{Almost a Finished Product}

Wow, have we been busy the past couple of weekends - I want to give a huge thanks to our parents who have totally helped us out the past two weeks and to Bob's brother Brad for pitching in tonight and helping us set up our new furniture.  Two weekends ago, Anna came down with a pretty nasty cold, it was her second cold she has ever had and it hit her pretty hard, so we spent much of the weekend cuddling on my parents couch while Bob and his parents pulled up the rest of our sub floors and pulled thousands (and thousands) of staples...a huge task and I am sure it wasn't a lot of fun, we are so gracious for their help.  Luckily they finished by the end of day Saturday so we were able to get some furniture shopping done on Sunday.  Maccos came to start the job Monday and actually finished a day early on Thursday.  They were impressed with all the pre-work we (well, mainly Bob, but I helped!) had done and since we weren't actually staying at the house (it wasn't livable in the least) they were able to work a little later in the evening to finish early.  It was so fun to stop over every night to check out their progress.  Last weekend was spent putting appliances back in, Bob put all the trim back on, cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning and slowly our house came back to normal.  I could not believe how big of a job this really was when you consider all the trim had to be removed, as well as furniture, sinks, toliets, and appliances.  But in the end, it was SO worth it, the floors are absolutely fabulous.  Every time we come home, we cannot help but comment that it feels like a brand new house.  We are really pleased with our choices and we think it all flows really well together.  We topped it all off with buying some new furniture - a new table, chairs, server, and bar stools (and a bench for the table as well, I love it!) and a TV stand for the family room.  It all came in tonight and Bob and his brother managed to set it ALL up, way to go guys!!!  All Bob needs to do is set the TV back up.  Anna and I are off to Manchester to visit Mike and Michele on Thursday and see their new home and we get back I plan on focusing on our laundry room/half bath.  Since we painted, the decor we had in there doesn't really go and I think I have talked Bob into building me risers for our washer and dryer..we shall see...hint, hint!!!  For now, here are some pics of the work so far....

Bob pulling up the floor in the kitchen

See, I did do some work!

Family room before....

Family room after, the puppies are loving their new digs!!!  While I love everything we did, the hardwood is my favorite!

Family room again, just need to set up the TV

Guest bathroom with new tile and new paint

Kitchen with new tile and new table and chairs.  The tile we chose was called Solerno and it was put down in an 18X18 and 12X12 pinwheel pattern.  Bob really wanted to do the pinwheel and I am glad, it looks really cool.

Another view of the kitchen

{It Stuck}

As I mentioned in my last post, Anna has been a HUGE help with all the projects we have going on around the house - this video is a perfect example!  Anna was helping Bob take off the trim in the bathroom and decided she would start ripping up the floor, but "it stuck" - just too darn cute not to share:)

{Home Projects}

Some exciting news for the Seidel family is two home improvement projects we have going on right now. Shortly after the Christmas holiday, Bob and his dad started working on finishing our basement. It is such a large task and I give them total credit for taking it on themselves. Luckily, Bob’s dad has done this before and has been a huge help in the project. Unfortunately, Bob and his dad have just not had the time they would like to work on it with our crazy schedules, so they are not as far as they would like to be, but will continue to work on it as time allows. We have a plan for the basement and know what we want to do and they are working through the framing right now. I cannot wait to see a finished product, but that is far, far in our future and there is much work to be done before then. I look forward to getting involved with all the fun details, like the decorating, and Bob looks forward to putting together his bar:)
The other project we are working on is NEW FLOORS on the main level!!! Words do not describe how excited we are for this!!! We have wanted to rip up our flooring in the family room and kitchen for the past few years. I cannot wait to get rid of the gross carpet in the family room and the ketchup stains in the kitchen (they really aren’t ketchup stains, but apparently the glue used to install the floors by the builder has started to come back up and looks like we have ketchup stains all over the kitchen, it is so annoying). We have been looking for awhile and made our final picks at the end of last year and could not wait to place the order! We got the call last week that the materials are in and scheduled to have the install done the week of March 12th. Since we placed the order, Bob and I have been busy painting the bathrooms and laundry room and starting to remove all the fixtures, trim, furniture, ripping out the old floors, etc. I am not looking forward to living in chaos for a week, and have a feeling we will most likely stay with my parents for the bulk of it. The plan is to install the ceramic in the laundry room, bathrooms, and kitchen Monday-Wednesday and then install the hardwood Thursday and Friday. So when they are doing the ceramic, all the furniture and appliances will be in the family room and when they are doing the hardwood, all the family room furniture, TV, etc, will be in the kitchen. CHAOS! But I absolutely cannot wait to see the final product and do all the fun decorating when it is all done. Pics to come!!!  For now, here are some work in progress pics...

Main guest bath - horrible lime green we painted the bathroom a few years ago...it wasn't the color we wanted but never changed it...so glad it is gone!

