Pictures (out of order - but pictures none-the-less)

We had a really great Christmas. We stuck around here & hung out with Mark's family a lot and had a lot of fun playing Wii & visiting. Christmas morning at our house with our little family was really fun. Carson unwrapped everyone's presents for them. My parents came down on Boxing Day & stayed for a week. We did a little shopping, went sledding, ate good food.... We started redoing our kitchen on New Year's Day after my parents left. It got finished a week later (yesterday) & it was fully functional & the house cleaned up today. We ate A LOT of peanut butter sandwiches on paper plates. Mark's family was really nice & fed us a few times. I'm SO glad to have it all over with. I feel like I've been living in squalor for months & I've finally been liberated from the black hole of messiness that was my house.

Burke has two teeth on the bottom in the middle & two more coming in (one on each side on the bottom next to the first two.) He hasn't been a very happy camper. I barely noticed that Carson was teething (at 7 1/2 months) because he could play & roll, etc. But Burke just kind of hangs out & cries because his mouth hurts. I feel so bad for him because he doesn't really need them! On another note.....he's freakishly strong! He arches his back & practically leaps out of my lap. He giggles when we take his shirt off still, but it's like arm wrestling trying to get another shirt back on him. He makes the cutest sounds lately. He holds his lips loosely together & blows kind of making a "bbb" sound. Sometimes it comes out sounding like a motor boat.

Carson's had a cold for about a week. It's turning into a cough. He loves going to Grandma's house & seeing his cousin Olivia there. I just wish he wouldn't get so wound up while we're there. He starts hitting and pushing & it kinda ruins the fun for everyone.

Cabinets removed

Day 1 of mess (it only got worse......and so did the rest of the house)


Kitchen Before

Sledding with Cwappa Bwatt

Building a snow fort so they could throw snow balls at the "bad guys"
Christmas jammies...
(the best picture of the boys in their jammies....out of at least 74 pictures)
Carson's "big" present. It only took Mark an hour or so to put it together.....

Pictures of the finished kitchen will be coming shortly. The glass in two of the doors is drying even as I type this & the doors should be up tomorrow sometime. I have a few things left to put away & then I'll take pictures.......the suspense is killing you, I know. Don't let it keep you up at night.

It's 11:11pm and I should go to bed. The New Year's Fairy brought me season 3 of "I Love Lucy" so I'm going to watch an episode & then go to bed. The kids are asleep & Mark's at his parents house playing Wii with Tim. I should do something productive, like proofread this post or read the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow. I should do a lot of things, but I'm going to have a little bonding time with Lucy and Ethel & call it a night. (Did I mention I love those two?)