Cute photos

Amber continues to steal our hearts.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of her.

Finishing her spa treatment

Lunch

sleeping on mama

Sleeping

I've heard you should never wake a sleeping baby.

I got up this morning to find Amber sound asleep.  Sandi told me Amber was agitated earlier this morning and basically giving her mom a rough time.  What!!  Impossible.  How could this perfect angel cause any trouble? 

Unfortunately I had to wake her up so she could have breakfast.  I was hard to disturb such peace.

Our Baby Girl

Amber took no time making her way into our family, our home and our hearts.  We are still trying to figure out this whole parenting thing, but Amber is gracious and we have plenty of help. We are not great photographers partly because the camera isn't very good capturing daily life and partly because raising Amber is not the same thing as hiking a trail (where most of our pictures originate).  Below is a smattering of pictures from her first two weeks of life.

Our family

A smile?  Close enough.

Grandma and Amber on her 2nd day

Proud Grandpa

Last day in the hospital

I'm going home.  Peace out.

Sleeping in momma's arms.

A perfect angel

She's cute even when scowling

Grandma and Amber

sacked out!

Not a care in the world; sleeping on Grandpa

Final Tally

When I got back from New York I decided to make a lanyard holder for all my festival access badges.  They were often my only souvenir from a trip.  Some festivals I really enjoyed, others presented more challenges; they are all part of my LPA experience.

These lanyards represent:

• 14 years
• 3 countries
• 15 states (US)
•  24 cities
• 29 festivals

Kitchen baseboards

Since I couldn't install the kitchen floor until after the cabinets were installed, the installers left me the shoe-horn molding to wrap around the cabinet bases.  After I finished the bedroom and hallway baseboards I was determined to complete all the molding before I left for NYC.  It was quite a bit easier than the bedrooms and it really gives the kitchen a finished look.

cinnamon-stained hemlock baseboard meets up with cinnamon-stained maple shoehorn

And, just because I had the day off, I installed the transition pieces that came with the flooring.

This also cleans up the bedrooms and gives a finished look. 

Now, on to painting the new door jams.

Our Baby: 3rd trimester

This week Sandi began the 3rd trimester.  Our little girl is a little squirm-er and she seems to like all the same foods as Sandi.  Whenever Sandi informs me that the baby wants something, who am I to argue (probably a sign of things to come).  We can't wait to meet her.

Sandi modeling her patriotic maternity outfit.

No more dark wood trim!

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the remodel tunnel.  A couple weeks ago we had new carpets installed in the bedrooms.  It gave us a great opportunity to start the nursery with a blank slate instead of trying carve something out of an existing bedroom. 

Last week I took Monday and Tuesday off to install new baseboards in the hallway and bedrooms.  These were not fun days, but important in the life of the house and important to keeping my sanity.  I probably cut each length between 10 - 15 times before installing it. 

The hallway showing off the new baseboards.

The nursery with new carpet and baseboards.

Our bedroom has more of a charcoal tone to it.

The 70's dark wood trim is gone!

We are pleased with the results and can't wait to show it off.

Our punch list is getting shorter:

• Paint the door jams
• install laminate separators 
• new guest shower
• build bathroom cabinet