It's finished!!

The basement is finished!!!! Who Hoo!!! As I'm typing this, I'm sitting on our couch downstairs in the put together basement. So nice. I felt like this little remodel project took forever. In reality, I'm just super impatient and it went so fast. From start to finish it took exactly 2 months. Not too shabby to finish a whole new part of the house. And it looks awesome! I'm in love with the finished product and can't wait to get some artwork and family pictures on the wall. Other than that, it's all put together.

I feel for Brian because I know once we got all the carpet in I was kind of maniac (what else is new:)). I can't stand disorganization and clutter, Brian isn't bothered at all by it. Two different worlds we live in. I've been living with clutter and mess for two months, so last Friday marked the day to get rid of it:) I was pumped, but poor Brian, who has been working on the basement all summer, just wanted to sit. I can't sit until stuff is put away. I mean really, I would wake up in the morning so early (like 4) and couldn't sleep because I would instantly be thinking of all the things I wanted to accomplish for the day. Then I'd just get annoyed and get up to do some stuff because I couldn't go to sleep. It paid off in the end, I got everything put together, and I am glad because now I can sleep in to a more appropriate hour (by my standards). We still have tons to do, our garage is still a holding place for lots of crap, and our unfinished area still holds a bunch of junk that we need to sort through, give away, and throw in the trash. Ahhh, I love cleaning:) It's a work in progress, and if it was up to me, we would probably have the garage and unfinished area cleaned out, organized, and put together. BUT, for the sake of my dear hubby, who has worked very hard, I'm trying not to bug him too much about it:) Just a little bit here and there. An OCD organized wife, who is very pregnant, is not a good combo in Brian's world! I have the need/desire to get everything in order even more than normal. I know once we pop this baby out, and Brian gets back to work and in the middle of soccer season, nothing is going to get accomplished. So I'm just kind of trying to charge through until it's all done.

Ok, enough babble about that. I will just get to some pictures. In order to spare you all the gazillion pictures I've taken of the whole process, I just put up one of each step on the way, and have more of the finished product. It's much better in person though, so you will just have to stop by and check it out for yourself:)

Before:

All cleaned out (mostly) and ready for some work to start

The kids loved running around in the basement while we were getting work done on it. I think their favorite time was when it was framed. They had a blast running through the "walls."




After:

My new scrapbook room/office. I'm in love with this room. Turned out so great. I'm going to have lots of space to do some crafting. I need to get myself caught up and get to work!
Living room

Wet bar area off the living room
View of the living room from the hallway back to the bedrooms
That's it! Love our new space and so glad that I can just enjoy it now:)

18 Months

Hello all!

Still here......and getting SOOOOO close to having a finished basement. Can't wait!!!! We start getting carpet tomorrow. I am so ready:) It will be a two day ordeal because we are replacing the carpet upstairs too. This is one two day thing I am okay with because when they are done, so is the basement.....mostly....we still have a few finishing details to finish, but the basement will be fully functional. Can I get a Woot Woot! As you can tell, I'm excited about this. I'm even more excited about being able to use the basement, the lack of mess in my house constantly (with the exception of what the family creates for me!), and some organization down there. Oh, the OCD organizational side of me can't wait:)

Since my camera cord is still sitting in some unknown location in the only unfinished part of the basement, I still don't have a lot to share with you. But I wanted to put something on here. So I'm going with what I have available:)

I can't believe that our little girl is already 1 1/2. She's still so petite, that I think I sometimes forget that she's getting so grown up. But she is. She's getting to have such a personality and cracks us up. It's so fun to see the differences between her and her brother. And it's hilarious to listen to their conversations with each other. She had her 18 month check-up last week, and everything looks great with her. She's still little, but that's okay:)

Height: 29 1/4 inches (this cracks me up! It took her a year and half to grow 10 inches)

Weight: 20 lbs 8 ounces (woo hoo! Finally hit the 20 pound mark)

*she's finally starting to feel a little heavy if you have to carry her around. I don't know if she will ever truly feel heavy because her brother (who still likes to be carried) weighs so much more than her, but after a while, the arm does get tired:)

