He's officially walking

My little caboose is walking. He had been taking a few steps at a time going from furniture to furniture, but generally did not initiate walking himself. This week, he began walking on his own accord without encouragement. Sigh :::::: another milestone. This is bittersweet. Oh, and check out the stoic face. My babies were all like this -very serious. We finally got a happy face in the last picture - after a lot of praise.

PS - I know the sweater doesn't fit. I wanted to get one last set of pics in the sweater that was supposed to have been done 2 babies earlier - lol.

Happy to be in sister's arms.

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Ever have one of these on your roof?

Neither have we. Brown eyes (7-yr old) woke up this morning telling dh that he heard someone screaming this morning. We weren't sure what he was talking about. Minutes progressed and I heard something loud and screechy. At first, we thought it was the brakes from the garbage truck. Later, our neighbor phoned to notify us that a peacock was on our roof. We learned about peacocks today. I love sponatanous learning. Evidently, there are peacocks in the wetlands near our home.

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To be 12 again

I took this photo of Pearly for the co-op yearbook. Oh to be carefree and 12 again when life revolves around school, music lessons, socializing, cooking desserts, socializing, volleyball, and socializing. I want to be 12 again.

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On a Painting Roll

Lots of stuff getting done on the house. Dh got half of the floor laid downstairs. It looks great. I finished mudding the sheetrock in the ceiling that had been unfinished for 6 years (@@). I figured if I could frost a cake, then I could surely match the existing pattern which kind of looks like icing on a cake. The downstairs hallway has had missing sheetrock since we moved in 6 years ago. Dh finally put up one piece and will hopefully put up the other piece so I can mud that, too. I'll take pictures. It is a very messy job.

This house is OLD SCHOOL. It had paneling in the upstairs hallway, kitchen, and dining room. It was a good-quality paneling, but I am tired of that, so this week, I primed the walls. Priming stinks - the fumes are so bad, it makes your eyes water, a nasty feeling in your throat, etc, even with windows open. I just have to cut-in around the doors and floorboards and then I will be done. Hopefully, that will happen on Friday.

Hallway and living room at far end

In this picture, you can see the hallway which is newly primed. Down the hallway, you can barely see the living room with the new vinyl windows dh installed. I had painted the living room just prior to the flood. It is a gold color - I really like it. The hallway will be painted a very light gold from the same color swatch. Can you believe I lightened this photo? Our house is so dark!

Dining room paneling

monkey climbing gate

The above 2 pictures are in the dining room area. Dh made that gate. The other side where PJ is standing is the stairs. - 13 straight down with no landing. He's not supposed to be there. Also, if you notice, dh should have made the slots vertical instead of horizontal. I think he forgot that we don't have babies, but monkeys who climb everything. It's a pretty gate, but not very functional when it comes to keeping babies where they belong. Oh well.

I brought my knitting to Pearly's fiddle lesson. I turned on the radio, reclined the seat of the car, and took a catnap. So much for knitting.

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Projects

Here are a few things I've been working on. Poor lighting, but you get the idea. Here is the finished painting job in the new computer room. I will not be using this paint again. The colors were not exactly what I had in my mind, but after painting 2 coats of each color, there's no way I'm changing colors now. I love the new white chair rail. It adds so much. And to think the wainscoting was just cheap paneling with Sharpie scribbled on it! What a difference!

I took the opportunity on Saturday to escape from unpacking boxes and painting and sewed up some bigs for a combined baby shower at church. I've been making these bibs for 10 years. They hold up well and because of the busy patterns, stains rarely show. Who ever thought of making white bibs, anyway?

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Doin' it Right

Doin' it Right - This is what my 16-yr old son told me when we woke up February 14, Valentine's Day, the day after moving back home. We had boxes everywhere, we were lucky enough to find our own clothes, but the children and I pulled it all together to celebrate Valentine's Day.

I love traditions. The children love traditions. Sometimes, they are inconvenient, like this year. But they really bind the family together - bring back warm memories and teach us to slow down and appreciate each other.

What is our Valentine's tradition you may ask? Well, it's food item that is heart-shaped, pink or red for breakfast. This year we had heart-shaped biscuits with our pink-ish purple grape jam (from our grapes), sparkling cranberry apple cider and a delicious fruit salad. We did it right. It was worth it.

And yes, this post is late - lol.

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