Home tour: dining room

Not so easy to take pictures of the dining room. It's not that it's a small room, but it's hard to get into a good angle that actually shows anything. Just another reason why I need a wide angle lens! hint hint. I really like having a designated dining room. I have no idea if we'll use it very much (we've only used it once thus far) but the option of using it is worth having it. I think that if we had people over for dinner we would use the dining room, and if we end up hosting thanksgiving we will for sure use it! The rest of the time it is a pretty room that generally stays clean and free of toys because there isn't anything exciting for the girls to do in there. When you walk through the front door, the staircase is to your left, the hallway going into the living room is in front of you and the dining room is to the right. There is also a pass through from the dining room to the kitchen which all together makes a fun circle to run around. Dan had the girls chasing him the other day as he ran around and around.....maybe not such a great example (I'd rather the girls not run around the house) but they had enormous fun chasing Daddy. Dan and I have bounced around the idea of putting double french doors at the entrance of the dining room so we can close that room off, and we have also talked about converting the room into an office someday, but for now we are going to do nothing. It's lovely the way that it is and I'd like to see what kind of use it gets before we turn it into something else. We will however be staining our table and hutch a dark cherry color. Once things settle down and we have time for a project that big. Time? Who are we kidding?? We never have time lol, but we'll fit it in somehow! So, that is our dining room.....wanna come over for dinner so we can use it?

Home tour: Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of our house. I think that I spend a good 60% of my time in the kitchen cooking meals, getting snacks and filling up sippy cups and doing dishes. My new kitchen isn't my dream kitchen, but it's pretty close. I wish that it had more cabinets, more counter space, enough floor space for there to be an island and a bigger pantry. But, I love the hardwood floors, love the lighting, love the cabinets, love the appliances and love how the kitchen opens up to the dining room and family room. I feel like I can be part of the gathering when we have people over rather than stuck in a different room by myself slaving over a stove. When we bought the house it had a dishwasher and a microwave in it, and Dan and I picking out a stove and a fridge turned into all new appliances. The stove started it all.....I really wanted gas, and we wanted to find one that had the knobs on the top rather than in the front where the kids could reach them and mess around with them. Turns out there aren't many gas stoves with knobs on the top.....ours was pretty much it. I adore our refrigerator and we have never had ice cream frozen so solidly! I think it has to do with the freezer being on the bottom. And I know I've already talked about the dishwasher, but it is SO quiet. You don't even realize it's running until you are right there next to it. No more turning the volume up when we're washing dishes! I would eventually like to get a new faucet for the sink and put up a mosaic glass tile back splash, but those are things on our to do list for someday, not anytime soon. I've already done a good deal of cooking in our new kitchen and I look forward to making thousands and thousands more. Hey, we might even host Thanksgiving here.....that is the ultimate test of a kitchen!

Home tour: family room

Our bonus room or family room is one of my favorite spaces in the new house. It is cozy and comfortable and it's great that it's basically soundproof and has a door to close out the rest of the house. I love the color of the walls.....very calm. (the same color as the dining room) We have Maddie's kitchen up there and a book corner where all of our kids books are shelved. The little brown couch is a full size pull out bed so we can house extra guests. The family room is where the girls go when they get up in the morning to drink their milk and watch cartoons. It's really convenient to lock the baby gate at the top of the stairs and let the girls play around upstairs between their bedroom, the guest room and the family room. It gives them a little independence and options of where they want to be and what they want to do and often times I can be downstairs making dinner, or cleaning and know that they are totally safe. I can see the girls having slumber parties in this room as they get older. ahhhh.

