Leading To The House

David took on a big bold project over the last couple of weeks ... I was so busy with Lincoln that I didn't take during photos like I should but did get these ...

He ripped up the front yard and put in a new beautiful walkway ... made the flower bed areas bigger which they totally needed (they were really pushed up against the house) and made an area where a new tree is going to be planted ...

It looks absolutely gorgeous ... I love the new walkway ... and once he puts in the plants and bulbs we have it is going to be fantastic ... sooooo much hard work but he is very proud of how it has turned out ...

Brand New Bathroom

Today was Skye's first bath in the new bathroom ... and boy was it fun ...

Even though she loves to show off her new bathroom to anyone who comes into the house (including mommy and daddy) she was a little hesitant to take a bath in there ... she still wanted to go downstairs to the guest bathroom ... but once I brought up all the toys and shampoo and whatnot it was a lot easier ...

The bathroom is fantastic ... so big I didn't knock anyone over ... there is room for a bouncy chair so Lincoln got to hang out with us ... and eventually I think I am going to get a nice stool or something for me to sit on during bath time ...

She absolutely loved her new bath tub and all the space to play ... I'll say I enjoyed bath time so much more than I ever have ...

Favorite Spot

This is my new favorite spot in the house ... it is the window in our kitchen ... even though we aren't moved into the kitchen yet any time  i do anything in there it is on the counter facing the window to the backyard ... I realize we had a full floor to ceiling window there before but it was crowded and there was no counter there ... and I just didn't stand and gaze out that window like I do with this one ... something about this new window ... half the size of the old one but with a counter there is so relaxing and wonderful ... I realized recently that since it was put in I take time every day to stand there and just gaze out the window ... it has changed and become a very peaceful and beautiful place ...

My New Blog

So I got our home improvement blog set up again ... still need to import the old stuff but the new stuff is up and running and I am trying VERY hard to upload the photos each night so it doesn't get too overwhelming to do days at a time ...

http://ourhouserules.wordpress.com

Such A Great Kid

So this weekend was mostly spent moving everything out of our kitchen and setting up a make-shift kitchen in our dining room and living room ... a lot of work ... David and I were wiped out ... and through out the entire process Curly Top either helped us by packing stuff or throwing stuff away for entertaining herself with straws and other such goodies ... she never acted up or demanded attention ... she was perfectly happy all weekend ...

David and I were talking last night that we felt really lucky ... even he and I were frazzled and wanted to do other things ... but she never acted that way ...

So as a reward the little cutie got to have a Popsicle in the bath tub last night and she thought that was fabulous ... she savored every moment of that grape pop and I loved that the clean-up was so easy ...

I just feel so lucky she is who she is ... I adore everything about her and love how she is patient and kind ... that she always says thank you and usually says please ... and that she told me last night her favorite thing to do is snuggle with mommy ... I don't want these days to ever end ...

Random Remembers

I feel like so much happened over the weekend and I randomly keep remembering stuff ...

First of all it was amazing to get to hang out with Heather ... I love her so much and any time I get to spend with her is totally precious ... Schuyler fell in love too ... she wanted to be around Heather any time she could ... playing with her dollhouse ... singing songs ... dancing for her ... going down to wake her up each morning ... and this afternoon helping her roll up her clothes up to pack them in her suitcase ... at the airport when we said good-bye she cried so so so hard and was so upset Aunt Heather was leaving ... it broke my heart ...

Heather brought Skye her first Jack-n-the-box and it is awesome ... it is a sock monkey ... Heather is now Skye's sock monkey aunt and Skye just loves it ... she loves to be surprised and she cracks up every single time ... she thinks it is awesome ...

Last night David made pot roast for us and it was beyond delicious ... I just love that David is so here for me and our company ... we had two home cooked meals that were fantastic and it was great for all of us to sit around the table and enjoy dinner together ... and as usual Skye was a little show off and performing for us all ...

Oh David and my dad found something for our kitchen that I am so excited about ... a button that installs at the sink to run the garbage disposal ... it is awesome ...

I'm so happy Heather got to spend 4 days with us ... I only wish it could have been more ... and I really wish we could make the trip out to Lawrence to see her ... I would love to show David where I went to college ... where I "grew up" ... all my favorite spots ... and just hang out in a place I love with the people I love ... that would be fantastic ...

