John's approval

John's dad has a tradition that I love. He calls each of his children every week, interviews them for fifteen minutes, and writes up the highlights from each child in the family journal. When I went home to meet his parents, I got my hands on the journal. The most memoral phrase described a period of our dating where I wasn't totally sure what I wanted to do about John, and I was described as "busy, scatter-brained, or just doesn't care" (a direct quote from John). For the record, I was probably a little bit of all three, though I might substitute "as terrified as ever of dating someone" for "just doesn't care". It was hillarilous to read about it a year or so later. No in-law has seen the journal since. However, John's response to my writing the blog is "for now we'll consider it even stephen with the family journal". So I took a picture and ran.

Christmas

With both John and I having recently started new jobs, we decided that we probably needed to stay home alone this year.

We bought a 2 foot Christmas tree and received presents from our families. Santa came during the night and brought what Kate H. calls my "old lady cart". You'll notice John in the kitchen making breakfast- either ebelskeivers or German Puffy Pancakes, in his family's tradition

In continuing my family's tradition (actually, I guess it would be my personal tradition), I looked like a wet rat all morning- shower, but no need to look pretty. I got a baby tiger!

Though we hadn't planned ahead, I wanted to do something Christmasy. A Gingerbread house sounded fun, but we didn't have the ingredients. Rice Krispies and crasins made due.

Hailey silliness

Hailey is our only neice, until this summer when we will have two or three more of them, and she will also have a brother. She is the person responsible for making me "Aunt Edna". She can always find something fun. Dave's shoes

What happens to your hair when you leave your barrets in too long

The best blanket ever

Showing Dave what cool stuff John has

Playing in NYC with the family

While some of my family were visiting, we all went into NYC.

This is me and Dave trying not to attact the attention of the Rockefellar Center Security after Dave scaled the wall. We never get too old for me to be the big sister- "Dave, PLEASE don't do that!"

Thomas, Hailey, and Liz.... starting to get cold

We took Hailey to Toys 'R Us, and dragged her out when once we felt we would soon be asked to leave. She would not allow any one to take any of the stuffed animals. She actually chased a woman who had decided to buy a kitty, took away the kitty and told the woman "No!".

Dave wanted to teach her how to drive and play baseball at the same time.

John carrying a post Toys 'R Us Hailey

Remodeling

Since we bought our apartment last summer, our lives have been dedicated to remodeling. It has been tons of fun, and now that we are almost done, we both feel like we sort of wish we still have more to do. Once we are done we will send out our official "we have moved, come visit us!" letter. Here is some of the recent progress we've made..... DINING ROOM This is what we started with. It gets much worse before it gets better. Notice the lack of French doors, the holes on the wall from John ripping the mirror off, and all the marks from where I'd ripped off the old mouldings. This picture is WEEKS later, after much sanding, puttying, sanding, puttying, installing doors, etc. Looks like it took five minutes, huh? This is more weeks later. More sanding, puttying, electrical work, cleaning, etc. Painting is a satisfying job. This is a few hours later, but it looks much better.

FRONT ROOM

Someday we will probably wish we still had a table saw in the front room. The front room went through all the same stages as the dining room. This is where it is now, except that I've painted the front door. There are earlier pictures of the front room and living room at http://flickr.com/photos/4j/sets/72157603416732470/ WORKER BEES We have had A LOT of help in our little project.....

Liz putting up our crown moulding (how many of us are lucky enough to have a little sister who is a professional carpenter? One of these days maybe my plumber brother will visit, too!) She also helped me carry in all the mouldings (they were more than a mile in total length). We thought that the delivery guys would do that- what a surprise! I'm glad she stopped to pose while holding like 30 lbs. of wood over her head. Boy, were we dead at the end of the day. We also did alot of painting. Thomas making some precision cuts. We will forever be greatfull that he persuaded us to buy a paint gun. Hailey really put in the elbow grease John after sanding the dining room Me painting the dining room I don't have pictures of Dave, the electricians, the carpeter, or the handiman (though I wish I had a picture of his face when he caught our window on fire- woah!!) This is my collection of all the outlet covers from our house. Funny that there are only two or three that match any other plate.