happy half.

In the spirit of birthdays...

We sort of missed Annabelle's half birthday, August 8. I remembered the day after and she was clearly unaffected by our forgetfulness. Regardless, I want to take a moment (or blog post) to celebrate the precious 6 month old in our life.

It seems that "sweet Annabelle", as I often call her, is changing daily. Just the other day, I walked in to see this:

What's so exciting about that, you ask? Well, you see, I actually didn't place her halfway under the chair.
Yep! She's moving! Not crawling, but doing a little scooting. 

 

She is also constantly chewing on anything she can find and drooling like it's her job. It's worth it though- two teeth are in and two more are on their way.  (Isn't that pic hilarious/frightening? And don't you wish I would stop dressing her in blue so that she would look like a girl?!)

And, of course, she's almost always got company.

Sometimes that company sits on her.
Look at her pleading with her eyes!

And yet, she smiles.

They really are becoming buddies. Cooper loves to go in with me when Annabelle wakes up from her nap. This particular day, they were even chewing on their fingers together!

The poor girl gets no respect for her personal space.

Through it all, she remains remarkably content and good-natured.

If it wasn't for those pesky teeth, she probably wouldn't ever be fussy. Good thing she has her toes to chew on, too!

Literally every day, I have a moment when I marvel at what a delightful gift God has given me. She breathes life into my soul. (Well, Jesus does that if you want to get technical, but you know what I mean.)

Happy Half, Sweet Annabelle!

the big 3-0

Happy Birthday, Curtis!

We have already done some hard-core celebrations (which will have their own post soon), but today is the official 30th birth date of my fabulous husband so I couldn't let the day pass without acknowledging that fact.

Babe, I can't find the words... but I will try. You are my saving grace in so many ways. You are wise. You are loving. You are hardworking and sacrificial as you willingly choose family over dreams (albeit temporarily, we hope). You pursue truth. You are tenderhearted in a way that so few men are, and yet are stronger than most. You are fiercely loyal. You are intentional as a father and are committed to our kids knowing their belovedness. You are a constant reminder to me to let my guard down and enjoy life more. You graciously accept my faults but also help to shape me into a better version of myself. And, best of all, after 6 years or marriage, you still think that you were the one who lucked out.

I love you. Happy Birthday. I can't wait to know you after another 30.

dang it.

I discovered this today:

It is wall art, made out of vintage wallpaper, that comes in all sorts of colors and designs... elephants, dogs, monkeys, birds. But the trees...

Oh, the trees. 

I'm in love with the trees.

Check it out in this nursery (where I discovered it this morning):

Does it get any cuter?!

I would be such a perfect complement to Annabelle's crib bedding:

It's really unfortunate, too, how much I love it... because it is super-freakin-expensive. Anybody have 200 euros laying around? :)

Feel free to check it out here, and order me one while you're at it!

A girl can dream, right?

transformations: attic (part 2)

Pretend I posted this last Wednesday. That's when I started it, but then the craziness of this week got the better of me...  more on that to come!

As of a week ago, here is where we were on the attic:

Look at all that NEW wood! The framers beefed up all the floor joists so that they could handle the new floor load. Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about?!

You can see here how they added a new 2x8 to each side of the existing joist.
Are you bored yet?

The "rough in" (definition: the sub-floor work... I think) for the plumbing was almost completed. 

 The plumber added a new drain pipe down the stairwell wall.

With all that excitement going on, the kids and I escaped the construction site for a few days at the beach with my family. It was great, though I'm not sure I would call it a "vacation". There were 4 kids (age 5 and under) in one room with my sister Ashley and me. Craziness! Annabelle got the lap of luxury: staying with "Mammy" in the other room.

There was lots of this. 

And also this.

Sweet memories and fun with the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We are blessed.

When we returned, so much had been accomplished on the attic!

We have WALLS! Only the "footprint" of the layout was there (not the interior walls), but it felt like a drastic change.

