It has begun.....

Demolition has started!!!  We are SO excited to have this phase over with....  even though it's just started.

I am SO ready to actually be able to move into our house and make it our home!!  I want to hang my pictures and see my treasures again.

I'm SOOOOO  ready for the mess to be over with!!!!!

Our first of many before/after pictures.

Isn't she pretty.... and heck, who doesn't have a toilet in their living room, right?  hee hee

And where did all of our furniture and "stuff" we have go..... well.... in the kitchen of course LOL.  It makes for getting a cup of coffee really easy in the mornings.  Not to mention um.... yea...I really feel like cooking dinner in there!  (are you hearing my sarcasm....)  ha!  I guess the dust from today's work - my cook top is almost white :(

 

 

So far today, they are scraping up all the glue to prepare it for the new wood flooring.  I can't wait!!! Today is day 2 of _____...... what's your guess??  I'm guessing about 3 weeks....

We're replacing all the flooring (living room, dining room, formal living room, bedroom, bathroom, closet, toilet room, foyer, kitchen, laundry room)...phew!

Then we decided to go ahead and redo the shower walls/floor and tub in the master bathroom so that everything matches and the new flooring just was NOT going to work with the white subway tiles that are currently in there.

Which led to all new faucets (of course for the whole house...)(the existing ones are in TERRIBLE shape...I'll take pictures, you'll have to believe me!)

Which then led to all new toilets in the house because well....they're taking them out to do the flooring anyway and instead of paying someone else to come replace them after the fact... doubling the expense...just as well get new ones now.  We found some that seem really neat-they are over flow protection toilets.... so THIS WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN BECAUSE OF THE DARN TOILETS! (sorry for the shouty caps...)

Which then of course led to the new vanity we "need" in the powder room.

and don't forget the sheet rock repairs, new base boards and painting.... PHEW.....  (I hope we make it through!)

oh and all of the above is rapidly leading to our insanity LOL!!!

I'm sure I will have a lot more pictures to share as this process continues!  and let me say it again, I am SOOOO thankful we have the upstairs - we simply packed up what we need and moved up there!  That floor glue though... VERY strong smelling!  Wow! Like sleep with the doors closed or you'll wake up high kind of strong.....

EEEKKKKK yay it's finally happening!!!!!

Little Flowers :)

We had our first Flower Girls meeting on Friday.  It was a LOT of fun.  There are a lot of new girls this year which is neat to see.   It's technically the second meeting this term but we just had way too much going on last time (it was the week of the "great" flood at our new house) I just couldn't add one more thing to do that week.

So we made it this time, it was a lot of fun. Here's the view from my rear view mirror.... DANG she's far away back there, she loves the new car though.  She changes seats from one ride to the next, and still hits her head every time she gets in LOL

Here is our group - we were missing about 11 little girls (its a big group).  I'd say they're all happy to be there. 

The virtue of the month is Hope.  We can all use as much hope as we can get!   Mikayla is starting her scrapbook page below.

We are so happy to be back!  I hope to make it so that there is not so much rushing around to get there and be in a panic by the time we do get there.... we will arrive calm and happy and on time!  I also hope that we enjoy this term as much as last term.  Even more than that I hope that we will learn more and continue to grow in our faith.

Thank you to Pinterest (I love that site).  Here is my inspiration for what we're going to contribute to the bake sale at Mikayla's school this week.

Here is my sample trial run :)  I got the chocolate covered oreos (I couldn't find anything that looked like the cookie above)... and I attached our legs with white frosting in the middle to hold them in place and cupcake liners for the web....

It seemed like a spooktacular thing to do.... HA!!!  Hopefully they all turn out cute! 

Home update:  We will have our final flooring selections made this week (today/tomorrow?) and demo can start later this week or next week.  We need to pick out new bathroom faucets (home improvement project changed a bit from necessity (new flooring and Sheetrock repairs and base boards) to a bit more than that.  So we hope that we can get it going and that we stay in budget. 

I'm ready to unpack and fully move into our new home!!! I am SO thankful that in spite of everything that's happened, we were able to move upstairs and completely abandon/ignore the area that was damaged the most and have a peaceful place to sleep at night.  At least I'm getting my upstairs projects taken care of even though it's driving me beyond nuts to not be able to work downstairs and get settled in.  I guess all in due time!

I hope we all have a great week!!

The big red bag.

It all started with a catalog that came in the mail.

The day FINALLY came!!

Our local American Girl store opened and we took the time to go see what it was all about.  I was really bummed that we couldn't dine there (they were booked and had no reservations left) but as it turns out, it was for the best that we couldn't, we were overwhelmed.

