It's Spring

The roses are blooming....Spring is here!!

May - Kitchen remodel

Cub Central was a construction zone in May once again. I had been very unhappy with how our raised bar had turned out when the house was built. I hated it so much that our tax refund this year went to replace it, so we could have the kitchen we had originally wanted. What should have been an easy fix (just replace the granite bar area) became a whole kitchen redo. Since we couldn't match our existing granite, we had to replace ALL of the granite. Removing the existing granite meant that the backsplash would have to be redone as well. We decided to go "all in" and added some new cabinetry under the bar for extra storage, under/above cabinet lighting since our kitchen is so dark, and a wine fridge. I finally have my kitchen. Too bad it wasn't done correctly the first time. Live and learn...if we ever build again...

The offender: The BEFORE picture. We paid extra for a raised "eat-at" bar. Not a lot of eating to be done here. It was barely wide enough for a plate.


Mid-construction. New cabinets and granite are in. Preparing to install the backsplash.


It only took about a week. Stay tuned for final pics.... next year, maybe???

Cupcake fun

Princess Emily requested cupcakes, so Daddy bought her cupcakes. Here are some photos of the cupcake faces.

A little kitchen decorating.

We celebrated Steve's birthday on Tuesday by grilling shrimp and Filet Mignons (from Omaha Steaks - thank you Auntie Leslie and Uncle Craig!!) on our new grill (thank you Grandma Shirley and Grandpa John!!). Dinner sure was yummy.

After dinner I decided I would do some organizing in the game room upstairs. I had a stack of things to move into the attic. Things were moving along smoothly until I lost my footing and punched a delightful hole in our kitchen ceiling with my size 8.5 shoe. Lord knows it couldn't have been in a closet or the pantry where it wasn't so noticibly visible. So, Happy Birthday Steve, I hope you enjoy the personalization I added to our kitchen.

I didn't take a picture of my "decorative touch" because it made me sick to look at it. On the bright side, I was able to get the contractors over yesterday (how's that for service??) and I did take a picture of the lovely patch that we will be taking time out of our "family weekend plans" to paint.

We have landscaping and it includes a SOLD sign!

The builder has finally put up the SOLD sign. All this time there has been an 'available' sign posted.

We also have landscaping. Unfortunately it is a standard package so we didn't have any say in what they planted, but I don't think it looks too bad.




The master bath...not yet painted, but the shower has been installed.


We now have appliances and granite countertops.

They giveth back....update to 'they taketh away'

All fenced in...


Housing update! The garage doors have been installed and the gutters are being hung. I'm not sure I like the garage doors, but I guess I can live with them. It looks like a great big asterisk, but that's what happens when you pick something from a black and white, one-dimensional, pencil drawing. The fence is up. The light fixtures are in and cabinets are in place. The whirlpool tub has been delivered but not yet installed. (Can't wait for my first soak!) The Travertine has been laid and the ceramic tile for the shower and tub surrounds have all been installed too. As for the Travertine, we did get the free upgrade after I sent a nice little email to them. So kudos for that! It's been very busy at the house and there really isn't too much left to do. We still need the cabinets stained and the granite and carpet installed. We are now looking at a completion date at the end of March. YIKES! We are going to paint some of the rooms after closing, so we aren't planning on officially moving in until mid-April. We have the lease on the apartment until June, so we don't have to rush. For once we can take our time moving in and for the first time ever we can actually unpack our things. Since we got married we have never really unpacked since we knew everything was temporary. Our home in New Mexico - temporary, our first apartment - temporary, our first home - temporary (we anticipated being there only 5 years and we actually made it last a little longer), our next home - permanent (or so we hope) and I am UNPACKING!

Rewind one week....

I am so far behind that I need to track back to January 28....Girl's night with some of the other moms from my moms of multiples club. No one needs a drink more than we do...and my raspberry margarita did not disappoint. YUM! I could have used a triple!

