Happy New Years

Important locations of 2010

Our kitchen – It was the largest home remodel project to date. We completely gutted our 1964 kitchen, moved some appliance locations, installed all new cabinets, built an island, and tiled the floor. With the help of some family, friends, Google and some very late nights, we are proud to say it is finished and looks great!

Decatur – Jensen started kindergarten at Decatur Presbyterian school. He has thrived in the small class environment and has enjoyed learning to read and so many other things.

Utah – Derek was offered an opportunity to transfer with PwC from the Atlanta office to the Salt Lake City office. We decided this was the best thing for our family and will be moving sometime in the spring. We are very sad to leave Atlanta, our home and our friends but are looking forward to all the good things that will come with living in Utah.

As we reflect on the last year we are truly grateful for all of our blessings, especially our three happy, healthy children. We are looking forward to the opportunities and adventures of 2011.

Walking

She can walk but still prefers to crawl most of the time since it is much faster.

Happy 7 years

1 car (OK, it is a little dirtier than it use to be but all these years and it still works great!)

2 promotions

3 kids

4 years in Public accounting

5 home remodel projects (two bathrooms, one kitchen, one family room and one living room)

6 different items from the menu to celebrate our anniversary ( pan seared duck breast, goat cheese and roasted beet napoleon, shrimp casino, pear salad, tofu mignon, and crème brulée. No to go box needed we ate it all. YUM!)

7 years and still in love!

The Candy Approach

This year we decided to take a little different approach when it came to Halloween candy. This morning I declared it “Candy Day.” (Last night was our trunk-or-treat so the kids were going through their mountains of candy.) I told them that they could eat as much candy as they wanted today and then tomorrow the rest of the candy was all going to disappear (aka eaten by me or thrown in the garbage.) They thought that was a great idea. Their breakfast consisted of eggs and about 5 pieces of candy each. They have been eating candy like crazy all day and on a sugar high pretty much all day. We also conducted “science experiments" on our candy (mostly the candy they didn't like). Out of all the different types of candy, the only three that floated in water were marshmallows, kit-kat and whoppers. Also, did you know that if you put M&Ms in the microwave for a full minute nothing happens, they don’t even get hot, add a little water, completely different story. Taffy was the favorite, it gets nice and bubbly when nuked. I just finished cleaning up and threw out the leftover candy. There wasn’t much, it had all been opened, tasted, stepped on and experimented with. I’m not quite sure how tomorrow is going to go, (I have a feeling they are going to be . . . well . . . a little grumpy) but I am glad there is no more Halloween candy around my house. We are definitely making this a tradition.

Happy Halloween!

October Happenings

We went to a pumpkin patch. They had a maze, a hay ride, blow up bouncy slides, farm animals etc all the usual stuff.
As you can tell from there faces Jensen and Siesa loved the fun house, they played in the fun house for 45 minutes. They would run out smiling and laugh and run back in. I couldn’t go in but I could hear them laughing inside having a great time.

Witches Party

Some friends threw a witches party at my house (my friend didn’t think everyone would fit in her house so I offered my house for the party) We decorated the night before by candle light because my power went out 20 minutes after starting, very random but very fitting for Halloween We had a good time.

Siesa and I made pumpkins to decorate morning, just for fun.

Derek celebrated his 31^st birthday. We didn’t do too much because he had to go out of town the next day but I did make a yummy salmon dinner and mint brownies.

Coach Derek

The long awaited day has finally come. Derek was able to coach Jensen’s soccer team. It is pretty low key, it is only one hour a week on Saturday. They have a 30 minute practice and then a 30 minute game. There are 8 kids on his team and only four play at a time. One of Jensen’s best friends is on his team and his Dad is Derek’s assistant coach. Jensen has been very excited that Dad was going to be his coach but on the way to the game he said “Dad, how are you going to be the coach because you have never been one before? Are you even going to know what to do?” We assured him that Derek knew a lot about soccer and would be a good coach. He has not been disappointed, Derek has done great. Truth be told it is more crowd control than actually coaching since most of the kids have never played soccer before. Jensen has improved since last season and actually tries to kick the ball and he made his first goal and was very excited.

Elsie

Height 28 inches

Weight 16lbs 4 oz

Teeth – 5 teeth 3 on top and 2 on bottom.

Words she can say. . . Dada, more, all done, Denden(Jensen) ba(ball) those are the only word we can decipher but she is constantly taking “baby talk”

Favorite foods-peas, eggs, applesauce, eggplant parmesan, yogurt, beans and avocado

She likes to dance to music, play in the sand box, swing and slide. She also loves to play in the toilet water (is of course we are trying to avoid that but with two other children using the bathroom . . . well . . . hopefully she will grow out if that obsession really soon) She can climb up and down the stairs with out any problems. She loves to point and talk about everything. She has the cutest laugh and is constantly on the move. We love you

Happy Birthday Elsie!

