All decked out

This has been the excitement at our house over the past few days...

Before:

Pile o' crap that used to be our deck. It was a little frightening how easily it came down ...

Watching the workers was incredibly fascinating to 3 young children ...

Not so fascinating to the cat, who spent much of the day hiding under the couch. Not so thrilled about all that loud noise.

Oh .... we're halfway there... (sorry had to throw in a Bon Jovi reference, heehee)

After!!!
So much nicer, so much more space in our yard, no more half-falling down deck!
Now if only the temperature would dip below 95, I might actually want to go out and sit on this baby. But so far ... way too hot and humid. :(

Looking forward to many meals, parties and fun on the new deck!

Dad's handiwork

As previously posted ... it's been a busy weekend. I just wanted to post a couple pictures while I have the chance, and before the week gets too busy and I forget all about it. Next weekend we will be traveling to Long Island for my sister-in-law's baby shower (her baby girl is due 6 days before mine!) and a celebration of my father/mother-in-laws' 40th anniversary. So things are probably not going to slow down any time soon!

So here is a picture of the awesome pantry/hutch that my Dad made for us and that we installed yesterday. Okay, I had no part in installing it. Chad and my Dad did it all. But I did keep the kids out from under foot. :)

Can you believe how cool it is? And oh so much storage space! I started organizing today, but I need to get more storage bins for all the kids' crafty stuff and my table linens.

The bunk beds were also put together yesterday, and Audrey has been sleeping up there ever since. It looks like someone else is enjoying the bunk beds too! :) I'd post a picture of the whole shebang but we still need another mattress and to set up Carter's stuff in there too. Poor Carter will be living in girly land for a while ... till we can de-girlify it more. Don't think he really cares at this point!

And just for fun ... Audrey "styled" my hair yesterday and took a picture of her own handiwork. She insisted that all the neighbors would think it looked SO cute when we went outside to play ... Don't I look adorable??? haha

I'm going to quit now so that for once this week I can get to bed by 11 pm. I feel like I spend half the morning trying to wake up these days!

Progress?

This is what our basement looks like right now ...


Do you think it'll be done by Christmas?? (AND, we have overnight guests coming in October, and this is where guests usually stay ... uh-oh ...)



Chad's working hard on it, but when you work full-time, take on church responsibilities, have 2 little kids who need lots of attention, and a wife who needs at least a wee bit of attention, well...it is just slow going.