christmas photo fail

a few days after christmas, i realized i didn't get any posed photos of the kids so we reenacted christmas. not sure why we bothered - these two are not photo-cooperative right now!! -

quentin won't look at the camera because finding nemo is on the TV to his left

firewood - more fun than toys?

clearly.

caroline's christmas dinner

this girl is really digging cereal. it's actually hard to feed her because she grabs the spoon from you to try to feed herself. i will (hopefully) be cooking up a few batches of homemade veggie baby food for her this weekend so she can experience solids beyond rice cereal and oatmeal!

before and after

after months of work, the kitchen is pretty much done!! in all actuality it was just a few actual days of effort, but when you try to do a kitchen re-do in 1 hour spurts at night after the kids go to bed, it takes a lot longer than in should. i barely remember what the old kitchen looked like. -

to refresh our memories, here's a before pic of the old, dingy, dark cave kitchen:

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and here is after! includes new appliances, new counters, new faucet, painted cabinets, painted back splash, and new cabinet hardware.

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it's not perfect, nor is it top-of-the line gourmet. but for the amount we spent, it looks darn good.

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. -