The new look

I know you've all been checking the blog everyday.....waiting for pics of the kitchen remodel. Well, it's your lucky day! I am being sarcastic for the most part, but I apologize to those of you who have been waiting for us to share some pictures. It's a small kitchen (that hasn't changed), so I don't have to take many pics to give you the overall idea of what it looks like now. Cabinets painted white, laminate flooring installed, walls painted, new windows, new lights are the major changes we made. Still some final touches to make and decorating to do, but we are really happy with how things look now! What do you think?

these are newly added cabinets and counterspace!!! So nice!

Grandma Margaret's & Grandpa Tim's Visit

Seth's Mom & Dad drove out from Rapid this past week, and it was so nice having them here! Ella absolutely loved having them around, and they were able to see how much she's changed just in the last 3 months. We knew that it was going to be a whirlwind visit, but I feel bad about how little time we all had to just hang out together. Tim worked so hard while he was here, hard labor in our kitchen - and Margaret was running around like crazy too trying to help keep Ella out of trouble while all the kitchen work was going on. The 5 days they were here went by so fast. Luckily, they are planning on being back soon.... once the new baby arrives.

Tim & Margaret - thank you so much for making the long drive to visit us, and then breaking your back while you were here! :) Can't wait to see you again!

Lunch at Anthony's with both sets of parents - Tim & Margaret, Sharon & Jim

Update on the kitchen update

Now that I think about it, I don't know if I've mentioned that we're working on some kitchen renovations. At least on the blog that is, some of you are well aware. We'd been talking about painting our cabinets, pretty much since we moved in. Like a lot of projects, it turned into a whole lot more once we got started. Our kitchen is definitely small, but really other than some cosmetic things, I really didn't have too many complaints. It's not a kitchen you can entertain in but when it's just me in there, everything is laid out just right and the storage is better than you'd think for such a small space. Anyway, the cabinets were in really good condition, just a dark stained oak - which Seth and I weren't big fans of. We started out a few weeks ago with painting the walls (a grey, brown color....taupe I guess you could say). Then Seth went to work on priming the cabinets. Last week, we had some great help!! Seth's Mom & Dad came to town for a visit and Seth and his Dad got our cabinets completely transformed to white in just a couple days and laid new laminate floors too. Zac also bailed us out - spending an entire day helping finish up the flooring, when Seth had to go back to work. THANK YOU ZAC & TIM, SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HARD WORK! More about the McKinstry's visit in the next post......

As usually happens, I didn't get "before" pics taken of the kitchen, but will be sure to post some pictures when we're done. So far, we're really happy with it. This weekend, we have to rip out the countertops for the granite coming on Tuesday. Man, will it be nice to have everything put back together - we have kitchen stuff all over the house and we're constantly searching for something.....

Grandma & Grandpa McKinstry visit & a new kitchen

Pics and info to come soon......

Easter

It's been busy around here lately.... time to post something about Easter. We went to church with Grammy Sharon and then headed to Tom and Ruth Conklin's (Kristen's folks) for Easter dinner. As always, it was quite the spread! Thanks Conklins! Ella did great at the egg hunt the church had, and then Abby hid eggs for her at Tom & Ruth's - over and over again. Abby's a saint. Here's some Eastery pics....

ready for anything in some new clothes from Grandma Margaret.... not necessarily meant to be worn all at the same time, but try telling her that.

more cute spring clothes from Grandma


Wheeeee!

hanging out with Zac & Kristen before Easter

trying on the Easter dress

fascinated by the real eggs.....

jelly beans and animal crackers - the perfect Easter breakfast


Ella and pal JJ (with Dad Jason)

pretty ladies