Happy Birthday Photos!

All I asked for on my birthday (yesterday) was updated pictures on the house. Tonight, he delivered. He also ordered my new fridge and sent me flowers. He's a good man that husband of mine, I think I'll keep him.

Brian, do you remember what these fancy downspouts are for? They had a function, right?

They're cute in person, kind of resembling bird houses but I think that they gathered water or something, I don't know. All the cool kids houses had them.

This is a little silly but I really like that roof line. The way it curves a bit there on the end. I know, I'm smitten.

Sprinkler system going in.

Lights still haven't gone in so some of these are pretty dark. The tile backsplash isn't started either.

Here you can see our finished kitchen cabinets. LOVE this color! Granite and brushed nickel knobs installed too. Hardwood floors are still unfinished, it will be dark.

Standing at the island you can see the finished built-ins (with shelves). Quite an impressive pile of crap too. Lovely, let's hope that is being cleaned up due to the floors getting stained soon? A girl can hope.

My bathroom sink, stained frame for my mirror too. That is a whole lotta counter space there. 

Granite close up

Guest bathroom. Just think, you can sit here if you come visit me. Book your travel now :)

Wrought iron is in on the catwalk. Ah, makes me think of Kate getting her head stuck between the wooden ones of our current house. Let's hope this isn't some foreshadowing of events to come.

Here you can see the two paint colors we have. On the let you see my favorite GREY (french door windows are covered due to painting-these are the french doors of Brian's office I believe) I love grey, or more accurately, Baja Dunes by Benjamin Moore. All the bedrooms and both offices are painted this color. On the right is the tan-ish color that covers the rest of the house. I don't have the exact name of this but it's Sherwin Williams, I believe. Once I get in the house and take better pictures of it with furnishings if anyone is interested I can find out what the exact name is. It's a good neutral, warm but not too yellow.

There we have it kids, I hope you enjoyed my birthday gift as much as I did. Brian even called while I was there to see if I had any questions. I, of course, was stumped. As soon as he left I started thinking of a few though, hee hee.

Project Life 2012: Week Three

I have a new goal: learning how to take better pictures of these things. Oy.

Journaling:

Saturday night around 630 Aunt Lorie and Uncle John called to say they were on their way. They knew Daddy was out of town and we had a three day weekend. I was so happy I was crying. They stayed until lunch on Tuesday. What a beautiful gift, we had so much fun with them.

On Thursday this package from Jennie arrived. I am SO thankful for the blessig of her friendship. This is the sweetest, cutest gift. I have felt so loved this week!

Lot of blurred names and such in these photos. All of the photos were taken by either Lorie or John. Included is my Facebook status update when they surprised me by saying they were coming.

Jennie also surprised me by sending this fabulous framed art for my birthday (altered to disguise our states)

Our routine pictures that Lorie took along with our bedtime routine listed, our dinner menu and a note that I put in Kendall's lunchbox that told her Daddy was coming home that night.

We have a tradition when Lorie visits. She always takes 'porraits' but she also captures our everyday life and routines. I know that I will always cherish these photos. Especially as the kids get older.

Night time routine:

Dinner, baths, vitamens and teeth brushing, book prayer and 2 songs.

On the menu: Cheesy Orzo, Roasted Broccoli, Caramelized Chicken.

The one thing that I have struggled with in this project is with who I'm addressing in the notes. I haven't been consistent, some of the time it's addressed to the girls, other times it's not. Not going to worry about it though :)

Project Life 2012: Week Two

Kendall had a sick day this week. The journaling reads:

My poor sweet Kendall Bug. Finishing her 2nd round of meds for her sinus infection, a crazy rash (virus) and today a stomach bug. Special prayers going up for you this week. You worked in your workbooks and watched Stuart Little all day.

I included a piece of artwork by Kate (cut down to size) and a picture of our kitchen island that shows the destruction that occurs when the girls get home from school. Journaling:

Papers from school, snack: fruit & soy milk, sweaters, collection of library good. As soon as the girls get home from school.

I had two inserts this week.

Worksheet of Kendalls.

