We are going to....

Woo hoo!

Cedar Falls South All City Band Concert

Tonight Kyle has his first ban concert.  He did a great job, amazing how you put all those fifth graders together and it sounds pretty good.  All of that early morning practice paid off. 

 

Again I have sideways pictures, but oh well!  For the grandparents, I will try to post videos.  Having trouble uploading right now...

 

Remodel Stage Seven

Jim worked all weekend to figure out a way to repair the floor, install dishwasher in new location, and install all of the cabinets so that he could reinstall the countertops and get us operational again.

 

Lots of details to fill in, but it is looking good!!!

 

Remodel Stage Six

It is kind of like the project that just won't end!! Atleast that is how it feels over at our house! 

 

We had planned to just put a haitus on the kitchen remodel until after Disney. Jim caught a bad cold or had a bad bout with allergies that resulted in a sinus infection and he was out of commission for a good 7 to 10 days.  Needless to say, keeping up with everything with him sick made us both feel pretty worn out.

 

I think it is just the stage of life that we are in, but April has been way busier than we had expected. Just this week we have two soccer practices, a soccer game, school fun fair, two choir concerts, an all city band concert, 5th grade visit youth group night, along with normal work stuff!

 

It is crazy that while we are gone on vacation, the boys are missing a field trip, alpha project presentation night, 5th grade band concert, two birthday parties, and soccer. I am pretty sure, though, that Disney will more than make up for it!!! LOL  My point really is that I don't remember April being this busy in the past.  Last year, concerts were in early May.  Oh well!

 

In the midst of this, Jim stopped by the counter top place on Tuesday for work and they mentioned to him that if he could have the counter top in to them on Wednesday, they'd have time to do it, otherwise they couldn't guarantee to have time for 6 to 8 weeks.  So in the middle of crazy schedule, we stayed up late Tuesday night to pull the counter top!

 



This is how we far we had gotten previously!



First Jim had to disconnect the power and water to the dishwasher. We thought that would the hard part, but little did we know that the counter top would NOT come out easily.  In fact, it took a ton of patience and THREE AND A HALF HOURS!!!!! We honestly weren't sure at a couple of points that we could get it out without destroying it!

Love this picture! He did it!!!

Then we took it apart to hall it to the counter top shop.

If only that was all we had to do, but then we still had to take the cabinets out of the pennisula and set them in their new homes so we could exact measurements for the new countertop. It made for a late night for sure! 

So this is what my kitchen has looked like the last couple of days!  We have been eating simple meals with as few dishes as possible since I have to wash them in the bathroom or tub!  We have eaten out some too!

The room looks huge again, but that will change when we add the island back in.

 The island cabinets were in the basement from being painted so Jim set them together down there to get the measurements.
 

So this weekend we are in a bit of rush to get our kitchen reassembled!  So hopefully pictures of part 7 will be coming soon (and include a sink).  I guess it will make the time until Disney go really fast because we are going to be very busy. I hope I get over this cold REALLY quick!

Girls day out!!!

Disney!

One week from tomorrow, we fly out to Disney World. This month, we have spent some time getting ready. The suitcases are out, summer clothes purchased for those who outgrew stuff, etc.

 

Here they are all ready to trade pins!!!!!!

 

We are getting pretty excited around here.  Unfortunately, I have gotten a cold, but hoping I will be back to a 100% by the time we go!!!

 

The Weather

Well, it has been the coldest, most wet April that I can remember in recent history. We are all getting desperate for sunshine and warmer weather.

 

This month, we have had one nice day is all!!  We took advantage of it!!!!

 

One of Kyles Piano Pieces

Conners Piano Recital Part One

Conners Piano Recital Part Two

Our weekend and more sideways pictures!

On friday my mom and my big brother came and spent the day with us. It had been a long time since I had seen him and we haven't seen too much of my mom through winter so it was fun for all!!!

 

 Grandma took us out for lunch!!! Callie just loves grammy and her Uncle Bob!

 Having some cuddle time with Grammy.

 After supper we just took some pictures!

 And the pictures are sideways even with my best efforts. Go figure! They show up vertical on my computer...

 Me and my Momma!

 

Then we weren't quite as productive this weekend as Jim was sick earlier in the week and we just didn't have the same energy as normal, but we did make some progress this weekend.

 Ta Da! Pantry shelves!!! 

I had a moment of sticker shock at Menards when we purchased the shelves (wire shelving is expensive!).  We just decided that we might be eating rice and beans for awhile, but they will look really good on those shelves!!!

More sideways pictures...  This afternoon I started filling it up!!  WOW! Thank you Honey!!!!

Easter Morning

I can't figure out why some of the pictures from my phone turn sideways even though rotated and saved on the computer vertically. Oh well, too tired to care tonight.. LOL

 

Here are some pictures of the fun... We laughed about the bunny who left a trail of eggs...

 

Easter Eggs

Jim took the kids out for supper and decorated eggs with them while I was at church.  After all that painting (and most of the clean up since I had to leave). That guy is a rockstar and deserves an afternoon on the couch tomorrow I think!!!  Some of the pictures are sideways, but it is way too late to try to fix it!

 

The plastic eggs are all hid, the decorated ones will be in the morning. I forgot to get pictures of the easter baskets so I will try to remember that in the morning!

 

Happy Easter all! He is RISEN indeed and we are beyond blessed. 

Remodel Stage Five

 Well, yesterday before our Good Friday service and today before Saturday night services, Jim and I had a painting marathon. We were both VERY happy to get that project done. Still tons to do in the kitchen, but it is getting closer... step by step.

So we had to repaint the entire ceiling and rehang the lights. Jim did most of this. I painted the ceiling in the pantry where you can't see very well, lol! I can trim fairly decent, but I do not do well with ceilings!

Then we had to prime all of the areas of new drywall. I did this while Jim painted ceiling.

Then we rehung the lights we had taken down and started with a new coat of paint in the kitchen. Our walls were in tough shape with knicks everywhere so we painted all of the kitchen(two coats on the primed areas).



Jim made a fort for Callie out of my desk in the entry way and she played in there most of the morning while we painted.  Even ate her lunch in there!



Then since we had to pull out stuff to paint the walls under the upper cabinets, it made sense to go ahead and give all of the upper cabinets a new coat of the purple paint (the doors will have to get done later).

I had already painted the cabinet that we had taken down to repair the soffit so tonight after kids went to bed, Jim hung that cabinet back up. This is the one that needs the shelf built under it.

Then Jim hung the cabinets over my desk!!!  I had also painted those previously!  We still need to hang my bulletin board, but it was a marathon of a day (that also included decorating eggs and hiding eggs for our egg hunt tomorrow).

 

Another view of the desk area and the now painted pantry!!! 
It is amazing what you can do with the cabinets you already have. 

Next step, trim, cove and repairing the wall paper border.... 

It feels really good to get that done! The kitchen feels so clean, but it was a LONG day and a half.  Looking at how busy April is getting, we are definitely glad to be this far along on this project!!