Is it April 14th Yet?

From yesterday's visit to the house...

Landscaping is DONE!  I love the way it turned out.  Blair Bennett from Bennett's Landscaping was fantastic to work with if you are in need of a landscaper.  I believe they do landscape maintenance too.  Email me if you want his number!

This is our pool!!!!  We also loved our pool company.  RD Gray is the owner of Island Pools of Jacksonville.  He's great!  He built the pool and did all our paver work too - driveway and around the pool.  He's going to come back and take out the grass and replace it with the same Travertine that's around the pool.  If you are interested in building a pool, I highly recommend RD.  Check his business out HERE

This is going to be my new kitchen...This is the kitchen I've been dreaming of for the past year.  After our cramped kitchen with little to no counter tops, this is going to feel like a mansion.  For those of you who saw my kitchen in Utah, you know how much counter top space we had there so this will be a very welcome change after the past year.  I can't wait to start baking, canning, freezing, cooking!

Steph

Kendall For President

As I was walking through the halls at school today I came across this hanging on the wall outside of K's room.  I can't tell you how much this little girl just warms her Momma's heart.  I will vote for her if she decides to run for POTUS one day.  We need a person in charge who will praise God.

Ra's Got A New Look!

Today we picked up Ra's glasses.  He's been dreading this day for weeks.  Thankfully he's amazed at how much better he can see and he loves the instant sunglasses from the Transitions lenses.  I let him pick out whatever he wanted.  He ended up with a X Games pair that is gun metal gray with a red stripe on the side.  Sadly they didn't have orange or he'd have picked that for sure. He's nervous about the reaction from the kids at school tomorrow.  Praying that it goes well for him! 

Field Trip

Friday was the KDG field trip to the Jax Zoo.  It was supposed to rain but thankfully the rain held off and the sun was out instead!  We got lucky.

Sis and 5 of her girlfriends got to hang out the entire morning.  It was so nice for them to spend some time together and for me to hang out with their moms who are also friends of mine.  The girls had a great time.  They got to ride the train, touch the sting rays and visit the other animals.  

The new tiger exhibit was a big hit.  K insisted: "Take a picture and send it to Daddy.  He loves tigers!"

After we were finished at the zoo, the 3 moms took our girls home and went for lunch together before we had to pick up the big kids.  Ironically all three girls have 4th grade siblings.

It was a fun day for all of us.  I'm so grateful I can go with Sis on her field trips and spend time with her and her little friends at school.

Wall Decor For Ra

Here are some of the pics I'm planning to frame for Ra's dirt bike themed room.  8x10s of Ra with Bam Bam Barcia in Vegas, sitting on Ryan Villipoto's bike in SLC and meet & greet with K Dub.  The stunt pic is an 11x24 pic I took in Vegas. 

I also have a bunch of 5x7s of Ryan Dungey and a few of Ken Roczen - both KTM riders.  Dungey is Ra's favorite rider.  I also found a KTM trailer decal for his bedroom.  It's going to look incredible on his orange accent wall!

I can't wait to see his face when we get his room completely decorated!

House Update

So many things are going on right now...We are delayed with moving, but closing may still potentially happen the week of the 14th - before Easter.  Our movers are scheduled for the 24th so we don't have to keep changing dates with them.  We saw our builder last night - all of us were at the house by chance.  We had a nice chat and got more background on the situation.  I feel better about it, but I still don't like how it happened.  There's a problem between our builder and his investor and because they haven't worked things out between the two of them, they are holding us hostage.  It's hard for him because he's never had anyone to answer to before - this is the first time he's used an investor.  At least that has explained some things about why the process seemed so odd compared to other situations we've done before.  I just wish he'd have told us this from the beginning.  It would have saved us all a lot of headaches and frustration.

It's so exciting to see it all come together.  They paint started going on the walls this week.  It looks FABULOUS!  I always get nervous with paint choices - is it too dark, too light, right shade?  So far, I'm feeling great about what I see.

Our awesome landscaper (who could potentially become a good friend of ours down the road because he and his family ride dirt bikes too!) planted our first two trees.  It's a little hard to see but there are 2 Queen palms just in front of our fence.  They are still tied up at the branches but we are hoping that they give us some privacy at our pool from our neighbors.  There will be another house going up this summer between us and the blue one - the yellow one you can see with the orange roof is going to be knocked down.

The grout has been put on the kitchen tile backsplash.  I LOVE how this all turned out.  You can see a bit of the leathered black Brazilian granite countertop and my new range!

Here's the view into the kitchen from the family room.  Everything is covered up because they are still painting in the house.

Our family room.  I love how the floors, tile on the fireplace and wall color turned out. 

