Front Entry and Lily at 6 Weeks

Well, life has been very busy with our sweet (and grumpy) Lily Grace.  Everyone who's ever had a newborn knows this stage all too well!  We're adjusting to life as parents, and she's figuring out how to do this "life outside the womb" thing.  Her personality is already shining even at six weeks and her temper flares regularly.  She's a feisty love bug who always keeps us on our toes!

She's not happy with "tummy time"

Lily's rage during daddy-daughter time.

She didn't like her one month photo shoot, haha.

Not a fan of family photos either.

Not too happy about getting ready for church.

She can be a pistol, but she has her
cute moments too.  Either way, she is loved!

On another note, Mike is back to work while me and little miss fussy pants are cruising at home.  I don't get a lot of free time, but I thought I'd take this moment of silence to update on some more house progress.  Mike didn't get to work on as many projects as he thought he would during his paternity leave.  He was a little busy changing diapers, singing to baby and watching about 40 World Cup matches.  I'm not even exaggerating.

We were able to refinance right after baby was born and do a few major things on the house.  1) We got the roof painted so 2) we can put solar.  We're on the waiting list, but it'll still be about six months or so before the panels go up.  3) We are getting the exterior of the house painted, so Mike will need to prep the outside by caulking and patching certain areas.     

One of the major accomplishments he did was redoing the front entryway outside.  The wood was rotting and the paint was awful.  It was on our list, but we didn't know when we'd get around to doing it.  Since we're getting the outside painted and we had redone the front doors a while back, it made sense to redo this area.  Here are some before and after shots.  It will look much better once the house gets painted, but you get the idea :)

This was a big project that we did several months back...

Another angle.

Under construction.

Doors done, but entry way needs work.

And so it begins.

Mike's handiwork.

Another angle.

Working hard.

Luke helping repair the concrete slab.

Close up.

And it's finished!  Now we're just waiting on the exterior paint!

  

Tired Momma

   This momma is tired!  I can officially say that I'm starting to have low back pain when I stand for long periods of time.  Yowzers, it's like my tailbone needs to pop or something.  Baby pressure, hehe.  It started this weekend when I worked on house projects all day both Saturday and Sunday!  Going into week 20, if that's my only qualm with pregnancy, then I guess I can't complain :)

Week 19, in the classroom.  I'm going to try to
remind my students to take one every week!

In other news, Baby is healthy and likes to move a lot.  We found out we're having a GIRL!

The first and only thing I have bought for our baby girl... since she will love her daddy!
Five Onsies for ten bucks.  Besides free, you can't beat that.  I love Ross!

Baby Girl is already waving hello!  She has basketball hands like her mom :)

   On another note, I finished my semester grades and comments on Friday... it feels really good to be done.  There are still a lot of things I need to work on at school, but at least that task isn't looming over my head anymore.  

   I do feel that we got a lot accomplished this weekend.  This was our first weekend back in Hawaii since before the holidays, so there was a lot to get in order.  I can cross a few things off my list, but still have a long list to go.

   People from church and Mike's work have already blessed us with a bunch of baby stuff, but a nursery is one of the last things on my mind right now.  Here's what the room looks like so far.

Pretty lame, huh?  But it has a lot of potential... :)

   Here's a peek at what Mike and I worked on this weekend.  It's been a long time coming (only about 7 months), but we're finally closing the gap!  I'm sure our neighbors appreciate our doors being the same color again.

Touring the house before we bought it.  Like the chandelier? 

View from front entrance.

Work in progress.

Still in progress.

First day of sanding.

Finally finishing up... painting the surrounding trim to match.

Stain complete, but still need to varnish.

Just a little messy.

That'll take a while to come off.

View from inside.

Another shot, still need to varnish.  It was too dark outside to take a pic of the front.