Down by the River: Spring has sprung... for me anyways

Well... it's been 4 months since I've done this! Feels like even more than that actually- we packed a whole lot in! We actually painted the first floor last October or November, so some of those pictures might be in older posts, but we've finished the bench in the "mudroom"/garage entry, painted Lily's room, and painted the extra bathroom. I'm really bad about accessorizing or decorating the rooms, so the walls are still pretty bare, but I do have curtains up in Lily's room- okay, they still need to be hemmed... (who's taking bets as to when that'll happen?!?!) We did hang roman shades in her room and I finally decided to shorten the pull cords after a few weeks.... yeah, I shortened them while they were up!!! Arrghh!!! Of course I made them so short that they didn't even go down 1/3 of the way. So Chad took them down and they are still in a heap waiting to be restrung. Soooo mad at myself for that! These aren't the cheap plastic ones either- they are the "cheap" fabric roman shades - cheap for what they are, but way more of an expensive mistake than the plastic ones from Home Depot. We also bought new appliances- thank you Uncle Sam! Okay- I guess it's just our tax $ we paid in excess last year, so we can thank ourselves! We are still trying to sell the old stove and microwave if anyone is interested! ;) I think we have the paint picked out for our room and bathroom, but we are not really looking forward to painting those rooms... cathedral ceilings.... so, who knows when that'll get done. Right now, we are willing spring to get here- I see green popping through the ground and buds on the trees- oh, and Chad's allergies are starting in all ready and he's contracted his first case of poison ivy for the year -- buy stock in Zanfel, Chad'll keep the price/share up! Poor guy gets poison ivy just looking at a picture of it and I could probably roll in the stuff and not be affected! We already have the boat cleaned/scrubbed, etc! (I don't think it got done at all last year...ooops) Our goal is spend a lot more time outside and on the water this year - so far, we're sticking to it. I suppose I should post some pictures - these will be snippits from the last few months- although all the house stuff I described above will have to wait because I don't think I even took pictures of the rooms yet.

Celebrating Eric & Angie's announcement! (okay - this was last summer...)

Me holding Brielle Kimberly in the hospital. (born 2/21/09)

Brielle at home- snoozin' in the swing.

Lily- so excited to be a big girl and hold her new cousin.

After a weekend in Green Bay, Lily inherited many hand-me-downs from Maya and Colin - her favorite were the ELMO shoes!!! Even had to sleep in them a few nights! Thanks Dewittt's!

Even MORE Elmo!!!

Snow Day - it's too cold and too much snow to go to school, so lets stay home in our swimming suit- duh, what else would we do.

Oh- and play on Mommy's computer (thank goodness for key-lock!)

Later that day(or sometime this winter) - Lily chilled in the snowbank so we could clear off the driveway. She runs away from Daddy w/ the snowblower - it's "yowd & scawy"

Christmas time!!!

Lily's first school program.

Completely mezmerized by the Elmo movie from her teachers.

Silly cousins on Christmas Eve - Yesenia & Lilianna.

A (blurry) family picture - Christmas Day at my parents house. (trying to get a 2 yr old to hold still long enough...)

In my attempts to be more politically educated myself, I think my daugter actually watched more of the inaugural events than I did....

"Look! I'm Grandpa" is what she said to me just before I took this. (Playing with my safety glasses) I guess Grandpa is setting a good example when we're not around.