Jordan Lake beach

I finally got around to editing the pictures from our weekend at Jordan Lake. We didn't spend the entire weekend there, just visited Friday and Sunday for a few hours. I took just Maddie there on Friday and on Sunday the whole fam and my friend went.....that's why Maddie has two different bathing suits on in some of the pictures. We had such a great time at the lake. Maddie constantly talks about it and asks to go to the beach every morning. The water is a little muddy, but its warm and pretty shallow and the waves are very small if not nonexistent. Maddie amazes me with her ability in the water. She just walks right in and has no fear. Most of the time she uses her floaty and can go anywhere she wants, but sometimes she tries to go into the water without her floaty and she has always done fine, but it makes me really nervous! She is just like her Mama though.....a little fish who doesn't leave the water until it's time to dry off and head home. Charlotte liked playing in the sand and crawling on and off our beach chairs. She also loved going into the water (with us holding her) and kicking her arms and legs. I bought a floaty for her that I think she would have loved, but we forgot it at home. Maybe next time we'll remember to bring it and see how she likes a little freedom in the water. I really like Jordan Lake! I like that the beach is small, and not very many people seem to go there and it's a cheap, easy, and fun way to spend time together!

Home tour: girlie room

While Dan and the girls are away I have been a busy cleaning Mama. I am well aware that once Maddie and Charlotte are home things won't stay this neat for more than a couple minutes, but it is nice to look around and see what our house could look like if no one lived here! lol So, while everything is looking nice I thought I would take some pics and continue on the home tour.

I love the girl's room. The first time I saw it, I knew that it would be their bedroom. Not only does it have lot's of natural light but the walk in closet is HUGE and there is plenty of room for them to play even with all of their toys and furniture. I am trying to keep as many of their toys in their room and the family room, and not everywhere else! I have a few more things I'd like to do in there.....I have some flower decals for the walls and two collage picture frames that I need to get photos printed for and then get them up. I want to get a pink crib bumper, but it is a low priority and Charlotte may be out of the crib before I ever get to that! I also want to get a ceiling fan up there, but I don't know when that might happen. But, their room is unpacked and all is functional. I love Maddie and Charlotte's room.....I think it is a perfect little girl's room and I can see them enjoying their space for many years to come.

backyard fun

It has been so hot the past few days. SO hot. We went out in the backyard to play for a little while and without much effort we were all dripping with sweat. I decided to water my tomato plants which turned into Charlotte playing with the hose and completely soaking herself. I put the nozzle on the mist setting and she had so much fun. I also got a big bowl of cold water and some ice cubes and placed them on the screened in porch and stripped the girl's wet and sandy clothes off and let them rinse off and play in the cool water. Sometimes kids are so easy to please!! They had a great time with the bowl of water.....they ended up taking their already wet clothes and "cleaning" the porch. They also draped the wet clothes and place mats on my leg to "doctor" my injury. At least once a day Maddie plays doctor on me....she even requests that I fake cry lol. Such funny kids! The girls have really been enjoying playing on the slide together. My little Charlotte who doesn't walk yet (she takes about 5 steps and then gives up and crawls) can climb up the slide by herself!! She climbs up, turns herself around on the landing, sits down and slides back down the slide all on her own!! It's amazing to me that she is able to do that. I guess having a big sister really makes a difference in development.

Charlotte is also talking up a storm. She says: hat, cup, owie, all done, dog, and she has been saying Mommy a lot lately.....which is weird because she also says Mama, and no one calls me mommy. Maddie calls me Mama, and both Dan and I refer to me as Mama.....I'm kinda thinking that mommy is Maddie. We'll have to pay attention for a while and see if she is trying to say Maddie but it's coming out mommy.

Maddie is in a phase right now. A non cooperative one. Everything is "I don't like it" or "I don't want to." It is so frustrating because she says no even when she doesn't mean no. I know she's trying to exert her independence, but it just feels like I'm running into a wall all day long. I don't mind her having an opinion, but I dislike her just trying to be difficult because she feels like it. Hopefully this will pass quickly because I am done with the bad attitude. I thank God that she is a hilarious child and keeps me laughing most of the day.....that is her saving grace right now!

