Our Little Surprise

We officially found out yesterday that we are expecting Baby #3 at the end of March.  We are very excited about the news.  Audrey and Claire are beyond excited.  The ultrasound tech told us that the baby is about the size of a blueberry right now, so the girls were calling it "Baby Blueberry" all night.  Claire keeps saying, "I can't believe there's a baby in your tummy!"  Audrey can't wait for the baby to be big enough to kick so she can feel it.  She loved that part when I was pregnant with Claire.  They are both reminding me how big they are and how much they can help out with the baby.  Since Audrey will be 10 and Claire will be 5, I know that they will be good helpers.  I flipped through my calendar yesterday to show Claire how long it will be until the baby is born and she said "That's a long time... Your belly is going to be huge!"  LOL!  Aww, kids say the cutest things! Cute, yet brutally honest... :)

First Day of Fourth Grade

Wow!  4th Grade!!!  It seems like I was just getting Audrey ready for Kindergarten and now she is a big girl in 4th grade.  Fourth grade just seems so big... I know all of the older moms (those of you whose children are in high school or college or even grown with children of their own) are thinking that I am crazy for feeling like my little girl is growing up so fast.  I know one day she will be going to her first prom, graduating high school, moving away to college and all of those things that come with your children growing up, but I am living in the now and right now, my little girl is going to the big 4th grade.  I am very excited and, if I'm being honest, a bit terrified at the same time.  This is just one of the reasons why I listen to the advice of older moms when they tell me to "enjoy every moment".

Anyway, this is about Audrey's first day of fourth grade.  She is very excited about this year.  This will be her first full year at her new school.  She has quite a few friends from last year's class in her class this year, so she was happy to see some familiar faces in her new room.  She is also excited because as a fourth grader she can join chorus.  She is very musically talented and is looking forward to the numerous concerts and events that they host throughout the year.  Below is a photo of Audrey at school.

 Audrey - the Big 4th Grader!!!

A Childhood Right of Passage

For many children, getting braces is just another childhood right of passage.  Audrey is experiencing that right of passage now.  She started Phase 1 of her orthodontic treatment today. The time frame for this phase is approximately 12 months. She was a bit anxious beforehand but did really well.

Audrey brought along a "friend" for support

She chose a different color band for each bracket - "Rainbow colored", as she calls it!

At home... showing off her new additions:)

The one thing that I remember from having braces was the difficulty eating certain foods.  So I am trying my best to incorporate easy-to-eat foods into our good-for-you diet.  I use the word "diet" in the sense of our eating lifestyle, not a weight loss plan.  Although it would be nice to lose a pound or two in the process. :)  But I digress.  So tonight we had "soft" foods for dinner to help alleviate the discomfort that usually comes those first few days of treatment.  Audrey gave her seal of approval for dinner and we made it through the first meal quite well.  We worked on cleaning around the braces after mealtime and discussed the best practices for dealing with meals away from home - like lunches at school, etc.  Audrey is doing great and I hope that this "right of passage" is one that is a positive one for her.

No more monkeys jumping off the bed...

Yes, it is a familiar verse from a treasured childhood book... but it is also the words that came out of our doctor's mouth yesterday when we had to take Claire for x-rays of her foot.

Audrey and Claire thought that jumping from the highest rung of the ladder for their bunk beds would be fun... Well, not so much... for Claire anyway.  Apparantly, Audrey jumped without incident and then it was Claire's turn.  Since big sister had just done it, I'm sure Claire thought it wouldn't be a problem for her to do it as well.  So, she jumps.  But the jump was too big for her and she landed, rolled and hit her foot on the leg of their desk.  At least that is the story that I got when I went to investigate the mad screaming coming from their room.  Brock and I looked at her foot and decided that ice and elevation would be a good first step - there really wasn't any noticable swelling or bruising.  Later that afternoon, Claire still did not want to put any weight on her foot, so we continued with the ice and elevation measures.  At bedtime, she said it still hurt on the inside so I told her that we would go see the doctor in the morning. 

