Two

Brielle is 2 and I can't believe all that has happened in the last 3 years. She is such a precious wonder. I am amazed by here every day. She is such a gift to our family and brings so many laughs and loads of joy. She is very much into her letters and counting right now. She is constantly singing the abc's and counting to 10 as she hopes around the house. She continues to be the little mother trying to start the dishwasher, clean up, order everyone, and discipline Keiton and her teddy. She even is the little helper at nursery, cleaning up everyone's napkins after snacks and putting all their crayons away.

We had a wonderful b-day celebration*--

 Brielle woke up to helium balloons in her room. Which they spent hours playing with through out the day.
 She started out the day with a much needed hair cut. I didn't do the best job because I didn't want her to know I was doing it. She was pretty scared when we cut Keiton and Daddy's hair. It looks so much better then before and she is looking so grown up.

 We then did water color painting which was a little bit of a disaster with Keiton in the mix.

Then they helped me bake the sugar cookie dough.

after naps we rolled out the cookies and cut them out.

Then once they cooked and cooled we frosted them.

I'd have to say they were the best sugar cookie I have ever made. So soft and fluffy.

We then had pizza for dinner. Scotter called to wish a happy birthday and they were making pizza for dinner so both of my kids proceeded to ask for pizza for dinner. Sense I had no other plans and nothing in the works we pulled out a costco take and bake pizza out of the freezer and baked it. I had two happy kids.

Saturday We all went to dinner together in Celebration of V-day and Brielle's birthday to Rodizio Grill. So yummy and I ate way to much and ended up having a pretty miserable night and next day because of it.  Over eating and being almost 9 months pregnant don't go together well.

On Sunday we had a family dinner and finished celebration Brielle's birthday. She new something was special about the last few days but I don't think she really understood what was going on.

 This was the favorite give and she willingly shared with everyone.

 This was the favorite toy of the night, until Brielle got distracted with all the fun and peed her pants inside the box and left a nice little puddle.

 

By the end of the night we had two very tired girls.

We loved having so many people celebrate with us.

Funny picture of out little man.

new blog

Here is the name of my new blog stop by and let me know what you think! creatingacreator.com

creating with the stars post

I would love feedback of what you would add take away change PLEASE. I have to submit it tomorrow.


Before our first house even closed I had insomnia for weeks. I lay in bed every night going over every inch of our soon to be house, creating an endless list of everything I wanted to update. I knew the kitchen needed to be done first. The 70's cream chipping cabinets, bisque fridge, avocado sink, and gold and green flecked countertops were hideous. Half the drawers didn't work, many were off their tracks leaving saw dust on the ground from the constant rubbing.


The problem was we were putting every dime towards our down payment. Contracting it out wasn’t an option. So I I starting searching every inexpensive DIY kitchen remodel I could find. Pinterest and I became dear friends. Through my research I came across this youtube concrete tutorial video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7leWebt_xM


After watching them turn basic concrete into gorgeous granite-looking countertops, I was sold. With this method for a fraction of the cost, I could get the high end granite/ marble counter top that I dreamed of. Further research revealed that concrete had its perks. The only problem? I had never worked with concrete in my life. Never held a trowel, never even mixed grout. But heck- if they can do it so can I- right??? Regardless, I went for it!

Inspiration
Here are our before and afters. Comment if you have questions.

Before


Here is the original countertop in all its dingy 70‘s glory. We removed this countertop. (However, you can do this whole process over your existing countertop if you like your depth and layout.)
We hired a friend to build the counter base/ frame. He build out the two corners on either side of the sink so they are no longer 90 degree angles but rather diagonal. The results were dramatic. Not only does the kitchen look more custom, it also feels much larger! I decreased the overhang between the peninsula and the wall oven and increased the overhang for the bar. In order to get the stately solid look we wanted, we increased the depth of the countertop to about 4 inches.


Here I am finishing up the two layers of concrete overlay. (If you look where I am standing you can see how we turned that corner into a diagonal.) This is a day and a half process. You first apply the bond coat and let it dry and then you apply the marble coat. The challenge is trying to get the concrete to be as smooth as glass. I ended up sanding more then I planed to get my desired finish.


This is the painting step. Most of the painting is done with spray bottles, followed by sea sponges and paint brushes. It's a messy process and my kitchen walls looked like a child's splatter paint project for 6 months. I wanted the painting to be perfect and very realistic so this took me three full 8 hour days trying to get it right. It still isn't perfect but I've come to love that about it. It is truly a one of a kind countertop.

The sealant was the hardest part and what I'm least happy with. Because the sealant hardens quickly, getting a smooth-as-glass surface, VERY stressful. We have several dimples and defects in our finish but overlooking its flaws we love love love it. 


Final product. Isn’t she a beauty!



