Aidan's First Swim Lessons

Over the years, Aidan has pretty much been terrified of the water.  He will go into the water, and play around, but absolutely no going under the water.  Even in the bathtub.  He has never liked his head being remotely close to going under the water.  This summer at 7 peaks, he has had a few times while in the wave pool, having the waves coming over his head.  Choking, coughing and crying sometimes after it.  So I knew it was time for swim lessons.  Thankfully, he agreed.  Now, keep in mind that any sort of lessons Bryan and I tried to help him with, were unsuccessful. To my surprise, on his very first day of class, he was a superstar!  I could not believe that he was going under the water, swimming with the teacher and doing so great at everything she asked him to do.  He has loved every minute of it, and has done so well.  He still doesn't love to go under the water, but he is doing it, and trying his best.  I though maybe his teacher would want him to try Level 1 again, but today she came up and told me that over the years, all of the students she's taught, she hasn't ever seen someone improve so much.  And he passed to Level 2!  Great job Aidan!!

Aidan's (belated) Birthday

Oh wow, I am terrible at blogging.  Aidan's Birthday was May 24.  He turned 6 yrs old.  Yes, I felt a little teary eyed.  My baby is 6.  Aidan had such a fun birthday this year.  His last day of Kindergarten was on his birthday.  And it was also field day.  So he thought it was the greatest thing ever to have field day on his birthday.  He had a little birthday party later that afternoon.  He initially only wanted boys to come.  Then he remembered his "girl" friend London, and decided like 1 or 2 days before, that he wanted her to come.  So he invited Lincoln Hughes, Clark Nelson, Luke Hollingshead, London Heath, Landon Galbraith, Jeremy Hall and 2 more boys from school that were not able to make it.  He is way into Avengers these days.  So he had an Avengers party. We had some pretty cute games that they played.  Captain America's pin the star on the shield,  Avenger's matching game, and an Avengers relay race.  I love this age, the kids are so funny and they say the funniest things.

A few things about Aidan these days, well here is a video to make you smile.  I've done all my children's hair everyday for the last 11 years.  Madison actually just barely started wanting to do her own hair this year. But Aidan just decided one day that he wanted to do his own.  And he won't let me go near it.  So Aidan's favorite color is still orange.  He loved school this year.  (I actually tried to keep him home with me a few times, and he said no).  He is such a good kid.  He is so helpful at home.  So thoughtful, and so funny!!  He loves books, he loves sports, and he loves his friends.  We love Aidan so much!!!

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.  

Closing Day

Well, we closed today!  We are officially moving into our home over the next few days.  We are so pleased with how everything turned out.  We just loved the opportunity to build our own home.  To choose (for the most part) everything to make it custom to our taste.  Since over the last 6 years, we couldn't seem to find our taste in all of the hundreds of homes we looked at.  We feel so blessed though to know that this is where are are supposed to be, and that everything has happened at the right time for us.

The kitchen sans the beautiful pendants which are on backorder.

Just another view of kitchen

View of Family Room from kitchen (floor not mopped yet)

Fireplace :)

Family Room again

Stairway up to the Loft

Living Room right of entryway

Pretty Doors :)

Entrance to Master

Master Bedroom

Sitting Room off Master

Entry to Master Bath

Master Bath..fuzzy pic

Master Bath without mirrors

Loft area

Loft

Kids Bathroom

Madison's Room (boys is the same layout)

So this is our home.  It hasn't been fully cleaned yet, and a few minor things need to be touched up.  Hopefully that will all get done before tomorrow night!  

Countertops

There is nothing more gratifying than the builder telling us, with complete enthusiasm, that he can't believe how great our kitchen countertops look.  He said initially he wasn't sure about it, but with complete sincerity just emphasized how great they look.  When we had our pre-construction meeting and I told them the color I had chosen for the countertops, the realtor that represents the builder did a bit of the eye roll thing, and looks at the builder and says "oh, of course, black countertops".  I'm aware that my taste is not common, but I was paid the best compliment by the builder who was really impressed by my taste.  And not only that, but he told us that they have received a lot of feedback from people who have walked through our house and loved so many things about it.  They loved the style, a few wanted to copy it and someone had copied one thing already.  Are you kidding me?  The builder also usually does a rock fireplace, but I gave him a picture (from Pinterest nonetheless  http://pinterest.com/pin/239816748877199658/) of the fireplace I wanted him to do. He being the fantastic builder he is said of course he would do it.  But after seeing it done was so impressed and told me they were going to use that in their other homes as an option as well!!!  Here's a picture.  It's not finished yet.  It will be painted white, of course.

My heart is still full of utter joy that I was paid so many compliments on my style.  Who knew?  I just love that at first they thought I was a bit weird, but now to come back and say all of this is pure heaven!

So, this week is it.  The final everything is going in.  We do our walkthrough next monday, and close by the end of next week.  Oh wow!!  Time had flown by so quick!!  Just this morning I still felt like it wasn't really going to happen next week, but it is.  I can't believe it!

Thought we picked out grey stucco?

Oh the joys of picking out all of our home selections like 3 months ago.  So we totally thought this whole time that we had picked out a grey stucco color for the outside of our home.  The other day we went into the design center just to make sure.  And when they pulled out our sample color we were both just in shock and for sure thought it was not the color we picked out.  Usually I'm the one who doesn't remember things, but when Bryan didn't remember picking it out...oh dear.  It was too late to choose another color.  So here it is.  It looks okay, but more on the brown side than grey.  I wasn't able to see the house tonight, so it's looks grey in the picture but Bryan says in person it is brown.

But here is another one of my favorite things we have chosen to do with the house.  The staircase!!!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!

I am so pleased with how this turned out!  My only wish was that the stairs could have been the dark hardwood with white but the builder said not happening.  Oh well, a DIY for the future.  Our front door in the background there is hopefully the first stage of the stain because we want it as dark as the staircase.  Cross fingers or it's a redo.  2 more weeks!!  Can't wait!