this and that

I figured another random post thrown in between all the pregnancy posts was better than nothing.  Currently my external hard drive that has my photo library on it isn't hooked up to the network so I can't get to any of my pictures from my big camera.  So random seemed like the way to go!

::  First things first, we moved!  It has been a week since the movers showed up to our house and started putting everything in boxes.  The company had estimated two days to pack our house, one day to pack the truck, and a day to deliver and unload.  I felt like that seemed a bit extreme seeing as we don't have THAT much stuff, but I went with it.  Yeah no.  They ended up packing everything on the first day and loading the majority of it on to the truck.  Wednesday morning they came back and finished loading, drove our stuff to the new place, and had everything unloaded by 6:30pm.

At any given time there were 4-6 guys working.  They were incredibly impressive hauling all of our crap around.  But apparently they SUCKED at labeling.  And when you have movers pack you, they do it in the most efficient way possible.  Not the most logical.  We've opened quite a lot of boxes, and still are missing random things.  The first day we spent forever trying to locate all the cushions to one of our couches.  They were in a variety of random boxes.  We're getting settled, but we've still got a LONG way to go.

::  I guess one major important thing before the move... Chris graduated from fellowship.  HELL YES.  He is done.  Done done done.  I mean there is the whole starting a real job thing, but it is going to be a real job with real hours and I don't know.  It just isn't education anymore and that is the best feeling ever.  Congrats Christopher, I am so very very proud of you!

The graduating fellows are so cool they got their names on the menu! Haha.

::  Another thing we tackled this past weekend?  Getting Elsie in a big girl bed!  I wasn't sure when to do it, but it seemed easiest (I guess) to just bite the bullet when we moved.  We talked it up a lot, that when we moved to the new house she would have a big girl bed and it was going to be so awesome and comfortable and on and on.  She was pysched.  Sunday was the first night, and she was a little apprehensive at first.  I think more because of the new house, not the new bed.  But it didn't help.  I had to go back to her room to comfort her, but then she seemed ok when I left the second time.

Until our new neighbors opted to blow up the LOUDEST FIREWORKS EVER what seemed like right out her window.  Naturally she was freaked out.  I ended up laying with her until she fell asleep that first night, but she has been doing great ever since.  She has yet to consider getting out of her bed after we leave the room, and has slept the same amount (including naps!) as she did in the crib.  She waits for us to come get her not matter what.  So far we're two for two on my thinking the worst about the big kid bed transition, and the child proving me absolutely wrong.

::  And a few house pictures before we destroyed its beauty by moving all of our crap in.  ;o)

On a side note, WTH flickr?  I don't want to embed the photos with a border.  How do I get rid of that??  Edited to add a thank you to Erin for passing along this info.  Come on flickr, you seriously thought it looked better with those dumb borders?  Now I get to edit photo code for every picture I post, or I need to find somewhere else to host.  Dumb.

kitchen tile

Um, so, forever ago we had the backsplash in our kitchen put up.  Like before Ryann's birthday.  And I am just now getting around to sharing the pictures.  I'm sure you're ok with that.  Anyway...

Lets quickly try and remember what the kitchen looked like when we moved in, shall we?

Oy.  So it wasn't terrible, but it definitely wasn't anything to be proud of.  And you couldn't open the fridge all the way, without opening the back door.  And I don't remember if the oven was fully functional, or if we were just too scared to use it because it was disgusting.  Anyway, a few months after we had moved in, we gutted that baby and put in a much prettier kitchen.

The pictures aren't the best, and yes, they were taken at two different times.  I decided I wanted the whole picture, not just the details.

wow, sorry, that one is pretty terrible

The idea for the accent section (or whatever you want to call it) came from Centsational Girl.  I knew I wanted something different above the sink, but I didn't want it to cost a lot, and I didn't want to lock the kitchen in to a color scheme by using a colored tile.  Her tile work solved all of those solutions.

Now that the backsplash is up, when you look in the kitchen from the dining room it is very white and brown.  I want to replace my kitchen rugs with something that has a bit more color.  I'm loving this image on pinterest...

I know, not a kitchen.  Whatever.  I found a very similar rug on Shades of Light, I'm just not sure it would be a great kitchen rug.  Maybe...

