Remodel--99.9% Complete

It's been a dusty, loud, messy, and totally unorganized past two months.  And It was totally worth it!  We added a whole new room without expanding the walls of our house, but instead by adding a ceiling over the family room and filling in all that dead, wasted space that accompanied the 22-foot vaulted ceiling.  

I have been dreaming up this big room for months, and it has turned out exactly how I envisioned.

The kids, especially the younger ones, have love love loved the massive magnetic whiteboard on the wall.  Almost daily after school, EmmaClaire gathers a few neighbor kids and plays "school" with them. Buster and Kate are always willing participants.  I love that they are so creative with their free time.

And massive toy/game closet.  How have we lived without all this storage space???

The old loft was framed, all walled up, and turned into a linen closet, full bathroom, and another bedroom- which will turn into a baby room in a few months when this little guy arrives.

And another genius change was removing the cupboards( that were so narrow, you couldn't even fit folded towels in them. . . kind of useless space) and building a large, deep closet instead.  Now, we can fit cleaning supplies, a vacuum, coats that aren't worn by much, holiday decor, and big tubs for each of the kids' prized art work and writings from school.

And the only thing we lost was a 22- foot vaulted ceiling in our family room.  John and I actually like the feel of the new 10- foot ceiling better anyways.

Before the remodel, all the lighting we had in that lofty ceiling was one ceiling fan with three dim light bulbs.  And the fixture was so high up, we couldn't ever change a light bulb without a 15- foot ladder.  Or clean the fan, for that matter.  Now, we have a ceiling fan with light, 2 lamps connected to switches, and 9 can lights.  And upstairs above the family room, we added two ceiling fans and 9 can lights as well.  

We are really enjoying our new space and are soooo happy to have a functional, organized, clean house back again.

EmmaClaire was baptized.

She was baptized a week ago, along with two other  boys in our church congregation who recently turned eight.  The meeting was wonderful, and in my heart I felt such sweet, tender  feelings towards this sweet girl of mine.  She has such a desire to follow Jesus Christ, to choose the right, to be kind and inclusive of others.  She has such a happy, bubbly personality; being around her and seeing her smile is addictive.  We're so proud of her and of all the great choices she is making. 

lj

Andersen's First Loose Tooth

He's been wiggling it for about three weeks now.  As soon as he noticed it was a bit loose, he asked dad to pull it out.  But John said he didn't think it was quite ready then, so every day since, I've noticed Andersen wiggling it during homework, story time, dinner, etc. . . So exciting for this 6 year old!

He was quite nervous about John pulling it out, but quickly gained courage when all his older, more experienced siblings cheered him on and told him it won't hurt.  

As soon as the tooth came out and he ringed out his mouth, I asked him to come over for another "post" picture.  Within seconds of trying to get a picture of the hole in his mouth, he started saying he didn't feel well, then he got all hot, then his face turned white as a ghost, and he all but fainted in John's arms.  Wired.  We weren't sure if it had to do with the taste of blood in his mouth or the whole trauma of it. . . Either way, I didn't get a great shot of the toothless smile I was hoping for.

John carried him up to bed and made sure he was OK before tucking him in.  He woke up feeling just fine, especially since the Tooth Fairy left him with some big coins.

Big deal for this little guy!