What he does

Evan has always loved reading.

He finds books wherever he is, plops down, and gets down to business.

It is the first thing he does when he gets home from school.

If anyone ever wonders where he is, the answer is usually, "He's in there with the books."

The library is his favorite place to be. He always leaves quite a pile of books to be re shelved.

My voice gives out long before he tires of sitting with me while I read to him.

Books are what he's into. It's just what he does. All. The. Time.

Kitchen Re-do

Our kitchen has been a two part process. Part one made the kitchen functional and part two made it pretty. When we bought our house we tore down the wall paper and painted  in the kitchen. Then three months later we added an island and different cabinets so the set up made more sense.  That was part one and we did it on the cheap, in hopes of being able to do more later.

Forgive me for these first set of pictures. They were taken back in the dark ages before we had a digital camera. I guess we are still in the dark ages because we don't have a scanner so I had to take a picture of the pictures. Oh well I thought it was important to show you the BEFORE, before pictures.

Yes, that is a tiny little Evan in the corner there:)

Here are the second set of before pictures. These were taken right when we were starting to make some of our pretty changes. The wainscoating was already up around the island and even though the kitchen was far from clean I knew I had to take before pictures while they were still before. 

I have never been known for my decorating skills and up until recently didn't know what I wanted or what style I was.  I'm getting better and I get lots of help from an expert who happens to be related to me. She is the one who encouraged me to go for it when I showed her the blog post that inspired the style I was going for in my new kitchen. Then she helped me pick out colors and details, she is awesome.

Here is my new kitchen. I wish I was a better photographer but I'm not so you'll see shadows and the color is probably all wrong but you get the point. (I hope)

Shout out to my electrician husband who did all the lighting. He is dang good at his job and he built these lights himself when we couldn't find what we wanted for the price we needed. Awesome.

                               

My husband also built this cabinet. (For the same reason as above.) Yes, he can do everything. I married well, very well.

                                

I love my new kitchen and it has given me the bug to re-do all the other rooms in my house! One thing at a time I suppose.

*I'm linking up today at Metemorphosis Monday.

Did you know?

This little guy started preschool at the beginning of the month.  He goes two mornings a week.  Do you know that means I have an hour and a half two mornings a week without ANY kids at home?  It has taken me off guard and I like it but it's weird at the same time.  It should mean that I have more time for getting things done around the house or actually updating my blog, but so far it just means I'm basking in the loveliness of quiet and doing nothing.  I know I will probably miss all the noise once my boys are grown but right now I am loving my hour and a half two mornings a week!

First Day

I'm pretty sure I was the only one with the first day jitters.  The boys were excited to hop on the bus and ride off.  I now have a first grader, kindergartner and one little boy who misses his brothers already.  Summer was good but summer is over.  We no longer have the luxury of lounging around in the mornings and spending the day however we please.  It's on to routine and schedules, to rushing around and heading out the door at 7:35am, to field trips and homework.  The first week is always a shock to the system but we will get into the groove and feel like old pro's before we know it.

I can't wait to hear about their days when they get home!

Our song

Garden

I haven't had a garden in years.  I have been too busy being pregnant, tending to babies, and chasing toddlers...until now!  This year, the boys aren't needing my constant attention and I felt up to the challenge of gardening.  We tried to come up with a plan based on what we knew we would eat.  Strawberries were at the top of the list so we carved out a good patch and planted our little starters.  We are looking forward to actually seeing the fruit of our labor next summer!  We also planted cucumbers, lettuce, bell peppers, carrots, green beans and tomatoes.  I did not have very high expectations. I don't exactly have a green thumb, but wouldn't you know, everything grew!  Here is a little collage of the progress.

I'm very excited to be eating fresh veggies from my very own backyard garden and we realized quickly that we will have more than enough for our family alone so it has been fun sharing with family and neighbors!  Jacob even set up a "cucumber stand" to try and thin out our ever-growing supply of  cukes.

18 cucumbers for sale fresh from the garden.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Mom, someone is coming!

You can always count on G.G. (My grandma). She was the first customer and bought ten!

My handsome salesman.  Who could pass up a pickle from this boy?

Around Here

We are having quite the summer.  Remember when I said I wanted to do better about blogging and not go so long between posts?  I still do and maybe one of these days I actually will.  Until then I will just have to keep playing catch up with my few and far between posts.

The boys did the bike rodeo.  The huge bonus was that they got to do it with their buddy William!  They all did so great and they barely noticed that they didn't get trophies when they all had medals hanging around their necks:)

We've been hanging with these guys lots.  I don't know what we'd do without cousins to play with, and these ones here are some of the best you can come by! 

                                                                                    
Let's hear it again for the cousins.  Seriously cute if I do say so myself!

We've done a little camping (minus staying overnight in a tent...I know, we are wimps).

A little picnic-ing. In our own backyard even:)

We went to the beach!

We've been getting many, many "gun shows" from this one.

We've had lots of bare-chested boy days.

This one got tubes in his ears.

I braved the park with this crew one day.  Six boys, seven and under!  Oh the adventures!

We shared ice cream cones with this cutie pie cousin. Couldn't you just eat him up?!

So could Colin.

The days have been hot here and the boys play hard.  I don't have to try too hard to wear them out.  They do a great job of that themselves. 

We still have some summer left but I'm already feeling myself wishing it would last longer.