When she woke up yesterday morning, she was still limping.  I called our pediatrician and we went in for x-rays.  Claire was not happy about the 2-3 seconds that the technicians wouldn't let me stay in the room while they actually shot the x-ray, even though they let me back in the room in between each shot. But I would think that the whole situation would be quite scary or at least unnerving for a four year old who has never been through something like that.  Thankfully, the x-ray was negative! No break!  She has a bad sprain that we will continue to wrap, ice and elevate per our doctor's orders.  And of course we will definitely follow her most important order - "NO more monkeys jumping off the bed"...

Nothing says "Summer" like a good bedhead...

While our plate has been overflowing this summer, we have still managed to take advantage of the fact that summer is a time you may sleep late.  Although my children do not fully understand this concept yet.  Their idea of sleeping late is 7:30, but that is better than their usual 6:00 rise and shine.  And on the positive side, it still gives us plenty of time to have a productive day.  In true relaxed summertime spirit, Claire was sporting the best summer bedhead one day.  It reminded me how relaxing summertime is.  It also made me make a pledge to myself to try to keep that relaxed atmosphere going after school starts back in August.  It is usually a time when we are crazy busy and our schedules get out of control.  But if we keep the right mindset, we should be able to keep that relaxed summer spirit going well into fall... just without the bedhead of course (as adorable as I think it is)!

Renovations Continued - Kitchen

If you are just checking the blog, be sure to go to yesterday's entry - Renovations! - for the first installment of our renovation tour...

Okay, so I left off with the floors being installed on Day 12.  At this point, we were still dead set on getting the kitchen move-in ready by our D-Day and were putting in very long hours to make it happen.  On Day 13, the kitchen cabinet installation began.  Let me clarify - the kitchen cabinets were installed by two very handy homeowners named Brock and Amy. :)  I should also tell you that while it was very tedious at times (mainly because our house, like every other home in Florida, is built on a slab thus making the floor far from level) doing the work ourselves saved us another chunk of change.  I think it was our determination and the fact that we are both perfectionists that enabled us to get the cabinets installed.  The granite company that installed our countertops (some things should be left to the pros) said that the cabinets were the most level and plumb installation that they had dealt with.  Also, those compliments came before they knew who installed them.  So kudos to us!

Here is a photo tour of the cabinet installation:

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

Off to a great start...

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

End of Day 13...

Kitchen (View #4 - Cabinets)

I love my appliances... If anyone is in the market for new ones, I highly reccommend Electrolux.  The stove has a double oven.  The lower oven is small, but the perfect size for bread or pies.

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets) 

 Making headway - We relocated all of the appliances, but we left the sink in its original location due to both the cost and labor-intensive task of moving plumbing work in the slab.

Kitchen (View #2 - Cabinets)

The island is installed - To begin with, I only wanted an island that was just a little bit bigger than the one in our previous house, but ended up with one twice the size because this kitchen had so much more floor space than I thought.  I was able to get a 5'x4' island and still have just over 3 feet of walkway around it.

 Kitchen (View #2 - Cabinets)

The empty spot on the left side of the photo is where my refrigerator will be placed and the door opening is the pantry.

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

 This is Day 15 - It took us a while to get everything installed, but we did it.

Kitchen (View #2 - Cabinets & Granite)

 Our granite countertops were installed on Day 16.

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets & Granite)

The island has a 10-inch overhang which is the designated area for the girls - breakfast and lunch is enjoyed here as well as all of the homework that is accomplished while Mom is cooking dinner! :)

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

The trim was installed to the top of the cabinets.

Kitchen (View #3 - Semi-finished Kitchen)

The kitchen was move-in ready with a few outstanding to do items (installing the drawer pulls, installing the remaining baseboards, etc.) by the end of week 3!  Even though we still have a few things left to finish, I love my kitchen!  It is a great room for entertaining!!!

