Living room flooring- finally!

Saturday I removed the tile in front of the front door then later that night we moved everything out and took the carpet out- ew!

SO much dirt.

And it was disgusting looking at the bottom of the carpet. It was like 15 years old!

Sunday afternoon Steven and his Dad put most of the flooring down.

 They ran into a few problems and it took a lot longer than they thought. Monday they worked for about 3 more hours and the living room was done. I LOVE it! One thing that kind of stinks is, there was a different one that we really loved- it was way cheaper too. But it had bad reviews when it came time to installing. And what do you know- so did ours! Oh well.

It still feels a little unreal for some reason. Like its too pretty, it can't be my house! haha. You can see every little thing on it though, I'm constantly sweeping- it drives me nuts! We still need to buy new baseboards, then the living room will be complete!

Oh yeah and Steven's going to build a new tv console:

 Perfect!

I really love this color but I think it'll clash with the floors. We can decide on that later.

An upclose picture. One of my favorite things about it is how textured it is.

It might be taking us a long time to get things done- but we're getting there! And having fun doing it... well at least I am, since I'm not doing much of the hard labor. :)

House/Ryan's birthday

Our flooring came in last Monday- on Wednesday Steven and his friend Sean went to pick it up, Steven's Dad met them there.

All piled up!

Sunday Steven and his Dad are going to put it in the living room- I can't wait! But... honestly I'm a teeny, tiny bit sad about not having carpet anymore. I'm sure I'll get over it quickly. Then comes the fun part, fixing this dang kitchen floor.

My new faucet and sink. :)

Its so unhomey in this area, I don't like it. But I know it'll be worth the wait in the end. [My kitchen walls always come out lime greenish in pictures, they aren't that bright.]

We still have to order the backdoor, buy new doors for the rest of the house, baseboards and I want new light fixtures in the kitchen. Also paint all the door handles/hinges bronze. Phew! I'm not in a huge hurry for any of this except the backdoor. The one I chose has a window and its so pretty! Steven went to order it like 3 weeks ago but the guy wasn't there... get on it, buddy!

Saturday morning we left for Ryan's second birthday- I can't believe he's already two! These babies grow up way too fast. The drive is long and of course, the kids never fall asleep til the last 30 minutes- happens every time! They slept almost the whole way back home though.

Birthday boy!

His party was monster themed, Rebecca did such a good job. It was fun! It rained a good amount and the kids loved it. It made the day so nice and cool. We got to see Elyse, the last time we saw her I was about to pop with Aiden. When we walked into Rebecca's house, she looked and me and smiled. When I said hi to her she walked up and hugged me. It made me happy. :) Its too bad she doesn't live closer to her brothers and the rest of her family.

I love being an Aunt! Ryan and Jake being Rebecca's babies makes it extra, extra special.

It was a fast but fun weekend! While I'm wishing that people lived closer, I also wish we lived closer to the Rios'. Our babies love running around together. Aiden, Rian and Ryan love each other so much- its so easy to see. Jakey will too when he's older! Best buds.

Oh yeah and I can't forget to write about Aiden looking at me, smiling and saying, "You look like a princess." Awww! Love.

Geez I haven't updated in so long! Maybe because I try to only be in the kitchen when I absolutely  have to, it doesn't feel too homey at the moment. We haven't done anything to the house since my last update. My parents are in Hawaii for the next two weeks and when they get back, my mom and I are going to start chipping at the kitchen floor- fun. We ordered our flooring last week so it should be here in another week and a half. We're going to do the living room asap- can't wait!

Life is as crazy as ever. Two against one when Steven's at work. I try to get them outside in the mornings before it gets stupid hot out. I can NOT believe its June already. Didn't 2012 just start?! This is my last year home with Aiden. For the most part, I'm very much looking forward to him being in school but when the time comes, I know I'll be sad. Around January we're going to enroll him in part-time preschool so he gets used to the school concept.

Kid updates:

- I love when they "shhhh" each other. Aiden's sounds like "sssss" and Rian's "thhhh' haha!

- This may be inappropriate but one night we watched Ridiculousness and they waxed this guy's chest, right over his nipple. The next day Aiden came out of his room with a piece of tape he found and said "Watch this Mommy" he put the tape over his nipple, ripped it off and did a fake, dramatic scream. It was so funny. We definitely have to be careful with what we watch, no more Ridiculousness for him!

- We were on the back porch and two big birds flew right in front of us, Aiden said "Whoa! I didn't see that coming!"

- The other day he said "Mommy that looks like you!" and I thought it was Lindsey Lohan, I told him "Don't say that!" And Steven said "It was Lauren Conrad" Aww he's such a good boy! haha Even though I don't look like her.

- Rian's new thing at naptime is "I want to sleep with Aiden"- which would obviously never work. So we have a battle every. single. day. when I try to put her in her room. Augh! Terrible twos are in full effect.

- For awhile now Aiden's been telling us how to respond when he asks us something. "Mommy say yes." "Daddy do this to your head" and he'll nod his head. At night after he's been in bed for a few minutes he'll yell "Night Mommy, night!" and I yell "Ni-night!" back. The other night I said "Night, bud" instead and he said "No. Say 'ni-night!'" :) The other day he said "Rian, you don't even speak Enlgish!"

- Rian's new word: actually. I can't believe she says that. She's supposed to be a baby! "Actually, I just did."

- She finally poops in the potty, regularly! I'm not sure if I updated about that or not. Since she started going on the potty, she hasn't needed her fiber gummies. So weird! I officially have two big kids.

I've been so bad at writing down funny things they say. I need to do it, I want to remember everything- they're so funny!

