Saturday, February 18, 2012

Us Lately...

The Corl House Lately...

Daddy and Landon's new favorite thing..
silly boy
Attempting to make Landon's first Valentine/Masterpiece
He went nuts...
...and it was hard to control him!
Trying to put his hands together in the shape of a heart.
Not perfect - but  looks like a master piece to me! :)
LOVES his pillow pet. He giggles like crazy laying on it.
Always climbing on Moose and he just takes it.
Loves his dog...and his chew toys.
Also loves getting REAL close to the camera.
Us on Valentine's Day!
Hope you had a wonderful day with the people you love!

It's a wonderful life!


Saturday, February 11, 2012

House Project! Before, During and After pics!

Ryan and I have been saving up to do this very big and exciting (but also super messy) house project! We had been putting it off and putting it off, but it became something we couldn't stop talking about. Finally, we decided to go for it and had been pricing/shopping for months to get the best deal. We ordered the materials and got a great flooring company to help install...

Here's the adventure below...the pictures tell the story, but I'll add a few captions here and there. :)

This is our old entry way...front door to living room was tile

This is the living room view from the front door/entry way...
this was the morning before demo so we just left the couches out.

"Formal Dining" - however we have no table (someday..) just our elypitcal and Moose's kennel are usually out here.
That pile of boxes is our soon to be hardwood floor!
The hallway to the right goes to Landon's room, guest room and guest bath.

Here's the hallway - all carpet.

Hallway to our bedroom door.. just took a close up of the floor before!

Moose again...this is the kitchen tile.

Close up of tile in kitchen...

And the demo begins... this is the entry way/front door. No more tile!
We didn't want tile there anymore and had the hardwood start there and flow into the rest of the house.

Oh boy...the living room. The fridge had to be moved out to do the tile. DUST WAS EVERYWHERE!

They moved all the furniture into the dining room so they could get the
hardwoods down in the living room and then pull up this carpet and move the furniture back.
They tried their best covering everything with thin plastic,
but dust still found its way into everything!

Some of the kitchen tile... I didn't really know how I felt about it yet when I took this pic.
I'm a visual person I needed to see the 'whole picture' complete to really like it!

Up close...they did a 'brick' pattern. The tiles are 18x18, our old ones were 12x12.

Around the island... excuse the mess on the counters.

Just an idea of this side of the house...

No more carpet...


Fireplace - part of entry way and the hallway to our bedroom.

And the reveal...drum roll please!!!! ....
Living room!!! Such a difference :) LOVE THE FLOORS!

Another angle after we put the house back together...

Entry way.. no more tile!!!

Entry way on the left by the cross... part of living room...hallway to our bedroom back there...
Now Landon can get EVERYWHERE in his walker...haha oh boy!

Hallway

Onto the kitchen...

Transition from hardwood to tile... LOVE THE TILE!!!

Still messy! sorry! Looks a 1000 times better!

Another view!
We love the new look of our house! It was a heck of a 3 days living in our bedroom with Landon and Moose (who by the way got sick and made a HUGE mess in our room.. ugh. But he's on the mend now.) So glad we saved up to do this. Our house is now 8 years old and the family that lived in it before had 2 kids and a dog. Still didn't really feel like 'our home' yet, but now that we've done this it does! We are so blessed. Cannot wait to show family and friends! Come visit us!

Couldn't end this (huge) post without a little video of Landon. 8 1/2 months already? Really? Gosh where does the time go? Already planning ideas for his birthday. Am I crazy?


Happy Sunday yall!
New blog template buts a box around my signature...how do I fix that?!

It's a wonderful life!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

8 Months Old!

What's new?...

Landon had a lot of firsts happen between 7 and 8 months old!

*First time sitting in a shopping cart!
*First time wearing little blue jeans (so cute)
*First time crawling
*First time sitting himself up on his own
*First time taking formula (we're supplementing now-just not making much anymore)
*First time sitting in a restaurant high chair
*First time 'talking' - consonant and vowel together! (Baba.. papapa) Proud teacher ;)

So many more firsts to come!
*He's working on feeding himself little gerber puffs or yogurt melts - getting that pincher grasp (thumb and pointer finger) is pretty tough! He'll evetually get the puff on his hand somewhere and then shove all his fingers in his mouth to get the puff in.. haha He's working hard!

*He sleeps about 10 - 11 hours still... down around 7pm and wakes up between 5-6am. Teething is starting to make this tough - crying in his sleep :(

*Speaking of teething - NO teeth yet! It's just crazy! I know they say "the longer they stay in the gums the better" but I can't wait to see what his little teeth will look like in that gummy smile of his.

*He loves to 'mountain climb' - baby gate up at the sitter's house or ours and he like to pull up on it and try to climb (just with his hands not with his feet). Eventually he gets stuck and wants help to get back to the floor.

*We have officially retired the baby swing, bouncy seat and Mama Roo. I just never thought it would happen this fast! He loves his jumperoo and his walker still.

*We are now in 9m or 12m clothes - just depends on the outfit. It's unbelieveable how quickly they grow. We are also in size 3 diapers (this is really for me to remember - if you don't have kids this little fact probably means nothing to you) He's been in size 3s for a while.



*Landon is about 22lbs... he went for a dr visit earlier this week (got his first flu shot.. Oh I should add that to the firsts list!) we normally wouldn't have another check up until 9 months old, but he was coming down wiht something and they were checking his weight. Kind of leveled out because he's so mobile. Around 20 lbs at 6 months (If I remember correctly) so he's gained just a little more.

*SUCH a fun age right now! His personality is starting to emerge and he is showing love, affection, silliness and grumpy moments of course.

*I'm already thinking of ideas for his 1st birthday party. Am I crazy? Love thinking up fun theme ideas - but I'm just not ready for him to be 1 yet! Stay my little baby!!

*A lot of these 'firsts' are very welcome! (Just like when he started holding his head on his own... so nice when he could finally do that) Just cannot believe how quickly time has gone by... it's like he was born and I BLINKED and it's almost February.

It's funny going back and reading my posts right before he was born. Feels so long ago. I was not sure if I'd be an adequate mom. Was I really cut out for the job? Would I be able to give all of myself to this little baby? How would I deal with my life being forever changed? Wondering how Ryan and I would be jumping into our new role as parents. God has just amazed me (us) at how He prepared us for parenthood. I do not miss my old life. I do not wish things had happened differently. I am so in live with this little life and want to do everything and more that I can for him. This first year has been such a precious time for us. Crazy to think next month Landon will have been on this earth as long as I had carried him.


"No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you...after all you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside."

It's a wonderful life!