Reid All About Us: dogs

At 8 months old, Natalie's favorite toys include a wooden hammer from Ikea and an infant toothbrush. They go everywhere with her, and she's even been known to eat a meal with toothbrush in hand.

She spends the majority of her day crawling around the house and pulling herself up to stand on various objects; she especially likes to use a dining room chair, the ottomans in the family room & living room, the front window in our living room, the door out to the back yard, the edge of the bath tub and the dog kennel. The other day she actually managed to close both of the dogs into the kennel at the same time...

what?

take that!

"do do do, lookin' out my window"

She'd rather stand & chew on her crib than sleep these days

Finn can always be found "helping" during bath time

She still loves bath time!

Speaking of the dogs, she has started taking more of an interest in them lately. She watches them closely throughout the day, laughing at them as they run around the house together. She especially enjoys Finnegan (who is more tolerant of her than Murphy), and likes to grab his hair whenever she has the opportunity. Finn is so good with her, he just lets her yank on his fur and grab at his paws. I love him even more for this :)

Her personality is really developing right now, as is her sense of humor! She's been expressing herself a lot more this month, including mini meltdowns (like when we attempted to have her 8 month photos taken) and an adorable "smile" where she scrunches her nose and sort of snorts in & out while baring her teeth.

"Da da da" and "Na na na" are her favorite things to say right now, and she makes an "ffff" sound when she sees the dogs or hears them barking. She is also obsessed with any sort of button, buckle or snap, and repeats "buh buh buh buh" when she finds one.

I have a feeling she'll be walking and saying real words before I know it!

She's eating a larger variety of foods each week, with her newest favorite being french toast. She still loves avocado and tried scrambled eggs for the first time this week. I'm still making homemade purees, but look forward to the days when she's eating the same things we are for dinner!

We knew right off the bat that the first major project in our new house was going to be the kitchen. The original kitchen was disgusting. The countertops were cracked, the cabinets were ugly and dirty, the stone tile floor had never been sealed and looked as though it had never been cleaned (seriously) and there was a disgusting smell lurking in the room...

So, we got right to business, gutted the entire room from floor to ceiling, and then put it back together, one piece at a time...

New drywall on the ceiling & walls (we also removed the 12" soffit above the upper cabinets, which gave us more room between the countertops & upper cabinets)
New wood flooring in the kitchen and the foyer (to match the existing wood floors throughout the rest of the house)
Refinished cabinets (we sanded, repaired & painted the original wood cabinets, which ended up being a much bigger project than we anticipated!)
New granite countertops
New beveled-edge subway tile backsplash
New crown molding & baseboards (which still need to be painted to match the cabinets...)
New hardware for cabinets (which still need to be installed...)
New cabinet organization systems (including a pull-out garbage can and pull-out drawer for pots & pans)

New hardwood floors!

New floor-to-ceiling drywall!

Hard at work, painting the cabinets

The project manager "supervising"

Lower cabinets installed

Upper cabinets installed

New sink, faucet & granite countertops!

This project took much longer than we anticipated, and we still have some finishing touches to complete, but overall we couldn't be happier with the end result.

Standing in the kitchen looking at foyer/front door

(Marty's office is to the left, the basement stairs are to the right)

Looking into the kitchen from the dining room...

Standing in the foyer looking into the kitchen (basement stairs on left, office on right, front door behind)

Then, as if this giant, exhausting, never-ending kitchen project wasn't enough to keep us busy, we decided Finn needed a sister...
We brought Miss Murphy home in August, and although Finn wasn't sure what to think of his new sister at first, the two of them became fast friends. Murphy has been more of a challenge than Finn was as a puppy, but we couldn't be happier with our decision to get a second dog. She has such a great personality, and has definitely taken over as the queen of this castle. I could post hundreds of photos of her (and probably will over time) but here are just a few of my favorites from her first few months with us...

Uncle Kev & Aunt Julie came to visit us :)

We worked on a variety of projects during the summer of 2010...

One of the bigger projects completed that summer was a crazy weekend of "While You Were Out - Landscaping Edition." My mom came to visit me while Marty was out of town for a weekend in July. Even though I had a double ear infection & a sinus infection, and it rained almost the entire weekend, we worked from dusk til dawn, rain or shine, and managed to breath new life into the drab, over-grown landscaping in less than 3 days! I am SO lucky to have such an amazing, supportive mom :)

Some "BEFORE" photos that show the unkept yard

It's hard to see in these photos, but the hedges were overgrown, the bushes & plants were over-crowded, the beds were overgrown with weeds, and there was no rock or mulch - just dirt & mud.