Demolition

Spencer and I have a lot of home improvement projects that we want to do. One of them being the kitchen, mudroom, and half bathroom floors.  Thanks to our tax return  we were able to get it done. 

Spencer forgot to do an official "before" shot but he did manage to get some "during" shots.

 Here's a few that he sent me the day I went out of town for 5 days (which by the way I didn't know he was going to do this construction while I was gone!  So these pictures were quite a shock!)

tearing up the "wood" flooring. Note the white island.

This is the half bath.

and where the sink used to be

All the flooring piled up (with our sick dog looking so sad)

The laundry room with the travertine tile Spencer laid.  There used to be cabinets and a space for an extra fridge along that wall behind Harley.

So here's the finished flooring in the breakfast area.  He also decided to paint the table.  I really like it!

When I found out his surprise of painting the table I asked him if he could paint the island black too.  I'm so glad because I love it!

(And the floor construction took about two weeks- which is when we had to deal with the loss of our beloved Harley. That's why you can see him in some of the pictures.)

I'll take more pictures of his awesome work soon.  It's almost finished and I'm excited for it to be ALL finished and another project started. Windows for the boys bedroom is high priority!

Harley

This is one of the harder posts I've had to write. The same day Avery had her piano recital we had to put Harley down. It was so hard! He'd been drinking a ton of water for a few weeks but after I came home from a trip he'd noticeably lost a lot of weight. After a couple of days he stopped eating and I tried different food but also had to strongly persuade him to eat. That lasted only one day. The vet said he had 105 temperature (super high for dogs) and gave him some antibiotics hoping he'd come around.  If not it was two things: a tumor or just old age & his body shutting down.  We had a big decision to make.  He refused to eat for two days. You could see his bones sticking out especially on his head. It broke my heart to watch him struggle to get up and walk around a bit then have to lay down.  Avery hardly left his side the day we decided to put him down. She didn't know about the decision but we all knew he was sick. We decided to say good-bye to him as a family which had every single one of us in tears.  A LOT of tears! I still miss this big baby boy and his adorable face.  We love you and even after 3 weeks we still miss you!  You will always be in our heart and part of our family.

I LOVE this face!  Those eyes grabbed my heart the day we picked him up 5 years ago. He was 3 when we got him. And he shared his birthday with Jake. They were both 8 1/2 years old.

Emily and Harley playing outside together.  He was fetching the stick from her.  It was so funny because it was such a long stick.  It'd touch the ground and fling out of his mouth and Emily would get it again and throw it for him.

This was so funny.  Spencer would lay down to just rest from working so hard and Harley obviously got behind him and "cuddled" the way a 130-pound dog does. He loved Spencer most.

His favorite spot was to sun of the top of the spa; until we tore out the spa.

This was Easter 2010.  Harley was helping Josh find Easter eggs outside.  Such a loyal dog.

Taking a nap in the elephant tent I set up for the kids to play in. 

This face is such a happy one.  We were playing with water balloons as a family and Harley loves to play or bite the water.  He was chasing the water balloons as the kids popped them.  It made him happy.

This picture makes him look so handsome! Oh, how I miss holding his head in my hands and scratching behind those soft ears and kissing his head between his eyes.

Jake aka "Batman" and Harley, "Superdog" saving the backyard and home front from evil doers.

Thank you Harley for the love and being a part of our family.  You were such a loyal dog to our family and kept us safe.  We are grateful for the wonderful memories you gave us.

A Piano

Avery has been taking piano lessons for a few months and had her first piano recital Saturday, March 24th.

I tried to get a picture of the kids before the recital and this was the best I could get.  I think Avery was too nervous about having to be the center of attention to take a picture- but it was also super sunny.

can you see the nerves in action?

She looks so great behind the piano and has the beautiful long fingers for a wonderful pianist.

(So I tried to upload the two short videos of her playing but it was taking too long so I'll try to play with it a bit more and post it.)

I love this group picture of Holly Hokansen and her piano students.  She keeps telling me I need to take lessons from her too.

HoeDown

I took TONS of pictures at the kids hoedown. It was so fun to see them each dance with their friends.

Here's our Em movin' and groovin' to the music with her Kindergarten class.

While the other moms were dancing with their kids I was taking pictures of my cowgirl.  OK.  Truth? She didn't want me dancing with her.  I got over it though by taking all the pictures.

This is the look I get from Jake with his bff Jayden when I say,"Smile!"

Josh wasn't far from the action.  He was actually dancing with the other kids and Dad.

My Boys!

I know he loves his Momma! He sure does like to give me a hard time though!

And my oldest who usually hides from the camera caught in the middle of "do si do"-ing with her partner.

Gotta love the picture of Ave with her friends!  So cute!

Fun Times

So I'm doing a major scramble to catch up on our family events. Here are some things we did over Christmas break:

A family favorite: feeding the ducks

Painting Avery's room- it's not quite finished yet.  But she, and I, love the teal!

Jake earned his Bobcat badge and is working on his Wolf.  I'm proud to say he's almost done!

We had a large pile of leaves in the front yard the kids were jumping in so I had to get a shot.  Jake  being the funny guy decides to attempt to throw some at me.  At this point I'm grateful for gravity!