Nostalgia...

The fam comes in today and I can hardly contain myself! Mark and I have been working our hinies off to get the house nice and ready for our incoming guests. Since I've been lazy about taking photos lately that don't involve playing air guitar or the dogs, I'll share a project I'm working on.

I have been wanting to set up a friends and family gallery of sorts in our hallway for a while. I recently asked my parents and Tali to go through old photo albums and scan some goodies. Here are a few of the highlights so far...

Mom & Dad pre-kiddies

Suspenders and a poufy-sleeved turtleneck. No wonder I look troubled...

Tali blows out her candles

Dad turns 40

Outraged over my haircut

...and Mark, looking cute as ever. Sorry, I mean handsome :)

Get'er Done

We had such a busy weekend! Tons got accomplished (mostly thanks to Mark and our good friend Ryan).

First and foremost, I can no longer refer to our abode as the "Peach Palace" because Mark and Ryan painted the house! It is now painted Dunn Edwards' "Floating Lily Pad." It looks like a completely different house!
Sometime in the next few years, I would like to add a stone facade to the bottom half of the front of the house. Something like this. We also plan to eventually get a new front door. We're thinking a dark wood with wrought iron details.

Next on the list, Ryan helped install some under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. I call it the "I'm not waiting up for you" light.

We also finally got the mirror back up in our guest bathroom. Remember that snafu we had with the mold behind the mirror that I discovered when I was prepping the mirror for molding? That wasn't the molding I was going for... We fixed all of the problems, but the mirror had been sitting in our hallway for over six months. Well no more! I repainted the new drywall, and Mark and Ryan got the mirror and the molding up, and it looks fantastic! We also finally hung a towel bar and a hook so that towels don't have to be draped over the shower curtain rod.

I also spent some time sanding and painting cabinet doors for the bathroom, Mark installed a nice new medicine cabinet, and let's not forget the lovely new house numbers next to our front door.

There's nothing like hosting visitors to light a fire under our tucheses...

Lola's first trip to Home Depot

Sun-kissed skin so hot it'll melt your popsicle...

Ok, the title has nothing to do with the post, but somehow that song got stuck in my head this morning. What's bizarre is I'm absolutely positive I didn't hear it. How do you come up with a line like that anyway? It doesn't rhyme with anything and it's actually a really weird mental picture. -Jus' sayin' Katy Perry.

Ok, now back to more important things, starting with the kitchen. Phase 1 is complete! The cabinets, counters, and floors are complete, and for the first time in two months, we have a fully functional kitchen! It feels awesome. It's so hot it'll melt your popsicle.

Behold...




Notice I called it phase 1. There is still work to be done. Phase 2 consists of installing the green subway tile backsplash and pendant lights on either side of the hood. But for now, phase 1 will have to do. The kitchen is quite enjoyable as is.

In other insanely awesome news, the family is coming to visit! And when I say the family, I don't mean just my parents, or just my sister. We're talking mom, dad, Tali, Cliff, and....Dahlia!

Tali and my birthday is six days apart, and this is a big one (the big 3-0) for her, so what better way to celebrate? This is also the first time that the whole family (even pre-D) have come to visit at the same time. Just a couple weeks away!!!

To tide you over...

The granite goes in today and I am over the moon! The kitchen is almost complete! To tide you over until I have some new kitchen photos, here are a few pictures from Tali's recent photo shoot of Dahlia. Can you believe she's almost four months old? I shiriously have the cutest niece in the world. I'm not biased or anything...



And lastly, this one. It's my favorite photo of Dahlia and I. She was a month and a half when this was taken (not sure who captured this), at my mom's 60th birthday party. -Dahlia with her everlasting cuteness, and me with my bangs that are now already a sweep because I can't stand styling them everyday...

My Three Lovies

Does the carpet match the drapes?

...Or more importantly, do the dogs match the couch?

Griffin and Lola's first time on the couch...