You could now start to picture what the rooms were going to feel like in size. This is the bedroom.

And this is the bonus room. Pretty similar, huh? Here's what's different: if you look closely, you can see a large LVL beam that we were not able to remove (supports a previous renovation/wall-removal in the kitchen downstairs). Because of this, the whole area between the beam and the wall (about 4 feet) will be one step up from the rest of the room. A little odd, but hopefully it won't look too awkward. :)

 Also, on the same side of the bonus room, there is a recessed area in the wall where we will install built-ins for our TV and books, toys, etc. Won't that be awesome?!

They also added the collar ties, so we can kind of picture the ceiling now too.

Curtis had been hard at work too, with the help of a few professionals. They were taking advantage of everything being open and exposed upstairs to do some quick updates downstairs.

Curtis removed the outdated track lighting in the kitchen and then cut new holes. The electrician came behind him and installed NEW CAN LIGHTS! It is fabulous. We just moved forward 2 or 3 decades in one weekend!

They also added can lights in the living room. There is even an eyeball light (the shiny point on the end of  a fan blade) that will light the painting above the fireplace. Doesn't that sound so upscale?!

Perhaps our favorite update downstairs, though, is one that our friend Charlie helped Curtis to install: a sound system throughout the house! It is amazing. There are two speakers in the living room (see above pic- grey circles), one in both the kitchen and sunroom, and two more outside on the deck!

We can control each room separately from our mother board in the hall closet. He even lent us a "speaker selector" (is anyone impressed by my expanding vocabulary??) so that we could try out our system for the weekend.

Thank you, Charlie! We owe you big time. Any time you need help... ummm.... actuating (as you call it)... or baking... or babysitting... we've got you covered! :)

Stay tuned for Attic Transformations Part 3- there have been some more BIG changes!!

faves

I love generic brands. Seriously. If you look in our pantry, you will see loads of Great Value and Aldi brands. I am all about substituting for the name brands... let's be honest- do you really know that you're having Philadelphia cream cheese or Domino sugar?!

That being said, there are certain things that the generics cannot touch. Let me introduce you:


1.  Jif Peanut Butter

via

I am that choosy mom. It just can't be beat. I did recently start buying Jif Natural because it seems a little more, well, natural... no hydrogenated oils. I don't exactly know what that means, but I know they aren't good. :) Taste wise, I would still go with the original any day.



2.  Honey Bunches of Oats

via

I have tried the generics and they just don't hold a candle. It's the best cereal ever. Enough said.


3.  Oreos

via

They just never get old. I'm pretty sure I could eat them every day of my life. Deliciousness in my mouth.

Those are my Top 3 for which there can be no substitute. What are yours?
(C'mon people... I know you're out there. Comments are our friends!)
 

bonus baby pic

Just because.

transformations: attic

Just a quick update on the attic. After two HOT days in the attic (they could only work from 6:30am to noon because of the extreme heat up there), our framer and his guys had accomplished a lot:

They removed one window, which will allow a pass-through for trash and all the materials that they will need (no mess going in and out of the downstairs... yay!).

They removed the plywood floors to expose the beams. It makes the whole space feel bigger somehow. 

Next, they took out and bagged all of the loose insulation that had been in the floors. It looked like miserable and  disgusting work. I felt guilty about making them do it... until I realized how much we are paying them. :)

Because our electrician, who was supposed to come in this weekend, had a death in the family, the next task fell to Curtis. See that wire and blue box? There were LOTS of them, nailed into the beams, and the ALL had to be removed so that the framers could continue. So, Curtis just did it.  Like Nike.

I don't know everything that he did, but here's what I know: he's spent a lot of hours up there, it's always really loud, and there are now these cute little bundles of wire along the edge. My husband's a rockstar. Albeit, a sweaty rockstar.

Who plans an attic renovation in the middle of the summer?!

Stay tuned. The framers come back tomorrow to start beefing up the floor beams! We are moving right  along... slowly but surely.