We're still here...

I'm am going through a blog drought. For some reason, I just can't get up the energy to post anything. Maybe because homeschooling and four kiddos is a little time consuming this year. Maybe because now that we're closer to friends and family it seems silly to be blogging about our daily happening. I'm just stuck in a blogging funk. But regardless, I'm going to post a few pictures so that you can see that it's not still snowing here (as this blog would make it appear). Feel free to pass on any bloggy encouragement that you might have. I could use it! :)

Last weekend, we had a fun time with some friends at the lake. It was a much needed getaway!

Kate had her first dance and piano recital this spring. She loved them both!!

Here are just a few random pics from Spring...

Snow Day fun x4!

There is nothing more exciting in Arkansas than two days of snow!

The kids have had a ton of fun even though there wasn't enough snow to build a snowman. This was John Patrick's first snow and he liked it about as much as any 1 year old does. :)

Caleb pretty much just wanted to eat the snow, which is not surprising!

Luke was just glad to be out of school

Kate was committed to mastering the art of sledding. Hypothermia...she's not scared!

Snow Ritual

There have been rumors of snow floating around that have gotten my kids very excited. Today Luke came home from school with this note,along with an attached spoon with a snowflake sticker on it...so IF YOU WANT SNOW,this is the ritual you and your family should perform. For those of you in our local area, I would suggest you do it tonight!

LET THE SNOW RITUAL BEGIN!

Quack!

This week is a Daddy Vacation week so as part of the vacation week festivities, Daddy went duck hunting with some friends this morning. As you can see it was a productive trip...

Everyone was excited to get in on the post hunt action!

Personally, I'm trying to keep a smile on and act like it's perfectly normal to add these to the piles already on the floor in the garage.

I feel vegetarianism (is that a word??) coming on...

(interesting side bar...the boys looked at the ducks and are now inside playing. Kate is out helping to pull feathers and cut up the meat. Something just doesn't seem right about that. lol!)

Finished!

Well, our kitchen "remodel" is finally finished! I am so thankful that they finished in time for Christmas! Not that it's helped me get my baking done any faster! I am very thankful that we can now start to get back to our normal level of chaos and disorder without help from Best Builders.

Here are a few pictures of the new kitchen. I tried to find before pics but all I had were these and these from the beginning of the plumbing problems but you get the idea.

Merry Christmas!!

Sugar Plum Ball

Chris took Kate to her first Sugar Plum Ball, which is a daddy/daughter dance to benefit CARTI. It was a little girl's dream come true: a beautiful gown, fancy shoes, curls, and a tiara. They had a blast!

Kate's friends Sally Claire and Sarah Liza went too which added to the fun!

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall but I refrained and let it be a sweet daddy daughter night. These are precious memories for sure!!

Moving forward

They finally started the demo work on the kitchen this week. They came in and torn the old backsplash off and removed the counter top. Now I don't even have to open a drawer to get out what I need. I guess that's at least one way that this "kitchen remodel" has actually made my life easier. :)
This is what the island looks like since the cabinet guys wanted everything cleared out of the old cabinets. They didn't want a catastrophe in case there was a problem when they put the new ones in. Just adding to the order in our house...

Also, you can see the crockpot squeezed into the corner spot on the island. This kitchen remodel is putting a crimp in my frugality but I vowed that this week would be different. So there it is...dinner amidst chaos.

Here's where things start to get exciting! Some of our new cabinets are in! This really was the first day that I started to get excited about this whole pipe breaking/kitchen remodel fiasco. I guess I could finally start to get a visual for how things are going to look. There's hope in sight!

I'm so excited to get glass doors in the kitchen! They are one of my favorite kitchen additions.

Demo team II is coming tomorrow morning to tear up all of the tile in the kitchen, bath and laundry room. Thankfully my in-laws have invited us over to enjoy a mess free meal with them.

Hopefully we'll be repaying the favor by Christmas! More updates to come!