twins way or no way

bekahs name;no beka rose bud [2minutes later] beka rose fily.

made by william

Quotes of the Day

Rebekah at the dinner table: “Can I have the pepper and roni?” [pepper and salt]
Joshua while reading: “I knew I was at the end because I saw the pyramid.” [period]

Check out my Garden Blog

Be sure to visit my garden blog. I will be updating it more regularly and hope to be able to share my joy of gardening and the beauty of nature with you. Plus the kids love to take the camera out and take pictures of what they like and find in the garden, so you will get their child’s view too.

http://www.finlayfamily.org/melissasgarden/

Emily took this photo of some crocus, and if you look very carefully, you will see that she caught a BEE in action. Great shot, Em!!

No More Toothless Wonder!

William has had the nickname “Toothless Wonder” for a few years now because his adult top middle teeth pushed out all 4 of his top middle baby teeth. So, for almost 3 years, he has had 2 VERY LARGE top middle teeth with big gaps on the side because the other 2 teeth hadn’t grown in yet. Well, we cannot call him “Toothless Wonder” anymore. Two days ago he ran into me like the house was on fire and when I asked what was wrong he said “My other “toothless wonder” teeth are growing in! I can see them, I can see them!” And then he very proudly showed me… what a CUTIE! (Ok, so please overlook the fact that I didn’t make him brush his teeth before I snapped the shots…)  CONGRATS William!

More kitchen remodel…

Here are more photos of our progress on the kitchen. These were taken before/after the corrupted camera disk. All the pictures of the “between steps” are lost. We have all the major parts done now. We have lots of details work left, and two big stand-alone projects: the kitchen island and the banquette seating for the bay window. Those will happen in the next few months, then the wood floor hopefully next year. For the meantime, the floor has a lovely “patchwork quilt” effect.

Technology Malfunction

Sad day! I realized a while ago that the camera disk that we used to take all of our late March/April pictures and video on was corrupted. It contained Emily’s, Rebekah’s and Kathryn’s birthday parties, the middle part of the kitchen remodel and all of my April garden photos. John took a look at it for me, and if anyone can scare technology into behaving itself, John can. But, he can’t fix it either. That is one of the main reasons I haven’t blogged for so long… I have no photos to go with it…

Kitchen Remodel Part 2: Complications

Monday afternoon, I took the twins all over town ordering new cabinets and a new countertop. It turned out that as we were tearing out the first batch of cabinets, we found 2 papers that indicated the original manufacturer of our cabinets, and the style and finish. I looked them up online, and it turns out they are still in business (have been since 1972) and are really close to my house in West Jordan. So, I went over there and they can make me the three extra cabinets I need in a matching style and finish (of course the finish will be slightly different because the existing cabinets have aged for 16 years.) Then I went to a local countertop factory, also in West Jordan, and they will have my new countertops made by next Monday. HOORAY!

 

Tuesday afternoon was our next session of kitchen tear out. Time to rip out the horrible peninsula. However, it housed the dishwasher, so we knew there would be a little plumbing and electrical to move around. However, what we found was much, much worse. Apparently, a previous dishwasher had leaked for some time unnoticed, and had rotted out the subfloor all around it. Previous owners replaced the dishwasher, but never fixed the subfloor (I suspect that is where the additional layer of subfloor that blocked in the pantry cabinet came from… the covered the problem instead of actually fixing it.) Also, we were expecting the dishwasher to be plugged in back in the cabinet, but it was hard wired down into the floor with only about 2 inches of slack. We basically had to rip off the countertop and all the cabinet trim around it in order to tip the dishwasher forward to get to the electrical wire. How they ever got it in there to begin with is beyond me. The floor, trim, and cabinets around the dishwasher were all terribly rotted and moldy. Dry, but ruined nonetheless. John and his dad spent last night cutting out a 4′x4′ section of all the layers of the subfloor to the floor beams to replace it. That was the only way to fix it.

