Body Entrapment

So, in our new house, we have a tub in the master bath with jets, etc... I am so glad I read this note before I tried it though. I've always been afraid of body entrapment, and now I know it's a real thing!!!

Finishing the Kitchen!!

Dean and Graham sealing the slate. I was hoping this would show Dean's crack, but sadly it doesn't. :) The floor looked soooo beautiful after it was sealed. It really brought out the beauty of each individual tile. I love it!
The finished kitchen.

Decorating our tree

So, we got our tree out of the boxes and set it up in our new house. For family night we decorated it and then had yummy treats that Grandma made. Raisin cookies and yummy chocolates!

Granite is in! Tile is starting!

Our Kitchen so far!

So, the boys hung the beadboard. It's painted now, but not in the picture.... The laminate counter top is removed and Granite is coming in the morning!!!! The floor is ready for the tile (my beautiful black slate) and most of my cabinets are done and hung!!

You can't see in the picture, but to the left is a section of cabinets and my other oven and microwave. Those cabinets are painted green and antiqued. I think I'm going to antique the white ones too.

Saturday kitchen work!

Hannah and Graham painting the bead board. Such good helpers!

Dean, Pat, and Joe, putting up the bead board. They were so cute to watch, they went everywhere together. They would walk in the house together, out to the garage together, nail together, saw together, etc.... The three stooges, oops, I mean Hotties.
Sweet Kathie vacuumed the whole house for us and even got a stain out of Sophie's bedroom carpet, and a mouse out of Amanda's closet.
Jonas and Savannah painting the bead board.
Here I am adding the bumpers to the cabinet door. Notice our soft drinks, fast food wrappers, and chocolate.

The boys thought the painting masks were rain hats. I personally thought they looked like half bras. :) So, you can see we're living off of McDonald's food. You can also see in the background a couple of the cabinets that are painted. They used to be same color as the wood you see under the bar. We will be putting bead board under the bar and painting it creme like the cabinets. we will also be putting in granite counter tops and ripping out the laminate ones you see in the picture.

Lessons Learned

Today I learned some great lessons:

• When you only eat peanut m&ms and diet coke all day, your urine smells funny.
• Commercial paint sprayers are harder to use than you would think.
• Read the user's manual before using, not during use, especially when reading the manual off of your Droid, which looks better without paint.
• If your husband tells you that the paint will run if you spray it too thick, believe him.
• When your paint runs, try and brush it smooth before it dries.
• After brushing the drips, you may have enough paint on your brush to get spots you completely missed.
• Make sure you know which end the paint sprays out of before pulling trigger.
• Paint sprayers put out a lot of air. This air can blow the plastic that you use to protect your carpet and result in painted carpet.
• Wearing a mask is great, but eye protection would be helpful too.
• Green mascara would not look good on me.
• When I step in green paint with my shoes, and take them off, and then step in green paint with my socks, and then take them off, I will step in green paint in bare feet.
• If your son doesn't want a pink room with Disney Princesses on the wall, you will go through a lot to fix that for him.

My Treasure Chest

Isaac pulled down the front of my shirt, exposing my cleavage. He asked, "Is that your bum?"

I replied "NO, it's not my bum! It's my chest." (as I'm pulling up my shirt)

"Your chest????" he said. Then he whispered "is it a treasure chest?"

More on the remodel

So here are what Jonas and Isaac are doing during all this hard work. I know, we are good parents.

Here is the floor. Can you believe how many staples are in there? Poor Dean had to pry them all up. Luckily, the kids all helped him. Even Amanda's good friend Calvin came and helped. Above is a picture of one of the many many piles of nails and staples that we have swept up in the last two days. Ugh!!

Renovation Begins!!!

The last two days have been spent from sun up to sun down at the new house. We are exhausted!!!!!!!!

Dean has been ripping up the floor both days in a row and finished tonight. I don't know if he'll be able to walk tomorrow though! Everyone pitched in and helped.

I removed all the cabinet doors and drawers and took them down to the basement, where we removed the hinges and knobs and had a sanding party with all the kids. :)

Jonas and Graham really helped Dean upstairs pulling out staples that seemed to be every inch. Jonas also liked using the power tools.

Thanksgiving 2010

Well, it's Thanksgiving today and I have a ton to be thankful for. This is my first Thanksgiving EVER that I have hosted. We have always been at either my mom's or Dean's mom's house. So, the best part has been all the preparation and baking. I made rolls with Hannah, pies with Sophie, and this morning taught Amanda how to make a turkey. Precious moments with my precious daughters. Wait a second, Savannah didn't do anything! How does she always get out of doing stuff? :) I will have her do the mashed potatoes! ha ha

Suzanne and Kaleb were unable to travel due to weather so they are going to come join us. It'll be great. She is bringing jello (you can't have Thanksgiving without Jello), and a butternut squash dish. We all adore squash, especially Dean. :) Actually, we do love it, but Dean doesn't. :) I love their family, so I'm very very glad they will be joining us.

After we feast at noon, we are going to the theater to see "Tangled". It should be really fun. The kids are excited, at least I think they are. Sophie and Savannah are still in bed, but I bet they're having exciting dreams about spending time as a family.

I am thankful for a lot of things this year. As I go to sleep at night, I've been trying to "count my blessings instead of sheep" and I have noticed that I always fall asleep before I finish my list. That is a good thing. Some of my main things are: our recent trip to Disneyland, our purchase of our new home, Dean's job, my wonderful children and husband, and Christmas music.

I am not homeless anymore!!

Dean and I finally closed on our new house and got the keys!!!!! I got a text from our realtor around 4pm that said: Congratulations! It's all yours!

I was instantly so happy that I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time! We will finally be in a home where everything works and where there hopefully won't be any leaky faucets!!