Kitchen Chronicles- Part 2

The kitchen remodel is under way and moving right along.  They started on September 17th and have been making steady progress.  It's exciting to walk in there at the end of each day and see what all has been done.  It is exciting to try to envision what it will look like when complete but also nerve wracking to make all the decisions along the way.  We have nailed down the layout and cabinet design and communicated where we want drawers vs doors, etc.  I will update again once more progress has been made.

Demo day.  After only 2 days, our entire old kitchen had been removed and the walls had been knocked down.  It was a blank canvas to begin rebuilding our kitchen.  I love the extra space and how open it feels now.

The cabinet shells are already going back in.  The carpenter has a pop up tent in our driveway and is building the cabinets out there.  It looks like we have a permanent tailgate party going on.  :)

Cute girl in a construction zone

As part of the remodel, we are re-facing the beams in the living room, adding crown molding and adding can lights.  

Beams are being stained and crown is being painted

Lake

Last Friday, Jason and Daniel had a tee time at Whispering Pines which is close to the lake so Monica and I decided to take the kiddos and meet at the lake house for the weekend.  It was also nice to get out of the house for the weekend and spend time somewhere that had a working kitchen and didn't smell like paint.  The boys grilled, we played with the kids, watched football and just relaxed.  It was a great weekend and so nice to get up to the lake house.  It had been months since we had made time to go.

Life Lately

Life lately has been a decent mix of fun, crazy and relaxation.  Half of our house is currently torn apart and not usable (more on that to come), but thanks to Jenn and Skaife letting us come over every night for dinner and to hang out, it really hasn't been too bad so far.  I have been trying to soak up the end of my maternity leave before I return to work next week.  Below are some pictures of our goings on the last few weeks......

I took Lila up to my office to meet my co-workers

Shelby had a painting party, and the kids made the cutest signs with their names on them.  It was such a fun party idea!

Aunt Sherry with my two girls at Shelby's party.  The Aggie game was that afternoon, so we were all decked out in our gear.

My two sweet girls.  Addie is totally obsessed with her baby sister.

Painting on a rainy afternoon

Lila is starting to smile all the time now, and I just love it.  Such a pretty baby girl.

I went to get my hair highlighted, and on a whim decided to cut it short again.  I was needing something new.

One afternoon, Addie and I walked to Baskin Robbins and had a little ice cream date.  She was so happy.

Mom and Dad made a quick weekend trip to see the girls.  Addie always loves to see her Mimi and Papaw.

Kitchen Chronicles- Part 1 (the before)

I am beginning a new series on the blog to document the process of remodeling our kitchen.  Over the next 6-8 weeks, I want to be able to look back and remember the good, the bad and hopefully the beautiful end result.  When we bought our house six months ago, we knew we wanted to remodel the kitchen.  The previous owners had updated it from it original 1960's condition, but it wasn't really done to our taste, and we really wanted to change the layout and open things up so it was functional for our family.  Other than just re-painting, we decided to live in the house for a few months so we could hammer out our design scheme and take our time choosing a contractor, etc.  I want to detail our thought process of the remodel, but plan to do that in stages as the remodel progresses.  For now, below is what we had to start with......

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Looking from the laundry room into the breakfast room, kitchen and dining

Built in desk in the breakfast room.  You can see from this picture that we installed new, dark wood floors through the living room but left the old flooring in the breakfast, kitchen and dining until we were ready to remodel.  It has looked like a flooring store for the last six months.  haha

Kitchen

Looking into the living room from the kitchen

Looking into the dining room from the kitchen

View of the breakfast room from the kitchen.  The vent hood was too low and blocked the view.

Dining room 

Looking into the kitchen from the dining room

View of the formal living and dining room from the entry.  Our formal living room is currently being used as a make-shift kitchen/storage room during the remodel.  Once we complete the kitchen, we plan to furnish this room.

2 Months- LDM

On September 13th, Lila turned 2 months old.  She had a dr's appt, and her stats are below:

Weight:  10 lbs 7 oz  (~30th percentile)

Height:  22.75 inches (~66th percentile)

Head:  15 inches (~49th percentile)

At 2 months, Lila.....

-  is wearing mostly 0-3 months clothes and jammies and wears a size 1 diaper.

-  is nursing every 2-3 hours during the day and as of this week is sleeping anywhere from 5-6 hours at night.

-  has taken a few bottles of breast milk and is not phased at all.  

-  is smiling and cooing all the time now which is so rewarding and fun.  She has the most precious dimples when she smiles.

-  is holding her head up really well.

-  is still sleeping in the rock n play in our room.

-  loves to be held and snuggled.  She will sit in her bouncer or lie on the floor for a while and kick and play, but she definitely prefers being held.

-still loves to be outside.  We go on nightly walks around the neighborhood, and I don't think I have ever heard one peep from her when we are outside.  She is so relaxed and happy.

-  mostly enjoys her bath.  We still bathe her on a sponge on top of the counter.  She has taken one bath in the tub, but it is honestly just easier for me to bathe her on the counter so we are sticking with that for now.

-  took her first plane ride and had her first trip to church.

Happy 2 month birthday baby girl  Your mama and daddy love you so very much and feel so blessed you are part of our family!!

Ballet

Now that Addie is in the two year old class, she was eligible to sign up for ballet ("ba-yeah" as she calls it).  A dance studio comes in once a week and pulls the kids who signed up out of class for 45 minutes for dance.  She will take ballet until January when the class culminates with a spring show.  I can only imagine trying to wrangle a bunch of two year olds for ballet, but I am dying to see their show.  Addie LOVES her ballet outfit and talks about dancing when she comes home from school on Wednesdays.  It's so exciting to me that she is reaching the age where we can start doing extra curricular activities!

Labor Day Weekend

Jason had a boys weekend planned for labor day weekend so the girls and I loaded up and headed to Harlingen to visit my family.  It was Lila's first time on a plane, and my first time to fly with both girls by myself.  The girls were so good both ways, and we had such a great trip.  

Addie pulled her puppy backpack all through the airport and just looked so grown up.

Our plane was delayed on the way down so we sat down and ate lunch before we boarded.

First time to fly with her own seat on the plane.

Lila snoozed in her car seat the entire flight.  Sweet girl.

We headed up to visit my grandparents Wednesday after we landed.  It was great to introduce them to Lila.

Addie did lots of swimming during the weekend.

Morning snuggles.....love these two

Thurs was the Aggie season opener so the girls dressed for the occasion.  We beat South Carolina which made for a great evening for all.

Addie practicing her gig'em with MiMi

Friday morning Dad, Cody, Hayes, the girls and I headed to the zoo.  Ad got to feed a 5 week old camel a bottle in the petting zoo.  She loved it.

Dad and his grandkids.  He was in heaven.

One evening, we took the bouncer over to the pool, and Lila was so happy to be outside.  She was smiling and kicking the entire time Ad swam.

Dressed and ready for church.  Precious girl!

Mom and Lila

On our way home to see Daddy