Sunday, May 19, 2013

A Fresh Kitchen!

We've been here three months now, and we love our new place.

The house is great and suits us perfectly - three bedrooms, open floorplan, two-car garage! But it was built in 1998, so it definitely needs a little cosmetic updating {I'm looking at you... BRASS FIXTURES!}. The kitchen has been updated with granite countertops, stainless appliances and laminate flooring {which I hope to replace with hardwoods someday}, but the walls were still the original paint from 1998! Really flat, grimy, dinged-up plain white paint.

{Excuse the mess - I snapped these right before I started prepping... also notice the aqua patch - we didn't love it, especially once I realized that half of my office is that color}



Vertical blinds - yuck.

We like to refer to those as our "Mexican Restaurant Arches" - not our favorite, but I guess they add some interest

I LOVE having an island! So much room for food prep.
So much better {and neater}!

We have barstools now {$10 garage sale find!}

Walls = Glidden Duo in Dusty Miller


Gratuitous Valentino shot - prior to painting :-)
One room down... several more to go. I just finished painting Valentino's room BLUE today. So, so BLUE.

More house shots to come...

Friday, May 10, 2013

One Lucky Momma

Sunday is Mother's Day {as if you didn't know!}, and it's "my day" only due to this awesome little dude:

Being Silly in Target with sexy-arms Daddy
A few Saturdays ago, while we were still sleeping, he stamped himself 22 times

Yep, he's mine :-)
Freestylin'

This boy is at such a fun an interesting age. His personality is blossoming, and we've really started to see how he thinks and functions. I feel so amazingly lucky and blessed to have this little person in my life. He is smart as a whip, funny, thoughtful, kind, assertive when he needs to be, polite, and creative. He is the perfect blend of his parents' best qualities, and I can't believe that he's ours :-)

Lately we've been enjoying: endless games of "post office" (he makes mail, then delivers it to Vic and me); making Mother's Day paintings and cards for his grandmas; tricks on his bike; huge, proud grins as he rides his new, geared mountain bike; willingness to try new foods - including vegetables {he LIKES carrots!!! I still hate them.}; planning another possible summer trip to MI; picking the perfect blue for his bedroom; using big boy words like "eventually" and "possibly" in the correct context.

On a personal level - I've been having a great week, if I do say so myself! I've booked 5 workouts {9-mile bike ride, 2 spins on the trainer, a run, and a lifting session for the arms} so far {4 of which occured prior to 6:30AM}, and I've been critically watching what I eat and getting down a lot more veggies. The scale is rewarding me with -2 since Monday :-) I like that! SELF: Let's keep it up over the weekend...