Mikayla has been waiting and waiting and waiting for this store to open.  She's spent MONTHS saving her money and doing extra chores for pay (I don't pay for all chores).  She was even hitting my dad up to do chores to make extra money from him too.  She saved her tooth fairy money, everything!!! 

We turned in her coins for paper money and she went to the store armed with her hard earned $79 and change.  (I told her I'd buy the doll, she needs to buy the "stuff").

Now, these dolls...are not just "dolls"... they have a whole story line that captures Mikayla's imagination. 

Below is McKenna.  She is the girl of the year 2012.  There is a movie, books, dolls, outfits, and rooms all associated with her.

In the pic below, you can see McKenna's hair on the left...with the extra pony bands.... and look at Mikayla's hair...with the extra pony bands... THIS is how into her she is.... it's really awesome to watch her identify and imagine.  She wanted to "match" her before we even got her.

Tent set.... drool....

suitcase carrier....swoon.....

guitar...are you kidding me, it's time to pass out!!!!

The big red bag...... yes, it's just a bag....but inside that bag.... it's a little girl's dream come true!!!

Seriously, I had tears watching something that SHE earned and wanted so badly come true for her.  Below is her first peek at McKenna.

Mikayla was overwhelmed!

The store is amazing - she shut down in the historical doll section because all she really wanted was to take McKenna out of the box so we'll have to go back and browse some more.

True love!

Under the sheet, she had her arm wrapped tightly around her new best friend. 

We had a GREAT time just browsing, I did a LOT of talking before hand telling her we're going to see a lot of stuff and we can look but we need to stay focused with what she'd already picked out because she'd be really disappointed if she didn't come home with McKenna and that's exactly what we did! 

She's already saving up for her next trip there.  I want to make us reservations next time and we can have a tea party (all dolls are invited too) and maybe a trip to the doll hair salon and McKenna can get her hair done and Mikayla can pick out some new accessories or get her ears pierced (McKenna) and on and on and on..... (this place is not just for kids, moms have a great time reliving it too)....

All weekend long, she just kept saying, "I can't believe I have McKenna, can you believe it?" 

It's not often we can see a dream come true but when it does..... WOW!!!!

I'd say they're settled in.....

I think the stress of the move is catching up with our Allie (on the right) but then she's also 13 years old and as neurotic as they come!  Abbie is rolling with the punches as long as we're around and she has her basket (for sleeping) she's cool.  But here is a typical evening for the pups, as they age, they seem to become closer and closer.  I can tell when they had an argument during the day - Abbie (on the left) will lay down on their cushion and take the whole thing so there's no room for Allie on it.  They are funny people!

Awwwww.....

Well...the picture below looks comfortable, doesn't it......

IT finally happened!!!!

We were able to go for a boat ride...... and we didn't break anything!!!!!   WOO HOOOOO !!!!!

We had the best ride ever!!  It was windy enough to give a great ride but not so windy it was a lot of work.  I didn't get a lot of pictures from it because I was just enjoying being out and about but did get some of two of my favorite people messing around and having some fun!

And this is what she thinks of Monday mornings......



Shuttle Endeavour

Something totally cool just happened here at work!!!  The Shuttle Endeavour flew by on it's journey to California!!!!  Seriously - it was SOOOO close!

Here are some other pictures taken in the office from different vantage points.

Not only was seeing history fly by, one of the coolest things EVER that I've seen from up here on the 27th floor, it was seeing an office of "formal" people and seeing them all run to the windows from office to office - from one side of the floor to the other - squealing like little kids to SEE it and be a part of it!!!  THAT was awesome!!



I love today!!!!  It's a unicorn kind of day!!  :) 

Fairies and Unicorns

Well with everything we've had going on, I felt it was high time we invited some fairies and unicorns to come to our house, plus they bring good luck :)  right?  So we made it a "Fairy Night." We have been collecting some things to make them come and hopefully stay for awhile. 

So last night was our night to build our fairy garden.  Who knew it was going to be so much fun!!  Mikayla really got into the project.  We started by lining the basket with these coffee filters...seriously - have you ever seen such big filters?  Somehow Michael brought them home and I love them...I have got to make something with them.....one of these days... (I need ideas what to make with them...HA) they're HUGE!!! So in the mean time we started with lining our basket with some filters.

Then we filled our basket with dirt (the ultimate plan is to grow some small plants in there but for now we used silk flowers).

She then lined the basket with pebbles for the fairies to walk on or even sit on to rest until we can get a bench :)

We LOVE it!!

Seriously, if you were a fairy flying by, wouldn't you LOVE to stop and rest for a spell, there's a big door in the back that opens if your wings won't fit in the front.

So there we have it...I sure hope we get a fairy visitor!!!