Play softly. The baby is sleeping...

It always impresses me that a 2 year old will play without banging.  Clearly, she is listening.  I hope she grows up loving to play as much as I do!

It's an angel, it's a fairy, it's Hannah...

Today we had a visit from an angel, and the time passed far too quickly.  (Shot for the challenge of "A fleeting moment").  Check out this quote:

"The creative act lasts but a moment, a lightening instant of give and take, just long enough for you to level the camera and catch the fleeting prey in your little box." Henri Cartier-Bresson

 Sounds to me like Henri knows what it's like to photograph children!  lol

Eager eater...

Abigail LOVES to eat!!!  In fact, she gets very impatient if you put her in her high chair and she has to wait more than a few moments for her food.  I just love her eager expression here....and that cute little curl behind her ear.  :)

In theory...

Awww...poor Abigail!  Thought we'd take her outside to get a pic in the grass.  A good idea in theory....but clearly Abigail didn't think so.  Yep, she was done!

Love bug...

See, I told you we got a happy shot!  :)  Love the stuffed belly in this costume.  Sweet little love bug!

Blue steel...

This is old (still behind on processing).  I'm just posting it, cause I got tickled thinking it reminded me of the blue steel pose from Zoolander.  For those who haven't seen the movie, here's a link describing how to do the pose.  To be honest, I could not make it through the movie...but I do at least recognize references to this pose.  :)

http://www.wikihow.com/Do-the-%22Blue-Steel%22-Pose-from-Zoolander

Morning comes...

Thought I would get "out of my box" for a while and try something new for the challenge of "the everyday".  Every morning, the first thing I do is walk around the house opening all the shades and shutters to let the light flood into the rooms.  I love the hopefulness of a new day.  I'm thankful the sun rises every morning and that each new day is a new beginning.   And I must say, tho' I wish I'd had a different model for this, I do love the light here.  It was nice to have a few minutes to experiment with my camera for a change too!

BTW, my friend Judy stopped me at church to ask "What is this I saw on your blog about the daily challenge?  Are you doing another 365?"  Heavens NO!!  My family would kill me.  lol.  I just enjoy dropping in on the challenges from time to time, especially if I can twist the topic to fit a pic of Hannah or Abigail.  :)

Music maker...

Nice hand position for a future pianist...lol!  Wish I could show you how she dances when she hears music.  And sometimes, she even plays this little piano with her mouth instead of her hands.  :)

Milk drunk...

I've been wanting to get a pic of Abigail playing with her feet.  She usually has tons of personality and is super animated.  Jenny had just nursed her and changed her diaper, so it was the perfect opportunity with the light on her face.  But she took one look at the camera and "zoned" out in a "drunken" stupor.  Silly girl! 

Wagon close up...

So many fun things to see on a wagon ride!

I love my G-Pa...

And he loves me!  Finally cooled off enough for some fun times in the wagon!  Abigail was napping or we would have taken her along for a ride too.  Next time...

H, my name is Hannah...

Shot for the challenge of "mark".  Hannah is trying so hard to learn to write her name.  She can ALMOST do the letter H.  Before you get too impressed, she cannot color in the lines yet.  ha ha!  That is G Pa's handiwork.  But Hannah DID make the marks that will become a letter H soon.  I love how much she enjoys learning!

Stemware...

Shot for the challenge of "Glass".  I love the new stemware I bought for our new kitchen.  Too bad one of them was broken on delivery...and of course, they are no longer available.  Guess that means I can only have 7 people for dinner at one time.  My apologies to number 8.  lol

Help, I've been swallowed by a ladybug!

Had to show you Abigail's Halloween costume too.  LOVE her expression!!!  We actually caught a cute smiley pic of this too, but I fell in love with this one. Will post the other at some point, I'm sure.  Sweet baby girl...Love her little feet too.  Notice how narrow they are!!  Methinks Jenny will be paying more for shoes for Abigail than she has for Hannah.  :/

Every girl needs an animal print!

