this is my favorite

kitchen today via pinterest...

by Margot Austin

I am hoping to add a few elements in the above photo to my kitchen but since I am sure you all are sick of hearing me talk about it I thought I would leave you instead with this pretty image to start the weekend :) Happy Friday!

a trip to nona and granddad's

Last week the 3 of us plus Miley drove down to Norfolk to spend some time with my family. We played in the pool, took Will to the beach for the first time and I helped my mom pick out fabric to re-slipcover her existing living room furniture {sorry dad}. It was a fun 4 days and not only did Dave and I get to sneak away to celebrate our anniversary but we also got to celebrate my mom's birthday and say goodbye to my brother who left this week for Hawaii. He is off surfing and having the time of his life while I am here changing poopy diaper after poopy diaper. Can you tell I am jealous ;) He will be gone for 6 months returning just in time for Christmas and Will's first birthday. We miss you Uncle Patrick. Now to the pictures....

Will discovered flowers are not always edible.

 Bath time in Nona's farmhouse sink.

 Miley thought Will's pool was her own large water bowl.

 I think someone loved the view from way up there on daddy's shoulders.

 Uncle Patrick and Will. Will was making his funny face for granddad.

My mom got a new iPad for her birthday. We were all so excited for her except for a little someone who was way more interested in the wrapping paper.

 Will and Nona looking at the ducks that came by to say happy birthday.

Will's first few seconds on the beach. He was not sure what to think.

 Will loves his daddy

 Apparently someone thought they were old enough to get a sip of daddy's drink but don't worry we caught him just in time.

 Resting on granddad's shoulder. Hanging out in the waves is a lot of work.

Lastly, view from my parents front porch as a storm/smoke from the dismal swamp came through. 

I love going back home to visit. My parents live in a beautiful house on the Lafayette river and it is always a relaxing vacation. Also it helps that they want to spend all of their time with Will. Not gonna lie sometimes this momma needs a break :)

another milestone...

Big news in our house.... Will is getting his first tooth! If you look really really closely you might be able to see the white speck on his bottom gum line. I have been feeling something hard in his mouth for a month now and it looks like it is finally coming in. Guess we should start saving now for the tooth fairy :)

What a big boy!

4 years

Happy 4 year anniversary Dave! Thank you for working so hard everyday to provide for Will and I and loving me even when I am not so lovable. You definitely know how to make me laugh and I cannot wait for our son to grow up and be just like you {but handy ;)}. I love you.

August 11, 2007 - Sequoia Restaurant, Georgetown

August 15, 2007 - Honeymoon in Mexico

 
September 2008 - Positano, Italy {hands down the prettiest place on earth}

 December 2008 - Before Work Christmas Party Picture in our Favorite Apartment {thank you self timers}

January 2009 - New York {about to see the Lion King}

August 2009 - Deep Creek Lake

September 2009 - Redskins Game {they lost of course}

 July 2010 - "It's a Boy" picture {it's okay to think I look awful because I do... that is what one looks like {pale and tired} when you have been throwing up for 3 months}

 so lets end on a good note...

Aug 2010 - Deep Creek Lake

Unfortunately, I could not find any pictures of just the two of us from 2011 so I need to remember to take some soon but don't worry we have like 10,000,000,000,000 pictures of Will. Whew :)

kitchen redo- part 2

So I know the below photos are not that different from this post but I still wanted to show you all the new floors! Also, can you guess what else is missing from these photos?

If you guessed the kitchen island you are right! We did a little reconfiguring before the new floors went down and I cannot wait for the finished project. Of course before the final reveal can happen there are a million little/big things to do but at least the big ticket items {floors and appliances} are done... now I just need to convince Dave to let me get the new counter tops :)

I am also going to repaint the walls now that we have the dark floors. The kitchen prep area is grey but the hang out area is a darker grey/brown and I really want to paint all the walls a light grey/cream to tie into the other rooms in our house but I am having trouble finding the right color. Anyone have any suggestions of colors they have used that they like? Also, I just want to keep it real here in case you see the above pictures and want to congratulate me on a clean house... this is what my office currently looks like.

Does anyone want to come clean this for me :) I can pay you in kisses and hugs from a sweet baby boy.

catching up

I know it has been awhile sine I last blogged so I thought I would catch you all up on what has been going on in our crazy house. The wood floors were installed last week and we are in love. They ended up being a little darker then what we had thought they would be but when the light hits them you can see their beautiful grain and I am so happy. Miley is not quite sure what to think of them and would rather sleep on her new bed which is fine by me :) I think we might invest in dog booties which I know sounds ridiculous but would it sound a little bit better if I said it was because she has been slipping on the floors and the purchase would not be due to my insane fear of scratches ;)

We finally got some rain last week here in the DC area and I got to put Will in his new raincoat. I think this whole ordeal traumatized him because he sat like this for 5 minutes before he moved a muscle and I have proof even though it might be blurry. Of course, it could also have been traumatic because of the noises that were coming out of my mouth at the sight of this adorable baby in a raincoat. I need to remember to put him in this whenever I need a good laugh! 

He finally warmed up {a little} when I held him. 

So the whole point of the raincoat wearing traumatic ordeal was to brave a storm and get a rug I have been eyeing for a year now at target. This was literally the night we got the floors installed but I was so excited to finally have an excuse to buy a rug and we had a gift card so Dave could not object.

The light was shinning like crazy but hopefully you get the idea. I love the cream medallions and the taupe color and the $116 dollar price tag {on sale right now} for a 5x7. love love love. Here is the packaging in case you wanna go out and get one which you should!

I of course saved the best pictures for last. Lumbar Liquidators if you would like to use any of the below photos for any future ads please contact me. Will would love to get his college fund started :) Someone thinks the new floors are hilarious.

This is his new thing. He like to fly like superman or at least that is what Dave and I say since Will cannot talk yet and object.

I cannot take this cuteness any longer so this is where the photo shoot ended and I had to snuggle him for 20 minutes :) Please stay little forever!

I will be back tomorrow with phase 2 of the kitchen progress but don't get to excited because at the rate we are going there might be like 20 phases before we finish!

kitchen redo - part 1

When we moved into our townhouse this is what the kitchen looked like.

Three of the four appliances were broken {it was a short sale so the seller was not responsible for any repairs} so the first change we had to make to this room was to replace all of them. We decided to go for stainless steel since we did not have to match to any existing appliances and Dave even let me upgrade to the dishwasher were you don't see any of the controls. It was a happy day! The kitchen also got painted as I mentioned in this post but other then that the room sat like this for awhile. Then back in the spring I decided to host a bridal shower for one of my good friends and that was just the push I needed to start one of the biggest projects in the kitchen... painting the cabinets. There are tons of great tutorials out there for painting cabinets and thanks to Young House Love's blog post on painting their cabinets I felt pretty confident in doing this myself {again, there are A LOT of great blog posts explaining how to do this I just went with the one above because it worked best for me :)}. After a lot of sanding, painting and the addition of new hardware this is the finished result. 

I loved how they turned out and it definitely brightens the room. New floors, counter tops, sink and faucet are still left to be upgraded but after this week I am hoping to cross floors off of the list :) It is amazing how much paint can change a room!