Christmas with the Mortensons

Saturday the 26th we went over to Josh and Jill's to celebrate Christmas with Grandpa Cliff. After a long week of spending time in CR, it was nice to be home again and just relax. However, after all of that time with family, we managed to bring a cold back home with us!

My Christmas Best

I took a long afternoon nap so that I could be ready to open presents on Christmas Eve. It worked! I was up until 1 am watching all of the chaos with my cousins. I let Mommy and Daddy open my presents this year, but next year I want to help!

Cousin Caden

My cousin, Caden, really loves me. He likes to make sure that I am doing alright. He's an empathetic little guy--when I smile, he smiles and when I cry, he cries.

New Faces!

I got to meet Uncle Lucas for the first time! He is stationed with the Army in Hawaii, so he hadn't been home to see me until now. He thinks I have "meat-sleeves". I'm just big-boned... I also met my Aunt Kris from San Diego, but we didn't get a picture together. :(

Spending Time with Grandma

Music Time with Daddy

I just happened to find Ross serenading Sage with a little guitar music one Saturday morning. She was so happy and interested to hear Daddy playing!

Christmas with Friends

On the 18th we hosted an informal Christmas dinner with good friends. I don't think Sage got put down all night. :)In Kate's defense, she just came from an ugly sweater party... :)

Like the canvas, Ashley? :) She's grown up a lot since then!

So Innocent

Barely Surviving This Blizzard...

Picture Time!

Our new camera came today--time to play around and we have the perfect little participant! :)

Tis' the Season

Pre-Christmas shopping warm-up. :)

Step 1: Christmas onesie and festive shoes.

Step 2: Take a nap while Mommy gets ready.

Step 3: We're off!

Showered with Love

Over Thanksgiving break, Sage met a lot of her extended family at two separate baby showers thrown on her behalf. The first was hosted by my stepsister, Kim, and my sister-in-law, Cammy, at Carlos O'Kelly's. We had a great time playing games and catching up on life. I will pass on those pictures as soon as I receive them.

The other shower was thrown by my mom for her side of the family--The Schumachers. Well, as Lauren could confirm, Schumacher actually means "Shoe-Maker" so the theme was shoes, shoes, shoes. My mom decorated with all of my old "fancy" shoes that I wore to school dances and then found shoes for Sage that looked like her Mommy's. It was adorable. :)

Aunt Trina helped me show off a pair of my new shoes that just-so-happened to match the cute outfit that I wore on my big day.

Great-Grandma Schumacher

More pictures showing how big I am getting:

My cheeks look like the little critter's cheeks on my shirt.

This is where I take A LOT of naps.

Brian, this picture is for you! :)

I'm not really into the book Opa is reading--Perhaps if it had a few more pictures.

So happy!

A little TLC goes a long way

When we bought our house a little over two years ago, it was somewhat of a "fixer-upper". Every aspect of the house was outdated, from the light fixtures, to the wallpaper, to the flooring, to the appliances. We were in no hurry to change everything right away, but over the past two years we have made a lot of changes. Most recently, Ross installed wood laminate to over 700 sq. ft. of our main level. It brought our home from the 1970's to 2009. :)

Below is the kitchen over the years. I will post other rooms later.

Final walk-through before we bought the house.

Summer 2007: Tore down wall paper, retextured walls, painted cupboards, new cabinet hardware, (soon after replaced baseboards and trim).

Fall 2009: Replaced appliances, painted backsplash, replaced bowling alley light fixture, and replaced the floor.

Here are some alternate views:

Summer 2007 (Yes, that is a bird cage on the wall. What you can't see from this picture is that there is a 5 ft. parrot cage just past that one in the middle of the living room!)

Fall 2009

Slowly, but surely we are making this place our own. :)