For those of you who are curious, the paint color is Corn Husk Green by Behr, we had it color matched at Sherwin Williams.  The countertop, cabinets, tile, and round knobs came from Home Depot.  The drawer pulls came from a local hardware shop, and the brown rugs came from Target.  I think that should cover it!

this and that

My printer and I have a love hate relationship. We are currently deep in the middle of one of the hate phases. Therefore I am sitting here babysitting my printer while I attempt to make 200 wedding programs. Which means... I am blogging some tidbits in my 90 second intervals between pushing print for each of the 200 programs, and loading paper one sheet at a time. Joy.

:: Ry and JT had another play date. I thought Ry was doing great gaining weight, but at 13 pounds, I think he has her beat.

:: I wish I wasn't babysitting my printer so I could make something delicious for dinner, instead of ordering pizza. But then again, who am I kidding, pizza is pretty tasty. But I do feel like cooking, mostly appetizers. I'm not sure why :o).

:: My small collection of babylegs arrived in the mail on Friday. I'm in love :o)

:: Seriously, this is a total daddy's girl. She lights up when she sees him. I have also discovered that she doesn't nap as well when he is home, which makes me think that she would rather hang out with her daddy than sleep.

:: I'm in the mood for a trip to HomeGoods. Not that I really have any money to blow on home accessories, but I'd love to at least browse and dream.

:: We started practicing sitting in the bumbo this week. She only lasts about three minutes before her head gets way to heavy for her, but she tries so hard, and often seems pretty amused to be sitting up.

:: I really want to put up a backsplash in our kitchen. We are planning to at some point, but I think I want to make it happen sooner rather than later. My first choice would be some sort of glass tile, but I don't know what kind, plus that could add up. White subway tile would work, but that would be a lot of white. Anyone have any suggestions?

There are many more random tidbits that I could share, but I have a feeling you're getting bored with me. Plus it is hard to focus when I keep switching back and forth between inDesign and the internet. Guess I'll just have to browse etsy!

some new additions

There have been a few little updates in our house lately. First, I received this beautiful rug that I ordered from Anthropologie. It looks great in our dining room! I wish it was a tad bit bigger, but the next size up would have covered basically our entire dining room, and I couldn't bear to cover up my beautiful hardwoods that much.

Also, hubby found some time to finally install all of our cabinet hardware. It is pretty simple, but I love it. Plus is makes the cabinets much easier to open!

I have a few more new items to share, but they will have to wait until I a) clean up my house a bit, and b) take some good pictures.

Have a great day!

i heart my kitchen

This week I ate dinner off a real plate with real silverware, and then washed it off in my very own sink and put it in my very own dishwasher. It was absolutely amazing!

Here is a look at my kitchen with countertops and appliances.

We still have a lot of little things left to do, such as install the hardware, put up trim, tile the backsplash, and of course accessorize :o). But the kitchen is functional and I am loving it. This weekend I am going to unpack all of the kitchen items that I haven't seen since May. I also plan to do some cooking and baking. What a wonderful weekend!

seeing green

I'm finally back with a little bit of kitchen progress. First, here is a better look at our tile floor. Not too shabby for a couple of kids who have no idea how to lay tile :o).

And here are some photos with cabinet trim and green paint. I was having a hard time getting a good picture of the paint color. This is pretty close. I'm in love with the white and the green. Even though we removed a window, the room still looks bright.

Hopefully you have figured out that our fridge is not yet in place. No, it will not reside in the middle of the room. There was a bit of hang up trying to slide it into place. But hopefully that problem will be resolved by Tuesday.

The plan is countertops tomorrow, and appliance installation on Tuesday. I can't wait!

hello cabinets!

This is what I found when I came home from work today...

I am so excited! Obviously there is still a lot of work to be done in the kitchen, but the bulk of it is done. I can't wait to see my kitchen all put together. Painting this weekend!

we have tile!

The color of the tile looks absolutely disgusting with the wall color. But thankfully we will be painting that soon. Tonight we grout!

Hopefully I will get my cabinets put in by the end of the week, and then this weekend I can get rid of the nasty red wall color. (Ok some of you might like it, but me? Not so much.)

Hooray for progress!

kitchen demolition

I was incredibly proud of the boys who ripped out the kitchen in less than four hours, and only broke the sink base. All of the other cabinets came out in one piece, and will be reused in our basement.

I believe Ireland and Kyle were having a race to get the tiles off...

Look Ma, no kitchen! :o) Unfortunately we did not find hardwoods under all the other flooring, the dirty subfloor under the dishwasher had only resembled hardwoods. So now we need to figure out some flooring...

I am so excited to watch the kitchen get put back together. It is going to look great when it is finished!