Sibling comparison

Not necessarily the best side-by-side comparison, but each kid is about 1 week old in these photos.

Just Max

1 day old - in the hospital.
Grandma Oshel taking him on his first nature lesson. "This is a cherry tree."

Kate always insists on bringing me my bear. Mom tries to convince her to at least not leave it on my head. I stayed content here, for oh, about 3 minutes.

Daddy and Max

In reverse chronological order, since I forgot to upload my pictures in reverse. (One of the downsides of blogger.)

Max and grandparents

All from the hospital, when Max was just hours old.

Kate and Max

Kate really likes being a Big Sister. She often says, "I like my little brother" and "He likes me!" When she first met him at the hospital, after she had her turn to hold him, she kept asking whomever was holding him next, "Can I hold him?"

Max: day 1, day 8, day 15

Welcome to the world, Maximilien Charles. 7 pounds, 13 ounces. 19.75 inches long. Born at 11:25 am.Look at me, I'm one week old!

And now that I'm two weeks old, I can strike a pose.

2 year - 11 month Self Portrait

Play on a sunny day

Kate just wanted to greet you from her dare-devil slide on this sunny day. "Dare-devil?" you say? Yes. She likes to 'walk' down it, go forwards and backwards. And recently, after watching her do a couple of attempts, have convinced her that jumping off from the top might not be such a great idea. Sure, she was landing in the grass, but still . . .

Don't mess with me.

In the midst of our bedroom remodel, we exposed some of the eaves on the roof and discovered moisture and mildew. Picture a REALLY mad Jill, since we had just paid an outrageous amount on getting the roof redone last summer.

So Roofing Dude came out to the house. Diagnosed the problem. I figured it was a done deal. Until I got the bill in the mail. Now picture a REALLY, REALLY mad Jill.

This is the email I sent to the company (sorry it's blurry - it was the only way I could cut/paste it into this document):

Well, it took a couple of days, but they wrote back that we didn't have to pay. End of story. I win. I always win!

Bedroom remodel, part 1

We are remodeling our master bedroom, so that it can actually be called a bedroom. With the original construction, it was a one car garage, or maybe a carport. A previous owner finished off the space, but it didn't have a closet or a legel egress window - hence not really a bedroom. One of the first things we did when we moved in was to put in a closet system, seen in the first photo. We still need to frame off the closet and put in doors. But that is not the project we are working on this week (Spring Break). It's WINDOW time. Here are the "before" pictures.

This is the window that is being replaced today. It basically served as a nice little oven to the summer sun! There will be two smaller windows, for light and aestetics taking it's place. The egress window will be on the wall to the left. (Doug is on the left - his buddy Dave is on the right).

Bubble bath

Kate will stay in the bath until the water is cold. She LOVES her baths.

Kate, Lily, and the stroller

She looks so cute, in her dress and tights. She also enjoys racing around the house, pushing the stroller, and whatever dolly is nearby. Yesterday it was Lily.

Puddle Jumper

This is the face of a little girl who loves to play in the rain and jump in puddles. And not wear a coat. And not want to come inside, even though her mommy doesn't want to stand in the rain anymore.

Play in the snow

A couple of weeks ago, there was just enough snow in the morning for Kate to go out and play. She and Doug had a lot of fun (I had to go to a doctor appointment). Apparently, at some point she got tired of the mittens/ hat. And then got cold, so it that determined when it was time to go inside!

Where's Kate?

Kate and Saul

Well, Jade got much better pictures of Kate and Saul playing, so you really should go check out her blog. But here they are playing togethetr.

Water Colors

A couple of weeks ago, Kate and I visited mom & dad. Kate was enjoying painting with the water colors. And it was keeping her occupied while mom and I worked on dinner. Apparently she has a lot of fun with the black paint. Fortunately, it cleaned up super easlity.

February Self-Portraits

She wasn't really into them this month. So this was good enough.

Snack sharing

Kate and Grandma sharing a snack. Watch out! Tigger is about to share with you, too.