Kamdyn is such a joy. I think she is equally a momma's girl and a daddy's girl. She definitely already is working on softening her daddy's heart. Something tells me this little one will not have a hard time getting what she wants out of her daddy. With her sweet little voice, and baby blue eyes, he's gonna be a goner. She is also such a little talker. We have no idea what she is saying half the time, but she's starting to get a pretty good vocabulary. I think she's got about 24-25 words now. But most of the time, she uses the same ones all day long. Her favorite words are yeah, mommy, daddy, bubby, doggy, and no. She is such a little daredevil. Not really used to this at all. Eli was not very daring, and still is pretty cautious, but not Kamdyn. She sees everything Eli does, and thinks she can do it too. She has to do everything her brother does, whether she's big enough to do it or not:) She keeps me on my toes for sure. She is full of energy and is always on the go and constantly crawling all over me. She wears me out! I'm excited to see how much more she grows and changes in the next couple of months and as she transitions to being a big sister. That could be interesting:)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

We have had lots of fun changes going on around here the last month and a half or so. Good, much needed, fun changes, but I'm not necessarily enjoying them right now. And the changes are going to just keep on coming! One of of the perks (?!?, still trying to find the good in them:)) of having a toddler. Not real sure when my baby boy got to be so grown up. He is such a little man now, and it's so funny to see him interact with us everyday. He says the funniest things these days and always seems to be learning something new. For some reason, he has started calling Brian and I kids....if we are laughing at something he says, "stop laughing kids!" Halarious! I don't know where he gets these things.

He even "walks" his own trike now. In the past we've always had to push it for him (which gets very exhausting very fast), now he likes to make it go himself. P.S. These pictures are from April, hence the sweatshirt:) Now he can even peddle it himself sometimes. So grown up!

And what's a good bike ride without a nose pick?!
Besides learning how to use his bike, we've had lots of other transitions. Eli is now in his big boy bed. No more crib for him. This is one of those things I'm trying to find the good in:) Sleeping has been a HUGE struggle lately, and I'm at the end of my rope. This tired mama is sick of dealing with him getting out of his bed when he wakes up (which has been super early, and he hasn't been going to bed until a lot later than normal). He really likes his bed, and it will be nice someday when he realizes the importance and fun of sleep. He just hasn't caught on to that yet. Maybe in 8 years. Not only is Eli in a big boy bed, he now shares a room with his sister. Again, another one of those transitions I'm trying to find the good in:) He keeps her up at night and wakes her up early in the morning with him when he is going in and out of his room. All of this fun has this mama's patience level at about a -50. This is when I wish I still had a crib for both of them! It's so fun to watch Eli grow up, and I'm certainly glad he's getting to be such a big boy, but there are some perks of "baby hood" that sure are nice.

I figured since Eli was sleeping like crap and making his sister sleep like crap, I might as well throw another transition in there for him and me:) Let's just it all over with at once, right? Transitions of toddlerhood suck! (Do you like my attitude here?) Last night we got rid of Eli's paci's. It's something that I should have done a really long time ago, but they were just so easy at bedtime. It has just been recently that he's started getting mad when you take it away and crying for it in the day and then throwing a fit when he doesn't get it. So, I decided it was time to get rid of it. I know I will be glad he gets used to it. Just waiting for that time to come. We let Eli go to Babies r' Us and pick out two new trains (that's how many paci's he had). He got to trade his paci's for his new trains. He was excited about it at the time, but he didn't care when it came to bedtime:) So he got to sleep with him new trains last night.

Next change is potty training....WooHoo!! I wish kids came with an internal clock and just instantly knew how to use the toilet when they turned a certain age. Wouldn't that be a lot nicer? I don't really have high hopes for this transition, Eli just really doesn't seem to care about what, or how long, he sits around in a diaper, but I still have dreams of having him potty trained before his baby brother gets here. Fingers crossed on this one!

So while I obviously don't have a good attitude about most of the changes going on around here right now, they are all exciting things. I'm just too tired and annoyed at this stage in the game to be excited about them:)

On a positive note, the basement is coming along nicely. We should hopefully get carpet by the end of next week or middle of the following week! Yay!!!! Can't wait!

