snuggling, playing, raining and renovating

I used to be in the habit of blogging about everyday stuff almost daily. Somehow I've been busier now and when I have the time, I don't usually feel like writing. But looking back at my blog and reading those old day-to-day posts is something I really like. It's nice to remember all those little things, and to remember and see the pictures of everything. Sometimes I'll go into the archives and look at what we were doing one year ago, or two years ago on the same date. All this to say, (and I'm sure I'll be eating my words when I don't post again for two weeks or something) I want to get back in the habit of writing regularly.

Now that Celia's out of school, we're home on Tuesday mornings. This morning I knew we were going out later in the day so we had a very slow morning. We played, I gave the kids breakfast and cleaned up, we played more. They played upstairs while I put away some laundry (I did four loads today- clothes, towels and sheets). Henry was in a very snuggly mood for a while, and wanted me to carry him around. He kept hugging me. Then of course Celia wanted in, so we did a lot of sitting together and hugging. I didn't complain. We went outside and played, and ended up going for a walk down the road to the brook. Henry wanted to walk between Celia and me and hold both of our hands. It was adorable.

Blurry picture, but one I want to remember. He is such a sweet and delicious, snuggly little guy.

Henry's cheesy picture smile.

His hair is really growing now, and it's going to be curly! He gets little curls in back.

They were playing with baby wipes. Cleaning various things around the house. And each other's bellies.

After our walk, we played in the driveway for a while longer and went in for lunch. We had salad, leftover pizza, and the kids had fruit too. Then I cleaned up the kitchen again (I feel like all I do is clean up the kitchen) while Celia made a "bookstore". Henry was her assistant: A baby who also helped out at the bookstore.

I had to attend a staff meeting for work this afternoon, so we got ready and I dropped them off at daycare for a few hours. I went home and changed, and then headed toward the office. I always get a fancy coffee drink before I go to staff meeting. Staff meetings are kind of like vacations for me. Ha! When we were done, everyone's phones were going off with alerts about flash flooding. And then we heard the rain. Crazy, crazy rain. I have seen hard rainstorms, but this was the craziest rain I've ever seen. Usually when it rains hard you get that red doppler area. This was the pink and purple doppler and it was wild. So we were all stuck inside, waiting for the rain to let up so we could leave the building. And I remembered that China was outside at home, poor guy. It took a while for him to come when I got home and started calling for him. He was soaked. I had to dry him off with a towel.

I picked up Celia and Henry and we went home and got dinner ready. Chris was home making a model of the crown molding we're putting in the dining room. This room is turning into quite a project.

So far we have removed wallpaper, cleaned off the wallpaper paste, painted, and decided on molding and trim. This picture is a pretty good one of the new wall colors.

We have one base board in place. Chris is working on the rest. We are really interested in keeping to a traditional Georgian Colonial style with the renovations we do to the house. Neither of us was very excited about using the same old crown molding you see in every house these days. We wanted something more unique, and also something that fit the style of the house. So we decided to use dentil molding. The crown molding Chris is putting together actually has four separate pieces. It's going to be a lot of work, but we agree that if we're going to bother re-doing a room, we want to do it right. We want it to be the way we want it, and not take the easy route if it isn't what we really want. Here is the model Chris made for the crown:

It looks so good! As much work as it takes, and as time consuming as it is (and it is really not easy to get anything done when you have little kids!), I think it's really neat that we're doing all these things ourselves. We're both learning a lot and Chris is really getting a trial by fire in carpentry. Plus, I'm a big believer in doing things yourself because you have much more pride in and take more care with things when you've done them yourself. The dining room is only the beginning. This house is really going to be ours (and is going to be amazing!) by the time we're done with it.

Now I need to get myself to bed.