More weekend pictures

My childhood friend Linnea came and visited us this week with her two boys. Linnea married one of my cousins, so we're family now, and it was wonderful to spend the weekend together. We had a great time catching up with each other, now that we're both moms with little ones. The kids did great together as well.

Big One-Year-Old

Daniel turned one this last week! Hard to believe! He still seems like such a little baby to me, even though I remember Kathryn feeling "so old" at that age. It's funny how perspective changes. There aren't too many new updates for Daniel boy...still very fast with his army crawl. He has discovered the joys of the kitchen cabinets and the dishwasher, which means I have to move him out of the way several times whenever I'm cooking or doing something at the sink. I keep meaning to put our cabinet locks on, knowing that it will make my life much easier, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. He has started to snuggle a little more at night after his bottle, which is a lot of fun. Since he was really tiny, he has NOT been a snuggler. So this is a nice change. Still no real words yet, although he can kind of say "kat kat" for Kathryn and "ba ba" for bottle. And occassionally "dada." I love that his personality is really coming out. We love you, buddy! Happy birthday!

Kathryn insisted that Daniel would like a "car cake," so here was the final product
(thanks to Jessica M. for the inspiration)

And the happy little man after devouring his piece of cake in about 10 seconds.

Sweet Girl

Kathryn has been such a sweetie the last few weeks. Of course, there are days that are still hard, but overall I think being 3 agrees with her (and me) quite well. She just seems to be more aware of common sense things and is growing in independence with things like feeding herself, getting dressed (kind of), and brushing her teeth, to name a few. And I think we can finally say she's potty trained during the day....HURRAY! Glad that we're over that hill.

Yes, that little mischievous grin is thinking about how fun it would be to throw this snowball at Mommy.

On a general update note, I'm thankful that life seems to be settling into a nice routine with the two kids. I no longer feel like I have quite a juggling act with a baby and toddler schedule, now that Daniel is kind of on the same schedule as Kathryn. Life feels full, but very enjoyable right now...it's a nice place to be. :)

Little Buddies

I love seeing kathryn stepping up to her role as big sister these days. The other day as I was feeding Daniel, she came and sat next to me, and said "Oh, I love you, Daniel Boy. We're friends, aren't we?" All while patting his head. It was very sweet.

Hopefully you don't mind a bath pic...I just thought it was so sweet!

Finally....house pictures!

Here are a few...more painting this week with my parents in town!

And taking a poll, would you paint this china cabinet a distressed black or leave it? You can see it does go well with our floors (look above) so we're undecided.

Kids bath (shower curtain was a goodwill find!) :)

My peaceful laundry room

Kathryn's pink room (curtains have been put up since this picture was taken. And notice the spackle on the wall...we had a little "worker" banging on the walls with a bolt during naptime)

11 months...

...with this sweet little boy.

It's hard to remember what life was like before Daniel came into our family. These pictures say it all. He has been such a pleasant baby, a good eater, and a good sleeper. I feel very blessed!

Daniel is FAST now, even with his 'gimpy' army crawl. He only uses his left arm to propel himself everywhere, while his right arm drags under him. It looks very funny, but I guess he doesn't feel the need to really crawl since he can get himself anywhere he wants as it is. He has also started pulling up (this morning he pulled up on Kathryn's bed- all the way to standing for the first time). Lots of teeth which give him his adorable grin- 8 teeth total.

Hard to believe we're only one month away from having a one year old again! Amazing.

We're still alive...

Yes, we really are still alive. I promise some pictures will come soon. But moving date is quickly approaching (23rd!), so they might have to wait until life settles down a bit. But I have not forgotten my little blog. Soon...

.life around here.

A few recent pictures of the kids...

Daniel kept sticking his tongue out because it was so cold.
I think he liked the way the cold felt on his face.

One of the rare times Daniel Boy is crying...
only because he's mad at dropping a toy.

He really loves watching her!

Kathryn very proudly displaying her gingerbread house. It was all I could do to construct it fast enough before she could eat all the candy in the bowls. A few pieces did make their way actually onto the house.

And some recent house pictures:
Toilets and bathroom cabinets are in!

Kitchen cabinets are in

Kitchen floor and countertops are in...you can kind of see the flooring in this picture. The rest of it is covered by cardboard at the moment

View into the kitchen and eating area. Railing is also in, still in need of stain.

And how I spent my Saturday morning...almost dying during a half marathon. I'm glad I ran it, although I was exhausted afterward. I'm not as young as I once was!

sad day

20 Questions...

Yep, you guessed it. From the other room I hear "Mommy, my hair's not long anymore!" Oh. Dear. To look on the bright side, it could have been worse had I not stopped her when I did. And thankfully pigtails cover up most of the damage. But let's just say she'll have to wear pigtails for a looooong time, and yes, I cried. Oh well, it's just hair, right? (Hey, at least I'm trying to laugh about it.)

.kiddos.

Here are some recent pictures of the kids...

Daniel got 4 top teeth in one week! They're so cute and really make him look like a big boy now.

He's pretty good at feeding himself, which is convenient for me, but he is REALLY messy! Here he is flexing his "guns."

Very focused...and look at that double chin!

We went to a local Fall Festival on Halloween, and Kathryn was VERY excited that she got to wear lip gloss with her princess dress (hence the enormous smile)

She devoured the cotton candy

More House Pictures

The house is coming right along. Since I'm never over there during the day when people are actually working on it, it seems like the house elves come every day and do an amazing amount of work that magically appears each night. Two days ago they dry-walled the whole house, then yesterday they got all the siding done! Amazing. So here are some before and after pictures:

The builder said the duct work was a nightmare on this floorplan since there's hardly any room up there. It looked like a huge spider up in the rafters.

A view of the loft, looking into the kids' bedrooms

Kitchen/family room area

And here are some pictures from today...

View from the front door, looking into the living room and Family Room

Kitchen area and stairway
Home sweet home....soon! I'm not sure what's next...probably priming then maybe cabinets? We'll see!

Hodges Dairy Farm

We headed off this morning to Hodges Dairy Farm to do one last pumpkin pickin' before the end of pumpkin season. Here are a few pictures...

Kathryn "driving" the tractor (I like this new trend of actually smiling for the camera!)

This is the first time Kathryn has actually fed an animal without freaking out...these baby goats were so cute and were eating leaves from the ground.

Little Boogie

Kathryn and Alathea enjoying their pumpkin chairs

Just Chillin' together