Monday, November 24, 2008

10 things I Love About My Home

I was tagged by Holli (a little while ago) to post 10 things I love about my house, so here it is--a photo tour of our home:
1. The shutters. I wanted shutters so I didn't have to worry about curtains/blinds, etc. on all the windows and I love them. I wasn't sure how well they would keep out light, but they are great when they're all closed up. Another plus side is that they are safer then blinds for kids (because they don't have a cord) but the down side is that kids love playing with them...This is Miranda about a year ago.

2. The ponds. We have two ponds--sort of. One in our yard by the front door that Jeremy built. We have a bunch of koi and gold fish and plants in it. It's especially fun to feed the fish each day and in the spring, there were a lot of tiny babies! I don't have a good picture of that pond because they never turn out. But here is one with the pond in the bottom right corner, although you mostly see just rocks and water hyacinths.

This is one of the pond behind our house. It's hard to see the pond in this picture, too, sorry! The farmer there has 5 acres and a nice pond centered perfectly behind our house. We love watching the ducks, geese, and horses that he has, too.

3. I love the large bathtub in our master bath. I soak there many a frequent night.

4. Along with the master bath, I love our bedroom. The main reason I love it, though is because of the furniture we bought after we moved in. We had had our eye on this set for a while and snagged it when it went on sale. The side tables, though were $250 each, and I couldn't see paying $500 for side tables. I told Jeremy we could get some much, much cheaper. And we did. Jeremy surprised me with these that he found at Pier One for $50 each. He has such good style, lucky for me. They go perfectly with the bed and dresser, but they aren't 'matchy, matchy', which I like.

5. Lights. We upgraded most of the lights in the house when we built it, and I don't regret it at all. This is one of my favorites--a Tiffany chandalier that hangs in the entry.

6. Storage space! We moved from a house that didn't have a basement and the only closets were in the bedrooms, so I was dying for more storage. This is a picture of the pantry in the kitchen, along with the reason it doesn't stay organized for long...

7. While I'm on the subject, the kitchen was one of the main reasons we wanted to build this floor plan. It is huge, and Jeremy and I both to love to cook/entertain, so it was a big clincher for us. I love the big island and the desk we put next to the pantry.


8. I love our brick and the wood Mission Style door on the exterior. A lot of our neighbors have rock instead of brick, but we felt like brick is more of a classic look.

9. The living room. I love the living room because it is so open and Miranda can play there while I am in the kitchen or working at the desk. Usually, though, she's about right under my feet. :)

Like how Skip was posing here perfectly? He likes to lay on the cold tile.

10. We are finishing the basement, and I'm really excited about it. Jeremy has done 95% of it all by himself so far, and it is a lot of work! He is working on sheet rocking a few rooms right now. We decided to focus on a couple of rooms to finish first. This is a picture of the area underneath the stairs, which will be a playroom for kids. We built a loft in it with this porthole. The other rooms Jeremy is working on is one of the bedrooms and my craft/office/art room. I'm SO excited about that room. I'll have to post pictures as it develops!

So, there it is. I admit, this is a fun tag but with the craziness of the holidays upon us, I feel bad asking others to do it.

Making Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting



Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Portraits of Skip

I have NO good pictures of Skip. I want to enlarge one and frame it for the baby's room, but I cannot find a good one. Anyway, just thought you might not believe me, so here is what I have to work with:


I call this piece 'Dead Dog Blending into Tile'


This one is 'Wax Model of Ewok Dog'


And here, finally, we have 'Sir Pant-a-alot'

I think I'll have to use one of the two puppy pictures I have of him, since that was that was the last time he looked cute. :) Unfortunately, I don't have those on digital format, so I will have to do some work to get a print/enlargement.

P.S. I do admit that most of you are better photographers than I--Seriously, I've seen the pictures on YOUR blogs--so it's really not all Skip's fault...

Friday, November 14, 2008

See You at the Movies

We took Miranda to her first movie--Madagascar 2. I know many of you are much braver parents than we are and have braved this frontier sooner, but I have not been ready to risk the possible disappointment until now. However, she did so well and Jeremy and I are so excited because we love going to movies, and now we can go without rearranging other people's lives to babysit! Of course the shows will have to have cartoon animals in them, but what the heck?! Oh, yeah and a huge tub of popcorn is a must, also.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

More Baby Details


So, here's the scoop. I'm due the end of January (27th) and will be having another C-section, although my doctor keeps slyly making comments to get me to consider VBAC. Anyway, with the C-section, it could be the middle of January, but I'd like to wait out the full 40 weeks, if possible. BTW, when I'm 9 months pregnant, please remind me that I said that...
And the big news is, it's a boy this time! We would have been happy with another girl, but it is nice to have one of each already and just call that good if we want to (much to the chagrin of grandparents). We've got the names narrowed down to two, but I don't think I'm ready to publish them. I like them both for different reasons and I can't decide which one I want to go with. The middle name will most likely be Douglas, after Jeremy's paternal grandpa.
I'm sure Miranda has no idea what's about to happen to her world, though. Jeremy asks, "Where's baby brother?" and she points to my belly (and then hers, and then dads, etc.) Obviously she doesn't really connect the idea that my big round belly is growing her sibling. But who can blame her? I can barely wrap my head around the idea sometimes.
Thankfully, everything is going well so far. We're excited and I know the little guy will be here before we know it, especially with the holidays between now and then!