Our Little Singer

Hylie has really grown to love singing all throughout the day, and we just absolutely LOVE it!  You'll hear her playing in her room or sitting in the back of the car singing all sorts of different songs--from Nursery rhymes to John Denver's "Country Roads".  We finally got some on video:

"Part of Your World"

From the Little Mermaid

Up where they walk, up where they run,

Up where they stay all day in the sun.

Wanderin' free, wish I could be

Part of that world.

"I am a Child of God"

I am a child of God,

and He has sent me here.

Has given me an earthly home

with parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me.

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

to live with Him someday.

Farewell, Kitchen!

When Geoff and I were house shopping, one of my 'wish-list' items was an open kitchen.  The homes in Chicago are older and so finding something that wasn't enclosed by four walls and a decent size was quite a challenge.  The kitchen in our current home was the biggest we had seen--and it had an open wall into the dining area.  Double bonus here, right?!  Unfortunately, the condition of the kitchen was not great at all, but we saw the amazing potential the space had and now we're hopeful to get this kitchen up to par!

We found a contractor, picked out our appliances, and selected the finishes.  Construction was supposed to start this week...but we're already following a typical construction track: delays!  Our contractor now can't start until next week.  The kitchen is already half-packed, so I'm trying to decide if I continue to live in boxes for the next few days, or unpack everything again...

Regardless, we are excited to say good-bye to our current kitchen with:

The tiniest oven I've ever seen.  I affectionately refer to this little guy as my "fake-n-bake" and have recently had episodes where it shuts off in the middle of baking or doesn't heat up at all.

Our leaky fridge.  Notice how the fridge is pulled out from the cabinets?  Yep, the water-line to the ice machine sprung a leak and Geoff got to rip out the soaked (and unfortunately moldy) walls in our pantry that is located in the basement right under the fridge.  He was a trooper and finished the dry-wall work and hanging the shelves before the kitchen project began.  Also, our dishwasher must have been catching on that it's getting replaced, there are times where no matter how hard we try, we can't get that little thing to turn on!

The hot glue-speckled yellowish/greenish walls.  The previous owners went with a floral theme in the kitchen and hot-glued plastic leaves all the way up the wall.  Nice, right?  The window got re-sized and replaced just yesterday--so now it's above counter height!  We also will be saying good-bye to the severely banged-up door.

Our melted knobs and scorched back splash.  Only one burner ignites without the aid of a lighter--this cook-top has definitely seen better days...

Our single-bulb light.  Yes, there is only one light-bulb in the entire kitchen.  Crazy, right?  Mom was so sweet and surprised us with an extra light above our kitchen sink which has been ever-so-helpful!

We obviously knew what we were getting ourselves into when we bought the place, so this blog post isn't a complaint, it's just a documentation of what we had.  We look forward to experiencing what is to come!

But old kitchen, I cannot lie: you will not be missed.

Here's a sneak peek into the finishes we've picked:

 We're going with dark wood cabinets, the brown tile will be the floor as well as backsplash colors, and those little baroque tiles will be details in the backsplash.  (Can't lie, I'm pretty giddy about that!)


We were super excited to find this countertop!  Can't wait to see how it looks in our kitchen!

Hylie's Room

I've decided that some projects are never officially 'finished'.  I've been wanting to blog about Hylie's new room for quite some time, but kept thinking I was going to get all the details done first...I've finally come to terms that there are too many other 'details' that need to get done before the baby comes, that I just need to consider Hylie's room finished, which truly is fine--for now.

Geoff and I absolutely love how it turned out, but more importantly: Hylie LOVES her new little space!  Right after she moved out of the nursery, she immediately started referring to it as 'The Baby's Room' and hasn't missed her old digs at all!

To help us bask in our accomplishments, we have to start with some 'BEFORE' pics, right?

Nothing that a little bit of sanding and patching can't fix, right?  Yikes.

And then there's this beauty.  I have no idea how this wall treatment was accomplished, but I hope to never see anything like it again...let alone have to deal with it.

Geoff and I got to work and boy was it work.  I made a two page to-do list of everything that needed to happen (Geoff was THRILLED, just let me tell you!).  In my brain it made sense to tackle other projects at the same time since we'd be using some of the same paint colors.  By the end, Geoff made me promise we would only do one thing at a time next time...I'm thinking that's a better approach.

So here are some 'DURING' shots:

Yes, during Hylie's room, we tackled the hallway! 

Hopefully, I don't have to point out which is the before and which is the after... 

I know the lighting is bad in this pic, but it's supposed to be showing off our paint job AND the new doorbell! 

In case you're wondering, it took four coats--yes four--to completely cover up the red mess! 

And look who's still smiling after all of those coats, too!

And finally, the 'AFTERS':

 I never did get to officially do Hylie's nursery with the "You Are My Sunshine" theme...so I'm making up for it now!

