New Kitchen

I couldn't be happier right now about my beautiful new kitchen! It's been a long road getting here. When we moved here 20 months ago, the oven was acting up and completely stopped working within a few weeks. Since it was a wall oven with separate stove-top, we decided to get rid of both and buy a new oven/stove combo. Oh yeah, and did I mention this house was built in 1980, the cabinets were homemade by the original owner, and there had been no updates since then? You'll notice on the slide show/video the retro decor we were dealing with! Unfortunately, that made it so we had to tear apart that side of the kitchen, and we had no counter or cabinets next to the stove for over a year and a half! Plus, last May (2007) Dennis took out the false ceiling in our kitchen and the upper cabinets along with it. We wanted to remove the popcorn texture on our ceilings, and the false ceiling that was a foot lower than the rest of the house made it very, very hot in the kitchen. For the past 14 months, we only had lower cabinets in most of the kitchen and no cabinets at all on the stove side. It is soooo exciting to have a complete kitchen that I can't even describe how giddy I am. Those of you who got to see our kitchen in the in-between stages really now what I'm talking about here!

Original photos of the kitchen when we bought it...

you wouldn't believe that it got worse during all the changes!

The new kitchen....
drum roll please!

Now, we've only got a few little things to do like paint touch-ups, trim, and crown molding. Our next project is to replace the old linoleum with tile. It is going to really finish it off!

Oh, the simple pleasures I used to take for granted...

Our parents have been so good to us in getting the kitchen done. Dennis's parents drove from Iowa in a big flat-bed truck to bring us the cabinets and install the bottom ones. Then, my parents drove from Utah to bring us the Formica for the counter tops, and my sweet wonderful dad installed the counter tops and helped install the upper cabinets afterwards. Thank you, thank you everyone.

Three Going on Thirteen

I've been a horrible blogger lately (we just got an entirely new kitchen - pictures coming soon), but I had to write down what Sarah said today before I forgot. This morning, I had just gotten the girls some toast, and was working on getting my own breakfast prepared. Emma started to throw some of the remnants of her food, which is her way of telling us that she's all done.

Well... Sarah likes to give me a play-by-play when I'm not watching, so she says, "Mom! Emma's throwing her food! Mom!"

The thing is, I'm trying to keep Sarah from turning into a tattle-tell. So, I said with a warning voice, "Sarah... it's okay."

To which Sarah responded, "Don't worry about Emma, Mom. I've got it under control."

Maybe she's heard that a little too much? It's really hard to teach your three-year-old a principle when you can't help but bust up with laughter!

Get Into My Belly!!

Andrew is now four months old! He got his first taste of rice cereal last week, and is tolerating it pretty well. Each day, he makes a funny face at the first bite and then starts eating it after that. I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

We took him for his 4-month well child check yesterday. He doesn't weigh a whole lot, but his head is really big (one of our pediatricians said that it related to brain size). Maybe he'll be a skinny little genius! Hahaha...

What the heck is this, Mom?

Okay... if you say so.

Partners in Crime

I think the best thing about having more than one child is to be able to see them play together. Sarah and Emma are the best of friends (when they're not fighting over the same toy). They entertain each other for hours. They LOVE to play pretend, dance together, sing the ABC's (Emma hums along), help me do the dishes, and squeal and squeal and squeal. It is so funny when I vacuum because they run around in front of the vacuum squealing like silly little girls. It's great to see all the games they come up with ...

Playing in their "car." This is my quilt rack that Dennis helped them convert into their own little imagination station. I don't even bother putting it back to normal anymore.
(Yes, Emma still has curlers in her hair).

Drive-thru snack time!

Sarah giving Emma some bread to feed to the ducks at the duck pond. Sarah is so great to help out Emma and teach her things.
Today she got her to say a few words... maybe that's how we'll finally get Emma to talk!

Memory Lane...

I found this on a couple friends' blogs, and I really wanted to play, so please play along with me - it's so fun!

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

One of Each

I tried so hard to think of a fun theme for my post today, but... nothing! I couldn't come up with anything, so I just decided to choose a picture of each of the kids.

Mister Drew:
I can't believe how big this guy is getting. I keep thinking he is just tiny, but he's doing and learning so much. He is now starting to enjoy his tummy more and will just hold his head up like this and look around to watch the girls play. He also turns to me when he hears my voice or I say his name. I love watching my babies learn new things!


Little Miss Emma:
I don't know if it's a girl thing, but my girls LOVE shoes. Sarah started her obsession at about Emma's age right now too. Multiple times a day, I will find Emma walking around in mine or Dennis's shoes. She usually even gets them on the right feet! I'm sure there will be more shoe fetish pictures to come...


Sarah Pie:
Our big girl just loves to be in the picture! Dennis brought me home flowers today (just because... how sweet), and Sarah just wanted to smell them over and over. She called them "Mommy's Special Ones." She says the cutest things lately... I sometimes call my girls "sissy" or "sis" (like for sister), and Sarah has picked this up. She is constantly calling to Emma, "Come on, Sissy. Let's go!" She especially does this when Emma is pretending to be a puppy and Sarah is her owner. It's so great when they play together.

Baking, Fishing, Swimming, and Sleeping!

For all of you out there wondering what we've been up to lately... here is your answer.

I'm not a huge fun of the hot and humid summers around here (especially because they last until October), so we've been trying out a lot of different things to do inside and outside of the house.

It is a must to have a constant supply of cookies in our house, and with all that cookie making Emma has become quite the helper. Mostly she likes to dip the cookie scoop and lick it! Don't worry... I wash it off after she has her scoop of yumminess.


For the next couple of pics I have to thank my great friend Melissa... she gave me the idea of indoor fishing. One of the days that it was stormy, we did this and the girls really loved it. I just need to get some better "fishing poles" because they were able to take these apart pretty quickly.

One nice thing about the heat around here is that some people have pools and invite us over to swim! Saturday we spent the afternoon poolside, so while Sarah worked on her tan I got nice and roasted (we slathered Emma in sunscreen to prevent her from having the same fate as me). When am I going to learn?


With all of our running around, the kids are completely exhausted. Andrew has even been known to crash while sitting up in his Bumbo chair! Poor guy...


And I just loved this picture of the girls because they don't usually sleep in the same bed - especially Emma's bed. They must have just needed a little cuddle after a long day.