I no longer hate my kitchen!

The past six months we have been giving our kitchen and dining room a bit of a makeover. In December we painted the walls yellow. In January, we painted the cupboards white (which we then ruined by using polyurethane - we will be redoing them soon!). And in April, we tackled the floors.

This, folks, is what our dining room floor looked like. See that beautiful carpet? Yep, carpet in the dining room. The previous owner used this area as a family room so carpet made sense. We needed a bigger space for our dining table and we already have a front room and a downstairs family room.

Well, three kids later and it's hashed.

So we took out the carpet and the border of tile around the dining area. We also took out the carpet in the high-traffic area - the hallway and walk areas in the kitchen, leading to the bedrooms and garage.

This is a funny story: We had to take the vents off the floor to take the carpet off. Well, Tippy, our cat, got curious. About an hour later we heard meowing and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. We looked over and saw fur poking out of this vent - one we had not opened - and sure enough! She had made her way through the vents to this spot!

We replaced the carpet with this pretty cherry wood-looking laminate. We went with laminate because it fit our budget and was relatively easy to install.

The kids had fun helping out.

It wasn't a hard task but it was tedious. And it took for-ev-er! We did it during Spring Break and it took us the entire week. Thank goodness for friends and moms for helping keep the kids entertained!

Once the majority of the floor was in, the kids had a lot of fun playing on it! They made a bed from the couch cushions and danced and played cars on it.

We left the tile in the main part of the kitchen - less cost and less work. But the molding between the different floors was a challenge. Lucy's been a photo bomber lately. :)

Once they were done, we celebrated by bringing the train set upstairs.

Spencer set up a pretty elaborate track, winding below the table.

The kids had a lot of fun, and we are loving our new floors!

Eliza 11 Months

 Eliza's 11 months! (actually, in these pics she's 11 1/2 months. It was a rough beginning of the month!)

We struggled with these pictures. We couldn't find her elephant for the pictures - found it the next day. And she wanted nothing to do with the sticker on her shirt.

No, she wasn't happy until she got the sticker off, so she could play with it. The little stinker!

 She started doing this funny thing with her tongue lately too - it's adorable.

Sammy got in on the action too.

This month she's gotten better at controlling her body. She crawls normally now instead of army crawl and she can pull herself up to standing by things. Occasionally she cruises as well. 

She likes to get around the house as much as possible and she loves to empty boxes, bags, and buckets.

She's learned how to use a sippy cup and she's started in on milk as we are beginning to wean.

She still loves to put everything in her mouth, which now has 4 teeth (2 on top and 2 on bottom), she loves to smile and be with people, especially Mommy, and she loves to explore. :)

Everyday Moments April

 I got a new camera in April, so there were a lot more pictures taken! :)

 I taught Joy School again, for the last time with this group. I sure enjoyed this group of kiddos.

Lucy had a Grandparent's Program. 

They sang and danced.

And got silly. :P

Grandma Van Hoose was able to come and be a part of the festivities. 

We've been enjoying the nicer weather. Eliza's become quite familiar with her stroller.

And we've had lots of "Lucy" play dates.

The kids have been getting very into playing with Legos.

The slide made a great place for this pirate chef to do some cooking.

My beautiful girl.

Eliza loves playing and pulling herself up. 

My handsome little man.

Eliza is a lot more fun now that she likes playing with toys.

Grandpa and Nana came over one Wednesday evening for dinner and to cheer on the bike races behind our house.

They have a lot of fun with the cow bells.

One day during rest time, I came out into the front room and found Sammy asleep in his "fort" under the side table. 

And after getting our new floors in (a post of its own soon!), the kids discovered a fun new game of dragging each other all over in the laundry basket.

Easter

 This was the first Easter we have been home in the past few years. Lucy was really worried that if we weren't at Grandma and Grandpa Great's house that live far, far away, we wouldn't be able to have an Easter egg hunt.

 Well, luckily, our neighborhood does one every year and we actually got to attend this time!

There were eggs everywhere!

The little ones (3 and under) got to find them on the playground while to big ones got to search everywhere else.

Eliza even got in on the action.

She had more fun taking them out of the basket than she did putting them in.

They each got quite a haul!

Eliza was a bit too distracted to take a picture. :)

On Easter, the kids each got a basket with a book and a toy. This was Sammy's.

And we put off dying eggs until the morning of Easter. 

The kids had a good time anyway.

We went to Grandma Great's and Nana Manwill's for dinner that night and got a few pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes.

Aren't they cute? Ashley made the girls' dresses and I took some of the extra fabric and made Sammy's tie.

Daddy and Eliza. :)

And an actually whole family photo. :)