::project::

OK, so here's the living room project.  Our moms and dad have already seen this, so they won't be that impressed, but it is fun to see all the pictures together.

Back in 1990-something when the lady built this house, she included a large deep cabinet in the living room, just right for a deep projection tube television.
Well, it was large for back then, but there's no way it would've fit any of the flat screens we've had for a long time.

So the cabinet was just sitting there looking cruddy, and our TV was sitting on top of the fireplace looking kind of tacky.

We decided to CHANGE it all up.  We called our contractor who's done a few things at the office for us, and he came to get started.


Remember this picture from the other day?  It's a before for you.  I don't have a straight forward before picture that I can locate right now.

So John came and framed out the cabinet.  Then he drywalled it.

He put in all sorts of tubes and channels and smart places for cords to go so that we could keep all our auido components and boxes down in the lower cabinet. (I moved the baby toys to a better place.)

Yep, there's the good old monster TV looking super tacky up on the mantle with all it's cords running to it.

So John got the cabinet all covered and drywalled nicely.  Then it was my job to paint the wall.  Easy enough I thought.  There are cans and cans of paint in the garage--usually well labeled.  I've patched many a wall in this house.  I figured it would be a breeze.

I had a couple of free hours one morning.  I put the baby to bed and I got out all the stuff I needed except the paint.  Then the power went out.  And I couldn't find a flashlight.
When the power is out in your garage, not only can you not see anything but you can't open the door and let in the light--unless you're my dad and you like good old manual garage doors best.

So I had to haul all the cans in and try to figure out which one I needed.

Who thought there could be so many shades of green on the walls of one poor house?  I tried can after can and none of them worked.

Turned out this seemed to be the one color that didn't exist.
So my couple of hours were gone and I rushed out to try to make a match at the Home Depot.  Family was coming the next day for Max's baptism, I had to get it done!!
Of course the paint chip I had was too small and the old man with long groaty fingernails working the paint desk sent me away in disgrace.  I had to match it using the eyeball method.
It was stressful but I found one that seemed to match pretty well.
Then we went home and painted, and since half of the light bulbs in our living room are out right now, in the dim light it looked like a perfect match!

When the sun came out the next morning it was obvious to me that perfect wasn't exactly the word--I could see the difference between the new paint and old for sure. But it's truly close enough.  When you come and visit you'll have to see if you can spy my brush marks.

But all that aside, I think it looks much better now.  And I have a fun photo which we printed on canvas up on the mantle.  It's a lot nicer that way.
That's it for the project report.  I'm going to bed now!

::swimming::

This post will just be a celebration of a cute and adorable baby loving the pool.

This is notable because the last time I put him in a pool--at Disneyworld I think--he was very unsure of himself and skeptical of it all. And when I took him over to a little splash pad he just started crying.

So when we were in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago I wasn't sure whether he'd be excited about the pool or not.

But when he saw it--just saw it--he got so excited.  All he wanted to do was walk over there and GET IN.

And once he was in, he was so happy.  Splashing was the best.  Max chasing him in the water was also the best.  And as all little baby boys do, he got overconfident and dumped himself in several times.










The baby floaty was great.  Those are hard to find.  When we were in FL in jan I saw one at a grocery store and snagged it.

When I had to get him out of the pool he bawled and screamed.  Many adults sitting around the pool doing nothing gave me dirty looks, which was lame.  He just didn't want to get out EVER.  But it wasn't that warm and his lips were blue.

The rest of that trip anytime we left the door of the hotel he tried to run towards the pool.  I was just glad there was a fence around it.

And yes, Max is wearing the GoPro, so if you're interested in some super cool footage you can come over and check out the swimming videos.

::walkin' boy::

So I have a ton of stuff to post about, namely:
Sandy's early walking
Swimming in Phoenix
Slight living room remodel
Max baptism and family visit
Disneyland

Holy cow, that's a lot! But I'm going to do it (hmmm, we'll see I guess.)

So without delay I am going to post a bunch of pictures I took of some of Sandy's early walking. I was waiting to edit these photos, but I'm just biting the bullet and posting them as they are so that they get posted. They're too cute to leave behind.

It took him forever to even think that walking was worth trying, and when he finally started he was pretty good at it. He started with his little push toy. When he got really interested in that I knew he was close.

