Busy Start to 2009

We had a great Christmas and, so far, a wonderful new year. The house addition got finished just in time for us to put up our Christmas tree in the new living room. It never did get decorated, but it was enough to just have it there.

The babes don't "get" Christmas just yet, but they certainly seemed to feel the excitement and squealed as they ran in to explore their new toys. We got them a play kitchen, a "Kangaroo Climber" with a little slide, and some other toys (some of the biggest hits were ones I picked up at the multiples club garage sale a couple of months back).

Once we had the furniture in the new living room, we were able to turn the old living room over to the kids as their new playroom, and bring the old dining table back in from the workshop... it's nice to be able to sit down for a meal again!

On New Year's Day we hauled our old mattress into our new bedroom (the new bedroom furniture wouldn't arrive until a week later), but realized that we had some drywall repair and painting to do in our old bedroom before we could put the kids in there so we all slept in the new bedroom together for a few nights (fortunately we have a pack & play for each of them). They are all sharing a room now, which is working out better than we expected. The twins are used to sharing a room, but we were worried that they might keep Sarah awake, or vice-versa. Instead, they all seem to keep each other company, and we have even been able to get Sarah to bed at the same time as Jimmy & Katie. She still wakes up earlier than they do most mornings, but fortunately they sleep right through her crying.

This week we are finishing up the wall repairs and painting in the front part of the old house, which includes the playroom, so it's pretty crazy at home right now. Kristina and I took the kids to the aquarium all day yesterday to stay out of the way, then we had to improvise a play area in the dining room for the next couple of days until the drywall work is done. Over the next week or two we'll have it all painted, get the new carpet installed, and be back to normal in that part of the house anyway. Outdoors, we had grading work done last week, sod put down yesterday, and a new walkway and patio are in the works. A little bit of fence for their outdoor play area, and then we should be able to take a breather for a little while before we move on to the rest of the project list.

I have finally uploaded more photos from December, Christmas, and a few January pics too.