Remodel update.

The contractor is going to start tearing out the kitchen on Thursday!
Here are some more pictures

The marble tile we will use for the counter tops, it is a bad picture so the color is way off, but you can see the pattern. It should look pretty cool once we install it.

looking at the kitchen from the living room

side view

looking into the kitchen from the bedroom/office, this door will be
closed off and the refrigerator will go in front of it.

from the kitchen, looking out into the dining room, the pantry and doorway will be opened up

the way the kitchen was

emptying out all of the cupboards and the pantry on Saturday,
we set up a temporary kitchen in the basement.

we sold the dishwasher on Saturday too

everything is gone but the stove and the fridge,
Aaron and Jami are getting the stove,
anyone need a fridge?

I laid out the tile to see what it would look like if we made a pattern in the floor, lets take a vote, which pattern do you like the best, the one above or the one below? we also have enough tile to do the whole room with the darker tan. What would look better, diamond, checker or solid tan?

Comment to vote

The sink downstairs was painted tan, with latex paint!!!!!!!!
It was scratching off, so I had Nate run and get some paint remover

The paint came right off

Looks much better, it is a nice white enamel sink. It has some little scratches on it, but nothing major. I am not finished yet, but it will do for now.

Getting Ready!!!

We are going to be starting out kitchen remodel soon so I thought I would post about our plans, since it looks like we will be going ahead with this. Nate and I spent about 6-7 hours on Saturday hauling out kitchen cabinets from the store to our garage. It is getting exciting now, it is starting to feel like reality.
I will post some pictures of the way it is now, once we get it cleaned up a little, for those of you who have not seen our little kitchen before.

Kitchen Plan

Lights, garbage disposal, door and drawer pulls.

Tile we will be using, I haven't seen it yet myself, but it looks nice and it was a great deal ;)

This is a picture of my sister's sink, but we got the same one

view from the front

Here is ours, in the box, in the garage

Our cabinets all stacked up in the garage

room for only one car for now.

I will keep you posted on the progress, when we start to make some.

A Day of Plenty

Since school and work kept me close to home this year Nate and I spent this Thanksgiving apart. He traveled down to his folks to be with his family since it has been a long time since we have seen them. I went over to my sister's place in WI. Here are pictures from our T-day, most are pictures of the food.

Gina decided to make an apple pie with the apples I bought on my way down on Wed. night.

She wanted to do the lattice crust top like she saw online.

And caramel drizzled on top.

Mmmmmm.

Seven layer salad, strawberry pie, pumpkin pie

Crockpot sweet potatoes, check out the funky one in the middle, it has a white streak!

Add butter, brown sugar, spices and apples

Starting to cook up, the butter is melting, thought this was a good picture.

All mashed up

The table set!
We still didn't have enough seats for everyone, the little kids didn't stay long in their seats though.
We had quite a few who came to Gina and Richard's; Sandy, Amber and Brian, Brady,
Alyssa and Jamin, Aaron and Lisa, Barb T., Rose B., Lonnie and Gordon, Sam, Laura,
Brian B., Gina and Richard, Emma, Olivia, Westin, Levi and me. (22)

Barb T. and Rose B.

Alyssa, Aaron, Sandy, Jamin

Jamin carving one of the turkeys

All the food ready to eat!
Turkey, stuffing, 10 lbs. mashed potatoes, gravey, sweet potatoes, green beans,
seven layer salad, 3 kinds of cranberries and cinnamon rolls.

Amber, Aaron and Alyssa;
I love the look on Amber's face, she just can't decide which desserts to have.
It would be hard to decide if you could choose from apple pie, apple crisp, pumpkin pie,
pecan pie, chocolate pecan pie, strawberry pie, pumpkin bread and ice cream.

All the kids in mom's bed on Friday morning.
I didn't get very many pictures of the kids while I was down there, too busy cooking I guess.

2008 Halloween Party : Pirates

Thanks to everyone for coming and for everything you all brought. The costumes were great, as usual and we had a good time. For everyone who couldn't make it, we hope to see you next year! Any ideas for a theme for next year? Anyways, here are some pictures, I am sure others will share some on other blogs as well.


Trick-or-treating on Halloween at Grandma and Grandpa's, we surprised them, Gina and I stayed back, by the garage to see if Grandpa would recognize the kids all dressed up, he did!

Chloe went straight for the treasure when they arrived!

Aaron and Jami

Our ship's cook, great costume idea! She would get my vote for best costume.

More great costumes, a doubloon, treasure chest and a couple pirates.

Still more creative costume ideas; a ship, an anchor and a couple of cute little pirates

Land Ho!!

Raking and playing in the leaves. Autumn, you can come back anytime.

Stephanie and Levi, a pirate and her treasure map! Well, technically he is Gina's treasure map.

Pirate Treasurrrrrr

Three pirate ladies and their worst fear, a shark

The whole group, except for our photographers Sandy, Aaron and Richard B.

Charge!!!

Silly pose

Mom and Dad

Carving my pumpkin

The kids loved carving pumpkins,

I think the adults/parents did too.

Nikelle working on her bat-in-the-moon pumpkin

Dad working on his pumpkins

Carving away


All of the pumpkins lit

Dad's

Mine and Autumn & Brendan's