Kitchen Progress

The demo of our kitchen was a success and according to Fernando, things are on track. So here are a few pictures of our empty kitchen.

All of the appliances are in our dining room and our kitchen table is in the middle of our living room.

This is halfway through demo...

...and here's the end of the day.

(When we bought the house there was wallpaper, very old wallpaper, in the kitchen, so we ripped it down and painted the kitchen that really dark blue you can see in the picture. Not sure what we were thinking! Not too long after we painted was when Mike refaced the cabinets so we repainted with the lighter blue. And I think this time we'll opt for an even lighter blue to keep the kitchen looking as big as possible.

On Day 2, Wes really wanted to "help those guys" so he got out his tools and was ready to work. I'm sure they were glad we headed off to Bible study a few minutes later!

And here's most of our new cabinets in the garage. They plan to install them on Monday.

It's hard to see in the photo, but they extended our soffit and did some drywall work.

And I had mentioned how Mike didn't have to do any of the work, but the can lights needed to be moved, so last night (Friday) Grandpa came over and he and Mike installed new lights. We love seeing progress!!

Insanity

Today I am 36 weeks pregnant...and tomorrow we are having our kitchen torn out. A full kitchen remodel right now is just pure insanity but we love to make things difficult on ourselves! We have been talking about remodeling our kitchen since we bought the place in 2004, but a cosmetic makeover by Mike several years ago, stalled things (when this is all over, I'll do a Before, when we bought the place, a Middle, the way it is in these pictures, and an After, brand new kitchen, montage. Anyway, when we decided that moving wasn't an option right now we decided to go ahead with the little room addition (which has been so great) and a kitchen remodel. For the kitchen, we started at Ikea and had a kitchen designed by them. Then my dad talked us into getting a quote from Fernando, a custom cabinet/kitchen guy who has done work for us before (he built our entertainment unit) and has remodeled the kitchen of my parents and most of their friends. His bid was just too pricey for our budget so we were all ready to order our kitchen from Ikea when Fernando called Michael and told him a big job of his had cancelled and he was willing to negotiate the price and time line of the remodel. In the end we settled on a completely custom kitchen for just a little over the Ikea price (and a big bonus was that Mike wouldn't have to do any of the work!) and a "completion date" of November 14. (Please pray that this date sticks and there are no hiccups!!)

So last Friday, Mike and I began packing up the kitchen. Then I spent the weekend being showered with love from friends and family (baby shower pictures to follow) and Mike went back to work Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I finished packing the kitchen those days and now tomorrow is the big D-Day (demo)!

What a mess! All this stuff is now in the garage with a little mini food prep area, but takeout and microwave meals are on the agenda for a while!

And here is the kitchen all empty. Please don't ask if I was cleaning the counters before they rip them out because the answer will be "maybe."

Progress pictures to follow!

R&R for Uncle Ben

While I was thinking about this post, I realized that I never even posted the fact that Wesley has an Uncle Ben!! So sorry Auntie Caitlin and Uncle Ben! Auntie Caitlin is no longer a "Meacham" since she married Ben Barron on April 21, 2011 in Texas near Uncle Ben's base at Fort Hood. Shortly afterward, he deployed to Iraq and we are so grateful for his service to our country. He recently came home for two weeks of R & R and we were so glad we got to see him while he was home.

Wedding Day

Uncle Ben in Iraq

Auntie Caitlin and Uncle Ben went on a cruise and when they came back we all met for breakfast at Schooner or Later in Long Beach.

Auntie Caitlin spotted a little octopus, so here we are all trying to see if for ourselves.

It was great to see you Uncle Ben, looking forward to when you come home for good!

A New Room and a Big Boy Bed!

Our room addition is all complete and we decided to make it Wesley's new room instead of Cora's. We figured there is just so much "stuff" a baby needs and Wes can be perfectly happy with a bed and his toys :) So once the carpet was in and we told Wes that this was his new room, he grabbed his box of toys from his old room and "christened" his new room!

