Happy (belated) Birthday Ethan!!

Happy belated Birthday to my super cute Ethan!  May 14, 2002.  Ethan is such a wonderful part of our family. As a little baby he was so so sweet!!!  And he still is.  Ethan is in 4th grade..for 3 more days.  He loves to read (loves might be an understatement).  He is currently into the Percy Jackson/Rick Riordan books.  He loves basketball, loves, loves the Avengers (me too).  He is such a great son.  So thoughtful and kind to others, and does pretty well in school.  He tries to do his best in everything that he does.  For his birthday he had just 3 friends join him at Hang Time, then they came over for some cake and fun.  We sure love Ethan, and are so blessed to have him on our family!

Just to add a few other things.  We can't believe that this school year had flown by.  My sweet "baby" Aidan is done with Kindergarten in 2 days, Madison is graduating from Elementary school..sigh, where does the time go?  I can't even begin to think about Madison in 7th grade/Junior High this fall, or Aidan being in school all day.  Lots of crying will be happening.  Sure love my family!

Kitchen

So here's a few pics of the kitchen and family room.  The kitchen is about 90% complete.  My kitchen is the first thing that I had to finish.  

This is the cook top in kitchen.

 pictured above here.

     

This my baking area.  The jars are filled with AP Flour, Sugar and Bread Flour.  In the drawer just to the left of the dishwasher, I have containers with baking soda, baking powder etc..Just to make it easy all in one place.

I'm including a picture of my sink because I read an article from my all time favorite cook, Ina Garten recommending to have a sink that is deep, wide and open.  Best advice ever!  I love it!

This is me at my OCD best.  Makes my heart so happy.  Haha!  I am debating removing the cabinets to have open shelving.  Bryan and Madison say no, Ethan and Aidan say yes.  And yes, I realize there is an empty spot on the right side, 2nd shelf from the bottom.  I do have a bowl that goes there.  Currently in the dishwasher.

A bit of drawer organization.

One side of my spice drawer. (the other side isn't quite as pretty)

     

My All Clad pans in the pull-out drawer.  Bless whoever invented pull-out drawers.

My pantry. Love the pantry.  It's my happy place.

I have large baskets at the bottom for my bakeware.

Closer look at my white serve ware.  Love white dishes!

This is a sneak peak at the Family Room.  

And a fuzzy picture of Aidan at the almost finished office/desk area.  There is a small hutch that goes on top of the desk that is back ordered.

So we've been here for three weeks now.  What?  Where did the time go?  It's been just surreal really.  We've been in our town house for 12 years.  It's taken me a bit to get used to not worrying about the tv being too loud or not yelling too loud.  Sundays are a whole new experience having Bryan home with us.  And the fact that we have church from 9-12 is a big bonus.  My favorite time to have church for 2 reasons  #1 naptime, and #2 all afternoon to bake and cook!  Love it!  The kids seemed to have adjusted quite well.  I thought having the kids in a separate floor from us would be an adjustment.  But it's honestly the best.  Aidan doesn't visit us in the middle of the night anymore, it's great!  Our neighborhood has exploded in the home building area.  There are about 45 new homes under construction in the area..whoa!  For now I hope that our view out the back will stay un-obstructed for the time being.  We love it here, it's so peaceful and really beautiful.