a media marvel

I love the kitchen but I am pretty dang stoked about this little beauty.  We can now finally use all the space that was in this recessed area.  

I am excited to have the tv behind closed doors. I realize that it's the thing to hang the flat screen on the wall but I have issues (surprise, surprise) about the tv being hidden - it makes me happy.

I love the four gigantic (they really are gigantic) drawers.  I love that our Guitar Hero guitar boxes, DDR mats, video games and controllers all fit in one drawer - no more video game jive everywhere (do you hear the angels singing?)  The other drawers hold blankets, board games/crafts, books, and a multitude of other goodness that a family of 6 needs while lounging in the family room.

Picture of the finished entertainment center coming soon.

granite and handles

It was fun to finally see the kitchen take shape when the granite went in and the hardware was put on.  We are loving the kitchen.  We have a ton more space (I even have empty drawers and cabinets)  We love the easy clean up of the granite, especially compared to the tile we had in the kitchen before - I really have an aversion to grout lines!  

I will put some finished project pictures up once the floor is in since these pictures are still without appliances.

I love this sink.  You can't really tell from the picture but it's huge.  Notice my cute little colander of limes?  My neighbor dropped them off to me to brighten my kitchen.

finally

We have had some major issues with being able to post to the blog - not knowing how to work our Mac adds to the equation.  Derek informed me last night that we should probably try to learn more about our computer instead of only using it to make funny videos with photo booth. Does he not know that we bought the computer just to look at it's beauty :)

Here are some kitchen update pictures.  These pictures were taken after the painting had been done.  Even though the kitchen has been done for a week or so the floor still looks the same as in these pictures.  The flooring will start going in this Monday and I can't wait.  It will finally feel like we have a new usable space.

lots of love

Happy Valentines Day.  We started the day off with a Valentines breakfast of  heart shaped doughnuts from Kripsy Kreme, strawberry milk and strawberry yogurt.  I also blessed the kids with a beautiful rendition of a made-up Valentines song while they ate - musical talent at it's finest.

I sent the kids off to school with their traditional Valentines lunches which consist of a multitude of red foods - turkey wrap in a sun dried tomato/basil tortilla, red jello, red gatorade, strawberries, frosted sugar cookie, and pringles (because they come in a red package)

The boys took Valentines to share at school.  I had started them yesterday afternoon but only got about a 1/4 of the way done before I had to put them aside to help with homework. Sometime around 12:30 this morning I remembered that they hadn't been finished. After a temporary bit of a breakdown I got to work. The whole time I kept telling myself "thank goodness that only 2 are in elementary school"  I do not miss the days of putting together 100 valentines - 40 seemed so much more reasonable this year.  I never got a picture of the Valentines (my card is full)  We took pop rocks and made a "you rock/happy valentines day" label.

Not sure what fanciness I will pull out for our Valentines Day dinner.  I am sure you will all be on the edge of your seats with wonder.  Does Kraft Mac n Cheese seem appropriate for the holiday?  With a little food coloring I think it could fit the bill.

To close...a little love shout out to Derek, Megan, Emily, Nathan and Luke - love you guys!

kitchen & entertainment center

These pictures are of the painting nearing completion.  This was about a week and a half ago (if I am remembering right)

Work gets started on the entertainment center. 

You can see our old armoire in the middle of the floor.  We have had it forever and I can't say that I am sad to see it go.  It did not hold near enough stuff and I was sick of looking at the knotty pine.  It's so nice to be able to update.
The new space will hold so much more - I can't wait to have it done.

so official

I am in love with these.  They are so fun!  I found them while checking out the How About Orange Blog.  I can't wait to start sending some.

kitchen - day creepy

So this picture totally creeps me out.

This is our kitchen all wrapped up and getting a fresh coat of paint.  This plastic beauty was up for a couple of days and all I can think about when I see it is some cheeseball, spooky movie.  I can picture a bloody hand sliding down the plastic - it has that look to me.  It's like the shower scene in Psycho - note to self...don't see creepy movies they stay with you forever.  Everytime I would walk by the plastic I had to tell myself that there was no killer or dead body on the other side -yeah, I kind of have a weird imagination, what's it to you.

why?

I have a magazine obsession.  At various times in my life I have tried to stop my magazine habit but I always end up back at the newsstand browsing through all the glossy pages that call out my name.  I currently subscribe to a few favorites...Martha Stewart Weddings, Creating Keepsakes, Simple Scrapbooks, Craft, and Make.  I also have a subscription to Blueprint.  This mag has been a favorite for the last little bit - I love it! 

So the problem?!?!...I just got a postcard saying that Blueprint was no more and I would not be getting any more Blueprint goodness in my mailbox.  Why???  Doesn't everyone love this magazine as much as I do?  Such a sad day.

On an unrelated note...I cannot get spell check to work on Blogger.  Anyone else having this issue?

it's taking over

The fun continues beyond the kitchen.  

We spent one evening ripping out the rest of the flooring in preparation for the start of the built-in entertainment center.  It was fun to rip up the flooring and see some of the old cream colored linolium (no clue how to spell it) we originally had in the house. What were we thinking?

kitchen- day ???

With all the rain we had and the renovations coming to somewhat of stand still during the downpour I have fallen way behind on the kitchen updates.  I am unsure of what day we were on at this point but let's be honest - people only want to see pictures, no one cares about the day.

After all the cabinets went up they came back down and everything was taped off in preparation for painting.

welcome baby carter

I am finally an aunt on my side of the family.  I was an instant aunt when I married Derek - there are 44 nieces and nephews on Derek's side of the family.  My family was at a huge disadvantage with my kiddos being the only off spring.  Finally, it has changed - kinda.  My side will never catch up to the Baker's unless a lot more babies are born and they aren't going to come from me (there's a challenge for my siblings) but we now have a Wood family cousin for my kids to play with and I am now an aunt on my side.

Carter Harrison Wood was born this morning at 12:30am.  We are so happy to have him here. Congrats to my brother Ryan and his wife Katie.

VOTE!!!!!

Today is the day.

just trying to survive

I think I have hit my limit of how many days I can live without a kitchen.  Our life seems to be continual chaos and I have to admit the thought of staying in bed all day instead of getting up to face the mess seems nice.  I do not want to sound ungrateful - I am so glad that we are getting the kitchen and flooring done but the process is making me crazy.

Progress has been made in spite of all the rain we have been getting.  Although I have cursed the rain a few days (yesterday especially) I am glad we have had it.  I love driving around and seeing all the green rolling hills in our area - it's beautiful!  Back to the progress...the cabinet doors are all painted and most of them are up.  I have pictures but haven't gotten them downloaded yet.  I have been trying to avoid the computer during the day since it is downstairs and there is so much kitchen work going on - the noise and smell is a lot to take.

Most of our hardware is here.  We are waiting on delivery from a few more stores.  We got the hardware at Restoration Hardware and no store had all of what we need so we had to have it shipped from 4 stores.

I gotta run out and get the kids to school.  I will try to post pictures tonight.