August 2014

Once again, I'm playing catch up on here. Here's how August went down:

August 1-3 - WINOS Weekend. Derek was a champ with the kids all weekend!

August 5 - Beautiful sky on the way home and a fun walk to the park with my babies.

August 7 - I turned 29 and Grant had his first soccer practice! Derek made me a pink cake (Abby's request) and gave me some wireless speakers for the pool. We ended up returning them because the range and battery life weren't what we were expecting. We got this instead and it sounds much bigger than it is!

I love this one with the photobomber:

And my cake!:

August 8 - La Margarita for a fun birthday dinner with friends!

August 9 - Grant wanted to dress like a pirate (kinda). We swam in the morning and again with Jill and Steven after naps!

August 10 - Dress up day!

Grant's style: undies and boots.

August 17 - our kids wanted to do the ice bucket challenge after I did it. We just used tap water instead for them.

August 21 - Playground, soccer and popscicles!

August 23 - We spent 2 hours playing at the Splash Park/Farmer's Market! But afterwards, we said "bye" to Papa and Mimi, who have sold their house and are traveling around the country now! We ended the day with a date at Patrizio's and a few drinks with Wild Bill!

August 29 - My office let out early and Derek took a personal day. We met up for Happy Hour, but really for him it was an entire day, not an hour.

Derek spent the evening with Clint, Kyle, and Kyle's 9 day-old son, Jordan.

August 30 - We celebrated Ollie's birthday while Derek was at the family fantasy football draft. We got to catch up with Michelle, Weylan, Nick and Kayla over pizza and drinks in the evening!

August 31 - My whole family joined us for Splash Day! The kids (and adults) had too much fun... well - most of us.

Kitchen - plans are evolving

We are going to price 2 options for our kitchen and decide how to proceed from there. Here are our latest and greatest options:

Using Home Designer, I can drop you into each one! Here's Option A:

And here's Option B:

Project - Kitchen Remodel

We've been contemplating a kitchen remodel for a few years now. What we want requires heavy duty stuff - taking out walls, structural engineer, etc. But we had trouble finding a good layout.

A co-worker recommended that I try Home Designer. This was the game changer. And the best part is that the basic (read: cheapest) version was all that I needed. I could rearrange things a dozen times to find the best layout. We now have a layout that we like, so it's just a matter of deciding details and finishes. And finding a contractor, appliances, and spending a few Benjamins.

So here are the floorplans - current and planned:

Look at the walls that are coming down (as long as the structural engineer allows it):

Here's the best feature of the software though. It will drop you into the house and show you what it will REALLY look like:

When I used the camera angles, I realized that we really need to remove one of the fireplaces so that we can keep the areas open.

I'm still adjusting it some. I'm not 100% sold on that closet (or maybe it's just the door placement?). And I can play with the fixtures and finishes some more too. I couldn't figure out how to insert white cabinets, so they are shown as beige even though I really want white. And the columns at the ends of the island will connect to the island itself, but I couldn't figure that out exactly on the software.

I will keep updating as we make decisions and progress. It'll be so exciting to have an open concept kitchen. We are planning to stay in this house for a long time, and I know this remodel will make the next 10+ years here better!

A fall-like weekend - for real

Somehow, we ended up with a weekend in July in Texas where it was not only bearable, but ENJOYABLE to be outdoors. So on Friday, I got to spend time with my cousin (oh - and our kids got to play, play, play). Her babies are so dang cute!

Saturday was action-packed! First thing on the agenda, counting all the money in the change jar. I remember doing this with my dad. It was a chance to use child labor and also teach the child about money.

After naps, we headed out to Riley's birthday party. The only pics I have are of my kiddos playing on the slide. When the invitation said to bring swimsuits for the slide, we were thinking a traditional slip and side. Silly us.

We left there and headed to The Lot in Lakewood. After a "text party" of Friday, me and my girlfriends arranged for this little get together. We were there for 3 hours and the kids were pretty good, had plenty to do/play... and we had full bellies, a few cocktails, and lots of laughs.

So far today has involved groceries, cooking, laundry, and a little bit of pool time (highs will be in the mid-90s today instead of 80 like the past 2 days).

Miles and miles

My car hit 77,777.7 miles just I was pulling up to the house today.

Obviously I thought it was pretty cool.

Car wash

The kids just LOVE rolling through the car wash. I go through with the sun shade open so they can watch.

Staycation

Since we had an extra day off, we decided to make Monday a "staycation."

We started off the day at a park, but came back home for a wardrobe change after Abby crapped her pants. (After several weeks of not doing that - wth?!)After that we headed to the Ark for the kids to play. Pro tip: The bigger kids take a blanket to sit on and slide even faster!

After that we headed over to The Lot. The kids played some, but the sand was hot and I didn't know it was a "bring your own toys to the sand" place. After naps, Clara, Nathaniel and Baby Samuel came over. The plan was to swim, but a random July storm deterred us. Instead, Derek and Matt headed out to the Rangers/Astro game and we moved the party. The kids played and watched a little bit of The Incredibles. All in all, a great staycation day.

Tuesday I was STILL off from work, so I grocery shopped, made some mango salsa, grilled for the first time ever, did some laundry, and took a meal over to Cat in exchange for some newborn cuddles.