Refreshing

I know so many people who hate this time of year in Seattle because of the weather. I myself like to hole up in my house and hide from the outside elements. Today I donned two coats and gloves and ventured outside to walk Greenlake with my girlfriend Courean. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air and be moving. After a while I wasn't even that cold. It was only an hour, so it didn't keep me away from anything that I needed to get done that couldn't finish later. Hopefully I'll remember this tomorrow when I debate whether or not to go outside again.

I read this quote sometime after I got home that I thought was very fitting:

Instead of fighting winter to it's bitter end, try embracing the subtle ways nature sustains you. Listen for the first birdsong. Turn your face to the warmth of longer sunlit days. Spring is just around the corner.

Another note about the outdoors. I was thinking about bringing a plant into my house. I know Anna, you're probably rolling your eyes at me and telling me that it will die. But recently I've seen something wonderful happen to a plant. I was over at Bob and Steffie's the yesterday and someone had given them an Orchid a while back. I am not a plant person, and have no idea to keep one alive, but from what I know about Orchids they rarely bloom, and certainly don't grow. This Orchid started as a green stub and didn't look like it was going anywhere. I was shocked to see yesterday that it actually bloomed! There's lots of love in that house every day. If that can make a plant bloom it can do wonderful things. A good sign of things to come. Sending all my love always.

And until it's nice in Seattle again I will be keeping around memories of warmer days playing at Greenlake.

Airplane

Airplanes are Leo's absolute favorite thing. Every time he hears one he looks up, he loves to see them, read about them, play with them. We took the boys to the Museum of Flight last spring. I wonder if Leo even remembers. We read about the museum at bedtime in one of his books "Good Night Seattle". He loves the page on the airplanes. We practice our colors with the airplanes.

I think we'll have to take them back again. I think Leo would enjoy it a a lot more now.

Decorating

I'm starting to think about how this house is going to look once we're all done with the construction phase (ha!). Here's some things I've put together as my color scheme. The pillow and pot holder I just got from Crate and Barrel. I'll be adding to this over time.
I've decided that all the decorating that I do will only be on the walls. No more trinkets on coffee tables or ledges. With kids around things get broken and touch, I've learned it's safer to not have decorative items within little arms reach. I might have to buy some wall shelves though because I do like little trinkets. If you see anything to match these colors let me know, I'm looking for more ideas! I've already asked my sister to go through her photography to see if she has anything I can add.

Thinking yellow walls. Grey couch. Green back splash in the kitchen (tile suggestions?) and other green accents. Also we're going to need new flooring after all the beating up we've done to our current floor. Looking for flooring suggestions too. Exciting stuff! Now if I could only find time to finish the drywall...


Also, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my baby sister!!! She turns 28 today! She's growing up. Which makes me even older, yikes! Hope you have a great one Lesley!

Backyard

One of the things I loved about this house when I bought it was the backyard. I've tried to take advantage of it when we can, with the limited number of nice days we have around here it doesn't get used as often as I would like, but it's fun when it does. I got a new deck three years ago I think, which really opened it up, and Andy contributed a table and chairs and a grill, when he moved in, which has been a big hit. This last summer we layed out the slip n slide, and the kids loved it! It's just a nice place to be and not have to pack up and go any where to be there.

Busy busy

We're always doing something. Andy and I are not sit still creatures, although maybe we would be if we didn't have so much to do! These are pictures from the summer of us recruiting the boys (well really only Vinnie) to help out at the house. Today was a day for working outside. Vinnie loves to help too, which is great!

On another note I got a new lens! Andy got us one for Christmas, but I returned it and got something I think I will like more. It's a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8. You can check it out here. I'm excited to use it, except I wont be seeing the boys for a month. Andy and I will have to make some photo field trips I think, unless anyone else is interested in a photo field trip!

The house is coming along nicely. Our new living room is so close to being painted! Need to figure out what colors to paint it now though. Any suggestions?? I like the below pillow at Crate and Barrel, which I'm off to get today, I think it's going to be my color central theme. Any ideas for wall color? Thinking a yellow...

