Kitchen Update.

We started painted our kitchen almost three weeks ago. The flu caught up with our family and we had to take a week break. But, this past weekend we were on a roll and got the cabinet doors back on and the hardware installed!

Currently we are working on the beadboard along the side where there used to be a wood colored laminate panel. The beadboard looks much better, and matches the white cabinets so much better! We chose a vinyl laminate, which was recommended by the guys at Home Depot because of the versatility in the kitchen setting!

Here is what our kitchen is looking like these days:

Happy Monday!

Master bedroom inspiration.

Our bedroom has been painted, the bedding has been bought, but no joke, it is the biggest room in the house, and it still looks so empty. We sort of have a timeline to get things 'together' looking before my little brothers' wedding on July 28th. I put together an inspiration board to try and get things rolling. Let me know what you think!

Diary of a sick kid.

The house projects have come to a drastic stop because our little one is sick. The sniffles started Friday morning, it was a full blown cold on Saturday, by Sunday he was having diarrhea, which caused us to leave the Superbowl Party early! (Go Giants - by the way!) On Sunday night my husband was reading to him before bed and screams downstairs to me to come help him, Aiden had just thrown up everywhere!

When he says everywhere, I mean everywhere. It was all over the rocking chair, covered the majority of the floor that was exposed, even hit the crib from across the room! YUCK.

I whipped out the shot spot and started to get to work. It also just so happened that Monday was my laundry day and he was wearing the last clean pair of pajamas that were clean. Luckily, I had put poopy pants in the wash along with some other things when we got home, so we only had to wait about twenty minutes for the jammies to dry! After giving him some water, cleaning the room, it was back to bed he went!

He slept through the night, but was still sick in the morning. It wasn't until nap time the true nastiness of a sick baby came out. He had a massive explosion. Need I not go into details. Needless to say, bumpers, quilt, blankets, sheets, mattress pad, and every stuffed animal had to go in the wash. I went to town with Green Works on his crib disinfecting everything, even the mattress. The window was open to air out the smell, a candle was lit, and it still smelled.

We were supposed to have out carpets cleaned last Friday, but due to the snow storm, they cancelled. THANK GOODNESS!

So, for those of you with little kids, getting them to eat the BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) diet when you have a picky little eater is impossible. We chose to go the au natural route of Culturelle for Kids. It is an amazing probiotic to help get tummies back to normal!

All he wants are Oreo cookies and spaghettios. When I say no... this is what I get....

But, because I am a giant pushover for my sick little nugget, I say fine. Eat what you need to eat. And I get this...

Much better! At least even at his sickest, he can still smile! 

Kitchen start.

The kitchen revamp has begun! Back in November it looked like this... and now, it is going to be getting a makeover. Wood colored cabinets are so out. So, we are going WHITE! There are many different images that we have used to determine how we want our kitchen to look....

See! White is in! Yesterday we began by taking off all of the cabinets, taking out all of the hardware, and removing the child proof locks! 

Each of this little bags with a number in it belongs to these.... 

Then, we sanded all of the cabinets and the frames and then deglossed them... we are doing a two - tone look, it doesn't make sense to paint the insides of the cabinets when they are much more likely to get scratched because of the dishes and glasses! 

On the frames we have one coat of primer and one coat of paint! Tonight yields painting the first coat of primer on the backs of the cabinets in our garage! Tomorrow, the last and final coat of paint will be added to the frames, then those will be done!

We are using Benjamin Moore Advanced Paint in a satin finish (Cloud Cover) and the primer is Zissner Smart Prime! Both are low-voc and biodegradable! 

And... this is how Aiden helps! Stay tuned for more kitchen updates! We plan to be done on Tuesday! 

New Lens

I am happy to announce I found a new, amazing camera lens on Craig's List for my camera! It is a 35mm f/1.8 and I love it! :) I am so excited to get outside and shoot some pictures of Aiden! Here are some that have poor lighting, but you get the point!

Oh, how I love baby feet! Aiden has my husband's feet. We call them "shrimp toes!" 

See all of those nifty broken crayons! I have a neat little trick coming for all of you with kids/dogs/husbands that step on crayons! 

My wonderful husband also bought me a new computer! I got the new MacBook Pro! I am so excited! My other MacBook was just not cutting it anymore (I HATE YOU RAINBOW SPINNING WHEEL!) Now, my life is amazing!

I also just booked my trip to California to see my best friend! She is due February 5th! But right now she is 80% effaced and one centimeter dilated! I am so excited for her! 

Big boy room.

Because I have this excessive need to plan, like way in advance. I mean, I already started pinning ideas for Aiden's second birthday.... in 5 months. Gasp.

Although I do not think Aiden is ready to move out of his crib, I have started looking into possible ideas for what to do in his big boy room. I still have not decided if I should move him into what is the guest room right now, and use his room as the future guest room/ long time future baby room. Decisions? Decisions.

For now, I love the chair rail for little boys. I do think it is adorable. His crib is a wonderful 4 in 1 crib. Which means (for all you non-parents) that is starts as a crib, then changes to a toddler bed, then to a day bed, and then finally into a full size headboard. His is a DaVinci Emily in the color Ebony.

Here are some of the future ideas for his room.

I am really into fire trucks for little boys right now, but from a poll of facebook, it seems as if dinosaurs are more popular. I also love the first one. It is from Land of Nod by Crate and Barrel, the others from PBkids. If anyone has ever heard of the homes Shea Spaces by Shea Homes, they would know that the first one can be done amazingly. Stripes on the ceiling included. Check out their models if you want an idea. 

What do you guys think? I would love to hear opinions! 

