Progress Report

Okay... this is long overdue and things aren't finished, but this is where they currently stand... shoes on the floor and everything.  Here are a few of the before and after pictures of most rooms in the house: (There's a spot on the lens of my camera- on the inside.  That's why there's a dark blurry spot on all the pictures)

Before: Living Room

After:

Before: Kitchen (I think it looks messier after!)

After:

Before: Bathroom (The picture was taken when there was no power on in the house- so it's really not so great.)

After:

Before: Guest Bedroom (Come stay with us!  Right now it's mostly being used as a holding station for my craft stuff until the family room gets new carpet.)

After:

Before: Jared's Office

After:

Before: Laundry Area/Side Entry (Before this had a door that wouldn't even close because someone had kicked the door in.)

Before: Connector room/wide spot in the hallway- I'm still not sure what to call this area.

After:

Before: Hallway

After:

Before: Caroline's Room

After:

Before: Master Bedroom

After:

Before: Master Bath

After:

Before: Master Closet (it now has the furnace that dad relocated- before there was no heating in two of the bedrooms)

After: 

Before: Family Room (This room still needs new carpet, but now has a functional back door and a lovely assortment of free furniture. It's still being used as a kind of work room, but it's nice to have such a nice space to work in :)

After: 

That's it!  There's still lots of things to be should/could be done.. trim around some doors,  roofing, windows, yard work, electrical, organizing, hanging pictures, et al, but it's come so far and it really is a very nice and comfortable home.  We're so happy to be here!

Caroline at 7 months

I feel like she can't really be 7 months old- because then she's closer to being a year old than she is a newly born baby.
Like it or not, she's growing up.  This past month has seen a lot of changes:
- Her coordination has improved drastically.  Before she would flounder and if she happened to grab something that was cool.  Now she sees something and very deliberately goes for it.  And then it goes in her mouth.
- She can stand up... with the help of the wall.  She actually seems to have better balance standing than sitting.  She still doesn't roll from her back to her tummy, or lift up on her arms (I think they're just no match for her head), or sit up on her own, but she'll stand for pretty long stretches.
- She really likes her Jumparoo and can finally reach the ground or at least the pile of books underneath her.
- She doesn't like to sleep through the night anymore.  It could be because she's growing or because she's going to be earlier (around 7:00), but I can count on her waking up at least once during the night.  Usually around 2:30.  Sometimes she'll wake up around 10 or 11 which is awesome because it means that I can feed her then and most likely won't have to get up again before 7:30.  She did surprise me on Saturday morning- we'd put her to bed at 9ish on Friday night and I didn't hear from her again until 8:00.  Blessed uninterrupted sleep! (I'm really pretty spoiled in the sleep department).
- She's still going strong on solid foods.  We're still only doing two meals a day, but I've got to start bumping it up because I don't think she's satisfied with what milk I'm producing anymore.
- She's found her feet.  She doesn't put them in her mouth just yet but seems to like just holding onto them.
- She doesn't really cry much at all.  She fusses when she needs something. it's usually pretty mild and I appreciate it. She's a good baby and a sweet little girl.  

Caroline's room... we're working on getting some things on the walls.

What's up?!

You talkin' to me?

uhhhh... it wasn't me....

7 months

1 month

Yum yum!

Shortly before Christmas Caroline had her first go with Solid foods.  So far she has enjoyed rice, oatmeal, squash, prunes, peas, and pears.  (and a little taste of ice cream :)

(We have a video but "blogger" doesn't like it.)

Caroline in South Carolina

I wish Jared and I were better about taking pictures, but we're not.  So here are a few of the pictures we have to document our trip:

On the plane.

At the skating rink.  Yay for black lights.

Helping aunt Geri with her ipad.

Caroline also gave us her first shoulder shaking laugh.  We only caught a little of it at the end of this video, but it sure was cute!

The ones that didn't make it on the Christmas card

Future blackmail pictures for Caroline.  Some of them are pretty cute, though.

Add caption

Thumbs up, dude.

Temple Square

Note to self: don't go to see the lights on a night when MoTab is doing their Christmas concert.  Traffic was CRAZY!  We spent 2 hours driving to Salt Lake so we could spend 30 minutes walking around and 15 minutes in one of the visitors centers feeding Caroline.
But is was lovely and now we know when NOT to go. :)

Blowing insulation

I know I need to post pictures of the house and the progress we've made, but I have to take them.  So for now all I can offer are these winners.  We rented an insulation blower from Home Depot and filled in one wing of the house that was sadly lacking adequate insulation.  We did it right before a pretty serious cold snap, but I'm pretty sure it helped.

Merry Christmas

We enjoyed Christmas Eve with Jared's family here in Springville. Christmas Day we opened presents at our house and then spent most of the day at Jared's parents' so Jared could tile their hearth  for their Christmas present.  We then packed up and went to bed early for our flight to South Carolina.

Christmas Morning

She did a pretty good job opening her presents

Her "new" Jumparoo

That's still a little too big.