Alex P. Keaton

Grandma and Grandpa wanted a photo with the kids for their Christmas card so asked us to have the kids in something red for the night they arrived so the photo could be taken and sent out in the morning.   Mark was so happy to get dressed up in his new "tie shirt".  He thought he needed to brush hair back so went to the bathroom got it wet and brushed it (if you live close by you realize how out of ordinary this is for my son).  

We are pretty sure he looks like a banker.

 Lilly was pleased with the plan

Fire engine

The fire engine is being worked on.  They have this mini set up just outside the work area.  Clearly it was enough to make my kids totally happy.

some more cute ones

So I was about to apologize for just posting a bunch of cute kid photos.  But then I remembered it is my blog and you are not forced to read it.... so here are more cute kid photos.

 Is this a well composed photo????  I guess it falls under "even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then"

 The whole reason for the trip was to celebrate Josie's Birthday.  She had a great time.  I can't believe she is one already.

The nursing room

They enclosed this gazebo with curtains to be a private nursing spot.  Lilly is in there nursing a baby doll.  I am really conflicted about the private nursing spots.  On one hand it is great to have a place where people are able to feel comfortable nursing.  On the other hand I feel like it reinforces some idea that nursing is to be done behind closed doors.  

Rocket Launching

The new installation is a rocket launch!  When Lilly and I got there Tim was busy getting his rockets into the various targets.... I asked where Mark was.... it only took a minute to find him.

Painting

We hadn't been to the Children's Museum in so long our membership was even expired- but we are back.  Lilly's first activity was to enter the art room (freshly set up for the day- as we arrived at opening) and paint on each and every paper.  

 Tim and Mark moved on while Lilly and I did some stamping.

Work on the house- bathrooms

The bathrooms were most of the work.  Dad did most of it.  Even at 60 years old I still wish I could keep up with him.

When I look at these before photos now I am reminded how gross the house was when we got it.  I am so glad almost nothing in these photos is still in the house.

This is the upstairs we left the tub and shower surround.  Everything else went- floor, toilet, vanity, mirror and light were all replaced.

 This is the downstairs.  It was in worse shape than the upstairs.  The top half of the tile surround was salvageable- I just scrubbed it re-grouted it.

 Very gross!  Dad got all this out without me having to touch any of it.  He had to replace a big piece of the wall here and in the shower.

 Just about ready to start putting it back together

 This is the almost finished upstairs (just needs trim in this photo- Dad came to visit for Christmas and put the trim up:) ).

 It is hard to get a good photo of a small bathroom, but I hope this shows it is clean and looks nice (and shows off my tile job)  Compare to the first photo from this post.

Work on the new house- upstairs bedrooms

These were the first rooms we worked on as they needed the least work. 

These photos are from the inspection- the rooms each had some furniture to be removed, hideous paint, writing on the walls, garbage.... 

 This room is such dark grey it is almost black

Painting in progress.  I decided to paint all these rooms the same color- it is a nice calm blue/green color.  We also painted the closets and ceilings.

 You can see here how much the celings needed new coat of paint.   This is about where I was rolling the paint on (three rooms, the hall and the start of the living room) when my neighbor stopped by and said "stop, I will come over with my paint sprayer and do the rest of this".   1. my neighbor Randy is awesome 2. rolling paint on ceilings is really hard

Mark was a big help!  Mostly he played outside- but he did come in and do some painting.

Here is the first room done (we still haven't gotten the doors painted).  I didn't get photos of the other rooms getting done.  We got so busy and then we moved in... anyway finished room photos to come.

Merry Christmas

We took the kids to get photos with Santa.... this is how close Lilly was willing to get to him.  Luckily she was willing to take a photo in their other room and we got these cute ones with them all dressed up.

Snow

So we got about a foot of snow last night... these pictures are not from this snow.  This is much earlier this fall but I thought they would be a good start to returning to my blog.

 We are pretty happy to be able to sled in our back yard.