I can’t believe that Elsie is already 1.

Elsie loved her cake. From the moment she saw it she wanted it. I gave her a piece of cake to eat but she didn’t want it she wanted the whole thing. We cut ourselves some and then let her have the rest.

Opening gifts- she had a lot of help. I don't know who was more excited about Elsie's birthday

Look what I got

take me out to the ball game

Derek’s group at work planned a end of busy season activity and invited everyone in the group and their families to an Atlanta Braves game. We decided to take the whole day off and enjoy the day. We skipped school and work, didn’t get dressed until 10:00 and made crepes for breakfast. Yum!


Today’s game started at noon so it was perfect (a little hot but better than if we had gone in July). We didn’t know how long the kids would last but we actually watched (or should I stayed for) the whole game.


Jensen got a baseball from one of the pitchers in the bull pen because we were sitting right by it and Jensen was watching. As soon as we got home all Jensen wanted to do was play baseball with his “real” baseball.
Siesa enjoyed eating the peanuts and watching the players run.

We all had a great time.

Kindergarten(a month late)

Jensen started kindergarten. He was so ready to go and couldn’t wait. He loves it. Derek took him his first day on the train.

Siesa loves it too. The first day Jensen was gone I found her in their bed room playing with all Jensen’s “special toys” she has also taken his clothing to wear, slept in his bed and played with a lot of his toy while he is gone. For the record she is always glad to have him home and they do have a good time playing together.

What to do with all that art?

It all started 2 years ago when Jensen started preschool. Now with two kids in school/preschool it has gotten out of control . . .art , art and more art. Don’t get me wrong I love doing art projects with my kids but what to do with them has always been the question. I was tired of random pictures stuck all over the walls so I decide it was time to come up with a better solution to display my kids art projects. I stretched fabric on wooden frames and with the help of a staple gun created this.

and with the art

With the help of push pins we can switch the pictures anytime we what. It has been fun for my kids to be able to have there art work on display instead of all over the house.

Next problem -how to keep books on the book self with a 3 year old and a 11 months old. any thought?

Summer is. . .

eating fresh, ripe, juicy peaches. yum

Finshed!

We finally finished our tile yesterday! We are getting so close to being done. Yeah!


I think I am working Derek a little to hard. . . or maybe he just really likes the tile choice?

The Grand Tour

There are so many things about our kitchen that I love but I’m just going to point out a few of my favorite things.

Double Oven - I am in love with my oven, it’s true. I can now cook 2 different things at the same time with different temperatures, ingenious.

I painted the kitchen Myth Gray( it really should be called Myth Blue) and I love it! (thanks Allison for the paint color)

One Big Sink - I could probably fit all of the kids in it for a bath. It makes cleaning pots and pan so much easier. I also enjoy the garbage disposal (It took Derek and I 4 hours and 2 trips to home depot to get it the sink and garbage disposal working. After 2 weeks I still feel proud every time I turn it on.)

Ikea Varde handles

Canyon Slate tile- this is the tile we are going to put in next weekend.

Drawers – I put as many drawers in my kitchen as I could and it is so wonderful to have space to put things in.

The Chandler

New Caledonia granite counter tops

Garbage can – I have a cabinet that you open which our garbage can sits inside of hidden and convenient to access.

Refrigerator with a water dispenser(the kids love that now they can get their own ice and water anytime they want, that means less work for me),

Island – I love having so much counter space.

I hope you enjoyed your tour

Before and After

So, we’ve had another exhausting, and fun week working on our kitchen. This week, we painted (not only the walls but the tedious windows), put the backsplash up, put the handles on the cabinets, cut all the crown molding and baseboards, and painted the doors. Of course, when it came to painting the door, I had to pick the hottest day of the whole year to take the doors apart and to paint them. I started first thing in the morning, but by 9:00 am our whole house was sweltering hot and we were all dripping with sweat, literally! But the doors look great and we are so thankful for our air conditioner.

We are not done with our kitchen yet but we are making progress. Here are some before and after pictures.

We still have so much to do like tile, finish the baseboards and crown molding, toe kick, make curtains, paint the chairs and bar stools, put cover plate on the outlets . . . it makes me tired just thinking about it all . . . but it has been fun and someday it will all get done . . . right? I hope so.

I took this picture a few weeks ago the day Danny left. They did such a great job and go so much done in just one week.