Before and After

Here are the before and after pictures of our dining room. I can't believe it is close to being finished finally!! (We still need the wood floor and then re-attatch the base mouldings after the floor is installed but we are planning on doing that in a few months). The before picture is what it looked like when the previous owners lived here! Now it's a lot lighter and brighter! I think the paint color looks better in person than it does in the picture.

Before: (The room was wallpapered with 3 layers!)



After: (We stripped the 3 layers of wallpaper,primed, painted, added wainscoting, and crown moulding)






Also I am still working on the decor in this room. What color drapes do you suggest? I was thinking something with color (I have decorations in apple green and red)? I was trying out a friends drapes (in one of the pics). I was thinking something like that would look nice. I have some white ones like the living room but I don't know if I need more color in the room? Does the wrought iron decor look better next to the window or the mirror? I also want to paint my dining room set black. I'm not sure if it's a good idea because the table is not solid wood (it's covered with a thin wood veneer). The chairs are solid wood though. I've read you can paint just about anything but I don't want to totally ruin my set so I'm not sure. It would look so much better though!

Summer Weather in November?

I can't believe the weather this week! It's been in the 70's! It seriously feels like summer. I guess it's unusual for this time of year. Hey I'll take it! I'll take whatever warmth I can get! I know it's going to start getting very cold very soon (brrr ...my first Michigan winter!)So we have been spending as much time outside as possible.


Here are some pictures of Halloween that I didn't get around to posting till now. Hannah is a little lamb and Nick is Superman. (I am suppost to be SuperMom!)




On another note, we have finally made some progress on our dining room and living room. We decided to put up wainscoting in the dining room and crown moulding in both the living and dining room. We started this project like two months ago and it is finally just now getting done. This project has taken us so long to accomplish (well, it's not totally done yet but very close). We've been doing all the work ourselves which takes so much longer because we have to work on it after Marc gets home from work and its so hard with the kids. DIY projects are not easy! And why do they always seem to be so much easier before you do them than they actually turn out to be? It's probably because we have like zero experience and hardly any professional tools. But it's definately been a learning experience and I have to admit, it's quite rewarding once it's done (knowing that you did it yourself). I will post some pictures of how it's turned out. We still have to caulk, fill in nail holes, and paint (much simpler things but still time consuming). I am so excited to finally see it getting done. Of course there is already another project that I have in mind to do. (Poor Marc, he just "loves" it when I come up with one of my ideas). In his words, I am "opening up a can of worms"!

Some Fall Pictures

The Fall is so beautiful here! There are so many different kinds of trees and some of them turn into the brightest colors. It is so amazing.
The only bad thing about having so many trees in our yard is that it makes such a mess! It's a lot of work to rake all those leaves! Nick had a great time with his little friend from accross the street playing on the huge mountains of leaves!

Sleeping through the night...will it ever happen?!

I can't believe I am even posting about this. I'm sure some of you will think it's crazy! I love my sweet little Hannah but boy is she not a good sleeper. She just turned 1 last week and she still hasn't slept through the night even once! I wouldn't mind if she woke up once a night but she has been waking up 3-4 times a night since she was a newborn baby! She actually slept better as a newborn baby. I have tried the crying method where you come back every 5,10,15 minutes but doing that 3 times in the middle of the night is exhausting so I gave up after a few days. I did have success with the crying method with getting her down to sleep for the night. She doesn't cry now when I put her in the crib when it's bedtime, but for some reason at night she just crys until I come and nurse her. I am trying to wean her now so that is why I really want her to sleep during the night. Plus I am tired! It is so wearing and I am really ready for her to sleep through the night! Any ideas for me?!

Happy 1st Birthday Hannah!!

I can't believe my baby girl is 1 today!! The year has gone by so fast! She is such a happy girl! We love our sweet little girl and feel so blessed to have her in our family.

Cute Wooden Letters

I bought these cute wooden letters on ebay a couple of weeks ago and they just arrived a few days ago. I had to paint it and also add the ribbon but for $1.50 a letter I think they turned out awesome! Aren't they so super cute?! I got so excited about it after I hung them up because it just completed the room! (Marc thinks it's pretty silly that I get so excited about a decoration but I just love doing these kinds of home decor projects!). It's kind of hard to see because of the light in the flash but in person it really looks cute!

