Kitchen Chaos

Ever since we moved into our house I have had a love/hate relationship with my kitchen. I love the size, how open it is to the rest of the house, how there's enough room to cook and still have a baby or two playing in the floor... The appearance, however, has been a thorn in my side for the past 4 years! The people who owned our house previously had very eclectic tastes to put it mildly. I think we counted 10 different colors of paint on the downstairs level alone...not all attractive or coordinating. How can we forget the HUGE bronze and black star on the ceiling of the dining room or the little stars painted on the tile on the fire place? We had about a 6 week leeway from the time we closed on our house to the time that our apartment lease was up. We used every bit of this time to repaint almost the entire house! The kitchen had 5 different colors in it alone so it took a lot of time. One paint I couldn't get rid of was the paint on the tile backsplash. That's right....they painted the tile! Poorly I might add. Every few squares across the tile backsplash, was a streaky, red painted tile. The paint was in the grout and deep red so there was no hope of removing it like we did on the fire place. Once we repainted the house the kitchen looked decidedly yellow and ugly. I had a seam in the formica that was bubbled and a kitchen faucet that was faded and funky looking. Anyway, we had other things that commanded more immediate attention like setting up Joshua's nursery so the kitchen fell to the back burner. Then we ended up building a grape arbor over the back patio to get rid of the previous covering that sustained hail damage, put plantation shutters up, and found out I was pregnant with Lily. That necessitated a remodel in study, big kid furniture for Joshua....the list goes on.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I struck a bargain with Eric. I had told him once that I should get jewelry for every gun he bought (ha ha). I've yet to see any sparkly things come my way and our house has accumulated a substantial gun collection. I traded in my jewelry for my kitchen! It all came together pretty fast. I had them out for an estimate 2 weeks ago, they were out the Monday after to cut templates and last weekend I said "Ciao" to my yellow kitchen! I have spent most of my time since they finished dusting... It's amazing how much dust cutting granite can create and they did most of the cutting before they got here and the polishing outside! I think I will be finding granite dust for a very long time! I finally got my kitchen all back together Monday night and I love it. When your kitchen is torn up the whole rest of the house might as well be in shambles. I can't tell you how many times I started to go to dump something or rinse something in the kitchen sink when I had no sink to do these things! It was a LONG two days with two kids and no kitchen sink. I think I've had my fill of eating out for quite some time!

Behind again....sigh!

This spring has been horrible on the blogging front. We have so much going on I just don't seem to find time to sit and write it all down! I will strive to be better for all 4 of you that keep up with us this way!! Where to start?

So my last post was during Lily's first drastic sick episode. I will happily report that she is hale and hearty again. It took a solid week and a half but she returned to normal far faster than Eric and I did. It's amazing how quickly those little bodies heal! Eric and I still looked like zombies 3 weeks later! Of course we both caught whatever upper respiratory thing she had going and if she felt like we did I don't blame her for being so cranky! Oh well, I would much rather do the cold and virus gig than a stomach bug!

Lily turned 5 months on May 2nd and it growing and changing so fast! She rolls over both ways and I find her on her tummy in the morning more often than not. She still has just the first two teeth but the two on either side are trying to come in. She loves oatmeal but is not as enthusiastic about rice cereal and she eats cereal for breakfast and dinner. She has started to give us kisses over the past week. She will grab both sides of your face and plant a wet, slobbery baby kiss on whatever part of your face that reaches her mouth when she leans in. She LOVES her exersaucer and is utterly fascinated with her big brother. He gets more smiles and giggles than anyone! She has said dada, mama and bubba at this point. Dada was her first word and she certainly had Eric wrapped around her little finger. She loves to sit in his lap, lean against his chest and gaze up at his face in utter adoration. So cute!! She is just an instant away from sitting by herself. She will sit unaided for a few seconds at a time but gets excited and topples over when she realizes no one is supporting her.






Joshua seems to be changing over night as well. Everyday he's more of a little boy. It's amazing to see the differences in his features in just the past few months. He's also shot up in height again. He was 41" at his 3 year check up and now he's right around 43" If he keeps going like this he will definitely hit the 6'5" they predicted from his 2 year height! He is the tallest kid in his class and he's one of the youngest in it. People are constantly asking me if he starts kindergarten in the fall and are amazed when I explain that he's three and a half! T-ball is almost over and we are all very happy for that fact! I don't think t-ball is Joshua's cup of tea as we spend more time cajoling him onto the field than enjoying the experience. I think our next adventure will be soccer. This kid loves to kick balls around.







Next week I am finally getting my new kitchen counters! When we bought the house we new we eventually wanted to replace the kitchen counters. They have a cheap formica on them and it's buckled at the seams in a couple of places. I have a lot of counter space in my kitchen, which I love, but it makes the cost of replacement shoot right up. I have disliked the look of my kitchen ever since we repainted the house before we moved in. The color palette that I have makes the kitchen counters look really yellow. The previous owners didn't help things out when they decided to paint over several tiles on the backsplash with a gaudy red. Four years later I am finally getting rid of my yellow counters!!! We are putting in granite with a stainless steel undermount sink and a putty colored tile backsplash. I will definitely post before and after pics next weekend!