The Finished Kitchen!

Here are the much anticipated pictures from our kitchen re-do project. There are also some "in between" pictures to show how hard we really worked!

Top left: the day we moved in
Top right: trying to pick paint colors for the kitchen, good picture of the old color of the cabinets
Bottom: new and improved kitchen cabinets!

Pop was our designated baby sitter. He came waltzing into the kitchen one day proclaiming, "it's Moses! Look at him, he looks like Moses!" while carrying Hunter just like this.

Mimi hard at work on her hands and knees and Pop is getting to play with the kids all day long! {I'm actually not 100% who had it easier, ha ha}

Mimi working hard and getting some painting on the cabinet frames done.

Eden couldn't miss out on updating things, so she wanted to "paint" her kitchen too. She got a foam brush and a bowl of water to use. She loved it {and so did I since she had colored all over her kitchen with chalk!}

Cheese!

Painting away with her sucker in one hand, a paint brush in the other!

Pop, hard at work putting hinges on doors and doors on frames.

He had to take a Hunter break. I mean, how could you not. He's too darn cute! Oh, and he's also Pop's mini me.

Top left: a close up of the hardware on the upper cabinets.
Top center: measuring the cabinet doors to put the knobs on them.
Top right: the "desk" beside the refrigerator all finished with hardware.
Bottom left: measuring the drawers.
Bottom right {top}: Pop drilling the holes for the hardware.
Bottom right {bottom}: measuring to find the center before using the template to mark the drawer for hardware.

It was a TON of work and took much longer than expected, but I couldn't be happier! I'm glad my mom didn't let me take the "cheap" way out and just paint because the wood grain is beautiful with the stain.Thanks Mom, you were right!

La Jolla

When we moved to California I was the loser that pronounced this exactly how it looks phonetically - La Jolla. Yep, that was me {and I hope you did it too!} Unfortunately it's pronounced La Hoya, and it's also a pretty wealthy area near San Diego. Obviously we're not part of the "wealth" in San Diego and I showed it by not knowing how to say this. Ugh!

I digress...When Mimi and Pop visited this time, Pop wanted to go to La Jolla and "eat lunch on the sidewalk" and walk to the beach. We did, and it was beautiful. We ate at a little place that we found a parking spot right in front of. Dad said it was fate! He was so excited. The lunch was delicious, we ate in the middle of all the beach-goers walking to and from the beach, and we were just 2 blocks from the ocean.

Once we were done with lunch we quickly changed Eden into her bathing suit and me into shorts that I didn't mind getting wet and we headed to the beach. The cliffs were amazing {I'm in awe of the cliffs right on the edge of the water at all locations here in SoCal!} and the water was crystal clear. I couldn't have asked for anything better...well, leaving without the kicking and screaming toddler would have been 100% perfect, but who could blame her. She loved the water and only got to spend a few minutes {more like 20-ish} playing in it after being so well behaved at lunch on the sidewalk! 

North Island

While Mimi and Pop were in town we made sure to put Cabrillo National Monument on our "must-do-list" because Dad insisted last time and it was beautiful. This is where the tide pools are and the cliffs that are just spectacular that I love "hiking" with Eden and Hunter when I have people in town to offer some help since I don't trust it on my own. The views are stunning and it's a little surreal that it's practically in my back yard!

This trip with Mimi and Pop we had another reason to go. Lane told us earlier in the week that he was going to be landing at North Island {a Naval Base} and I remembered that it is one of the things that you can see perfectly from the monument! We went down to watch Lane land and take off since he was just dropping people off at the base and heading back to work that morning. We didn't tell him we were going because I didn't know if it would make him nervous that we were "watching" him. I love that Eden and Hunter have a daddy that does something so cool for a living! She loved watching him fly, it was neat to see the excitement of her getting to see her daddy.

The view of North Island, where Lane landed and took off from. Terribly gloomy morning.

Hunter hanging out, waiting for Daddy to land.

There he is, leaving. Yes, that spec that you might have tried to wipe off the picture, dead center, is the plane leaving. {Next up on my wish list...a new camera lens that has great zoom!}

A little easier to see. I wish the pictures did it justice. He was so close to us!

Bye bye Daddy!

Last shot before heading out.

Yumm, yumm!

When Hunter turned 20 weeks old we decided we'd try rice cereal for him. Though he didn't seem to have any adverse reactions to it, he wasn't quite ready for food being served with a spoon. He ended up with more food on him than in him, but what he tasted, he seemed to enjoy. I wasn't one bit surprised because the boy loves to eat! He's a great eater and once he nails down eating off a spoon, he'll be golden!

He enjoyed getting to play with his spoon after his meal was over and that was just about as much fun for him as getting to eat.

19, 20, and 21 Weeks Old!!!

Ahhhh! How am I posting THREE WEEKS in one post - and how did I let week 19 slip by me?! I was doing SO well! Anyways I'll get to it. Hunter is continuing to amaze us at how quickly he's growing up. He's found his toes {last week} and he is up on his hands and knees rocking like he's ready to crawl {this week}. I can't believe he's ready to start learning how to get around...who am I kidding, ever since he realized he can roll back to front to back again and it gets him somewhere he's been off and rolling around everywhere! I can't keep up with the kid already! He loved having Mimi and Pop around because he was constantly being held, but I think we're getting back into a groove of sleeping out of someone's arms so I can get back into the groove of getting chores accomplished {that's why I haven't posted in so long...yeah right!} He's a ham and he loves to laugh at his Daddy. Daddy puts his tiger lovie on Hunter's face and pulls it away quickly which earns him some great belly laughs. I love to see the bond that they're forming together.

Outtakes:

Escape artist at work!

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Putting everything in his mouth!