The Build: Stain

Here's a sneak peek at some of the items that have received stain in the house. I say sneak peek because these items have since been touched up and final coats have been added.

Here is the island in the kitchen. This is where there will be a overhang of granite and probably three bar stools

The staircase

The living room beams which were originally pretty dark which I think Jason and I could have lived with but it was worth saying something to the stainers. They were able to wipe some stain off and finesse it a bit to give us exactly what we wanted....expresso colored wood, dark but still able to see the grain. PERFECT

A few other items were stained that I didn't get a chance to grab pics of which include the pantry counter and the mudroom bench. Not to mention the most awaited front door that will go on very soon.

And look who I found upstairs!? Oh yup, forgot to mention the upstairs is primed but it's not as much fun taking pictures of all the white.....although exciting since we will be able to paint color in the next two weeks!

I have been behind on blogging about the build and what's going on but hopefully I can catch up AND help out as I schedule some babysitters on a weekly basis.

Feeding a Picky Toddler

To all those Moms who have Toddlers that "eat what we eat" or love all the food groups....I'm jealous. We once had a little boy whom you couldn't feed fast enough. He loved anything and everything as long as he got to eat, which is where Ava at 8 months is at right now. But with Austin turning 2 next month, he isn't too fond of much these days and it's like pulling teeth to get him to try new things. I read in a parenting book that sometimes it takes up to 10 times to introduce something to a toddler before they are willingly eat it. 10 times!? Really!? I would kinda get sick of throwing that food away for the 9th time and then thinking, well....let me make it one more time.

Funny how you feel all alone and then you start talking to other Moms and sure enough, there are many picky little eaters out there. And I have to mention that I was definitely one of them. Ask anyone who knew me as a child and they would mention Fruit Roll-ups and Candy as my two favorite food groups.

What does Austin eat? Well thankfully he gets a wide variety of food at school and if you don't eat, there is no fruit snacks for back up.

When I pick Austin up from school, it's usually around 5 and by the time we actually get home it's closer to 5:30/5:45. Since it's been a while since lunch and his PM snack, I let him snack on the way home. I'm sure that's a no-no in someone's books but it gives him something to tide over until we get home and it keeps his mouth chewing and not screaming. So I usually give him a treat cup of any of the following :
raisens
mini club crackers
goldfish
yogurt melts
sometimes fruit snacks

When we walk in the door, Austin asks for a glass of milk and applesauce. We buy those Go Go Squeeze applesauces and its something he can eat on his own while I get Ava settled in the high chair and some baby food.

Our meal time is the busiest hour on the planet. We need to eat things fast and Austin as well is looking for a quick bite so he can play before bedtime.
So what do we often resort to?
Mac and Cheese:
I love those mac and cheese cups that you can microwave. Austin especially loves the character shapes because the skinny noodles are harder for him to grab with a fork.

Meat and Cheese:
crackers, deli meat and any slices of cheese
Fruit:
Austin loves fruit but things he can grab or fork are the best. Strawberries, peaches or mandarins (get the dole plastic containers so you can get a handful and put it back in the fridge) clementines (rarely seeds!)

Yogurt:
Austin isn't loving the yogurt right now but at one time we were able to give him a frozen go-gurt or dannon fruit smoothies

This isn't the whole list of course but it's some of the go-to items that our busy family with a picky toddler use. It's not organic...it's not what Jason and I eat exactly.....but it's a transitional period like everything else with little ones.

Ava: 8 months

Oh how my Miss Little Ava isn't so little anymore! She is growing at a fast pace and the days of having a baby seems almost over......so sad at times and not so much at others.

Ava is just starting to crawl so even though the house is toddler-proofed for Austin.....I am not so sure Austin is ready for Ava to start meddling in all his things. He often brings her toys to share with her but as much as he does that, he takes them right away. She especially loves to put her hands all over the books he is reading. "No-no Aba"...... yes her nickname of the month from Austin has changed to Aba.

She is an eating machine and is even trying to boycott bottles sometimes and only eat food. She is eating all things and has only turned away bananas and pumpkin so far, but maybe we can re-introduce those again later.

