Progress In The Kitchen!

We are so close to completing our kitchen remodel! My dad spent the last week building a pantry for me. He is super talented when it comes to carpentry work and he even knows how to run electrical wiring. He installed our recessed lighting in the kitchen and also added 4 more outlets for me!  I now have a total of 6 outlets in my kitchen. Yes, I need that many outlets. Pretty much, wherever you are standing in the kitchen you will be able to plug something in. The reasoning behind my outlet madness is that my old kitchen only had 2 outlets. It drove me crazy! So I asked my dad to install 4 wall outlets along the L-shaped countertop, and then one on the side of the island and one on the side of the kitchen desk. I know no one else really cares but it makes me so happy! Thank you dad!  The pantry turned out great and we really need the storage. We recently became Costco members and we need somewhere to store all the food and paper products we have purchased. By the way, LOVE Costco! Anyway, here is a picture of the frame my dad built for the pantry.

This space was originally where the fridge was located.  When we moved the fridge we had this open area that we didn't know what to do with. We didn't want a small counter/cabinet there and I thought it would be too small for a pantry. We decided to stick with the pantry idea when we came upon a pantry door on Craigslist that matched our oak cabinets. It was only $45! A brand new pantry door at Lowe's or Menard's sells for $160 and up. The only problem we had was that the door was 4 inches too wide. So my dad came to the rescue and took 2 inches off both doors. I think he did a wonderful job! You can't even tell the doors were trimmed.

Now that the pantry is complete, the tile floor can go down. Dustin just started working on laying the tile tonight. :) :) We were able to get the tile on clearance for 50% off! It just makes me smile when I say that. Who doesn't love a deal?!! Here are photo's of the tile.

YAAAAAAYY!!!!!!!! Good bye floor from 1954! Hey, that rhymes.

I will leave you with a funny photo of our dog Mello. I was trying to do Allison's hair one day and he wouldn't leave me alone. Then he kept getting caught in Allison's hair and it was so funny. So here is a before shot of him, that is kinda silly.

And here he is with some curly locks!

Sorry Mello, but you asked for it.

Have a great weekend!! 



Saturday Spectacles

I love Saturdays! The kids are home and I get to tackle projects that I can't complete on weekdays. One of those projects was to clean out our tiny linen closet. So I removed everything from the closet and I found a small bag full of my old glasses. I didn't think anything of it but when the girls saw the glasses it was like finding buried treasure!



As you can see from the picture, Asher got a hold of the top pair. Does the outcome surprise anyone?
Anyway, the girls went nuts over them! I first had to pop the lenses out of the frame. After that, their imagination went wild! As soon as they put the glasses on, they suddenly transformed into people they know who have glasses. (Luckily, I was not one of the people they pretended to be. When the girls act like me it is so embarrassing to watch.)

Here they are at church with ALL their children. Allison had eight kids and Emma only had one. They also had to bring ALL their purses and diaper bags. These girls know how to pack a pew! They played like this for an hour and then they came back to reality. Of course, they had to keep the glasses on!

In other news, we are now working on the floor in our kitchen! I am so excited! Here is a picture of the backer board going down. You can see the original green 1950's floor. It is just screaming "Cover me up!" So that is what we intend to do!

My dad installed the backer board himself and when Dustin gets the chance, he will install the new tile floor. Dustin already measured out all the cuts he has to make to the tile. Asher HAD to help his daddy with the measurements!

Asher had to make sure there were no mistakes!

Asher can be very helpful sometimes. Just don't give him a pair of glasses ;)

Someone's Birthday Is Coming........

I am so excited for Emma this year! She has had a countdown for her birthday this year, since the day after her birthday last year! She even knew when her half birthday was. Birthday's are getting to be pretty intense around here! And since her birthday falls on the weekend this year, we had to send in her cupcakes for her classroom today. Emma was so proud of her cupcakes, it made me laugh.

So last night we had a huge cupcake making party! Not really. It was just me, Emma, and Allison.  Asher wanted to help but he lasted about 30 seconds. The frosting was too much temptation for his little hands!! Here is the crew (before frosting boy was removed).

This picture is so funny! It shows each of their personalities to a tee. Emma is only thinking about decorating her cupcakes and can only concentrate on that, so she only gives me a half smile. Allison is so excited because I told her she could have one cupcake when we were finished. Side note: Allison has a love of all things sugary! Asher is only pointing at the camera and squealing with delight because he wants to take the camera from me and push as many buttons as he possibly can! What was I thinking trying to do this without Dustin being home?

Anyway on to the assembly line. Allison had to drop one cupcake in each cup and add frosting to the top. Then she added another cupcake and handed it over to Emma.

Next, Emma added the white frosting and I asked her to make it look fancy. I think she did an excellent job! I am pretty sure that is why she was so proud of them:)

Lastly, Allison was in charge of the snowflake sprinkles. I think we all know why. For each snowflake she put on a cupcake, she got one too. The girl just can't help herself, that sweet tooth makes her do it!

Here is the finished product!

All wrapped and ready for Emma's second grade classroom!

Have a blessed day :)