What a mess...

The day started off normal enough.... I went to the gym and the post office. Mike stayed at home with Keira and kept her amused and well fed and also fixed my aging dresser that decided to fall a part. When I got back Mike decided to clean his workshop in the basement. Since we finally finished Keira's room we had dumped a huge amount of tools back into the workshop but nothing had been put away. Mike starts cleaning and about 5 min later he comes upstairs frustrated at the mess and lack of space in the basement. If you know us you know that neither of us are packrats and neither of us like clutter. We constantly get rid of stuff which is really important when you live in a VERY small house with teeny tiny closets and and overall lack of storage everywhere!!! Its amazing how stuff accumulates though. Especially when children come along. So we starting "cleaning" and reorganizing the basement. We decided to move most of the storage type stuff ( baby clothes, swing, bassinett) to the second bedroom on our second floor. Its also in need of a major remodel... think layers of wallpaper and paneling. But we emptied the room of "junk" turned it into our very own walk in closet. These pictures are of all the stuff we were organizing in the process of being moved from the basement to the second floor. So while this whole organization project was going on we moved a piece of furniture ( that was original to the house) in the basement and found the horror of it all. MOLD!!!!! It was old mold. Probably from the floods of May 2006. The mold was on the one part of the basement where we have yet to tear the paneling and drywall off.. so so began the next order of business.. tearing off walls and paneling and drywall. I am happy to report that 99% of the mold is gone... the rest will be gone as the week progresses. There is an enormous pile of drywall, paneling and wood in the driveway ( Ill post pics tomorrow). There is also an enormous pile of junk to be thrown out. So the plan for the week ( since mike is on "vacation") was to possibly finish the kitchen cabinets... but as always seems to happen to us we have started another project without even realizing it!!
Stay tuned for pics of the basement, pics of the junk piles and pics of our organization!!!

Head, shoulders,knees, and toes!

Keira and Daddy Bumper Cars

Our nightly ritual includes bumper cars. Mama usually joins in, but wanted to record the video instead for her faithful blog readers.

Keira says "Keeba"

Keira has really taken to saying people's first names. She says, "Matt, Pepere, Memere, Baby, Keeera (Keira), Keeba (Keira), Mama, Daddy, Sadah (Sarah), Ally, Joe, John, Tony, Alex, Teri (Kateri), Lexis (Alexis), Luke, Will, Pa, Peta (Peter), Aiden, Louisa, Doda (Dora), Nonah (Noah) and many others". Her vocabulary has literally exploded and she repeats everything. Here is a video of her saying her name.

Keira Breastfeeding

Keira likes to give Num-Nums/Nummies to various objects. This time was to her baby...actually her baby's leg. Cute and Funny.

More Cooking with Daddy

We decided to make some Granola Bars, so we turned on the tunes and Keira wanted to join in the fun of cooking, eating the batter and dancing. This video cracks me up because she can't help but shake her booty.

raking the roof

Don't you all wish you had to do this too?? After our latest snow storm dumped around 6-8 inches of snow and then sleet and then rain on top. "It as in the snow/sleet/rain mix" was so heavy Mike raked our roof. Here is both of us outside at 10 pm last night doing storm clean -up. Well I am mostly recording put prior to the recording we were both shoveling the ultra heavy stuff and lifting it onto piles that were waist high and iced over... so when you threw the snow junk on the piles it literally slid right down the mound because the piles are so high and all iced over!!!! Need I mention again that I am looking forward to spring????..
Apparently blogger is having issues... we have had issues for the past week trying to upload pics and now its having issues uploading video. I will get my computer guy to look at it!!!

Knobs

These are the knobs that we purchased on eBay for like $16. A friend of ours was gracious enough to paint them for us. They came out AMAZING!! Far better than Tanya or I would have been able to do and far more creative! THANKS AMY!!

bargians

My thrift store bargains from the weekend. These diapers sell for $17-20 a diaper. I paid $1 each!!! They are too small for Keira but we can use them on future bambinos

$35 Merrell shoes that I got for $3.75

$ These Carters sleepers sell for $10-20 each. I paid 1.99!!! They are size 2T

curtain haircut

before

after


after-

This is what happens when I get stuck in the house all winter.... I get restless and rearrange furniture constantly. Today I trimmed our curtains.... they are cheapo curtains anyway... I think I paid $12 ( for all of them) 2 years ago. They consisted of a valance and a curtain. The curtain part was always getting messed up by our couch and always looked messy so today I cut them off... you can't even tell since the valance hides the cut marks. The pics aren't that great b/c the camera kept focusing on the window but you can sort of see what I did.

Nice surprise

Mike came home Friday with some beautiful flowers for me and some yummy expensive fruit for all of use. Stuff I never buy this time of year... Raspberries, strawberries and cantaloupe!! Mike never buys me flowers which is probably a good thing... b/c if he did more than rarely he would probably get in trouble for spending money!!

2

FInsihed room 1

This built in bookshelf around the bed Mike built yesterday. It still needs a coat of paint obviously

and we still need to purchase a mattress... but since K will be in her crib for another year or so I think we have time.


The reason you don't see Keira all moved up here is that Mike's brother has decided to move in with us until his wedding May 9th.. soas we have no other place for him he will be moving into Keira's new room... so Keira will move up here in May when he moves out.

Beef stir fry

Its one of my favorites. Its easy, delicious and a great way to eat a bunch of healthy frozen veggies. Even Keira loved it and asked for more!!! I wasn't sure how good it would be since I used cube steak instead of something a bit more tender but it was great.
This recipe can also be used to Beef Shish kabobs which in the summer are really good grilled!!!
1 lb of beef stew meat or any sort of steak
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup red wine or apple cider vinegar ( I used apple cider vinegar)
1/2 cup water
1/2 vegetable oil ( I used safflower oil)
1-2 garlic cloves or garlic power
Onion powder
Italian seasoning
pepper

Cut meat into strips or bite size chunks and marinate in soy sauce mixture several hours to overnight- Cook in saucepan on stove with a bag or 2 of frozen veggies . I use the stir fry veggies which is carrots, broccoli and water chestnuts and then I add a bag of broccoli and cauliflower.

D'oh

Keira and I spent all day with the Kalpakgian cousins in Ghetto Newport, NH and of course I forgot the camera!!!!

Just Keira ...

Just Keira 1

The snow piles

Snow up to the mailbox


Keira compared to the pile of snow

Winter gear

Mike got some new boots from Cabela's. They are pretty cool. Lots of insulation, Gortex, waterproof.. yada yada. Here he is lacing them up for the first time so go shovel/snow blow the driveway on Sunday.

A new coat that was 60% off at Kohl's. I think he looks kind of snazzy in red!!

Fully outfitted to tackle the latest foot of snow!