Marry Christmas!

From Our Family to Yours......

Merry Christmas!

Before and After: Dining Areas

Ugh! I did it again and uploaded these pictures in the wrong order! Here's the after of our breakfast room...

Before.....

Here's the after of our dining room....

Before....

I've enjoyed looking back at these pictures of the house before we moved in. It feels like we've been here a lot longer than 9 months. We've enjoyed working to make this house our home!

More Before and After

Before and After of our foyer...

I uploaded the pictures in the wrong order so it's really the After/Before!

After....
Before...

Before and After 3

Before and After of the master bedroom:

Before...white walls, lots of floral, and ruffles

After....new paint and all our junk! The color looks much better in person

view from playroom into our bedroom

Before and After 2

Here are the before and after pictures of our master bathroom:

Before.....more flowered wallpaper, linoleum, and even more interesting curtains...

After....new flooring, paint, and light fixtures......

my side....

Chris' side...

the view from our bedroom...

the new tile...

We just need a few things for the walls and we can mark this room done!

Aiden - 11 months

As usual, I'm a little behind. Aiden's birthday is in 2 weeks and I'm just now posting his 11 month update. Maybe I'm deep in denial. This first year has gone by faster than I was prepared for and I'm a little sad that my little Aiden is almost officially a big boy.

I would be drowning in a puddle of tears if these pictures weren't so stinkin hilarious! So enjoy!

look at that dimpled booty and that big belly!

Aiden - 11 months:

height/weight: unsure...somewhere in the 22 lb range for weight

clothes/diapers: you're wearing size 18 month shirts and either size 6-9 or some 12 month bottoms

eating: we switched you to whole milk since we'll be traveling over your birthday and the holidays and wanted to switch you while we were in our own country with our healthcare system just in case you had an allergic reaction (similar to what happened last time we left the country). You're doing great with whole milk and juice these days and pretty good with a sippee cup. We've pretty much transitioned away from baby food and solely to table foods and you're doing well with that too. You haven't met too many foods you don't like. You definitely prefer to eat things you can feed yourself and of course prefer fruits to vegetables. You recently discovered that you can throw your food down to Emma so we're working on that.

sleeping: you still wake up anywhere from 1 to 3 times per night....but you wouldn't be our child if you slept all night so we're used to it

development: you're really starting to get around by cruising along the furniture but you still don't seem anywhere near ready to walk (maybe that's just wishful thinking). You've recently started dancing and it's too funny to see you bopping along to music. You are obsessed with the Leapfrog musical letters on the refrigerator and spend a good portion of your day in the kitchen playing with them. You clap and wave bye consistently and love to imitate sounds that we say. You still think Owen is the funniest person alive and just light up when he shows you love and attention. Your laughing at him even when he's doing something undesirable is a little bit of a problem but we're working on it!

You're so full of joy and so loveable!

We love our sweet Aiden!

Before and After

My busy handyman has been hard at work. We're down to just the kitchen and half bath in our total home makeover. Here's the before and after of the kids bathroom.

Before....linoleum floor, flowered wallpaper, dated light fixture, interesting curtains

After....new paint, new flooring, new light fixture

We just need a few more things for the walls and some accessories and we can mark this room complete!

Owen's Singing Debut

Owen has always loved to sing and spends a lot of time singing and demanding that we sing songs with him. So, I've been so looking forward to the day that he would be old enough to go to children's choir at church because I knew how much he would love it....and I was right! He loves choir and now (thank you Lord) has some new songs to sing. This past Sunday the Beginner Choir sang for the first time in the morning worship service. It was incredibly entertaining. We were glorified paparazzi with our video camera and regular camera. Here are a few photos of their performance:

everyone getting lined up and ready to sing

making his arms into a pretzel

yawning...

looking around...

making an O with his arms (which was not part of the song)

We're so thankful for a great Children's Choir ministry at our church. Owen loves every minute of it!

The Many Faces of Aiden

this one cracks me up every time...

We love our sweet Aiden and his funny little faces!

Daddy's Helpers

Chris recently remodeled the kids bathroom with a little help from his crew.

They were a great crew....they brought their own tools...didn't make a mess...and worked quietly

one worker in particular was very dedicated to the job :-)

Special Treat

Owen has been a very good boy lately so I thought I'd reward him with his first taste of hot chocolate. I know, I know...I'm a mean mom! I've never let him have chocolate milk, hot chocolate, etc. Some things are worth the wait :-)

I guess you could say he liked it!

a few more shots...

...of my Spiderman and sweet little lion!

Halloween 2010

I'm having some issues with blogger today so these pictures loaded backwards so I'll have to tell about our Halloween backwards :-)

Here's Aiden checking out a lollipop from Owen's candy stash (the wrapper was still on it)

surveying the goods

fading fast...

Owen playing a game at trunk or treat

Owen playing a game at trunk or treat at FBC

my sweet little lion

my superhero...

We had a great Halloween this year. Owen insisted on being Spiderman (but wouldn't wear the mask) and Aiden looked too cute as a little lion. Owen pretty much celebrated Halloween all week. He got a big bag of candy at children's choir on Tuesday, went to a carnival at CBC on Wed, and then trick or treated on Sat. night and got candy at church on Sunday. We're still enjoying the candy several weeks later!