Aaaack, I can't choose!

Is it wrong that I positively oozed motherly pride when I pulled these off of the camera? Seriously, the kids just hammed it up today when I wanted to take pictures before church. I am posting the ones that I don't want for a card, so you'll still be surprised.

*sigh*

Hamming it up

Karate moves...HI-yah!

They actually do like each other!!!

So many to choose from.

More...

Mom & Dad got in on one or two.

THE END!

Before and After

Finally...here we go!

Dining room, before

Dining room, after

Living Room, Before

Living Room, after

Living room, before

Living Room, after

Kitchen, before Kitchen, after

Open houses and other issues

We had our open house last night & had a great time! Thank you to everyone who came through for a visit. We had so much fun visiting with all of our friends and family, and we were so pleased to feel like our house is finally a home.

I was going to share an "incident" from the party, but I have decided that it is too graphic to actually Blog about. If you are curious at all about what we are now affectionately calling "the poop incident of 2008" call me or Stefanie & we'll tell ya all about it. Let's just say that Stefanie is now officially the BESTEST SISTER EVER!!!!! She asked me last night, "Can you guys do anything without Kiernan having some kind of major drama?" The answer is...NO.

I was going to post pictures, but I'm having Major Camera Issues! Don't even get me started.

Kiernans Christmas List

Kiernan dictated her list to take to Santa this morning. She was very serious about these items:

Pony *a real one mom, not pretend*
TV *like the one in the living room, mom* (that would be a 42" flat screen)
Make Up *no more pretend stuff, tell Santa that*
Carrot *a BIG one...for the pony*
Fairy Wings
Pet Squirrel *no mommy, not a puppy or cat...a SQUIRREL"

SO, for those of you wanting to know what to get Kiernan for Christmas, here you go. Hope it helps.

Here's dirt in your eye

A few days ago we were getting ready for school/work ect. I was doing Kiernan's hair and I noticed her eyes were a bit crusty. I told her "Hold on, I want to wash your face. You have sleepy dirt in your eye".
"Sleepy dirt? Whats that?" she asks.
"Well" I explain, "The Sandman comes around at night and sprinkles sleepy dirt in your eyes so that you'll sleep good."
"Whats a Sandman?" she asks now.
"He's like Mother Nature, you don't see him, but he helps you to sleep good by sprinkling sleepy dust on you. Kind of like Tinkerbell dust". Right about here I'm feeling pretty good about myself for my charming, childlike explination of a tale from my childhood. That lasted about 30 seconds.

She then turns tail and hauls booty out of my room screaming, "Jacob!!! A man goes in our room & throws dirt in our eyes at night! *cue the tears* "Mommy, I don't want him in my room. I don't want dirt in my eyes!" *while scrubbing her face with a baby wipe*

The reason I tell you this tale now, is beacuse now whenever she wakes up with crusty eyes I get to hear this;
"Mommy, that Dirtman was in my room again. I don't want him to come in my room. Tell him to stop" *in whiny, upset voice*

Where we are

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. We are happily in our new home & still busy bees doing all of the little things that need to be done. I am yet again having camera issues, and feeling a bit cranky about it. I just don't feel like a blog is the same without the pics. So, while I would LIKE to show you how far the house has come, I cannot. It's a wonderful transformation, and I'm very happy with the results. While there were times that I wondered what I had gotten us into, we kept the optimism going and worked, worked, worked. I can't tell you how happy I am to not have to use the phrase "working on the house" any more. If you speak to me with any regularity you know what I'm talking about:

Friend: "So what are you guys up to tonight?"

Me: "We're working on the house"

Family: "Why aren't you answering my calls?"

Me: "I was working on the house"

Acquaintance: "How come you have no money?"

Me: "We're working on the house"

Co-worker: "What did you do on your day off?"

Me: "I worked on the house"

Stranger: "what's the squareroot of PI?"
Me: "Working on the house"

You see where I'm going with this, right?

I am still without a shower door in the master bath, the pool is still technically a pond (if the Koi are any indication), and I have sheets as some of the window coverings...but we have cable tv, and isn't that what really counts?

I'm trying to borrow a camera this weekend to take pictures, if I do you should see a post next week sometime. In the meantime here is a refresher of what the house looked like "before"