Busy Weekend

Well Heather got here from Kansas on Thursday late afternoon and Schuyler and I went to the airport to pick her up ... it was probably my best airport pick-up ever ... we parked in the garage right by Southwest ... we came off the elevator and the monitor said her luggage would be on turnstyle 2 and that is right where we were ... we went and sat down and before my tush was on the seat we saw her walking out ... and then it was right back to the car ...

We hung out at home Thursday night ... David fixed chicken and potatos and veggies that were delicious ... and Skye was just so happy to see her ...

Friday started out a quiet morning ... I made my own cinnamon rolls from scratch without a recipe that turned out sooooooo good ... I was so happy about it ...

My dad called and wanted to go look at some stuff for the remodel ... so we packed up some snacks (not enough) and headed out ... we spent hours at home depot ... thank goodness Schuyler had Heather with her ... they looked at all sorts of stuff in the store ... got a stack of Minnie Mouse paint swatches ... had hot pretzels and ran around the store ...

While we picked out this amazing black kitchen sink ... bought a new sliding glass door, small window for the kitchen above the sink and a huge bay window for the window wall (that is going to become half the height so we can have cabinets and counters underneath it ... we also got a kitchen faucet ... and looked at tons of other stuff like toilets and tubs and all that jazz ...

Then we headed to a granite place ... it was in a warehouse and awesome ... they had tons to choose from and after much consideration we found one that we both loved ... and the guys prices were amazing ... he gave us a sample to bring home and think about and we told him we would be back Satruday ...

So this afternoon we all headed out again ... we had searched around and we weren't going to find a better price for granite countertops and all of us really liked the guy ... so we paid our deposit ... and set up the tenative schedule ...

Then we headed to a WAY high end bath, kitchen and lighting place to look around ... get some ideas for stuff we want that we can then look for online at a reasonable price ...

It kind of sucks that this is the weekend we needed to start getting stuff done since Heather is visiting ... but at the same time she made it all that much easier to get stuff done ... and Schuyler is just in love with her ... and has had so much fun hanging out with her ... and we did get so much done ... although we have these long lists of stuff we still need to do ... I just don't know that David and I were prepared with all that needed to be done ...

At least while Heather has been here we have been able to stay up late talking and hanging out ... I just love when she is here ...

Our soon to be new black sink

Heather testing out the tubs

Wash and Dry

On the last day of 2008 we got a new washer and dryer ... I was waiting until I used them to write about them ... my oh my are they a HUGE difference from what we had ...

They are front loading machines and amazing ...

See our previous washer was just a couple of years old ... we had to buy one soon after moving in because ours broke ... we didn't have much to spend and couldn't get the biggest top loader available ... big mistake because I would over-stuff it ... but it cleaned the clothes anyway and I didn't really have a problem with that ...

Our dryer on the other hand was manufactured the year I graduated high school ... and we just had our 20 year reunion ... the only setting on the machine was a timer ... no heat settings no nothing ... when we first started using it we had to set the timer for 80 minutes ... that is a long time to dry clothes ... and a long time to use electricity ... especially with how many loads I need to do to get all of our clothes clean ...

In the recent past ... maybe the last month we had to do two 80 minute cycles for each load ... multiply that by 5 or 6 loads and that is an awful lot of electricity and time to get our clothes clean ...

I did laundry this weekend ... 45 minutes and everything was bone dry ... also the size of the new machines I got everything finished in 3 loads ... it was AMAZING ... I can't even believe it ... what an energy and time saver ... it made me a bit more excited about doing laundry and it sure does give me more time to hang out with my family without thinking about when to go down for the next cycle ...

Once it gets moved upstairs when the bathroom is turned into the laundry room I may actually grow to not hate the task anymore ... I can do loads every couple of days rather than all on the weekend and no more hauling clothes down 3 flights of stairs ... shoot I'm even going to keep hangers in the laundry room and just put clothes right on the hanger out of the dryer ...

But for right now I am VERY VERY VERY happy with our new Sears purchase ... made today a lot easier ...

Now if only there was a machine that put everything away ... then I would be in heaven ...