Worksheet (?) of Kates on back.

Kendall was in our local paper AGAIN

Brian was home this weekend so there is a picture of him during his walk with the kids, Kendall's class is studying weather so I included that since I thought it was a good indicator of the weather that week, the girls busy working on their own things and a house update photo.

Journaling:

With the colder weather we've been playing inside a lot. I love when the girls are busy working on something. Favorites: puzzles books, and Christmas gifts.

I'm having to do a lot of abnormal errands with the house and move so I included a list and some receipts:

To Do Wednesday: renew license, ship 4 packages, notarize document, pick up b-day git, bank, gas, groceries, appointment for home gym pick up.

Project Life 2012: Week One

Is there a good way to take pictures of these? If so I haven't found it. If you click on the photos they should enlarge for you. I've included close ups below, I've also "blurred" last names, any mentions of cities...you understand.

On the right we have the photo of the new house. I've included a photo of progress that is happening there each week. 

Kate warming up on the heater vent before school. To the right of that is a picture Kendall drew of a pig in a rain and thunder storm. The note says, "Kendall's closet is a treasure box full of little notes and drawings! We cleaned closets this week"

I've found so far that I've wanted to include an insert within each two page spread. The front side is a picture the Kendall drew (again) she wrote "Happy New Erhrgr" and then showed it to me, looked at it because she knew it was wrong and then said, "I thought year had a silent g" Love that girl.

The back of the insert has the journaling from this blog post.

The right side of the page has, pictures from our walk, a piece of the offer we received on the house that week, tags from all our new Christmas clothes that we wore that week and part of my grocery list.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Lots of progress made on the house this week. Cabinetry finished, staining complete.

The front door got a great dark stain.

I don't know what this space is technically called. Maybe an "open hallway" in the great room. In order to keep from walking through the center of the room and furniture the house is kind of bumped out along the side to offer a hallway of sorts except one side is floor to ceiling windows and the other side is open to the great room. I love the detail in the woodwork below the windows, I know that has a name, but I'm drawing a blank. Help me out here?

The bath. To the left is my sink and closet and to the right is Brian's sink, his closet, the WC and the walk in shower

My closet, honestly I don't have nearly enough clothes to fill it.

Tile work in the master. I believe the laundry and mud room have the same tile. 

Oh, there's my sink. The mirror is framed out.

Shower tile. We wanted to ensure that it had a place for shampoos and stuff. Irritating to see a nice shower with bottles all in the corner of the floor.

Another thing we added was a full length framed mirror in the master bathroom.

The built-ins were stained this week. Not sure where the shelves are, that is something we'll have to follow up on.

We opted to have the island different than the other cabinets. The majority of the cabinetry will be this white(ish) color with a glaze over it and the island is the same rich staining as the built-ins across from it in the great room. This island reminds me that I'm not allowed to have any more kids...only space for three here.

The pantry. Well thought out in that it has the space there to the left tall enough for the broom. If you could see my pantry now you would laugh, like my closet in the bathroom I'll never have enough stuff to fill this.

Finally, the stair trim is stained as well.

We've also made progress in the move as well. Brian was really busy scheduling movers and car shipments. We've tried to divide the work somewhat but Brian seems to have the majority of it. He has to make all the calls, handle all the mortgage stuff and do all the scheduling which I know is so time consuming. I've dealt with the stuff on this end of the move: showing the house (ie keeping the house spotless while wrangling three kids on my own), as well as coordinating all the fixes from the two inspections we've had. I can't complain. Moving is exhausting, Mommying is tiring on its own but we just feel so blessed and excited and now anxious to get there. You better believe that we have a countdown on the fridge that we mark off each day.

Our House

Brian sent lots of pictures of the progress going on at the new house. 

Our front door has been installed. I wanted one with 3/4th windows. 

Right now it's unstained as are all the hardwoods, cabinets and trim in the house.

The whole house has great trim work, this is a shot of the work in Brian's office.

The unstained hardwood, we'll use a dark stain. You can see the bottom step of the stairs, I like that it is curved. The stairs are all carpeted except that bottom step, it's stained to match the floors.

