The one where I explain the lack of blogging...

This is a large post full of home renovations.  When we moved to Iowa in June of last year we had some unexpected situations come up.  We had originally planned to do a little renovation project on my parents' rental property and then move into that in about July.  Well with the great "Missouri Flood of 2011" we were unable to do so.  The part of town where this house resides was closed until late August.  Thankfully, the levees held and the house wasn't actually flooded.  So we stayed with my parents for awhile.  Well, then we were debating moving to Omaha and blah, blah, blah we decided to renovate again.  At that time my father (the renovator himself) went back to work and Todd also had a job, so our house became a weekend/whenever we could type of project.  It was pretty slow going.  However, I am so pleased with the result that I wouldn't change a thing.  I love my Dad to death, and he is the reason this house looks so great.  Todd and I wanted certain things done that maybe he wasn't planning on doing, but he did anyway.  So here are the pictures with some explanations.

 One of the back two bedrooms before.  We had already ripped out the carpet before I remembered to take pictures.  Thus the lovely phone pictures of the befores.  Some things we did to the bedrooms/office - new carpet, new windows, new baseboard, new trim, new doors, new outlet and light covers, new paint, new light fixtures, new shelves and new rods in the closets.  We also painted all of the ceilings. One of the other reasons why this project took so long.

One of the pictures of the after from the above picture.  Lincoln and Mercedes room.

It's a little crowded with toys right now, but we plan to move those out to the garage once we get it cleaned out and fixed up a bit.

The office picture before.  Oh I forgot to mention on the above list of improvements, new blinds.  

 I had to take a picture of my bookshelves for my sister who wondered why I would need 3.  And let me say I actually wish I had a fourth.

 Todd's closet is in the office.  He graciously gave me the closet all to myself in our room.  Love that man.

 My craft table, which actually hasn't been used yet.  We moved in on January 10th and I have been doing a long term substituting job until last Friday the 9th.  So, I actually just cleaned it off and plan to start using it a lot more after our trip to Utah next week.

 Our beloved desk.  It is a heavy thing.  I don't know if we'll ever get it out of this room.  The way it is put together is a bit strange so we can't just take the hutch off.

 Our room.  You can see the ceiling fan in here, it is the same as in the kids room and the office.

 My beloved closet.  I've never had so much room before.  The top is a bit messy, but it works.

 The nasty bathroom.  Actually the room we did the least to.  New toilet, new paint, new mirror, new door, new toilet roll holder, new light, new towel holder, new counter top, new tub and sink fixtures, new hardware and new cabinet.  My mom cleaned that nasty tub and I painted the base cabinet.

Unfinished project - medicine cabinet.  We couldn't find one that fit in the space provided and so we haven't figured out what to do there yet.

 This is the hallway before.  For some reason the previous tenants had taken off the doors to the utility closet.

 My dad, Todd and I spent a few long and never ending nights putting in this new floor.  It was a lot easier with three of us.  We definitely got some bonding time with that one.  So new doors and new trim/baseboard, as well as outlet covers and lighting, oh and we did air vent return covers and air vents too.

 The living room.  This as with a lot of older housed did not have a light fixture.  This was something I am so glad that my dad did decide to do.  I love having light.  So in the living room the list of updates looks a lot like the other rooms.  We tore out the tile by the door for the new floor.

 I love how our couch looks in here.  It fits perfectly.  I also love my new rug.

 Double hung vinyl windows are so much better than those lovely drafty ones we had in our last house.

 The dining room before.

 And after.  We got a new table that seats six (seven if you put three kids on the bench which is under the table).  Here is where we have a few projects left.  We are missing some baseboard and trim in this room/the kitchen.

 The kitchen before.

 Mom and Dad bought these beautiful cabinets and counter tops.  They also bought the microwave and a dishwasher.  I want to put on some hardware, but haven't got there yet.  Also that light switch is being worked on thus the painters tape and lack of plate cover.  Todd and I splurged and bought a new stove and refrigerator.  The old ones were nasty and needed a lot of cleaning.  These ones can stay with us for a while.

 The other side before - no dishwasher.

