A Break from Cabin Fever

 

After being too cold to go out side for many many days we decided to take advantage of some nice weather while we had it. Something about fresh air just does a body good.
The warm weather is nice but it has also made a big mess of everything. Our driveway and roads in the neighborhood are just sheets of ice. The picture of Luke's boot in the middle shows how we manage to take a walk on them. Ice cleats--they work well and have saved us from many falls since we have lived here.

More Pics of our Floor

Here you go mom! I finally have the floor mopped and the table cleaned off at the same time. So, I took more pictures of our tiling job. Now you can see what the big tiles look like on the whole floor. The grout looks a little lighter in the pictures than it actually is.

Our latest project.

 

Friday night we prepped the floor for tile, picked up the tile saw, and visited Home Depot to get the last necessary tools for the project. We felt like we had accomplished a lot and the following day would be a success. Somehow in all of that, before we went to bed we decided we could mix a little of the mortar to lay a tile or two to see how easy it was. (I think we were talking about it would be much easier to experiment with this while the kids were asleep----shortly after starting they were both awake) Neither of us have done tile work on our own but both of us had watched others do it and helped a little in the process. Well we put some water in a bucket----WAY TOO MUCH water actually. I began pouring the mortar while Luke diligently mixed it. After dumping the first batch in the consistancy was like pancake batter--not good. We continued adding and mixing until we had nearly 5 gallons of mortar and Luke had mortar up to his elbows. Thankfully we are both easy going people and laughed it off knowing that since it was already 10:30 we had a LONG night ahead of us. Here are some pictures of the first night. We finished the night(MORNING) with 8--- 24 inch tiles down at 2:15. Luckily the next day a friend came over and helped Luke for awhile while I resumed my motherly duties. Luke worked hard ALL day long and we finally finished about 11 on Saturday night. What a man I married!!! Lastnight he grouted it while I mopped up behind him. Tonight the refrigerator and oven were moved out of the living room. How exciting!!

A New Year, A New Look!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

Luke had been asking for a haircut for weeks. However after the temperatures were so cold I convinced him that he needed all that hair to keep warm. We finally got around too it lastnight. Since I was going to be cutting hair I decided Eli needed a hair cut too. I put him in his booster seat and Luke fed him fish crackers. He didn't mind at all. It turned out much shorter than I thought it would be because I cut it the same length I do for Luke's at the top. Eli's hair is obviously much thinner so it looks shorter. I like it though. He looks all grown up and ready to turn one year old in just another week!

A new phase......

There is no picture for this post! I don't want to mess up a good thing. So far in my experience as a mother, it has been very hands-on and involved. Actually, it still is except for the small windows of time I am about to tell you about. The last three mornings have been different for me. After breakfast Micali has asked for Eli to play in her room. I put him in there with a pile of toys and then leave. She has kept him totally entertained for about 20 minutes each morning. I just hear laughter and giggling coming from the room. The first morning this happened I wondered what I was suppose to do. Surely one of them needed me....they always have so far. So, I went in every few minutes to check on them. The last two mornings I have quickly put Eli in Micali's room and then went about the house getting LOTS of things done without interruption. It is weird for me not to have a baby on my hip or tugging at my clothes!

2008 Year In Review

This post was a lot of fun for me to make. I just finished trying to pick a picture to post for every month. Since I had hundreds of pictures taken each month it was quite difficult. So the really fun months have more than one picture.

 

January: Eli joined our family. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to love this next baby as much as Micali. I worried that I wouldn't be able to handle having two kids. Then by the time it happened I was just so HAPPY not to be pregnant that the adjustment went smoothly and Micali welcomed Eli with open arms. She has been an amazing big sister! February: Daddy went back to school and enjoyed the moments he had to snuggle his little man. March: Mom and Dad Peless came up to meet their newest grandson and were astonished at the size of him. They were able to be here for his blessing at church. Then they helped us move around the corner to this house. I know we couldn't have done it with out them. April Micali had cabin fever and couldn't wait for the snow to melt to be outside.

 

May:We enjoyed having longer days and warmer weather. The picture is of Micali snuggling Eli, something she takes seriously as his big sister. June and July: These months were filled with tons of excitement. My mom and dad were able to come up and meet Eli. Unfortunately it rained daily while they were here but they got to enjoy spoiling their grandkids, which was the purpose for coming. Then my sister miraculously was able to get us down to Utah with her airline miles just a day before my sister's wedding. It was great to be able to be with her for that special day. Since we were in the lower 48 we decided to make a trip of it. We went to Kansas to see the rest of my family and then spent two weeks in Michigan and got to see Luke's side of the family there. Oh how I LOVED the heat. You didn't hear me complaining one bit when it was 100 degrees in UT!!! (oh dreaming of that now in my -32 degree weather). When we got back home Micali and I celebrated our birthdays. August: Back to school for Luke and back to reality for Kristen. I LOVE having my husband home and being able to be so unpredictable and spontaneous in the summer months.

