Family Pictures

We went to a park and took a few family pictures today. Maybe someday I'll actually hire someone to do it for us so I'm not running back and forth. Haha! I was a little sad that we didn't get any of just Will and myself, but unfortunately the smallest one ran out of patience quickly. ;) Hopefully we can get some for our anniversary next month.

Kitchen: After!

As some of you know I started the craaaazy project of painting my kitchen cabinets when Elizabeth was just 5 weeks old. Yeah...some people can't wait to get back to working out, or back to their career, or whatever. Me, I can't handle not having a house project, apparently.

I did just a few doors at a time and took it nice and slow. I didn't do tons of prep work - I scrubbed everything down really well with TSP. Then I filled the old hinge holes and sanded everything down nice and smooth where ever it was needed. I also checked everywhere for rough/greasy spots and fixed those before priming. I then used "bonding primer" from Lowe's, and did two coats of that, then the top coat, which I used Valspar's top line, Reserve, in Seine. I was going to use Sherwin Williams, but decided against it because 1. They didn't have the EXACT right color I wanted, and 2. The paint they recommended was oil based, which...just...no. Not with a baby, and in the winter! We might all die. And the Reserve was no VOC and it really didn't have a smell. It was really good paint, I would use it again.

This is a before picture, obviously. I realize now that I don't have the picture I thought I had of the kitchen before - when the previous owners hadn't moved out yet. I wanted to show off the beautiful (...) lace curtain they had in here. Oh well!

Here's one I took before I put in the floating shelves.

Aaaand the dining room. I might as well include that one too.



Afters:

Two months old!

The little cutie pie is now 2 months old. I can hardly believe it! I never took "official" one month pictures, oops! Ain't nobody got time for that. (Life has been a bit busy lately. ;) )

January was a crazy month. I had so much going on! I flew up to visit my parents in North Dakota, which was great. I'm very glad I was able to take Elizabeth up there to meet them. She did awesome on the plane. The first plane ride I was a little stressed out at first because she was crying first thing, and they made us switch seats right when we got all settled in and comfortable (at least, as comfortable as you can on those teeny, tiny planes). Then they told everyone "Sorry for the delay, we had to move this baby to the other side." I thought, great, now everyone is even more annoyed by the baby! Hah! But thankfully everyone was VERY nice and kind and she ended up sleeping almost the entire time.

Here is how Elizabeth is doing lately:

- She is a great eater and is growing like a little weed! The most common comment I get about her is "She's so long!!!"
- She's been an awesome sleeper so far, which *knock on wood* I'm hoping keeps up. This mama loves her sleep.
- She absolutely adores bath time. It's probably her favorite thing. If she's in a funk and won't stop fussing or crying, so far bath time has always been a magic fix!
- She loves getting her diaper changed. Often another magic fix for her, but the results are usually much shorter lived if she's feeling cranky.
- She just started playing with toys the other day.
- She is extremely interested in the world around her. She is so wide-eyed and you can see her just taking in everything around her.
- She started smiling back at us around 5-6 weeks old, and I absolutely love it. So do her big siblings.
- One of her favorite things is when I stick my tongue out at her. She is very amused by it.
- She coos, gurgles, smiles and does this funny squeaking sound when she's happy. She is so fun!