If anyone follows Ali Edward's blog she's doing a year long course for "one little word". I haven't done this in the past, but I think I might join in now that she has a online course, and I have a word a focus this year. I'm going to scrap it here soon so you'll be able to see what it is, and hopefully encourage me to live it all year!

Perfect

Thinking a lot about how happy I am to be with Andy, and how perfect we are for each other. With everything going on in our lives, and all that we're trying to accomplish I'd expect for us to be yelling at each other every day, but we're not. We're really good at working through problems to come up with a solution that works for both of us. We don't yell. We don't lie. We hold hands, we kiss, we hug. We listen to each other.We may not always agree, but we hear the other out, then come to a decision or agreement together. Sometimes I'm right. Sometimes Andy's right, and as much as he would like to think, Andy's not always right, but he is perfect... for me.

The Phases of our dining room

When I bought my house in 2003 the dining room looked like this. There was a cut out in the back that had a step up and a door into my bedroom, and a little window like shelving in the wall. Stucco ceiling, and curved archways. 

After a while I took out that door to my room, made it a wall and added a closet to the other side which worked out great since it was the only closet in the house not in a bedroom.

We have now begun major construction on this little house. The closet is gone, and has been replaced with a wall. That big window is on its way out, and two windows have been added to the wall. The bathroom door has also been replaced and moved down about a foot so we will have enough space to put a couch on that, and the chandelier is gone and four recessed lights have taken its place. We took out the whole ceiling the day after Christmas and all the spray in insulation (don't ever use spray in insulation!), replaced it with new insulation and new drywall.

Under construction!

Oh and Andy had to get under the house to put in a new support, and new framing under the floor, and we jacked up the roof about 1/2 in right there. Yes I have a random chimney in the middle of my house, and for now it will just have to stay.

 When we took out the drywall on the exterior wall we discovered there was no insulation- wonder why it's always cold in my house! Don't be fooled as we were and think our windows were already framed for us as we did. They weren't level or big enough, the whole thing had to go.

 And currently the house looks like this:

Lots more steps to go, but we're on our way!

So Cool

We took the boys this summer to a car show in Tacoma. I felt so incredibly out of place. Here we show up with the stroller, it's raining and I'm in my long green rain coat. Andy is running into people he knows everywhere, and the boys were hanging by me. There were women who were walking around in skin tight leopard dresses and 4in red heels with their hair all done up. Guys in rolled jeans and leather jackets. I was a little out of place.

I was trying to keep the boys occupied so we walked around to check out the cars, and we found this little car with an open seat and a row of tiny tequila bottles on the back. The owners said the boys could get it. Vinnie sure thought it was pretty cool!

Summer Fun with a Slip 'n Slide

I got a slip 'n slide for my birthday three years ago from Jenny and Emily and it sat in a box for three years until we had a nice summer, and kids and then we took the slip 'n slide out of the box.

Vinnie had never been on a slip 'n slide before, and didn't know how to use it. It took a while to talk him into it, and I tried to explain how to run and jump/glide, low to the slide. He didn't really get it right, and he took off like he was jumping into a pool and slammed down on the ground. I love the photos. One is blurry, but you can see how high he is off the ground. Oh what a brave kid, if only he knew how brave.

Vin convinced me to put on my suit and give it a couple slides too. It's a lot more fun when you're shorter and have a longer way to slide!
Leo walked up and down the slide and sat in the pool of water at the end.

Such a fun day!

December Scrapbook: Days 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18

I'm so behind! I know. Anyone still care? Here's most of the December scrapbook. Still have some more days to finish as you can see. I've also been doing some scrapbooking lately and will post some new pages from the summer in the next couple of days. So here we go with the December scrapbook...

 Day 5:

When we were pulling out old drywall we found newspaper stuffed in the wall from 1959! I saved a piece for my scrapbook. It was even for Christmas ads!

Day 11:



Day 12:

Day 13:

Day 14:

Day 15:

Day 17:

Day 18: