Kitchen Touch-up Before

Our kitchen counters were delivered today and tomorrow starts the resurfacing project. Here's the before pictures so that when it gets done you'll have something to compare it to. I am so excited for new, clean, stain-free counters!

p.s. the new counters look amazing... even just sitting in boxes on the floor :o)

Blogging in Bed

The computer still hasn't got a home where it is convenient for me to use it during the day, but we pulled it out tonight to catch up on a t.v. series we like (and record, except our tivo had a problem and missed two episodes), so I thought I had better take a moment and update my blog, since I really want to do better at keeping up with it. I promise...

Not much exciting happened last week. We are still waiting for the cabinets to come in so our contractor can get our work station/toy storage installed. The counter tops arrived last week, but they are keeping them at the hardware store until everything is in. I also met with the artist who is designing me art glass cabinet pulls. She has some great pieces started and I am excited to have a one of a kind knob on all of my cabinets. The wider pulls (with the 3 inch gap between the two screws, if you know what I mean) will match the stainless steel stove, so when everything is in our kitchen should have a modern pop to it. And a coat of bright green paint should liven it up a lot. I am very excited to have new, clean counters to work on.

Olivia is still working on walking behind things and hasn't quite figured out whether she wants to stand unassisted or not. She's had a couple brief (2 or 3 seconds) attempts at standing on her own, but she sits down pretty fast when she realizes that no one is supporting her. I'm sure she will be running before too long. She's also been attempting to do the three steps that are up to Abby's bed (it's one of those "dog steps" you used to see advertised on t.v. It works great for helping a little girl into and out of her bed). We've got to get something figured out to keep her away from all our stairs while still letting Abby easily get to the potty. Good thing I'm still faster than Olivia.

In the saga of whether or not I am going back to work we've also made no progress. The offer to work with the other two attorneys still stands, but it is riding on them getting a contract to provide all the public defender services for the county. And we haven't talked salary yet, so it could still get to the point where I have a job offer, but not one that pays enough to cover child care and other expenses. So, we are still praying and waiting. I didn't seek this out, so if it comes about it will be just another "God thing" that has happened to us. We're amassing quite a list of those...

Abby and I are starting a preschool workbook and art projects during Olivia's nap time. She has been showing increase ability to concentrate on an activity and has been thriving in Sunday school, so we figured it was time to start working on some basics at home. Today we bought a workbook, construction paper, scissors, and crayons. I really hope I don't regret the scissors purchase... For good measure Abby also snuck a Tangled (the latest Disney princess movie) t-shirt and a Michigan Wolverines t-shirt into the cart. Since she's outgrown a lot of what we had for her to wear this spring I figured I'd let her get away with selecting her own shirts. It took almost 10 minutes for her to decide which Tangled shirt she wanted. I think there were 8 or 9 options. She is going to be very disappointed if she wants to be a shopper like Grandma Mary and is limited to the Soo for her stores.

Walking Olivia

Olivia has been cruising around things lately and today started walking behind the baby stroller. It's not going to be long before we are chasing her all around this house. I'm not sure if we are quite ready for that new level of activity. I better get my running shoes out of the closet.



We got back last night from our travel around the state. We left Tuesday morning to see Grandma Lorraine and Grandpa Harley for a few days. I love being there with them. I have so many happy memories of times spent at their house as a child and during our grad school years. Abby and Olivia decided to make themselves right at home and had a great time. Abby even told me that Grandma Lorraine had the best toys in the universe, which is quite funny considering most of those toys are older than I am. The girls both enjoyed getting spoiled by their Grandma and Grandpa. Abby didn't want to leave - she told me that I could leave her there and see her later.

We got to do some much needed retail therapy on our trip. Abby has sprouted up, literally, in the last few weeks and now wears size 4. So, we hit the winter sales racks for size 5. I hope that she is still wearing size 5 when next fall rolls around. If not Olivia will be a lucky girl. We got lots of warm shirts and soft pants for Abby to cruise around in next fall. And coffee - mom's best friend. We also got a two screen dvd player for the car. The upgrade to a screen for each little person made our trip home much better. Olivia loved being able to see and hear the movie on her way home.