Between the cabinetry of the peninsula and the sink cabinet was a gap about 6 inches wide that was covered over with a piece of filler trim. When we pulled that off, we found a whole pile of garbage left by the kitchen installer. It included trim off the counter, cabinets and lots of broken or stripped screws and nails. It even included a beer can. When Emily saw that she said “Well no wonder he left garbage and didn’t do a good job… HE WAS DRUNK!!”

The last complication of the day (in case we didn’t have enough all ready) was that the plumbing for the dishwasher juts out from the wall right where the dishwasher now needs to go. They did it this way to begin with because they didn’t want to have to work around the studs by the window, and the original configuration would cover it up. But, we have to redo it to make the dishwasher fit in properly by the sink.

Kitchen Remodel Part 1

We are finally remodeling our kitchen, after 4 years in this house! I could not be more excited and ready to undertake a big project like this. To stick to our pretty small budget, we are not gutting and starting over. We are keeping the current cabinets, but changing the layout, adding a few more cabinets, and changing the lighting, countertops, sink, and backsplash. The kitchen had a huge, drop-down, 80s style light fixture, a “peninsula” layout, and lots of wasted space along the wall with the refrigerator. All of these things make the kitchen seem very cramped and small, and very dysfunctional. We will put in recessed lights instead, take out the peninsula, move the fridge down to the end of the wall it is on and add a new bank of cabinetry for more storage. Lastly, we will add an island and build in some banquet seating in the bay window. The lovely 80s railing you see, I already hacked out a while ago.

Here are some before pictures:

The first workday was last Friday. John came home from work and said he was ready to start on the tearing out. We started on the fridge wall. It used to have a hole in the cabinetry where a broken trash compactor was when we bought the house. We removed the compactor and have been using the hole for our garbage cans for 4 years. Nice. The garbage hole. Not going to miss that. Then the fridge lined up precisely where the peninsula was so when you opened the fridge door, you blocked all traffic through the kitchen. Then there was a pantry cabinet, then a “kitchen desk” area that was a complete waste of space for my needs. We took out the garbage hole, moved the fridge all the way to the end by the dining room doorway. Then started in on the pantry. Unfortunately, some previous owner had laid more subfloor over the original subfloor and linoleum and cut right around the pantry for it. So, the pantry cabinet was wedged under the soffit and inside a cutout for the top layer of subfloor. It took John and I about 2 1/2 hours to get that thing out. By the next morning we had the three upper cabinets that we moved from other places installed on that wall for the new bank of cabinets.

Mullets are NOT in Style

For nearly 3 years I have let Kathryn’s hair grow, hoping that it would be long and beautiful. Well, I have finally admitted to myself that mullets are not in style. The very bottom layer of Kathryn’s hair was very long, down to the middle of her back. But, the hair on the back of her head still gets rubbed a lot, stays short, and get frizzy and horribly tangled. So, I finally gave in and cut her hair. That first chunk of 5 or 6 inches that I cut off was nearly unbearably sad! However, once we were done, she had a very cute A-line bob. We all decided that it fit her personality, and actually made her look older and very pretty!

BEFORE

AFTER

Doggy Jekyll and Puppy Hyde

We have reached the one week mark with our new dog Trixie and in that time we have decided she has a split personality. For 3/4 of the time, she is Doggy Jekyll. She is very well trained and obeys commands. She is gentle and fun. She is also very quiet… she only barks or makes noises a few times a day. She doesn’t even bark in return to the neighbor dogs barking at her. Then there is the 1/4 of the time that she is Puppy Hyde…. she loves to dig up the edges of the carpet, chew the furniture, destroy anything she can get a hold of. She also loves to go after the twins, and scare them to death. And during this 1/4 of the time, she goes from naughty thing to naughty thing.

I guess, for being 6 months old, this is still a very good proportion of Doggy Jekyll. It is still a challenge for me to keep up with her Puppy Hyde side during the day when everyone else is gone. Overall, everyone is bonding with Trixie and we are still happy that we added her to the family.