A little more...

Here's a bit more.... the sink wall. We're closing off that door, which goes to the patio, but we never use. The fridge will slide in there, and on the right end will be a built in oven/microwave combo. We're getting convection for both, I'm curious to see what that does for my cooking. I think just having an oven that will fit 2 dishes at once will be a huge improvement!! And again... more drawers!










The other wall is a bit harder to explain. We're taking most of the wall out and creating a big arch between the kitchen and the living/playroom that is on the other side (connects to our patio, for those who have been here). In the corner we are building in a banquette seat, inspired by this picture from our favorite magazine. But since we're taking the wall out, the area above the backrest will be open to the other room.




We wouldn't want to ignore the most fun thing in our house... the kid! Miles loves this picture from Thanksgiving week. He's been carrying it around everywhere, talking about driving the John Deere tractors. He did get to sit on a real gator at PaPa Bill's place on Thursday, so that cemented the John Deere obsession.

For some reason today he's been telling me that we're going to Chik-fil-a and a basketball game tonight. We're not. I have no idea where he came up with that, but he seems to be convinced. Maybe we'll at least squeeze in the Chik and a little ball at home.

And not to be left out, little sister is currently playing soccer with my pancreas. She's a very active kid, much more so than I remember with Miles. So I think she just wanted a shout-out on the blog so we don't forget her. It's okay baby girl, we're not forgetting about you!

Have a great weekend!!

Add another to the fire....

So lets see what all we've got cooking now....
~ toddler on the go, check
~ baby due in 3 months, check
~ holiday season (that description seems to over-simplify, no?), check

What else should we try doing now? Oh, how about a full kitchen renovation. YES!!!

For those of you who have visited our home, you were no doubt subjected to the explanation of our poor, outdated kitchen. "We've got big plans..." "Someday we're gonna...," "Oh, just slide that floor tile back in place..."

No more. And no backing out! We have the cabinets and appliances on order, we're hoping to start the work around Christmas. Of course I don't mean "we" in the literal sense... no way we could attempt to do this ourselves. But the guys that are doing it have their schedules ready for us.

So here's the rundown of the plans....
Here's the cabinet door:
It's "Antique White" with "Chocolate Glaze" - basically the glaze collects in the corners and ridges, supposedly a highly effective trick for disguising fingerprints!

And here's a wall by wall look at old vs. new:
~ Soffits coming out to allow for staggered height cabinets
~ Cabinet/counter will turn the corner to fill the empty space
~ Gas cooktop shifting down - safer for little reaching hands, also space to set groceries when we get home.
~ Look at all the drawers! I have 2 functioning drawers currently. TOTAL. This will be amazing.





I actually sat down and mapped everything in the current kitchen/storage to it's location in the new cabinets and I have empty spaces still! I know that won't last, but I'm amazed at how much more space I'll get in basically the same footprint.

Okay this is getting long, so I'll save the other info for another day. Have a great Wednesday!

The Grand Entrance

photos

I meant to add that there are updated photos from the weekend at the Shutterfly link to the right (more Photos of Miles).

Gobble Gobble!

In preparation for my 3rd trimester discomfort we decided to make a big trip to see the family at Thanksgiving this year, and stay home for Christmas. All of our family is in the state, so it makes for a pretty convenient route. So last Friday we packed up our things and the dogs and headed west. The first stop was for a couple of nights at YaYa & B's to play with them and cousins Evan & Kate. They had big fun as usual and it was a nice way to kick off the big week. We dropped the dogs at the kennel in Nashville (our usuals in Knoxville were full) and continued westward to my family in Memphis.

We kicked off Turkey week with lunch of the bird and all the trimmings at BeeBe & PopPop's on Sunday afternoon. Miles is a fan of turkey and cranberries, but oddly refused to eat sweet potatoes all week (he loves them at Calypso.) We played trains and Miles napped in his cool new fire engine sleeping bag, then after a quick visit to Gee Gee Mama (my maternal grandma) it was over to Mimi's to crash.

Monday Mimi, Wayne, Miles and I played at the Children's Museum where he was really into the fire engine, the airplane cockpit and the mini-Kroger, complete with a mini-carts & working cash register (daddy had fun running that). Later we stopped by to see my paternal grandmother and entertain her for a little while.

Tuesday we went back to PopPop's for a true tourist must-see in Memphis: the Peabody ducks!! ( I have video for another post). I had never seen the spectacle either, so we parked it by the red carpet to take in the show. After a bite to eat we hopped on the Main Street Trolley for a loop around downtown. We made it a full Memphis day with a barbecue dinner, then turned it in.

Wednesday we took it a little easier, playing trains at Mimi and PawPaw's and chasing the cat around. We did trek out to ride the carousel at the mall, where we ran into Uncle Gus who was out shopping too. He had fun riding the "horse" with Miles, but I'm not sure if Miles was a huge fan of the ride. He clutched the pole the whole time! The first ride he wouldn't even sit on the animals, just rode in the sleigh with daddy and PawPaw.


Back at the house we got ready for the big Turkey dinner with Gee Gee Mama, Uncle Kiley and Aunt Megan. Miles had fun entertaining them all, and I think Kiley had a pretty fun time designing some innovative Thomas track layouts. Miles was much better at sharing the trains with the rest of the family than he is at home. We hear "NO daddy! Percy no go!" quite often when it's just the three of us.



Thanksgiving morning we hit the road back to Nashville - actually Leipers Fork - for a Thanksgiving day feast with uncle Shay's dad. PaPa Bill was very welcoming to extended family from all directions, Wayne and I think there were almost 30 people there! After another day of play with the cousins and YaYa & B (and a reunion with the pooper-doopers) we finally returned to the homestead on Saturday.

We had a fantastic time visiting everyone and Miles has already been asking "where's your suitcase?" - ready to pack and head back on the road! I don't know when we'll see all the family again, but hopefully a little event coming in, oh 90(!) days or so will garner a few visits to the Knoxville area. This week gave us something to be truly thankful for: being with all those we love the most and celebrating.

Gobble gobble, everybody!

Cowboy school

So Miles is really taking to the cowboy thing... I hung a new map in his room and he noticed the buffalo on Montana, so I sang some "Home On the Range." Not satisfied with my knowledge of 4 lines of the song, I downloaded the classic Gene Autry version about 15 minutes ago. We're already on the 6th play and counting.

boy oh boy

Oh where, oh where does the last quarter of the year go? I mean, wasn't it warm just a little while ago and now it seems like Christmas is almost here? I cannot believe Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. I'm trying to work on the Thanksgiving concept with Miles. He got Halloween, but is pretty much skipping straight to Christmas. It's partly my fault.. he had the Hallmark Halloween tree and started asking "where is Halloween tree?" I told him Halloween is over, but we'll have another tree soon at Christmas. So he's told a few people (including his stylist today) "Hall-ween over. Kiss-mass is next." So, sorry, Pilgrims, Native Americans, Squanto and Tom the Turkey. Better luck next year.

Since I've been a slacker blogger this week, here's the quick rundown of all the things Miles is diggin' right now.

.: Miles has been really into looking for the moon lately - and of course we've been in the waning/new moon stage so it's "not there". I picked this up for his room, hopefully I can hold off until Christmas to give it to him!!

.: Glad we have a piano here, even if it is sometimes in the way. He's been hopping up and serenading us all week. He'll just bang around and sing "Old MacDonald" or something. We played a duet of "Yellow Submarine," then he learned that my songbook has "Happy Birthday" so that's his go-to song now. Oh, and he doesn't like scales.

.: He does an awesome chicken dance. I will definitely try to get that on video.

.: He's a GREAT big brother to his dogs. His newest jobs around the house are putting Chelsea in her box before we leave the house and feeding the dogs. He can box Chelsea up, no problem. Gives her a treat and locks her in. The feeding requires a little supervision, as he really enjoys the scooping and pouring part - they'd get really fat if we left them to him! He puts their bowls on the floor, scoops each their food (they're on different diets), then makes them sit until he says "OKAY!". Such a great helper!!

.: This weekend he learned to "tackle" B and daddy in the yard. Although his jacket is the wrong color, he was all about some football, getting down, saying "Hut Hut!" and charging at his opponent. He's definitely all boy!

Howdy!

This was it, the year Miles got into Halloween. We dressed up all day, first for playgroup then for the evening of fun at the house. Miles was the best darn cowboy east of the Mississippi, even without cowboy boots.

Halloween morning we played at his friend Isabella's house. Isabella has a brand new baby sister, Ellie, and Miles was really sweet with her. On the drive over I talked with him about not touching her face, but touching her toes, and he repeated those rules many times when looking at her. I think he's starting to get the whole "baby sister" concept. He'll pat my belly and say "baby sister" in a cute little cooing voice. The other day I was wearing a dress and Wayne asked Miles where baby sister is. Miles started lifting up my skirt to get to my belly! Thankfully we were just at the house, but I guess we should start working on those boundaries.

Anyway, back at Isabella's house, cowboy Miles donned the stethoscope and became the prairie doctor. He was by joined his cowgirl friend, Millie, and Pocahontas (Isabella), as well as an angel, a Tennessee cheerleader and Diego. When Miles saw Ava, the cheerleader, he started his own round of football cheers. He still shouts "go big Orange" and "go Vols!," but somehow the generic "go football go!" is now stuck in his repertoire too.

When daddy got home from the office, we all got on our western gear. Wayne and I decided to dress up too so Miles would be more likely to keep his hat on, but I think he would have been just fine without us. We played out in the gorgeous evening, oddly light for Halloween with the late time change this year. The family across the street had their annual gathering for their 5th grade daughter's friends. Once they all assembled, about a dozen girls came traipsing across the yard to see Miles. The girls were a rainbow - each dressed head to toe in a different color. Miles had a big time entertaining them. He and I'd worked all day on saying "Howdy, ma'am" while tipping his hat, so he was quite the charmer.

We decided to trick or treat at the four houses around us where we know the neighbors. So the first stop was Beth & Dan's, the ones having a baby boy next month. I prepped Miles to ring the bell and say "Trick or Treat" and he didn't disappoint. Since this was the first year he carried a treat bag it took him a second to understand what Dan was doing with the bowl of candy. But he quickly got the process and began loading up his own bag! I don't know where he learned about candy corn, but he recognized it and started digging for that.

We played in their yard for a few minutes, tossing the disc with their oldest dog, Cole. Poor Cole was just diagnosed with canine leukemia so he won't be there for much longer. Miles will miss heading to the back yard to "wake up Cole" on the weekends.

Back to Halloween, we then trick or treated a 3 more homes before returning to ours. It was a slow evening, with just about 4 groups at the door. One neighbor about a mile away pulls a hayride with his truck every year, so when we see them coming we know it's time to unload whatever candy we don't want to be stuck with!

Miles enjoyed the ritual dumping of the candy on the floor, and even got a sucker for the bathtub. We'll see if he remembers his stash when he gets home from school today!!