Everyone is getting along . .

The animals are not paying much attention to Calista, really. As you can see here, Keesha proceeded to climb onto the back for the chair for the view and Sydney preened as normal while Tatiana was feeding the baby today . .

Addition, part II

All of the work on the house was really a precursor to this! Calista Laurel was introduced to the world on January 28th. We came home from the hospital today, and are enjoying settling into our new world. Baby Ausema has been showered with attention from Grandma and Grandpa Bareis, Uncle Tyson and Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Susanna. We have posted a bunch of pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jausema/Calista. There will be more pictures later this evening - I am waiting for the camera battery to recharge.

Nursery update

We don't have anything exciting like a baby to report yet, but we have a new picture of the nursery. Just using whatever time is available to continue getting things "more ready"

More inside views

A couple more photos to show how things are looking inside the house. This is very much a "work in progress" - we have nothing on the walls yet, and we need to sort through lots of office supplies . . and we are still using the old "K-mart special" table that I purchased when I first moved into my own apartment.

The first photo shows the dining area, which is flanked by 2 of the new bookshelves. The other photo is of the entertainment center with TV etc.

The desk corner

Some people have been giving me a hard time about not updating recently. It seems harder to find obvious changes to document these days . . we have been doing more work on the nursery but we are waiting until we have the curtains up to post another picture. I also stained the deck on Saturday, but I have not taken a picture yet . . maybe tomorrow, if I am home before dark.

I don't think I have posted any shots of the office area downstairs yet though, so here you go. We expect to replace the desk at some point, but it's not a major priority. We did get new bookshelves and file cabinets (the wooden cabinets with wide drawers behind the desks) - which replace functional-but-ugly metal cabinets we had in the office. Still probably need some more storage space though.

Nursery progress

We have been doing lots of work this week, but it's harder to capture progress in pictures now. The nursery is almost ready. We have all the furniture together and arranged, but we still need to do some organizing.

Tatiana was complaining about a lack of flattering pictures of her on the site, so I hope this one helps make up for that omission.