I've been wanting to make her a kitchen forever. The other night I drew a little stove and put it on her nightstand. I found a little tv stand yesterday to make one but Steven wouldn't go get it for me! Rude. I'm going to see if its still there tomorrow. They have so much fun pretending to cook.

I found her this cute little highchair at Goodwill- she loves it!

Last week Tim, Rebecca, Ryan and Jake were here- they had soo much fun running wild with their cuzzies! Poor Jake was scared of Rian though- she's so rough! Obsessed with babies. Love those stinkers.

Their M&M outfits Grandma brough back from Vegas.

We let them watch tv in our room the other night while we watched Hatfields and McCoys. Seriously, how did parents watch tv before DVR?! I wonder this all the time. Sometimes it can take us an hour and a half to watch a 30 minute show because we have to pause it to wipe a butt, breakup a fight or rewind it because we can't hear over the screaming.

The other day I told Steven I hope he realizes I'm going to want another baby when Aiden goes to school. He said, "I know... I was just talking about that the other day at work." So, unless I change my mind, I think we're going to start trying in 6 months or so. Yikes! I just really don't want to buy a new car. We're going to have to eventually anyway. I don't want to think about a giant car payment and huge gas bill.

This is such a crazy, loud household already. I must be insane to consider bringing another monster in!

All grown up!

Last night Rachel graduated!!!

I haven't been able to think too much about it because it makes me so emotional- I was very surprised I didn't cry last night! Got tears here and there but held it together. :) I'm so, so, soo proud of her!

She is so sweet, smart, caring, beautiful- I could go on and on. She's exactly the type of person I want Rian to grow up to be. Love her so much.

The day Aiden's induction started was her first day of high school. I remember when she came to visit that night, thinking about how strange it'll be to have an almost four year old when she graduates... and now we're here. Doesn't seem possible! I just can't believe she's about to start college. In a few years she could be married and maybe even pregnant- augh!

I need to stop writing before the tears start.

Congrats baby sister!

Mother's Day/Removing the tile

My Mother's Day wasn't so relaxing. Saturday night Steven tried out the tool he rented- it was SO LOUD. Rian was able to sleep through it though.

This is how it looked when we went to bed that night- yikes!

We spent a little less than 6 hours working that day. It was such a dusty/hot mess. The amount of dust on us and in here was nuts! [I'm still cleaning it.] I felt bad for the kids, having to hang out in a hot, gross house basically all by themselves. Next time we'll take them to one of our parents' houses.

Happy it was basically all up!

It looks like a construction zone in here. Steven still needs to chip at the higher pieces of concrete, hard to do when he only has two free days a week. After this we'll be able to level it. Funny, we thought we were going to have to level the other side because thats where it went up but with the way this tile ended up coming out, we're now going to level this part. Its like walking on rocks and more and more dust just keeps coming up.

So yesterday Steven's dad dropped off the carpet they just ripped up from their house. They just put in new flooring, we're actually going to get the same one. I love what they picked but didn't want to get the same one so our houses looked different. We picked three that we also really loved but after reading reviews, we're going to get it the same one. I'm happy with it. Can't wait!

My babies on Mother's Day.

Steven got up early and brought home breakfast burritos and got me an iPad! Eek! I've been wanting  one or a laptop but I never would've bought one. I felt a little guilty at first but I looove it- I'm using the heck out of it so it'll definitely be money well spent!

Kitchen redo pt. 1

Before I do the house update I have to say: Last week Rian pooped on the potty! And she's done it FOUR times this week! Finally. Picking up peeing right away was sooo awesome but these last three months have been no fun. So happy its clicking... and just in time- she went from having little poop balls to nasty mush. GAG. Hopefully this is the end of her also having poop troubles and getting plugged up. Anyway...

Last week I painted the cabinets [well started, I'm not technically done.] I still have to do the island the cabinet doors above the stove, also under the range but that's getting replaced so I'll paint them when that happens. Such a HUGE difference! I wanted to add chicken wire to all the top cabinets but opted to just do two for now. One day they'll be replaced with glass but its not a priority right now. I love the look of the chiken wire.

And as you can see by the floor- we did a lot more than paint the cabinets!

Steven ripped up the kitchen area tile- it came up so easily. Seriously, it took him like 10 minutes.

But when he got to the area where the kitchen was extended into the "dining area", it became way too difficult. Of course.

Tomorrow he's renting some tile thing- [looks like rug doctor but removes tile] so it should hopefully all be up by the end of the weekend. I knew this floor would be a lot time and work but its driving me crazy already! I need to just breathe. We found the flooring we want to get. Everything is being delayed by this floor- mostly the part thats making me nuts.

We also knocked down this little wall- yay! I've been wanting a bigger opening forever. It was one of the first things I wanted to do.

More space. :)

So its been a little nuts around here but I better get used to it. This is going to be a long few months!

Laundry room pt.2/bay window

Last week I hung up a couple of things in the laundry room:

My mom gave me those knob things [I love crystal knobs, wish I could have them for every door in the house] and J made all her bridesmaid's this awesome hangers last year- perfect!

I added lace to the front of the shelving.

Last week on Pinterest, I don't even remember what I typed in the search, but I came across the most perfect laundry cart/basket:

I had to have it! It came in today. Its $150 at Pottery Barn but the seller put it up for waaay cheaper because it was "defective"- it was missing the liner which I didn't even want and one of the bottom spokes is broken, not a big deal. Awesome find for me!

Today I planned to paint the bottom of this bench area because it was so gross and ended up also painting the framing around the window. I wasn't planning to do it, but I've been wanting to do it since the second we moved in! This wood look is everywhere in the house- can't wait til its gone.

I need to find out if this chandelier works so it can be one of the new light fixtures in the main kitchen area. It needs to be painted too!