Easter 2013

Our first Easter as a family of 4 did not disappoint! We had some time with the Easter bunny, a MOPS Easter egg hunt that Beau was able to attend, the children's Easter service at Church and lunch at my parents' house on Easter Sunday. The week in pictures:

He was not having any part of that Bunny's lap - ha!

Isn't he beautiful? My precious boy. So funny too!

Playing before the MOPS Easter egg hunt

Being such a good boy in church!

We had an incredible thunderstorm the night before, which led to a busy, blurry Easter egg hunt indoors. He was SO excited! 

We're working on the Family of 4 pictures. 

Progress in the brotherly love department! Those baskets had already been ransacked by picture time. 

I love this one - Grayson is obsessed with candy.

Mimi and Pop

The so amazing and so cool desserts that Elaine, Aunt Gayle and Michelle brought!

I love how my family loves my boys! It warms my heart and we are so blessed to be able to see them as often as we do!

Happy 2 Months, Walker!

A different take on my monthly photos :) (not waking a sleeping baby)

Walker Beau - you are growing by the day. Long body with chubby cheeks! Your 2 month stats are below:

Weight: 12lbs; 8 oz (81st percentile)
Height: 24 inches (93rd percentile)
Head: 15.5 inches (45th percentile)
Size: 3-6 months clothes 
Diapers: Size 2
Eating: 5 oz bottle every 3 hours during the day
Sleep: You wake up once a night to eat so approx. two 5 hour stretches at night. It's a dream and I have yet to feel that intense sleep deprivation that can have a new mom in tears! It's only a matter of time before you change on me, I'm sure :)

You still sleep in this miracle thing. So many moms swear by it and now I do too! It's the only way you'll sleep other than on your tummy, which I'm just not ready for. 

You aren't so curled up anymore, really stretching out and how I'm going to miss those roley poley days!

Getting ready for the Easter bunny.

You are out of all 0-3 months clothes - it happened so fast! I blinked and realized it was time to put them away. Really, they still fit your waist but you are just too long for them. 3-6 month stuff still swallows you but we need it for the length. I pretty much just said the same thing 2 different ways. Moving on.

Chunky monkey

 Your brother loves you more and more every day! He now feeds you, puts your paci back in when it falls back, pets your awesome hair and even in his worst mood, if he hears you crying, he calls out "It's okay, baby!" Mimi thinks it's more of a "it's us against the world" kind of comfort. :)

Your little personality is a BIG one and develops more and more by the week. Right now, you hate laying on your back, prefer to be held all the time and let all of this be known with the loudest cries! Your coos are precious and i'm so anxious to get them on video! The little sighs you let out have all of us mimicking you, they're so cute! 

You have been holding your head up strong for over a month now! I feel like you were advanced on that. You're struggling to keep the pacifier in but you seem to love it (as do I) so we'll keep trying with that. 

I am so in love with your hair! It's the first thing anyone (and everyone!) mentions when they see you. It was also the first thing the doctors and nurses commented on when you were born. It's epic ;)

The Abernathy gave us this cute onesie from Baby Gay and the one below. This onesie is the sole reason I'm happy it has stayed cold through Spring :)

Little Brother = Not Happy

Walker's Easter outfit. It has precious little bunnies on it with a matching Polo.  I wish I had better photos of it!

You are so loved, Walker Beau! You get more attention in any given hour than I could have ever hoped for my children. We love watching you grow up!

Mimi, Grayson and Pop adoringly looking on

Kitchen Remodel - Day 5

On Day 5, I was once again gone due to MOPS and a doctor appointment for Walker but Beau was home and got to have some input on the finishing touches. :) This was really the first time he had been involved, really letting Andrea and I pick and choose everything. I thought this was so sweet of him! He knew how excited I was for this remodel and trusted us to make it look good, which I thought was so trusting of him. :) 

These are pretty dark since the overhead lights aren't in yet. But you get the idea:

The book shelves for my cook books will help to declutter the countertop. And the underlighting is a nice touch,
in my opinion. 

The pendant lights will be installed next week but I'm really pleased with the light that the cans give off so far. Hopefully will have almost as much light as we did before. Beau had them put the can lights on a dimmer, which we'll get a lot of use out of at night. We like to have some low light when we watch movies with Grayson so this will work well. :)

The finished sink and subway tile in a brick pattern. Andrea and I were initially going to d a herringbone pattern, which I still think looks amazing but I just don't have enough surface space to make it look good. It would have been an unnecessary amount of cutting for not a lot of effect. I DO love how clean it all looks (and how easy it will be to clean!) since I've got color everywhere else. 

