House Progress: Hallway, Half Bath, and Laundry Room

We are working hard to get this house finished before school starts!  On Memorial Day I worked on scraping and painting the half bath and last weekend we pulled everything out of the laundry room.  While Taylor was finishing the front hallway I was working on the walls and ceiling in there.  On Father's Day the kids and I spent the day cleaning the tile in the front hallway and painting and caulking base boards when Taylor put them on.

 

That is a stinking long hallway!  It is so nice to walk in our front door and see one continuous floor!

 

Since we had pulled my washer and dryer out I was definitely motivated to get that room done, so even though it was VBS week I spent the afternoons scraping up the linoleum off the floor so Taylor could start tiling.  He worked really hard and we finished both the half bath and laundry room this weekend!

 So this is what the bathroom USED to look like.

 I needed some color in my otherwise grey house so I went a little wild on these two rooms with passion fruit walls and turquoise ceilings.  Taylor put in the same tile that is in the kids' bathroom.

 Right across the hall is the laundry room painted the exact same way.

 Taylor made me these shelves and I love them!

 It is so functional now which is something I was really missing from my old laundry room.

 He also hung these great hooks for all of our swim bags and towels.

I would really love to paint these cabinets someday, as well as the ones in the half bath.  That is just more work than I have in me right now. Maybe in a few years we'll paint all these and the ones in the kitchen.  The more we talk about all we want to do in the kitchen, the more things we start taking off the list for now!

 

So today I'm resting (and doing a little laundry in my beautiful new room) because next week I have big plans to take on the game room, which may be the biggest room in the house.  Pressing on!

A Week in Texarkana

We were planning a trip to Texarkana for later in the summer but when Taylor's grandmother passed away on Sunday night we moved our trip up and changed our plans for the first week of summer.  We drove in on Tuesday, our anniversary, and since the house was pretty full that night, Taylor booked the two of us a hotel room in Arkansas.  It was a nice little get away.

 

 The funeral was Wednesday and we had a lot of good time with family.

 The kids' second cousins are their ages and they had so much fun playing together.  I wish they got to be together more.

 Cousins!  Sommer had to go back to Dallas for a conference, but the boys had fun going through old pictures and laughing at their ancestors and their parents when they were young.

 The whole family.

 

 

 

 On Thursday we took the kids to the waterpark.  It was nice and not crowded at all.  The kids loved it!

 

 

Friday was Taylor's dad's retirement party at his school.

 

 

 We were thankful we got to spend our first week of summer with family!
 



Little Ballerina Growing Up

In the world of ballerinas that I am learning more and more about, getting your pointe shoes is an exciting day.  Sophie was told a few weeks ago by her teacher that she was ready to go to pointe and finally we found a weekend to go to Dallas to find the perfect shoe.

 

I had no idea how complicated this process is.

 We tried on shoes for almost 2 hours, eliminating and returning to her favorites,  as her feet swelled and shrunk. 

 Mackenzie was great making sure we found the perfect pair.

 Finally!  We found them!  Evidently Sophie prefers the old school Russian made shoes.

 Thank you Mackenzie!

 Aunt Edie joined Mom and me at the shoe store and then we all went to eat Thai food in honor of Lindsey who couldn't be there.

 She got to Skype with Lindsey later to show off her shoes.

 That evening we surprised Sophie with tickets to Swam Lake at the Bass.

She could not have had a more perfect day!

Her shoes have rarely left her sight over the past week.  She holds then and pets them while she's watching TV.  We had to head out of town as Taylor's grandmother passed away so we had to delay her first day on her pointe shoes a few days, however she also got to learn to sew her elastic and ribbons from an expert.

 

 

Hopefully she'll know how to do it next time!


End of School Fun!

What a crazy school year this had been!  We crammed way more changes into one year than we planned, and I am very thankful it is over, but also very thankful for the many blessings we experienced.  We had the usual crazy end of school back to back activities.

 

 The kids had several performances including Peter Pan at school,

 and their church musical.

 Sophie and her besties were all Pharisees, which may be more appropriate than we'd like to admit.

 John Curtis came so far in baseball this year.

 

 He loved playing and never wanted to miss a game!

We had a great year but are now ready for the slower days of summer!