Before and After: Kitchen Edition

Well, I've been waiting (almost 8 months) to show you the finished product of our home...as some of you may know and understand, there is so much we still want to do, but not so much of that money needed to complete all the home projects. :) This is the "so far" completion of our renovations for the house.  I have a feeling that our reno's will continue forever, so I figure why not show you just how far we have come at this point.

Before: 

The lovely kitchen - make sure you note the border along the walls - that puppy had three layers to it and took almost an entire day to strip it off the walls.  Also, the lanolium floors also had three layers - of lanolium - talk about a fun task pulling all that up to lay floors.

These were the wonderfully GREEN lights above the bar area:

 I know this is sideways, but it's the only way I can show you the wall that is no longer there...we ripped out the entire door frame and walls, rerouted the air conditioning to the entry way wall, and I LOVE IT!  Did I mention just how much I love it? 

 The kitchen had a very closed off feeling, so we opened it up just a little...I'm so glad we did.

After:  the counter tops and cabinets are the same, just new hardware, paint on the walls, stove, and a few extra decorations.

This is hanging in my kitchen window:  It does not go with my black and red color scheme in the kitchen, but that doesn't bother me at all.  My grandfather made stained glass and passed away a few years ago- it's so sweet to enjoy looking at this every time I walk into my kitchen - like a part of him is still here.

Here is our entry, kitchen, and eating area are all together... I will show you the living room in a few days.

This hutch was on the wall that we took out...just moved it to another wall for extra storage...I have plans to paint it along with the cabinets, changing out the counter tops, and getting a new sink.

So there you have it - my new and improved Kitchen.  We are so glad to have this much completed, and it is definately livable...but I'm always wanting to update and make new changes - one day...one day!  I love where we are and I'm just so thankful to have a place to call our own.

Awe and Facination with his Super Hero

There is no doubt that my little boy loves his daddy!  There is nothing short of amazement that Tucker has for Jonathan.  He gets SO excited when he gets home, and I have a feeling that will never change.  It's so sweet to see him just constantly watching him and following him around the house when he is here.  Now, Jonathan is a very busy man, so sometimes that is precious time that we get to share with him...but here was my little man on Saturday afternoon.  I know if he was big enough he would have been right there beside him the whole time.

Watching out our Master window as he passed by mowing the yard. (Diaper is hanging out a little :)

 His view:

 So happy to just be sitting there...sat there the entire time he was mowing.

 So sweet - loves his daddy.

 Pure facination:

9/11/11

Significant for many reasons...

This day ten years ago I was in first period of weight lifting class, about to be dismissed for Anatomy when the twin towers were hit.  I remember Coach Wimberly coming into the gym and saying that New York had been hit by a terrorist plane attack and we all ran into the coaches offices to watch.  When we changed classes everything was a buzz and we wanted to watch what was going on in anatomy but Coach Watson was not for that...we watched for a few minutes and then turned it off for her to lecture.  I remember being so sad, so unsure, and so overwhelmed.  My world had been changed so much more than I knew, so much more than we all knew. 

Now ten years later we have been at war for years, we live with a much higher risk of terrorism, and we worry much more about our children and their future. 

On a brighter note, Tucker turned 7 months on 9/11/11.  Here is where we are currently: 
* Pulling Up
* Crawling anywhere he pleases
* Eating Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
* Makes the funniest faces - I think some of them are a "thinking" face, like he doesn't know what to think.
* Wearing size 12 months clothes
* Current favorite toy: Fisher Price Table - loves standing up and pushing all the buttons - we are learning so much!
* Most tramatic fall: on 9/14/11 Tucker took his first major fall into the master bath tub - head first.  I turned around for just a second and the next thing I know he has climbed up onto the step into the tub and was in before I knew it...I felt so terrible.
* LOVES when we walk with him so he can make it wherever he wants on his feet.
* Fun Fact: He will put ANYTHING in his mouth, except for the gerber puffs.  He can't quite figure them out yet. 
* He has officially found our stairs to go into the bonus room, and REALLY wants to make his way up there.


His first tent - under his jumpy

 Sporting his Georgia uniform in honor of opening day of football season.

 Loves "driving"

 His new favorite toy - I bought it for $1.75 haha!

 Just chillin - ate lunch and deciding what he would get into next :)

 Crawling all over daddy - he loves to go over ANY obsticle in his way instead of going around.

 Happy Seven Months Tucker!  I can't believe how big you are getting.  We love you so much.  What did we even do before we had him?

Labor Day

Our Labor Day Weekend was full of all kinds of fun! We went to Lake Ouachita for our traditional family reunion with Jonathan's extended family - aunts, uncles, and cousins...it was a blast. We all drove down on Friday night, met at the Golding's rental house, and ate dinner together. On Saturday and Sunday we played on the water all day and then once again, all got together for Tacos in a bag - my absolute favorite!! It was such a great time to get away for just a few days and enjoy the end of the summer. Here are a few photos of the weekend.

When we arrived at our normal swimming hole, we all tie off together - we had three boats this year, and we were in the middle...Tucker did not like the water - way too cold for him, so I only got in to my waste the whole weekend, but we had fun visiting anyways.  I'm sure next year I'll be begging him to stop jumping off the boat when no one is in the water, so I'm just enjoying each step along the way :).

Tucker's new favorite way to drink his sippy cup.  Too funny.

Papaw and Grammy with T man on the water.

Little man ready for bed - before everyone even arrived for dinner.  He was asleep before anyone got there every night - He is a man on a schedule and he doesn't change that for anyone - I tried the first night to keep him up, but come 8, he was beyond frustrated with me and I decided it just wasn't worth making him upset, so we went with it and he slept with the entire group out in the den.  I'm SO thankful I brought my monitor so I didn't have to continue to go in and bother him.  Also, when we have traveled previously I haven't taken his sound machine, and our experience sleeping in pack in plays have been horrific, but with the sound machine, he really seemed to do so much better...we were still up more than we are at home, but I'll take a couple times a night over every 30 minutes any time!

Having fun playing in the floor Sunday morning before we went on the water.  He has all these funny faces now and we were able to capture just a few, but he is so hilarious with his facial expressions these days.

Granny loving on T man. So Sweet!

These were some photos my Sister-in-law, Sarah took - she is a much better photographer than I am, so I stole some of them off her facebook page - hope that was OK Sarah!!

Above - T man trying to drive the boat and loving it. 

Below Left - Vero and Abisahi, he is three months older than Tucker. 

Below Right - little man napping while we were riding to the swimming hole.

Above Left - Uncle Dave taking a photo with us.

Above Right - "the girls"

Below Left - Austin and Spencer with Jonathan and Tucker - Spencer is two months older than T man.

Below Right - we stopped and climbed the stairs at the dam - it was a beautiful view.  This is a man made lake and has full cities below - how cool would it be to go scuba diving here??

SIDE NOTE: Just so no one is wondering (like my mother), T man wore a life jacket the entire time we were moving, and he will ALWAYS wear one after he can really get around, but we sit still for hours while swimming and eating lunch, so there is only so much of a life jacket a six month old can take. :)

Hope you had a great Labor Day Weekend!