Five on Friday

1. Emma lost her second tooth finally! : ) At school and she pulled it herself - she was so proud. Kaitlin likes that she gets to play tooth fairy because if we go up the stairs we always hit the creaky spot and she stirs, so Kait can sneak over there and do it without much touble. Thank goodness for big sisters! :)

2. We have to register Joey for Pre-K next week at Maxwell. It's a lottery again this year. It will be really hard to explain to him why he can't go to the same school that Owen and Emma went to if he doesn't get in. February 17th is the big drawing. It's going to be a long day...hopefully he's not one of the last ones drawn like Owen was.

3. Owen is going to a birthday party for Richard tomm. I believe, from what I'm told, that Richard is his best friend and they like to play superheros on the playground. And I also believe that Paige is going to be there...she is Owen's "not my girlfriend" ;-) And she's got really, really long hair. And she likes the monkey bars.

4. Abby alternates between being a girly girl who loves her baby dolls and a lumberjack. Seriously. She does this hunched up walk when she's pretending to be someone else (like if Emma and she are playing dolls)and she looks like a lumberjack. It's pretty amusing to watch..

5. Kaitlin finally has a bike..and she loves it. I've had to push her but she's finally going around the neighborhood and getting some fresh air. :) And she's loving it! She's going skiing with her youth group in a few weeks to Wintergreen and she's busy, busy. I can't believe that in 3 short years she'll be driving a car...or at least legally able to....

Alrighty, that's everyone - Fred's packet is FINALLY being sent to San Antonio so we should hear something soon. Fingers crossed and prayers said that it is a good rating the first time and we don't have to appeal it. I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better after surgery, pulmonary embolism, strep, bronchitis, viral infection and God knows what else (oh, pink eye). My lung function test still isn't completely normal and I'm going to be seeing a geneticist to do some testing for genetic diseases like Marfan's and other connective tissue disorders. Hopefully they'll find something so I can stop feeling crazy! :)

Hugs
Katie

Pictures of the Kids - finally! :)

Okay, the computer is acting up tonight so that's it for tonight - more to come tomm! :)

Santa

While at the Augusta Christmas parade yesterday, we decided to walk down the road while they were setting up the tree lighting festivities/craft fair to avoid the crowds and we happened upon the Santa booth..where he was waiting with NO LINES!! If you have one child, you know how hard it is to stand in line at the mall with them waiting and waiting and waiting. Multiply that by five and you have the reason I have not done it for two years...until now. : ) Thank you City of Augusta and Santa Claus for making my holiday season just a teeny tiny bit easier!

Wiseman..or King

The boys after their nativity play at church. Owen was a shepard and Joey was a wiseman..which is another word for King..at least that's what Joey made sure to tell all of us. : ) 

So cute!! Can't wait till all the activities this weekend! Sorry for the yuck quality of the pic, used my phone because my camera is still broken! Hopefully I will find a decent lens soon!

Katie

Weekend Plans

  Projects for tommorrow include stripping the GORGEOUS doors that Melinda gave us from her barn storage pile (thanks to the previous owner) so that we can have something like this on the front of the house :) And eventually replacing that god awful gigantic thing that they call a light fixture over it....

Building one of these...


And mapping out the area for the deck off the mudroom and the patio with firepit in the backyard. And then to scour craigslist for the materials...fingers crossed someone is smiling down on us. I'd love to find some really, really, really cheap adirondack chairs that I can paint! :)

Katie

Halloween Pumpkins

View of all 5 pumpkins - sorry for the crappy lighting

Owen's Bat, Kaitlin's Skeleton, and Abby's Cat - Owen poked all the holes himself for me to carve, Kaitlin did her own this year! Whew! :)

Emma's Werewolf and Joey's Ghost - Emma poked all of her holes herself - Great job!!

Renovation Ideas

Things I'm thinking about doing: (more for my memory benefit than anything..I promise tomm to post about the kids! :)

  Dining Room - not this exact one, but something similar


Kitchen: Removing all of the upper cabinets and using open shelving. Trying to figure out what to do with the microwave if we do this...Removing one set of the lower doors (the cabinet by the doorway/dishwasher) and using large baskets. We have things like the salad spinner/colander/crockpot in there which could easily go in the big baskets...
     

We would keep the white cabinets, bead board under the shelves from the countertop up, white shelves on the green walls. The brick chimney would still be exposed in the corner, but the shelves would butt up to it solving the dilemma of matching the molding around it. :)

I'm toying with the idea of replacing the fan in there with two pendants lights or a bar light over the island, but with no windows that open (the biggest flaw of my kitchen..boo!), I'm thinking I need the fan in there.

The dining room is going to get a sisal rug - I liked one that Ballards had, but I'm looking for a MUCH lower price point ;-)  Going to add in a sideboard with no hutch on top and add detail to the walls like this - painting the lower 3/4 white and leaving the top the navy blue currently in the room:

In the bathroom, I want to replace the gigantic pedestal sink with a smaller one, add a medicine chest and find a throw rug that coordinates with the shower curtain...which seems to be the hardest feat of all!

In the laundry/mudroom, I want to paint the floor (concrete), and build cubbies with a bench on top that will run the length of the wall where the jacket hooks are. Above the windows will be cabinets for all the storage needs - lightbulbs, tools, batteries, etc that are currently on top of the washer and dryer. At the end of the w/d will be a chest freezer. Over the washer I want to build a countertop that I can use to fold/iron on if needed. It would be nice to get a tankless hot water heater for the corner instead of the huge one, but that is NOT happening anytime soon. Darn groceries and electricity. :) I want to change the door on the back of the house to the one with the window..I know it's not the safest one, BUT it will be inside the fence and we have another door with lock in the mudroom leading to the house. And it will really open it up in there - plus I'll be able to see if someone is at the back door (b/c you can't tell with our doorbell) AND the kids in the yard.

Boys room - move bunkbeds to other wall, build cubbies for corner toy storage, hang snowboard, finish painting toybox, replace fan, refinish wood floors and get throw rugs, paint lamp, put skateboard wheels on dresser as handles.

Girls Room: HA. Here's the real work. We have to have a plumber come in and tell us if it's possible to relocate the bathroom upstairs. If so, we'll put it where their walk-in closet is, using some of the current play area space and leaving enough for a small desk in the nook there. Take the current bathroom OUT of Kaitlin's room - making her room more private, larger and giving the other 2 access to the bathroom. Plus it will make it bigger and enable us to put a tub in there instead of the shower only. Take the back entrance stairs outside off and make that a balcony (with fireladder of course) off of her room instead. More secure and she'll use that more. Buy the desk she wants. Find a wicker rocker with closed back (the older victorian style) and spray paint it to match her room, make some cushions for it. Paint her dresser. Add artwork to stairwell. Figure out a/c replacement or change ducts around to promote better heating/cooling.

Master Bedroom: Paint. Finish floors. Paint furniture. Find headboard. Organize closet

Yard: enclose front/side into fence that exists in backyard currently. Build swings. Build firepit in the back by garage. Plant two shade trees in front yard. Build small deck off of mudroom. Plant flowers/plants by garage to help with drainage. Replace mailbox.

Not as busy with the landscaping - mostly 2 large shade trees and smaller plants