Impressed

Mike gave blood on Friday, and of course, received a t-shirt.  He brought it in from the car today and showed me.  Mikaela enthusiastically responded, "Ooooo." We chuckled a minute about her reaction and she proceeded to exclaim, "Great, Dad!"   She was so proud of her daddy's shirt.

Beautiful Braids

Mikaela's hair is finally long enough to style (sort of).  Here are some beautiful braids Mariel did for her one day.

Bilingualism at Work

Joy & Thanksgiving

Oh to have the heart of a 2 year old, where the simplest of things bring us such joy and gratitude!

New Chair

We are so blessed to know people who like to get rid of their perfectly nice stuff.  Our house is full of it.  Today we added a chair to that list.  

Home Projects: Master Closet

Shortly before Christmas, a section of the master closet holding many of Mike's clothes fell.  We'd had only concrete as our floor for almost 2 years.  So... we decided we needed to redo the closet.

Before:

Mike's broken closet rod

no ceiling lighting due to AC leak summer of 2009

concrete floor - carpet ripped up after AC leak in 2009

We stripped all the old stuff, gave it a fresh coat of paint, fixed the ceiling and added back the ceiling light.  Now ALL of our clothes fit in this closet.  We no longer need our dressers in the bedrooms so they will be leaving our house soon.  Gotta love organization!

After:

Donna's side

Mike's side

more of Donna's side with a new roll-cart hamper

new cork vinyl floor 

It was a great project, but we are glad it's done.  Now to organize the rest of the house...

Mikaela Talks

Today we were all in the living room rolling the ball, taking turns, having fun.  Cocoa got in on the action with a little fetch.  Once Cocoa Bean brought her ball back and dropped it on command.  Mikaela patted her on the neck and said, "Good Boy."