New House Tour!

Alrighty...you'all ready for this??  Lot's of pictures are coming your way so here we go; a tour of the new house!

Front door's open, come on in!

 

From the front door looking into the living room.  You can see a peak of the kitchen towards the very back.

From the kitchen looking back at the front door.

The kitchen looking into the dining room.

The dining room.

Looking down the hall.  The main bath is right to the left, the guest room is the first door on the left.  then you can see Abby's room at the end of the hall, and the master is the left of that.

The main bath.

The guest room.

From the guest room looking back into the hallway.

Abby's room.

Looking into the master from the hall.

The master and the walk-in closet.

The master bath, with a strange hotel feel with the sink in the room, and the toilet/shower behind a pocket door.  We plan to change this by moving the wall into the room, and enclosing the sink into the bathroom.

The Master Bath

The mudroom/laundry.  We plan to convert this into a mudroom only and move the washer/dryer into the basement.

The garage.  The previous owners decided to close up the garage (the door used to be where the beginnings of the fireplace are on the back wall.  We will be converting this back to a garage/shop space very soon.  We've already go the garage door sitting in the driveway.

Looking back towards the door into the house.  That closet area in the back left corner is where our temporary washer/dryer are.  Not ideal, but it works for now.

The right hand side of the basement. You can see a storage area to the back left and the door to Ryan's office to the right hand side of the picture. 

The left hand side of the basement.

A great storage area in the basement.  We've already filled that up!  :O)

Ryan's office/bike room.

Looking from the doors in the kitchen out onto the deck/pool area.  You can see a three-season room that will get a ton of use!

A great view of the backyard and the shed.  More storage!!  If you helped us move, you know we needed it!

Looking back at the house from the pool.  You can see the walkout from the basement and the area where we plan to build our additional garage/shop space in the top right hand side (where the fence is).

From the far corner of our lot looking back at the house.  The dogs love the yard space and we love letting them hang out outside all day long.  They love it here and so do we!!

Now that I've FINALLY got a post up with all of the before pictures I promise to go around and give you updates of what we've done so far and of the plans we've been making for the house.  If you haven't been out to visit us yet, we'd love to have you!! 

One small project for me; one giant leap for our dining room

I know, I know, I still need to post pre-move in pictures along with some updates of the changes we've been making.  I'll get to it...promise!  I'm just stalling, figuring pretty soon I won't need to post them since everyone we know will have made it over by then :O)  Just kidding, sort of.

In the mean time, I figured I'd share a quick update I did with you.  Here is a picture of our dining room chairs.

Not bad right?  Especially since we got them for super cheap a few years back from Barn Sale.  Well, we thought we'd try to find a larger table at Barn Sale this year but we struck out, so we kept this one.  The only problem was the seat cushions just weren't my style. 

See, there's nothing wrong with them...they just weren't doing it for me style wise.  Especially with the new paint colors I've got going on.

So, this past weekend I went to Joann Fabrics and picked out something that was more my flow.  A few staples and about 2 hours total and here is what I've got instead:

Do you love it as much as I do?  It was so easy and a pretty cheap fix.  I got the fabric on sale 50% off by just asking the lady when it would be on sale next.  I spent less than $100 on this fabric and the fabric to redo the windows too.  I'll post that update later once it's finished. 

It's like we've got a whole new dining room set!!

Fall Photo Shoot

After the baptisms we tried to squeeze in a quick Fall Photo Shoot. I think the babies might have been through a little too much in one day at this point because we had a hard time getting them both on the same page, but we did end up with a few cute ones I wanted to share.

We started out trying to get one with Abby in the pumpkin but neither of them liked that idea very much. Its a cute idea though and I've still got that pumpkin so you might see something like this in a few days. I think I'm going to try it again when Ryan can help me for a few minutes.

After the meltdown we scrapped the pumpkin idea for the time being and things got a little bit better.

 

These little shoots will turn out so much better when Abby has a little bit more head control and can sit up a little better. Kayden is adorable these days. She is grabbing for things and can hold onto stuff. She was very interested in the little monkeys on her foot...and the little pumpkin we gave her to hold.

Abby was much happier when I was holding her and snuggling with her. I think she was a little cold...it was sunny but cool that day.

I'll be back with more Fall pictures for you later. I'm determined to get a good one in that pumpkin!

Baptisms times two!

