My heart

Aidan (who is sitting at the table, listening to the whistling sound the straw in his sippy cup is making) pulls his ear away from his head and says: "Do you hear the ocean in here?" (Like in the shells)

Me (after putting my ear up next to his so our heads are touching side by side): "No, I don't hear the ocean. All I hear is 'I love you mom. I love you mom. I love you mom. I love you mom.' "

Aidan (pulls away to look at me): "No mom, that's my heart."


I can't even begin to express the good that has done for my heart.

House pictures

We've been busy working on this house since before we even moved in and we're finally starting to wrap up a few projects. When we moved in the previous owner had repainted the whole house white and put in new carpet so we had a pretty fresh palate to start with. The kitchen was pretty dated so that was first on our list and I'm really happy with how its turning out. Thanks to Brett and my wonderful family and friends we've been able to get some work done. I have to send a special shout out to my brother Joseph. He's become my own personal handyman (or so I like to call him) and has been at the house working and working and working to get it done. I've started missing him keeping me company during the day now that we're not doing much. We couldn't have done it without him. He even fixed the one remodel we weren't expecting- the bathroom pipes leaking onto our kitchen ceiling and us having to cut a pretty large square out to fix the pipes and replace it. We couldn't have done it (or afforded it) without his help. We love you, Joseph! There is still SO much to do but I finally feel like its becoming ours! Now the fun part comes... Decorating!

We forgot to take before pictures but remembered before we were in too deep. Sorry for the poor quality- cell phones. The kitchen cabinets were oak before and Anson and Julia were a huge help in painting them.




Here's the finished project for now. We painted the walls and cabinets, put the knobs on, bought and put together a cute pantry/cabinet from Ikea for more cupboard space, and put up the beadboard and trim. We had plans to replace the countertops right away (not loving the plain white) but that's going to have to wait a little longer. Plus now we're really not loving our floor next to the beadboard (not that we loved it in the first place) so we might replace the floors first. For now we bought the rug and that helps to warm it up a little.



New rug


We painted the entry way and living room (I'm loving my green wall) and then ran out of paint and time for the family room so that will get done here in the next couple weeks. We haven't done much decorating but I'm amazed at how much painting made a difference. I was so tired of white walls!


I love my new pillows!


Hope that satisfies the itch some of you had to see the house! We'll post more as more gets done!

I'm Back!

While I wish that I wasn't currently holding the title for world's worst blogger I have to admit that life has seemed to have knocked me down on my butt the past couple months. I can sum it up by saying its been an incredibly difficult winter and every day I'm looking forward to that hint of spring that I know is soon to come. The past few weeks have seen some brighter sides, though, and I'm happy to be coming around to some version of myself again. Life has been full with taking care of Ethan, many doctors visits (we just hit a record of not having to take him in for 3 weeks- before that we were going every week to 10 days), long Saturdays working on the house, and festival/recital season with piano lessons. I had 2 students cry at the piano this week- everyone is just worn out. By Thursday I started to think I should just put a box of tissues on the piano. Thank goodness after tomorrow is over, (I have to judge piano festival for 7 1/2 hours), with the exception of a couple days I have the next 2 weeks off. I can't begin to express how much this break is needed!

I just finished my 2nd week of my new step aerobics class and I'm loving it! Problem is waking up at 5:00 am to get to Salem by 5:30 am but so far I'm doing well and so happy to actually be exercising. I got back on Weight Watchers again this week and am hoping to see some progress before Anson's wedding in April. Regardless, it feels so good to finally be doing something rather than just wishing I was doing something. Hopefully I'll get used to this early morning thing soon.

Ethan has obviously had a very rough winter and I'm really hoping that he will do better now that the warmer weather is coming. I worry constantly about him and am glad that he has managed to pull through these latest 3 weeks of being sick without any major incidence. I actually was able to take him in this week for a well-child visit (2 months late) and his lungs were actually clear. I hope it will last for a little bit. I'm sad to say that I took the plunge and cut his hair. I'm not happy about it, but its good to see his beautiful eyes again. It was always in his face and since the poor child is always sick, he was getting boogers in his hair. Gross. It was time to go. Here are some before pictures and I haven't really taken an after picture, but you'll get a kick out of the 3rd picture anyways:

Just waking up from a nap so its all over the place:




Sorry for the small size- we just have a cell phone picture of this- I can't get over how funny he is. He found Ethan's vampire teeth and had a great time sneaking up on us to say "BOO!"



Last weekend my mom, Juli, and I all threw a shower for our new sister Julia. Anson and her are getting married on Easter Saturday and we're thrilled to have her join the family. The shower turned out really nice and the best part was that Jordan flew in with my darling niece Lauren and we got to have her join our girls weekend! Friday night we had a girls night of shopping and dinner and then after the shower on Saturday we went up to Midway to see and cuddle my cousin Sarah's new baby girl. We finished the night with all the family at my house and pizza. It was a really fun weekend- I love spending time with my family, especially when Jordan can be here with us.

Our side of the family at the shower


The sisters: Jordan, me, Julianna, and Julia


Baby girl Lauren- she looks just like Jordan did. I cannot get enough of her!


We're actually starting to finish some projects on the house that have been in the works since before we moved in, so I'll post some pictures soon (I promise it won't take another 2 months!)