I know it's early to post these, but Hannah has been talking all week about Grammy taking her picture in her new cat costume.  lol.  Won't she have fun on Halloween?!

Texting toddler...

Hannah loved the little toy cell phone G Pa bought her.  It even has a pull out keyboard for "texting".  Oh my...what are we starting???  It IS a cool educational toy though!  (And yes, I know this image is soft...but I like her concentration!)

Perhaps this was grown with steroids...

Either that or they knew they were sending these babies to Texas, where everything is BIG.  Easily the biggest apple I've ever seen...and my fave too...a honeycrisp.  I'm salivating just looking at it!

Vintage baby...

We had a wild day yesterday with 2 work crews in the house and 2 busy granddaughters.  I never even thought about taking out my camera, that is, until Abigail discovered the low window ledge in our kitchen.  It was like gold to her and the light on her face was gold to me, so I ran for my camera.  lol.  The challenge that day was "postcard perfect"...not really sure this fit the topic, but with a little processing I think it worked.  I do love those vintage postcards.  I can't even remember the last time I had a few minutes to play with textures.  Don't you love her cheeky expression?

Adoration...

Weak technically on several levels...and it's a pic from last month too.  Yep, really got behind on my processing.  Thought about dumping this one, but couldn't cause it's so sweet.  Abigail adores her big sister!  And she's trying to figure out how she can get Hannah's hair in her mouth.  lol

Head held high...

So proud for doing this by herself!  Yep, we took her swimming a few days later, and she was comfortable enough to "swim" from one person to another.  I think her favorite thing was "swimming" to the step and coming back out again.  She kept saying "I'm gonna go back to my step now."  Her step....cute!  :) Not such a sharp picture, but love that smile! 

On progress and opportunities...

She was learning about trust that day, which was cool...because she knows a Bible verse about faith "the righteous shall live by faith".  This was a great opportunity to talk about what that means.  I'm sure she doesn't completely get it, but she does understand that trusting means knowing your daddy will do what he said he would (keep her head out of the water)...and we can trust our heavenly Father too.

Look Ma....no hands!  :)

On the edge...

It took her a while, but she finally got comfortable with that edge "crawl" kids all love.  Still sad we didn't get much swimming in before this. Cold front blew in today.  Feels great..in the 60's this a.m.  Think our swim season is over.  :(  But, we're thankful for cooler weather!

Oh yeah....Happy Birthday to Bob!!!!!!!!! 

With a twinkle in her eye...

There's a baby under there somewhere...

O is for Oversized...

Sometimes you wear the hat, and other times...the hat wears you!  lol...

Teeny tiny self portrait in her eyes.  :)

G-Pa's helper...

Sweet baby girl...

Look out, here comes "Trouble"...

8 months here and not as smiley as last month.  Seems like she's trying to cut teeth, but nothing happening yet.  Developing more personality all the time and this one is definitely more determined than her older sister!  She can work up a really good "mad" when she wants to...and she's not as easy to redirect.  She's also FAR more motivated to get around and get into things.  I actually think Abigail is extremely normal and perhaps Hannah is the unusual one!  At any rate, Abigail (or Abby-girl as I call her) is getting around really well!  She LOVES our new floor and how her toys roll around when she throws them....more fun to chase.  Caught her today playing with a little car that makes noise which honestly scared Hannah until just recently.  Abigail loved it!  ha ha!  Can you see the mischief?

Remodel, Finale...

BEFORE:  Kitchen...definitely the most dramatic change.  We basically gutted this room.  Painted paneling white, removed peninsula, bought new appliances, new custom cabinets, new custom hutch, new lighting.

 

AFTER:  Some of my favorite features are recessed lighting, ceiling fan in the cook area (instead of over the table, making the food cold), new appliances, under counter LED lighting with bright white light set on a dimmer, almost everything under the counters is drawers instead of cupboards...all drawers on full extension glides that support 100 pounds...that means no getting down on the floor to dig around in the back of the cabinet...lazy Susan in corner, corner drawer, trash drawer that holds full size trash can for trash AND recycle.

