March Madness, Part 2: Redecorating

For the past month, John & I have been working as quickly as possible to redecorate and make some improvements to our home (with the help of one of John's employees).

Project 1 was to add pendant lights above our bar. Sorry I don't have a before picture. I'm so happy with the amount of light it brings into the kitchen though. It's not a fantastic picture of the lights themselves, but I guess you'll just have to come and visit to see them!
Project 2 was to repaint the entire interior of our house. This has been on the to-do list for 4 years. Along with that, we scraped the popcorn ceilings, and re-textured the ceilings. This is our entryway BEFORE:
After:

I'm still hoping to add some new curtains, and planning on doing black & white houndstooth.
Here is our Living Room BEFORE:

AFTER: One wall is yellow, with the surrounding walls gray. I still have to make the pillows to match that kind of tie the room together.

I did make two of these numbers, and am quite happy with how they turned out (the pillow).

This is our upstairs hallway BEFORE:

AFTER:
Our Office BEFORE:
AFTER:
And a little corner with the glider:
Our Dining Room BEFORE: peach!
Now AFTER:Peacock!
Our Master Bedroom: Oops forgot to take the before picture before we started tearing the room apart, don't mind the mess eh?
Now AFTER: See? We're not total slobs.
Our Guest bedroom BEFORE:
AFTER: It's a Pumpkin Spice Accent wall.
Ethan's Room BEFORE:
AFTER: Eventually I'm hoping to make him a quilt that matches, but that will have to be saved for a later date!
The Baby's Room BEFORE:
AFTER:
John thinks it's a whole lot of different colors. I told him that was exactly my point! What do you think?

March Madness, Part 1

March was a super busy month for us! We sold one of our Camaros, The one that we can actually drive, that is. At least we got to take it on one last Sunday drive. Oh, and John promises me that it won't be our last one, just because I was SO worried.We got to go to the beach house too. Sadly, I left my camera at home, but I did get a few choice shots with my phone. This one is of the Parsons taking a voyage out on the kayak.
Ethan watching carefully in case we decide to take a turn after the Parsons. But with Mommy only 4 weeks away from her due date, we're glad to watch from the beach first.
Yikes! The boat took a spill and Maddie lost her tooth! Evidently the oar smacked her in the face as they took on a huge wave, but we won't mention who was holding that oar, Jami, will we? Don't you worry though, the tooth was already loose so it's a good thing that Jami has good aim.
My friends threw me a fantastic baby shower too this month (I had one at work, but I didn't bring my camera, so I have no good stories to share)! This one was nice & casual, just my style. With plenty of food, friends, and chats (sorry I couldn't continue the alliteration).

Here is my big belly with my friend Jen who I used to work with at the design firm.
Liz & Teri, with Liz's twins.
Tammy & April
Hayley is here too.
Another Jen with her new baby (I think only 2 1/2 months old here)!
I know there were more people there, but I didn't get everyone in a picture. I loved it ladies, thank you so much. And at some point, I hope you'll get a thank you note!

Jane's Birthday

For Jane's birthday (John's mom), we arranged a little surprise visit from Tim & Sharon. Jane was so surprised, even talking to Tim previously in the day and everything. We told her to come over to our house for dinner. John went to go take the garbage out and strolled back inside with these yehoos.I wish I would have gotten the surprised look on her face when Tim & Sharon walked in the house, but this will have to suffice.
John & I made Chicken Parmesan with Garlic Bread. It was fantastic if I do say so myself.

February leftovers

The winter is always so hard for Ethan, just because he still wants to be outside, EVERYDAY. Now that we have these fantastic boots, we're prepared for the rain.Look at my cute little model.
Now mommy just needs to find a pair too, so she can go outside to play.

Sledding with the Rossi's

Our friends invited us to go sledding up in the snow with them this year. Ethan had so much fun. We were too cheap to go buy expensive snow boots for his fast-growing feet, so we ended up getting some rain boots instead. They worked perfectly. Although he was so excited to be there I think he would have gone sledding in just a diaper.John races down the hill, always willing to take it to the next level.
Wipe out!
Riley didn't want to go down the hill at all unless it was with Ethan.
These two have so much fun together.
Teri just looks like a sissy here. I think she went higher than anyone else.
One happy boy.
Oops. Seven months along here. Don't worry. I was a sissy and went only as high up as the 2 year old.
Even after the sled flies out from under them, Ethan is still smiling.
Love this grin.
I spent a lot of the time making this masterpiece, with some lovely assistants.
Tyler said it looked like John.
Eating cheese chips in the back of the truck.
Thank you Rossi's, we want more!