Before...

 A mere six months after another leak ruined our upstairs bathroom, we are finally getting around to fixing it. I'm realizing that when you start fixing things in your house, there is no end of things to do. We were only going to tile the bathroom floor, but now that the molding is off, I've decided to repaint the whole room. The paint is really awful. Sometimes I wonder why people do the things the do. (Mike pointed out that in twenty years, someone might be ripping out the "awful" tile we put in). In addition, they had this terrible wallpaper strip around the top of the room. Yuck. Today, I spent hours peeling it off. I'll be really glad when it's done!! Here are the before pictures of the upstairs bathroom:

Here's the room without any linolium.

And there is the awful blue trim and wallpaper strip.

As most of you know, I'm not much of an interior decorator. I want to be, but I don't think I'm particularly talented in this area. So, we're trying to decided how to paint the bathroom, and I am looking for suggestions. Here is tile we've selected:

And here are some paint ideas that I really like:

Mike's a little worried that the colors are too bold. (He's thinking about when we resell the house in a few years). Any thought? Which one do you like best? Or would you do something else entirely?

Since we had already started on one bathroom, we figured we may as well do the downstairs one while we're at it. Here is it's before picture:

After two days of working all day, and countless trips to home depot, we have made some good progress. I'm just hoping that the after pictures aren't too long in coming!

February is not a good month for ears

The last three February's have not been great ones in our house. Last February, Avery spent the entire month with an antibiotic resistant ear infection. We were at the doctor's office every two days for yet another roceferin shot, only to be told by our ENT that we should have been able to see him on an emergent basis after the first. The February before that, Avery also had never ending ear infections. Both months ended with tubes. This February is proving to be no different. Poor Avery has a plugged tube, and is off to the ENT next week. I really hate it when they get ear infections while they have tubes. Instead of oral antibiotics, they get ones that you put in their ears. Really, instead of ear drops, they should be called torture drops. Avery despises them. At just the slightest mention of them, her hands immediately cover her ears. If the actually bottle is pulled out, screaming ensues. And the hands do not leave her ears. Period. And she is really starting to get strong. Mike and I both have to hold her down to get it down, twice a day. Poor thing.

Want to know what 140 in. of snow looks like?

When we found out we'd be moving to Syracuse, we knew we'd be getting a lot of snow. But I didn't know we'd be getting quite this much. I had never shoveled a driveway before this year. And I would be okay if I never did again. It got to the point where I could no longer shovel. I couldn't throw snow up on to the snow bank because it was so high.

Notice that you can not see our mailbox. Somewhere peaking out is what's left of it.

I don't think the pictures really do it justice. We tried to push Bailey down into the snow to show how really really deep it is, but the snow was too packed down.

The sun finally came out this week, and Bailey asked me, "Is is summer??" We don't get to see the sun too often around here. In fact, Avery cried and cried about the sun shining on her. Yes, it's been that long since the sun has shown her face.

Luckily, at least hopefully, spring is around the corner!!

Curly hair

At long, long, last, Avery's hair is starting to get long. And, as a big surprise to us, it's curly!

I don't even know what to do with it! (Besides, of course, her must-have piggies.) Mostly, it's just frizzy all the time. I'm open for curly hair tips!

Sisters

Sometimes, Bailey and Avery don't get along at all. (In fact, just this morning Avery gave Bailey a chomp for trying to come in the bathroom while she was trying to shut the door.) But when they do, I really love it. They have a great time playing together, and these are the times I want to remember, and the times I want them to remember. (Let's hope the bite memory doesn't stick around for too long!) Here are pictures from one of those times: