and then there were three..

Well, in case you haven't seen the pictures of our little baby that will be joining us in December, here you go! 

Our little peanut at about 9 to 10 weeks:

It's incredible that there are already little arm and leg bumps! 

 The little baby at about 20 weeks:

His or her two feet that we think look rather large/thick - so we affectionately refer to them as bear cub paws:

A sweet, sweet little face:

And now what the little baby is looking like from the outside!

9 weeks:

15 weeks:

16 weeks:

18 weeks:

It was in between 18 and 20 weeks that I started feeling the baby move!   

20 weeks:

 
We are feeling so very blessed!  I have been feeling really good and our baby reports have all been good so far!  Please continue to pray for a safe and healthy baby and mom and that Clay and I would prepare to become parents (however you do that...).

Kitchen Renovation, Part 1

Our kitchen has been going through quite the makeover!  We are so excited with how it's turning out..and my kitchen Pinterest boards are getting to come to life in our home!  My parents came out to visit in June and it was once again a non-stop weekend of working.  Someday they will come and just visit..but until then, they will work!

This is going to be a long post of pictures but hopefully it will tell the story of our kitchen progressing along!

The before picture: tools are kind of out and ready to go (we were already in the midst of painting our kitchen cabinets so those are primed and the doors are taken off).

Dad gets a burst of energy and decides to start demolition about 10:00 Thursday evening:

Clay and Dad Friday morning taking out the closet walls; the previous owners housed a washer and dryer in this closet and had two rows of wire shelving above for either laundry items or pantry items:

Dad ripping things out; Mom and Clay cleaning up debris:

 The closet is almost out..just a few random hanging boards left:

The closet is out so replacement drywall must go in!  Although this re-enactment picture doesnt capture it, holding a ceiling up can be rather difficult.  I was on one end, Clay on the other, and Mom in the middle while Dad does whatever needs to be done to hold it in place:

With the closet in good shape until spackling, the next project begins: removing the awkward jutting-out countertop.  The space behind his head was all just open space between the cabinets.  The previous owners actually preferred a sideways cabinet that not only wasted space under the counter, but also jutted into your walking space:

The cabinet has been removed!  Next up, the countertop.  Note that Mom just works around the mess by nicely making breakfast on the other side of the kitchen.  We ate outside for literally every meal this weekend and were beyond thankful for a grill to be able to avoid using the oven during demolition:

The countertop must wait until after breakfast Saturday morning!  Fresh strawberries on waffles!  I'm sure you've noticed that Dad does not waste time acknowledging pictures.  His waffle was really pretty:

 Pretty Mom!  Her waffles were nice too:

 Clay..he wasn't actually grumpy..just enjoying his breakfast:

The countertop has been cut off!  This was to verify that we liked it this length.  I think this was a slight fix of the sink and also preparation for it being removed:

Wow!  Look at all that space!  Two people used to be tight in the kitchen: 

Clay (above) and Dad (below) working on putting the sink in our new countertop!  Clay and I had been going back and forth on which countertop to get.  We had pretty much decided that we would need to custom order something when we made a last minute decision to purchsase this in-stock version!  We both are very pleased with our decision!  I think it was the quickest semi-major decision I've ever made:

A view with our new countertop in place:

An action shot of Clay and Dad working on another part of the countertop:

Caulking the roof.  Yes, Clay is barefoot.  Yes, I expressed my disapproval at that: 

A view of the new side of the kitchen!  I feel as though both our cabinet and countertop space is almost doubled!  These cabinets will be painted white as well and the wall color that you can see behind the curtains will continue over.  We are considering adding a window on that wall but are more realistically planning on adding some white open shelving.  Anyone have a flush-mounted ceiling fan that we can replace this one with?

 

A view in from our family room!  Do you remember the first picture when it was a fairly narrow walkway to  fit between the closet and the jutted-out countertop?  We are so pleased with the new space!  And, we really don't feel like we gave up anything in changing things around.  Anyone have any lighting suggestions here?  We are planning on putting a small bench seat against the wall where the cabinet sticks out a few inches:

The view into the other side of the kitchen!  We would like to eventually replace our applicances with either black or stainless steel:

Thank you Mom and Dad for all your time and hard work!  We are absolutely thrilled with the outcome so far and can't wait for the whole kitchen to be complete!  A special thanks to my dad who spent his whole Father's Day weekend being the greatest Dad I could ever imagine!  I am so proud to call you Dad and realize I am blessed beyond my understanding by your commitment to being a father.

Sadly, we again never took a nice picture of all of us.  Next time you come, we will do something other than work the whole time!  One run to the flea market was not enough :).

A Spring Visit

We were so excited to have all of Clay's immediate family come visit in early May (don't let the lateness of this post tell you otherwise)!  Nick and Kristin hadn't been able to come up yet and Clay was thrilled to be able to show them around the 'Cuse!

We had a pretty simple weekend filled with volleyball, garage sale-ing, an intense game of Buzzword, and just sitting around talking.  They were also kind enough to help us out around the house - pressure washing the deck and trimming some very overgrown shrubs!  Here are a just a few snapshots from the weekend.

Stu going to work on our huge bushes!  You can see the tops already cut off on the left side:

 Our pretty tree that bloomed just for them!

Nick and super cute preggo Kristin (she's due early August)!

The fam after church!  So thankful we had a weekend full of sunshine:

Thanks so much for coming up to visit!  When you live in a place that isn't quite home, visitors make all the difference.  We are always blessed by family and friends stopping in :).

Rainwashed

Our walls have been Rainwashed!  Last weekend was spent painting, painting, and more painting!  At least painting is one of those things where you see immediate results..like vacuuming.  We went out on a whim and within a day finalized the color that would consume most of our wall space. 

Originally I had been planning on doing a shade of turquoise in the kitchen..but then my sister told me this blogger's house reminded her of me, and I (flattered!) decided instantly that we would do the same color this particular blogger had: Rainwashed.  So here you have it--rainwashed walls! 

The color is (obviously) Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams; however, we wanted to stick with Benjamin Moore so we took the paint chip to Benjamin Moore and had them match it! 

We also wanted a neutral color to use in our entry way so while in the store, Clay spotted a perfect shade: Revere Pewter.  It is a grayish color with tan hues.  We love the way it turned out with the Rainwashed!  I think I would prefer if it had a bit more tan to it, but depending on the lighting the gray or tan comes out more (pictures make it look more tan, in real like it looks more gray). 

If anyone is curious (which I doubt you are but it makes me feel more interesting), we used Regal Select paint in Eggshell from Benjamin Moore for all our wall paint and are very pleased with the quality and coverage!

happy easter!

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.  Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed."
I Corinthians 15:10-11

I know that's a slightly different Easter passage than the norm, but we read from I Corinthians 15 this morning for Easter Sunday prior to the message and it stuck with me.  By the grace of God I am what I am.  I guess any message of Hope and Salvation is truly an Easter message.

We had a really nice weekend and I am dreading going back to work tomorrow!!  Here are a few snapshots of what we accomplished: the first room of the house is painted! 

This is the beginning of our new bedroom!  The color is Quiet Moments by Benjamin Moore and we absolutely love it!  It's a very faint light blue with gray hues.  In natural lighting the blue comes out more and we are just beside ourselves with how much we both like the color!  The plan is to add some tan curtains (possibly burlap if I'm allowed) and someday a small chair in the corner.  We decided the white, tan, and blue gray was a good balance between boy and girl and something we both liked.

We didn't plan on keeping the current dresser in there, but we'll see if garage sale season pulls through for us in new furniture or not.  Eventually we'll pick an accent color to provide some brighter color somewhere.

Another pic of the weekend accomplishments:

Isn't he just so handsome??  What a good homeowner!

And now for probably my most exciting purchase of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I get so happy everytime I remember that we bought it..it's almost fun to forget that we have it just so I can remember again):

I have been looking and looking for a wardrobe!!!  This one is absolutely what I have been wanting..the curved accents and its already painted white!  I would love to put this in our bedroom but Husby said no..that its too girly.  Whatev.  But, since he let me have it, I have agreed to either put it in one of the extra bedrooms or even on our main floor..I'll keep you posted on where it ends up!  And, the inside is the original wood and in great shape..not at all creepy.  I will definitely be checking back at the antique flea market I got it from!  Good thing its only a mere 10 minutes away!

