New dining room

The new floors that we are now enjoying has sparked a variety of improvement projects around the house that we are most proud of. When better to clean out and clean up than when you have to empty the majority of your house? While we are gradually getting finishing touches put back up on the walls and shelves, we are extremely happy with our new dining room. We felt like our old dining room set was not as kid friendly as we need, and it kind of filled up our little dining room space. The table has not been set up for over a year, and the chairs have been living in the basement to allow for more play space in that area. We don't have a play room or a den, so we do all of our living in the living room, and that includes play. While we have been without a dining room table, we've been doing all of our eating around our little bitty kitchen table. And that is fine and good for breakfast and small lunches, but dinner time would be so much better at a proper table. Especially in the event that we want to have guests.

So, we placed our old dining room table, chairs, and buffet/hutch in a local consignment store, and we have replaced them with the following items:

a pedestal table and two cross back chairs from Ikea
two long benches that I found at the Mission Thrift and Joe sanded and painted
a series of shelves in the place of the hutch.

Having that hutch out of there has really freed up a lot of space, and the pedestal table paired with the benches cuts down on too many table and chair legs that tend to fill up a space. We also removed the old, out of date light fixture that has been in there for so long, and we replaced it with a lower profile, modern fixture (also from Ikea). The old green rug was removed and replaced with some randomly placed, small round rugs. Why would we cover up those gorgeous floors? I still want to make cushions for the chairs and benches, but for now, we could not be happier with our new room.

Now, for before and after pictures.....I don't have any good befores. We have been clearing the rooms all summer, so it has been in a series of disrepair for quite some time, so I never got a really great, bona fide before shot. The best I can find are from old parties, so please enjoy the shots below from last year's Christmas party. Let's hope my friends in the pictures don't kill me for putting these images on the inter-webs. (but it's a great test to see who is and is not reading my beloved blog!!)



I know it's hard to see, but both pics show the dining room set and the light fixture. Ok....you've probably skipped all this explanation just to see the goods. So here ya go:



So, whaddya think? Good? Wanna come eat supper sometime?

Please help me.....

Do you see the fearful look in her eyes? She is right to be afraid. Very afraid......

4th of July....a little late....

I mentioned in a previous post that we were terribly lucky to spend the 4th of July on Lake Harding at the Shack, which is the old family vacation home of our friend Race. He and my oldest BFF Heather invited us for an overnight visit. We headed over there with babies and ice cream fixins in tow on Saturday the 4th prepared for a weekend of fun, which is precisely what we got. We were joined by plenty of friends and family, which is as it should be for such a great holiday. The pictures are all candids, and they aren't all that accurate to all the tons of fun we had in our short 24 hour visit, but we got some great action shots!

Tumbling

Tumbling class is the highlight of Jacks Dyer's week. During the school year, he takes tumbling at his day care with Mr. Frank, who owns a local gymnastics studio (Premier) and he is gracious enough to come up to day care with a plethora of safe equipment for toddlers to learn to balance and roll and whatever toddlers do at tumbling class. But, this summer, Frank's son Marc (who also works at Drake with me), has held a small tumbling class at Premier for a handful of teacher's kids. Going to the actual gym is so much better because of all the fun trampolines and padded mats and other equipment that the kids can play on there.
Usually, I take Jacks to his summer time tumbling group with Nealy strapped to my chest or in her stroller. And I tend to gossip with the other mothers or check my blackberry while Jacks plays. When Joe goes to tumbling class, it is a different story. He plays on every piece of equipment and does everything the kids do. He is basically the oldest member of the tumbling class. For every really silly thing Joe does, my friend Mandi says something like, "Hey, that's YOUR husband," or, "Dude, you married him." Yes, yes, Joe may look like a fool, but every good daddy looks like a fool every once in a while for the sake of his kids. And I'm glad he does, because Jacks has a BALL at tumbling with Joe.

Boys in a bathtub

Our friends the Cannons came over for supper the other night, and we had the best time we have ever had with any company we have ever had over ever. EVER! After we all ate delicious steaks, meatballs, potatoes, cakes, and ice cream, we threw the kids in the tub for a bath. The Cannon twins are a few weeks older than Jacks, so we attempted to get tub pictures of the three of them. However, these are the worst pictures ever. It was steamy in the bathroom, and none of the boys would look at me at the same time, and Jacks insisted on splashing everyone the whole time. So I was fearful for the life of my super precious tiny camera.


Unfortunately, we didn't get any other pictures of the evening. But, it was only because we were too busy having so much fun to remember to pull out the camera. Sometimes, not taking any pictures is a good thing.

Nealy and Ryan meet again

Jenny brought her sweetest Ryan Lily over the other day for a visit. We had a ball!!! These girls are really starting to interact with one another. You know how babies do - chewing on each other's arms or poking each other's eyes out. You know - good fun!!


Ryan and her parents are about to live just around the corner, so we are hoping that she can come and visit all the time now!!!

Beautiful Babies

My friend Leah and her husband Brian were flying through Alabama on their way back to South Carolina after a very quick visit to Pensacola to retrieve their children from Leah's mother, but they were good enough to stop in for a quick bite of lunch and a visit with us. Got all that? Anyway, Joe took pictures of their gorgeous children with hopes that he will find time to draw their portraits.
Can you believe how beautiful these children are? Ah.....take my breath away!
Thank you to Leah and Brian for stopping by. We wish you could have stayed much longer. There never is enough time with good friends, is there?