Wood Bridge

We bought a new house. Actually, we bought a house in late September, and the house is far from new. We will be moving to East Memphis, to a subdivision called Kirby Woods, on a quiet little cove with lots of kids for our kids to play with. The house was built in 1968 by a couple who lived in it (and took amazing care of it) until they sold it to us in September of last year. The house was in great shape but did need some updating. Lots of wallpaper, blue counter-tops in the kitchen, original appliances. And an upstairs that was only partially finished but had amazing potential. What started as a little updating, turned into some major renovations. And our original Thanksgiving move in date and has turned into early March. I know it will be worth the wait. A few "before" pics:

This is the den. This is not our furniture :)

The kitchen looked like this. Lots of space, but needed some changes. Other than the obvious updates, we are moving the refrigerator and opening up the wall to the den.

Wallpaper as far as the eye can see!

More wallpaper. And lovely blue carpet. It was in great shape, but still blue. The trim looks white in this picture. Not so. It's actually a pale shade of mint green. I didn't notice that until the wallpaper was gone. The door downstairs leads to a bathroom and four bedrooms, one of which is being converted to a master bath.

Upstairs game room. This was Andrew's favorite part. As far as he was concerned, we bought a ping pong table that just happened to come with a house. Of course, we are keeping it. It's been a lot of fun already. Eventually the upstairs will have two bedrooms, a playroom, and a bathroom. 

Now some pictures of the recent progress. This is actually a few weeks old, but it's the best I got. There has been a lot going on lately - we actually have walls again and I'm feeling optimistic. Back to the dirty work...

At least the workers are cute!

The dining room is currently a staging area for fixtures and appliances. And extra lumber.

One of the downstairs bedrooms is on it's way to becoming a master bath. It was a difficult project, but it's coming along nicely. I'm very excited about this one!

Andrew is showing off his work in the future master bath. He has been a great helper. There are no pictures of Noah because he is definitely not interested in manual labor. To each his own.

While it will be sad to say goodbye to Midtown, this house has so many great things that we have been missing. Like covered parking, outdoor storage, a quiet street where the kids can play with neighbor kids. And a shorter drive to work and schools. We hope this is the last move we make for a long time! 

Holidays 2013

Since I'm so far behind, I'll start with a few pictures from Thanksgiving. Andrew was an Indian in the kindergarten Thanksgiving play. I forgot to give him a headband with a feather in it. Luckily, his hair was sticking up from where he slept on it the night before. It all works out :)

Andrew and his bud Preston shared the Thanksgiving bird...

Next up was the Christmas program at Holy Rosary. Here he is, back row on the far right.

 He really got into it on Jingle Bells. Overall, he looked sort of uncomfortable the whole time. Later, I found out why, when he ran to the bathroom after the two hour program was over.

The kids were not terribly excited about seeing Santa Claus this year. We didn't make any special trips, but did happen to run into the jolly old man at the annual DSAM holiday party. Andrew could not decide what to as Santa to bring him. In an effort to make Santa's job easier, I convinced him to ask for a surprise gift. 

 A few shots from Polish Wigilia, before Noah fell asleep and we had to leave early. The food was great, as usual, but the little one was not in the mood to socialize.

Christmas Eve starts with an early dinner at Babcia and Dziadek's house. 

Then we head to Nana's where the boys play with cousins and tear into a pile of presents.

Santa's surprise gift was a mini foosball table. Andrew was very pleased. Noah got a teepee, but I forgot to photograph it. After church, we spent most of the day lounging at home.

Noah also got an umbrella, and Andrew took it for a spin.

 Annual kid photo from Nana's. Everyone is cooperating and looking at the camera - a great end to a wonderful holiday season.

Halloween and Fall Fun

On a particularly nice fall day, we took the boys to the Botanic Gardens for the afternoon. Andrew took off to the kids area, but Noah indulged me and posed for a few photos in the Japanese garden. He's so great :)

Some random weekend fun... Andrew painted a very progressive birdhouse, and we hung it on the front porch. I think our Midtown neighbors approve. No birds have ventured in, however. Might help if we actually put some bird seed in there, I suppose.

Andrew was obsessed with the Lincoln Logs at after school care. So he decided to save up money to buy his own set. We checked out Target (they were around $22) and created a chart so he could see his progress. About the time he made it to $7, Angie found a gigantic box at Goodwill. The price, coincidentally, was $7. Andrew couldn't be more pleased. The lesson we learned - how to save for something you really want. But also, check Goodwill, 'cause you can score a really awesome deal.

We had some fun with DSAM at the corn maze. My amazing sense of direction got us to the half-way point, and then we lost interest. It was also really muddy from days of rain and our shoes were disgusting. Except Noah's, his were fine.

Noah's first turn at the bouncy pillow. I have tried to keep him away from bouncy houses and inflatables until we had his spinal x-ray. Kids with Down syndrome are susceptible to Atlantoaxial Instability - too much separation between vertebrae of the spine, which can be very dangerous if the child is in an accident that jars the neck. If severe, spinal fusion surgery may be necessary to correct it. Thankfully, Noah's x-ray came back normal. He still doesn't have the stability to navigate the bouncy pillow on his own, but he enjoyed it anyway. (On a somewhat related subject, Noah's swallowing has improved - he has moved from honey consistency to nectar. Very exciting, because for the longest time there was no change. We still have to thicken his liquids, but not as much. All around, good news from our doctor's visits this month!)

Halloween Flashback? Same costumes as last year, that's right. Andrew said he wanted to be Batman again this year. I asked if he wanted a new costume, and he said he wanted to wear the one he had. And of course he wanted Noah to be Robin again. Noah is too young to engage in a meaningful debate, so here we go again:

Noah trick-or-treated a few houses and called it quits. He's not a big fan of candy anyway, but he did get some good stuff for me! Andrew did quite well and canvassed several streets. His favorites this year were Pixie Sticks. He ate all of them out of his bag and hasn't touched the rest, except for a random bag of candy corn last night (shout out to Auntie No, fellow candy corn fan!). 

Pumpkin carving was an adventure this year. It all started with Andrew creating templates and deciding how his pumpkin should look. About the third slice with the knife, Taylor nearly cut his thumb off and had to go to the emergency room for stitches. Andrew and I rallied and finished the pumpkin anyway. The stitches were around a lot longer than the pumpkin, unfortunately.

The final product. My first pumpkin - I'm pretty proud! And I managed to keep all my digits intact.