i cannot complain anymore

The SUN is SHINING and SNOW is GONE!!

ok - well almost gone, in corners here and there you can still find a pile. But grass is sprouting, i am keeping my eye out for the first blossom and I am ready for this weather. The kids and I have been outside everyday this week (walking, playing, at the park and biking) and I think we will do it until it snows again ... I've got to get my fill before it ends :)

here is an up-close-and-personal of me and the kidlets. I am trying to get us together for a family photo, but can't seem to get it together.

Also, here is a picture from March that I just got in an email today. It is Jenie Jones, Sheri Dew and me.

This one is Jenie, Sheri, Wendy Nelson (as in Russell M Nelson's other half), me and Karyn Butler.

I posted these because Sheri and Wendy are 2 women that I respect and admire greatly, and as far as church goes, they are my claim to fame :)

hugs and kisses - go and enjoy the sunshine!!!

ta da!!

Here it is ... we have found the camera batteries and we are back in business. wahoo!!

These pictures are so sweet!! Our kitchen looks so great!

So Mike ripped out paneling and drywalled, then he ripped out old lino and did laminate (which now runs into the living room as well and matches the laminate we did a few months ago in the back of the house). The cupboards came down and new ones went up, then he tiled the countertop. We added the cupboards on the right of the stove (used to be a 12 inch cupboard - now it is 36 inches). We switched out the pantry and got a new stove (fridge was new 6 months ago out of necessity). Took down the fake wall above the upper cupboards and added light above the window. Then Mike trimmed it all up. And I am so thrilled!!

This is the extra cupbaords we added!

This is our pantry and fridge - doesn't take me long to collect stuff on top does it? :)

more kitchen ...

Remember the falling-over faucet?

This is Mike's first try with tile. He is amazing!

So there is our kitchen - all done - just finishing things - vents in the floor (we have already lost one bouncy ball down there), filling and and repainting nail holes and stuff like that, but it is totally functional and usable.

So can now get back to real life and will post as we get stuff done.

xoxo

dead batteries

So the kitchen is mostly finished ... just touch ups left. (which I might have to do myself if I want them done!) Mike did an amazing job - I love having a handyman as a husband. :) but I think he needs a break now!

Alas, the batteries on our camera died, so I need to find the charger before I can post pics of the beautiful new kitchen or before I can post the other pics I took this week.

will do later!
ttfn

sorry

Just an apology about the grammar and spelling mistakes. I am typing this with my kitchen basically in my bedroom as well as my computer and my children on my lap and so proof-reading went out the door - just a note - the little girl didn't go "through" the weight - she "threw" the weight (see below). You can find the rest of the mistakes. Kind of like "Where's Waldo?" How many can you find!

just some pics

The kitchen is still in progress. Lots of fun. Mike has been ahead of schedule the whole way and so it has been a bit of a break at night time for him. Big day today - the floor will be finished and then all the cupboards are almost installed and he can start on the counter. He has to redo the plumbing as well under the sink - it was messed up!! So the complete overhaul is coming along.

Hre are some pics of the kidlets.

Check out th shiner that Kaya got when a 2-year-old friend through a 2.5 pound weight at her! this is a few days after and it has begun to settle down.

One of her favourite things to do it colour and everything she colours is super-multi-coloured.

A little fuzzy, but I had to put one of him on or Kaya was going to get upset - she is my editor :)

RENOS!!

Here we are at the beginning of renos. Our friends, the Butlers, here in Whitecourt (really they are the reason we are able to stay here!) are going to France and they have so kindly let us stay there while they are gone, which happens to be right when we need it so the kids and I are out of Mike's way. I would love to help Mike but I can't keep my mouth shut and he needs quiet and efficiency ... plus we work in totally different ways ... I need to do one thing at a time - like clean out all the kitchen cupboards and everything first. He likes to do many things at a time, like when I am going along taking stuff out of cupboards, he takes down the cupboard as soon as it is empty, while I move on to the next cupboard. It is impossible for us to work together on this and I KNOW IT!! So we will be taking a hiatus at the Butlers and he will work here all alone!!





Here are some kitchen shots of before. These were taken right in the middle of making supper and doing dishes (see I can multi-task in some areas - just not construction) so don't mind the mess and stuff.

So this is our kitchen sink about which I commonly joke that it is going to fall through the counter top. From the left picture, you can see how the faucet tips into the sink. The right picture shows how it should sit.

It is all rotted under that as the sink is not sealed and the water that spills on the counter just flows to the cupboard beneath the sink.

This is our counter top, which at some point was just green, until someone decided to cover up the cut marks with some of that textured spray paint. When it gets wet, it comes off, which is what you see below. I just scrap a bit more off as it gets wet :) I can't put any food down becasue if I do, it comes up with the paint on it!

These are just shots of the kitchen before so you have something to see after. It will be brand new cupbaords, Mike will dry-wall and lay laminate so it will be revamped!



You can see where Mike has already moved a wall and we are storing the ready to assemble cabinets.

Anyway, now it in pieces and we are just waiting until we can get into the Butlers house. I am doing dishes in the bathroom and trying to keep the kids interested in our bedrooms with all our kitchen stuff in it instead o being interested in what is going on in the kitchen :) Wish me luck!!

April Fools

So the last week or so has been SUNNY!! wahoo! the snow in our front yard is down to about just below my knees and we have been wearing puddle boots and jumping in massive puddles.

But alas ... it appears I am the April Fool as I really believed winter was over. Not so, my friends, it started snowing yesterday and has yet to stop. We have snow in the forecast for the next 3 days. Did I mention that we will not spend the rest of our lives here in the great white north? :) We will survive and as my mom and nana always say "This too shall pass!"

On a brighter note - we are renovating the kitchen starting this Friday. We are staying at some friends while Mike works non-stop :) I will put pics up of it in the next few days and then you can see that ANYTHING we do will be a vast improvement! I am really looking forward to it - well, to it being completed, that is :)

Kaya has been taking swimming lessons again. She loves it and her favourite part is the waterslide at the end of the lesson. Last week, when it was time to go down, she raced to the top before her teacher had even got out of the pool. This is fine, except that the teacher had yet to turn the water on. So it was just a big, dry slide. I am sitting with all the other moms on the bleachers just watching to see how whe is going towork this one out! We hear her sit and then hear this squeaking, you know the wet suit and legs sticking to the dry slide - lovely! Then we hear footprints and realize that she is now walking down the slide. I did become a little concerned at this point because the teacher was still battling with the other kids and hadn't gotten out of the pool yet. Finally Kaya rounded a curve and all of us on the bleachers could just see her head bouncing along as she was walking down the water slide. This is the point when the teacher (who had NO idea where Kaya was) turned on the water. We hear it and watch as Kaya hears it, turns to look at it, makes a face of terror as it approaches and then suddenly her head disappears. Her little feet were swept out from under her. She got to the bottom yelling "I did it! I did it!" It was at this point that the teacher realized what had happened. Hilarious!! I haven't taken a picture of her yet in her swim suit but it will come shortly.

Here is a picture of Keidis on his car. Notice the cat sticking out the side. He loves that thing. He takes it everywhere. And he wakes up meowing and the last thing he says at night before bedtime is "Meow". Lots of fun!!