This past weekend we had a double baptism.  We baptised both Kayden and Abby at our church in Freeport.  I know it was a long drive for EVERYONE, but we were so happy to get to do it together.  The little girls both did so good.  There weren't even any tears out of either of them! 

Abby's Godparents are Ryan's cousins Chris and Brenna.  We know they were the perfect choice for our dear sweet Abby.

Pastor John did a really nice job with the service.  Joey and I were both grateful to be able to do the baptisms at the church we grew up in.  The service for the week just happened to be called "Let the Little Children Come" so it fit perfectly to have them baptised on this weekend. 

Only two months apart and it still amazes me every time we see Kayden how much bigger and farther along developmentally she is.  It's fun to see what Abby will be doing in two months from now!

Not even one peep out of Abby when he put the water on her!! 

And...for a little run down of what Abby wore:

Dress:  This was my dress from when I was baptised.  Mom had saved it all this time.  She actually had Joey's as well and Kayden was able to wear that.

Shoes:  These were the little shoes that Erin (Ryan's sister) wore when she was baptised.  They had the cutest little ribbon around the toes.

Pearl Necklace:  This came from Ellyn.  Both she and Erin wore it when they were baptised.  It came from Ellyn's grandpa. 

It was so nice to have all these sentimental pieces for Abby to wear.  She is one loved little girl!!

Me and my sister

Hi guys...Abby here.  I just wanted to share a few pictures of me and my sister with you today.  We love each other a LOT!  See, she's about to give me big smooch in this picture.  She is so soft, I love hanging out with her on the ground (with Mom or Dad VERY close of course).  Staley is super sweet, but sometimes she moves a little too fast for me so Mom makes sure to stay close until I get a little bigger.

"No pictures please mom!  We are just relaxing"

Staley is back to being sick again.  Truthfully she's been sick on and off for awhile now, but she's lost so much weight that we are really starting to worry about her again.  She's been back and forth with the vet a few times now trying to figure out some medicine that will work for her, but we are starting to worry.  The last time we were at the vet she weighed only 55 lbs, which is way to little for a big dog like a Shepard.  That's actually the least she's weighed since we figured out that she had EPI.  We could use all the doggy prayers you guys could send our way!!

"I was feeling a bit cold so Staley wrapped me up with her tail.  Thanks sister!"

Moving day

Remember that time that I finally got caught up on the blog after having Abby?  Then we moved and I got all back-logged again.  So, I'm trying to get some of these old pictures posted and get back to being caught up.

Moved into the new house (pictures coming...I swear) on September 22nd and we had an amazing crew of people come out to make it all happen lickity split. 

 
We had to take two so Brenna could be in one and I could be in one.  I'm going to have to figure out a remote situation so everyone can be included here one of these days (add that project to the ever growing list).  We don't quite have everyone in this picture, Lauren and Brian came out to help and so did Ryan's Uncle Tim and Aunt Lynda.  We were sure grateful for all the help we had.

This wasn't a "staged" picture at all :O)  It takes two to help move a laundry basket.

Ellyn gets the Golden Sponge award for moving weekend.  She spent 3 days straight cleaning both at the new house and the old one.  She literally scoured every surface of my new kitchen and cleaned each and every slat of every blind in the whole house.  I can't say how grateful I am for all of her hard work.  I though about hiring someone to come in and clean but they never would have done as good of a job as Ellyn or, if they did, it would have cost me a fortune. 

Ryan "supervising"

Brenna was amazing and ran cleaning duty.  She said she'd rather vacuum than move heavy boxes and I was more than willing to show her where the cleaning supplies were.  I think she fell in love with my vacuum while she was at it.  Gotta love a Dyson!

This is how Rocky helped with the move.  Poor guy....once we got to the new house he got to run and play with the other dogs.  I should point out that Rocky has the good life in this picture.  Lily, Ruby and Staley were all crammed in the back of my car at this point.

I can't forget about the babies.  They were pretty involved in the move too.  They did a lot of this....

And finally, it wouldn't be moving day without a little Icing!

All in all, the move went great.  Dad and I had done a trip on Friday and then we were able to get everything else done in one massive move thanks to two moving trucks and piling every single car and truck that came full to the gills with stuff.  Who knew that two people could have so much crap!!  Well, it's not totally fair, one full truck was the garage and Ryan's shop.  He's going to have a hard time selling me on letting him buy any more tools after I saw what came out of that garage!