Love our new appliances..at least how they look.  ha ha.  Haven't had much chance to use them yet.  Was ready to cook our first meal last night and discovered our new double oven doesn't work. Seriously????  Repair guy coming Monday.  Don't know yet if they'll be able to fix it or if they'll have to order a new one.  Know it's under warranty, but color us SAD.    Love that our microwave is above the double oven now, giving us a little more counter space.  Oh yes, we have some pretty cool cabinets in the corner that allow us to slide cookie sheets and cupcake tins/cutting boards/ trays, etc. into compartments too. Slick!  And this fridge!  Freezer on the bottom, fridge on the top...LOVE.

Love this creamy yellow color and love how my blue dishes look with it.  New hutch on the left (minus the glass doors which are leaning against the window at the right, drying...lol).  Notice only one door in the background...there were previously 2 doors on that wall...one to wet bar is gone.  The remaining door is a pocket door...loving that too.  Hole in the wall is for our new updated intercom panel which has not yet been installed.  

 

It's definitely still a work in progress, but we're so thankful to be home...and thankful we could do this at all.  Also extremely thankful to Robin for loaning us the use of her home!!!!  I hope to take a few more pics once we're completely settled.  We've unpacked almost everything, even hung some things on the walls...but we're still waiting for shutters in 3 rooms, and for a custom mirror in bath, intercom, oven repair, MY PIANO to be returned...frustrated about that and hoping it comes next week.  I sent it out to have the action rebuilt.  We have a few little paint touch ups and other small odds and ends as well.  Bob and I have been running around putting felt or grippers under all the furniture.  There are a million little things to do besides unpacking...but we're getting there.  Stay tuned! 

Remodel, Pt 5...

I've been trying to save the most dramatic changes for last. 

BEFORE:  Looking from living room towards kitchen.  The shutters on the left were a pass through to the former "wet bar", which I used as a music library for my teaching.  Our contractor's suggestion was to tear down the wall between wet bar and laundry room to create a larger, more usable space.  SO SO thankful we did this.  The wet bar ceiling was originally 6 feet and laundry room was 8 feet...so he had to raise the ceiling, add a new panel to replace the shutters and close up the door from kitchen into wet bar, as well as cap off the water supply to what had once been the wet bar sink. 

AFTER:  Love that we don't have any of the dark paneling anymore.  Also loving that the floor is the same through most of the house now.  Love how it flows from room to room...much more cohesive.  Makes the house feel bigger to me.  And I love how the light reflects off the floor too.  
 

BEFORE:  Laundry room.  Truly no good way to take this picture as the space was SO small.  It would have been slightly better with the zoom lens tho'.  lol

BEFORE:  Wet bar...again really tiny room and very limited storage because of those shutters.

AFTER:  Laundry room/music storage/pantry.  I think this was one of our most dramatic changes.  LOVE LOVE the light in here and the high ceiling.  We installed a solar tube in the ceiling...less expensive and more energy efficient than a skylight...great for small spaces particularly and brings in a TON of light.  All of the cabinetry is custom made, so we had all shelves in this room made adjustable.  The area above the counter is for my music and CD storage for teaching.  The cabinets on left are pantry. The 2 drawers to the left of the little fridge are made for hanging files for more of my music.  Awesome!  Not pictured:  the laundry area (with cabinets above washer/dryer).  Lovin' the tile floor on the diagonal too.

We also updated the bathroom that adjoins this room, but I have not taken pics of it yet because I'm waiting for my mirror to be finished.  Love having a counter in the laundry area for the first time. It is my GOAL to keep it clean.  Hope I can keep things put away!  :)

Remodel, Pt. 4...

BEFORE:  My office...(or rather, a portion of it).  Did not do much in here either.  A slightly lighter paint color, freshened all paint, removed popcorn ceiling, added new wood floor, crown molding, and we are having plantation shutters made...they're not ready yet.  arg.)

AFTER:  Oh yes, and we added the ceiling fan.  LOVE that our electrician made all fans operate off a wall switch, including a dimmer and speed variation.