This color is in the family room, office and dining room as well as up the stairs to the hallway/landing.  It's called Anew Gray.   
 

Ra's room will have an orange (the bold KTM orange below) as an accent wall.

The other walls will be this light shade of gray that matches his new bedding.  This gray will also be in the guest bedroom/craft room as well as the guest bathroom.  

 K's room is going to be this pretty shade of pink for her surfer girl room.  

The downstairs bath will be this shade of beige.  It will look fabulous with the browns in this room.

Our master is called Comfort Gray and looks like this.  The first coat was on the walls last night.  It looked great and can't wait to see the gray carpet and our furniture with it!

The master bath is called Sea Salt.  Both the bedroom and bathroom colors are in the same color family.  The Sea Salt will look awesome with our board & batten on the walls and dark cabinets.  

This is the color for the kids' bathrooms.  Both kids have the same counter tops, but different cabinets (although they are both white but with different hues) and different tile on the floors & showers.

The tile on the back porch is almost finished.  It's rectangular pieces of slate.  The front porch will have the same tile.  We sort of forgot about our side porch...Oh well.  It's not that big and guests won't typically enter that way!

The front and side doors are installed too.  They are going to be stained similar to our floors.  The are obviously upside down in this picture.  The taller one to the left is the front door and the shorter one to the right is the side door.  You can see where the side door will be - it's that solid white door in the background.  The doors are leaning up against the stairs.  Behind the stairs is our mini mudroom area.  I had the finished carpenter build a bench with cubbies where the kids can keep their shoes.  I'm also going to buy some hooks for backpacks and coats.  

See why we were so frustrated with the delayed closing date!?!  Our builder says it will still be finished by the 11th.  Can't wait!!!

So Proud of My Kids

My kids continue to impress me.  They have both worked so hard this year at school and their grades have reflected that.  They both LOVE their school and are the happiest they've been even considering the year+ of living in limbo/transition.

Both kids' report cards were great for the 3rd quarter.  As a special reward, we take the kids out to breakfast for good grades at their one of their favorite beach restaurants.  They look forward to the breakfasts as a family so much.  

I'm so proud of all these two have to do and have overcome in the past year.  April marks our one year anniversary of life in Jax (and life in our apartment).  I'm glad our kids have shown how resilient they are and I'm proud of the character they've developed over the past year.  I feel like one lucky mom!  I am grateful for all of God's blessings on our family.

A New Kendallism

It's been awhile since I last reported a Kendallism.  It's not because she's not saying funny, quick-witted comments.  It's because I've been slacking in recording them.

Tonight she was getting into the tv console where we store the dvd player, cable box, Wii, etc.  Here is our conversation:

Me:  Kendall, what are you doing?
K:  Nothing that you need to know!

Little does she know, I'm on to her game!  I know I'm going to have to watch this little one VERY closely as she grows up.  She's already mastered the art of manipulation and thinks nothing of telling a little white lie to get out of doing the stuff she doesn't like to do (like brushing her teeth).  Ugh...

Complete Utter Disappointment

I actually thought I was going to cry when I read the forwarded email from my husband this morning.  Last Wednesday, our builder sent us, the bank, his investor, etc. the "It's Official" date for closing on our new home.  He scheduled it for April 11th (after verbally saying it would be the 15th).  We worked frantically to get everything in order to be ready in 3 weeks:  coordinated movers, packers, gave our 30 day notice for our storage unit and our apt., almost canceled my hair appt. scheduled for the 11th...

Today's email stated that he's not going to be able to get it finished by the 11th and now our closing is scheduled for the 25th!  This is getting close to the LAST straw for us with our builder.  Thankfully he uses incredible subcontractors or I'd be worried about the quality of our home, as unorganized as he seems to be.  How do you make an official announcement for our closing and then 5 days later bump it back two weeks?  Don't people get their ducks in a row before making such an important announcement?  I can't begin to tell you how FRUSTRATING this builder has made this process for us.  We've built 4 other houses and this process has been more irritating than all FOUR together!  UGH!!!!

I know this isn't the end of the world, but we were on the 3 week countdown.  We had grand plans of using Easter weekend to unpack with Andy home and the bonus of a 3 day weekend.  It's so incredibly disappointing.  Ever feel like you are just waiting for the next phase to begin?  I've been in that stage since October 2012 when I found out we were moving to Jax.  It wasn't until April 2013 that the kids and I moved.  We've been living in our cramped apt since April 2013 and most of our stuff in long term storage.  It's so hard to be patient and be present in each day as I look ahead to life in our new house.  I've got to pull up the boot straps and suck it up.  I just want to get my family in our home, unpacked and settled.  It doesn't feel like "home" until then.  

