finally a small slice of winter

this past weekend we had a gorgeous snowfall that had hendrix begging to play outside.  

it was really a fun time. 

we went out early in the morning and were the first people to track up all the fresh snow in the neighborhood. it was relatively warm so we didn't wimp out too quickly.

i did discover that while scarves are adorable on toddlers, they are completely impractical.  he kept falling down, and then it got covered in snow, and would fly up into his face making him more cold than if he wasn't wearing it. 

oh, and we also discovered that the playground is even more fun to play on when it is covered with snow.  the slides are super fast!  ;)

and when he was cold and ready to be done playing, he told me he wanted 'cocoa' and home we went. 

i'm glad that he is getting a chance to experience an iowa winter after all!  

wordless wednesday {man of many faces}

linking up with:

tara's view of the world, jenni from the blog, project alicia, 

my organized chaos, nola mommy, live and love out loud,

mama to 4 blessings, love.bug & flip flops & pearls

builder in training

somebody really wants his new playroom to be finished soon!  ;)

playroom remodel {in progress}

okay, so remember how i said that we started work on our basement project?  we have been busy, busy.

what started out as a simple resurfacing project has evolved into something much, much more.  

don't all home improvement projects?

they do for us. 

i should have known this by now.

*sigh*

so anyways, our original plan was to rip out all the paneling (relatively easy), replace it with drywall (not terribly expensive though somewhat time consuming) and lay down some carpet to make the cold hard tile floor seem much more appealing.

once we got started with the tearout however, it was kind of hard to know where to stop.  

i never really was a big fan of those ugly ceiling tiles, and we damaged a few of them while we were tearing out the walls.  so we decided to take them down too.  

oh and if you are going to redo the ceiling, why wouldn't you just redo the lighting too?!?!  the two lights in there didn't let off enough light for the whole room, besides i just didn't like them.

this water meter and shut off valve need to be easily accessible, but we also want them to be hidden, so we have created some gorgeous built-in ideas for this wall (which may or may not include a window seat with cool custom bookshelves).

oh my what a mess.  

did i mention that i have to walk through this part of the basement to get to the other part of my basement (where my washer and dryer are located) with my not so clean anymore laundry? 

oh and we decided to just rip the stairs out too.  we don't really like that awkward landing, and the asbestos-backed flooring stuck to it seemed like more of a hassle than it was worth.  

hubs already has the new stair structure partially completed, and the naturally finished birch wood is going to look fabulous in there.  

we are still designing the railing as we want to leave it more open than it was before (to let in all that gorgeous sunlight from the window that is there and the window that will be there when we tear out that door).

can you see the vision?

or does it just look like a dirty, dingy basement project?

more to come....

happy valentine's day!

so, hendrix has his own valentine this year ;)

valentine's day will always be a special holiday that takes me back to the early days of my pregnancy with him as it was the time that we announced our pregnancy to our family two years ago.  back then he was about the size of a sweet pea.  a heck-of-a-lot can happen in two years, huh?  

actually even just in one.....

Valentine's Day 2011 - 5 months old

i love you kiddo, and am so glad that you are a mama's boy!

happy valentine's day

just me and my dad

i caught my boys doing a little personal grooming together the other morning and thought they were so stinkin' adorable that i just had to share!

i don't think you can see it very well at his angle, but hendrix has shaving cream on his face too, and that blue funny-shaped toothbrush was being used as a razor.  

brushing teeth is one of hendrix's favorite pastimes......i imagine he does it more like 5 or 6 times a day than just the recommended 2.  

we have always sung the abc's while he brushes, to help make it fun and encourage him to do it for long enough, and now he has the two so connected in his mind that when he hears the alphabet song on tv he has to run to the bathroom to get his toothbrush. ;)

keep up the brushing big boy! ;)  

mommy wants you to have cavity-free pearly whites!

wordless wednesday {mr. independent}

my little guy turned 17 months old this weekend.  his attention span has grown significantly, and it is fun to watch him sit and play with the same toy for a long time.

he also likes to start movies all by himself.  (he broke our dvd player, and now we have resorted to watching movies in the playstation)  

elmo is still his favorite.