And it was just SO so SO cute. And I was afraid every second that he was going to fall and smoosh all his teeth on the bricks. He was so unsteady at first! But he's pretty great at it now.

Anyway, on to the photos. Lots and lots of photos.

Monkey shoes help anybody learn to walk.


This was me trying to catch Sand as he walked/fell towards me and take a picture at the same time. He was walking between Max and I and having a blast.

A few days later here he is on Valentine's day looking very Bigfoot-esque.



It's hard work with that tongue sticking out.

This one cracks me up.



He's going for the good stuff cabinet.


He obviously knows he did an excellent job.

And finally, here are a few shots from Max's birthday. Max was playing with his new car tracks and it was very fascinating to the baby.



He really just doesn't look that well balanced, does he? It's a crack up.

The little hands in the air is my favorite.

Concentration.

What a little doll-baby. We're so proud of his walking, although it does make him much less happy to just sit in my lap during church, darn it! Now of course he just wants to walk around and peek and flirt with everybody. Little stinker.

::why::

Why do they (read Max) insist on sitting so far apart?


It's like the lord & lady of the manor or something.

We love our new rustic looking table supposedly made out of an old door from Mexico. Who knows what it's really made out of, but it fits the house's esthetic nicely--and the shape of the room!

::shopping with sand::

When you go shopping with Sandy, watch out for his mouth. He makes this big enormous round open mouth and then he bites stuff.
Anything I put in the cart he bites. Anything he can get his hand on he bites.
When we were at Trader Joe's and bought the irises I showed you yesterday he tried to bite those. He kept reaching for them and chomping his little mouth open and closed.


And when stuff gets taken away, YIKES.


And it's not just food--don't worry. All these pictures are from today. We went to the grocery store in the morning and then had to run to the craft store in the afternoon. Then Sam's of course.



And you'd better believe that there were 10x more eating occasions than just the ones I happened to capture on my phone before I grabbed the poisonous item out of his mouth.


Wow, yikes.

::::

Happy spring courtesy of our good old Trader Joe's floral department.

And happy spring from a couple of goofy little guys.


It's been really lovely weather here. Sixties and sunny and breezy. It's been nice. The feeling of spring has to be one of the best out there, doesn't it?
I have to post about so much stuff, but I'm just trying to get rolling here again. Tomorrow....

::last year::

In honor of Sandy's 16 mo birthday today here are some photos from last year's today.

Lots of things can change in a year and lots of things stay the same.

It was sunday and Sandy was trying on a really weird hat that I made one of the two or three times I actually sewed something. He looks very gnomish to me.

And really he looks unsuspecting of the hat.
We were still in our rental house.
Last year at this time we still had Kris's dad with us, though he was so sick. It really is crazy how much can change in a year.

After church last year Max went adventuring. Kris hid a geocache out in the yard and sent Max a-geocaching. Something that hasn't changed is the fact that Max loves adventures.


We haven't geocached much in the last year, but we've definitely talked about it a lot. Max loves the memory of it, so I'm sure we'll do more.


To end the day last year, Sandy got his first taste of (real) food. It was pretty early on in his life but we were trying to figure out some way to help him to sleep through the night.
Little did we know that even still today sleeping thourgh the night would only be a once in a while thing. Little stinker. He usually sleeps pretty well, but wakes up at least once--he sleeps the whole night maybe once a week, ok maybe twice if we're lucky!


Aw, he's so little and cute! His eyes look so huge.

Happy month bday little Sandy. We sure do love you. It's been a good year.

::old but yet quite amusing::

I just realized I never posted these photos back in December!

Kris and I got to go out on a date one night. We found a babysitter out here in our neighborhood that's a grandma who loves kids, it's great. Anyway, this was one of her first nights.
When we came home she was knitting in the kitchen. We asked her why she was there instead of in the living room on the couch. Well, she said, Max is in his cabinet.
Cabinet? What?
We went in there and there we found Max, in his cabinet.

We had just finished listening/reading to the first Harry Potter. He found the cupboard under the stairs pretty inspiring I guess. He said he was being Harry.

These pictures are from the next day while we were watching a PBS show.

He used the cabinet for a while and then we never heard a bit about it again. He's a character, isn't he?