This is the butlers pantry directly across from the regular pantry and between the kitchen and dining room. The large hole is where the wine cooler will go.

You can see the butlers pantry on the far left in the picture below, it's through the arch. The cabinet on the far right of the photo has a space for the ovens. I believe there is supposed to be another row of cabinets to the right of that but the photo isn't clear.

Here we're standing in the eat in portion of the kitchen looking over the bar (that will hold the sink) towards the fridge.

Standing at the sink looking into the great room.

Walking in through the garage there will be a little locker/bench for the kids to hang their backpacks and to sit and put on their shoes.

Upstairs the playroom has double french doors, the girls will have a Jack and Jill bath and Jack will have his own bathroom. In the photo below we're standing in the playroom looking toward the girls' rooms. Their sinks are in separate rooms of the bathroom and there is a wc to hold the potty. I love that feature because in so many of the house we looked at the potty was so close the the bathtub that it would have been difficult for me to bathe them.

Another set of french doors in the playroom leads you to a catwalk that goes over the foyer then on to Jack's little big boy suite.

Standing on the catwalk looking down on the door.

Great moldings in the great room.

Brian has a key to the house now so he can give updates all the time. He sent about 30 pictures today!

Our Day

I love this girl of mine. She's in Kindergarten five full days a week and she, just like me at that age, would really just love to be home with her mom. Ironically Kate goes only four days and never fails to remind me (and often) how much she wants to be at school and how much her friends are missing her when she is home.

Today was the first day back at school and Kendall had to miss. I took her in for some crazy rash all over her trunk that turned out to just be an allergic reaction. He gave us something for that and a SECOND round of antibiotics for a sinus infection that she just can't kick. So she finally got her much wanted day at home with momma.

After lunch we put Jack down for a nap and I went out to shovel the driveway. Kendall bundled up as well and headed out with me. My sweet girl really knows how to turn shoveling into fun. She declared a snowball fight and laughed uncontrollably when I got her right in the face. She then persuaded me to pull out the sled and we took a few rides down the big hill in the backyard and that was some serious fun for both of us. I have never heard her laugh so hard and so long in all my life, just pure intense joy that really did my heart good. I know that if she had been at school I would have shoveled the driveway, probably grumbled over it and then hurried inside. Instead I got to really spend some time with my girl and ended up with sore arms from shoveling and sore cheeks from smiling.

32 While 32

I love fresh starts. I am one of the rare few that like Mondays. I love having everyone home on the weekend and cherish those moments but then I like getting back into our regular weekday routine on Monday. I love summers at home and the chaos that ensues but I then I love the start of a school year. Same goes for vacations, new years and big moves. For us moving houses, the new year AND my birthday will all fall in the same month for us. I've been giving some serious thought to my 32 things I want to accomplish in my 32nd year. Here is what I have so far:

1. Explore our new city
2. Learn to felt wool
3. ski- water, snow, I would even count jet skiing at this point. 
4. volunteer: alone and with the girls
5. Project Life --this is the year I will do this. I don't plan to start on January 1 just once I get settled in the new house a bit
6. Bible Study- Hopefully at our new church but if not I'll do an online one
7. Send some birthday cards. No specific goal, sending one will be an improvement
8. Take an artsy class--could tie in with "learn to felt"
9. Commit one random act of kindness each month--get the kids involved and let them witness me doing it
10. Find and join a church in our new city
11. December Daily project--I've done this since living here but would like to record our new house/new traditions next year
12. Gym 3+ times/week
13. Get some of our memorabilia properly stored--While cleaning out this week I've found some boxes that include the letter Brian wrote to me on our wedding day, concert ticket, baby hospital papers... really want this sorted and archived
14. Complete one room each month--no more waiting around until the house is on the market this time

So I have 18 more to come up with. I have a little over a month to finish compiling the list. I know that I'll have some house related goals, child raising goals...the 14 I've listed will keep my busy, I think I need a few easy to mark off ones. This gets me excited, I love fresh starts.