New Year Eve 2009

hmmm...it would be nice if my new year's eve was a bit more exciting, but with kids, i'm far too tired to party into the wee hours of the morning. instead, we went to a friend's house and had the countdown in Rio de Janeiro time (it was midnight there at 8pm Madison time :)). and now that everyone has gone to sleep, i can catch up on my blog.

i've wondered about new year resolutions, but it's hard to come up with goals when i know life is going to go into full chaos once this third baby arrives. but i am going to try my best to chillax a little more and try my best to roll with the punches. i do still have a list of things to accomplish before the baby arrives, so those are in the immediate future, but other than that, i'm going to try to embrace whatever life has in store for me this year.

here are some pix from yesterday when we drove up north to my sister-in-law Megan's parents' lake house by Dutch Hollow Lake. the girls had a great time opening up more gifts and having a second Christmas. they went sledding down a great hill and built a snow fort. Skye went for a walk to the frozen lake with Phil and Uncle Mike.

Christmas activities

so i thought our Christmas would be sort of low-key this year. we had some friends over for dinner Christmas eve and then it was just our family for Christmas day. the girls had a great time opening gifts and spent some time outside with the sleds. but on Boxing day, we drove to Chicago so Skye and i could attend the Joffrey Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker. Phil took Claire to the children's museum while Skye and i were at the ballet. thanks to my friends at the Joffrey, we got great seats. i was a little nervous about how Skye would do, if she could sit through the entire performance - and she did! she loved it and was mesmerized by the dancing and the music. it was a real treat for me too - it has been so long since i went to an adult ballet performance. don't get me wrong - i love going to my daughter's ballet recitals and watching her dance, but it was so inspiring to watch the Joffrey dancers doing what they are great at. we ate some good Korean food while in Chicago and of course had to give the girls a taste of Chicago pizza. and on Sunday, we drove back home. it was an exhausting weekend, but lots of fun.

the girls open their gift of PJs on Christmas eve


Christmas morning



at The Nutcracker

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 2009 from slkim on Vimeo.

Before/After 3

i FINALLY finished reupholstering our 2 chairs. during the long process, i wondered why on earth i decided to do this project - it was certainly a challenge! but now that they are finished, i love them! the fabric is so beautiful, it just makes me want to sit in these chairs. i guess that's the whole point, right? :)

Winter challenges

this is now our fourth winter in Wisconsin, and every winter, we are faced with new challenges. last winter, it got so cold, one of our pipes burst. this winter, the roads have turned into ice skating rinks. and since this is just the beginning of the cold, who knows what other challenges are ahead?

when i took Claire to preschool this morning, the roads were slick, but not too bad. i was just mad at the drivers who were driving as if in normal conditions. Skye comes home on the bus at 3pm, but by then, the sun was going down and it was getting really cold. the roads were frozen. when Skye's bus didn't show up by 3:20, i knew something was wrong. i called her school and found out her bus was stuck in the snow about 6 or 7 blocks from our house. i bundled Claire into the car and started driving. not only was the road slick, but by then, there were so many cars on the road, a few minutes drive turned into 15-20 mins. and the strangest sight was of course seeing the big yellow bus on top of a snow pile. i was just thankful the bus hadn't tipped over or anything like that!!

when we asked Skye if she had been scared, she merely said she and her friend wondered if they were going to be on TV. :)

thankfully, we are all home for the night, safe and warm. i hope the bus doesn't get stuck tomorrow!

Snow, and more snow

the snow started falling early Monday, all day, and continued all night and all day today. tomorrow, we're supposed to get temps of around 10 F!! at least today was warm enough for us to get out and enjoy the snow.

Going sledding (Singing in the snow) from slkim on Vimeo.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

this year, i asked Phil to get us a small tree. perhaps i had it in my head a smaller tree would be more manageable with my big belly and perhaps there would be less needles to sweep up. when Phil returned with our tree, the first thought that came to my mind was, that is one tiny tree - a Charlie Brown tree! well, after we put up the decorations, i have to say the little tree has grown on me. and it looks much fuller than when Phil first carried it into the house. our ornaments are crowded on there, but it looks sort of nice like that.

Claire's birthday party

Claire's 3rd birthday party from slkim on Vimeo.

here are some photos from Claire's birthday party. we had a full house and lots of fun!

Bunk bed

the girls got a bunk bed this week and it amazes me how much fun they can generate with it! they LOVE climbing the ladder to get to the top bunk and Skye has filled her bed with all kinds of necessities: notebook and pen, toys, string... i'm going to have to give her a box of some kind to keep everything together!

we are slowly moving furniture around, trying to make space for this new baby and the bunk bed was just another step in that process. who knew having kids required so much furniture?? :)

Before/After 2

so my dining room is finally finished!! what a relief! here are the before and after pics. i have to say, i LOVE the new purple! and Phil, who was extremely skeptical about the whole purple thing, says he is "eating humble pie." my new buffet is in now and i'll start to hang pictures on the wall this week - i'm waiting for the paint to cure.

Claire's 3rd birthday

Claire was very confused about the whole birthday celebration thing. i tried to explain that her party was a couple of weeks after her actual birthday, but that was just too far away. when we were eating dinner on her birthday, she asked, where are all my friends? but after her birthday passed and we have now sent out invites to her friends, i think she is now understanding that the party is happening separately from the actual day. you can actually hear her asking about her friends in the movie! :)

she asked for apple upside down cake, so that's what i made for her!

here are some photos of her birthday:

Claire helping me with the cake

Claire's 3rd birthday from slkim on Vimeo.

Before/After 1

i finished painting the buffet for our dining room - the first project on my list of to-dos. after debating for a long time about what colour to paint it, i decided to go with white. but i did paint an undercoat of greyish-brown and i may sand down the buffet in places to give it a "distressed" look, but i haven't decided yet. i'll wait another day to give the paint more time to dry and see. so, here are the official before and after photos. :)

Before


After



and while i was busy painting the buffet, Claire was busy with her own paint project. :) she painted this old step ladder all by herself.

Redecorating, reupholstering - signs of nesting

after months and months of silence, i'm back! for most of you, you are aware that i'm now well into my pregnancy (week 17, to be precise) and with the HORRIBLE first trimester over (i'd have to say, out of all my pregnancies, this one was the worst), my nesting instinct is kicking in. i've had several home projects that needed my attention that i'd been putting off, but all of a sudden, they just screamed for attention. so here they are and i'd actually REALLY love input from everyone - all ideas would be welcome.

my first project that's been sitting around are my two chairs in my living room. i'd gotten them years ago from a thrift store for barely anything and when i called around about reupholstering them, the cost was staggering. so, much as i hated the colour of them, they sat in our living room. now, i'm going to tackle them. new fabric, new paint on the frames? i've actually ordered the fabric, but i'm not sure if i should paint the frames. anyone reupholstered chairs like these before?




i have loved my red dining room (btw, i painted it while i was pregnant with Claire - painting seems to be a recurring activity in all my pregnancies) but i think i'm ready to try a new colour. i'm thinking purple - not the pastel kind, but the deep aubergine kind. :) any thoughts?

finally, another great find at a thrift store. a buffet for my dining room. this was a recent purchase and definitely needs a paint job. i've been thinking of painting it white. but the sides are not doing so well. i'm thinking of peeling off the thin paneling that's on top of the wood and hoping the paint will hide it. otherwise, maybe gluing some wallpaper on the sides??