violet ten months

Violet is ten months old!

Stats at 9 Months- Height: 28 inches (75%) Weight: 19lbs 3oz (75%)

Oh, how we love this little nugget.  She is a busy bee these days, crawling around exploring everything!

At ten months you:

• Have six teeth.  They all came in at once, and they are so great!  They look so funny and large in your mouth.  I love it. 

• Have the most delicious thunder thighs I've ever seen.  They're truly glorious.  I just want to gobble them up.
• Crawl and pull up on everything.

• Point.  This is my favorite.
• Love food!  You love to eat table food, yogurt, purees; you'll take it all.  

• Love banging on the table like it's a big drum.  Music class must really be influencing you :)

• Are still a total mama's girl and I love it.

• Also, we don't sleep anymore.  I've sleep trained you to go to sleep by yourself initially, but you wake up every hour or so and have to be nursed back to sleep.  I'm so tired.

Violet Elizabeth, you are a gift from the Lord.  My prayer for you is that continue to bring joy to those around you and be a reflection of Christ's love.  

a few new house updates

So, I've been in major purge mode lately.  We have so much junk that we never use, and I want it out of here!  I've been taking stuff to the Goodwill, handing down baby items to friends, and- the funnest thing- selling stuff on eBay and craigslist.  Any money I make, I can justify spending on house stuff because, duh. Free money.  Some stuff has sold for a lot more than I thought it would (7 year old pottery barn pillow cases for $27!), some has sold for very little (99 cent never worn pumps), and some is sitting in our closets waiting for some lucky person to scoop it up at a bargain price (brand new subwoofer?  anyone?). Anyway, I'm having fun with it and enjoying the emptier closets and decluttering process.

Moving on, here are some of the updates we've done lately:

• Added a chalkboard behind the range.  Ordered a cheapo one off of amazon, then Doug used some "reclaimed wood" to create a chunkier border.

We had an engagement party for Owen and Leana last weekend.  She's now in charge of any and all future chalkboard drawings.

•  Bought new couch pillows that are more modern.  Next up for the couch is to order a new cover.  I'm thinking a medium grey.  And hopefully not as sloppy looking...

•  Another "reclaimed wood" project.  Doug built me a new media console for a "house-aversarry" present.  I make up holidays to get stuff ;)  I still need to stage it with cute stuff, but I love it so much!

I have never liked our old one, and I'm so glad to see it go!  

• An amazing Mother's Day present from my in-laws.  Replaced the clock, which had recently stopped working, on my gallery wall. 

•  New side table to replace the clunky mahogany one that was there before.  This change made a huge difference!

 And lastly, I found this gem of what the house looked like one year ago when I thought I would never have a home again!

And look at it now!

kennedy two and a half

Wow!  I have a two and a half years old!  Whew, doing the toddler thing is tough.  Patience in the midst of the agony of letting a two year old dress herself and the comforting of a sad toddler over dinner put on her plate in the wrong order is really hard, but it comes with so much joy!

My favorite things that Kennedy has said lately:

• "Thank you for my baby sister mommy!"
• "I made a BIIIIIG poop!"
• "I like your booby mommy.  I like your BIG booby."  Apparently I have one big boob and one little boob?
• "I went in the house at nursery, and Conor came in to see me and I told him 'Leave me alone!'"

Kennedy loves:

• All things princess and dressing up.  Our dress up collection is awesome, and Kennedy requests that her dress be unbuttoned as soon as we get home so that she can take it on and off to try on her different costumes.

• Watching tv (sad but true.  We try to limit it to less than an hour a day.)
• Taking care of her dolls and babies.

• Playing in the back yard.
• Dancing.  Especially to the Frozen soundtrack. I know.  We're those people.  But it's SO GOOD!
• Singing.  We have doing doing a little music class through music together and we LOVE it.
• Washing her hands in the sink.
• Wearing dresses that she can twirl in.  In fact, they're pretty much all she'll wear these days unless I distract her as I'm trying to get her dressed with the tv on and M&M's in her mouth.

Kennedy knows:

• Who made the world and everything in it.
• Everyone in the family's full name.
• Countless songs.
• How to climb up onto just about anything.
• How to make her baby sister crack up.

• How to go to the bathroom like a big girl!  She's completely potty trained except for night and naps and has only had two accidents.  They were both in the first few days of potty training, so we're doing really well!

Kennedy is tentative and shy in a lot of situations.  She is not one for large groups or parties.  She loves spending time alone with mommy or daddy and is very nurturing and concerned about others.

She also got her first haircut.  Doug basically gathered up her mullet in his hand and snipped it off in one cut.  It looks super cute and still makes pretty epic pigtails.

Kennedy, I pray that we can love you the way that you need to be loved and nurture your uniqueness.  That we can teach you how to love the Lord and put others before yourself.  We love you more than you will ever know Kennedy Jane.

phase 1 kitchen remodel

When we moved into our house, the kitchen was in sorry, sorry shape.  No dishwasher, very old appliances, and my least favorite part: very poor quality powder blue cabinets.  When we hired painters for the house, the quote to repaint the cabinets came in at a whopping $1800!  That seemed very steep for the number of cabinets we have.  We opted to leave the kitchen as is, and tackle it later.

