Someone should really tell her that she should sit on the potty and not in the potty. I didn't have the heart to tell her. She was so excited and told her Daddy that she needed to sit on the big potty. Nothing like the first time sitting on the big potty...not like she did anything, but it was worth sitting there.

Such a growing cutie!!!!

The old shall become new...

Here was our kitchen in all of it's glory! The countertops were butcher block style and the cabinets (most of them) were an off white color.

The doors were pretty dated and the entire kitchen was brush painted! The paint job was lousy to say the least. The hinges were the old style hinge that you can see on the outside of the door.

For some reason, they brush painted the entire kitchen except this side cabinet which they chose to leave stained brown. My desk (below) is in the kitchen and was also left brown.The inside of some of the cabinets were left brown too.

Here is our bathroom in all of it's glory. It was also the same brown color with the same doors and hinges as the kitchen.

Above the toilet there was a cabinet that was also the same brown color.

So, after 4 days of painting, sanding, stripping, and refinishing along with new doors, countertops, and hardware, we have the following to show for it....a BEAUTIFUL "NEW" kitchen. We are still missing drawer pulls, a few drawers in my desk, and a few of the smaller doors on the top cabinets.

The inside of all the cabinets are white...which I love!!!

Check out my desk...it looks totally new! We are actually going to put some glass in those doors along with the china cabinet doors (see the next picture).

For our 7.5 years of marriage I have never used or displayed the beautiful china that we have, and now I have a place to show it off! We turned the old dingy brown cabinets into a beautiful china cabinet. We still have to put glass in these doors too. FYI, the blue tape is on there to show us where touch up needs to happen. Doesn't it look totally different though!

Here is our bathroom cabinet. It was transformed as well by new paint, doors, and hinges. Amazing what some small changes will do for you. We still need 1 drawer and some drawer pulls in here too.

The cabinet above the toilet looks brand new too! Funny enough, this might be one of my favorite changes of all!

Anyway, we are LOVING our "new" kitchen! If you are in Waco, I would highly recommend the guys who did our kitchen and I would be happy to give our there information to anyone who is interested. Not only am I loving the new kitchen but I am also loving the fact that we are back at home with no one here working all day long. YAH!!!

Check out our cute new cousin!!!!

A new baby Whitlark was welcomed into the world on Wed. Dawson Lee was born at 3:19pm and was 6lbs 4 oz. and 19 in. long. He is adorable!
Mommy and baby are doing well and we are thankful for a fast and easy delivery for Amy. Her delivery with Bryce was difficult to say the least.
Welcome to the world and to the family sweet Dawson...we love you already and can't wait to meet you!
Look at this family of 4! Amy, Dawson, Michael, and big brother Bryce.

On a side note, as I am writing this I am listening to 3 guys struggling to put our new countertops on in the kitchen. Hopefully by tonight we will have a new and beautiful kitchen! I promise there are many pictures to come!

When the cat is away...

...the mice will always play!

Jason and I were lucky enough to attend a birthday party for a mentor/friend at Baylor last week. Crystal and Kelly were kind enough to keep Hannah for us while we went to the birthday dinner. When I got back I found all of these fun pictures of their time together. We could tell that they had a good time because the WHOLE drive home all Hannah could talk about was her time playing with Joe, Kelly, and Crystal. She kept saying "push Joe wadon" and "jump jump" and "swing, weeee." Apparently she had pushed Joe in the wagon, gone jumping on the big trampoline, and played on the swing in the backyard. In short, she had a blast!!! These 2 are funny kids when you get them together!!

I think this picture with her little belly poking out is to cute for words!!!

Hannah is silly and Joe clearly thinks so too! On a side note...do you think Hannah could play the piano one day? Seriously look at how long her little fingers are on the side of the wagon!!!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right?!?! Well, Hannah sure thinks so. I sure do love these 2 little ones!

Stay tuned - our new kitchen will be unveiled later this week! Yes, we currently have no countertops, doors, or contents in ANY of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets...fun, fun!

Double Yikes

I thought this might "teach her" about balloons and how they pop when you are rough with them...well, I guess I better get a balloon that will actually pop! In the end, this balloon never did pop, even after all the abuse it took. FYI, Little Caesars free balloons for kids are indestructible!

