More of Chloe and her new kitchen!

Christmas 2010

Doug and I made this little kitchen for Chloe and she is absolutely in LOVE with it.  She woke up yesterday morning and ran in to the kitchen and said "coppee (coffee) Poppa?". She then put the kettle under the faucet and made the funniest sound effect of water running.  She spent at least an hour straight cooking for us yesterday.  We used our faucets from our old kitchen and the bowl is from Goodwill of course.  

We also made a kitchen for my nephews Carter and Griffy.  

The kids were quite the little chefs.

Mamaw and Pa made this unbelievable blanket for the boys.  They designed it themselves.

Here is a better pic of it.

Chloe giving her best dino-roar

We traded names as usual, but this year our gifts had to be either a re-gift, recycle, or from Goodwill. Doug and I (mostly Doug) crafted these walnut and oak end-tables from wood that Mom and Pop bought for us.  We think they are awesome and didn't want to give them away :)  Check out the book slots on the sides and under the top, pretty sharp eh?  We brought them into the house on a piece of plywood and stained them literally hours before the gift trade.  Talk about procrastinators.  

Mom finally got my name!  We have been doing this name trade deal for years and Mom has never picked me.  I was so excited to see what she would get me. She hooked it up with tons of kitchen stuff, all from the Goodwill.

 Here are some of the bowls Mom got me.  

And, it just wouldn't be an English Christmas without a gag gift.  Levi really had me going.  He gave me a nicely wrapped gift, which should have been a clue that I was about to get screwed over :)  He said he wanted to give me something special and just for me.  He found this wonderfully stylish outfit at where else, the Goodwill.  I was totally stoked, and had to try it on immediately.  And, to be completely honest I would rather get something like this than an outfit that I would actually wear.  We had too much fun trying it on.   Just wait till you see Pa's photo.  Although, the competition was tough, Pa defintitely took the prize for ba-ringing it.  You'll will see.  I think he liked it a little too much.  Oh, and if you must know I was breaking it down in my new duds during our Wii Micheal Jackson tournament.  I looked amazing!

Levi looking HOT, as usual ;)

Doug thought it would be a good pizza boy uniform.  We are thinking about mass producing these get-ups and pitching it to Little Ceaser's.  You may laugh now, but wait till we are raking in the dough. 

And here he is Ladies and Gentlemen!  Hold yourselves back.  The sexiest man EVER!  If the Little Ceasers deal falls through, we always have Ben-Hur (the company Pop works for).  There company colors are blue and white.  Just imagine all the iron workers showing up to the job-site in this, HA! 

Merry Christmas! It was a good one!

More to come

Just a little preview of Christmas Eve.  We have so much more to share, we are just too busy playing at the moment! 

Sweet and sugar-free

Chloe and I made these Poppy Seed cakes today.  I substituted Agave nectar for the sugar and used freshly squeezed orange juice for the topping.  I love to bake, but it always involves TONS of sugar.  I have been trying to substitute other sweeteners.  These turned out pretty darn good. 

Mommy and Chloe having a wonderful day together.

Chloe and I had an awesome day today, just hanging out, cleaning the house, and cooking. She is getting to be such a good helper.  She helps me with the dishes and sorting the laundry. She pulls the clothes out of the baskets and says "Poppa's clothes".  She is really good at holding the dust pan while I sweep the dirt into it.  We danced, laughed, and played with her baby dolls.  I have so much fun with her, she is always in a pleasant mood, and brings more joy than I could ever put into words.

More kitchen photos

Doug finished the lower corner cabinet doors.  He is particularly proud of these.  He also put all the drawer pulls and handles on the doors. 

Where's Chloe?

We couldn't find Miss Chloe.  We looked in her play room, our bedroom, the office, the bathroom, everywhere.  We found her nestled in her little buddies on the sofa.  She had shimmied back behind them.  She thought it was so funny when we finally discovered her there.

