{a Merry Christmas to all}

It is hard to belive that Christmas is already over, and ours was full of so many emotions this year. We had such a great time with our family. First, mine on Christmas Eve, and Dan's on Christmas Day. The entire time I was reminding myself that this is our last Christmas as the two of us, and next year will be blessed with two children. It will be quite a different holiday! I was also feeling very sad this year now that both of my Dad's parents are gone. I thought about them so much this past week and still am, wishing they could be here to see their great-grandchildren when they are born.

Christmas Day with Dan's family was more chaotic than expected. It is always fun with tons of people and gifts, but this year was quite a bit more stressful. Dan's Grandma is in the late stages of alzheimer's, and lives in an assisted living facility. She fell yesterday afternoon and did quite a bit of damage to her head and face that required a trip to the emergency room and stitches. Dan's mom and her siblings spent about 6 hours of the afternoon at the hospital with her. We were all waiting at the house, hoping for good news and sad that Dan's grandma was going through such a rough time on Christmas. Luckily she is back at the nursing home and hopefully she is doing OK. I know this has been a rough time for Dan's mom and her siblings, as this is marking the end of holidays spent with their mother.

On a positive note, it was the first Christmas for our cousin's little boy, and it was so fun watching him open his presents (with a little help from Mom and Dad). He is such a happy baby. Here are a few pics from the past few days. We were blessed with so many fun gifts, including a couple adorable outfits and pacifiers for the babies. :)

{this makes me happy}

The one little piece of countertop that was made correctly is in!! Oh how excited I was this morning to have somewhere to put my cup when I poured my OJ. :) Just picture the walls a nice shade of tan and a new pretty parquet wood floor.

We also have pantry shelves which excites me sooo much. Please ignore the hideous walls...they obviously need a coat of paint. Until this pantry we never had good storage for our dry food/canned goods, so this is going to be such an improvement. Both of these things cheered me up a little after the bad cabinet news. I'm still holding on to a glimmer of hope that they will come in sooner than expected.

And just for Christmas...a pic of our house decked out in snow. I was so excited to have my new railing to decorate with greenery this year. I think it looks so pretty with the snow on it. :)

{standstill}

This week has been frustrating so far, as the kitchen is at a standstill. Found out today that it could be as late as January 7th before we get the reordered cabinets...quite a different story from the "few days" they told us last week. That definitely didn't make me happy. I'm really just sad because we are having my family over on Christmas Eve for appetizers and gifts and now I probably won't even have a sink to use. I'm trying to focus on how great it will be when it is done, but my pregnancy hormones are definitely trying to have their way. Patience, Mandy, patience.

I am really looking forward to a long holiday weekend though...five days off is sounding really good right now. Still have a few Christmas gifts to buy, but I think I know what to get as long as I can find it. Even with starting early, there are always those last few minute purchases.

{a real kitchen}

The kitchen is finally starting to resemble a kitchen again, which is so exciting! Our contractor hung all of the cabinets yesterday, aside from the ones that had to be reordered. Now we just have to wait until next week for the new cabinets and the counter (it was ordered too big...dumb Lowe's) I just can't wait to see my farmhouse sink and pretty new faucet in there! Between this and being pregnant, my patience is being tested more than ever!!

So happy that it is Friday. Not sure what the weekend holds...definitely need to sign and send our Christmas cards and maybe get some more Christmas shopping done. Hope everyone is having a great day!

{more progress}

The kitchen is slowly starting to take shape, and I'm so excited to see it come together over the next week. Thanks to some mistakes by Lowe's, things have been slowed down...a couple cabinets were wrong and our counter was made too long. Thankfully our contractor has handled everything which has been a Godsend. We also had to have the sink plumbing and electrical wiring to the dishwasher and disposal redone yesterday...can't wait to see that bill! The previous owner was the king of poor DIY jobs, and obviously worked his "magic" on every surface of that kitchen. Here are a few more progress pictures...the windows have been finished with new trim and the cabinets are out of their boxes! Our contractor is starting to put them in place today.




What do you think of these cute bin pulls for our drawers?? Not sure what I would label them with...numbers...kitchen words. I know I've seen them in a magazine article on kitchen drawers...wish I could remember where!


Onto baby news...I'm 14 weeks along now. Hard to believe. With all of the kitchen mess we haven't been putting too much time into baby stuff right now, but once that is all over we'll have more time to think about furniture and all of the other things we're going to have to purchase over the next few months. It still seems very surreal that I will have two children in a matter of months. Ready or not! :)

{progress!}

The kitchen cabinets arrived yesterday!! So this is what our dining room looks like currently since we don't have a garage to store them in--->



Although I'm excited about the new kitchen I'll be soooo glad to get my house back in order. It is a mess right now!! Our contractor also removed the built-in yesterday and drywalled--->



And the new windows are in!!



It is so exciting to see some progress finally!

In other fun house news I ordered a new desk and chair for our office from Target. We'll finally have all matching furniture in there for a change!



I want to get the house looking as best as possible before the babies arrive, because God only knows how long it will take for things to happen after that!

I feel like I've been shopping way too much lately...with Christmas gifts, furniture, and maternity clothes which is such an anxiety inducer. I've yet to find dress pants for work which is really stressing me out. I'm still fitting into my regular pants, but I have a feeling it won't be long before they'll have to be put out of commission.

Hope everyone is having a great Friday!