Rockport Gray

Saturday night Andy went out to celebrate Jesse's birthday (Happy Birthday Jesse!). I had gotten a sample can of the paint color I was thinking of putting on all our walls (including the kitchen/dining room/living room since it's all one room now and the hallway since it connects with the TV wall. I found this color in a home I really liked in one of my magazines. Here's the home:

It's such a pretty gray. Warm. Classy. Turns out it's a pretty popular gray. I've seen it in several other magazines and blogs lately. Hope it doesn't turn out to be "2012" (don't want to date the house). Gray is really popular right now.

Anyways, so Andy left and Rex went to bed and Julie and I pulled out the furniture and started to paint. Took us until 3am to finish, just before Andy returned home. Looks amazing, really loving it. Warms up the place and is starting to make this feel like a home.

The boys just got here tonight, Vinnie said it looks really good, though he called the color brown. Now the back of my photos wont be this washed out white anymore.

On the kitchen progress front we have all the plugs in. The new subfloor is in. Ceiling insulation, electrical and drywall is in. Tomorrow we will most likely be putting in insulation in the walls. Tuesday- depending on how motivated we are and when Andy gets home we will put in the drywall???? Dare I brave to say it?! Most likely that will wait till he's home on Wednesday, but a girl can hope. Then we will be mudding and taping. We also have to make a trip to Ikea to purchase all our cabinets. I still need to sort out backsplash and countertops. Oh and handles too. Plus Andy needs to figure out what stove he is going to get. A never ending project- please let it be done soon!

December Scrapbook: 10th- 12th

And December continues.

December 10th:

December 11th:

December 12th:

Spent a very long day in the car with Julie today driving up to Vancouver for our office Christmas lunch. Andy and I are sitting on the couch trying to figure out what stove to buy. On to construction tomorrow!

December Scrapbook: 1st-9th

I've been keeping up on doing the book, just not so good about posting the pages. It's been a lot easier this year to complete since there is only room for one picture. Starting to notice some themes over the years in December...

December 1st:

I think every year we have been doing construction in December, but it was December of 2009 that we started construction on the front of the house to remove a closet in the dining room, and just grew from there.

December 2nd:

This one is new this year though!

December 3rd:

December 4th:

December 5th:

December 6th:

December 7th:

December 8th:

Vinnie also got a haircut in December 2009. You can see it here. He cried. Did not like the electric clippers.

December 9th:

Seahawks game is also becoming a theme. We went last year with Anna and Derrick. You can see it here.

More pages to come!

December Scrapbook: Foundation

I can't believe December is here already. I've been doing another December Daily scrapbook. I pulled out some of my Christmas boxes the other day and my previous years books were in them. It was really fun to see them and look back at December over the past three years. 2009 and 2010 are completed until about December 20th. 2011 I have pics in for every day, but didnt finish scrapping the 23-25th. This year is the year. I shall complete it!

Looking back too I'm starting to notice some re-occuring themes in the month of December. The usual, Christmas Carol, Nutcracker, 5th Avenue performance, but also a hair cut for Vinnie and house construction!

I got the kit from Studio Calico, which is sold out. Love the products, and it's so much fun to get everything together in the mail. Studio Calico has monthly kits that they sell. Once our house construction is done and I have some extra time on the weekends to scrapbook I think I will sign myself up for these.

I should have completed my foundation pages in November, but all I did was cut out the paper. It was a start though. I will be following Ali Edwards again on this journey. See her blog here.

I'll post my completed pages tomorrow!

Go Seahawks!

We took Vinnie and Leo to their first Seahawks game today. It was awesome. We played the Cardinals and killed them 58-0. Highest score for the Seahawks since '77. Also the Cardials beat us 20-16 in pre-season, so this was sweet revenge.

Leo doesn't like loud noise, so we brough the noise cancelling headphones for him. You can't hear anything in those. He wore them for the majority of the game.

Took a pic with Rex before we left him at home. Him and Vin are sporting Huskies.

Awesome game!

