Evening Visitor

We had a fun visitor this evening. We have a baby of our own, but for some reason Abby and Sophie were pretty stoked to have an entirely NEW baby in the house.

Little Olivia was very free with her smiles. I think she liked having other kids to smile at. While Abby and Sophie enjoyed our little visitor, Alice didn't seem to like me paying attention to anyone other than her! When I was rocking her to sleep (for a pretty short lived nap) I couldn't help but think her awesome Grandma Harriet would love to switch places with me!

Basement facelift

We're still working on finishing things up in the family room downstairs, but I had a request to see a picture of the paint job I did downstairs. Anyway, here it is. It's a little difficult to tell the color I used since it isn't super dark or anything. It is called Imperial Sand - and it's pretty much a warm tan color. I think it turned out pretty well, certainly better than the stark white from before. The couches are new and I still need to figure out a good room configuration. Our room is really narrow - it's like 12 feet wide and 20 feet long, so it's tricky to find something functional that also looks good. We'll probably settle for functional.

We also got a new TV. It's big. WAY bigger than our 32" tube TV we bought 8 years ago. Hopefully this new TV lasts us at least 8 years. We still need to get some sort of console/entertainment center for underneath. I'm thinking something wood and black, maybe kind of chunky? Who knows, but I'm looking for a deal so it could be a while. In the meantime, coffee table it is.

Happy Groundhog's Day Alice!

Alice just had her first birthday on Tuesday. She doesn't seem like a 1 year old to me, she's still just my little baby. I took her in for her 1 year check-up yesterday and she is almost 19 1/2 pounds. I can't remember all of her other stats, but she is pretty much in the 30th percentile for everything. She's just my little stinker baby. I keep thinking she is kind of big, or average since she is bigger than her cousin Liam. I suppose I need to find another baby for reference!

Alice loves her mommy and would happily let me carry her around the house for pretty much everything. She has been a great blessing and is really a pretty easy baby. She has her moments, especially with her tendency to scream for attention at mealtimes - but she just wants me to know when she needs more food. She's a great eater and a wonderful sleeper. Alice can say a few words, although the only one she says consistently with an obvious reference is "Po." We probably should have given the dog a harder to say name. I hate to lose out to him.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our celebrations. Alice especially loved her birthday cake, but kept getting angry when she couldn't get the chocolate off her fingers by shaking her hands. (I thought it was funny.)