DIY projects.

Now that it is officially summer I have been bitten by the DIY bug once again, focusing this time on the outside.  We have such big plans for the exterior of our home including a new paint job and some serious landscaping.  But for now I was happy with just doing some easy weekend jobs that I could see instant results.  First up, painting the front door (again....).  When we first moved in our door was the super dated "forest green" that was so prominent in the early to mid 90's.  I struggled with what color to paint it and varied from making a big statement with yellow or purple to a more classic straight black.  In the end I chose red.  I liked it okay, but I wasn't in love with it.  I also knew that I eventually wanted to paint the interior door as well and knew that it wasn't going to be red.  I stumbled across this blog onsuttonplace on pinterest (where else of course?!) and fell in LOVE with her front door, as well as pretty much everything else on her blog.  Enter, Summer 2015 and here I was with my paint color (Sherwin Williams Naval) and a new exterior and interior front door color.  I think it is a big improvement from the red and more importantly Mikey also really likes it - jack pot!

Before:

After:

The other small weekend project that we did was to boost our curb appeal by giving our poor mailbox a little TLC.  Mikey power washed that sucker, added a nice new address plaque and some seasonal flowers and voila!  Super simple and so much better!

Before:

After:

Logan's 4th Birthday.

How is our little baby boy FOUR?!  I cannot believe it!  It seems so old but yet at the same time how has he been on this earth for only four years?  I'm sure all parent's can relate to this paradigm.  Logan is 100% all boy.  He is comparable to the Energizer Bunny where he keeps going and going and going...  He is also extremely sweet and sensitive though and is so adorable to watch when he is doting on his little sister.  It is one of the greatest joys in our life to be his parent's and I thank God everyday for making me his Mama.  I am so excited to see him continue to grow into the wonderful human being I know he will become.  We celebrated his birthday this year at our house with friends and family.  The weather was perfect (thank you Jesus!) and all the kids enjoyed playing outside and bouncing in the bounce house that we borrowed from our friends.  I think Logan really enjoyed himself and had a great party.  Mommy and Daddy love you buddy!  Happy 4th Birthday! xoxo

And the aftermath of our hike....Logan vs a rock (the rock won). "Why do rock's have to be so hard??"

lately.

Just a few shots from hanging out lately :)

Easter 2015.

 He is Risen!  I hope that everyone had a blessed Easter day.  This year was special for us as it was Emma's first Easter.  We spent Easter at home and my family came to stay with us to celebrate the weekend.  My Dad and Nancy kindly watched the kids for us on Good Friday so that we could attend mass alone (so awesome!).  On Saturday Logan had fun dying Easter eggs, with only a few casualties I'm proud to say.  Sunday we went to church at St. Francis so we could spend some time with Mikey's family.  After mass we attempted a shot at a "cousins photo" however, we only had an 80% turn out as Emma and William did not make the cut :)
I cooked Easter dinner at our house and we had a wonderful time visiting with my family.  I love a good Easter ham dinner!  So much so, that we went over to Mikey's parents house later that evening and did it all over again with Easter dinner part deux.  Overall, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to start off the Easter season spent with loved ones celebrating the awesomeness of our God. 

spring 2015.

I love Springtime!  Here are a few photo's of the kids just goofing around. 

 

 

St. Patrick's Day.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And then melt-downs ensued.....:)

powder room makeover.

When we first moved in, our powder room was an eye sore to say the least!  It was painted an "in your face" bright red and was a mix match of wood tones and white washed bead board.  But the pièce de résistance was the 1980's wooden seat, bisque colored toilet!  For some people that may be the look you're going for but it certainly wasn't ours.  So first thing we did when we moved in was paint over that awful color with Benjamin Moores Revere Pewter (same color we painted the kitchen).  Next up painting the oak color wood window trim white and painting over the bead board so that it was white-white.  We also removed the old mirror/cabinet and replaced it with an updated mirror.  I will say that the one thing we did that made a huge difference was to change out the toilet for a nice "top hat" toilet from Lowes (who knew one could get so happy about a toilet).  Mikey has really become quite the plumber as he has replaced 3 out of the 4 toilets in our house with upgraded white ones (yay! love my handyman! <3).  After those changes we kind of put the powder room on hold for about...oh 16 months until this Winter when we got into the DIY spirit again.  I knew all along that I wanted to makeover the 1980's "builders grade" vanity and just decorate in general, but I was waiting for some inspiration.  Enter these Ahh-mazing shelves off Pinterest  diy-restoration-hardware-inspired-shelving.  I was hooked and knew that I wanted these for the powder room.  We basically followed the instructions to a tee and I couldn't be more pleased with the result.  That got the ball started and I took off from there.  I painted the vanity Black Bean by Sherwin Williams and Mikey added new shiny hardware to kick it up a notch.  We then replaced the old vanity top with a new granite top that we found at Lowes.  Added a rug, a few nicknacks and photo's and voila! Our new powder room! I love it and couldn't be happier. 

Before Photos (before we moved in):

After!