Again, here’s what we started with:


Here’s what it looks like today:

The change is drastic. We went from a basic “blah” kitchen, to one that looks custom, upscale and grand! Now we just have to finish tackling those cabinet doors! We also will be adding a tile backsplash and a new trimed-in window. Yea

Cost? Even with the expensive training course I purchased, plus the materials and tools, we spent about what we would have paid for the lowest grade laminate to be installed. This price included my two practice bathroom counter tops. (here is a link to those posts).

updates and milestones

Updates 

*Our stainless steel hood arrived and is mounted for the time being.  I forgot to tell Dave that because I custom built the depth of the cabinet above we needed to hang it slightly away from the wall. We also need to iron on the banding to the edge before we re-mount it as well as get the doors on so we can see how much it needs to come out.

*So I thought I got all the rails and stiles cut that we needed for the custom cabinets and then when I brought the boards in the double check I cut over half of them wrong somehow. Bad news we have no more wood so we will have to order more plus re-cut. Man why can i just not slow down and take the time to make sure I'm doing things right before I cut more. A errrr weakness of my nature!

* We have snow and more snow

*I have a month and a half left and I feel the pressure.  I have about 20 meals in the freezer but I'm realizing that I will not have enough room for all the meals that I want to make for after the baby comes.
I also have about 30 lbs of meat in the fridge that I need to assemble into meals and get in the freezer in the next few days.

* Dave is crazy busy at work and believes he has come to another Fork in the road. What is happening at work right now could take his work life in a very different direction, or things could plug away somewhat the same. He feels the monumentousness of this time and is not always with us even when he's home. It can defiantly have a one track mind.

Milestones

Brielle

* We went an entire day with out any accidents with our potty training. I started this second time around with the every 20 min. method and we didn't have a success all day. I thought about what I needed to do differently and I realized with her personality that she wanted to be in charge and do it her way.

So the next day I let her decide if she wanted to wear under ware. I let her decided when she was going to sit on the potty and for how long. It worked. Yes we are still having accidents but we are having way more successes. She does still wear a diaper during nap time and night time.

She can decide when she needs to go, run into the bathroom, pull down here under ware, sit on the little potty, do her business, pull her undies back on, flush the business down the big toilet, and come out and proudly announce that she "did it!" We are working on using hand sanitizer after but the pump is broken she she comes out with it and asks me to help her with her "hands"

*She continues to be my little mother and a half, often telling Keiton phrases like chew and be soft before I even get a chance.

* Brielle is also starting to say my name Bri-det a lot especially if I don't respond fast enough to mommy.

* Brielle is recognizing more letters, and shapes all the time and can almost count to 10. She is still struggling with 7. She has about 8 colors down.

* when she sings her favorite songs she is starting to add more words to the song.

* I can't believe my little girl turns 2 this week.

* she will do things like tell me she wants a peanut butter sandwich and proceed to get all of the ingredients out of the drawer to make one.

* she loves to peel her own clementines.

Keiton

* He has made a ton of progress with his willingness to help and is almost a better picker upper then Brielle right now.

*He defiantly says Brielle's name now and it is so sweet.

* He is starting to now more animals names and sounds. He is starting to repeat more colors.

* He is stringing more words into short sentences.

* He is getting much better at puzzles and figuring things out on his own.

*He likes to "zip it" and zip up his own pj's

*Keiton wants to sit on the toilet every time we change his diaper and sometimes it's for less then a second but hey will take the interest even when it can be draining.

Twice he has sat down before I could get in and help him and peed straight out in front of him. At least it's in the bathroom and a little easier to clean up.

Crunch time and creative craziness

So I'm feeling the crunch time before Coleman arrives and I have lists and lists of what I need to do to get my life in order and get as prepared as possible for this little guy to join our family.

Then what happens? I come across this "creating with the stars" and I can't sleep and totally want to jump on board. I'm crazy! so here are the details

http://www.eastcoastcreativeblog.com/2013/01/creating-with-stars-on-ec2.html

Should I go for it? or just stick to my lists and lists of baby prep?

A strength and weakness of mine is I totally believe that I can make it to the 12 contestants and maybe even go all the way. My new favorite quote used to describe my type of personality "I see all the possibilities and believe they are all possible"

To be fair I only think I can do this and it be worth it if I jump on the blog world and that is only practicle if I have a few team members namely Kjirsti and hopefully Sabina. Together I think we could have an awesome diy blog with lots of followers.

However timing could not be worse but then life only ever seems to get more complicated and complex so maybe now is as good of a time as ever.

I would use my concrete counter tops as my entry project which from everything I've seen in the blog  and Pinterest world is pretty unique so I think I would have a really good chance if I can get some awesome pictures and have the writers in my family help me write up a post.

should I go for it and just see what happens haaaaaaa/. choices

It would be kind of stressful if I made it but so much FUN!