I just realized that we bought our house this year so I probably shouldn't say the wardrobe was the most exciting purchase of the year..although the wardrobe is payed for in one small check of $125 while the house..well thats another story..

And now, the standard Easter picture in front of the door:

Yes, we were the weird neighbors that set a step ladder up on our front walkway using self timer so we could take this picture..but its our first Easter with this door! 

We're thinking of painting the door blue..neither of us are big fans of the maroon so we'll see what happens..

Anyway, Happy Easter!  It's only by the grace of God that we are what we are..

updates

Our first round of house updates is complete!  A huge huge HUGE thank you goes out to Mom and Dad for working literally from the time they arrived up until late the evening before they left!  Sometimes I feel like our ages are reversed..they act like they have the energy of 20-somethings and we act like we have the energy of well..older people :).  Clay and I are overwhelmed with thankfulness for our family as first Patty, Stu, and Dian came up to help us move and then Doug and Nancy to do some home improvements!

Unfortunately, I didn't even think of taking pictures while the updates were actually occuring (bummer!), but we have a couple snapshots of the finished product. 

Here is a list of all that we were able to accomplish:
Gas dryer installed (had to add a gas line)
Rotted wood below deck door replaced
Furnace cleaned and fixed so it doesnt shake the house
Nine new blinds installed on various windows
Three new doors painted and installed including new hardware
Ceiling fan installed in the master bedroom (previously no overhead lighting)
Bathroom sink unclogged
Bathtub faucets caulked
Two ceiling lights replacing old ones
Flashing on the deck to protect against water damage

And now for the pictures!  Here is a picture of the bathroom door before changing it out:

And here are the other two doors along with the bathroom door (the bathroom door is on the far left):

Here are our new doors!--and new light fixture (all the light fixtures were gold and big before..you can see a tad of the old one in the first picture):

 And another view:

You may not notice the difference these doors make, but we are ecstatic over the change :)!  And yes, we will be painting..and soon!  I don't think I can handle white-ish walls much longer!!  We bought the house from a relocation company so everything was freshly painted a shade of white.

Our new ceilling fan:

And one more change..a while back Hubs and I changed the light in the dining room.  We were pretty pleased when we finally got it up!!!

Before:

New dining room light:

And now, because its Spring and Easter and just about everyone has been enjoying super nice weather, here are some pictures of our new springy mantel!  We used things we already had, and we both like the bits of color it adds until we paint!  Also, thanks Mom for my pitcher, flowers, and little egg nest!!! :)

Fabric covered Easter eggs - a project from last year:

What do you think..with or without the banner?

We hope you enjoyed seeing a handful of house updates!  We feel very blessed with what we (or others..Dad..) have been able to accomplish.  The Lord is so good! 

Happy Easter - we have such great hope in Christ!  What a special time of year!

blessed. simply put.

We are blessed. 

I know that things don't often turn out the way I picture them in my mind or in the little plan that forms in my heart, but the Lord knows better than I know.  He is so good!

Nothing monumental has happened..either good or bad..but I know the Lord has His hand on our lives, and I have so many things that remind me of His ever present love: sunshine, a garage, little black boys cheering for Clay at a volleyball game, friends over for dinner, country music on weekend afternoons full of so many good memories, multiple rooms in our house, meals turning out and tasting good, a deal on a washer and dryer, my bangs finally growing out after a recent cut, fresh flowers in a mason jar, little black boys sitting with us at church, coming home to dishes being done after a long day, dust not falling from the ceiling when the wind blows, a yard to 'have a catch' in, bright orange Syracuse t-shirts, Amy Butler fabric, birds chirping, visits from family to look forward to, snail mail cards in the mailbox, conversations about Christ with co-workers, pizza, running-start hugs from little friends.

The list could go on and on, but those are a few things that are overwhelming me with a simple attitude of thanksgiving.  My heart is full. 

Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.