We were so excited to find this beautiful trundle bed.  Because of the ceiling fan, we didn't want to get bunk beds, but we wanted to be prepared to have two kids in this room if ever needed.

This stenciling took way longer than I had ever imagined, but thankfully I LOVE how it turned out.  I wanted to separate the light and dark blues with 'clouds' and then incorporate a striped pattern with raindrops.  I did the raindrops in the high-gloss finish of the same dark blue color, so you can't really see them unless the light is hitting it just right.

I'm excited with how the curtain border turned out.  Just so you know, I ironed and ironed these curtains and those stubborn wrinkles didn't budge.  They'll disappear over time, right?  Ugh.

 And this is where we get into the little 'details' that aren't quite finished yet.  I found these CUTE white shelves at a garage sale over the summer and knew they were a perfect fit for Hylie's room.  No, that is not the sunflower's final resting spot, and the other shelves will eventually be holding things as well!

 I think this is my favorite part of the room.  I. LOVE. this. painting. I wanted to have a big mural or picture of the sun and originally, I was just going to paint something, but then I remembered a little trick my High School Art teacher used for negative space: rubber cement. (You apply the glue, paint over it, and then rub the glue right off!)  So I painted the outline of the sun with rubber cement and then gave Hylie yellow and orange paint and asked her to paint all over.

She LOVED smearing that paint around!  Geoff then suggested she 'sign' it with her little hand print.  Now, Hylie often points to the picture and says, "Hylie paints!" Did I mention how much I LOVE this painting?

As you can see, Hylie is thrilled with her bed and room--so thrilled that getting her to sit still for a photo was absolutely impossible!

Happy Birthday, Geoff!

This weekend we celebrated Geoff's 38th Birthday.  He is constantly giving so much of his time and energy being the best husband and father, so we were hopeful to show him how much we appreciate all he does for us.

On Friday night, we had a fun double date with a couple from our ward, the Judds.  We had yummy food at Portillos and then I went window shopping with Lindsey while Geoff and Jake headed down to his birthday surprise: The Galloping Ghost.  It's a huge arcade 30 minutes south of us full of old and new arcade games and the best part is, you pay a cover charge of $15 and play as many games as you want for however long you want!  Geoff had a blast and is already planning a trip back!



Saturday morning, Geoff got up and did what every birthday boy dreams of doing: cleaning the gutters and mowing the lawn.  Ha ha!  I kept telling him he didn't have to worry about doing that on his birthday, but he seemed pretty focused on getting it done.  Afterwards, we had a birthday lunch of one of his favorite dishes: Chicken Al Alba.  I prepared his favorite meal for lunch because we had church meetings that filled the rest of the afternoon and evening.



Sunday night we invited friends over to enjoy cake with us.  Hylie was talking about Daddy's birthday cake all weekend and was pretty excited to help him blow out his candles!



Fun times for such a fun and wonderful guy!  Happy Birthday, Geoff!  We sure love you!

Family Vacation

Geoff took the first week of September off and Hylie and I thoroughly enjoyed having him around 24/7.  He kept pretty busy with house projects: mudding the pantry wall, emptying out the nursery so  we can paint, and finalizing details on our kitchen re-do.  The poor guy didn't rest much.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for our little get-aways.  We slipped out to the beach on one of the hotter days and had the best time.  Hylie loves going to the beach already, but to have Dad there building sand piles and digging puddles makes it that much better!  Unfortunately, I was a bit of a slacker when it came to taking pics, but here's a fun one with Dad:

We also ventured down to Geoff's college stomping grounds: Purdue.  Before we hit the campus, we met up with Mama Doeden--the mother of one of Geoff's roommates.  On many occasions, this sweet woman hosted bunches of crazy college boys looking to get away from campus life.  It was nice visiting with her and Hylie sure enjoyed playing with her grandkid's toys!

Being on the Purdue campus with Geoff was such a treat.  He showed us where he lived, the paths he took to get to class, and we were even able to venture into the engineering building where many of his (stressful) days were spent.  Geoff was shocked as to how much had NOT changed--the floors were a little more worn, but the artwork and classrooms where just as he left them!

The campus was absolutely beautiful and HUGE!  I thought BYU was overwhelming when I first got there, I think it would take until my junior year to get my bearings at Purdue.  Hylie ESPECIALLY loved the gorgeous fountains and even managed to get extremely wet while we were there!

This little courtyard was a hit with Hylie.  If you stand in the middle and clap, a squeaking noise is heard...Geoff can explain the physics behind it all, all I can do is share this cute pic!  Just the other day, Hylie was in the car clapping and asking where the squeak was, ha ha!

Thanks for a fantastic adventure at Purdue, Geoff!

Girl Time with Hylie

The other day I decided to attempt painting Hylie's nails.  Because she's a typical 2-year-old and doesn't stay still for longer than 2 seconds, I had no idea what to expect.

She was actually thrilled to get her nails painted and stayed SO still throughout the whole process--ten fingers and ten toes, pretty in purple and pink!