Eight months down the road when we got our tax return, we tossed around the idea of getting new cabinets but quickly realized that new cabinets meant new counters, meant new backsplash, meant new sink, and we realized that we weren't up for round two of major remodel quite yet.

Doug and I decided that we would do our kitchen remodel in two phases a la Young House Love.  Phase 1 would be our temporary fix up.  We would spiff the kitchen up and make it livable.  Later down the road, we would do Phase 2, an extensive remodel once we'd lived in the kitchen for a while and figured out the best flow for the room.

So we went for it.  Phase 1 is nearly complete.  It took a LOT of work.  Meaning Doug did a lot of work.  I watched babies.  I still need to hang some art and regrout the tile, but other than that, we're calling it good.

Before

After

Before

After

Here's a break down of what we did.  I'm including cost to hopefully inspire my readers to take a stab at a budget kitchen remodel:

• Installed a dishwasher- $800 (gift from a generous family member.)
• Bought a new stove- $1600 (another gift from a family member.) We also got lucky and had our old oven break which was covered by our home warranty, so we received a check for that.
• Overhauled island.  New countertop, beadboard paneling on the sides, and a fresh aqua paint job- $500
• Installed new lighting including pendant lights over the island- $150
• Painted cabinets white and installed new hardware.  Love the oil rubbed bronze cup pulls- $200
• Removed the cabinet doors on the previously coke bottle glass cabinets (which was actually coke bottle plastic) and painted insides the same aqua as the island- free
• Built and tiled counter height tables for each side of the oven.  The oven wasn't centered under the cabinet, and we had a trash compacter that we got rid of, so there was an empty gap- $25

Total spend on phase 1 of our remodel- $3,275

And really, the appliances can be used in phase 2 of our remodel, so they don't even count.

I'm so happy with our kitchen, and it's really put the brakes on a full kitchen remodel which is awesome because I would love to spend that money on landscaping! Jungle be GONE!

violet six months

Violet is half a year old!!!  Seriously, I could just gobble this little sweetie up!  She's just the cutest thing I ever saw.  We adore her and are so thankful to have her in our family!

Weight: 16lbs (50%)

Height: 26 inches (50%)

At six months:

• Your sister is you BFF.  You guys love each other so much and it's the cutest thing.  Kennedy gets the best laughs out of you, and she is great at entertaining you.  The sweetest sisters I ever saw.

Cinco de mayo señoritas!

Hiding in Violet's stroller waiting for a dermatologist appointment.

• Have the BEST belly laughs.  I didn't realize babies could laugh as much as you do.  You crack yourself up constantly, you think your sister is hysterical, and you have a very ticklish neck.

• Are just starting to sit up for long periods of time by yourself.  You're still not really rolling over, but you have very strong arms and do a great push up. You can also spin around in a circle on your belly.

• Take two naps a day usually.  One at 8 and one at 12:30.  Bedtime is 6 or 6:30.  Not sure when wake up is because I let you lay in bed until Kennedy starts screaming to get up #secondchildproblems.

Easter Sunday with Grandpa Jesse wearing Great Great Grandpa's bonnet.

• You are just the happiest thing!  You're super content to play on the floor, watch what's going on, and hang out on mommy's hip.

Violet girl, we continue to pray that you will be confident of your identity in Christ. That you won't look to the world to tell you who you are but know that you are a child of God, loved completely, beautiful, and can be made whole through him.  You are our treasure.

chuck e cheese

Today we went to chuck e cheese for our friend, Levi's, birthday. Kennedy really, really liked Chucky. Like waited for him outside his dressing room. 

House update

Welp, we are still working away at Casa Hulse.  Doug has done soooo much, and I thought that it would be fun to do a little update.  All photos taken with my iPhone...and I didn't clean up at all before I took these pictures.  You get what you get ;)

Before: Kitchen sink area

After:
 Mirrored backsplash removed, coke bottle glass removed from uppers, dishwasher installed
We are also in the process of painting the cabinets white!!

Before: Kitchen and back door

                         

After: New back door, it's hard to tell from the picture, but recessed lights added (lights in this picture are the pendant lights above the island)

Before: Wall of knick knacks

Another before: View from other side of the wall

After: No Wall!!! Wood paneling removed, new flooring and baseboards, overhead lighting, popcorn ceilings removed

Before: A view of the kitchen floor and island

After: New flooring, kitchen island spiffed up and painted
Doug also finished the island countertop last week!

Before: Master Bedroom

After:
Walls are a greyed aqua, popcorn ceiling scraped, ceiling fan installed, rewired, new carpet

Before: Girls room/Star Trek memoriabilia storage room

After:
 Wood paneling removed, wall is a light coral, wall sconce removed, ceiling fan installed, rewired, retextured

Before: Built in desk in girl's room/Armor storage

After: Built in

Before: Playroom/Storage Room??

After:
Walls are a purple-grey, popcorn ceiling removed, wall sconce removed, rewired 

Before: Bathroom including avocado green flower stickers on the tub floor

After:
Stickers are gone, new shower curtain, walls are a cottage white, curtains (in shower?) have been removed


One final before

And our most up to date picture!  White cabinets! Dishwasher! New oven! New island!  New lights!  We still need to put all of the doors back on the cabinets, cut down the tile over the dishwashers, and do MUCH MUCH MORE, but I am so proud of all Doug has done!