Kitchen (View #2 - Semi-finished Kitchen)

You can now see my refrigerator on the left side of this photo.  I have another picture below...

Kitchen (View #2 - Refrigerator)

I chose the Electrolux French Door refrigerator.  It has so much space and works very well for our family's needs.  The freezer on the bottom is great and has much more useable space than our previous side-by-side.  Again, if you are in the market, this fridge is fabulous!

I will continue the tour of our renovations in other parts of the house in my upcoming posts.  So check back soon!

Renovations!!!

Okay, so I admit it's been a bit too long since my last post. In my defense, we have been very busy with all of the renovations to our new house. I am going to use the next few posts to recap our progress thus far... with photos (for those of you who have been waiting so patiently to see them) :)

We closed on the house on March 13th. And I am sure that this will be a complete shock to all of you (total sarcasm used there) but we started our demo that night! With my mother-in-law helping with the kiddos and my father-in-law helping with the demolition, we were able to tear out about 60% of the drywall throughout the house, tear out two walls, completely gut the kitchen and trash out the vanities in both bathrooms and gut every closet in the house. All of this was accomplished in three days! :) Now that three days consisted of starting around 6:00 am and going until 1:00 am, but we did it and we saved a nice chunk of change by doing it ourselves.

I will start the renovation tour with the kitchen...

Kitchen (View #1 - Before)

(The wall in this photo will be removed during demolition)

Kitchen (View #1 - Before)

(The drop down ceiling in the kitchen will be removed during demolition)

Sidenote: Drop down ceilings and tall husbands are not a good combination

Kitchen (View #3 - Before)

(The golden yellow shag carpet, drapery and lighting will be removed during demolition)

I am sure that you are asking yourself what happened to view #2... Well, no worries... I have labeled the different views of the kitchen (1 - 4) and unfortuately view #2 did not have "Before" photos because of the wall that divided the kitchen and dining area.  You will see photos from all of the views throughout the renovation process.  Each view will be consistently numbered so you can get the "lay of the land" so to speak.  It will also make more sense when I put together a final slideshow from beginning to end, but we have to get to the end first. ;)

Okay, so if you are still with me, I am going to take you through the photos of the demolition of the kitchen....

Kitchen (View #1 - Demo)

(The wall has been removed and the flooring is in the process of being torn out)

Kitchen (View #2 - Demo)

(Wall down, drywall removed, flooring ripped out, electrical is being sorted and it is just a few hours into our first full day!)

Kitchen (View #2 - Demo)

(This is the former stove location and where the new refrigerator will be placed)

Kitchen (View #3 - Demo)

(It's the end of Day 1 and we are off to a great start!)

Kitchen (View #3 - Demo)

(They said "Vintage" was back, but Harvest Gold vs. Stainless Steel - not much of a contest!)

Kitchen (View #2 - Drywall)

(So, this is Day 5 and the new drywall is in and we are waiting for the texture to be added)

Kitchen (View #3 - Drywall)

(New electrical is in place - outlets, lighting, etc)

Kitchen (View #1 - Paint)

(So we have the walls textured and painted - Believable Buff)

Sidenote: One should be careful when explaining things to young children.

This is how the conversation about the paint color with Audrey went...

Mom: So do you like the paint color?

Audrey: Yeah, it's cool. What's the name of this one?

Mom: Believable Buff

Audrey:  (Laughing) So our house is "in the buff" (still laughing)

Kitchen (View #2 - Paint)

(We will paint all of the trim throughout the house white)

Kitchen (View #3 - Floors)

(So this is Day 12 and floors are in!)

Kitchen (View #1 - Floors)

(We found a great wood flooring to go throughout the main living areas)

So, now you are almost up to the end of Week 2.  We accomplished a lot more work in other areas of the house, but that work will be showcased in other posts.  I will finish the kitchen tour in another post as well.