Summer Photos

I know my posts have been few and far between this summer, but we have just been having too much fun enjoying our summer! Can I just say that the summers here in Michigan are amazing! I know we'll pay for it in the winter but so far we have really enjoyed our time here. We've been busy going to playgroups, parks, library story times, etc. Here are a few pics that we've taken this summer!

The House

I know many of you have been waiting to see pics of our house! Sorry it's taken me so long. We didn't have our internet hooked up forever and I've also been trying to get everything all done (organize everything, remove wallpaper, paint) before I put up pictures but I see that it could be many months before that happens so here are the pics of the progress we've made so far. We bought an older home because we just loved the established little neighborhood that it was located in(there are so many trees!) Because the home is a little older, there were/are several things that we want to update! I mentioned the wallpaper before. I thought that was going to be a fun, easy thing to do. Boy was I wrong! There was not only 1, nor 2, but 3 layers of wallpaper!! The third layer was probably about as old as the house (20+ years) so it was really on there. It ripped up a lot of the drywall! Needless to say that this little "fun" project turned out to be quite an ordeal! Thankfully, it is now all primed and ready to be painted. I'm still brewing over what color I would like to paint in some of the rooms as well as where I should hang pictures! Since our blog is not private yet, there's no pics of the front of the house!

The Master Bedroom

My scrapbook/office room (still working on this room)

Nick's Room


Hannah's Nursery (I love this room!) It was so much fun to set up!


The deck and our backyard - We love hanging out in the backyard! We just bought a patio set and it is so much fun eating dinner out there!

The Front Entranceway (We're going to paint and also add wood floors to this space!)

The Living Room - We're also going to paint and add wood floors to this room - I can't wait! We don't have furniture for this room yet - just a coffee table!

The Family Room

The kitchen - We're working on getting this room up-to-date! I found the range on clearance at Lowe's for $100 bucks! I was so excited. I hope I can get the rest for blowout too!

The dining room - We need to paint and add wood floors too! Carpet in the dining room is ridiculous with kids!!

This is the view down the street!

The Big Move and a New House

I know I'm terrible at updating this blog. I'm going to try to keep it up more because it's kind of like a journal for me. Well, we made it to Michigan! We've been here about almost two weeks already. We also found a house we're really excited about! Those other ones I had posted about a couple of months ago never ended up working out (long story). Anyways, this last week while we were exploring the town a bit more, we came accross a house for sale by owner that was in that exact same neighborhood as the one we had liked before but considerably better priced! We were so excited about it and after seeing it once, we knew that that was the house for us! It's in the best little neighborhood and is located a block from a really good elementary school. Most of the house has been updated but there are a few minor things (like a couple of wall-papered rooms) that I will change. I like doing those type of things anyways! We had the inspection and appraisal yesterday and everything is on track. Hopefully everything will work out to close next Friday. I'll post some pics of the inside as soon as we move in!

Marc's Trip to Ghana, Africa

Marc had an opportunity to go to Ghana, Africa. I He spent several days in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Then he traveled to another city named Kumasi in a five hour bus ride through the jungle. He said he felt like he was on an Indiana Jones ride. He was the only white guy on the bus! The people were extremely friendly and humble. He really enjoyed interacting with the children and seeing the cacao trees and how chocolate is made (He loves chocolate!). It was also so neat that he was able to go with his brother Peter. It was a great experience for him!

Adventures in California

I haven't updated the blog in forever! We just got back from our fabulous trip to California. We had a blast going to Disneyland, the beach, and spending time with family. As you can imagine, Nick loved Disneyland. Disneyland is just such a fun and magical place. It was so exciting to be there together. I also love Disneyland because there are so many rides that babies can go on! We were able to go on so many rides all together as a family. We also had a great time at the beach. It's been so long since we've been. Marc was finally able to surf again and Nick and I had fun playing in the sand! We also spent a week with Marc's family in Palo Alto. It was so nice to spend time with them. The trip was so relaxing and loads of fun!

Hannah looks so adorable in this picture!

Cute little Nick

The classic Disneyland Castle

Nick and Buzz

California Adventure Park

The Fam at Disneyland

Nick playing at Newport Beach

Nick at the Pool in Palo Alto

Hannah in her swimsuit

Marc surfed at Pacifica Beach