We had a big party to attend on Saturday (the same day we had to trek up to Plano to reselect our tile and granite) for Izzy and Maddie's first birthday. I think the cubs had a lot of fun. I didn't even manage to get any good pictures of the birthday girls...they were buried in presents most of the time. Because I was chasing Z-man around most of the time I didn't get many pics of the cubs either. Here are the few I managed to get:

Zach trying his hardest to be the center of attention:


Zach caught red handed with someone else's water. Thief:


Emily caught red handed running off with my cell phone (she even managed to call Kelli with it). The other thief:


Outside playing with bubbles:


We drove by the house on our way home and snapped a few more pics of the monsters cubs.

Zach screaming in delight. He loves hearing his echo!


Emily on the run:


Who's there, Emily?


The cubs are fascinated by something:


Checking out the stairs:


Zach working his way upstairs:


We did our very best that day to wear the cubs out and they were exhausted by bedtime. We all welcomed a good night's sleep.

The next Monday was another night out with the girls. It almost sounds like mom has a social life, doesn't it? It also came with another raspberry margarita...those things are yummy!

On Wednesday Emily had a Doctor appointment with her new pediatrician. We just wanted to get her established and meet the Doctor. I love our new Doctor and wish we would have switched a long time ago. She listened to all of my questions, she played with Emily, and actually answered all of my questions. Amazing!

On Thursday I took the cubs to a place called Paradise Pond. It is a little play area at one of the churches in Grapevine. It had a big jungle gym, a bounce house, and lots of little "stations" for the cubs to play. Emily had a great time in the "grocery store". She looked at every item before she decided it was good enough to go into her shopping cart. She took that shopping cart everywhere with her. They had a "dress up" station and an area full of Legos. I tried my hardest to get Zach to play in the jungle gym or the bounce house but he was perfectly content running around the place. He must have ran 100 laps around that place. I was exhausted chasing after him. This is also an activity that requires an extra person to help keep an eye on both cubs. Luckily Emily was content in the grocery store area so I had time to run after Zach. If I go back I am going to dress them in bright neon yellow T-shirts so they will be easier to spot. Or maybe I will just get them implanted with a homing device.

Update on La Casa

Things have been happening at the casa. They are predicting a completion date of April 8th. Holy cow! What happened to June??? That's when the lease is up on the apartment and we still have a house to sell! YIKES!!!

The sidewalk has been poured and they are working on the driveway.


Doors and shelves are in and trim is going up. (Emily and Daddy went to check on the progress while Mommy and Zach were "under the weather".)


The stair rails are in.


Going up???

Exploring the new digs!

On Saturday we took the cubs up to the house. Since we had a picture of Zach in the house, it was only fair to get Emily Bear's picture taken in the house too. The cubs had a blast running around in the open spaces and screaming so they could hear their echos. Some of the pictures are a little dark but I thought I would post them anyway.

Zach exploring the family room:


Mom trying to keep up with Zach in the family room:


Emily and Zach exploring their bedrooms:


Emily holding up the wall in her bedroom:


An adorable picture of Z-man:


Perhaps they are negotiating room assignments:


Emily checking things out:


Emily and her dirty knees and paws. Construction sites are messy places:

The week in pictures

Emily checking out the latest issue:


Zach feeding Emily a puff:


Mommy's little helpers folding the towels:


Zach practicing his good dental hygiene:


Coming right along (taken 01/16/09):

Zach checking out his new digs!

Here is Zach's first photo in his new room!

Bricks anyone?

Finally a house update....I apologize to all of our faithful readers for taking SO long!

The bricks and stonework are going up. The insulation is being installed. The drywall has been delivered. YIKES! Because the weather has been so great, this is happening much faster than we expected. I am gathering all of our information to start the loan process. I think I'm going to have to start taking ulcer medication...this is so nerve-wracking. Still waiting on the other house to sell...

Pictures from Sunday, January 11:

Construction is progressing very quickly