House Update (because I know you've been waiting)

I finally feel like we are on the home stretch. But time is relative, right? This has been such a big project and Calder has been working like crazy, getting far too little sleep and doing nothing but house house house and occasionally flying airplanes or sleeping. We plan to move in sometime before the snow flies. Hopefully long before then. We finished the concrete floor polishing today, bathroom tile is almost done, cabinets next week...things are really coming together. Here are a few pics to hold you over till you come in person--because that will likely be before I blog about it again.

south-facing kitchen window.

looking north down the stairs

Calder taking a breather--probably talking house stuff, which doesn't really make it a break--with someone on the phone

looking west from the kitchen to the cabin through the breezeway

Little Munchkin

(Written in March, and I just now uploaded photos...so I never claimed to be technologically competent or a REAL blogger)

Stella is nearing two. Crazy. It seems like she was just born (I am totally going to be saying that same thing every year for the next 20 years). She is growing up so fast. I can't believe she can already tell me off and push buttons. What will the teenage years bring? She is really starting to love to play with other kids, and is getting over some clingyness. She is a chatterbox and it is getting easier to tell what she is saying. Dadda wok (work). Mama hold. No nightnight. Ah hoo (love you). She wants to call everyone on the phone. She still is rather hairless and skinny with a big head which makes her seem even smaller than she is. People are constantly amazed that she can walk--and she has been walking for almost a year! She loves playing with Ma and Grandma and sometimes likes to peepotty (pee in the potty). Here are a few pics to catch up.She may be little but she sure takes up a lot of room in bed.

Choosing her own outfits--note the pink shirt turned scarf...she is very versatile.

Playing on Grandma's piano

using the potty for the first time. her excitement was nothing compared to mine.

Please forgive the naked baby pics, but she just looks too small to be climbing on that thing. She can climb on and off and use it without any help. And people still ask if she can walk...

Girls Trip

A long-overdue trip with Janna to visit Nicky without kids or husbands (except Spence). So fun. Was life really once that simple? Can't wait for baby Quick-Price.

The Traveler

Stella has been putting in some good travel time lately. Last year she got off to a good start when we went to the Marshall Islands but then we didn't go anywhere far while we worked on our house. By October I decided it was time to get out of town, house project or none, and she and I took a quick trip to SEA (see previous post) to visit our long lost friends, Mike and Maureen. In December she went on her second trip to Puerto Vallarta with the whole Peterson and Haycock families. January we took our second annual trip (can you call it annual if you skipped a year in between?) to Bluff for the famed balloon festival and to visit our desert friends the Harts. Stella and Lander's good-bye hug

Februrary we hit the airways and went with Calder on an overnight in San Diego. I hadn't been on an overnight for years (Calder rarely bids them anymore). It was a really quick trip (less than 24 hours on the ground in SAN) but it was fun to wear sandals, look at boats, eat at Calder's marina kitchen, aka Pizza Nova, and pop in on a few friends. We surprised Jeffrey in his studio, got on board with Alan, and finally saw Spence & Nicky's new house and her growing belly, all in less than a day. After SAN we had a breather day at home to unpack and pack and then took off again for NYC via EWR (Newark). We had a great time visiting Trav, though we missed Sarah and the kids who swapped sides of the country with us on a trip to Colorado. We did get to hang with Eric and Shayna which was an added family bonus (the trip really was about visiting family--and doing some house projects more than doing NYC). Serious Stella in SoHo

And the requisite trip to Trader Joes alone made the long flights worth it. Stella really was a rock star on the plane and in the airport. She made lots of friends walking around the circular console at EWR. And by her tenth time around they really were familiar faces. We were lucky and got a seat for her on both our flights which made it more comfortable for me, and gave her a good place to sleep. We had to wake her up on the flight back to SLC so she wouldn't be too tired to go to sleep. She wooed the flight attendants and other passengers with her please and thank you's. We are spoiled parents. I'm sure we'll pay for it someday...maybe the teenage years?