A Little Bit of Life

Life is busy and full for us! That is my main reason for not keeping up with our blog.  Below are some pictures to highlight what we've been up to these last few months!

Camping:

This Spring we went on a campout to Brazos Bend State Park. This was Ezra's first campout, and he did great! At the campout he was about 4 months old which is a perfect age for camping! Small enough to be held all the time if needed, but not mobile to get into dirt and trouble. So EASY! This was our first time camping with two children. It was fairly easy since Ezra was in that easy stage of baby-hood. This Fall may be another story, though.

We took our Johnny-Jump-Up with us. John scaled a tree to hang it. Here is Ezra suspended in the air!

We visited the nature center one morning. We got to pet a snake, and an alligator! 

Learning the difference between and alligator and a crocodile.

Hiking to the lake.

This is the only large alligator we saw up close. Maybe 8 feet from the sidewalk to the lake. The alligator was probably about 5 feet or so long.

Shooting at a range:

TWO!

It was a family affair.

Around the house:

Story Time!

James in disguise as Mr. Potato Head.

Exploring the outdoors.

Ezra has learned to pull himself up to a standing position!

Ezra started solid foods last week. He dislikes the pureed foods, so he went straight to soft whole foods. Yes, that is a french fry. :-)

Peek-a-boo!

Playing with Legos.

We replaced one of our large kitchen windows this month! The old one James broke by hitting it with a paint brush (the metal part). We also put up new blinds!

James showing off his tie.

My little helpers!

Russian Performance:

John was in a performance with the Russian group, Uzori. This was their 20th anniversary performance. Below is from the Ukrainian welcome dance, Hopak. 

Here is a link to watch the dances on YouTube! John is the guy with the long/peppy hair.

Three year anniversary:

We celebrated our third anniversary on June 4. We went to IHOP for breakfast,  then spent the rest of the morning at the butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science.

Our fearless boy.

A butterfly landed on my pinky finger!

We got to see so many different types of butterflies up close!

John and I went to dinner (alone!!) to the Carriage House Cafe. It was a unique place! It is full of antiques. We enjoyed the delicious food, and walking around the restaurant seeing all the antiques! The owner of the restaurant was an antiques dealer before opening up the cafe which was a carriage house way back when.

Driving by you may never know this is a restaurant.

This is tatted!

From our table

Operation Wall Removal: Phase 1

We have plans to eventually remove the wall between the kitchen and living room to make the floor plan more open. A lot like a great room.

Last week John did phase one - removing the entry to the dining room.

Before:

After:

We love the openness of the entry being gone and can't wait for the rest of it to be gone!

Bathroom Progress

Over the last several months (since the last post in March) we have made a good amount of progress on our guest bathroom!

We now have drawers, feet, and hardware:

 

Drawers in progress. Made by John! :)

 

 

Feet added to the base of the vanity

 

 

The finished vanity!

We like how the feet make the vanity look like a piece of furniture.

 

 

We have a medicine cabinet installed (also made by John)

 

 

Tada!

 

 

Close up of the hardware. We splurged on the hardware and bought something we LOVED! So glad we did, because it adds a lot to the look and feel of the bathroom!

 

 

And our latest accomplishment is the window:

 

 

We purchased this window on our honeymoon at a salvage shop in Galveston (which sadly, has since closed). This is what it looked like halfway through the removal of the old caulk and paint.

 

 

 

All the old paint and caulk scraped off.

 

 

 

John added a frame to the window so it would fit the opening we had for it.

Here he is priming and painting

 

 

 

The picture before being cut to fit the window panes.

 

 

The FINISHED window!!

 

 

 

We love how it helps complete the look and feel of the bathroom! 

Guests = Bathroom Progress!

The last update we had about the guest bathroom was the sink installation. It stayed that way for six months, but the weekend after Christmas we had some out of town company. This gave us the push we needed to get moving along on our bathroom.

 

Our guests would need a mirror, so we bought and installed one. It really helps lighten up the space!

We have plans to put a frame around the mirror.

 

 

Next, is cabinet doors to hide the under the sink stuff.  We saw this style of door in a library book on bathrooms, and loved it! Our medicine cabinet door is the same as the vanity ones.

 

 

Add a lamp, towels, and soap, and it's ready for company!

Full Functionality!

We now have a fully functional guest bathroom! Last night John hooked up the sink and faucet. It looks great! Next on the project list for the bathroom is doing the window and medicine cabinet (So we no longer have studs showing), and also to build the drawers and doors for the vanity.

Yay!

We are still undecided about what to do for a back splash, so for now there won't be one.

What a Feat!

We have progress on our bathroom!
One morning before John left for work he got the countertop installed on the vanity cabinet. All by himself! A solid slab of soap stone weighing more than 200 pounds! It was really amazing! I have such a strong husband! :-)

I only took pictures (didn't think of video until after the fact.) so here you go :-)

The picture in the background is the one we are designing our bathroom around.

TADA!!!! It looks AWESOME! Now all it need is the adheasive, and then John can get the faucet installed! Oh, and we also got the baseboard and trim painted and installed. :-)

And just because he's cute, a video of James!