February Update

January was a quiet month (well, as quiet as our house ever gets) for us. Mainly I focused on nonstop unpacking, and the remodelling of our new place. Mountains and mountains and mountains of boxes are gone, I donated and purged tons and tons of stuff. The renovations this month focus on places to put things away - a built-in bookcase, a built-in closet for the master bedroom, and fixing up the other closets so they were usable. Oh wow, does the house look so much better. We've still got a ways to go, another built-in bookcase for the girls' room, the bathrooms, and the kitchen. But it's livable and functional at the moment, which makes this one happy and tired mommy.

Oh, and hauling those boxes and that stuff up and down our three flights of stairs? I was down about seven pounds at the end of January. Go ME! Can't wait to get rid of the rest of the baby weight!

The girls started a new preschool. Yes, I finally got both girls into preschool, the same preschool and they are having a blast. Lily took to it right away, and gosh darn it if her teachers don't have her halfway potty-trained after only a month? I am LOVING that. Of course, she still refuses to use the potty for me, little bugger. Oh well, we'll deal with that later.

Joel is doing fine, by the way. He's working a million zillion hours and has GROWN A BEARD. The dude has gone totally native on me. We try to Skype as much as possible, but the time change makes it pretty difficult. I sent Joel tons of stuff to throw a Mardi Gras party at his base (part of his job is morale) and he's now requesting St. Paddy's stuff and he wants to make green beer. I might have created a party planning monster!

My big camera started acting wonky at Christmas and I've yet to get it fixed. So here are some random pictures from my camera phone this month.

Here we are at the bouncy house place nearby. The red blur inside is Abby, happy as a clam.

Here is Lily's new found "I'm acting like a two-year-old" pouty face. Dish it out, honey, I'm bigger than you are.

Oh, and three seconds later, here is her "I am the sweetest and most adorable thing in the world" face. Gotta love 2-year-olds and their mood swings.

We love pizza, by the way.

Here are pictures of Abby's ballet class. I've taken to sitting outside in the waiting room since Lily's at school now. (Before she'd throw a fit because she wanted to go dance too, so I would always leave.) The blur with ponytails is Abby.

And here we are on our new bikes at Papa and Nana's house. The girls LOVE their bikes and the nice long driveway at Papa and Nana's. I can't wait until the weather gets better.

Abby's road rage face - she's screaming "Get out of my way!" and ringing her bell.

And then, her "charm" face. We're in such trouble when she's older.

Finally, at the end of the month, Abby had tubes put into her ears and her adenoids out. The nurse talked me into taking this picture. Abby was floating high as a kite at the time (right before they took her in) and asking the most random silly questions. Like "Why is the letter R the letter R?" She was quite irritated and um, "opinionated" afterwards, though. (We're talking major DIVA here.) "Get this gown off me, it's ugly. This hat is ugly. I don't want a orange Popsicle, I want a red one." That sort of thing. She's doing fine now though, back to school and everything.

Coming up in February is another month of nonstop work work work for me. I've gotten my desk set up and my computer set up (hence, why this blog post is late again) and I am attempting to get back to work. Gotta help out paying for all that reno, you know. The girls are being their preschooler selves, and I'm about to go buy earplugs. We are counting down the days until Joel comes home in March, and hoping to get the house looking nice before he gets here.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily