Mom and Dad's kitchen redo (and outside updates too!)

A lot has changed in Mom and Dad's kitchen in the last few months.  Dad painted all the cabinets a light, creamy color and added new knobs and pulls.  The kitchen sink fixture was also updated.  Mom painted the pantry door a bright apple green color.  When the cabinets were finished, she shopped for new stainless steel appliances.  You can't have new cabinets with old appliances, it just doesn't work.

The new look has resulted in a brighter and more updated kitchen!

Mom asked me to make a "pantry" sign with my Silhouette machine.  It comes in handy when you are in the kitchen and forget where the pantry is...  

Mom saw the red knobs and had to have this stove!

Here is a BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

Another BEFORE:

And AFTER:

And one more BEFORE:

And final AFTER:

Now, let's take a look outside...

Mom and Dad painted their front door red and updated the door knob and light to new, oil rubbed bronze ones.

I made Mom this sign for Mother's Day.  I'm pretty sure she was the only mom to get a handmade, one-of-a-kind no soliciting sign made from an old drawer front for a gift that day.  

You're welcome, Mom ;-) 

I made this hello. sign with my Silhouette machine as well.  I am kind of addicted and want to label all things!

As you can see by the next pictures, Dad works hard at feeding his birds and keeping his lawn and flower beds perfect.

Mom has always wanted to add shutters to their house.  Dad made these shutters and they painted them black.  They are the perfect addition to the front of the house.

My favorite, by far, are the little plants that Dad carefully planted in these cedar pieces.  When Dad takes a walk to get the mail, he usually comes back with a new treasure (cedar limbs/branches, rocks). Some have even been added to flower beds at my house.  Thanks, Dad!

Here are a few pictures of the flowers in the backyard.

One of our favorite things to do is feed the neighbors dog, Molly.  She has us all trained to sneak her a treat through the fence whenever we are outside.

Jordie is not too happy with sharing his treats...

There is the neighbor dog, Molly.

Here is a BEFORE picture of the front of the house when they first bought it:

And the AFTER:



I hope you enjoyed seeing the updates at Mom and Dad's house.  Pretty impressive changes!

Olivia turns 9!

Can you believe Livy Do (we also like to call her Liver or O-yiv-ia as Ella says) is 9 years old?!?!

She quickly figured out that her actual birthday would fall on Monday, a school day, and decided that it wasn't fair that most of her day would be spent at school, so she decided it only made sense that we should celebrate on Sunday.  So we did :-)

After opening a few birthday presents in her pjs, we headed to the movie theater.  We were all so excited to see Muppets Most Wanted!

We then headed to our usual birthday stop - Dave and Buster's!  The kids spent most of the time at the one game... the claw.  They are OBSESSED with winning jewelry.  They get so excited when they win and wear their treasures so proudly!  Olivia won a huge ring, Caleb won earrings that he kindly gave to me... all in all, I think they walked away with 15 pieces of fine jewelry!

After playing at Dave and Buster's, we headed over to Gramma (Gramma is doing very well cruising around her house with her walker) and Papa's house to open the rest of Olivia's gifts and eat Oreo cake. 

A few weeks ago we bought Olivia a HUGE stuffed puppy and have had it hiding in a closet at Gramma and Papa's house.  Caleb and Ella were with me when we bought it and never spilled the beans to Olivia. Ella was so excited to finally surprise her with it!

This picture is a perfect example of the kids.  Caleb is trying to blow out Olivia's candles, Olivia is giving Caleb her look and Ella is laughing away.

I am pretty sure Olivia had a great early-ish birthday!  On Monday, we took puppy cupcakes to school and she spent the rest of the day playing with her new Lego sets and Barbies!

Happy 9th Birthday Miss Olivia!!!!!!!!!