So, we arrived home to a freshly painted dark blue wall behind where my new cabinets will be installed in the next couple weeks. It looks amazing and it was great to have that get done without having the extra assistance of Abby and Olivia. Now for the big task of keeping them away from the project when it really gets going.

We have a problem...

Okay... I will admit it. I have done a terrible job at updating this lately. Or really since Mother's Day when Steve bought me an iPod iTouch and I could check my email and facebook account without having to get on the computer. It has been a wonderful thing for both of us - it is much more convenient to have a little hand held device that allows you to check email practically instantly and then put away. And so, I have not been on the computer much and this poor blog has suffered. But an end is in sight... we have ordered the counter tops, cabinets, and all the supplies for putting a built in counter/desk/storage system in the playroom. Then the poor laptop should be able to find a home in a place where I can use it and still supervise small girls who are quick to destroy the office where the laptop has been living.

So... we are looking forward for the arrival and installation of the project in two or three weeks. When I say we, I think I am mostly meaning Steve, since he will be painting the wall where the cabinets are going this Saturday while the girls and I are downstate visiting family and friends. We are leaving tomorrow to see Grandma Lorraine and Grandpa Harley for a few days and then swinging over to Hastings to pick up a quarter of a cow that has been waiting for us since around Christmas, plus a few Christmas presents that didn't fit into the car on the way home. It should be a fun time and a good change of pace for the girls since the extreme cold weather has been trapping us inside. Today it's a whopping 13 degrees, but yesterday I don't think it got above zero!

Avalanche Bay

We just got back from a wonderful day at Boyne with Grandma Mary &
Grandpa Scott (Hannah & Emily too!). The girls had a great time
playing in the water and enjoying some extra attention. And Steve and
I enjoyed a little adult time to ride a waterslide or two. It was
great. Our night at the hotel was not good, but Abby was pretty tired
after two days of having her best friends here. And I came home with a
head cold. Not fun!

Almost Playmates

Abby and Olivia are making big strides on playing together without screaming or crying involved. Finally... Poor Olivia is still getting the short end of the stick, since the playing for the last few days has involved pretending that Olivia is a dog and trapping her in a pretend dog crate made of all the toy bins or trapping her in a pretend baby crib made of the same toy bins. But at least there has been a few quieter moments around here and the girls have been able to entertain themselves and each other without physical injury.

While Olivia took her afternoon nap yesterday Abby and I went out and froze our bottoms off in the snow. She filled the yard with snow angels and Maize entertained us both by running in circles around Abby and jumping over the top of her while she was working on her snow angels. She also took a trip down the "snow slide" and got it all cleared off. We also took our first trip to the library in a long time to join the story hour for preschool aged kids. Abby did really well listening to the stories and making the craft (a sweet pair of raccoon glasses).

New Year, New Age

I've hit the magic age - the "I'm 29 and holding" age. It's really no different than 28. Just a few gray hairs, a few more wrinkles, and a few more aches than I had at 19. We've been really busy in the last couple days. We had a fun time celebrating new year's eve with the other dentists from Steve's office. It's a tradition we all enjoy. They all got a great laugh out of Abby playing Just Dance with Dr. Drockton's big kids (ages 10 to 20). She danced and danced well into the night and enjoyed her glass of sparkling grape juice at midnight with the rest of us. Olivia dosed off for a while, but managed to be awake shortly after midnight. They were very good for being up way, way past bedtime.

We also got together with friends on Sunday - it was one of those days where nothing was going as planned. But the food was good and the friends are great, so we survived 2 kids crying a lot, some fighting over toys, and Abby peeing on an area of white carpet. It's a good thing that one of the crying kids belonged to our friends - that made our kid peeing on the carpet slightly less embarrassing for Steve and I.

