No More Carpet in the Dining Room!

When we moved into this house, I knew right away that the carpet in the dining room had to go!  Why would anyone want carpet in their dining room?  Especially a family that has messy children.  It's just absolutely impossible to keep clean and I was sick of sopping up spilled milk, scrubbing out grape jelly and vacuuming up ground in dinner crumbs all the time.

Well, four years later....my wish came true!!  Our yucky dining room carpet was replaced with easy to clean, durable, good-looking laminate floors.  And I get to thank my wonderful husband for this transformation.

In some ways, it's great to have a handy husband who can tackle and successfully accomplish any house project we have.  It saves money, it gets done well and he enjoys doing new projects.  The bad side is that my husband works full time, is in grad school, has a family to spend time with and already has a to-do-list a mile long. So....elective house projects don't get done very quickly.

Also, did I mention that my husband is a perfectionist?  Well, he is.  And did I mention that when I have proposed contracting out a project or two that I get a look which suggests I just stripped away all of his manhood?  Men are silly.  So, I've learned to just accept the fact that I must wait to get my dream projects done and continue to give occasional frequent reminders of the projects that need done.

It's usually worth the wait though and this was no exception.  Paul not only tore up the nasty dining room carpet, he also got rid of the less-than-pretty tile that was in the kitchen.  This was a lot more time consuming than planned as that tile was stuck down pretty darn good.  But, now I have nice flooring in my kitchen and dining room and I couldn't be happier!

Dining Room - Before

Dining Room - During Renovation

Dining Room - After

Kitchen - Before (YUCK!)

Kitchen - During Renovation

Kitchen - After

And since Paul is finished with this project, I naturally have encouraged him to start his next project which I think I am almost as excited about.  A UTILITY SINK which Paul is going to install in our basement laundry room. You may wonder why this is so exciting.  All I will say is that I have a two-year-old son who is exclusively tube-fed with the smelliest/grossest formula known to man kind and I have failed to find a diaper that can successfully contain the effects of said formula.  Enough said?  Yeah...I'm pretty excited to have a dedicated place to clean out the yuckiness. The joys of motherhood, huh?

Anyway, I love my husband and his handiness.  I also love that he puts up with a wife who always has a never ending to-do list for him and he doesn't complain about it.  I'm one lucky girl!

Favorite Christmas Photos

The Ladd Family.  And LOOK, even Serina is in the picture.  Gotta love FaceTime!

The Dorn Family

John, Alexa, Callie and I.  This is Callie's 19th Christmas with us!!!

Mommy & Alexa

Alexa with her Great-Grandpa Gene

Alexa looking at Where's Waldo with her Great-Uncle John

Daddy & Parker

I love this photo of Paul smiling at Parker!

Smiling for the camera

Posing in the Radio Flyer

Say Cheese!

Merry Christmas 2012!!

The New Birthday Tradition

For a special activity on Alexa's birthday, we took her and her cousins, Foster and Loghen, to CoCo Keys Water Park in Omaha.  

We took Alexa last year on her birthday and she had been asking to go back to the "far away inside pool" again when she turned four.  I got a deal on-line so we decided to make an afternoon of it.

I think the kids all had a great time.  Paul and I did too...that is until I went down the big, enclosed, windy water slides two times in a row.  I felt lightheaded and thought for sure I was going to lose my cookies.   I'm such a wimp now that I'm OLD and wish I didn't get motion sickness so easily.  I decided at that point to take it easy and spent the next 20 minutes or so in the "spa" while watching Foster and Loghen go down the slides time and again.

Alexa loves the water and loves the pool.  She could spend all day jumping into the pool, swimming back to the edge, climbing out, and doing it all over again. Just watching her do this over and over wears me out!  

I'm pretty sure this is going to be a regular birthday tradition as Alexa has already asked to go back when she turns five...and when she turns eleven.  

I'm so grateful Alexa has such wonderful cousins that she gets to spend time with.  She talks about them all the time and loves them to pieces!  

Cousins

Parker Can Sit Up All by Himself

Parker may not do everything in the easiest way, but he finds a way that works for him and runs with it.  We are very proud that Parker can sit up all by himself!!  What a big boy!