Wall demo complete

 Remember the wall???

 Yeah its gone! Lots of hard work this weekend by my dedicated husband. That lovely metal vent pipe will be removed of course and the ceiling patched and the floor fixed and the lighting changed.

 This is what I have been working on. Copious amounts of wall paper removal. Its so tedious and annoying. I hate wall paper. So much wall paper. Not only was it in the hallway/ mud room/ entry way its also all over my kitchen!

 We did get the plumber in to the move the floor vent. You can see the cut out on the floor on the R where is was next to the wall that was removed and now its moved to the L. Now we just need him to come back and move the vent pipe.

They are ohhhh so helpful.   :o)

New Year New projects!!!!

This wall (with the mirror on it) is headed for DEMO!! ( notice cute sleeping preschooler on couch) This is side 1 on the wall. Looking at demo wall from tv room.

  Our project list is a mile long but of course we are severely limited by lack of funds. So we have to do things slowly. The great question is always what project to do next. We have mainly been focusing on the outside but now that it is winter and I am  almost 8 months pregnant and nesting like mad its time for an indoor project. One of the first things I told Mike I did not like about this house was that it felt boxy to me. There are walls everywhere. You can not hold a conversation from one room to the next. I like the open floor plan concept. So naturally its time to remove some walls! :o) This project has been held up by Christmas and by the plumber. We can't do anything until the plumber moves two heating vents that are currently "in the way". We have been waiting over a month to get on his schedule. It was supposed to be done last week but of course we are still waiting. But we are familiar with that game. We also did not want to create dry wall dust while all the Christmas decorations were up. We took them all down yesterday so now its just a wait on the plumber. This picture was taken from the kitchen looking towards the mudroom and hallway to the garage. The white door in front of you leads to the garage. The wall on the L is the wall we are removing. So the mudroom will be open to the tv room/ Mike's room/ the family room with no toy clutter. Along with this wall removal will be a new floor and built in mud room storage and lots of our favorite --wall paper removal . Ladies and Gentlemen that's a vinyl "wood" floor. Yes indeed is it ugly.

 Ignore the piles of clothes waiting for the washer. Its laundry day. When is it not laundry day? Beyond the pile of whites is a gold thing. That's one of the heating /ac vents that has to be moved.

 To the R of the door to the garage is our "mudroom" which compared to what we had at our other house is heaven on earth. Its amazing the amount of jackets, boots, back packs, mittens, keys and gear that just needs to be kept by the door. Our family keeps growing and so does the junk by the door. ( this is only for one season too! All the summer shoes and gear is in the basement at the moment.)

One coat closet simply will not do ( we removed the door to this closet when we moved in). Mike is going to remove the closet and make this area all open with built in's galore. Similar to this http://pinterest.com/pin/535928424376852985/
After that if we have any money left I want Mike to build me these built in's in our other family room ( to hide kid clutter )
http://cavemancarvings.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-few-of-my-favorite-things.html
That pic is from my brother's house.

And after that in June/ Julyish when Mary heads home we are going to do a remodel of Keira's room (remove wall paper, paint, remove carpet etc) and move Keira and Nairi in together and the baby out of our room and into what was Nairi's room.
Wish me luck as we head into the land of drywall dust!!!

Merry Christmas 2012

 We had great celebrations Christmas Eve and Christmas day with both sides of the family. Everyone was healthy and together. The kids make Christmas so much fun. We forgot to bring the camera Christmas Day so these are all from Christmas Eve.

 making gingerbread houses with the Kalpakgian cousins... Apparently it was shirts versus skins?

 Mike's parents took the kids shopping to get gifts for each other which I had wanted to do with them but was too lazy I mean tired so it was fun to see their excitement in giving the gifts they had bought to each other.

Sickness

December was pretty much a bust. We have all been sick sick sick for the past week. Keira missed 3 days of school. It was a horrid respiratory illness that  has the kids coughing over a week later. And just  to make me more worried Nairi's fever returned yesterday am after being fever free for 2 days. She was acting lethargic and not drinking so Mike took her to the ER. Four hours later everything was negative ( chest xray, strep swab, influenza A and B, RSV) this am she woke up fever free again and appears to be fine other than a runny nose and cough.  It was a rough week with very little sleep. But its past us now and we are focusing on hosting a Christmas Eve bash for my family and cousins. A much happier post with some cute pictures coming your way tomorrow.

When your kids surprise you

Keira got to pick a prize from the prize box at school yesterday for reading to the class I guess. And she picked a truck for her brother.  Once in a while these types of things give me hope that maybe just maybe my kids will turn out alright after all.

Nairi's artwork?

 Black Sharpie on the desk

 Sharpie all over a brand new book of stamps ( the sharpies were  hidden in the desk, she somehow found them)

 green washable marker on the carpet

 red

 pink

 orange

Lucky for us that carpet has just weeks to live or months at most so I don't really care how gross it gets.  And the washable stuff washes off pretty easy. The sharpie not so much... I know the easiest solution is to just put the markers out of her reach but Keira and Israel spend hours writing and coloring so no matter how much I put the markers out of her reach they always end up back on the art table within minutes. And Nairi herself constantly asks to color so I don't really want to stifle their creativity....

Letters to Santa and trees

 Israel's letter to Santa. I like how he asks for "a Jesus" right there next to pencils and a bulldozer.

 Keira's letter. Her most wanted gift is a make up set.

 Tree #1 in the tv room. This one has all the kids tacky  I mean adorable handmade ornaments on it.

Mike wanted to go nuts this year and a get a tree that would reach up to our 10 foot ceiling. So there you go. Our first real tree of our marriage. Its a beautiful tree but the needles always on the floor thing has the potential to drive me nuts.

Christmas Tree hunt

Bits and Pieces

 First snow! Nothing makes this boy happier than mowing  the lawn or shoveling snow.

 I love when Keira plays dress up with Nairi. The outfits and accessories are interesting... note the cd necklace.

Keira's Thanksgiving program at school. She was beyond excited about the whole thing. I could hear her giggling before I could even see her!

20 weeks

1/2 way there. Yesterday at my appointment I reviewed my u/s results with my midwife. The u/s tech had told me I had somewhat of a previa ( placenta covering the cervix). Yesterday she told me I had complete previa which means the entire cervix is covered by my low lying placenta. However its the edge of the placenta that's covering the cervix and it still has time to be pulled away from my cervix as my uterus grows. Hoping and it praying it does.  Another u/s in 7 weeks to check the location of the placenta.