 As you can tell we extended the cabinetry on this side.  The tall pantry is my favorite thing in here. We are planning on some back splash and I need to paint in a few spots.  Also when we ordered these cabinets they sent a wrong piece (it goes between the counter top and the tall cabinet.  So everything was installed by this guy without it.  Well he did a crappy job anyway (another setback in the project) and so we had to move all of the cabinets.  Explanation.... A few years ago my parents installed the tile in this room.  They did not pick up the cabinets to put it under them (who would) anyway so after we got those old cabinets out the floor was uneven.  So we put in some plywood where the previous cabinets had been and it leveled out the floor.  We thought the guy would put the new cabinets right where the old ones had been so you wouldn't be able to see the plywood.  Wrong.  He shifted them all the way to the wall by the fridge and left a 3 inch gap of plywood on the floor.  What the heck were we going to do with that.  So we decided to move the cabinets on that side of the kitchen (thanks to my dad, husband, Jim, and Ray) And on the other wall  the top cabinets have to be moved because of the missing piece.  Yeck.  Sorry for all of that, hope it made sense.  Anyway so we are also missing baseboard on that side.

 The laundry closet before.  No doors here either.

 I just repainted the shelves and made them more stable.  I have to paint the boards still.  But I love the room here.

 I put some nails in to hang up my broom, swiffer and mop.  Love it.

The whole kitchen.  Wow what an improvement, what a post.  Anyway, I hope this explains the lack of blogging.  I also hope to be better about it in the future.

Family Time

With Todd's new job and a new schedule he gets Tuesdays off each week.  Well this week has been absolutely gorgeous so we decided to take advantage this week and took our kids to the zoo.  We had a fun time just lazily walking around.  We let the kids set the pace and it was really fun.  We didn't take a lot of pictures but here are some of our cuties. 

 Wanting to climb like her big brother.

 Sitting on one of the statues, I really wanted both of them but she wouldn't get off of the rocks.

 It is one of the best feelings in the world when one of your children reaches up and takes your hand willingly.

She likes to try and balance on curbs.  This one had a fence so it was a new experience.

A First For Lincoln

A couple of weeks ago on February 19, Lincoln was given the assignment to give his first talk in Primary.  (Check out www.mormon.org for more information regarding our beliefs.) It was pretty cute to see him.  We worked on it for a few days before and he caught on really quickly.  I knew it needed to be kept short and something that he would be able to do mostly on his own.  We took a video of it the night before for anyone interested.

Riding Bikes

My kids love to ride "bikes", especially on our new laminate flooring.  Both of these "bikes" are Mercedes' but Lincoln likes to ride the red one a lot.  Mercedes is just getting to the point where she cares about it.  She got it for her birthday last year and has just figured it out a little better.

 Cute face.

 Always making car noises.

 Slowly catching up.

 He was putting his arm around her for the picture, but she thought he was tickling her so she giggled and then yelled at him.

 What a sweet brother.  He likes to tell me a lot that he loves Mercedes and often asks me why he can't marry her when he grows up.  I keep telling him he won't want to, but he just knows that he loves her and you marry a person that you love, so that makes it perfect.

Half closed eyes.

 He is such a funny boy.  He got put to bed early the other night for being naughty and we talked about how it was a punishment for not being good.  It's about all he's talked about for 3 days.  How he was punished and he didn't like to be punished.  Another funny story today at church I was helping him tuck in his white shirt after he went to the bathroom.  He was holding his tie up and told me I couldn't tuck that in because then he "wouldn't be handsome."  I just smiled and hugged him.

I love her face in this one.  She's been getting quite mischievous lately.  She likes to run away from you when it is time to get in the car.  She also likes to use Lincoln's slippers and won't give them back.  She absolutely loves her Daddy and has her days where she only wants him.  I love these two little stinkers so much.

Red Sox

Last summer when we went to Maine we went to Renny's and found these little Red Sox outfits for the kids.  Lincoln loves Boston because Todd does, but it is pretty cute to see him all dressed up.  He always wants to wear his Red Sox jersey.  He recently grew out of the hat he had, so we'll have to get him a new one of those.  But here are my cute kids.

(Sorry the lighting was a little weird)

A few new pics

I'm finally trying to learn a little bit more about my camera off of the "auto" settings and have taken some pictures lately trying to test out different things.  I thought I'd share some of the pics since they show the two cutest things around here.  

 Biking is our favorite sport.

 Always trying to follow her brother and do what he does.

 In this case he thought it was fun to get in a picture I was taking of her.

 We love our "pets" around here lately.  Lincoln has especially started to like his stuffed animals lately and really likes his bear.  It is a new comfort object for him, but he still loves his blanket too.

 So happy.  She loves this horse.  It is so cute to see Mercedes cuddle it and put it up right to her face.

They love each other so much and I love that.  Lincoln had a spider bite on the end of his nose and had a red spot for about a week.  Needless to say he missed school pictures.  Make-ups will come soon though.