channeling Bob Vila

we've been burning the candle at both ends lately trying to get lots of work done on this (lovely) old house. especially with nanny being here, we feel like we need to make the most of the winter time by checking off one project after another. i am pretty sure we could spend forever doing this and never really be done, but such is the way of old houses, i suppose. it's been an exceptionally busy few weeks and we've gotten alot done. most noteably, we (and mostly i mean Phil) have refinished the kitchen cabinets and tried to undo the mess that the previous owners left. the progress has been incredible, and it's not nearly done yet, but i will save those details to be shared with some before and after photos.

aside from that, we've spent time fixing up the guest bedroom downstairs-- it was a seriously dark and creepy room before, but is now pretty darn comfortable and inviting if i do say so myself. and it's nice to finally have a bonafide place for guests to stay. painting the dark stained wood paneled walls made the biggest difference, but a trip to ikea and some sewing didn't hurt either!

as i sat down and started writing this post i realized that i actually don't have many pictures of all of this work to share. oops. but i do have a few pictures from our room (which used to be dark red with gold foil all over it... wow) and a few shots from the newly painted girls' room. after four years and three tries, we finally got the green *just* how we wanted it. they love it and so do i... and if they wouldn't kick me out, i'd probably spend more time laying on the sheepskin rug stairing at the green walls!

more pictures to come!

let it snow

a constant fire and the sheepskin rug have helped us reach a desired level of cozy readiness.

of couse story time in your pjs doens't hurt either.

nor does a hefty stack of wood: cut, chopped, stacked.

i think it's safe to say that we are ready for a little change of scenery around here. it's been an infirmary for a week now and five out of five people in this house have been sick as dogs. it might be the flu, it might just be a bad virus, but either way... it's sucked. no other way around it, that's just the truth of the matter! so no one has been sleeping well and we've all been laying around sniffling and sneezing and wheezing (and crying, in the case of the littlest ones). to top it all off, sylvi got quite the busted lip this afternoon. it won't require stitches but it's pretty impressive-- so much so that she got herself a special milkshake for dinner tonight, lest she have to try to eat hard food and have it open up all over again. oy. and mommy managed a matching booboo by slicing the tip of her thumb cooking dinner as well. good thing for nice neighbors with fully stocked first aid kids.

so i think that fills our (un)health and wellness quota for the rest of 2010, no? as luck would have it (we're being optimists!) we are expected to have a good ole winter storm roll in tonight and stick around through the weekend. given that it's been a really mild winter so far, we think a little change in scenery might be nice. and assuming the temperatures climb back out of the negatives, i know two little girls who are looking forward to some serious snow play. bring it on. and let it snow!

christmas morning

christmas morning has been a nice blur of smiles and laughter and little kid christmas magic. it's also been filled with french toast, strawberries, whipped cream, and strong coffee. and now for the post-chaos lounging... ahhh, merry christmas!

p.s.

isa asked me to add the following: dear santa, the carrots are for the reindeer. please do not eat them yourself. love, isa

merry christmas (eve)

the blog has been pretty dormant this week for alot of reasons, but mostly just from every day life details that have added up to mean no spare time for blogging. we've had our share of sickness in the last week (and i don't think we're done yet, unfortunately). sylvi came down with a nasty respiratory bug midweek and is still under the weather. a last minute trip to the doctor and a steriod shot have helped, but she is still a sad little sickling. before that, we were burning the midnight oil working on the new kitchen. we'll post more pictures of that later, but it entailed a few very long days and late nights trying to get 'phase one' done with. we had a small (tacky) christmas party as well, which was a ton of fun and may become a christmas tradition for years to come. sadly we were too busy being tacky to actually break out the camera for documentation purposes!

these photos are from a little christmas eve walk we took this afternoon. with all the sickies and house work, everyone needed some fresh air and vitamin D. we've been lucky enough to have pretty mild temperatures for the last week and figure we should enjoy it while it lasts! isa enjoyed "ice skating" through the frozen gutters, but was a little disappointed to just watch everyone else as we passed by the skating rink.

there you have it, a very crazy week in a nutshell. more christmas commentary and photos to come tomorrow and through the weekend!

christmas chaos

we successfully survived Santa's Workshop at the children's museum this morning and even managed to walk out with a few handmade ornaments for the tree. it was pretty crowded though, so our visit was brief! we made it though, so check that one off the list :)

nanny's here!

now that nanny is here, the official holiday merriment can begin in earnest! mommy is (finally) done in the shop, so she can take part too. it's feels like we've been running a marathon on craziness since october (moving, traveling, nutcrackering, working) so we are all looking forward to some relaxation. let the holidays begin!