SPRING BREAK!

Since we are STILL stuck in our teeny, tiny apt, I decided to take the kids to Disney for the week.  Since we have our passes, it's a rather inexpensive vacation for us.  

We left Monday during the rain after lunch at Angie's with Andy.  Sadly, he wasn't able to join us because of work commitments.  We were supposed to leave early that morning, but the rain in Orlando & Jax delayed our leave.  We couldn't check into our condo rental until 4 so I planned it well and we arrived right at check in.  I loved the place we stayed in this time.  It was BEAUTIFUL and a much cheaper option for us than a hotel.  We had 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, fully stocked kitchen, dining room and family room.  The place has a great pool with a huge water slide.  

I made us a big spaghetti dinner that night that lasted us a few nights.  It was so awesome to come back from a long day at the parks to only have to heat up dinner.  I packed us lunches every day and we had healthy breakfasts every morning.  

Our first night there we made some Mickey Mouse bracelets to wear to the parks during the week.  The kids had a blast with making them.  

Sis couldn't wait to see Minnie!  She's always been her favorite.  With her Disney gift card from Grammy at Christmas, she bought a Figaro Vet kit.  She wanted to show Minnie her Figaro cat toy that she brought along to the park that day!  Minnie can always make this girl over the moon happy!

The three of us sitting in the very back seat of the Thunder Mt. RR coaster.  Both kids LOVE this ride.  Might be their favorite.  

Waiting to get on the Tower of Terror.  Sis hates this ride in the beginning.  The set up for it is scary and it freaks her out.  When we looked at the picture afterwards, she had one arm up and one arm down.  The arm that was down was squeezing mine, but she had a smile on her face!  

We did a lot of pin trading on this trip as well as Hidden Mickey hunting.  The kids and I had a good time.  One morning, after a late night at Epcot, we decided to be lazy and hit up the pool after sleeping in an hour.  They loved it!  It's been so long since they've been able to swim.  Makes me feel good about our choice to put in a pool.  I couldn't get them out of it!

I was teasing Andy by texting him this photo of me enjoying an Oktoberfest beer in Germany (aka Epcot)

Getting ready for the fireworks at Epcot.

This was the kids favorite treat at Disney.

It was a great trip, but we were all tired and ready to come home, sleep in our own beds and see Daddy.  Hoping we can get another trip or two in before summer and the blackout on our passes starts!

Fun Saturday Treat

After K's haircut in Riverside, we hit up Sweet Theory Bakery which is an allergy free bakery.  They make lots of GF & CF baked goods!  

Birthday Wishes

Andy was traveling over my birthday this year so when he called me that morning to wish me a happy day, he informed me that he had hidden a card for me and that he arranged a cake for me to pick up that morning.  It was so sweet of him to plan ahead with as busy as he's been these past months.  Something as simple as that meant so much to me.  

The kids were super sweet too - they both made me cards and woke me up with singing!  We snuggled in bed a little longer than we should, but still made it to school in time.  Later that night the kids wanted to go to Angies for dinner.  While we were getting ready to pay, K mentioned that it was my birthday and the girl checking us out said that because it was my birthday, I got a free sub!  SCORE!  I totally forgot you get a free sub on your birthday!  What a great present!

That following weekend when he came home, Andy took me out to one of our many favorite restaurants.  We went to Eleventh South which is located here in Jax Beach, on 11th S. Street.  It's a fabulous restaurant and both our meals were delicious.  After our dinner we headed up to our other favorite restaurant for a martini.  Since there wasn't any available parking due to St. Patty's day weekend, we parked at our new house and walked down.  

Dinner at Eleventh South - free champagne for my birthday!

My yummy martini dessert!  Ocean 60 makes some of the BEST drinks!

It was a great birthday and I'm so thankful for my family and friends who remembered it and reached out to me.  

Beach Day!

We've had some weird weather here this winter.  It can be 70-80 degrees one day and then drop 20 degrees the next.  We are taking advantage of the nice, sunny, warm days and starting beach days already!  We've spent a few afternoons and weekends there already.  It's still a bit cold to "swim" but my munchkins have no problems splashing around - then running to me for a towel because they are freezing!  

The Newest Muppets

Sissy spent the other day with her BFF.  They went to see Mr. Peabody & Sherman.  Her mom texted me this picture from the theater.  Aren't they just the cutest?  I hope they can be in the same classroom next year.  I have a feeling they will both end up in tears if they aren't together.

Love Around the World

In kdg, the kids visited different classrooms to see what different countries are like.  K's class was Hawaii (the U.S.).  The other classrooms were China and Mexico.  Here's my little Hawaiian hula dancer ready for school.