Monday, August 10, 2009

HGTV

OUR GOAL: (pictures from IKEA)
OUR JOURNEY:

So, We have been thinking about updating our kitchen for a while. Ryan put me on the job this summer to do a little research and find out how much it would cost to have someone come out and put in new countertops and cupboards. I started with Homedepot and before finding out specifics on how much it would be... I couldn't find a countertop that I loved... and then one day we got an add in the mail from Thomas Construction saying that we could get a $25 gift card if they came out and gave us a 1 hour estimate. GREAT! no harm done... I could use $25. They came and 1 hour turned into 3.5 hours... with an unhappy baby. It was horrible and they gave us an estimate of $13,000! For our tiny kitchen. No appliances included. Yeah, right. So, we went back to the drawing board and thought about replacing them ourselves. Ikea home planner estimated the materials to cost approx. $3,000... Hey that's a huge improvement. Then, we thought well... no harm done if we just experiment with the one's that we already have and if we hate it- Ikea cupboards it would be. So... this past Saturday we started the experiment. Ryan bought a sander and we took off the horizontal piece of wood and sanded the doors. We also rebuilt the cupboards above the microwave so that the microwave fits where it should be. So, we are REALLY looking to cut our costs...


Next, we are going to paint them white and put some extra snazzy harware on and add a sweet countertop. More updates to come as this project progresses.


Thursday, August 6, 2009

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

City Garden

St. Louis just put in a new park downtown that we LOVE! It has three big areas with fountains for kids to play in. I have pictured 2 of them because the third one is a little too advanced for Dennis.





The med school wife's club pictured below.
Just a few of the little one's that were born around the same time as Dennis. They were all facing the camera at one point. Dennis wouldn't stop moving...
This fountain is just a constant flow of water down this slope infront of this wierd head. Pretty cool for babies. I'm pretty sure that Dennis doesn't classify himself as a baby because he just wanted to play in the head.
Fun summer days about to end. :(

Louis & Clark

Some days Dennis is content to play in his room with his books and blocks, etc. And, some days he is not. Today was one of the latter. Here he got stuck and asked for help.
I think in this next one he is on the hunt for a gold fish left behind in his chair. I took a picture because I thought it was cute that he could step up to stand on the walker...
...and then he just kept going...


... and going...

...and going...

...until he got it...
Unfortunately, he dropped it at this point and Buster got it.
Fortunately, Dennis didn't mind a bit. He was sure proud of himself and thought that hanging upside down was pretty funny. He didn't ask for help out of this one... but I gave it to him anyways.
exploring is hard work... but sure fun!

Monday, August 3, 2009

11 months!

My big boy has only 1 month left until he is a year old! Wow. Time flies way too fast. Just in the past week Dennis has really enjoyed not just pulling the books off of his shelves but paging through them. I am so happy... I thought he was never going to be interested. This is the first time that he has sported this shirt... I was going through the clothes that we have for 12-18 months (not that he fits in them yet... he still wears mostly 9 month stuff.) And, I found this shirt. Given to us by Ryan's brother's family (don't worry they have BYU stuff from us) this shirt was probably never to be worn if it were up to Ryan... I actually think its kinda cute- of course it would be cuter if it was BYU. Anyways, I realized that this shirt is WAY small for being 12-18 mo. and if he didn't wear it soon, he never would. This might be the only time he will wear it for Im scared it wont fit him after it gets washed. So, sorry Ryan...
...I'll probably get in trouble for this one.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

I love my boys


Just playing.
Buster on clean-up duty while Dennis eats.

Dennis's new FAVORITE thing to do... take all of the books off of the shelves. Sometimes, he will even take the shelves off too.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Road Bikes



So, my road bike (the pink one) should be arriving at my house today! It's a motobecane gigi... and I love it. The other bike is the one that Ryan got and he loves it! It's a motobecane vent noir.
And, I am becoming a road biker slowly but surely. I'm even contimplating comuting to work everyday. That's if I can figure out a way to shower at school without feeling wierd about it. `
great place to find bikes: www.bikesdirect.com