Stainless Steel Backsplash Complete

Goodwill Gone Ca-razy

My Mom is the Goodwill Queen.  Nearly everything she owns is from the Goodwill or garage sales.  She gets more compliments on her clothing than anyone I have ever known.  Everyone always asks her "where did you get that awesome shirt?" and she is oh so proud to say "I got it at Goodwill, of course".  In the last year or so I have been going to Goodwill with her and just recently I have experienced what you would call the "Goodwill high".  We seriously get a rush when we get these great deals.  I personally get buyers remorse when I spend more money on something than I want to.  But going to the Goodwill solves that problem.  I bought all this stuff in the above photos for a little more than 20 bucks! I am especially fond of the plates.  The large ones were 79 cents each and the small plates were 35 cents each. The canisters are new, they still had the Styrofoam in them.  The children's books are 48 cents each. And yes, that is an robot dog to match the robot cat we got at Goodwill not long ago.   You just can't beat it.  It doesn't bother me one bit that they are used, heck after we use them one single time, they are technically "used" anyway.  Well, I am spoiled now, I don't want to pay full price for ANYTHING.  Thanks Mom :)  

 

Passed down

I rediscovered this doll tucked away in a small beaded box while cleaning the other day.  My Mom gave me this doll when I was around Chloe's age.  Now I will pass it down to my daughter.  She calls it "lil doll". 

The many faces of a Smooshie Guy

We made this Smooshie Guy for Chloe last year before Christmas and never actually finished it.  I decided to hem him (get it hem him, anyway) up and introduce him to Miss Chloe.  She loves her "guy" and is pretty good at making up new faces.  I think she would have been too young last year, so I am glad we waited.  Anyway, I just think he is hilarious and had to post some photos of Mr Smooshie Guy.

Countertops and a sink WITH running water in the kitchen!!!!

We finally got the counter tops done! Once again Doug did an amazing job.  I love the oak trim along the front of the counters, CUSTOM! We also installed the new kitchen sink.  We haven't had a sink in the kitchen for over two months.  I can't get used to it being in there.  I keep going to bathroom to wash my hands :) Miss Chloe welcomed the new sink and took a bath in it on the very first night. It is super, super deep.  She can easily put her head under the faucet.    Oh, and how could I forget.........du-dun-da-da............ A DISHWASHER!!!!!!!!  Doug came skipping through the house with the cutest smile on his face and said to me "can you hear that?  It's doing the dishes for us!"  

We installed the lazy Susans in the lower corner cabinets last night and finished over half of the stainless steel back splash.  

On another note, as you can see Miss Chloe's face is a little swollen in these photos.  She is cutting 8 teeth at once, ouch.  

Proud Parents

Miss Chloe has discovered the joy of Legos.  She played with them all evening. We are in total awe every time she learns something new.  We were so proud of her when she put this stack of Legos together all by herself.  

17 months old

1

Barker's Beauty

Get this girl on The Price Is Right.  She did a great job at modeling our new fridge.   

Happy Birthday Mr.Home Improvement

 The floor is done! 

The appliances are in!!

The lower cabinets are officially installed!!!

It is Doug's Birthday!!!!

Did I overuse the exclamation points?!

And, I'm a dork! 

Old Bill Cosby was right, Kids say the darnedest things

Seriously she is trying to say PENCIL

Our Beautiful Baby Girl on our Beautiful Wood Floor

For the past two days, late nights, and early mornings Doug, Pop, and I have been laying the wood floor in the dining room and kitchen.  Doug stayed up until 4:00 am on Tuesday night working on it and then didn't even go to sleep last night. Like I said before, the guy is a true die-hard.  I unfortunately was up all night too with the flu.  I would have much rather been helping out.  I made him breakfast at 6:30 this morning with some extra, extra strong coffee before he headed off to work.  We will be sanding the floor tomorrow and applying the polyurethane on Saturday.  I cannot believe we are finally to this point in the never-ending kitchen remodel!  I took this photo of Miss Chloe on the new floor around 5:30 this morning.

Question #1: Why can't we all look this great when we roll out of bed every morning?
Question #2:  Why in the heck is she up at 5:30 in the morning?

Circa 1940

Here is a photo of me during the set-up.  We had another flash on the opposite side.  Can you say super Pro-fes-sion-al ? 

My good buddy Brook and I have been dreaming of a vintage, 1940 style photo shoot for awhile now.  So, Sunday night I got a call from Brook suggesting we do it on Monday, but we didn't have any props or clothing.  She made a few calls and got her hands on this suitcase filled with authentic 1940's garb!  We were fa-reaking out to say the least!  We decided to set up shop in the loft of the barn and getting up there was no easy feat.  We had to put a chair on the back of her hubby's boat and climb up through the rafters with all of our gear.  There was a skull and some animal droppings that had to be relocated, but hey, kind of goes with the territory I guess. I would say it was definitely worth it.  I love, love, love the photos.  We took over 300 frames and it was very hard to chose which ones to post.  We had soooo much fun and probably could have stayed in that loft for hours snapping away.  I loaded some new actions to photoshop to get the different effects on the pics. Fun, Fun, Fun!!!!!!!