The end of Grandparent Week

Well, Grandparent week came to an end yesterday and Hannah was sad to see it go. But, now that the Grandparents are gone, Jason and I are important to Hannah again. You parents out there know what I am talking about. Once Hannah is around Grandparents, she prefers them over her parents...they are much more fun and novel for her!
We had a really quick visit with Gramma (my mom) and my Grandmother last weekend. Like I said in my last post, sadly I took no pictures! But, it was a good visit and Hannah enjoyed her time with them (and especially her apple pancakes!). It was a bit overwhelming to see my child hyped up on syrup, especially since it happened while we were looking at a house with my Grandmother's realtor! YIKES! At one point, she ran away and before I could get to her she had turned on the water in the garden tub of the master bedroom and was half way in before I snatchet her out. Fun, fun!
We spent the rest of the weekend with Mimi and Pop (Jason's parents) and had a blast. We did a lot of drawing, building towers, playing, and watching DDD's (aka DVD's). We went to Jumping Party and even talked Mimi and Pop into going down the slides with Hannah...it was great!

Hannah hanging out with Mimi and Pop.

Mimi did Hannah's hair one morning and Hannah loved it. She got her first blow dried hairdo, and her hair was super cute afterward.

Gramma - here is Hannah in her new shirt and capri pants....cute, cute!!

Thanks to all of the Grandparents for making this week so special for us, we really enjoyed seeing all of you!!!

You wouldn't believe it...

...but I have spent a week with all the grandparents and I have managed to take about 4 pictures. Sad but true! Anyway, we are having a blast around here and soaking up the Hannah spoiling. Mimi and Pop have to leave in the morning, so maybe tomorrow I will post about the happenings of the past week.

Grandparent week

Spring break has officially been Grandparent week around here. We started out the week last weekend at Papaw and Granny's house. Today we are heading up to Fort Worth to see Gramma who came out for the weekend. To top the week off, Mimi and Pop are coming out tomorrow for an extended weekend.
It has been great to see everyone this week especially since all the grandparents are scattered across the country. Somehow it works out that we usually get to see all the grandparents close together...it makes for a fun week for us!

A hard lesson learned

We have always told Hannah that things are hot but she is still pretty young and doesn't quite get the concept. Well, she learned all about "hot" on Sunday. I had just made some chocolate chip cookies and put the second batch in the oven. Hannah and I enjoyed a nice hot cookie together and she started asking for more. I pulled the second batch out and put them on the counter to cool. I then went to let Molly in from outside and heard screams coming from the kitchen. Hannah had gone over to the counter and reached on her tippy toes to try and get another cookie. Yep, you guessed it, she touched the cooking stone with her little thumb in an effort to get to the cookies. I felt horrible for not putting them far enough away from her little hands! So, we had our first little lesson in hot things and our first little burn with a nice blister.
Thankfully this is not the thumb that Hannah sucks on all the time, or this might have been more painful than it needed to be. However, maybe that would have broken her thumb sucking habit...HMMMM. At least for now she can comfort herself from her burn by sucking on her other thumb. Poor kid!

For Mimi

We love you Mimi and we wish you a happy birthday today! We can't wait to see you this weekend!

It's hard being a kid sometimes!

Hannah has what we affectionately call "the crud" which she unfortunately got from me this past week. It has caused LOTS of coughing, sleepless nights, and general fusiness for her. We took a quick trip to Papaw and Granny's house this past weekend with Kelly and Hannah carried "the crud" up there with us. She had a rough night of sleeping which caused many tears the next day. She was so tired and fussy that one of the only ways we could get her to settle down was to either push her on the swing or take her swimming. On one of her many times in the swing, she was quietly lulled to sleep, which quite frankly was fine with me! It was a beautiful day outside and so she sacked out quickly.
Even after we got home she continued her sleeping trend by falling asleep in her stroller while we walked the neighborhood last night. I can tell she is not feeling well because today she slept in until 9am which is unheard of in our house (normal wake up time is 7am). She also took a 3.5 hour nap today even after waking up late.

However, in the midst of tears and crankiness, we did have some fun times with Papaw and Granny. Here is Hannah with a ladybug on her hand. She loves having them crawl on her and she calls them "yadybugs."
Look at this adorable picture of Hannah. She looks so grown up here, just like a little girl!

She thoroughly enjoyed dinner at Taco Bell and went after the rice and beans with 2 sporks.

These shots were taken just 2 weeks ago at Papaw and Granny's house while Hannah was enjoying the swing. She LOVES this swing and would swing all day long if we let her.

Let's hope "the crud" leaves our house soon!

House remodeling

Jason and I decided that it would be a good idea to redo the floor in our bathroom. The finished product turned out well, but there were some iffy times in there along with some late night runs to Home Depot.
Jason was a trooper and ripped up the old floor and cleaned the toilet (he's awesome!!!).

This was the easy part with minimal cutting.

The edges were really hard to cut and took a lot of time, but the end result was well worth it! The floor looks worlds better than before and we are quite pleased.