I celebrated my birthday by having a toddler slumber party so that Kimberlee could take Felecia out to Marquette for a very early appointment (I picked that over having kids dropped off at 5:30 a.m.). The four kids in the house yesterday did really well considering the amount of sleep they got. We tried putting them to bed at 8:00, but at 9:30 they were still "whispering" - very loudly. Then they were up before 7:45, when I noticed the whispering starting again. For kids that normally sleep 8 pm to 9 am that was a short night. And they got a little feisty around 3 pm as a result. But we survived. Nothing got broken. And, when Steve got home we went out with just our girls for a nice dinner and a trip to Abby's favorite store - Walmart - to replenish our milk supply.

I'm working on ideas to make the last year of my 20's fun. So far I'm not coming up with much. There is a 50/50 chance that we will be taking a family trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico in June (Steve's got a course - if his co-worker Dave goes we won't go, but if Dave doesn't go we are going to add a day or two to the end of it and do some Southwest exploration). We are going to Disney again in March with our friends from here in Sault Ste. Marie. That is going to be really fun - we have wonderful friends and our kids all love to be together, so it will make for a great week I hope. And I want to make time to meet up with Melissa, Emma, and Jack for a camping adventure this summer, but we haven't even started to work that one out yet. I have 364 days of my 20's left... that's not much time to have some grand adventures before I'm 30.

Our Family Ends 2010

Here we are on the way to the New Year's Eve Party at the Drocktons. Let's see how much changes in a year.

Felecia Lewis

This is the baby that all the fuss for the last few weeks was about. She's 6 weeks old now and adorable. And I got to watch her last night, so Abby and I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of her, since I'm sure it's a lot harder to do at her house with all the helpers around.

Olivia was amazed by her. She kept crawling over and pulling herself up to peek at Felecia and touch her. She did pretty good at not being a jealous baby with mommy holding someone else. Abby thought that Felecia was the most wonderful doll. She immediately got one of her own dolls out and laid it down near Felecia for the photos. And then she kept a careful eye on what baby Felecia was doing. She also worked hard at keeping Maize far, far away from her baby friend. We did good for having 3 little girls and just one mommy, but I sure don't know how people do that every day. I don't have enough hands...

Christmas Pictures

The girls were really disappointed that Steve had to go to work today. He'd been home 14 of the last 15 days, so they were pretty set on the dad as a permanent playmate routine. So it made for a long morning of "I want my daddy" whining. But we survived it and both girls took naps this afternoon (of course it had to be at different times). Olivia had a great time during Abby's nap playing with all the toys Abby never lets her touch. She was really fascinated with Abby's new "real talking" Woody and Jessie dolls. She kept pulling the string and smiling when the dolls talked to her.

Abby has had a major growth spurt in the last couple weeks and went from being comfortably in size 3t to comfortably in size 4t. We have been back to checking the stores for good deals since most of her wardrobe in now in a box to be saved for Olivia. Today we scored 3 Disney Princess outfits and 2 dresses half off at K-Mart. Abby was really excited about the dresses because they each came with a matching dress for a doll. We had to take them right out when we got home and dress the dolls. Abby ended up wearing one of the dresses over her clothes for most of the morning.

I undecorated the Christmas tree today, but we left it standing. It still looks and smells great, so I didn't see the point in removing it altogether, but I wanted it to be ready to haul out to the curb when the city picks up trees. Last year we missed the pick up and ended up with a skeleton of the Christmas tree in the backyard until sometime in September. I'm aiming to avoid that.

Olivia got another tooth today - that' s 2 teeth in 10 days for those of you keeping track. She now has both bottom central incisors, the top right central incisor and the top left lateral incisor (weird... she had the outside tooth before the center tooth came in). She's really close to having the other two upper incisors and I don't think the lower incisors are too far behind. She's been really mastering real food. Tonight she had a 6 ounce jar of baby food beef and veggies and then downed a whole slice of pizza. She would have probably eaten more, but I cut her off. Yesterday at lunch both girls had the same thing and Olivia ended up eating every bite of her lunch just like Abby. She has quite the appetite!