christmas

quentin finally gets the concept of presents, which made for a very interesting christmas. we had to stop him numerous times from opening gifts before it was time. he managed to get a few open before we caught him, and somehow he always opened ones that were actually for him. maybe he recognizes his name in print? - once it was finally time to open gifts, quentin parked himself in the center of the room with his haul, fairly oblivious to most everything going on around him. of course, as he opened each gift, he immediately wanted toys out of their packaging. -

the first gift he got his hands on - diesel 10

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surprise, surprise. he got more thomas, so the train grew as he opened.

early on, before the crazy amounts of wrapping paper

caroline observes from the exersaucer

the pile grows opening his favorite gift of the day... the model dunkin donuts 18-wheeler from mommy. do i know my kid or what?

as soon as he opened it, he said, "dozits!"

reading a book to pass the time while daddy extracts the truck from its packaging

in heaven

the amount of concentration in his face makes me laugh

after she got tired of the saucer, caroline moved on to laps

scenes from a DIY kitchen remodel

christmas recap and pics coming soon. - the babies are having an extended christmas vacation at grandma's house while jeremy and i tackle some of the bigger house projects we have to do, namely the kitchen update and the cellar organization. - here is a pictorial journey of the kitchen so far: -

the cabinets before, with the doors removed

the cabinets, after sanding

the cabinets, getting primed

the faux brick back splash getting primed primer, primer everywhere

the back splash, fully primed

finished primer coat

a different perspective

the first coat of cabinet paint, it's somewhat hard to tell from the pics but it is a subtle khaki green

contrast between paint and primer

contrast of primer and paint on doors

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still lots more to do... finish a couple of coats of paint on the cabinets. put a couple of coats of off white paint on the back splash. poly the whole kit and kaboodle. clean the old hinges. spray paint the old hinges a nickel color. then reassemble. and finally add nice new nickel knobs. whew.

6 months old!

halfy birthday caroline!

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caroline turned 6 months old today! she's on the verge of a growth spurt, as evidenced by her general pudginess. and more teeth are coming based on the amount of drooling. she loves playing with toys and grabbing anything she can get her hands on. she is enjoying the exersaucer these days. she really likes to take off her socks. she's also "talking" up a storm - with lots of "bababababa, mamamama, dadadada" all day long. she's very busy and very nosy. she always wants to know what's going on, and you can just tell she can't wait to be able to keep up with her brother. and she's LOVING rice cereal so far. she grabs the spoon right out of your hand and puts it in her mouth. she even took a nap today in her crib. caroline is a never-nap. she sleeps super soundly all night long in her crib - like 10-12 hours. but she is usually not interested in napping during the day. she may fall asleep while nursing, but will wake up the minute you try to move her to her crib or even her swing. she will go to the doctor for her check-up in early january so we'll get all her stats then.

quit bugging me

earlier in the fall, we had our annual ladybug infestation. supposedly they sneak in the windows seeking a warm hideout for the winter or something. there were tons of them this year. and i have been too busy/tired/lazy to vacuum all the cute little guys from our ceilings so now they are everywhere in our house, even on the floor as some of the clumsier ones seem to fall off the ceiling. - this morning quentin found one on the living room rug and proudly held it up, exclaiming, "bug!" (this is an actual achievement because he is now distinguishing bugs and bees - they were all bees before.) - then he starting to twirl around with the bug on his finger, squealing, "bzzzzzzzzz. fwy bug fwy. bzzzzzzzzzz." - then he squished it. he is a boy after all. fortunately, i think it was already dead.

this much cuteness

requires its own post. -

snow place like home

like most of the east coast, we received a ridiculous amount of snow over the weekend. it's hard to say how much exactly because of all the wind and drifting, but we think it's probably a foot and a half, maybe more. of course we had to take pickle out to get some pictures of her first snow storm. we also thought quentin would love playing in it. - we thought wrong. - he cried the whole time we were outside, screaming, "i stuck!" because he couldn't move. to be fair, the snow was up to his waist. caroline didn't seem to mind it, but we didn't want to keep her out in the cold for long. so it ended up that we spent more time getting the kids into their winter gear than we actually spent outside. oh well! -

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this is quentin begging for cookies. we have taken the cabinet doors off some of the cabinets to begin the sanding-priming-painting process, leaving the cookies exposed. as a result, we are hearing, "cookie. wanna cookie. preeeeeez." more than usual.

the man in red

- fortunately our photo with santa came out pretty well - it's a christmas miracle! - we didn't have high expectations for this, since quentin hated santa last year and the whole mall santa thing can be a bit harried and hectic. but somehow they managed to get a good one, with both kids looking in the right direction and no tears. santa had jingle bells, which Q is obsessed with (they have bells on the monkey bars at his gym that the kids get to ring when they monkey across) so that helped make santa more likable!

christmas card rejects

last night we attempted to get cute pictures of the kids for our christmas cards. needless to say, these did not make the cut. there are some decently cute ones, but we didn't end up using any of these. caroline is infinitely easier to photograph, hence the larger selection. -