...in with the new

This is the current status of our house:

front view

back view

living room

dining room

kitchen

kitchen - banquette area

master bedroom

master bathroom

lower level family room

too cute not to share

Whitney was hamming it up in front of the camera the other day, so I thought I'd share the results.

out with the old...

A few people have been asking about the status of our home, so I thought I'd post an update. As some of you know, we've been in the process of building a home for almost a year now. Back in March 2011 we found the lot we wanted to build on, and decided to place an offer on the house that was standing there. It is in a great neighborhood right in the city, about a half mile from where we currently live. In early July 2011 we finally closed on the (old) house / lot. James spent the next few months working diligently on city permits, exceptions and other red tape issues while we both finished up the floor plan and design with our builder. Once we were all squared away with the city and able to break ground, things started moving along nicely. We hope to be able to move in by May / early June of this year.

These are "before" shots of the house we purchased on the lot we're currently building on. Oddly enough neither one of us ever went inside this house.

October 2011 - demolition month

Stay tuned for the "after" shots...

special request

Grandma Carlson has been requesting a picture of Whitney in her dress coat for some time now. So Mommy snapped a couple pictures before the 4 of us headed out for a special Valentine's dinner.

saturday night bowling

Whitney tried her hand at bowling over the weekend and loved it! Max and Mommy spent most of their time dancing to the killer 80's soundtrack playing in the background.

Max even got in on the fun

Whitney enjoyed a well deserved snack break with best pal Mona

9 months old!

Our sweet little boy is 9 months old today. His official stats are 29 3/4 " tall and 22lbs 4oz, basically the size of an average 13 month old! In the past month Max has learned to crawl, clap his hands, cut his first tooth, stand up and "walk" against furniture, and become a much better eater (still on purees). He is starting to babble, but hasn't really mastered any words quite yet. Max's sparkly eyes, ever present smile, and infectious laughter continue to melt our hearts. On the downside, he's still the world's worst sleeper! But the little guy must not need much sleep because despite the lack of shuteye, he's one of the happiest babies in town.

last but not least, here's a couple shots of the silly big sister

2 peas in a pod

Max and Whitney have always gotten along well, but that only seems to be more the case as the days go by. Now that Max is increasingly mobile and interactive, they're pretty much inseparable (not that we've tried!).