Before photos

These aren't true "before photos" as Chris has already started demo and I've moved some things around already. I swear the house was really clean about 12 hours before I took these photos. Or maybe it was 24 hours. Oh no I've got it wrong. The cleanliness lasted about 12 hours while we were all asleep! Ha....

Chris is taking out the huge brick mantle, and removing the popcorn ceilings in the remaining parts of the house. 

And the tile is coming out... About 900 square feet of it.. That we put in ourselves (with papa and nanas help!) 6 years ago. 

With the kitchen rennovation complete 2 years ago we realized the tile just wasn't our style... But it wasn't in the cards then.  In the top left you can see the awesome line of "new" ceiling on the right and the popcorn on the left. 

Emptied hallway missing baseboards already!

And then there's the armoire. We have literally changed our home to accomodate this amazing giant piece of furniture. A score at a local thrift store it is where I moved my craft room, home office, bookshelf, and storage space when we had kiddos. This thing can seriously store stuff, and looks great doing it. It can "eat a room" so to speak so we keep it visable yet tucked away a little bit. It also weighs about 450 pounds and takes at least 4 (preferably 5!) dudes to lift/move/scoot it. Chris and Paul (papa) even moved the wall 1 inch to accomodate it into the hallway ex-closet space. And now we are moving it again!

Chris and I spent an hour last night chatting about the logistics of moving everything off of the tile to have the wood floors installed. It will be no easy feat but good thing I love change! And also good thing we don't have too big of a home to have to move things about. I feel so optimistic.

Owen August turns 5

O my heart, my joy, my best boy! You have counted the days until you're 5. Now it's here and it's such a pleasure to watch you thrive. You swim at lessons and make me count my blessings. 

Exploring the calming water makes you at ease~ but so does anything that comes with wheels~ you're easy to please.

The day you were born was filled with such emotion~ exhaustion~ fear~ excitement. We never could have written the last 5 years and I can't say I would have planned some of it... But that is life, throwing you curve balls as well as SUPER AWESOME KIDS in our case! We have had the best 5 years with you bud, you are my teacher, my friend, my giggle partner, and adventure seeker. Here's to an amazing year ahead.

Celebrating Amanda and Josh's Wedding

Chris's little sis had been engaged for over a year... And I think I can speak for us all when I say their engagement was a long time coming! We showered, we bachelor'ed and bacheloretted and the day had come! Owen posed this way on his own...

Even dietitians eat chocolate! I made chocolate dipped strawberries for the morning of the wedding.

This one was enjoying the greenery at the venue during the rehearsal.

FUN and GORGEOUS bridesmaids

The Britton fam at a restaurant... Not a usual sight!

The happy couple!

Adventurer much happier among the greenery

Miguel had a spirited shirt on

The kids were really great

Mostly great

Beauty

My lil sis and Paul

YAY!!! Now they know how to do it tomorrow.

My gal pal Penny did our makeup

We took this pic as we were laughing at her bangs but I really love this picture.

Ara enjoyed smelling the hydrangeas all morning long.

One of the best moments of the day was when Amanda's makeup was done and she went and looked at herself in the mirror. She broke out in tears! It was such a great moment.... We of course were being silly and giving her a hard time about "Oh I'm so beautiful I'm moved to tears" and laughing but wow. The emotions and reality had sunk in... And now she was pretty and prepped to go to the venue!

These little handsomes were so good as well. I was a bit in over my head with getting them and myself dressed as my dress fit just perfectly around the middle and anytime I bent over to tie Owen's shoe or adjust Ara's dress I wasn't sure if my dress would survive! It did, and we all did. Owen's rental shoes must have been flung off his feet 346 times due to his spidey moves and the laces being about 3 inches long. I was sweating with this routine. Chris was with the guys and came a little later.

Ironically all the snacks I brought for Ara were white. This was really smart and totally unintentional. Cheese, popcorn, and banana. No worries if she got any on her dress. Good thing I didn't bring cherries and beets...

Kids were served first- bonus!

First breaded chicken product ever... And do you think she loved it or what???

These kids were loving the dance floor.

Every square inch of it.

Amanda and Josh claimed to not want to be the center of attention so of course they were. It all turned out so great with a very interactive reception. I liked how the DJ took song requests/dedications from the tables. A & J had us all laughing hard many times during the reception.

My kids. On the floor. In public. It happened. We survived.

So many good times were had~ the kids did well, Ara napped on me twice, Owen cried during a few speeches because he wanted them to end and the dancing to start up again. I was the designated driver which rarely happens, so Chris was a little dancier than normal. It was a crazy hot day which made taking pictures an adventure. The wedding party was fun and we all had a blast dancing during the decade montage of songs... CONGRATS AMANDA AND JOSH!!! Plan a few more trips alone, then expand the family!