Good-Bye lime green, hello palm tree breeze :)

As you can imagine, Anna was a huge help!  And wasn't afraid to tell us if we were doing something wrong!  This is the half bath adjacent to the laundry room.  It use to be bright red (what were we thinking?) and now is a blue/gray color.  We painted the laundry room the same as they are attached with a pocket door in between.

More help from Anna...

New floors - cannot wait until they are installed!!!

{Anna 18 Month/19 Month Update}

So I totally meant to post Anna's 18 month update...last month...and never got around to it, so here it goes, one month late...(and on a side note, how the heck is she nearly 19 months already and a full blown toddler?  Where does the time go?!?!?)

At 18/19 Months....Anna...

...is absolutely the funniest thing ever...she manages to crack us up all day long.  And is by far, the busiest little bee!  Honest to god, she is constantly, as all toddlers are, on the move all day long, with the exception of a nice long nap in the afternoon.  I get to spend two days a week home with her and am 10 times more exhausted at the end of the day then a day I go to work, but I have also have 10 times more fun:)

...is kinda, sorta, totally 100% into taking a bath....all you have to say is, "Anna, bath?" and she runs for the bathroom stripping as those little feet move a million miles a minute:)  Bath time has turned into daddy and Anna time and I love to listen from the other side of the wall...Bob is currently teaching her put the toy basketball into the hoop and shout, "2 points!"  It's pretty funny...

...Not much of a eater, likes to graze throughout the day, especially for breakfast. One of her recent favorites is turkey and confirms she loves it/wants it by screaming TURKEEEE!!!  when we go into the fridge.  Other faves are oranges, peaches, spaghetti, ham, yogurt, cottage cheese, pizza, sloppy joes, and pretty much anything with noodles - total carbs girl, I can't blame her!  She is not afraid of flavor (I am amazed when she begs for something spicy and likes it) and also loves her milk and apple juice.

...weighed in at her 18 month check up at 21 pounds and 32 inches long.

...starting to repeat everything we say and seems to be talking more and more with every passing day...

...loves puppies and loves babies...can spot a baby and a puppy a mile away, and points out every puppy and baby wherever we go!

...everything is "mine".  For example, my book, my puppy, my ney-ney (we called her pacifier "nuksey" for the longest time, which translated to ney-ney.  We are looking forward to getting rid of that one).

...we have a new weekend morning ritual in the Seidel house, after Anna wakes up, Bob goes and gets her and some milk, brings her into the bedroom and we cuddle and watch Dinosaur Train and Thomas the Train...these are by far some of my most favorites times as a family...and I think Anna's too as I will catch mid day climbing onto the bed, pointing the remote at the TV, and yelling "ma-ma, ma-ma."

Here are some pics from Anna's 18 month shoot, graciously taken by our good friend Kelly.  Once a again, she did an awesome job!!!  Enjoy:)

The next two are of our sweet puppies Oscar and Belle, never wanting to be left out, they didn't miss an opportunity to pose for the camera....Anna loves these two to death and they are so good with her!

Oscar - who for whatever reason has been dubbed, Oscar Buddy.  His go with the flow, laid back personality fits well with Anna - he tolerates just about anything!

Sweet Belle, she keeps a little more of a distance with Anna, but I am always finding her laying on Anna's clothes and blankets...and Belle is always at Anna's door when she wakes up or paws at me when she hears her in the morning.  Very much a protector.

{Family Fun Day!}

Today we took a ride up to Door County and spent the day at Heritage Lake in Egg Harbor.  My parents own some land at Heritage Lake, and while they haven't built on it yet, we still get to take advantage of the club house and its amenities.  It is great to go up their in the winter when it is relatively quiet and play in the pool.  We went up with my parents and Brett and Liz and had a great time.  The water is so warm and Anna absolutely loved swimming!  We gave the water rings a try for the first time and she did fairly well...although I think "throw all the pool noodles in the hot tub" was a more fun game.  All in all we all enjoyed the swimming and time with family...I absolutely heart days like today - we look forward to going up again soon!

Love playing with my dad!

Anna is totally into Auntie Liz right now!

So wanting to make the jump!

Love my little lady!

Family Fun....I loooove:)

{It's Moments Like These...}

...that melt our hearts:)

{Project Life Cover Page}

This afternoon, while Anna was napping and I was catching up on work emails, the UPS man stopped at our house and delivered my Project Life starter kit (yah!)  Anna was only half way through her nap, which meant I could get started right away (double yah!!).  I was able to put my cover page together, and then later tonight put weeks 1-3.  I absolutley cannot wait to get my pictures organized from week 4 of January so I can get started on that one as well.  I am really liking this project.  It is a different type of scrapbooking than I am use to, requires more journaling than I am use to (totally taking me out of my comfort zone, but I think that is a good thing, right?) and while I feel I have no idea what I am doing, I love finding out!!!