Playground Fun

We are loving some warm days to get outside! Joel, however still does most of his playing inside...

The House- before and after....part 1

Here are some pictures of our home, before the big renovation and after. Some of the "after" pictures are from right after we moved in, so there isn't much on the walls, or other decorative stuff, but they still give some idea of the transformation. We haven't done any of the outside stuff yet, or the basement really, so they will be posted in a later edition (hopefully this fall!).

The backyard

The kitchen (before)

The kitchen (after)

Living/dining rooms (before)

Living/dining rooms (after)

Annie and Kelsey's room (before)

Annie and Kelsey's room (after)

The boys' room (before)

(sorry I forgot to rotate it!)


The boys' room (after)

Hallway (before)

Hallway (after)

The playroom (before)

The playroom (after)

Of course, most of the changes to make the house livable aren't in the pictures- the new furnace and AC, washer and dryer, insulation, electrical overhaul, roofing and window repairs... it's been quite and adventure so far!

Hooray for warm days in February!!

We had a great day at Greenbelt Lake, enjoying a nice warm up to almost 70 degrees! It was great to get out of the house. Gideon kept commenting "wow! Trees and rocks and grass...." Such a novelty.

Joel wore his new onesie from Nana, so I had to get it on film. :)

A better shot of the shirt, but Joel didn't care for the sun in his eyes too much.

Evidence of February- the ice over the lake hadn't all melted yet.

Mommy loved getting out as much as the boys! (maybe more)

We were surprised by the Zubas joining us a little later on in the morning. Wills is showing off his new teeth in this one. Love the hat!

Now he's showing off his peas. Mmmmm....

Gideon and JT had a great time running around together.

Tackling is a great outside game!

...or just sitting enjoying the lake

Any day is more fun with a good friend.

Joel preferred to stay wrapped up in his seat most of the time.

Ok, these aren't from our outing, but I had to throw in a couple of random other recent photos...

Jeff's first diaper change ever! Not sure how Kelsey convinced him to do it, maybe because it was Kelsey's birthday, Jeff thought he needed a break. He did a very good job- Joel had that diaper on for 8 hours (last one before bed), and it didn't leak at all!

Joel is always happy to take a bath!

My boys in their jammies :)

The brothers

Snow Day Fun!

Gideon liked using his beach toys to make snow castles. It was pretty good packing snow.

Not the best pic of me, but we don't get alot of good ones these days, so I'll take what I can get.

Joel took a nice long nap outside in here. Don't worry, he's well bundled!

Fun with snow

Like I said, good packing snow. Hard to resist throwing a few good snowballs.

Joel didn't care for the snowsuit too much. Liked the stroller much better.

Winter shot of the new house.

Cutey snow man!

Joel trying out the Bumbo seat. He can do it for a few mintues at a time, then his neck gets a little floppy. :)

Joel's two month photo shoot with Thomas. We did all of the first 12 months with Gideon, so we'll try it with Joel too, if I can remember to take them!

The brothers relaxing together.

The brothers being goofy together

He's getting so big! Wearing his 3-6 month outfits now!

We had a great two days of snow. Well, one of snow and one of ice and rain, but schools were still cancelled, so Kelsey was home. Gideon finally got to use his snow gear and he really had fun playing out in our backyard. We also had fun making chai and pancakes.