House Update: Kitchen and Dining Room

I finally have the kitchen and dining done and put together (for now) so I thought I would go ahead and share the transformation on the blog!  It has taken a long time to get things the way I wanted, but everything is almost complete now!  We go through stages where we get a ton done, and then we get busy and take some time off.  Plus, I am so indecisive when it comes to putting nails in our freshly painted walls!

 

Welcome to our kitchen the night we closed on our house!

 

 No need to discuss the terrible flooring, wallpaper, chandelier, ceiling fan, etc...

This is the view if you are turning in from the front door.

 

 View from the island.

 

 This kind of makes me sick to see these pictures again!  It's reminding me of all the work we did for weeks!! Yuck!!

 

 Ray and Grant first ripped out the wood flooring and Kem and I got to work stripping off all of the wallpaper.

 

Once all of the flooring was gone, Ray and Grant started on the tiling.  They wanted to kill me and each other after this project was done.  We tiled A LOT!

 

 This was probably after we cleaned the tile for the 2,000th time!

 

 Tile work done!  Ray and Grant did a GREAT job!  We changed out the light fixture above the table and painted the walls the same color that is in the living room and entry hall.

 

This table is now in the living room, but we didn't have wood floors for about three months, or a kitchen table so it stayed in the dining room for a while!

 

After cleaning layers of scum off the cabinets, replacing the floors, replacing the baseboards, stripping wallpaper, painting the walls and trim, replacing the lights in both rooms, purchasing a new table and hutch, and putting on my decorating touch...

 

Welcome to the new Kitchen and Dining Room!

(I was having a little trouble with my lighting in these pics)

 

 

The little black table under the canvas was Grant's great-grandmothers!

 



 

 

I love the way the kitchen and dining turned out, and it has so far been one of the rooms that we use the most!  We have already spent lots of nights talking and playing cards with friends and family at our new table, and I can't wait to keep making memories in these rooms :)

 

 

 

 





Toasted Marshmallow Mathis

We have a new member of our family this week!  Meet Toasted Marshmallow Mathis!

 

Isn't he the cutest little thing you've ever seen!?!

 

My sister's cat ran away from her house for a bit and then came back with a belly full of kittens!  Grant and I had been talking about how we needed a cat to scare away the millions of birds that like to live around our house, so I convinced him we should get one of my sisters!  Her cat had a litter of four, three brownish and one white.  I have always said I wanted a white cat named Marshmallow, so it was meant to be! :)  His tail and the tips of his ears are grey, hence the toasted part :)

 

I have had so much fun playing and taking care of him this week.  Grant was not 100% on board and acts like he is not interested in him, but I have picture proof that he actually loves him!  He is only four weeks old, so we have had to feed him milk out of the bottle but he is doing great!  He loves to cuddle up to me and I think he is already becoming quite spoiled! 

 

 Aw see he does love him :)  Every morning he loves to get up in the chair with Grant while he studies and snuggle!

 

 His first bottle feeding!

 

 

 This was the day we got him!  My sister came to KY to visit, so she brought him with her.  My mom was also in town and took one home to Michigan with her as well.

 

 He loves to get up on my shoulder for some reason!

 

He is just the cutest little kitten and so easy!  He is already using the litter box and trying to figure out solid food.  I am hoping I can convince Grant to let us keep him more inside than outside :) 

 

Welcome to our family, Marshmallow!



Utah Day 4 and 5

We finished up wedding weekend with a brunch on Sunday morning at the hotel.  It was the last time we got to see the bride and groom before they left on their honeymoon to Barcelona!  The pancakes were the best I've ever eaten, and made up for the two sprigs of lettuce at the wedding! 

 Alec and I at the brunch.  At this point we were OVER having to dress up every 5 minutes!!

 Love my mother-in-law! 

 Courtney and I brightened up the brunch :)

After the brunch we headed back to the place that the alpine slide was at and did the mountain coaster.  Walker cried and did not want to get on, but then LOVED it when it was over!  

 I rode with Clay.  This was about halfway up the mountain!

 They took you up the mountain and then you basically coasted (fast) back down.  It was so much fun!

 Courtney and Alec!

Grant's Utah family are mostly all of the Mormon faith.  Since Salt Lake is the home to the international headquarters, they took us downtown and showed us around the Mormon temple.  It was very educational and very pretty to look at!

 Courtney and I being tourists!

 Part of our group on the roof of the convention center where they hold their yearly meetings.  They made the roof look like a garden.  Very pretty! After our tour we headed back to one of the cousin's houses and had dinner and headed to bed!

The next morning Courtney left to head back to Maryland and we headed up the road to one of the popular ski resorts.  We rode the tram to the top of one of the mountains to take in the views.  The only other tram like this one is in the Swiss Alps!  The views were awesome!  We were so high it was freezing, and there was still a little snow on the tops of the mountains.

That night everyone came over to Grant's cousin Ashley's house for a grill out and games before we had to hop back on the plane the next morning and head back to Kentucky!  We had a great visit with his family, but I was ready to get back to my bed and to Grant!  I did absolutely love Salt Lake City and all the mountain views everywhere you looked.  The city was so clean and didn't seem as crowded as the big cities here in the south.  Grant's cousins were great hosts and we are already planning another reunion trip in Kentucky soon!

Thanks for a great trip Utah and congrats John and Suzy!!

Fourth of July Fun

I'm taking a break from Utah posts and talking about what we did for the 4th of July!  We spent the day at Grant's grandparent's pool.  We were in the water most of the day, so I didn't have time to take too many pictures!

 

 I've been trying to keep my chalkboard updated for each month.  I skipped June, but this was my July design!

 

 This picture was us on our way home from Utah.  The USA men's soccer team played that day and we were getting in the spirit of the 4th!  Just ignore the fact that my "S" is backwards!!  whoops! ha!

 

Grant's whole family came over to his grandparent's to swim on Friday.  We played volleyball, Grant wrestled with the boys, and we all got our tan on!  The weather was perfect!  Later that afternoon Kurt (Grant's uncle) went and picked up some ribs, and we had all made sides and desserts to go with.  Normally we would go watch the fireworks after dinner, but the big show was not until the next night in Murray.  So, we came on home to relax and then hit up the fireworks on Saturday night instead.

 

 Grant and I before the fireworks started sporting our red, white, and blue :)

 

The firework show was awesome this year!!  Totally worth the trip and the wait! We had a fun weekend celebrating the 4th with our family!

 

Happy Birthday, America!!

 

Utah Day 3 - Wedding Day

We finally made it to Wedding Day!  We had the morning and afternoon to ourselves before we had to leave for the wedding, so our Utah family took us on a fun adventure!  We ventured down the road to a ski resort that had a zip line, a mountain coaster, and an alpine slide.  It was so fun!!

 

 Selfie's on the way!

 

 We had to ride the ski lift up about 15 min to the top of a mountain to do the alpine slide!

 Part of the view on the way up!  Gorgeous!

 

 Getting ready to head down the mountain!

 

 Clay came down beside me so that I could keep an eye on him.  You were able to put on the breaks when you needed to, so you had control on how fast you could go!  Walker was a little scared, so it took him forever to make it down the whole thing!  After the slide, Alec and I did the zip line down the mountain.  Fun times!

 

After the fun of the day, it was time to go get ready for the 17 wedding parties that we still had to go!  We left the hotel and headed to a ranch just right down the road for the first cocktail hour.

 

 The boys were looking so handsome for the wedding!

 

 After the cocktail hour, we walked down to the wedding ceremony location.  I mean...gorgeous place to get married!  It was beautiful!

 

 The bride and groom!

 

 Courtney, Kem, Clay, and I after the ceremony

 

 They are hysterical together.  They love each other, but want to beat each other in everything!!

 

 Courtney and I with their cousin Holly.

 

 Alec and I

 

 Our side of the family.

 

The whole crew!

 

After the wedding ceremony we had another cocktail hour, then a dinner, then dancing, and then an after party!!  The brides family spent a TON on the food (and the wedding in general).  They brought out the salad and it was literally two sprigs of lettuce.  The boys face when they saw that was priceless!  We were serenaded by a former American Idol and danced the rest of the night away! 

 

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel room that night, but we had a great time!  It was fun to spend time with our Utah family, dance silly, and celebrate the bride and groom.  Don't worry, we still had one more wedding event the next morning...the never ending wedding was close to coming to an end!