And we have a dishwasher!

Lets see, where to begin on our plumbing adventures... I think it started Saturday night when Andy informed me he was running a new main water line to the house. So after Rex was asleep we went outside and started digging our four foot deep and 30 foot long hole, which included digging four feet under the concrete sidewalk. At about 10pm we were about to call it quits for the night when the main connection to the house where Andy was digging (it wasn't me) fell off and the under side of the house started flooding with water. Andy quickly shut off our main line at the street and our evening was just beginning...

Has anyone ever seen The Burbs? I think our neighbors thought that we were burying people in our front yard. Well at about 2am we finished the hole, ran the new line and started filling it back in. I finished the rest of the filling the next day. So sore.

The pipe we removed was full of rust. First off yuck to see. Second, yuck to think that all of our water to the house was coming through that pipe. At about 3:30am we showered and went to bed. So tired.

Tuesday night Andy and I were up till 4:30am trying to get the plumbing in place for the sink and dishwasher. We started about here...

And now the dishwasher is in! Andy did his research on this and decided on a Kitchen Aid dishwasher, then looked around for a good deal. We got a $950 dishwasher for less than $500 ( I think the sales guy rang it up about $100 less than what he was supposed to, but we kept our mouths shut). It's pretty.

So here's our island so far! The top piece is part of the old kitchen counter, it's temporary. Making progress. Andy is going to put the sink in before the weekend because I will not survive four boys and no sink. Over the weekend hopefully we can find some time to start installing electrical and then we're soooooo close to putting this back together!!!!

Rex: 9 months

It's amazing how fast they grow and change. Rex is crawling all over the place, and in construction you have to keep track of his every move. He picks up everything on the floor and puts it in his mouth- yuck! I always have to wash his hands before he eats as they're covered in dust and other debris. Still not running around with his brothers, but he really wants to!

He stands up on everything he can- the ottoman, the one step in our house, his crib, the cabinets. Anything he can get leverage on.

And out of no where he figured out how to feed himself. I set a fork down on his high chair with a piece of pear on it and he just picked it up and put the fork in his mouth. No big deal. I was shocked!

I took a video of it, but I haven't figured out how to post videos on here.

Also he started saying Mama, and a couple days later started saying Dada. This is important because I won. He says baba too, which came out of no where because none of us say that. I have been coaching the mama for a while. He's kind of attached to me too. It's cute, but tough when he wants me to hold him all the time, or fusses for me when other people want to hold him. Just a phase I think though, so we'll be okay.

Still nursing too. I've set my mind to make it a year, if I hadn't I probably would have given up during the summer. We're down to four times a day now. He's still not sleeping through the night, but only wakes up once now, which is much better than it used to be. Nurse him hold him for a minute and put him back to sleep. Not great, but I'll take it for now.

Right now we're working on teaching him to wave. We're getting there!

Bunk Beds

We've been talking a lot about getting bunk beds for Leo and Vinnie so Rex can have his own room for now and stop sleeping in our closet when the boys are here, which just wasn't working. Andy wanted to build them. In the midst of everything we were already working on I thought this was a terrible idea, but under never underestimate what Andy can do.

And yes it is very high, but the plan is to put three beds on that wall so the boys can all sleep in there eventually.

In progress... and this only took him two evenings to complete

The first night Vinnie had to use the ladder to get into bed. He thought it was really high and was kind of nervous the first night. I was as well! Leo wanted to sleep up there, and still does. He thinks it's the coolest thing since cars, which is saying a lot!

Completed! The ladder Andy built from scratch from a piece of plywood. It's really pretty in person. We really should have painted it before we put it in, but we were under a time crunch. It probably wont be painted for a year, but we need to figure out how to paint it and what color. Thinking we should use the wall paint, but paint the step parts brown or black and the post. Although another part of me thinks it would be fun to paint it red and make it like a fire engine! Works out really well with the black bed and book case underneath. Makes a nice cubby for Leo's bed and the bookcase is accessible from both sides, which is the whole point of having a bookcase like this.

