House update

This past week, we overhauled our office. We got rid of the sliding glass doors and replaced them with french doors. We could not open the sliding glass doors, so we had never actually been out on the deck. We had Home Depot install them and they did a great job. Here was the sliding door before.

A big hole in our wall...YIKES!
And the finished product. They look great compared to what was there before, and we are really enjoying them. We ordered some faux wood blinds to go on them and hopefully they will be here in the next week or so.
We also got a new desk and bookshelves so we put those together too. The room finally looks finished now and it actually feels like we have some office space. We also have plenty of room now for guests to stay in here, so please come on over and visit. We would love to have you!

We replaced the ceiling fan in our bedroom to this one which matches the rest of the fans in the house. We still have yet to paint our bedroom even though the paint is sitting in the garage. That will come later this summer...or at least that is the plan.

We installed this light above the fireplace that used to be a crusty white fixture. Jason picked this light out himself so he was especially proud of it.

We ripped out the vent hood in the kitchen and replaced it with a nice new white one that matches the stove. You can see the wallpaper below the old hood...now I know why the painted the kitchen blue. I guess any color was better than a whole kitchen with that wallpaper. We have yet to paint the kitchen either...but the paint is waiting in the garage. Sounds like the story of my life right now.

We ripped out both doors and frames from Hannah's room and closet and replaced both of those too. They were MUCH more work than either of us anticipated, but we have learned a lot from doing them. We still have to put trim on both of them and paint them (sound familiar?) but that will happen this week.

And here is the final product with the mailbox. It seems like the vote was for the blue post, so you will have to go back and compare the blue with the black and now let me know what you think. Click here to see the blue post.

And last, this is a video for those who wanted to see the outside of the house. Enjoy!

Daddy daughter day

When Jason found out we were having a girl he told me that he wanted to have date days with her when she got old enough. Well, yesterday he decided that they would have their first date day together. He took her to the local kids museum and they had a great time together. It was nice to have some time here to myself, but the thought of Hannah and Jason having some Daddy daughter time together was even better. So, I think you will find the 2 of them out doing something fun most Sat. mornings from now on. I think it is great and I know Hannah will benefit from the time with her daddy! These were pictures that I took when they got back from their outing.

Isn't this above picture adorable? She just has the sweetest look.

Girly girl

I did 2 things this morning that I have been waiting weeks (or maybe months) to do. First, I put Hannah in an adorable little dress that she has had for probably 6 months and never worn yet. She struggled to wear little dresses while she crawled since they got caught on her knees. But now that she is walking everywhere I was able to finally have her wear it. Second, I put her hair in a pigtail on the side. I have bows, but she rips them out quicker than I can put them in, so those don't work anymore. So, yesterday I bought some hair ties and put one in this morning. I have to say it was really cute with her little dress. I know I am biased, but man this kid is so CUTE! It definitely helps her cuteness factor that she has such a fun and joyful disposition too.

Visit to Preschool

I went to my school (the one I taught at) a few weeks ago to see Kelly and Crystal and I decided to let Hannah play in the Pre-K classroom. She loved it! This picture does not do it justice, but when she first walked through the door her eyes lit up and she let out a little gasp. It was SO cute! So, I let her play around for awhile in there and she found all sorts of things to get into.

These little plastic people were her favorite. She kept biting on their heads.The reading loft was especially fun for her. She loved climbing the stairs into it and then looking down at the rest of the room.

While it was cute to see her playing in there I have decided that she cannot begin school until she is 10! That will be such a sad day...OK, on to another subject before I make myself cry.

One of "those" neighbors...

Yes, we are now one of "those" neighbors who paints thier mailbox. But, since we are true Auburn fans, we had to make an Auburn orange mailbox (it now matches our Auburn orange car). If you are going to do it you might as well do it big! And besides, our mailbox is located across the street all by its lonesome, so it needed to be spruced up a bit. And trust me, we spruced it up!

See how boring it looks over there by itself. It was a bit crusty and dirty too.
So, we took it all apart and fixed it up.
Here is the finished product. War Eagle!!!

Here are the before and after pictures. See how much better it looks. My only question is this. I have been thinking about making the post black instead of the blue, what do you think? Maybe it would look better if it the post was all black and that would accentuate the mailbox. Of course, does it really need accentuating? Let me know your thoughts.

Back to her normal self

I think we are finally back to the norm here at home. We arrived home yesterday morning after a LONG drive home through the night. Hannah is feeling much better and seems to be enjoying being back at home. She was in quite the photogenic mood tonight, so here are some fun pics of her playing in the office.

Fast forward 13 years and I might see this above pose much more often...

She can't catch a break

Well the last 2 weeks have been hard on Hannah to say the least. After the strep throat on Wed. she broke out in a red rash all over her hands, feet, and diaper area last night. Since we are not at home by our doctor we called him to get his opinion. He thinks she has a little Scarletina to go along with the strep. Lovely!

She is feeling better today and her rash has gone down quite a bit. I think we will be keeping her close to home for the rest of the summer since she seems to need some healing time.

Here are some random pictures from the week here.

Here are all the siblings and babies. We went to this great water park in Atlanta and we were in the water long enough to take this picture and then there was a big clap of thunder and they made everyone get out (no joke, we were there about 40 seconds). They never reopened it that day, so it was kind of sad for us. Trust me, the adults were much more bummed than the kids...they had no idea. We ended up going to the indoor pool and playing in there for awhile which was fun though.
Auntie Laura gave Kate and Hannah a bath and I caught the coolest picture of her pouring the water over Hannah's head.
Family picture at the Birmingham zoo.
Pop and the girls at the zoo.

Strep throat!!!

Our sweet baby has strep throat! We could tell on Tuesday that she was not feeling great and by that night she had a 102.7 fever. So, we headed off to the doctor here in Birmingham yesterday morning and she had a fever of 104.2! I was a bit worried to say the least. But, the doctor was wonderful and very reassuring about her condition. They said her strep test was "very positive" so we are on some antibiotics to hopefully knock it out. Anyway, we are here for another day and hopefully by the time we are ready to leave tomorrow night she will be feeling back to herself.
See the fun blog post below if you have not already.

Sips n Strokes

Well, last night we had a "girls night out" and it was great! Sherry, Laura and I went to a place in Birmingham called Sips n Strokes. You begin with a blank canvas and by the end of the 2 hours you have a painting. It is for beginners and it was super easy and FUN! They paint a different painting each night and we chose a night where they were painting a red vase with flowers. The class had about 25 people in it and it was such a fun experience.

We started with a blank canvas and a palette of paint. It was a bit stressful thinking of painting this beautiful painting, but the teacher made it simple.

We began by painting the background and the vase.

Then we added the flowers and leaves.

Finally, we did some outlining and accents. And WALLA, you have beautiful masterpieces. It will be great to each have our own paintings hanging in our houses. What a personal touch. Anyway, I highly recommend this to anyone. It was great!