the week i didn't have a phone

last monday night i dropped my phone

like...really dropped it

and it broke and the LED light got all over the screen

thus starting my phone free week

 with all my free time (not talking or texting or using instagram)  i took my book off the mantle

and read all 500+ pages in a few days time

the weather has been amazing this last week so we've spent a lot of time outside, too

 lots of hose and sprinkler time for these two

 a cute picture eleanor took of michael

 and i'm guessing hazel took of her

 henry and eleanor helped me with chores

 and eleanor, olive and i ate most of our lunches outside

 sprinklers!!

 over the weekend we pulled the trampoline onto the grass

and put the sprinkler under it

the kids loved it!

 we finally ate our first meal as a family outside at the new picnic table after lunch

hot dogs, hamburgers, roasted potatoes, and watermelon

 michael spent a lot of time this weekend working on expanding the playhouse, too

 the kids loved rotating between helping michael and splashing in the pool

 so many helpers!

 this is as far as he got this weekend

it is already way more fun for the kids and so much bigger that they can all play on it at once

 after a lot of hard work and a decent sunburn

michael took a little dip in the pool

 i missed a lot of phone calls and texts

had multiple friends think i was mad at them because i hadn't responded to them

went through withdrawals of talking with my sister

hated that i couldn't call or text michael 

realized i had way more time to eat lunch with the girls, read books, lay in the sun,

make dinner, take naps, etc when i'm not busy texting or checking instagram all day

either way, i'm relieved to have a phone again!! that was a long week

built-ins in the dining room

we recently finished painting and caulking the ikea pax built-ins in the dining room

and we love them

if you recall...

here's what it looked like before we moved in

and here's what it looks like now

and the fireplace side

now covered

and currently holding our large chalkboard we found at a thrift store

although i'm considering building and mounting some long picture ledges

to hold a bunch of framed pictures

but we'll see

we already owned the ikea pax system because it was our closet in our master bedroom in utah

so it's really nice to get more use of out of it

and it takes up the exact amount of space with just a little gap on either side that we (michael) covered with moldings

we aren't quite done installing our new baseboards on the left side

but we plan on doing that very soon

we are so happy with the look of the pax and the enormous amount of storage they give us

we currently keep extra pantry items and diapers in the left side

extra glass dishes in the middle

and art supplies, the wireless printer and a few extra dishes on the right side

it's an amazing feeling to have so much extra space 

after years of cramped kitchens and tiny dining rooms

a few things that are making me happy

 we finally got some roman shades for the kitchen windows

and michael installed them

i love them and am grateful for some privacy at night now

 michael also hung the lights outside on the patio we bought a little bit ago

now we just need patio furniture 

these two have such a sweet relationship

all together doing their own things

i love seeing their personalities captured in one picture

 sweet sleepy girl always holding her "E" purse

she fell asleep on the way to the ENT

 the ENT thinks she should get tubes in her ears and her adenoids and tonsils removed

but sadly he was out of our network

 so we'll be getting a second opinion at another place later this week

 we love playing hide and seek

michael nailed hiding in the couch

olive thought it was hilarious when she found him

 i love finding him with his bum in the air while he naps

he almost looks like a newborn

 i was a little bit (a lot) mad at michael this week for a few reasons

so he was super sweet and surprised me during the day

while i was gone taking olive to school

he snuck home and put peonies and sees chocolates in my bike basket

#mothersdayweek

i'm not mad at him anymore :)

 finding noah reading to his sisters makes me so, so happy

such a sweet brother

and such lucky little sisters

kitchen progress

the kitchen isn't quite done

but it's getting there!

we've been working on it quite a bit

but first, a reminder of how terrible it looked when we moved in

we have now grouted the tile

 it definitely changed the look of it

but it's exactly what we envisioned and we're really happy with it

 we had a little issue

deciding what to do here

and regretted tiling it, ripped it off too late

and now this is what it looks like between our windows

not great but we aren't going to let it bring us down

we'll fix it eventually

 despite not having a butcher block counter top yet, we couldn't stand the extra tall island any longer

so michael got out his saw and cut it off

 he thinks it's so cool he gets to do stuff like cut our counter off

he felt pretty awesome doing it

 oddly he found a note INSIDE of our island

that was a gross descriptive....i want to call it a love letter but it was more of a lust letter

this is extra odd because our house is less than 10 years old

so it doesn't really make sense in any way....we threw it away

and the next morning when michael left me a note before work he tried to mimic it

which was hilarious

 it looked so much better off the bat

to finally be able to see into the kitchen

rather than have your view blocked

 so much better

but so much dustier

not fun to clean up all of these messes all the time

while living here

and trying to function and use our kitchen in between

 for now this is what our island looks like

a piece of plywood covering the open wall

and the counter we'll soon be replacing

 it's pretty sad this looks better than the original island

 then this last weekend we finally painted!

we liked the open look wit these dishes while we painted

so we may replace the original cupboard doors with glass pane ones

 first we sanded and painted the surround of the cupboards

 then we brought all the cupboards outside to be sanded

and cleaned and painted

 it was a big fat pain and took our whole weekend

i literally didn't leave the house all weekend

except for church

 sunday night michael hung the doors all back up

and i took this picture to show you the mess that these projects make

 i spent all of monday cleaning

so i could finally see our pretty kitchen

isn't it wonderful?

the next things to do are...

touch up the paint on the cupboards, seal it, and add knobs

put the butcher block counter top on the island

replace the black dishwasher with a stainless steel one that works better

paint the walls gray

replace the floor

because despite it looking good here, it's not

and we want uniform floors throughout the downstairs

we may also switch out the can lights above the island for some pendant lights

but all in all it's a huge improvement already

and we are super happy with it

i was pretty nervous about the amount of work this house would take to make it how we want it

when we moved in

but michael is really nailing it helping to bring all my kitchen dreams to life

i can't wait for it to be all done