Life in South County

We have now enjoyed 5 months in our new home and YES all boxes are unpacked (well there may be a few stashed in a secret place still waiting for me). This was my first time having to unpack with children and what a difference! Chris and I have moved 8 TIMES but this has by far been the most difficult. Ellsie and Nixon consume most of my energy during the day and by evening...well good luck getting me to do ANYTHING:) But for the most part the house is coming together just fine. Here are a few before and after pics.

The kitchen had tile flooring, missing drawers, some nasty paint, old hardware, and lots of dirt:)

Ellsie's room had some very lovely floral detailing, the most holes in a wall I have ever seen, broken blinds, no closet doors, a multi-colored ceiling fan, and carpet

Nixon's room- Yes that is a chalkboard painted on the wall with the paint tape still around it. And yes this room is only half way painted and yes it was like that when the previous owners lived here.

The house we moved into previously housed 7 people!!! 3 young kids and 4 adults. So you can imagine the MESS we inherited. We took possession mid January and went to work right away. Stripping the house to bare bones, we put all new flooring in and had the entire house painted. Chris changed out all the electrical outlets and most of the hardware throughout the house. Then came the closets. Unfortunately we had to re-use the existing closet doors but Chris put in 2 new closet units. Every room got new lighting except for our rooms and believe it or not Chris did it all without electrocuting himself:) And with every project come a HUGE mess! We have been cleaning up mess after mess after mess from the moment we moved in. Which is especially fun with 2 little ones adding to the MESS:) But now a few months into the move our house is starting to look like a HOME. And might I emphasize STARTING:) I think Chris could have had so much more done however, nap times have made it difficult to do any LOUD projects...which is pretty much every project.

Chris installing new tile flooring in the kids bathroom. And YES the massive surf boards on the wall are gone!!!

Here is the TV room painted and just about to get the new floors installed:)

We would really like to give a BIG THANK YOU to our parents. Both have been SO helpful and supportive on this new journey of ours. None of this would have been possible without their help. We are really liking the neighborhood and Ellsie has made a few friends to play with in the community. And the park choices around us are ridiculous. We have 2 really nice parks near us less than a 2 minute walk.  We are in the process of finding a home church. There are a lot of great ones to choose from around us. Obviously a HUGE draw for us is the kids program. And so many churches have so much to offer for kids:) So as you can see we are enjoying our new home and can't wait to have it visitor ready. Until then enjoy the before and after pics.

This is what the kitchen looks like today:) Every stitch of the kitchen was painted and knobs/pulls put on the cabinets. YES! That is a home made pie sitting out on the counter (a weekly occurrence in our home...NOT). Our next project will be to take out the center lighting and make it a tray ceiling with some canned lighting.

The family room with furniture:) I have had those pictures up forever and just never seem to get around to ordering a picture of Nixon to put in the last frame (yep, good mama).

Chris had the fun task of hanging this bad boy. We can not decide what to do with these bricks. We wont be able to completely re-do the fireplace so the question is to have it painted or just leave it...
What to do?

Our current project is the backyard. As we progress a little further I will post some before and after pictures. Stay tuned! XOXO

I Speak Ellsie

Ellsie is talking so much and I am having so much fun decoding her language (well most days!). It really is quite amazing how one day they are just able to talk and talk and talk. Here are a few things Ellsie says on a pretty regular basis. 

"Poopoo Stinky"- This can mean a number of things, Diaper change, Tooting, bathing (b/c one time she had a poo up that back so we had to wash the stinky poopoo off so bath time became wash stinky poopoo time), or trash

"Poopo Stinky Truck"- Garbage truck

"Pooh Bear Mama"- Diaper change (he is the character on her diapers).

"Phone cards"- Flash cards on my iPhone

"Bickey"- Mickey Mouse

"Fingers"- I want my nails painted

"Chupi Nigh Night"- Pacifier and blanket

"Pinka"- Tinker Bell

"JaJa"- Jacket

"Kitty"- I want a bandaid (because we only use Hello Kitty bandaids of course)

"Chicker" - Stickers:)

Clearly I am having fun each day figuring out the riddles of Ellsie's language:) It does feel like sometimes we have our own secret language that only I can understand and I must admit I kind of like it!