Must see

Warning: This post has lots of pictures because I had a VERY hard time picking just a few to put up here. They were all so good and I had way too many favorites.

Last week, my amazing friend, Allison, took some pictures of me and the kids. She is just trying to get better at her photography and likes to practice on people other than her adorable little boy (because let's be honest, trying to get your own kids to cooperate for you all the time when you are trying to practice is impossible!) She asked if she could do some pictures of us, and I very gladly accepted. So glad I did! She did such an awesome job. Our kids aren't exactly the easiest photography subjects. They are adorable, but very unwilling to work with you most the time. She was very patient with them and got some great shots despite their stubbornness (wonder where they got that?) Enjoy!

PS. One of these days you are going to have an overload of posts from me catching you up on all the summer fun we've been having around here. We are still in the process of the basement finishing, and I have no idea where my camera cord is right now, so I can't dump any of my pictures to update you all. Just be patient with me!

I just really like this picture for some reason.....something about feet I guess, and Eli just has some pretty awesome shoes:)

So sweet! Wish they were this loving to each other all the time. Definitely not the case, but these two do love each other like crazy.



Here's the growing belly at 31 weeks



I have to say, the one thing I miss about the belly after the baby is born is the built in shelf I have for the kids. Not sure that he likes being used as a shelf, but it sure is easy for me:)

Thanks Allison for taking such great pictures!!

Park Fun

Ok, so these pictures are from several weeks ago.... I meant to share them then, but kept forgetting. And since we are in the process of finishing the basement (can I get a WOOT WOOT!!!!!), I haven't dumped any new pictures from my camera recently. But don't worry, we will have lots of pictures to come in the weeks ahead! Anyways, several weeks ago, the kids and I met my good friend, Liz and her little boy Grey, at the park. It was super muggy that day, but otherwise, the weather wasn't too bad. We went to the playground in our old neighborhood. It's just awesome! It's one of the few things I really miss about our old house....I loved the park. We figured it would be way less busy than Sedgwick county, so we opted for the smaller park with less chasing of the boys. I'm so glad we did too. Kamdyn had a blast, and the boys loved running around and being boys together as well. I love when we get together with Liz and Grey....Grey is Eli's best friend, and they just run off and play so well together (for the most part, most of the time:)) that we don't have to worry about them too much, and I can actually keep an eye on Kamdyn and not have to worry about what Eli is getting into.

So here's some photos.....I will warn you that a good majority of these might be of Kamdyn:) That's for a number of reasons.....1) Eli was way too busy running around and playing with Grey for me to get many pictures of him 2) Eli is my kid 100% when it comes to photos.....he hates getting his picture taken and will avoid the camera at all costs. He's recently started telling me to stop taking pictures everytime I pull the camera out and aim it on him....does this sound familiar, mom?:) 3) Kamdyn is just so dang adorable that I have to get lots of pictures of her too. She's the typical 2nd child, and most of her pictures have her brother in them, so I try to get pictures of just her when I have the chance. 4) I have yet to scrapbook anything about having fun at the park for Kamdyn:), so I gotta stockpile up some pictures!!

This little one is getting so good on stairs! It's impressive too because she has the shortest little legs. So stairs are half the height of her shrimp legs, that makes climbing very difficult at times!
She's getting even better at going down the stairs which is great! Makes my life a whole lot easier that I don't have to worry about her getting to the top and just standing up and turning around and falling down the stairs. She's got the bottom slide down pat.
He's humoring me here. Either that, or I was just really fast and ready for my camera for the nano second that he would actually look at me:)

He just likes to climb up the slides these days. Who needs stairs?


This was the cutest thing ever, however, I didn't get a very good picture of it...Kamdyn was sitting on the bridge trying to make herself bounce. The boys came over and sandwiched her in and started bouncing up and down to make her bounce:) She was loving it.