A friend told me she couldn't picture where the new room actually is, so I took this photo of the hallway (it's probably still pretty hard to picture though if you don't know how our house is laid out). But I'm taking this picture from the top of the stairs looking down the hallway. To the left is the door for the "nursery" (Wes' old room) and past that on the left is the door to the master bedroom. Directly across from the master bedroom is the door to Wes' new room on the right.

And since we decided to move Wes, that meant moving him to a big boy bed! My sister in law had mentioned that Walmart had a good selection of toddler beds, so we headed over there on a Sunday (definitely not recommended!) and picked one up along with a new mattress. Here's Mike getting it all assembled.

And here's Wes on October 14th all excited to spend his first night in a big boy bed! My fears of him wandering into our room in the middle of the night have so far been unfounded and he's doing great. He is used to going to bed in the total dark, so I think that deters him from getting out of bed. Nap times have been a little more difficult though, the temptation to get out of bed and play with his toys has been pretty strong! But after a few stern discussions about staying in bed during nap time and he's doing much better.

We just feel so blessed with how this room turned out because everything we've wanted to put in it fits just perfectly. The little bed fits on the back wall like a glove and having three sides against a wall has been helpful as well. And this dresser from Ikea fits perfectly in the little nook right under the window. The bottom has doors for this books and toys that he can get to on his own and the top has shelves for some of his clothes.

He's definitely loving it and I'm loving the fact that, though close quarters, everyone will have their own room!

Tanaka Farms

Last Tuesday, we joined a whole bunch of friends for a Pumpkin Tour at Tanaka Farms. (Thanks Auntie Chrissy for organizing!)

We loved their strawberry tour, and had so much fun on the pumpkin tour as well! It was about 85 degrees, so not your typical fall/pumpkin picking weather, but I think everyone had a great time. Since we were all busy chasing our kids, we didn't get to visit too much, but it was great to see everyone! Here we are on the tractor ride to the petting zoo.

Petting a goat.

Brayden and Wes on top of the hay bales.

Brayden's mom Carrie, has lots of other pictures from the farm here.

Included in the tour price was a pumpkin (up to 20 pounds) for the kids, but they had to be able to carry it out themselves. Since Wes picked up this giant pumpkin near the petting zoo, I thought for sure he would go for the largest pumpkin he could find. A picture of the pumpkin he picked to follow.

Racing back to the tractor. This kid is a runner and it's getting harder and harder for me to chase him down. I told everyone I was considering busting out the leash I bought for him when we went to Disneyword during these last weeks of pregnancy!

Wes and Jessie

After a tractor ride around the whole farm, we got to pick vegetables from the veggie patch.

Picking radishes...

...and carrots...

...and onions...

...and green beans.

And here he is with the side dish for tonight's dinner!

Then we headed to the pumpkin field so the kids could pick their pumpkin.

This is an attempt to get a picture of Wesley, Cody and Tyler. I think I took five pictures but couldn't get all three of them to stand still for even 5 seconds! After everyone picked a pumpkin those of us who brought our lunches stayed to eat, then we headed home for a much needed nap!

And here was our dinner that night! Sweedish meatballs over rice with our fresh picked veggies! (We added the broccoli :)

And here's Wes trying a radish for the first time. I love how he will try anything, chew it for a while (so I think he likes it) and then decide to spit it out! There's not too many things this kid won't eat, but I'll definitely add radishes to the list!

And I had mentioned I would include a picture of the pumpkin Wes picked...well here it is...the tiny little orange one. It fit perfectly in the palm of his hand, it's really small! There were all these big pumpkins out in the field and he picked the itty bitty one...can't figure this kid out! But I figured, for our money, we deserved a real sized pumpkin, so I made him get the green one too. He wasn't too thrilled about it, but I like it!

Lunch at the McLaughlin's

Our good friends the McLaughlin's recently bought a new house in Wagon Wheel and they invited us over for lunch and a tour! It just so happened that the Eagles were playing (Mike and John's favorite team) so the boys got in some couch time too. Ok, so it wasn't a coincidence that the game was on :)

I didn't take too many pictures, but this one of Allie and Wes watching the game together was too cute. Thanks so much for having us over McLaughlin family!

