January 2013 Photos

This blog has fallen by the wayside!  Life is busy as usual, but I'll try to be better about posting a monthly photo recap, if nothing more.

January Recap

After finishing the kitchen, the next room we decided to tackle was the living room.  Dave took out the wood stove from the living room, along with the slate underneath it.  Luckily he found that the wood floor under it was still in good shape, so that was a nice surprise.  He also removed the "fake stone" wall behind the wood stove.

This is how it looked when we saw the house for the very first time, before we had bought it.

 This is how it looked during the demolition stage.

And finally, the finished result.  The room is getting much more use now that the stove is gone.  Sure, it looked nice with it there, but since we couldn't use the stove due to the condition of the chimney, it was just wasting precious space.  Now, the kids have a place for coloring, jigsaw puzzles, homework... and spare seating when we have dinner guests! 
 

 


















And here's the opposite side of the room.  We also put up new beautiful, lacy curtains, which ended up being our big splurge!  It looks and feels so much more warm and inviting now.

First snow at the new house

 

 





 

New Year's cookies: They couldn't be made before Christmas because we didn't have a kitchen!

Making sushi on New Year's Eve

Building together

 

 Amanda's first sleepover, at our house, with her best friend Katelynn.

Liam's 3rd birthday

We went to Toys R Us and Liam got to walk around the store and choose a present.  Everything he saw made him explain,"COOL!  Look at THIS one!"  After he had selected his gift, a green garbage truck that roars and sparks when you pull the lever, we went to the mall.  There is an indoor play area called Pump & Jump, so the kids played in the bouncy houses and inflatable slides while Liam stayed in the smaller playground area.  He was afraid of the inflatable bouncy houses.  

We celebrated Liam's birthday two days before his birthday, because his birthday fell on a Wednesday and it gets too hectic in the middle of the week.  I made a chocolate cake and decorated it with a big 3 in M&M's.  Omi came over for cake and presents. 

On Thursday, Liam took homemade strawberry donuts to share with his Preschool class.  Mrs. Spiro made him a crown, which he wore proudly all day long.