Splish splash

Monday was hot. Well, maybe it wasn't actually that hot temperature wise, don't really know, but it was sunny, and muggy, and there was no breeze (a rarity for us here recently!). So this mamma was hot!! So after a morning sweating it out at the park with some friends, the kids and I went to wal-mart and picked up a cheap-o ten dollar plastic pool. We filled it up and went outside to play in it after naps. The water was freezing, of course. I don't know how our kids even managed to get into it, but they were happy in the freezing water. Well, let me specify....Kamdyn was happy standing in it...in the beginning....then she slipped and would have nothing to do with being in that pool. She was happy to splash around in the water, but she had to be on my lap. Eli started up standing in the water, then eventually was happy sitting in it. Again, I'm not sure how they manage to do this. I was having a hard enough time standing in it! I have a feeling this little pool will get plenty of use this summer. Maybe Kamdyn will even get brave enough to get back in it one of these days:)

What is it about kids and drinking water out of anything! The kids both love to drink bath water by the gallon full, the pool was no exception for Eli. He also discovered a love of making a "fountain" of water after he filled his mouth full. That pool water just kept getting better and better......a little bit of water, some grass, sand, dirt, and spit....fabulous!

Still unsure of the whole pool thing, but she did like splashing her hands in it.
Then she decided that she was over the water and just wanted to climb the deck stairs. Until I stopped her. She can go up fine, but she's not the best at going down yet, she can, but it makes me nervous when it's a bunch of wood steps and a concrete slab at the bottom; not a very soft landing for her!

Curb Appeal

We have officially lived in this house longer than our first house:) We only lived there for a year and half, and we will have been in this house for two years in a couple of weeks. So crazy that it's already been two years! We've done a lot to this house since we've been here. We've painted a ton (mostly me, but that's because Brian's always at work, and I'm the one who always wants the changes:)), and we've done a ton to the yard (this is mostly Brian, and my dad's work....all I do is weed....occasionally:)) If I had before and after shots for you, I would show them, but I don't, so I will just talk about our newest improvements. Ever since we moved in we had a HUGE bush up by the steps (again, wish I had a before shot). We've hated it since we moved in because it was just kind of ugly and would over-take the sidewalk if you didn't trim it on a weekly basis. I'm not even kidding, that thing was a monster. We just hadn't gotten around to it yet because 1) the outdoors is not my territory:), and 2)Brian just didn't feel like cutting it down and digging it out (can't blame him here at all!) My dad solved that problem for us last week. He had someone come and cut it up and dig it out for us. Problem solved!

Brian and I were sitting outside playing with the kids last weekend and I was just looking at our new front porch, minus the monster bush. It is so much more open now and you can actually see the whole porch. We've had a couple of plastic chairs up on the porch since we moved in. They were just a cream color, kind of boring, but it never really mattered because you could only see one and we just didn't sit in them ever. But looking at the porch without the massive bush taking up a whole side, it looked boring, since our house is a cream color too. It was just a lot of blah neutral colors and all kind of blended together. I commented that we needed to get some fun colored chairs. Brian came up with the genius idea to just spray paint the plastic ones we had. Brilliant! Not real sure why I didn't think of it....well, it's probably because I suck at spray painting and most of my stuff I have tried to paint in the past looks like crap. Brian totally doesn't have this problem, and he can even paint without getting it all over me which is not the case for me at all, my fingers have spray paint on them for days. Anyways, he picked out a fun bright blue and did some painting. I spray painted (you should have seen my finger. Seriously don't know how Brian managed to paint two whole chairs without getting any on him! All I had to paint was three pots) three clay pots. The end result is fabulous, and our front porch is no longer boring!

New view from the front yard. Amazing that you can actually see both chairs. With the old bush, it went up to the bottom of the window and covered half of the sidewalk if you didn't keep it trimmed.
Up close shot of the tiered flower pots I made that I'm super proud of. I saw this tutorial for this a year ago and have been wanting to do it ever since. Giving the porch some spice was the perfect excuse! I have fake flowers in here because I can't keep anything alive (except for a tiny bonsi (sp?) plant I got from a student my first year as a para). Whenever we have flowers in a pot, or I'm trying to grow something from a seed, it all just dies. I forget to water it, then I water it too much to make up for lack of water. It just makes me unsuccessful. Plus, I'm just lazy and don't want to have to plant things in these pots every year. So, I improvised and found some really fun fake flowers that will look fabulous all year long. So if you are in the need of some fun bright colors in the middle of winter, you know whose house to drive by!