We are still here

We are still here, hanging in there with our projects. It has been a busy month with tearing our house apart, taking a 4 day road trip to DC and then having 3 days of garage sales. We've made a little bit of progress, it's so hard to tell with all these different projects going at once. We have our kitchen cabinets done (because we didn't do it ourselves), they look really nice and now after I paint the kitchen will look much better and hopefully help sell the house. Jason has finally been able to finish tiling and grouting the shower. He has spent many a (very) late night working on that shower. He did a great job, it's looking great and I'm so happy he did the tiles instead of a shower insert! Bill built us a cabinet in the bathroom, now we need to install the doors, shelves and stain it. Bill also put in the ceiling in the bathroom. After 3 1/2 years it is really starting to come together. Ha ha! I have carpet being measured on Monday and hopefully we can get it installed next Friday, finish painting all our rooms and give the place a really good scrubbing and get it on the market. I also took some really cute pictures of the girls about a month ago, I'll get those up and posted eventually.

please excuse the mess, I haven't put lunch away yet

Labor Day Weekend

I think Jason and I to took Labor Day weekend literally this year. We labored and labored and it's now 11:30pm on Monday night and the house is a disaster and we are exhausted!!!!

I painted both the girls' rooms, finished our room and the hallway and started the living room before running out of paint, and packed up our entire kitchen as the cabinets are being refaced starting tomorrow. I also managed to get in a round of golf (it was hard work having so much fun laughing with Dad, Jill and Bill), and made a cake.

Ok, Jason did most of the labor this weekend, he dealt with a little water in the basement, the plumber, destructing the old laundry tub, installing a new one, framing the basement shower, started tiling and I'm sure a few other things as he started Saturday morning and is still working hard as I type.

basement disaster after pushing all the furniture away from the damp carpet
Jason's after dark workshop, you can see his new tub - forgive me for being delerious

What a stud!!

the lower bath - not as messy as other areas of the house

part of the tiling, we have plain white tiles for the floor (I still don't know why you decided on these Mom and Dad) so we wanted a little splash of color but nothing too dramatic so we added the side tiles for more color.

the driveway - we are wondering if it will come clean or all the tile dust will turn to clay and stick, I guess we'll see when I get out to clean it off

Jason emptied my laundry room into the driveway and here sits my stuff. I guess we live in a pretty nice area, no one has stolen anything. Our neighbor Ken has very generously agreed to let us use his storage room to keep these.

Last photo of the old kitchen cabinets - I believe these are original to the house, tomorrow they get new doors and will magically turn white. I'm a little nervous as I'm not a huge fan of white cabinets but oh well, that is what has been ordered.

Another plus, they will all match, no more newer and older styles in one tiny kitchen

the partially painted living room - nice huh?

man, moving is going to stink big time! Just tossing the contents of the kitchen into boxes took a long time!

The other half of our kitchen, the kids are going to have a field day tomorrow. I think I will either have to gate them upstairs or keep them outside as we won't be able to use the kitchen, the living room is piled high and the basement is a wreck. Oh my, going to be a long week!

Busy busy busy

Jason has been hard at work again. If you notice on the left, the flower box front has a gigantic crack in it. Well, at this point I should say "had". Jason dug about 4 feet of dirt out of it and reattached it using various methods. This was yesterday, now today Bill came over and they put new stair tops and railings on our deck. In all the years I've lived here I don't think there has ever been railings on those stairs. It looks nice, pictures to come.
While the boys were outside I decided to keep the girls busy playing with my cake supplies. I promised Piper I'd let her decorate her own cake using the leftover icing from yesterday's project. Above they are playing with fondant.

Here is the beginning of Piper's cake, yes, it is not fully decorated yet. Oh, she iced the top and some of the sides herself. She wouldn't really let me tell her how "she knows".

Here is the final product, almost one entire bottle of sprinkles later. Brecken was really interested in the process, somehow she managed to get icing all over her legs and dress.

A few weeks ago the Grandma Mary and Niki took the girls to the beach, they had a great time!

I'm told that Grandma Mary was very cautious at the park, Piper wasn't even allowed to go on the big areas, she had to stay in the toddler area so Reagan wouldn't want to follow her up. It's not like my girls are clumsy or anything!! :)

So we are just busy around here lately, I just completed one cake yesterday and have a couple more to do this week, a full day of working at my old Title Company, a great friend coming into town (of course Jason is more excited than he can stand about Matt coming), a Groom's dinner, a fabulous Wedding, and finishing up on Sunday hopefully making it to Liam's baptism party. Oh, almost forgot Piper is having a sleepover with Claire too. In addition to all this, we are hopefully going to restain the deck and finish planting the last few shrubs.

All sorts of fun

The girls enjoying a smoothie from their new smoothie maker that Grandma and Papa brought them
We got to enjoy a weekend at the cabin, Claire braided Reagan's hair and she looked so much older.
I love this picture!
I'm thinking I may have to get Piper into modeling, she sees a camera and goes crazy posing.
splashing away in the cold water

Reagan is getting her stamps at the end of her gym class, they all sit down so nicely for those stamps, it's so cute.

Both girls take a class back to back every Monday. Reagan is first for her gymnastics and then Piper takes a dance/gymnastics class. Normally there is another girl in her class but this week she was all alone.

See, posing, what a silly girl!

Tonight we went to see the Saints baseball game with some of Jason's coworkers and customers, we all had a lot of fun! Here we are with the Champine's. Piper and their oldest Hayden (in yellow) have so much fun playing together.

Reagan so enjoyed her cotton candy at one point her hands were covered.

She really wanted a sip of water but her hands wouldn't allow her to grab the bottle, she was a little distressed until I told her to just finish eating it. Oh what a sticky mess!

At the stadium they have a kids play area, Jason and Heather took the kids over to play and I snuck up on them to take some pictures, Jason found me right away - hence the funny face.

I can't believe it is already August. The summer is winding down quickly and we have such a busy month ahead of us. I have made a resolution to try to get outside and enjoy more of our days since they now seem so limited. In just a few short weeks Piper will be starting her last year of preschool. Reagan has been changing like crazy lately. It's almost as if she's realized she's two and decided she wants to act it. She has developed quite the attitude lately. On the plus side, I think I am done buying diapers. She is potty training like a champion. Actually tonight at the Saints game she stayed dry the entire time. We made a few pitstops in the ladies room with no accidents.