Growing Up!

In the last month Eli has learned to...

* put his shoes on by himself
* do the buttons on his jammy shirts
* put his coat on by himself
* buckle his own seat belt in his car seat
* put shirts on hangers
* stay almost completely dry through the night
* pee standing up

Wow. I am so proud of this boy! And next week we're scheduled to visit preschool for a day. He is really growing up, and we are so excited for him!

Eli and Insulation

I've been trying more to capture some of the kids talking, because some day when they're older it will be so cute to look back and listen to their little voices as they're still learning to talk. I love hearing Eli explain things so here he is explaining some of what's going on in the dining room right now.

Smiles for YOU!

We use our nice new camera (Nikon D40) for all our pictures but we still use our old camera (Olympus something-or-other) for taking video. Well, I finally just uploaded all the video that's been on there for awhile, so there will be several coming in the next couple weeks.

This first one is of Carter smiling and cooing the other day. He's a cutie!

Real life.

I was trying to get a picture of the three kids together the other day.It didn't...

quite...work......out.
I love that last one though! It makes me laugh, because those are the moments that really tell the story!

And I do love what's going on in this one. Carter's crying, and both the older two are trying to comfort him. Eli's saying sshh, and Hannah's snuggling her head next to him. So sweet.

But after all that, I freed Hannah and just went with these pictures.

Ah, I love my kids.

Brothers

So sweet.

Demolition Derby!

The dining room project has begun!! Just to take you back to how it began.... This space used to be two different rooms: a pantry

and a laundry room/mud room

Then we pulled out the built-in cupboard in the pantry and knocked the wall out

and then we had room for a dining room with access from both the kitchen and the living room
We added curtains to cover the pantry shelves. And this has been our dining room all year. Decent but unfinished.

And now this is what it is! Our friend Craig come over and helped Kevin with the demolition. All the wood and walling is already out by our burn pile. All that yucky gray stuff is the old insulation. We (I mean Kevin) will be reinsulating, redoing the electrical, and putting up new, fresh walls. And at the end of the room there we'll be putting up cupboards where the old pantry shelves were. But the cupboards need to be all custom sized so we're not quite sure how we're getting them done yet.after getting the ceiling down and seeing how open it is to the roof, we thought about making it a cathedral ceiling, making the room feel a thousand times bigger.

look how much space there would be!

But I don't think we're going to do that. I think we'll stick with the flat ceiling just to keep the project a lot easier and the simple style of the rest of our ol' country farmhouse. Nice thought though.

This is going to be the tricky wall. Brick and no wood. The old stuff is just glued on to the brick or something. And there is opening for an old doorway. We'll figure it out though.

We've been waiting for spring to finally get this project started, and well, now it's spring! I realized a few weeks ago that I really wanted this room done before we had a crawler. With all the nails and broken wood, it seemed no place for a little baby but I didn't really want to gate it off all the time either. So here we go! The adventure has begun!!

Carter--2 months!

Carter turned 2 months old three days ago, but just finally today I got a picture. Not a great picture, he was getting tired, but the light was right this afternoon and I wanted to get this post up before it got too much past the date, so we'll go with this. ANYWAY...

Yesterday Carter had his 2-month checkup/shots, and he's doing great! He was 7 lbs 9 oz at birth and now he's 12 lbs 1.5 oz. He was exactly 20 inches long at birth and now he's 23 3/4 inches so he's growing like a weed and already outgrowing so many of his clothes! Carter weighs the exact same weight Eli did at 2 months (12 lbs 1 oz). Eli started out at 8 lbs 11 oz though but then didn't eat well those first couple months. So I guess Carter's just proving that he's going to catch up to the older two! =)

He still eats every three hours during the day and does do longer stretches at night, going to bed at 10:30/11pm and sleeping at least until 2 or 3am, last night I think he made it 'til 4:30am (maybe?? I'm not really conscious anymore during all this night business) He sleeps in our bed with us and the second half of the night he sleeps right next to me instead of in the middle of the bed.

He's smiling and cooing now and, like most babies, loves to watch our faces. Doesn't like tummy time. Does like sitting in a vibrating bouncy seat. Doesn't like to be left, should I decide to go put laundry in or something. Does like ocean sounds at nap. Doesn't nap in a bed yet. Does like car rides. Doesn't like getting in his car seat. Does take a bottle. (HUGE HOORAY!) Doesn't do well with his binky. at. all. But it does help enough, especially when we're in church or at the grocery store. Doesn't like when Mommy eats sausage. Does have a lot of gas even though I really don't eat many "gassy foods". Doesn't have enough troubles though that I'm concerned at all. Does have a lot of red in his hair. Doesn't mind when his brother and sister do crazy things to him. Does melt my heart every day.

See, I told you he was tired when I took his pictures today.
And just for kicks, here's the comparison of Carter and Eli at 2 months. I think Carter's starting to look more like himself now!

We sure do love you, buddy!

Up close and personal.

Carter. 7 weeks old.

Clearly I was wrong

We DO have a tractor for scooping snow! I can't believe I didn't think of it all this time! =)

Even with temps rising and snow melting, this drift is still taller than the kids!