House tour - Elijah's room

Here's Elijah's room.  I know there are a couple of pictures/frames from his old room that I haven't found yet, but it's pretty much done.  It's the only room that I feel that way about. =)  It was pretty easy to get his room together because we had everything for his room from way back when it was his nursery in Colorado. 

I am hoping to refinish this whole set of furniture for the boys sometime.  I especially want to get all the funky adolescent stickers off the beds and dressers.  But it's good, solid furniture, so we're happy with it.

These photos are of Grandpa when he was working as a cowboy - so cool.

We haven't painted, but the white seems to work with all the wood and everything already going on.  Elijah loves his room, and that makes me happy!

The reading corner is my favorite part - he loves this giant bean bag chair!

Tagged!

Jackie tagged me with this fun little meme:

Here are the rules:
1. go to your documents/pictures.
2. go to your 6th file.
3. go to your 6th picture.
4. blog about it.
5. and I'm supposed to tag 6 people ...

So here's my picture:



This is a shot of a baby quilt that I made about a year ago for Matt, the son of our friends Mike & Tori. I like this picture because you can see the individual blocks well enough to see the prints, but you still get the overall feeling of it. I really liked how this quilt turned out, despite the fact that I made it in a big rush! (You can read my post about the quilt here.) It also reminds me that I miss our little group of friends from a Bible study we were in back in Colorado before Elijah was born. I'm glad that we were around long enough to meet little Matt, but sad that we moved away before Elijah and Matt could be friends.

So there you are. It's not exactly the picture I was expecting (I don't think there are very many pictures in all those files that aren't of my kids), but I guess that's what makes the whole thing fun!

I don't think I have 6 people that haven't already been tagged, but ...
I'll tag
1. Wizzy (only if you aren't too crazy busy!)
2. Anne
3. Amanda

You can do it if you want to!

Even more pictures

Loud!

Yesterday, I was hoping to take the kids out to play in the fallen leaves. But I forgot that it was Tuesday. While I was making breakfast, we heard the landscaping guys start their leaf blowers. Elijah enjoyed watching the men using their big equipment to fill their truck with leaves, but now our neighborhood is all cleaned up and there are no more big piles of leaves to play in. Maybe there are enough left on the trees that we could get some piles again before next Tuesday!

Molly with her quilt

Elijah wanted me to take a picture of him with his quilt, too!

He likes to carry it around the house and snuggle or pretend to sleep.

Movin' in and movin' up

Molly moves in

Yesterday we put the crib (now Molly's crib) back up in Elijah's room (now the kids' room). Miss Molly will still be sleeping in our room at night for a while (until she is waking less often), but she did need a safe, Elijah-proof place to take naps and chill out during the day. I am glad that her quilt really seems to work well in the room - now her side looks feminine and his side looks masculine, but they go well together. I don't know why I get so concerned about these things - Molly isn't going to notice for quite a while - but it really makes me feel so much better that it looks like she belongs in the room too. I have a little project that I'm working on for wall hangings, and the curtains still aren't up, but we're getting there.



Movin' on up

When Patrick's parents were here last week, they brought us two big, new (to us) things: a couch and a minivan! Our last couch was originally my grandparents' and although it's been great, it has been showing it's age (mostly by sinking lower and lower to the ground - great fun for getting up out of it when you're pregnant!), and was now past ready for retirement. Patrick's parents are redecorating and very graciously offered us their couch. It is a good piece of furniture that is still in great shape and I'm sure will last us many more years. Hooray!

The biggest change around here is our new-to-us van. It is a 2002 Chrysler that was originally Patrick's grandfather's. Some of you (those who already drive some similar family-type vehicle) are saying, "Oh, don't you just love your van!?" Some of you (those who haven't yet come to this very interesting place in your lives) are saying, "A minivan? Do you really want to drive a minivan?" Honestly, I feel a little of both - I am excited and not really excited at the same time.

First of all, we have two kids now. Two kids in car seats. And a double stroller and all the other junk that kids need when they travel. It all just doesn't fit very well into my little Civic. You should have seen us trying to get the four of us plus my mom and even a minimum amount of gear into my car. Yikes! We need the space! (Especially now that we would have to buy another ticket - driving is more reasonable than flying.) And I have to say that getting the kids in and out of the van is much easier than the car, especially with power doors.

But I will miss driving my Civic (it will be Patrick's commuter car now when he doesn't take the bus). I really do get unreasonably attached to my car. I can't say that I've ever wanted to drive a minivan and I'm still kinda uncomfortable with it - both the idea of it and the actual physical vehicle. There's the adjustment that comes with driving any new car - learning where everything is, and getting a feel for how it drives - plus, 1) I'm switching from a stick shift to an automatic, and 2) I haven't driven anything this big since high school. Of course, I loved that car, so maybe this one will grow on me too ... For now, I am still really nervous whenever I have to back up, but I think it's so cool that my key chain has a remote for the doors. Silly!

A look back

My last post made me think a little about what's been going on in our lives this past year. We never got around to a Christmas letter this year - I was hoping to get a good picture of the three (+ 1/2) of us, or at least a cute one of Elijah sitting still and smiling, but neither was possible. So, we do love all of you who sent cards, letters and pictures to us, we're (in other words, I am) just not that with it right now. I'm sorry, because I know many of you like getting those things from us as much as I like getting them from you. We love having good, recent pictures of friends and family, and Elijah just adores the refrigerator photo montage. He's really learning a lot of names!

I'm sorry that I still don't have a good picture to send out, but here's a quick summery of our year and random facts:

Elijah grew up a lot! (For those of you who have been reading this blog, you already knew that.)
At 6 months old, Elijah was fun and laughed a lot, but pretty much stayed in one place all the time. This year he learned to eat food, roll, crawl, stand, walk and talk. What a big change! He's very busy and talkative now and tries new things all the time. Right now he's working on stairs and climbing up on things taller than the couch. He likes hats and boots and putting on what ever strikes his fancy over his regular clothes.

Patrick and I were ... just normal this year. We lived in our house and did the same jobs and ... whatever. Pretty exciting, huh? I had surgery in January for a ruptured tubal pregnancy, but got (safely) pregnant with the little bean at the end of the year. I also got to ride in an ambulance for the first time in my life, but it was just dehydration and endless puking - no big deal. Patrick's parents visited and we had fun in the mountains and at home with them. I got to go to Pittsburgh for a week on my own and visit friends and family. Patrick traveled a couple of times for work/conferences in Maryland and Arizona.

This was the first time that we have had only one W2 for our taxes.

Patrick and I went camping by ourselves for the first time.

Elijah is totally obsessed with elephants.

I made two baby quilts and started three, wait, four more.

Elijah already wears an XL size diaper cover at night, so I guess he's not allowed to grow any bigger until he learns to use the potty.

We have four bookcases in the living room and still can't find enough space for all the books. Between the books, toys, and and giant bins of baby clothes, I don't know how we have any space for us!

Elijah is such a big boy

Elijah is growing up, and I am reminded of it several times a day now - he's always doing something new and fun. I have to remind myself that he is still a baby sometimes! Lately, E has been making a transition to using covers in his bed. He's been using a pillow for a while now (the doctor recommended trying the pillow when raising one end of his mattress didn't work out - he would always just scoot down to the other end). He looks so grown up and his crib is looking more and more like a big boy bed. Plus, I think it's cool that he finally gets to use his quilt!
Another thing that he does that is new (and totally cracks me up) is to request to wear hats. He used to hate wearing hats, and now he does it for fun! Check out his 90's-cool look today! He put this one on by himself.

Cool sweater

Elijah, wearing the sweater Erin made for him - it matches his quilt!