 

September: We started our remodeling of this house. We put in new windows. Thanks to Bro. Brenner and his muscles. He saved me from carrying the windows most of the time. October:We had a nice day and were able to paint the outside of the house. November: Micali and Daddy enjoyed a Rib dinner. We also ripped out all the carpet and put in new laminate flooring. We spent the night of Thanksgiving painting until 1 in the morning. We were able to get most of it done. We are still waiting on tile in the kitchen. That is the planned project for this weekend. I will let you know how successful we are. December: We continued working on our projects, stayed home for the holidays, enjoyed our little family, spent quality time together and tried hard to stay warm!
What a busy year. I was sure I had been in REMODEL mode much longer than since Sept. That actually makes we feel good that we didn't start tearing apart the house until then. We aren't doing so bad on our pregress! Looking forward to good times in 2009!!

Thoughts and other randomness

Well, Luke is out working late tonight trying to get someones heater fixed so, their pipes don't freeze. It is really cold so I am hoping they are able to figure something out. I can't believe it is already 2009. I wanted to do a year in review post before this new year but now it is a little late. I still might try to do that though. It would be fun for me to look back and see what we have done. We have had a great Christmas break. This last week I watched a friends 3 little ones while they were able to thaw out in HAWAII!! Their kids are very well behaved so that made it nice and Micali enjoyed having friends around most of the time. She is still learning what sharing is all about. It seems that being an oldest child where everything has ALWAYS been hers this sharing thingis a whole new concept. We had a lot of fun with them though. Last night for New Year's Eve I told them we were going to have a party (we really were going to go to a party but because of the cold that was cancelled). All day they wondered when the party was going to start. Finally after dinner they still seemed confused about this supposed party we were having. We had sparkling cider with dinner(steak quesedillas as requested by TJ)and then later had rootbeer floats. The only kind of party they could think of had games, cake and balloons. After we told them this wasn't a birthday party they seemed to be okay with our kind of party especially after being served a rootbeer float. This morning we handed them back over to their parents and since then it has been strangely quiet around here. ;)
In other news our current projects underway are: our furnace is being replaced, our kitchen floor and entry way are ready for tile, most of the touch up painting is finished and one SWEET day our windows will once again have trim (hint, hint to Luke if he reads this :)
Alright I hear my husband coming in! GOODNIGHT!

Christmas

Here are the pictures of us opening up our gifts on Christmas Eve. The kids enjoyed opening their presents from cousins and we opened ours from Luke's brother Rerun and wife Kirsten. We were so excited to get an emergency radio and candle. Both very useful gifts and especially for us here in the winter time. Current temperatures since Christmas have been hovering in the negative 10-20's BRRR!

 

Micali got to enjoy Christmas over a few days and was thrilled each time she was able to open another present. She has enjoyed playing with her new toys and her imagination has just run wild!

 

Eli loves these little cars and trucks. Soon he will be making car sounds and zipping these things all over the place.

 

Thai Lotus

 

The Peless Family has a tradition of eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve. We called around to all the local places to find our options knowing that many may be closed for the holidays. Last year we had some really good Chinese food at a local restaurant here and were looking forward to this night to order from them once again. Well, they were our first call and their answering machine said, "We are closed until further notice." BUMMER!! So, we tossed around a few ideas....going and getting the fixings and doing it ourselves, looking in the frozen aisle to see what we could just warm up in the oven or calling more restaurants. We and already been working on projects all day and didn't want to have to make food for ourselves so we called around some more. We ended up going with Thai instead because they were the only restaurant in town open and we didn't want to risk driving far away and then having grumpy children when we got there. As you can see from the pictures we were the ONLY ones in the restaurant. We felt kind of like on the movie "The Christmas Story" and realized that this tradition wasn't shared by too many people here in Alaska. In Michigan the Chinese place we went to there was PACKED on Christmas Eve. The food was fine----quite spicy---and we enjoyed that we were able to leave the mess there. The kids were GREAT, we actually might take them out in public again sometime. After our bellys were full to our satisfaction we drove around town looking at the Christmas lights and then went home to open one present and read the story of the Savior's birth from the Bible.

Such a pretty pony---Micali's best friend

Micali has recently developed a new love for her pretty pony she got for Christmas last year. She rocked on it all the time when she first got it and even had to kiss little Denali goodnight before bed. Then we moved houses and Denali found a home in the play room downstairs. She would ride him and listen to him sing occasionally but now.....her relationship with Denali is at an all time high. There is no where she goes around the house that Denali isn't right at her side. Denali even has a special blanket and pillow and sleeps right at the foot of Micali's bed. The other day I was upstairs feeding Eli and Micali was playing downstairs. Next thing I know she has Denali cradled in her arms and was bringing him upstairs with her. It is fun to see her little imagination run wild. She used to hold a little stuffed animal and rock it while I was singing to Eli before naps and bed. Now she picks up this pony and rocks him back and forth--it doesn't really bother her that it is almost hersize. Well, as you can see from the pictures of her on Denali last year she has grown quite a bit. Especially that crazy blond hair she has. I should also point out in her recent pictures she has also started dressing herself. Mommy can't help(this is only allowed when we aren't going anywhere). This morning after showering she put her pajamas back on all by herself. Both of them inside out and backwards.