She is not so anxious to go to bed right at 6:15/6:30 anymore so it's nice to take our time getting her to bed before 7.

She now has started taking off the headbands I put on her, so it's been hard to stick hair clips in her hair since it's just not quite long enough yet.

Still no teeth yet but LOTS and LOTS of drool!! I am no longer bringing spare outfits to places for a messy eater but for my continuous drooler.

Every time we buy her clothes right now, it looks as if she'll have room to grow but then surprisingly it fits her snug! At something like 19 pounds right now, Ava is one healthy little girl! Making it that much harder for me to carry her in her carseat and be patient for Austin during the long hike daily from classroom to car door!

To say that Ava loves her big brother Austin is an understatement. She is absolutely infatuated with him. Every time he comes near, she is nothing but big smiles. He often times can do nothing but look at her and she is giggling away. I get some pretty big smiles in the morning when waking her up, but nothing compares to those smiles for Austin.

The Build: Almost finished products

I would have preferred to call this post 'Finished Products' but everything is being stained or painted either now or real soon, so maybe then can I start to post some final pictures.

Here is the kitchen island. When we first starting looking at kitchen ideas for color of cabinets, we were always drawn to dark cabinets on the island and white cabinets on the periphery. So this will be stained a dark expresso color. We have picked out our granite.....oh how I can't wait to see it on top of here. We still have yet to pick out bar stools but are thinking that three will fit comfortably.

 The range hood has crown and trim now. So do the 'earrings' if you will. LOVE it.

The beams in the dining room ceiling. We have an idea for a chandelier in here but have yet to buy that and a DINING TABLE......we might need one of those. I found a great one at the pottery barn outlet this past week but after seeing the dimensions when it wasn't extended, we decided it would look kinda puny in the space.....so we will keep hunting.....

Jason started working on the built-ins on either side of the fireplace. I think it will be nice to have cabinets down below to store things out of site and yet have shelves up top for photos, books, yada yada yada......

A look at them both from the kitchen

Hopefully this week I will be posting some pictures of the stained beams and stained staircase! The upstairs is primed white as well.......painting should come soon! I need to hurry up and pick out bedroom colors for everyone!!

What's Thaaaaat!?

I have this problem where I rarely let anyone put my children down to bed other than myself. Sometimes Jason will do it but he is often itching to get to The Build so that he can come back home at a decent hour....(which there is no decent hour anymore by the way, he comes home anywhere from 12-2am sometimes later these days!!) There have been times where my mom has put Austin to bed as well, which is a Grandma's treat, so I love when she gets the opportunity to do so. But really, putting Austin to bed is the best.

I remember when one of my friends told me that they read their 3 year-old, three books at bedtime, the long ones. I remember thinking, "Three long books!? Really!? Why not just one!?" I have no clue why I was thinking this was too much or too lengthy of a bedtime routine. Currently, I am sucked into a minimum of 4 sometimes 6 books a night. Granted these are not the complete story of Beauty and the Beast but some of those Dr. Seuss books are pretty lengthy.

How can you not enjoy reading to your child? It's the best. Austin loves to read book after book and I can't help but enjoy it just as much. My favorite part right now is when Austin gets stuck on a page with lots of animals or items that prompts him to ask "What's thaaaaaat?" I love the drawn out 'thaaaaaat'. It can be quite tedious after you have answered it for the twentieth time on one page, but it's precious. Many of the items he already knows what they are, but still loves to ask.

We get stuck on the page in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, where he eats everything but the kitchen sink. We also get stuck on the page in King of the Dinosaurs where just about every dinosaur is present that ever lived. After The  Very Hungry Caterpillar and King of the Dinosaurs (a very random book that I bought at a used bookstore when I was pregnant with Austin, glad that it's one of his favorites), we then read My Mommy Hung the Moon (how appropriate that it says "My mommy's good at everything", just sayin'). I can just imagine Jason reading that book thinking, "Where is the part about Daddy hanging the moon?" Then we read Mrs. Wow Never Wanted a Cow and Oh! The Thinks you can Think, to meet our Dr. Seuss quota. And to top it off, we read The Busy Christmas Stable, a book with pop up Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus figures that Austin loves to pop up and push down. We have been reading about the Christmas stable all year long, not just because the holidays are approaching.

