Monday, April 19, 2010

Yes...we are still alive!

Let's start with the sad truth:
1. I am a really, really bad blogger.
2. Everyone knows it.

Although these facts are pathetically true there is an up-side to this sadness. You see, the best part about it is if I do post more than once every 6 months I'm making huge progress...right?? I'm all about trying to better myself so I like to start simple (like blogging twice a year) and then I feel better about myself if by some luck I manage to do it more than that. I've even tried silly things to make me HAVE to update each month such as holiday backgrounds but if anyone is still bothering to look at my page anymore they have seen that we are still celebrating halloween at our house. I really considered leaving it to save myself the trouble of having to change it in another six months! Hopefully now that life is slowing down a little I will be better about posting. No promises though...

For the most part life has been pretty good for us. We have moved up to our front house and have spent ALL of our spare time, and then some, fixing it up. We have scraped walls, painted, laid new flooring, painted, created new rooms, painted, torn out cabinets, painted, laid new countertops, painted - did I already say that one?! I feel like I have been painting everyday for the past three months. I am so sick of painting and I'm not even done yet. We still have plans to paint the outside in the next few weeks and then have two more rooms that need redone. It looks so much better so I guess it was worth it in the end. Just recently we finished our kitchen. Bryan did such a good job I thought I would include a few pictures just so you could see how bad it was. Here are some before shots.


Don't you just love the flooring?? It was always our favorite! And now I am proud to show you what the kitchen looks like now... tadah!




Bryan completely re-arranged the existing cabinets, created an island for us, relaid the countertops and then I helped with the sanding the cabinets and painting everything. Just this last weekend we both laid the flooring together and now we have just a few odds and ends to finish before it is complete. So much better. It is so nice to be married to someone who knows how to do EVERYTHING! I am so lucky.
Bryan and I are also really into food storage/bottling and I also do coupon sense so we have a huge amount of stuff without a place to put it. So, we created one. It is our food storage/laundry room and I love it. It's kind of hard to explain what we did exactly but we pretty much cut a long, weird shaped mud room in half and created two normal looking rooms. This room is connected to the kitchen and has a door to our back porch/grilling area. It is the perfect setup. Here is what it looks like.


Anyway, remodeling has kept us busy while trying to juggle it with every day life. Bryan is looking forward to his summer break coming up and has put in his application for the nursing program so we should be able to find out in the next few weeks. He has completed all of his pre-requisits and his co-requisits so if he gets in he will have the program classes only. If he doesn't get in this semester he gets a longer summer break because he has nothing left to take. He really doesn't care either way...I think he wants a break but I would prefer to get on with it. Whatever happens happens I guess.

As for Miss Olivia, she is as cute as ever. She is growing up so fast it's almost sad. She is about 16 1/2 months now and EVERYWHERE. She talks a mile a minute, most of which I can't understand, but is actually starting to make a little sense. We are able to pick out a few words here and there. She doesn't just walk anymore, she runs and she is so independent and stubborn. I wonder where she gets that from? At least she gets her looks from her dad. I have actually been pretty bad about taking pictures lately so the ones posted here are from the past 3-6 months. I just cleared my camera card and vowed to take lots over the summer because she changes so fast. For now these are all I have. Enjoy!
Just before her 1st birthday


Olivia and Mom around Thanksgiving time.


My mom has this goofy looking expandable ball that Olivia loves to put around herself. She also likes to capture Daddy and get kisses from him. They are crazy about each other, it is so cute to watch.


These pictures were taken only a few months ago. She looks like a toddler now, it makes me sad. She is so stinkin cute though!

Easter at Nannies. Trying to decide which egg has the best chocolate in it.

That's all I've got for now but you should all be hearing from me again soon. I'm quite proud of myself for how long this blog is. That ought to count for something right?! Until next time...see ya later!