Happy Easter

3/27/2016 


Happy Easter from our clan to yours! 

Baby Boy Turns 6 Months Old

3/25/2016 



 Time flies when you're having fun... or when you're an infant! This little man turned 6 months old this week. 


Earlier this month, we had some cool weather. But after being cooped up indoors, we headed out for a walk. Here the little guy was all bundled up for his first walk this year. Since then we've had warmer spring weather and have been spending much more time outside. Yeah! 


Sleepy, sleepy. This little guy keeps me guessing. He has fallen into numerous sleep patterns only to have them not stick for more than couple days.  Now he's back to waking 2-3 hours each night to nurse. And he is not liking his own bed in his own room. He much prefers to be side-by-side with Mom. 


Sporting one of his favorite outfits (ok, ok, it's my favorite and I just assume he likes it as much as I do)



Receiving some cuddles from big brother and...


 sister jumped in the chair with them. 
They love their little bro and he loves them.

Happy Half Birthday, Mr. Man! 
We love you and are so thankful you're a part of our family! 

Kitchen Remodel

3/10/2016

We've been busy lately with home improvement projects! The impetus was my mother-in-law's offer to pay for new linoleum in our kitchen. This led to a decision to also paint the walls and ceiling. We also opted to include our dining room with the new flooring. And then we decided to paint our old cabinets as well! Phew-wee! 

I say "we" but this is definitely my husband's project. I help a very small bit... mostly by trying to keep our kids occupied elsewhere! :-) 

Here are a couple photos. 



Here's a BEFORE shot of the dining room floor. It was hard wood but in very poor shape. It had stains that were too old and set to get out. 


DURING 
while the floor man smoothed out the ridges 


MORE DURING
as they tried to measure twice and cut once on the huge roll of flooring



AFTER
so much brighter
It's a marbled pattern so it will hide dirt well.
It's so much lighter and brighter than what we're used to.

A few shots of the kitchen half of the space.


BEFORE 
This was a few years back, when we first moved in
Some of the flowery wallpaper has remained, though we removed most of it


Here you can see the old flooring
It was brown, squares. Stained in numerous places and a few sections missing entirely. Beyond repair.


DURING 
The floor man patching up the uneven floor.
You can see the flower wallpaper behind the fridge


MORE DURING 
With the roll of flooring half unrolled.


AFTER 
The flooring installed. The fridge is hanging out in the hallway for a few days while the flooring glue sets. 


My husband working on painting the area behind the fridge, after he removed the wallpaper.


Then we decided to paint the cabinets white while we had the paint out! So here are my cabinets laid bare, no doors! 

So a lot of lightening is going on! With the fresh paint on the walls, the cabinets going from wood finish to white and the flooring a much lighter shade... the rooms look bigger. 

We still plan to gut the kitchen at some point and do a complete remodel. There are some specific things that we'd change (more electric outlets; move fridge and oven so they aren't side by side). But we're not even close to being able to afford that type of project currently... and we've got a bathroom or two that are are higher remodeling priorities. So this is an intermediate step that is much less costly but also produces dramatic results! 

My main work space is getting an uplift and I'm loving that!

Thank you, thank you, thank you 
to my mother-in-law and my hubby!