The Good News and the Bad News

Which do you want first? Let’s go with the bad news: our home renovation project. Due to its unhappy ending, this story will be brief. We hired a company to convert our existing screened-in porch to a four-season sunroom, build a deck off the sunroom, and replace the countertops, sink and flooring in our kitchen. We’ve talked about taking this project on for years and, with our family growing, now was the time to make some additional space. With the hope of being finished before the baby arrived, we started the project in October. It’s March. And we still have no deck and no new kitchen sink or countertops. Suffice it to say, our contractor turned out to be a bit shady and hasn’t been back to our house since mid-December. We’re in the process of taking him to court, but until the case is settled we can’t hire another contractor to finish the work. So I look at my deckless backyard (where my hubby’s and my daughter’s toys should be) and my ugly old countertops and I fume. Daily. Once the legal dust has settled, I’ll be sure to update.

On to the good news: The day after Thanksgiving, Hannah Claire turned 3!! How my baby is three years old, I have no idea. It blows my mind to think she’s already that old, and the glimpses we see of her even older self come much too often. She’s 3 going on 15 most days!

In the past, we’ve had Hannah Claire’s parties at our house. But, with the baby due just weeks later and our house in disarray from the renovations, we decided to let someone else do all the work this year. We celebrated her big day at Greene’s Fine Foods in Decatur and, I must say, it was well worth it! Greene’s is an adorable little candy store where the kids get to make their own treats. Hannah Claire had a blast with all her friends and family and scored some serious loot.



With Thanksgiving and Hannah Claire’s birthday behind us, it was time for the countdown to Caroline. We had three weeks until her due date, December 17. Little did we know we wouldn’t be counting down as long as we thought!