Trip to the farm

One of my aunts and uncles in Kansas own a large farm with lots of farm equipment. When we were on the farm a few years ago, Noah was in seventh heaven. And we knew he'd fall in love all over again.

(Have I mentioned how much N and B love tractors and construction equipment?!?! We were planning a Daddy/Noah date night and when asked what he wanted to do, he requested that they go watch the construction equipment. At least he's a cheap date!)

His only bummer was that the Combine wasn't there.

He asked lots of great questions and I would love to have seen all the tracks he made if this would have been on Family Circus. (you know, all those tracks that follow Billy around)

Just look how tall I am, Mama! I can fit under here with Daddy!

But its even better how high I can be up here. Anyone seen the keys for this thing?

One day I'm going get me one of these.

Look, the truck is even my favorite color!

Think there's room to park this in the garage too, Mama?

Back in 2009 when we went to Kansas the first time, we took this picture and knew this year we needed to recreate it...

Think he's grown just a wee bit.

What's that you ask? Where was B during all of this fun field trip to the farm?

Yeah, he was sacked out in the car.

Our family trip part 2

So the whole reason we went to KS for the weekend is for my cousins wedding. And man do they know how to have a wedding. My mom made the cake...and judging from the size of the cake, can you just imagine how many people were invited?!? (or how long it took my mom to decorate!)

My dad with his 4 sisters and his mom.

I love watching how my aunts always manage to dress similarly for every wedding without even trying!

And after the wedding, we took a few minutes to get some pics of the family...

I'm so in love with these three!

Drat the big fuzzy circle! Our only good family photo

(you don't even want to see the one with Noah's tongue sticking out!)

We enjoyed a great day of driving with Nonni and Papa following behind us. And another great night at the hotel, including lots of great swim time in the great big "bathtub":)

I think B knows just how to make himself at home (away from home:)).

Noah got to be a big boy and stay the night in Nonni and Papa's room. It was a little strange having just B with us, but we enjoyed some quality time with him. And he enjoyed some quality time with the window watching all the cool cars and trucks drive by.

And I have no doubt that Papa was soaking up all the little boy attention

Trip to see Family part 1

We spent our last weekend of April on a special trip. My cousin was getting married in Kansas and we wanted to go and celebrate with her. We spent our first day on the road for 12 hours and surprisingly, it was a great day.

We were all pleasantly surprised with how fast the day went by and how much fun we had hanging out together.

Although I do have to admit that I was eating my words all weekend. Before kids came, I couldn't understand why people needed DVD players in the cars and decided that I wouldn't have on in my car. And let me tell you that that was just plain dumb:)

While I don't endorse letting them watch throughout the entire drive, having the occasional movie to break things up a bit and help them relax makes the trip much happier on everyone involved.

Hey, you'd be pretty upset if you had to sit in the same position for 12 hours straight too!

We spent the night at a hotel and got a chance to get some wiggles out at the pool. The boys loved it although Breven decided he much preferred the hot "bathtub" to the cold "bathtub":)

We let the kids set when we would take off for the last leg of the trip and when they were awake and entertaining each other at 5:30, we decided to go with it.

We got to my grandma's nursing home/old apartment around lunch time and went to go and visit her. I was so bummed to see I didn't get any pictures of us with her (she's 99!), but I think there was enough going on without getting a camera in her face too. And the highlight of the trip to visit Grandma was...

her rising recliner.

Even Daddy got in on the fun!

After a visit to my Aunt and Uncle's farm (post coming later), we got to meet up with my 2 brothers, their wives and my niece Lily! The boys had fun entertaining her and playing together.

Love the big baby blues!

And the boys loved having Uncle Robb to play and wrestle with again.

And at one point in the weekend, Noah had gotten some gumballs and was convinced that Uncle Robb needed one. He spent quite a while trying to get Uncle Robb to open his mouth until finally Uncle Mikey took pity on him and helped him out. I think it surprised Noah just as much as Robb when the gumball finally made it into his mouth.:)

Saturday morning, my Aunt and Uncle were gracious enough to host Noah when he decided he had had enough sleep and wanted something to do. Rather than waking us up, he went upstairs until he found someone awake (Aunt Fern) and proceeded to charm her into everything a four year old could desire first thing in the morning-cinnamon rolls and a movie:) He also thought it wise to tell her that when he wasn't feeling well (like he said he was then), M&M's helped make him feel better! Sneaky little boy!

And thanks to my Aunt Fern and Uncle Galen, we were able to all hang out together and get some good time together.

Boys

Daddy never knew he'd get this kind of workout

The true challenge lies in finding a way to get out the door

And it looks like we have the start of our own motorcycle/bicycle gang

The big reveal

I'm so excited to show what we've been working on for the last couple of months.

It all started with the plan to replace the countertops. Now, please don't get me wrong...the hunter green countertops were perfectly wonderful in 1994, but currently, the fashionable neutral is much more up my alley.

And I have wanted to paint the cabinets to something other than the orange tinted brown they have been but Aaron was completely against the painting process.

We went in to discuss our options for the countertops and after a few minutes of talking with the kitchen lady, she discovered my distaste of the orange cabinets and showed me something new that would be better than painting the cabinets.

So, suffice to say, what started as replacing the countertops, turned into replacing the counters, changing the color of the cabinets, replacing the cabinet above the stove with a smaller version and adding an above range microwave, adding crown molding on top and pulls on the doors and drawers.

Needless to say, it was quite a process, but we are thrilled with the end result.

Allow me to give you the tour...well, okay, after all the through-the-process shots, you'll get the tour:)

When you start a large project like this, its always wise to include a well known contractor...

(trust me, he's very affordable.)

And he's great because he's all about "Safety First"

Our friends Bill and Eve were gracious enough to host our boys for a day to allow us to finish most of the cabinet transformtion process. Thanks guys! We couldn't have done it without you. And let's just say, anything Aaron and I do with the boys now doesn't nearly meet the expectations set by Mr Bill and Miss Eve when they toured the boys around their side of town!

Because it was still cold outside, we refaced the doors and drawers in the guest room downstairs. (it really pays to have an unfinished floor in the house!)

Throughout the whole process, the boys have been troopers. We ate almost every meal for a month at this little table. The boys loved it, but I was definitely ready to get back to a normal height for eating. Being at a level where I could easily shovel the food into my mouth made for some very fast meals:)

And while not at all esthetically pleasing, the lack of cabinet doors is very functional. You can shave so much time off by skipping the step of opening the doors when you need something.

(note to self, if I ever desire to make any of my cabinets doorless, I must remind myself that it is not worth the effort of making it all neat and orderly all the time. Not to mention trying to tie in all those different colors!)

I have to say that I surprised myself with how well I handled having my entire kitchen spread throughout my house. But yes, I did have everything back in order just a day after the last cabinet door was hung and yes, that is my dish washer in the middle of the dining room:)

Now...on to the fun that I know you're really here for.

The before and afters:

Ta da! Just check out my HUGE new sink. We decided to go with a one basin sink and its so large, I think I could go swimming in it! Well, okay, not really. But it is big enough to get all my big pots and cookie sheets in without having to finagle them all around.

And yes, this really is the same kitchen. Just with a much needed update.

Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to stop over anytime. I'd love an excuse to hang out in this room:)