Their cousins came over to visit they were up and down the ladder a lot and told Vinnie how cool it is. Vin doesn't think it's too high anymore :)

Hair Cut

Okay two posts in one day?! I know, it's a lot to handle just couldn't resist. I tried cutting Rex's hair yesterday. It's so long and all the hair over his ears was just too much for me. So I cut around his ears and the back of his neck. Difficult as he was squirming and I don't have good scissors. Today I decided to finish the job and cut the hair on the top of his head. I took the kitchen shears to Rex's hair...

Before:

Now: 

Without all that extra hair his face looks so much brighter and he looks cleaned up. The pictures make his hair look kinda red, but really it's pretty blond. He seems to like it too. Why didn't I do this months ago?!

Hello Lonely Blog

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. This being a mom, working, doing construction, and only having a nanny part time is tough. Doesn't leave much time for the things I want to do. Also makes every day a multitasking frenzy. Rex just went down for a nap, which means I have at least an hour until he wakes up, and not much more. So right now I am letting bleach sit in my tub so I can scrub it out, running the dishes, folding laundry, and taking photos to share with all of you. Once I'm done here I will be making my bed and working. Too many things to get done in a day.

So we've been making great progress with the house! Hired someone to jack up the floor, so now my house is level- yeah! $3,000 worth of improvements that you can't see, but at least the house is level and that's good for the rest of our projects. Well not level, straight as they've told me. Either way I've been living with the slope of the kitchen since I moved in so I don't notice it at all.

Also hired someone to redo the siding on the front half of the house and frame in our new windows. We had six windows removed and three windows installed. The two windows in the kitchen were not replaced because the walls will be covered in cabinets. One of the windows in the bathroom was not replaced because it causes a glare on the tv, and it will be covered by cabinet as well.

So before...

Here's the demo process, which Andy and I were lucky to do on our own, with some help from Vinnie, you can see the new siding on the back of the house which is the outside of our bedroom, we're matching that.

And the inside. The wall between the kitchen and the living room, which is now the dining room is gone. We have all but some tiny pieces of drywall up in the dining room. All the new lights are in and the new plugs.

You can't see, but we had gas installed in the kitchen for the new gas stove. The floor is also level :)

Next step is the ceiling in the kitchen. Andy has to wire the new lights, then insulation and drywall. Once that's complete the island will be installed. Andy has decided he will do the plumbing. You can see the blue tape on the floor, that's where the island will be. I don't want to live without a sink and dishwasher so the island will be up before we finish the demo in the kitchen.

The bathroom is a mess too since we've removed the windows. We are going to move the sink and the toilet around which is going to require more plumbing. I wish we knew a good plumber. We've done so much of this ourselves there's some things I just want to hire out. We're so close I just want to get it done!

But the outside of the house looks really nice. It's finally starting to look and feel like one house. I want to plant some more trees at some point. Plus we need to paint the house, but have no idea what color yet. Liking the lightness of the color it is right now. I was originally thinking a dark blue, but now I'm thinking a yellow. Thoughts?

Happy Halloween

Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual pumpkin patch photos with Tati this year. Our family has grown by one. Getting harder to corral overyone together for a good photo! So far I've only gotten one back of Rex.

Love that little guy. Can't wait to see and share the rest!

7 Months

Where did the time go. I can't believe it's been that long since Rex was born. It still feels like yesterday we brought him home from the hospital. I think a lot of that though is because we dont' have a good routine going on around here. The house is still midway in construction. I've been working like a slave all summer. Andy's been at home with the boys by himself on the weekends, which was never easy on him. Although Vinnie has been a great helper with Rex. Always wanting to play with him, carry him around, put him on the couch. All the things that stress me out! But Rex LOVES him. Vinnie makes him laugh all the time, which is not an easy feat!

Well cruise season is finally over and I'm trying to get our life in order. And then we're going to start contruction on the kitchen and it's going to be a big fat mess all over again. Oh the insanity of life never ends.