Pièce de résistance

As of last Wednesday, our remodel is officially complete!  We have been mostly finished since May, we just had a few odds and ends to finish up and last of all was staining our front door. 

It almost looks black in the interior picture, but it is the same color inside and out.

 

I think we'll wait a while before we start thinking about our yard projects.

We are all in uporar!

Its soon to be 3 years that we've lived in our house and we've finally embarked upon the remodeling we planned to do from the beginning.  All I can say is that its good we didn't buy a 'real' fixer-upper.  We don't have the after pictures because we're not finished yet, but here are a few "before" and "during" pictures...

 

Some of the projects include;

 

Enclosing our small, third car garage that the previous owner had turned in to a "bonus room."

 

Before...

 During...

Changing out the two double-hung windows in the living room for one larger window...

Before...

During...

 

 

 

 

 

Adding a French-door entry to the office
During...

 

We also added a solar tube in the 1/2 bathroom.  And while we're on the subject of bathrooms, take a look at my gray, striped wall.  I think everyone needs one of these in their house!  Miranda keeps asking why I'm painting everything gray.  I think she would be happy if every wall were pink or purple:)

Other projects not pictured are tiling, lighting and switching out sliding glass doors for French doors

Besides a steady stream of workers here during the day, we've been trying to keep the state of cleanliness at a livable level.  This includes constantly wiping layers of dust off the kitchen counters and sweeping our gritty, dusty floor.

We are just waiting for our new front door to come in before we can finish up all the projects.  We are loving it so far and will love it even more when its finished!

Donation!

Every morning when we have to brush Miranda's hair I about loose my mind; between her screaming that it hurts and Mitchell getting in the way and pushing her, then Miranda yelling him for him to stop pushing her.  Anyway, I've been talking to Miranda for a while about donating her hair.  She has a girl in her primary class that has lost her hair due to chemo for a brain tumor.  Miranda thought it would be great if they could use her hair to make a wig for Malie.  Only problem is is that Malie has black hair.  Well, since her hair couldn't go to Malie, Miranda decided it would be okay if her hair went to another girl 'like' Malie.  The stars finally aligned, her hair was finally long enough...the needed 10 inches to donate to "Locks of Love" AND she agreed.

 

Before...

 

 

 

During...

After...

 

I think she likes it, although she did tell me the next day that she wants her long hair back.  I just tried to ignore that comment.

Also, she just stated soccer, so I had to throw in a picture of her at her first practice.  For a child who is not exactly athletically inclined, but who likes to win, this may be an interesting experience.

You Say Its Your Birthday...and other long-awaited events

The much talked about event for the past 3 months has finally taken place.  Miranda finally had her first friend birthday party.  With her birthday being on Christmas day, it takes some planning to make a birthday party  happen three weeks before the blessed event so that friends can actually attend.  She chose a Scooby Doo theme, which I slightly encouraged over princesses so that the boys attending would want to participate.  After our gourmet, Hot & Ready pizzas...

 ...we made Scooby Doo treat bags...

 

 

Miranda wanted to play pin the head on Daphne...

we modified that slightly to be "Pin the Headband on Daphne."

 

We also played "Throw the Scooby Snacks in Scooby's Mouth,", did a treasure hunt and had a candy tower (kind of like a pinata).

 

 

And yes, we got a bounce house.  I went back and forth on this for some time.  I thought it was silly and over-indulgent to get a bounce house, but I decided to do it anyway.  I did it more for Steve and me than I did for Miranda.  My thought was, "if all else fails, they can go jump for the 2 hours."

The party was a smashing success and I'm glad its over:)

 

 

 

Another long awaited event...Miranda had her first dance recital on Saturday.  Her ballet/tap class danced to "Me and My Teddy Bear" at their Christmas recital.  For over a year now she has been saying she wantes to dance on a stage.  So, here she is folks...okay she's not exactly dancing in this picture, but she did dance.

 

In other news, Mitchell does not like Santa Clause.

 

 

Suzie and Michael were in town last weekend for work/Christmas party 

so we got to see them and had a yummy brunch at Crackers & Co.

 

 

Yo ho, yo ho!

So...since Miranda wanted to be Izzy (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

this year, we went with a pirate theme.

Adorable though it was, Mitchell did not enjoy wearing his hat

 

 

 

My little buccaneers!

 

 

 Happy Halloween!

Introducing...

Introducing...San Diego!

 Steve had a conference in San Diego last week so we decided to all take a vacation. 

 

 

 While Steve was busy learning about...well...who knows what, the kids and I spent time hanging out at the beach,

 

 

hanging out with the surfers,

 

 running around,

 

 

 digging and getting dirty.  We also did a little shopping, of course.  Well, since we didn't pack any shirts for Miranda, we had to.

 

 

 Tuesday, the Stimpsons met us and we all stayed at this cute little house.

 

 Bedtime was exciting!

 

 

 Chillin' with Shamu at Sea World

 

 

Nevermind Shamu, Julia said the best part of Sea World was buying a stuffed animal.  Here they are all holding hands.

At the beach, Collin surrounded the hole they were digging with sea weed to protect it from the waves...nice.

 

 Here's what Miranda liked best about the SD Zoo (above).

 Trip to SD Zoo's Safari Park...close encounter with a Lion.

Some highlights from the trip:
Date and Cactus Milkshakes in Dateland, AZ
Buying new shoes and boots (for Karen)
Eating at the Fish Market (restaurant)
Trying out tons of balsalmic vinegar and oil flavors at the oil & vinegar shop
The Dolphin Show at Sea World
Mitchell and Meghan eating ramen noodles at every meal
The African Tram at Safari Park
Playing Imagine Iff with Suzie & Michael
Mitchell giving Elmo high-5 at Sea World
Goat cheese, spinich and mushroom pizza
The kids playing and playing and playing

So glad we got to get away and to spend time with S&M before their big move!

Happy One Year Little Monkey!

I can't believe Mitchell is 1 year old already!  Since we have lots of girly paraphernalia at our house, we decided it was time to get some boy toys.  Here he is opening his new TOOL BENCH.

He hasn't gotten the concept of crawling through his new tunnel yet.

 I couldn't decide what kind of cake to make him.  He isn't really into anything specific yet, except toilet paper, the garbage can and cupboards.  He also likes to head-butt and play steamroller.  I decided a monkey fit his personality.

Diving in...

Enjoying!

Happy Birthday little Monkey!