These are definitely things I want to remember about having little children. I love their curious little minds and as Austin begins to talk even more (hard to believe they talk more!) I can only imagine what funny things he will say or ask. For now, I will take as many "What's Thaaaat?"s as I can get!

No Tricks & All Treats

Anyone who knows our family.....knows about our addiction to crafting. So of course many people wondered why we were carving our pumpkins so early? Answer........we need to get our photos printed so we can scrap our halloween books BEFORE Halloween.

We also needed to secure our date with Kate, the pumpkin carving queen! That girl books up so fast the closer it gets to the holiday.

She knows that Austin is MY son, so she brought him a sweet treat for his sweet tooth.....

He of course ate off all the frosting and left me with the rest of the donut.

We continue to try and get pictures of the two kiddos together. Ava is of course wondering when she can eat the pumpkin, that little eating machine and Austin has to put his foot on the pumpkin just like he puts his foot on the dinner table to eat.....toddlers are so interesting......

It's no surprise to me that Austin couldn't wait to dig in elbow deep. He loved using every single scooper Kate brought along to get all the pumpkin guts out.

Elbow deep was literal

Kate helps Austin put all the guts in a bowl so we can seperate the seeds

One of the many highlights of pumpkin carving for me was when we gave Ava some pumpkin guts to play with. And she did NOT like it. She kept giving us this face that said 'ewwwwww'. I was overjoyed. Thank you Lord for giving me a child that may not want to dig in every pile of dirt, jump in every puddle, squish every piece of food, and smash everything to smithereens.....cause I have one of those and ONE is enough.

 Kate carved Ava a pumpkin that she thought would look just like her.....you be the judge but I think she got it spot on.....

Seeds Mommy??

Kate and Austin carved out a T-rex to match Austin's shirt

I think Austin "ROAR'd' about 95 times during pumpking carving

Hey Austin, can you make the same face as Ava's pumpkin!? ( with another treat in his hand to eat the frosting off of)

Yup! Looks the same to me!

The finished products of Halloween 2012! Thanks Kate for coming over and spending the day with us!

The Build: Hood, Entry, and More Beams

It was difficult to choose between two different styles of hoods Jason had shown me. As with everything he shows me, all choices are a good choice....and I couldn't be happier with our range hood. So here is a preview....

I also love the small cabinets just to the side of the hood. Perfect spot to store your olive oil and seasonings that get regular use.

On to the entry way....nothing like more wainscoting.....

Time to choose the trim that will line the top of the wainscoting

More beams! We can't get enough beams in this house. I absolutely love them. Looking up at the beautiful ceiling that Jason is still surprised that I didn't want to stain or paint. I think the wood looks amazing just the way it is. Gives the dining room the perfect character it needs for overlooking the lake.

Can't wait to see the middle one finished

Here is the real chaos. My dad helping to clean up with Austin, Ava's carseat poking out behind my dad as she snoozes while Jason and I talk over decisions.

Many things are changing......Hard to believe we'll be moving in soon.

The Build: Wainscoting and Crown

It's going to be too hard to try and seperate the posts about the build as so many things are happening at once. I think my posts from here on out will be lots of mish mash but that's ok, it means we are getting closer...

The crown has been added to the top of the cabinets

and the trim has been added to the bottom

The newel posts at the bottom of the stairs

Hard to believe Jason was going to add EVEN MORE detail....and he sure would have if he had  more time

Wainscoting and more trimwork is going up around the house. Here is the hallway upstairs between the kids bedrooms and the master

And just a few photos of Austin helping to clean up around the house.....

What a big helper! I wish I honestly had more time to take better photos, comment more on what's happening, and talk about all of Jason's hard work but I can't say it enough how crazy life is. At least I am finding some time to document what I can. Whew!