Madison turns 5 years old!!!

This little girl is getting so big, I can't believe it! We had a simple birthday this year. She invited a few friends over for a dance party.

 There was dancing...

 ...there were presents...

 ...there was dinner & cake...

 ...and then more dancing.

I think everyone had a good time, and Madison loved it...and that's really all that matters. :)

Christmas 2012

I know this is super late, but oh well. I don't have very many pictures because the battery on my camera died (despite my checking it the night before and it saying it was full).

Madison opening her gift from Henry...a dolphin necklace.

 A new princess crown, because you can never have too many.

 Showing her crown to grandma & grandpa, who came to watch her open her gifts.

 She must have been a very good girl, because Santa was very good to her! And it didn't hurt that mommy & daddy found a killer deal on Craigslist.

 Her favorite book to check out from the library - Cowlick. It's pretty cute.

And that's where my battery died. I think I have more pictures on my phone...I'll have to check. 

Our House

***Warning...this post is heavy on pictures!***
When we bought our house we knew it would need a lot of work. My dad & Zach worked really hard for almost 2 months getting the house to a livable condition. This is the outside, and honestly, we haven't done anything with it yet. We have every intention of getting rid of the sea-foam green paint and adding some green to the yard. But that will have to wait until we (meaning Zach) have a design.

This was the view from the patio door (left) and front door (right) when we bought the house. See that wall?

Yeah, they knocked it down. And it is one of the best decisions we made!!!

And here are those same views today. There is still a lot to be done, but it is much improved!

The carpet in the family room has been replaced (in the whole house, actually). The tile in the kitchen was replaced with wood laminate flooring. The fans, paint and baseboards are also new through this part of the house.

This is kind of a boring picture, but it shows the quality of the paint job through out the entire house when we bought it. I don't think the people who lived here before painted a second coat on anything... so nearly every wall has been painted at this point. There is still some trim work that needs painted, though.

 My favorite part of the house - the kitchen!!! Ugly, uneven tile - gone. Tiled counter tops - gone! The dishwasher has been moved to the other side of the sink. We painted all of the cabinets and added beadboard to the fronts, to match the beadboard back splash. The upper cabinets to the left of the window were replaced with full size uppers. We added cabinet pulls to the cabinets and drawers. And added the island.

Still on the list for the kitchen - there is some painting still to do, trim out and replace the lighing in the soffit, and curtains for the window. 

 The toy room - It's just white (and was when we bought it, but it got a fresh coat of paint anyway), but I finally found some inspiration for the decor...the hot air balloon that's hanging in the corner. I got the chevron fabric (which I'm not normally a fan of, but for this I think it works) to make curtains and ordered some vinyl in matching colors to put the alphabet on the wall opposite the window. I'll take more pics once that's finished.

 The master - what was once this ugly pearlized/metallic dusty rose color...

...is now a nice, calming gray (which I realize looks white in the picture). I still need to do something over the bed, I just haven't decided what. This room also got a new fan.

 The master bath is one shade darker than the bedroom. It still needs some of the paint, a new counter top & sink, new light fixture and we'd like the frame out the mirror.

 The kids room - from this...

to this. Their room is almost finished! I still need to hang their initials above their beds and make a valance for the window. I got some cute yellow polka dot fabric for it.

 The main bath - I can't access any of the before pics right now. :( We've replaced the floors (and that's what the cabinets used to look like in the master bath, which also has the same new matching floors).


And as part of their Christmas present to us, my brother & his family came up one day and did some work around our house, including painting this bathroom.


There's still a lot of work to do, but we're slowly getting it done. I don't have any pics of the pantry, but we've started on that room too. I'll try to get more pictures on here as we finish more projects. Hopefully one of these days I'll have more to show on the outside of the house. I wanted to wait until each room was completely finished to show pictures...but that's probably not ever going to happen! :)

Henry Cole Watson

Wow, I was a terrible blogger in the second half of 2012! Let's see...we had a baby & moved into our house (still working on fixing it up though). Those two things have pretty much consumed my entire life over the last 4 months. And since they are both pretty big events, I'll break them up into two posts.

Henry was born on 9/11 at 4:03 am and weighed a whopping 9 lbs 15 oz! He was 21.5 inches long. Madie was VERY excited to meet her new brother. She woke up around 3:30 that morning (if I remember correctly) and never went back to sleep. Good thing Henry didn't wait much longer than that to come.

He is growing great and when we saw the Cardiologist in Oct he said that Henry's heart is starting to heal and that we don't need to go back until April. I'll try to remember to update on that.

 Henry is a thumb (and finger...and fist) sucker. It still seems so weird to me since Madie couldn't do that when she was a baby.

 All dressed up for church.

 Halloween - Belle & a mummy

 Henry is my snuggle bug. He loves to be held and snuggled. Also very different from his sister.

 Henry is such a happy, smiley baby! And he's pretty ticklish...which I just love. He pretty much only cries if he's hungry. Sometimes he fusses when he needs to poop or when he's tired...but not always.

Zach blessed Henry in November. It was lovely, thank you to everyone who came.
Madie did NOT want to pose for pictures! She cried and threw a huge fit. All she wanted to do was change her clothes and play with her cousins.

In his fancy suit that grandma 'roney made him.