The photo shoot of Aiden

Today we visited a friend of a friend to have some pictures taken of Aiden. At first I was extremely nervous, I even asked her about her experience working with monster babies. As his reputation states, he is such a little fire.

First, it was an hour drive to her studio.

Second, Aiden just wanted to run around and not sit on props, or even near props.

Third, he fell into one of her backdrops and drastically wrinkled it (awesome, kid.)

Fourth, we tried going outside and he wanted to run free, so there were likely a lot of the back of his head.

Sigh.

Her name is Aubrey Middleton. Here is her site! If you are interested, check out her facebook page for deals!

Here are three sneak peak pictures, which can also be seen on her facebook page (Aubrey Lynn Photography)!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

P.S. The countdown in on, Heather is due in less than two weeks! Woo hoo! :)

Mothers of Little Boys!

There is nothing more rewarding than have a crazy, loving, little boy in your life. He is such a monster and times, but he is my monster.

For all the mom's of little boys, or the moms who have future sons, check out this blog post, it is so cute and true! 

8 Week weight loss challenge

I started the 8 week weight loss challenge today! It is going to be super tough doing this with school and watching Aiden, but I am very excited!

This is what today looks like:

TUESDAY:

• Contact with Teammate (1pt.)  _________
• 64 ounces of water (3pts.)  __________
• Stop eating before 9PM (3pts.) __________
• 2 Fruit servings (1/2 cup each) (3pts.) __________
• 3 Vegetable Servings (5pts) __________
• No Sweets/Sugary Treats (Only 6 days a week) (5pts.) __________
• Keep a Food Journal (5pts.) __________
• Exercise (30minutes = 5pts; 45minutes = 7pts; only 5 days a week) __________
• TOTAL POINTS: __________

I took my start pictures today, a little embarrassed to show these to the world, but it is all about losing the weight, not where you start! My overall goal is to lose 20 pounds, by July 28th, for this challenge I would like to lose 5. 

Here are my start of week one photos:

Don't pay attention to my ridiculous morning hair! We all know how that goes! :) 

I will keep you all updated as the days progress!  

The beginning stages: kitchen makeover.

As much as we love our kitchen, we have decided that white cabinets would look much better. Also, the swirly knobs have got to go. Today we purchased a few of the materials needed to start this mini-renovation. New hardware, degreaser, and wood putty.

Remember our kitchen?

Quite a few things have changed even since this picture. But, we have big plans for this space. This year, we will not be replacing the wood floors, but in 2013 that will come! Here are some of our inspiration photos! (Found on google images!) 

We lucked out to the max when it came to our hardware. The different hardware we purchased fit perfectly into the holes already drilled for the previous hardware! SCORE! So, instead of taking two days out of our schedule to putty, let it dry, putty again the second day, we can just cut those steps out all together. So instead of 8 days, this project could take six days! I do think the hardest part is going to be taking everything out of the bottom cabinets and putting it locked up in the guest room to keep Aiden's hands away from it! 

Here are some pictures of our old and new hardware! I cannot wait to see how this turns out!

Notice the water damage on the door under the sink? I am excited to say goodbye to that! Keep a look out for progress with this project come next weekend! Oh, I should add, I *think* we are going to use Cloud Cover by Benjamin Moore for the color of the cabinets. It will be Advanced and in a satin finish! 

Console Table time

Remember that console table I bought from World Market awhile back? Well, now it has some decorations on it! The bottom shelf is still missing the perfect piece, but that will come with time!  Here ya go!

Picture some beautiful tulips come March in the vase! I think I need a few baskets on the other shelf, but I am not sure what to put in them. Hm? 

The lamp is from Wal Mart, apothecary jar is something I had and put apples from TJ Maxx, the little scented bird is from Marshalls. The pitcher, which is going to be used as a vase is also from Marshalls! The books are some old books I had from when I was an undergrad. 

I hope you like it! We are in the process of putting together a list of things we want to do to the house in 2012. The major project is going to be grass. We are thinking faux grass for the backyard with a kiddo and a dog, but need to do a little more research if it will look normal. So big purchase 2012 = sod! Boo, such a boring one! 

But, this is why! It is so dry here, it is so hard to grow grass, trust us, we tried twice! And, we saw the lovely HOA truck park in front of our house a few days ago, so I am sure the notice will be coming shortly! But, I will send them this picture if they pitch a fit... it COULD be like this when THEY did nothing about it while this house sat empty for almost three years.

Need I say more? Our grass was just a mess. And notice the missing slate? Ironically, in the back of the picture, our neighbor has MATCHING slate to our missing slate for her pretty little walkway. Funny how that works! Oh well. The thistle left in this yard must have been similar to fighting WWI, she deserved something out of the deal. 

I think our 2013 list will be new wood floors on the main level. Carpet is just so blah. My in-laws put new flooring in their house, and it has done wonders! 

Okay. End ramble.

Pantry Semi-organization

Our pantry is rather large. When saying this, I mean my 85 pound labrador can fit in it comfortably below the shelves. We have our trash can in there too because little baby hands love to get into the trash (talk about some not so fun times!) Since we have moved in, our pantry was our go to junk spot/food spot. The food was just put in there randomly and you could never find anything. I need to get a few more baskets for Aiden's snacks, and maybe some magazine racks for the fruits and vegetables, but for now, it is much more organized! And, I even threw out some graham crackers that expired in 2010! Gross - did you even know they expire, well they do!

Before

During

After

It is a little better! Stuff that can be smooshed on top, fruits, veggies, and cooking stuff, then Aiden stuff.... Bottom shelf practically empty because of baby hands! :)