House Renovations

Well, I'm a lousy blogster. (I prefer "blogster" over "blogger" it just sounds more rockstar-ish) But, I do have an excuse. We bought a house that needs serious work. We started with the Kitchen:

Before:

After:
We still have 4,262 little projects that need "tweeking" to finish everything off, but it is nice to be out of the 1980's.

What we did:

Painted the kitchen cabinets (seriously, how many homes am I going to have to do this in. It is a big hairy no-one-in-their-right-mind kind of project. Don't do it!)

New countertops

New backsplash (we finally finished grouting that two days ago. The tile had been up for 6 weeks already!)

New appliances

Raised some cabinets to ad dimension

Crown moulding

New island (it is bigger than it looks in the picture. Weird camera angle, I guess.)

New lighting

Blood, sweat, tears, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Now we are on to our Master bathroom, which currently looks like an 80's paint job gone seriously bad.

I found this sleigh bed at a consignment store, painted it antique white and . . . voila! I have one happy girl!

(Yes, I know that this is the Target bedding that everyone has. I am waiting for her grandma to make her something more Laura-Ashley-ish. (hint, hint!)

All Mixed Up and Cheerleading

I told Ian to go get dressed and he came out of his bedroom and told me that he was "All mixed up!"

Megan wants to be a cheerleader, so I have promptly enrolled her in swimming and golf lessons for the summer . . .

Disneyland 2011

Kevin had conference at the Paradise Pier in Anahiem, so of course we had to tag along! There's just no place like Disneyland! We always do ridemax (google it, you won't regret it) and it makes our vacations there so much more peaceful. Because, as you all know, the "happiest place on earth" sometimes has TOO MANY happy people. Ridemax makes it easy. (Wow, I should get some royalties for how many people I have referred to them.) We had a fabulous time. Our favorite old rides continue to be Pirates, Soarin' Over California, and Indiana Jones. Our favorite new ride is Toy Story Mania. But Ian wants to make sure I write that he DOES NOT like scary rollercoasters.

Kevin's sweet parents came with us. Grandpa went on as many rides as he could with the kiddos! Grandma played and played with Hunter.

Asleep . . . and drooling . . . on Grandpa's head. Nice.

Toy Story Mania. Grandpa couldn't seem to ever beat Grandma and won't ever live that down!

Meg's favorite thing: meeting all the princesses.

Schmoops.

Remembering our big Smith Family Reunion in 2005. What a blast!

Bad Hair Day

Hunter is One!

Seriously. I mean, seriously. How do you even attempt to get cuter than this?! There is no possible way.

Hunter is such a good baby. Really. He is. I'm not just saying that. He loves to give big slobbery kisses when you're least expecting it. He talents include waving, spluttering, wrestling with Ian and Daddy, and contorting his body in a million different ways to make it virtually impossible to get him dressed. Really likes to play ball. Prefers to be unclothed. Nicknames include "slobber monster", "Bubba" and "Schmoops".

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!

Someone is NOT going to be happy about this photo being posted.

Megan's birthday party

Megan, when you read this 20 years from now, I hope you accept my sincere apology for not throwing you a big princess party with all of your friends for your 4th birthday. January is an awful month for a party!! Who wants ANOTHER party then? I will make it up to you someday, maybe a corvette for your 16th birthday or something :)

My more-than-failed attempt at a princess birthday cake. Betty Crocker makes it look so easy on You Tube. Give me a break! from now on, we are cupcake people.

Tutu from Aunt Chelsea. Could we get any more girly?

Megan is really into talking. Don't know where that comes from. She talks and talks and talks. She loves to pretend and is constantly playing with her dollies. She's really into screaming (or "sounding the alarm" as Kevin likes to call it) when her older brother teases her (which is almost never. Hahaha). She always uses her fist as a microphone and sings along to songs like "Let's get rich" and "Umbrella".

We adore you, little princess. You are such a kind and loving daughter. Thank you for coming to our family.