A wall

We have our first basement wall.  Our brother in law Mike came and helped my Mike install it last Saturday.  I went down and looked at it about 100 times after they were finished because it made me so happy. 

{The first of the drywall going up.}

So here's the before:

{Can you spot the light switch hanging by its wire?}

 

 

 

And now the after:

Now it's an actual storage room instead of just the storage area of the basement!  We'll be able to attach the light switch to the wall and everything. 

It's a small start, but it's a start.  We're still pricing out getting bigger windows cut into the foundation, ones that we'll have to dig wells for.  A lot of the framing will have to wait for that, which means waiting until the spring, since it's kind of too late in the season to dig window wells now.  We're going to do what we can in the meantime and *fingers crossed* we'll have the basement done by this time next year.  Just thinking about it makes me happy.   

Family pictures!

Family pictures with a 2 month old weren't super easy.  They were during her nap time, which had everything to do with it, I'm sure, but our photographer, Amber, did a fatastic job with what she had to work with. :)

We had them taken at Wadley Farms, where our wedding reception was.  Getting married in the dead of winter, we really didn't get to take advantage of the gorgeous property and gardens.  We remedied that with this little photo shoot, though. 

{I love this expression.}

{Mike and Mim had a little daddy-daughter photo shoot while I was changing the baby.}

{Hide and go seek.}

While we were there, we saw Alan (one of Hugh's closest friends and the owner of Wadley Farms) and he told us about the castle he's currently building.  Oh wow.  This place just gets more awesome all the time.  I hope we're around here when our girls get married so they can have their receptions at Wadley.  In a freaking castle. 

I let her decorate her own cupcake

There's a good half inch of sprinkles on the top there.  She thought it was great. 

The cupcake was one of several dozen that I made for the primary kids.  Mim helped decorate the cupcakes that the kids got, too, although she was much more closely supervised.  We had the program on Sunday and it was wonderful.  They sang so loud and did so well, I had a big permagrin after the first few songs because it was so great.  I love being in primary.  I hope music leader is my calling forever. 

Go to the hospital, get a baby!

Here's a little interview I tried to do with Mim.  She loves telling me the story of Eleanor's birth from her perspective.  She talks about how Grammy and Grandpa came over and she went in Grammy's car (which is red) to Grammy and Grandpa's house and Lexi was there and then they went to the hospital to get the baby.  She threw in some new details the last time she told me and I thought I better try to get it recorded, here's the attempt(s):

 As you can see, she wasn't too interested in telling me all about it.  I need to keep the camera handier so the next time she starts to tell me about it I can whip it out.  I need to keep it handy so I can get some more of her dance moves, too.  What you see in the second video is only a tiny sample.  We usually have several dance sessions a day, and she goes for it whenever she hears music.  I love it.

Tummy time champion

She rolled!  The first time was Thursday, I believe.  She did it once and I rolled her back, then she did it again almost immediately and it surprised her and she got her big sad face.  So funny.

I took this video Friday, she had already rolled once.  Oh, and that's me telling Mim to go put a shirt on midway through the video. 

Don't mind the Super Why.

Laughing?

Yep.  On Saturday, during bath time, our little Ellen-door had her first laugh.  She's been so close for a few weeks and she finally let loose.  We didn't get the best ones on camera, but on this clip you can hear her get really close.  Sooooo cute.

She loves baths.  Mike got a few stills of some of her biggest smiles on Saturday, too. 

{This one's my favorite.}

{Not really smile, but still a cute face.}

Happy Happy Halloween!

Most of you have probably already seen this via facebook, but here we are at Mike's work party for Halloween:

I know, I know.  It's pretty much the same as 2 years ago, all I did was make a turtle (technically a koopa) costume for the baby.  I just knew there was no way I would get 4 new costumes finished, what with still figuring out how to mom 2 kids.  I did make Mim's hat a little easier for her to wear (she still was sick of it by the time we were making our last visits). 

I have to say, Mike's work party was pretty much the ideal audience for these costumes.  A bunch of computer guys and their kids- we didn't have to explain to anybody who we were.  Mike even won an honorable mention in the costume contest.  I'm pretty sure that if they had done it after me and the girls got there he would have won.  I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, for next year we're planning on an all new theme, so just you wait.