Tuesday, December 14, 2010

First Haircut


On Saturday, Jamie and I took Grantham to Roger's Barber Shop for his very first haircut. I was a little nervous how everything was going to play out but he did so great! He basically just sat on Jamie's lap the whole time and was a perfect little angel :) Just wanted to share a couple of pictures with you all. Enjoy!!

Friday, December 10, 2010

What's been going on...

...A LOT!!!!!!! Our little family has had so much going on in the past month...as I'm sure you could figure out by my lack of a blog post :) The most notable things are renovations to our house, going to the mountains of NC for Thanksgiving, decorating Grantham's "big boy room" in preparation for Eli's arrival, decorating for Christmas and the fact that our beloved Cocker Spaniel who was 17 years old passed away.

It's been hectic and crazy to say the least. When we found out we were going to have another baby back in May we decided to put our house on the market to make room for our growing family. We knew the housing market was not a good place for sellers but thought we would give it a shot and decided that if it didn't sell by October 31st that we would just renovate instead. Well the house didn't sell and the renovations started the first week of November. I can't even believe how quickly everything is happening. We are adding a double car garage with a bonus room, a playroom, a deck, a half bathroom and updating the kitchen. There is a separate post below this one that has pictures of the progress.

I am ashamed that we left our camera at home over Thanksgiving so I didn't get any pictures. We went to Blowing Rock, NC with Jamie's family and Jamie, Grantham and I had a great time. It was wonderful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with family in the beautiful mountains of NC.

With Eli's arrival coming quickly, we decided we needed to get started on Grantham's big boy room. I am really excited about the way it has turned out...although it's still not completely done. I want to have him sleeping in this room for at least a month before his baby brother arrives that way maybe it won't be so traumatic to have a new baby taking over his old room. There is another separate post with pictures of his new room so you can see what it all looks like. The only thing we are waiting for is his crib and then we can officially move him in. We are borrowing a crib from a friend that he will sleep in until we make the transition to the "big boy bed." I'm certainly not in any rush for this to take place. We just decided to go ahead and set up all of his new furniture that way when we do move him to the twin bed, he will already be familiar with it. On a side note, we also purchased an identical twin bed and bedding set for Eli. The plan is for the boys to eventually share a room :)

The last thing I want to mention is that our dog Bailey passed away. This has been very hard for Jamie and I although we know that it was definitely time. His health had really gone downhill fast in the last couple of months and we had actually been discussing the need to put him down in the near future. One night Jamie was outside doing some work and Bailey was out there with him. Bailey wandered off and never came back. In 17 years, he has NEVER even attempted to leave the yard. The only time we ever put him on a leash was when we took him to the vet or the groomer because there was just no need for one. We were shocked that he left the yard and we searched and searched for him. Jamie searched for several hours 3 days in a row and we never found him. Our assumption is that he wandered off to die in peace. This was hard for us because we weren't able to say goodbye but ultimately, I think we are glad that Bailey made the decision for us rather than us having to make a decision to put him to sleep. I would not say that Bailey was a "good dog"...he was kind of a trouble maker from the beginning :) However, he was one of the sweetest and most loyal dogs I have ever been around. He will be missed!!! The picture at the top of the post was taken by my sister on November 27 which was 3 days before he died.
I apologize for the crazy long post...I told you a lot has been going on!!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is enjoying the Christmas season so far.

**Sorry for the separate posts with the pictures of the renovations and Grantham's room...for some reason blogger wouldn't let me add all of the pics to this post.**

Renovation Pictures

Garage/Bonus Room: View from the street of the house with garage (that's the electrician's truck in the driveway :). You can see the window of the bonus room although I didn't take a picture of the interior. It is HUGE and there is a full bathroom and walk-in closet. Playroom: This was the covered porch right off of the kitchen/dining room. We are converting it to a playroom.
Updated Kitchen: The granite countertops, new appliances and new sink/faucet have been installed. The only thing left to be done is the backsplash.
Deck: There will be 2 entrances to the house from the deck. The door to the left of the picture enters the playroom and the door to the right of the picture enters the new hallway leading to the bonus room. The deck is complete sans being stained. I couldn't get Charlie to move out of the way when I was taking the picture...I guess he was feeling photogenic :)

Half Bathroom: This was a closet underneath the stairs that we are converting to a half bathroom. By the way, that's Charlie's kennel in the picture.

Grantham's Big Boy Room Pictures