Our House: The Living Room

Brand new carpet!

Mirror wall.

Lots of random wires.

Plastic on the windows.

Bricked in fireplace.

No more mirrors!

Prepping for paint.

Moving in furniture.

Paneling!

Painted. 

More furniture and lots of clothes.

Trying to get moved in.

Trying out furniture placements.

One of the most important aspects of moving in.

Fresh flowers.

Slowly getting settled.

And then tearing it all apart again.

Curtains.

Painted!

Mostly done.

Mostly done.

Mostly done.

Our House: The Series

We moved into our house July 2010. And it was a mess. We've spent a lot of sweat and some money fixing up. And it's still not done! But since it's a rental, there's only so much we want to do.

The project for this spring, however, is finally hanging up pictures and the like. So even though I'm putting up blog posts highlighting each room, I'll probably have to come back and add another photo or two of each room once we make some final tweaks.


The Living Room

The Kitchen

The Laundry Room

The Bedroom

The Study/Nursery

The Bathroom

The Yard

Recovered Chairs

Last summer, I bought four chairs at a garage sale for $10. I had grand plans to paint them and recover them, but then I got pregnant.

And then I had a baby, who, once he started crawling, took it upon himself to tear the raffia off the chairs.  Actually, looking at the "before" picture, below, I can hardly believe how much he wrecked them!

So a make over was long overdue.

And although I truly meant to recover them myself, my wonderful, generous mother took over for me and did them all herself.

Originally, I planned to paint or re-stain the chairs, but I guess I got lazy? But they still look infinitely better than they did, so they might just stay unpainted.

Uncle Simpson

Our long-time friend (and CHS '04 classmate), David Simpson, came over for dinner this week. David told us all about his exciting exploits in Cincinnati and played with Ezra, before he and Seth headed off to trivia at Farelli's.

Ezra is always delighted to have attention and now that he has a brief respite from teething, was back to his cheerful self. He particularly enjoyed "Uncle Simpson"'s watch and a piggy back ride.

MBR II

"March Basketball Retreat"
"Multi Baby Reunion"

"Mint Banana Rhubarb"
"Mint Banana Raisin"
"Mint Banana Rooster"
"Mint Banana Red"

"March Cracker Reunion"

You can see how the discussion about the what the initials "MBR" really stand for broke down...

In March 2008, Seth and his friends Eric Meldrum and Kaleb Paddock (as well as Eric's wife-to-be, Rachel and their friend David Andrews) went to the first round of the NCAA College Basketball tournament (i.e., "March Madness"), at the Staples Center in L.A.

Then, in March 2010, the three of them (and Eric's dad) drove the Meldrum's RV from Winamuca, NV, to Salt Lake City, UT, for sweet sixteen and elite eight games.

And then, in March 2011, Seth and I (eight months pregnant) flew to Reno, NV, and met up with Eric and Rachel (and two month old Jesse!) and Praus Nichols and we drove to Truckee, CA, where we met Kaleb and T.J. Stone at Kaleb's uncle's cabin. (Truckee had so much snow! It was up to the second story windows of the cabin! See photos here.) This was the first year Eric and Seth started calling "it" "MBR," short for "Multi Baby Reunion," apparently.

So this year, it was our turn to host. Eric, Rachel and Jesse (now 13 months old) drove up on Tuesday night and Praus and Kaleb flew in Wednesday night. Seth made t-shirts to commemorate the now annual reunion/retreat and we decided that actually "MBR" stood for "Multi Baby Reunion".

We filled out brackets, watched a lot of basketball, Jesse and Ezra "wrestled," we went bowling, we ate out a lot, we watched a lot of basketball, the guys played a few games of basketball, we played Clue, we went to Seattle and we watched a lot of basketball.

MBR II t-shirts

Bowling alley

Clue

Ezra and Jesse

Lots of laughter

Car ride high five

Ferry from Bremerton to Seattle

Pike Place

MBR II

Kevin and Astrid met up with us for dinner

80th Birthday Celebration!

My Grandpa (my mother's father) just turned 80 on March 18th. So we (his four children and eleven grandchildren and one great grandchild, and their respective spouses/significant others) went to his house in Shoreline, WA to celebrate.

Ezra and his great-grandpa!

Ruth and her boyfriend, Jake.

Bonus: the quilt my mom made Grandpa for Christmas 2011

BFF Trip to Vancouver

My attendance at Covenant High School was instrumental to my life in many ways: spiritually, academically, and relationally. Not only did I marry one of my classmates, but I also met several girls there who have become my nearest and dearest friends.

Though Hilary still lives in Tacoma, and I get to see her most, Ali moved to Moscow, ID, and Charissa moved to Vancouver, WA. So when Ali came to Tacoma for two weeks, we hurriedly planned a trip down to Vancouver for the weekend.

Hilary, Ali and Sam and Ezra and I drove down to Vancouver Friday morning, and we hung out at Charissa's and went to lunch, and then Ezra and I took the train back to Tacoma in order to fulfill some previous obligations (but Hilary and Ali and Sam spent the night). Though a quick trip (especially for Ezra and I), it was wonderful to spend time with my friends, and for Ezra to spend time with his BFF, Sam.