Wesley Says: A Bible Lesson and A Backhanded Compliment

Here's a few things Wes has been talking about recently:

At CBS the kids are learning about Moses and the Burning Bush, so on the car ride home last Thursday we had a conversation that went like this :

Me: "Wes, what did you learn about today in Bible study?
Wes: "Moses"
Me: "Moses and what else?"
Wes: "and the burnin' bush!"
Me: "right! and who was in that bush?"
Wes: "God" (at this point I'm very impressed by his listening and retention skills)
Me: "Good job buddy!" (and I'm not sure how much of the story they were taught so I kept asking questions) "and what did God tell Moses to do?"
Wes: (after thinking for a second) "go play trucks and cars"
With how apprehensive Moses was to do what God called him to do, I'm sure he would have much rather played cars and trucks then head out to face Pharaoh!


You probably read how we recently kicked the finger sucking habit, but Wes has wonderfully replaced that with a nose picking habit. Oh joy! At least finger sucking isn't socially unacceptable. We have to keep reminding him not to pick his nose and to ask for a tissue if there is something up there. When I come to get him from his nap I usually ask "how was your snoozer?" and "what have you been doing?" (he keeps lots of toys and books in his bed) and he used to say "looking out the window" or "reading a book" but now he says "just picking my nose." Uggh!! Anyway, he's kind of obsessed with noses and we had this conversation while I was changing his clothes the other day:

Me: "Wes, stop picking your nose. Is there something in there?"
Wes: "No, I got it"
Me: "Well, next time you need to ask for a tissue, we don't pick our noses"
Wes: "What's in your nose, mama?"
Me: "Nothing buddy"
Wes: "Let me see"
Me: "you don't need to look up my nose"
Wes: "let me look in your nose!!!"
Me: (thinking that if he sees something this will be a good lesson about getting a tissue) "ok buddy" (I'm now tilting my head so my child can look up my nose and Wes is like eagle eyes trying to get a good look). "So do you see anything?"
Wes: "No, just hair"
Oh man!! Horray for his honesty I guess. But I'm still not sure how to take that statement, is it a compliment that I don't have boogers in my nose or is it a criticism that I have hairy nostrils?

Construction Progress - Day 5

Almost finished! Now we have texture on the walls and are ready for paint and a door! One more day...I can make it!

The Day in San Diego

After Sea World on Monday we spent the night at my parents time share in down town San Diego. We grabbed some dinner at Chipotle and some milk and a treat at the Whole Foods across the street and then conked out early from our busy day!

But the next morning we were ready to explore! Mike and I consider ourselves foodies (meaning if we are travelling somewhere, we have to find out what food/restaurant the is place is famous for and check it out!) So Mike found this little breakfast place called Cafe 222 that was recently featured on the Food Network for their Peanut Butter Banana French Toast! Since it was a Tuesday, the wait was only about 15 minutes instead of the hour+ the reviews warned us about. And it smelled amazing, so we knew we couldn't go wrong.

Our eyes were a little bigger than our stomachs because everything on the menu looked so good, so we might have order four entrees between the three of us (and one of us is two!). But here is the Peanut Butter Banana French Toast (delicious!), Mike also ordered a Mexican egg scramble, I had the best pumpkin waffle with eggs and bacon, and Wes had the "Mickey Mouse pancake" (though I think it looked much more like a bear).

We were sufficiently stuffed but enjoyed every bite!

Next we headed to PetCo Park where the Padres play. Mike and I used to go to lots of baseball games before Wes came along, and checking out this ballpark made us miss those days! But we're really looking forward to taking Wes to some games next season and we'll definitely have to come down here, because it seems super family friendly!

Bleacher seats! One of the workers there told us these seats are just $10 plus there is a large sand area in front that they only allow children to play in during the games.

After we checked out of the time share, we drove down to the Hotel del Coronado.

After watching him climb the stairs and taking a few pictures, I read that little white sign that said "Only registered hotel guests beyond this point." Oops :) But what a beautiful day it was and we had such a nice mini vacation! Now back home to construction!