and he stands at the window begging to go out and play all the time.  we have hardly had a winter kiddo, need you really have cabin fever already?

linking up with:

and then-shesnapped, marvelous mommy, flip flops & pearls, 

love-bug-blog,  jenni from the blog, 

mama to 4 blessings & my organized chaos

musician in the making

i don't imagine that i need to spend much time reinforcing hendrix's obvious musical connection.

he comes from a musical family, and he seems to be fully aware of that as he has enjoyed music in various aspects since before he was even born.

we have made a leap this past week from just singing, dancing and pounding on the piano; to also strumming on daddy's guitar.  he has a little elmo guitar that he got for christmas, and i think he just made the connection between it and the one that daddy has. 

i have been serenaded a lot lately.  

i know these thoughts are very premature, but there is a little part of me that is already imagining a full drum set in my garage for my boy to have 'jam sessions' with his friends....

good thing his father-in-law works for a music shop and can get us the hookup on instruments ;)

....and on his farm he had a horse

hendrix's obsession with horsies continues.  it started several months ago, and while i really thought it was going to fade with time, it has not.  

he really likes to watch this horse movie on youtube, and we have taken him to feed the horses on campus before.  In fact the other day when we were eating carrots with lunch, he said 'carrots' followed by 'horsies'.  Great connection pal! :)

We took a detour on our way to the superbowl game last night to feed the horses again, and it was just so fun! We told him that was where we were going and let him hold the carrots in the van, and he just kept saying 'horsies' and 'neigh-neigh' over and over again the whole ride there.

And then of course there were lots of tears when it was time to go......his delight is just so darn cute!

just another home project

bud and i have been homeowners for almost two years now.  This was closing day, early May 2010, when hendrix was still just an itty bitty babe inside my tummy.

we have made some serious improvements to our cozy, old bungalow in the short time we have lived here.  we are adamant do-it-yourself-ers, and we have had lots of help in the form of family and friends who are willing to share their talents and time.  both of which are invaluable!

this was the biggest and yet also one of the easiest projects that upped the curb appeal immensely.  i was sick of living in just another white house in a long block of white houses.  do you like it?

     

let's see, this is the garage/screened in porch; and it didn't even match the house color when we moved in.  my hubs also stained the deck to spruce it up a bit.  we want to make more improvements to the porch in the future.....in fact, it has been a little daydream of mine to turn it into a fantastic photo studio.....plenty of natural sunlight ;)

the kitchen really could have used a complete overhaul, but that wasn't in our budget, so we made some inexpensive improvements that made it liveable.  painting the cupboards did alot to brighten up the space ;)  i would still love new countertops and a tile floor, but that will have to wait.

the living room/dining space really only needed a new coat of paint, and some wood floor care.  we adore our weathered wood floors, and this space has been really cozy and inviting for entertaining.  upgrades on the light fixtures are still on my wish list....

hendrix's nursery got a good deal of my time and effort as i was a nesting momma, and wanted to create a space that was perfect for him! i don't think there is much i would change in here.

the bathroom got a pretty big overhaul - we tore up carpet (seriously, who ever thought that was a good idea?  there was mold everywhere), had to re-drywall after we tore off those icky tiles, rewired everything, added a venting fan, new vanity and lighting fixtures......yeah we did a lot of work in there.

i definitely wish it was bigger, but it sure feels a lot bigger than it did before the remodel.

and now for a little tour of our newest home-improvement project.  we are tackling our basement.

this is the semi-finished half of our basement (the other half is unfinished and that is where the laundry, second toilet, and storage is all located).  We have always wanted to turn this into a playroom, and now that hendrix is taking over the rest of our house with all his toys and books, we have decided that we need to get moving on it. 

we have spent most of the weekend working on demolition, and it looks nothing like this currently.  

in fact it is the biggest mess i have ever seen.  

i am really excited about this project, but we are finding that it is harder to work on home-projects now that we have a little man.  

he wants our attention, and he wants to "help".  good thing he can sleep through the pounding - we have been taking advantage of nap-time and his early bedtime!

more to come on this playroom adventure!