light at the end of the tunnel

The kitchen remodel is really coming along thanks to Simon. He worked so hard this weekend to give us a more workable kitchen. When the kids & I left on Thursday we left sheetrocked walls, appliances sitting atop a subfloor and no cabinets. What a difference we came home too. Here are some photos of how the kitchen stands now. (can click on photos to see a larger view of them)

Island (backside, as if you are facing the living room)  

(never mind the 3 drawer on the right side in the bottom photo that is suppose to be on a wall)

 3 cute kids in a sink base

 North wall prior to appliances & west wall  

So as you can see we have come a long way but still have a ways to go.  Countertop, new sink & back splash here we come!

Valentine's Day 2011

For Valentine's Day we went out to dinner.  One thing the girls are always asking to do is eat at McDonald's. They are so disappointed when we use the drive-thru, so for Valentine's Day we went out to McDonald's. Ha Ha! Not exactly a romantic meal but the kids were beyond excited.

Gretta had her Valentine's Day party last Thursday. She was so excited!  She got a lot of yummy valentines!  Mari's party was on Monday. She too got a lot of  neat valentines.  Here are some photos of them with their valentines and then some photos of Tate on Valentine's Day.

"New" room

For Christmas Gretta gave Mari paint & supplies for mini bedroom make over!  Gretta picked out 3 paint colors- pink (I say light purple, Simon says pink), medium purple & green.  

The girls were awesome painters!  They did so well staying between the tape lines & were very interested in helping!  Here are some pics of remodel!

  

now onto our next project......the kitchen :)

Getting ready for Christmas

 We have been busy baking. I LOVE baking for Christmas. The girls are such good decorators!

 The girls had their Christmas program on Sunday. I watched from the sidelines as I helped with the program this year.  Apparently Gretta only lifted up her shirt once to play with her belly button.  (thankfully I missed that part) Uffda!
 

 Gretta was an angel in the program and Mari was a sheep.

 Mari's homework this weekend was to make a Santa face. She said the mouth needed to be round & black because he was saying "ho, ho, ho".  

Trick or Treat!

What a nice Halloween night! The weather was nice for this time of year-no wind & no snow!
All 3 kids really got into Halloween this year! Mari & Gretta were both witches, but had different costumes. Tate was a lion. He even roared for us!  Simon & I brought a stroller along thinking Tate would not want to walk or get tired but he got upset if we put him in it. He wanted to walk up to the door & pick out his own piece of candy!

6 years old!

We can hardly believe little Mari is now 6 years old!  Our little 4 pounder is now 44 lbs!
She celebrated her birthday by having 4 friends over from school on Sunday for a Minnie Mouse themed party.  They played outside, ate lunch (not much though, too excited to eat), made necklaces, open gifts & ate cake (they ate more of that then lunch-ha). The afternoon was rounded off by an all out coloring session. We rolled out a newspaper roll and the kids went to crazy! 10 ft of coloring paper taped to the floor was a hit!
Mari brought frosted pumpkin cookies to school on Monday as her birthday treats.  (oh do I remember the excitement of bringing birthday treats!)

Amber, Adrienne, Sydney, Mari & Skylar

Making necklaces

Playing Duck Duck Goose

They sat so close together during the gift opening!

 Sydney, Gretta, Skylar, Mari, Tate, Adrienne, & Amber

Everyone having fun coloring

Simon was very busy tracing all the kiddos feet! Ha!

Mari wearing her birthday crown from school and showing off her birthday card (shaped like a birthday cake) signed by all her classmates.