Hello, Blog. It's me, Keri.

So apparently having a baby puts a cramp in blogging...a year-long cramp as it so happens. Well, here's my attempt at reviving the blog. Where to start? Well, we last left off with me being 38 weeks pregnant. That's no longer the case. Clara joined our family in November 2010 and has been making us smile ever since! We can't imagine life without her, nor would we ever want to. Clara's now an active, adorable (if I may say so myself) 14 month old who roams our abode like she owns the place.

Clara also put a bit of a cramp in our house renovations, imagine that. But slowly and surely we've been getting back into the swing of things. This past summer (2011), we rebuilt our garage. Yes, I said REBUILT.

Do you all remember the hottest week of July last summer? When the weatherman said to stay inside in the cool unless absolutely necessary? Yeah, that's when we (along with many helpers) were stripping the roof, laying new roof, tearing the rest of the garage to the studs, sheathing, framing in new sets of windows and two side entry doors and residing the entire two car garage. In one week. SEVEN days. But that was SO much work that it deserves it's own post another time. We also repainted the front hall/stairs and reworked the balusters and banister/railing to code.

Apparently, babies falling through wide-spaced balusters is frowned upon and having a banister that is as tall as your knees is not very helpful.

We've been doing other little improvements here and there. We finally hung our kitchen artwork...after living here for almost two and a half years. I finally caved to putting a nail hole in the wall and Chris went crazy and hung about 11 things in 20 minutes. Give him an inch...and, you know. But, the kitchen now looks like we live here. For real. I swear I put more holes in the walls of all our apartments than in this house. Which I'm realizing is just plain ridiculous. You know what else makes it look like we live here for real? Little People and Megablocks scattered around just waiting to be stepped on. I know some of you can relate. Ouch. We seem to have been rearranging furniture a lot recently due to the little munchkin, trying to find the best layout where most things are still safe from little fingers. Anyone remember that cream couch we bought after moving in? We found out just last week that the Ikea Extorp slipcovers wash very nicely after being doused with lukewarm coffee thanks to said little fingers.

Well, that's the quick version of the past year. Chris and I once again are getting the "project itch" so you never know what's coming next. Hopefully, the next post won't take a year.