Pie, Pie, and More Pie

Getting ready to make pie...

It adds to the flavor if you throw the pumpkin on the floor before you roast it for pie.

It also helps if your new dining room is the same color as the pie.

When are they gonna feed me some pie?!!



Please!

I mean, seriously.

Aah, finally...washing it down. (Just kidding--we did not really give him beer, and we're keeping a close eye on Uncle Griff!! :)

We had such a fun Thanksgiving holiday! Our friend Katey came for a long visit and graciously helped us clean (and clean again and again) and move while on her vacation. We had an elk roast (and pumpkin pie) that she brought from Montana for dinner with some Outward Bound friends on Thanksgiving night, and spent our first night in the new house that night! On Saturday night we had a bunch of friends over for a slightly more traditional feast (and there was more pumpkin pie). It snowed all day so they couldn't go home... good deal for us! Cannon loved Thanksgiving. He loves people and attention, and he loves to sit with the grown-ups to eat dinner. More than once in the last week he has consumed a full baby food meal, then another meal while he sits with us to eat our meal. He loves sweet potatoes and beets, pumpkin (whether it has hardly any spices because I intended it for him or it has tons of spices and sugar because I intended it for pie), real whipped cream (who doesn't?!), mashed potatoes, pears, mangoes, banana, even Balsamic Vinaigrette! So far the only thing he's not into is peas (can you blame him?)

P.S. Updated house photos coming soon... as soon as the mess from moving is cleaned up!

Bring It On, Mother Nature!

Ol' Mama sent us low temps and a bit of snow last week... and the word is that it's going to start snowing tonight (it already has, actually) and not stop for a week. Thankfully, Cannon has a new hat and a bit of baby fat so he's ready. Timothy has some new skis and the possibility of an awesome winter job, so he's ready too. I was about to write, "but I'm not ready!", but the truth is I think I am. I also have new skis (although with the little guy around I probably won't use them much until next season), I found my old Yak Trax (little metal studs you attach to the bottom of your shoes to go running in the winter) that I was looking for all last winter, and I have the knitting/sewing fever that I get every year at this time....

We were lucky to get to travel to Melina and Steve's wedding last weekend. Here is Cannon sleeping in Grandma Haley's arms while we were there. This is the only picture we have of the entire weekend!

Cannon isn't really into eating solid food anymore (I think he thought it was a game in the first place--not a way to make his tummy stop growling or to gain nourishment). He just likes to take the spoon full of food and chew on it, schmear it around, etc.

I took this sunset photo on our way to the new house (from our current cabin) the other day. This is the view from almost anywhere in the town we live in.

Trim! Lots and lots of trim.... and it's stained a beautiful dark color, which tones down the bright wall colors.

We have two new doors--the others are old and cool and original, with great ornate hardware.

Remember our green bathroom (if not, scroll down and see)? It's not green anymore.

But Cannon's room is very green.

And I told you the kitchen was going to be "grape vineyard".

I have to say, though, that if your screen is like mine, these colors look like they belong in a childrens' museum, not a house.... trust me when I tell you that they're bright without being crazy, and that the dark trim really is going to tone things down....

Actually, don't trust me. Come visit and see for yourself!!

This was the first baby gift we received--a hat a bootie set bought on a trip to Mozambique. The hat might be getting a little small, but it's definitely the season for some rainbow booties. Thanks, Katey!

Orange You Glad?

Really, aren't you glad you'll get to sit in this warm, bright dining room when you come visit? It's called "sweet carrot" and it looks a bit brighter on my screen than it does in the house, but you get the idea. It was a little scary when we opened the can, but we think we like it. :)

We thought we were well into the final phases of this project (well, the final pre-move-in phases...there will still be lots of big and little projects when we're in). We weren't planning to do anything except paint the kitchen and the bathroom. I mean, look at this room! It's perfectly functional, albeit a little outdated. If you're my size your knees don't even touch the vanity when you sit on the toilet!

But we found some unexpected things in that bathroom, and this is what it looks like now.

Before

and after.








We'll give you a good deal on these if you'll pick them up.

The front door. I'm going to go ahead and say it's not the original 1888 model. And yes, that is wood-grained contact paper covering the windows--tacky (in more ways than one).

The beadboard on the bottom of the kitchen will be one of the 18,000 hues of white that the paint companies allow you to choose from. The top will be purple("grapevine"). Yes, we are nervous about this.

90th Percentile

This guy has a huge noggin (not surprising when you measure the heads of both his parents). Yep, that's right. Cannon is in the 90th percentile for head circumference (of course, that means his brain is big :). He had his 6 month check-up this week! Insanity--where did 6 months go? He is weighing in at 17.5 pounds and is 26.5 inches long these days (both 50th percentile, if you're into comparisons). He's been a little sick and sleeping lots during the day (not so much at night....).

We had to scrape four or five inches of snow off the car that morning before we could head out, by the way, and when we came home (after dropping Timothy off to continue work on the house) Cannon and I could not get the car up the driveway (he really wasn't much help at all--refused to get out and push, wouldn't sit in the driver's seat and steer...) because it was so slick. We had to park at the bottom and make the chilly trek up the hill. I guess we've learned that October really is not too early to put on the snow tires, and we are in the market for an all-wheel drive car once again. :)

Meanwhile, Timothy and a couple of guys he hired are making huge progress on the house. The drywall is up and mudded, and the wall texturing has begun. We are working on picking out paint colors (the fun part!) and trying to keep ourselves from living in Rainbow Bright-land. We're trying to talk ourselves into a muted shade for at least one room, and we've agreed that at least the ceilings will be white. :)

Swimmin'

We think Cannon shows incredible promise as a future swimmer. You can seen from the photo that his technique is impeccable--and he hasn't even been in the pool yet! Do you see the determination and drive on his face? We'll never hold him back! We (seriously) have every intention of taking him to swimming lessons very soon.

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While he is swimming in the leaves, Timothy is swimming in toxic dust. We bought a house! It's a wonderful little old house on a tiny lot in this small town of Leadville. Lots in Leadville are all former mining claims, so they're uniformly small and the houses are squished together. Our house was built in 1888 and has lots of charm--cool old hardware, beautiful doors, wood floors, high ceilings. We could have moved right in, but instead decided to upgrade a thing or two. We're tearing out the paneled plaster walls (and about a half inch thickness of wallpaper) and we took down the drop ceiling. We even found a huge window under some of that paneling! With all that plaster dust in the carpet (and a baby about to crawl), we had to tear out the carpet as well. We're hoping to get new drywall up next week and put some insulation in the walls (there wasn't any!), restore some of the wood floors, and then move in. The walls will be painted soon, and eventually we'll strip the original trim of it's paint and restore it as well. I am itching to be able to help more, but we want to keep Cannon and his lungs away from the dust. If anyone out there wants to come babysit so I can work on the house, please do! Or if anyone wants to do fun house projects, come on over! We're also planning a Thanksgiving weekend feast, and you're invited. Actually, you're invited anytime--we live in a beautiful place and we love visitors!

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Last but not least, we found out last night that Cannon can eat the heck out of some prunes. Who couldn't?