I have loved this type of hardware for some time. And with Andrea's discount at Restoration Hardware, we got some of the cooler ones I've seen. 

It's probably not as clear here but Beau and I love how everything goes so well with the existing tile. It just looks like it was all picked out together (whew!)

Still to come: Pendant lights and the custom window treatments Andrea is having made for us. They will really tie everything together and I'm so. stinkin'. excited!

Not bad for 5 days, huh?

Kitchen Remodel - Day 4

Day 3 of the remodel had us running for my parents' house as the smell of the primer was so, so strong! I didn't want these babies inhaling that all night. But Day 4 brought tons of progress that I didn't expect so soon! The contractor quoted us 10 days so I just assumed granite and backsplash would happen Monday and Tuesday of next week. But nope! We had exciting things going on over here!

Day 3 - completely covered up and lighting was already pulled out so I couldn't see much.

I came out of the bedroom Thursday morning and there were 4 new men standing around with the contractor and painters. I was SO excited when I learned they were the granite guys! They cut everything on site. I missed that part b/c I was at the doctor (pesky sinus infection) and a birthday lunch for my friend Lisa.

When I arrived home in the afternoon, everything was installed and looked great! 

I'm so stoked about my new, big sink. It's exactly what I've been wanting!  

I went with a full bullnose edge on the counters msinly because it hurts less when run into. If you have kids, you know that some part of their head is likely to bump into them often. Hard edges and corners hurt! It just worked out that it was my favorite edge anyway :)

What were the boys and I doing during these days at my parents' house? We had such a great time! They wait on us hand and foot, cook great meals and really get on the floor and play with Grayson and even change diapers! Gray, Walker and I pretty much had the 2nd floor to ourselves so it helped me to feel really relaxed and at home, especially with midnight feedings. Beau even stayed there with us Thursday night when he flew home. We were sad to leave. :)

Grayson is really into building "houses" right now. I have said it before, but his imagination is just so cool. He carefully selects the most random objects around the house, all of which serve some purpose to block, cover or prop something else. I'm so in love with him!

More building and tying things - busy, busy.

Bath time together. 2 clean babies!

Best hosts ever ;)

Kitchen Remodel - Day 2

Lots of change today!

Electrical & Painting work today

Great work - can't even tell this was built 15 years later!

LOTS of butcher paper and taping up before the painters can even get started. 

2 can lights were added over the bar to ensure optimal lighting since 2 pendants over the island are replacing that huge fluorescent fixture that came down. No doubt we'll see less artificial light in this room even with the addition of the cans. 

Book shelves were added to the island. Bar top and counters have been removed (island came back in just so the electrician could stand on it :) ) And sink is gone so I'm washing bottles & sippy cups in the bathroom. 

No more diamond backsplash!

Packing up the kitchen wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Not fun but not terrible either.

All in a day's work - impressive!

Walker's Birth Announcement

I am so pleased with the way these turned out. I'm posting it here so that when I lose my hard copy, we can always look back :) If you didn't get one, don't fret. We chose to send out mostly to family and those who aren't on Facebook/online knowing that our friends will see more than enough of these photos online. Love you all and thanks for being so kind and complimentary of our new baby boy! As if welcoming a new member to the family isn't special enough, the showers of love and kind words have meant so much to us. I think we'll have 10 more. ;)

Front

Back

Kitchen Remodel - Before Photos

On the Eve of our 10-day kitchen renovation project, I thought I'd share our "before" photos. I'm sure there may be duplicates but I'm tired and can't think straight. Maybe I should mention here that this renovation is coinciding with Beau going back on the road for the first time since before Christmas, which means my first time home alone raising TWO BOYS! Why not turn our world upside down with a massive project that will put us out of our home for a week and a half?! :)

A little about what we plan to do:

Keeping the faucet but replacing with a new sink - super excited about it - one big open sink that actually fits a crock pot and dutch oven. 

Backsplash and countertops, be gone.

There will be paint! And hardware! And lighting! (I didn't get a before shot of the terrible 1990's fluorescent light box above the island)

I just wasn't prepared to have to move all of this STUFF out of this room

This 1998 trash compactor will be replaced with a built-in cabinet and drawer - woot!

We're having shelves built in to that end of the island and extending the island top by 14 inches

My sister Andrea is having custom faux Roman shades made. This is my favorite part :) This room might need to be named after her since she gifted me that drum shade, had custom cushions made for those chairs and gave me that green pillow cover. She is making us look good!

I can not wait to have something on these windows! 

I'll have more by the end of this week!