Pictures to come by Wednesday

We've been working on getting all the wiring we need for the t.v. behind the wall...and so as of now nothing looks different. But, we are planning on drywalling tomorrow. Then we just need to texture the wall, paint it, and mount the t.v. And then I'll take a new picture. I'm taking bets on who thinks I can have that all accomplished by Wednesday:) And, Jake's dresser should be done by then too so I'll take a picture of his room too.

The fireplace is done!

So this is the before...
and here's the After!

I am so happy with how it turned out. It made all the days, late nights, and weekends of working on it worth it...(I think..haha:) Let's hope the rest of my house projects don't take as much time and thought as this one did (although I'm sure they will). I spent several weeks bringing home samples of stacked stone because that was my original plan. Then one Friday night Marc and I went to Home Depot and bought everything we needed to do the stone fireplace. We were there for hours. We got home and were watching a movie, and I saw a picture online of a fireplace and changed my mind on the spot. You should have heard me telling that one to Marc:) Anyway, we got the tile and mouldings and everything we needed to do it like this. Who knew you could actually spend an ENTIRE Saturday and only accomplish putting up one piece of moulding??! Pathetic, but very true. Another holdup was that I actually had grouted the tile with a different color first and didn't like it, and then chipped it all out. So anyway, we had our share of setbacks on this, but it all turned out in the end.

So I'm thinking I might do more frequent updates on the house, since it's pretty much my obsession right now anyways. It'll make it more fun to chart my progress. So now our current projects are mounting the t.v. over the fireplace (we had to open up the wall)...and I'm painting. I painted Jake's room over the weekend and am working on setting up his Cars bedroom (more pics to come on that.)

More updates to come!

Spring Catch Up

April is a pretty busy month for us. We have Jake's birthday, Easter, Marc's birthday, and then our anniversary. So, starting with Jake's birthday...we got him a Lightning McQueen bed since he loves Cars so much. It was Marc's idea and I thought it was a great one...so now I'm going to decorate his room in the Cars theme. Should be fun:)

We had an Elmo birthday party for Jake at a nearby park. The cake got a little melty in the car, but I was proud of myself for pulling it off. Has anyone ever tried to dye white frosting to make red? It's near impossible. I went through 2 bottles of red dye and it just kept being pink. After adding some other colors (and after several grocery store trips) I got it to this.

It was also my cousin-in-law Shannon's birthday, so I decided to make her a cake themed from one of her favorite t.v. shows...can anyone guess the show???

Here's my beautiful table spread...don't I throw an elegant party? I planned on having picnic tables there at the park, but mobs of people were there because it was also Easter weekend. So we set up some little tables and crammed all the food on it. At least I got some more use out of the Elmo I made at Christmas for the yard.

I just thought this picture was so cute. Here's Jake with his cousin Nathan.
Then the kids at the party fed the ducks at the pond...right next to the sign that said "Don't feed the ducks."

Easter was fun. Jake liked coloring eggs, and playing with the stickers.

For Marc's birthday, we went to Disneyland.

Jake's helping Marc out a little, both with blowing out the candle and adding more moisture to the pie while he does so...it's a win-win

This is on mother's day. I LOVE being jake's mama.

He fell asleep on the couch which he never does, and looks an awful lot like me when I sleep...don't ask me why, but starting in college I would wake up with my hand just like Jake is doing. I'm sure my roommates remember this:) And Marc makes fun of me all the time.

And I got to take advantage of a favorite mother moment...

Jake's had a lot of fun with his cousin Luke since we moved to the same city as him. I'm excited for them to be buds.

And he still loves his Torrance friends. He was so used to being around Emily and Lauren and Brody...it makes me sad he doesn't get to see them as much.

And here's my teaser:

We've been working so hard on redoing our fireplace for the last several weeks. Here's some before pictures...

Notice Jake working with his tools while Marc and my dad are working...so cute.

Stay posted for the after pictures! Hopefully they will be coming within a week:)