Dan is taking off tomorrow morning with the girls to visit his parents house. He won't be back until sometime Tuesday evening which means that I will have a quiet house all to myself for a day and a half. I am so excited. I've been feeling a little burnt out the last couple weeks with everything that has been going on with the move and then us being sick and the bad attitudes. I am so looking forward to a little quiet, some reading and a bubble bath. I might even get some blogs written up!!

I hope that everyone had a great Father's day today. Us girls took Dan out to lunch and got him his annual "my dad is the best" shirt. This year's shirt says: Best Pop Around and the O in pop is a coke cap. It's pretty cute. Maddie also made him a cute card. It was a good day and it was nice to see Dan in the middle of it for lunch. Happy Father's day dads!

(notice my leg that is being treated by the doctor?)

busy, brusied, broken

We have been SO busy recently! Last weekend a friend of mine from junior high came to visit for the weekend. She lives in Baltimore and we finally just picked a date and made it happen. It was so incredibly nice catching up and having her here. The girls loved her and I'm excited at the prospect of visiting her on the way home from our camping trip in Ohio this July.....and getting to see Baltimore.

I have a huge bruise right above my left knee. I was carrying in groceries and had too many things in my arms and was very unbalanced and totally fell over in the kitchen. I'm not quite sure how I hurt my left leg since I fell to the right, but it's seriously huge.....like the size of an orange and it's purple and angry looking. I also hurt my ankle again. It was still messed up from my fall last November and now it's even worse. I am kinda feeling like I might need to see a doctor about it because it isn't healing right and it's been such a long time, but because it has been such a long time I feel like an idiot for needing to see a doctor for it. I'm gonna start wearing my brace again and see if it gets any better.

My favorite camera lens is broken. My camera was sitting on the kitchen counter (the bar height part) and Maddie grabbed it and pulled it down by the strap and it crashed onto the hard wood. Boo. Dan looked at it and we might be able to fix it, but I don't think it will ever be the same again. And I LOVE this lens.....I am able to take it down to f: 1.8 and it is fantastic outdoors. If he can't fix it, I will need a new one.....hopefully for my wallet's sake the man can fix it. With a broken lens and me being too lazy to get out a different lens and with the limited time I have had recently I haven't really been taking too many pictures. I have some from last weekend when we went to Jordan Lake but I need to go through them and see if they need editing. And, we haven't really been doing anything too interesting. How many pictures do you really want to see of the girls at the park? Cause we go there almost every day....I could have lots and lots of park pics! lol

We have a lot coming up in the next couple weeks too. Dan is driving to Charlotte on Monday and taking the girls and I get almost 36 hours to myself. Peace and quiet.....for a whole day and a half! I am going to test out our spa tub, and maybe paint my toes and I'll probably do exciting things like clean the bathrooms and straighten up the house while there isn't someone following behind me messing everything up. I know.....I am a wild and crazy lady! Next Friday we are going to be driving down to Carolina Beach which is near Wilmington. We have rented a 3 bedroom beach condo for a week and we're taking the girls to the real beach for the first time. Maddie has been to the beach a couple times, but she was too young to even remember it, and Charlotte has only been to the beach at the lake. Hopefully they like the ocean and hopefully where we are staying doesn't have crazy big waves. I am so looking forward to relaxing and spending time with Dan and the girls without the distractions of real life. Around the middle of July we are driving up to Ohio to attend Dan's family reunion and we'll be camping and hopefully visiting Baltimore on the way home. I don't think we have anything planned for August as of yet, but we have been talking about wanting to go camping up in the blue ridge mountains, so maybe we'll plan that for August. The weather is hot and gross....it's supposed to be in the upper 90's this weekend. I may just stay indoors for the rest of the summer. Probably not, but it's tempting. I don't think I'd mind the weather if it was just hot.....the other day it was close to 90 but not humid and it wasn't so bad. The humidity sucks. I don't like it. Only about 2 and a half more months of this and then we get lovely fall. Anyway......random weather tangent.

Here are a couple of pictures to tease you. These are from Jordan Lake and as soon as I go through them and edit them, I will post a blog so you can see the rest. So cute!