A Joyful Life: January 2010

What a whirlwind the last month and a half has been!! We hope you are all doing wonderful, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy happy safe new year celebration!! A lot has happened in our lives that has made it really difficult to get to a new post, and has made this a really long one!

NEW YEAR 2010!!

We had a wonderful time celebrating New Year's Eve at Andy's family's with his parents, grandparents and brother Ryan. We ate a lot of good food, had some good champagne and just a good time hanging out.

Mommy and Noah ready to ring in the New Year!

Noah hanging out with Daddy, showing off his sippy cup skills.

Noah didn't quite make it to midnight, but he woke up about 10 minutes after to wish everyone a happy New Year for about 5 minutes and then fell back asleep.

Mommy, Daddy and sleepy Noah...poor thing tried hard to stay up, he made it to about 11:00 p.m. :-)

Grandpa Chuck and Noah a little after midnight, they were tuckered out! :-)

CHRISTMAS

This will be a little out of order, but long story short, we got a new house (see full story below)! We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with Noah for the first time. We decided to have both of our families for dinner on Christmas, which was awesome.

Daddy helping Noah get the star on the tree. :-)

We spent the night before Christmas Eve at my mom's, enjoying some tamales, good company and gift opening. Here's Noah VERY excited to get his hands on his new moose! :-)

Uncle Brent holding Noah, who is wearing his new beanie that AnneMarie made for him (she's only 9!)

Grandma Eileen helping Noah unwrap a present.

Now Uncle Brent helping Noah!

Aww, kisses :-)

Noah LOVED ribbon...

Here's Noah Christmas morning, wide-eyed!

Santa came!

Our two babies, Noah and Kona by the tree Christmas morning.

First Christmas!

Mommy helping Noah with his stocking!

After our morning at home, we went to Andy's parents for brunch and gifts...I love this picture of Noah with Uncle Ryan (and Godfather), can you say "related" much? :-)

Christmas portrait

All the boys...and me.

Seriously, this was the best one we got...he was really excited. :-)

Did I mention Noah LOVED ribbon? Don't know why we bought that kid any presents... :-)

Brent and I at our house getting ready for Christmas dinner.

Our kitchen filled with family at Christmas! What a joy to be able to do this...:-)

Andy and I getting ready for dinner!

Enjoying some yummy food.

Our dining room with everyone (18 people!) It was really exciting for Andy and I do be able to do this, we look forward to hosting many dinners in this room over the years!

Noah eating some Christmas sweet potatoes.

Noah didn't really nap great on Christmas (excited much?), so here he is in his deliriously hyper state! :-)

Noah the morning after Christmas trying out his new toy from Mommy and Daddy...he's still a little small for it.

BEST BUDS

As Noah is getting older and bigger and more mobile, Kona is softening up to him more and more. She puts up with tail grabbing, hair pulling, and face petting constantly from this kid! :-)

NOAH PICS

Here is Noah during the move, being a patient little guy in his bouncy while Mommy and Daddy worked on the house.

"I like socks Mommy!" :-)

Noah very interested in the snowman...

Noah playing with some blocks he got from Grandma and Grandpa Baughman for Christmas.

Noah has learned how to spit...he really entertains himself with this.

Right after the carpet was installed, Noah was enjoying some floor time on the soft new carpet!

NEW HOUSE!

So....we got a new house! We've been looking off and on to buy a house for about 3 years now, had exciting and frustrating moments, and it basically came down to this being God's timing for us! Thank God too because of the market now, we got a steal on this house. It's just about 2800 square feet (we'll grow into it :-)), on almost a quarter acre...this drew me to it the most! A big backyard for a garden, to fetch Kona and for Noah to run around and play this summer! It was built in 2003 and is also located in a cul de sac, but it needed a little TLC. Our month before Christmas was spent painting, ripping up carpet, scrubbing floors, getting carpets installed, getting windows washed, installing toilet seats, spackling walls, spraying for pests, etc. etc. etc.! Quite busy, but we have about half the house left to paint, some bathrooms to finish kaulking, and other odds and ends. Lord willing and as far as we know, this is our "for good" house and it will be a lifetime of love making it our home. :-) YAY!

Our family in front of the new house - Kona, me, Noah and Andy.

The night we got the keys, our little family in the entry way of the new home, excited as can be!!

Andy and his brother Ryan getting ready to rip up carpet, they take this very seriously!

Andy putting some cement filler in the cracks under the carpet...what a job, but still smiling!

Chuck painting the garage...

And the finished project!

My paint sample wall...we had a love-hate relationship with Kelly-Moore during this time!! I think we tried every sample in the "tan" family they had to offer, but because of the red tones in the wood floor, some came out looking gray, pink or orange! We finally found our neutral color...Limestone Ridge. :-)

One of my jobs was taping the baseboards and floors before painting, this was my leg after taping...all the little extra pieces I ripped off to get straight lines went here. :-)

Andy VERY excited to finally have a lawnmower (we've always rented so we never needed one).

Hopefully this excitement lasts, I'm sure it will! :-)

Yeah...we forgot a rake.

This is gonna take a while.

One of our neighbors came over and said, "Why don't you just mow it up?" Yeah...we've never been homeowners and have never owned a lawnmower...we didn't know you could do that! What a sight that must have been...:-)