1.25.2012

Kitchen Complete!

It took a few months, but our kitchen is finished! :) When we bought the house, the kitchen layout was one of my favorite parts. It's BIG, and it has big windows that look out on the trees and the back yard. I wasn't a fan of the countertops, old boring cabinets, layout, sink...pretty much everything, but the size and windows. It took a while, but Steve fixed it up for me in his own DIY ways. First, he did the trim. He's working on doing white trim in the whole house. The rough cedar was so annoying. Then, he did the pantry doors. He took the louvers out and put corregated metal in. This is Hailey's magnet spot. I made the magnets on top out of bottle caps.

Here you can see some of the countertops. He did stained concrete countertops. He also reshaped some of the countertop area.


Steve sanded all of the cabinets and stained them darker to give them a more updated look.


He also put in a new stove hood. Now, the smoke alarm doesn't go off every time we make bacon.

Steve made a butcher block so we could move the refrigerator away from the stove and put in tiles under the stove and refrigerator. (There was a huge spot there without tiles when we moved in.)


Here you can see some of the bright blue wall and the sink that is under the countertops.


He also put in shelves under the counter where the built in oven used to be and made a shelf for the microwave.


Here's a close up of the butcher block. It's amazing.


One of my favorite things is the chalk board. Steve made it out of an old frame.



Here's a close up of the petoskey stones (our state stone) in the countertop. We wanted to personalize it a bit. I love my big sink.

I'm a pretty lucky girl to have a husband that can do all of this. We didn't want to put a lot of money into the project because we don't see ourselves living here for a long time, but it needed to be done. Now, I love hanging out in the kitchen.

1.22.2012

Christmas Morning

Baby girl loved her truck that Santa left for her. The fact that it has a radio made it even better. She kept "oohh"ing at the fact that she had her very own truck WITH buttons!

So she opened all presents and stockings in her truck! Who wouldn't?




Then, it was time to explore the tent and tunnels. I had heard somewhere that some kids are hesitant or scared of crawling through tunnels...not this girl! The only thing that scares her....is Santa!






Now, she's in this truck all the time. Yes, it's still in our living room. Classy, huh? Whatever. It's winter in Michigan.

1.20.2012

Santa Came!

Yeah, it was almost a month ago, but he came! Here's what he left.
A lot of stocking stuffers for the whole family. We mostly got candy, snacks, and treats.

A truck for a certain little girl complete with a dog in the back. Every farm girl MUST have a dog in her truck.


A couple tents with tunnels.


A post of Hailey on Christmas morning will come soon!




1.18.2012

Kiwi!

This girl loves kiwi...

...and she's a big dork! :)



1.15.2012

Crazy Girl

Hailey found my bucket of scarves, hats and gloves. It was great entertainment for at least 15 minutes.











Christmas Cookies

Better late than never, right?
I decided this year Hailey and I would make sugar cookies to take the the elderly neighbors next door. They absolutely ADORE Hailey and don't have family that visits. I figured I would be making and decorating the cookies, and Hailey would be yelling at me and trying to eat everything in sight.

Thank goodness she often proves me wrong.
She was such a good girl, and a fun helper to have.

She's the best darn sprinkler you have ever seen! She didn't even try to eat the cookies while she sprinkled.


Pretty much every cookie was sprinkled, but those are mom's favorite, anyway. :)