due to weather! We let the kids sleep in, Jon spent an hour shoveling, then we all enjoyed a nice hot breakfast together. The girls spent the day outside, and only occasionally wondered to each other, why the neighbor children were not outside playing. They shrugged their shoulders and assumed they were perhaps away on an extended Thanksgiving vacation. Just after 4, the girls were again outside and were shocked and dismayed to see the neighbor boys coming from from school.
Two years ago today we held and kissed our little Henry for the last time while on this mortal earth. We miss this little boy more than words can say. I just wanted to share an essay Cailin recently wrote in school about her little brother.
The day after our snowfall, I had to chuckle as I drove past the elementary school and saw hordes of snowsuited little people rolling giant balls of snow all around their field.
The paths the snow balls left were interesting to look at.
This snowball picked up lots of wood shavings.
This is one of the snow forts made for the big snowball fight. All the perpetrators had to spend the rest of the recess at "the wall" as punishment. Cailin informed me of the biggest rule during the snow season: "You can chuck snowballs at trees, but not at each other."
Madelyn was all aflutter when she came home from school today. Her class voted for her to be one of their class representatives, and she is 100% ecstatic!
It's snowing pretty good out there today. The first thing Cailin wanted to do when she got home was to shovel the driveay. She got about 1/8 of it done. Not bad.
Emma's priority was to make a snow princess. She can't quite get the tiara to stay on. They wish dad was home from work to help them make a masterpiece.
Madelyn is running for office. In the student council. It comes in handy to have a graphic design guru for a father. We made posters and stickers for her with this image.
Cailin also rolled up her artist sleeves and drew some posters for her sister to hang up at school tomorrow. Root for Russell!
Hope spends a lot of time at this window; barking at dogs, barking at squirrels, barking at the weather. It's really more of a growl than a bark. But I will call it a bark because she learned it from an unruly golden retriever that barks at us while being walked down our street. We have had snow on the ground for the past couple days. Emma and Jon have been the only ice casualties so far. Both of them wiped out on our driveway. Emma was on foot and Jon crashed his bike. The only thing really hurt was their sense of dignity.
I was able to photograph another fun family today. It was pretty chilly outside, so we ran to their yard and shot as many photos as we could before the kids got too shivery.
There were group hugs.
And sweet boy kisses.
And then some barefoot time back in the house. You guys are great!
