This month - 11.11.13 to be exact is our house anniversary - as we celebrate 4 years of living here filled with so many memories, happy to say we finally have a completed kitchen!  Our original hope was a total rehab, but given the kids were so young 2 years ago, we decided a mini-upgrade would fit us much better.  Holding off on the nice new cabinets and flooring, we opted to paint our existing ones, new counter top, and stainless steel appliances.   

While I loved our bright space, there were a few small projects in our future....and with the help of my handy brother in law and my husband (if you can believe) we added a fresh new coat of paint, trim around the base of the cabinets and island - and finally a backsplash which is my absolute favorite part!  We are now the proud owners of a wet saw if anyone ever needs to borrow! 

It's so crazy to think that our kitchen looked so different when we moved it, we seriously can't believe it!  Excited to keep it moving, because you are never really done, right? 1 down 100 to go!

Round one complete November 2015

Original kitchen November 2013

​Painter: Don Zerkel Decoration 815.263.5393
Countertops: Kraft Custom Design 815.485.5506
Appliances, sink and light fixture: Lowes
Table and Chair refinishing (light maple to white and yellow): Penelope Pumpernickel Reclaimed

Any free time we had this summer was spent park hopping throughout the neighborhood.  Three spots in one day is not unusual for us to enjoy the everyday moment....which of course always ends with an ice cream trip.  While I do miss these summer adventures, I am excited to see what this winter holds!  I've already informed my hubby we are making a bucket list of fun activities...which includes braving the cold! 

And for those that know me know close, know that I don't plan for anything in our personal lives.  Given this is new for me, if you have ideas to enjoy the holiday / winter season feel free to pass along as we make this monumental list!  

This special crew made my birthday weekend so very memorable!  The kiddos were loving the sparklers until Caleb accidentally touched the hot part, after lots of hugs and kisses he was OK with sitting it out for the rest of the night...regardless he had so much fun watching Kyleigh and Christian from afar...between the 2 of them likely had around 20 sparklers each!  

​Happy 4th of July everyone!

I will always remember this as the fun beach day everyone ended up in the water outfits and all....what I didn't realize until just last night was how many cute pictures we captured throughout the day.   Usually in the case of our personal photos, I'll pick a favorite picture or two within minutes of downloading them, and then not come back to them in months or even years.  In this case I'm so glad I did as I'm working on updating some photos in our house and have lots to choose from!  So glad my amazing sister joined us during our adventure to capture a few shots of all 5 of us!

...and we learned our lesson, next beach visit.....definitely bringing bathing suits {even in September}!

So lucky to have these three cuties as my sweet valentine's!

Kyleigh loved meeting her new baby cousin giving her lots of cuddles and kisses!  

All of the Ruby cousin's can't wait for the arrival of their new baby cousin....not only can we almost completely spell our favorite baseball team WHITE SOX....but more to LOVE and we can't wait to see Michael get promoted to big brother!  The countdown is on.....oh and we are very prepared over here the 'x' shirt is already designed and waiting!

Not sure about anyone else, but my kids LOVE watching videos on youtube kids, so why not make one for them.  Back when I was in art school, I took a video production class which I absolutely loved.  Rented the video camera through my school, produced one project that I'm so proud of but didn't do anything following.  

My new camera has an HD video option that I have never used but was interested to try it out.  On our LA trip I decided to take a few videos while at Disneyland of the kids enjoying their time in hopes to make a small video clip they can enjoy for years to come...and they sure do!  Will definitely have to do this more often, it was so easy and fun and love how it brings that moment in time to life even more ways than a photograph can!  May need to work a bit on my stabilization, but hey it's my first one in years!

Family time is simply the best, especially when you get to enjoy it on a major league baseball field.  Every year my dad rounds up all of my siblings and our families up to enjoy a night out together playing catch and taking batting practice.

Our family keeps growing and as they kids get older they start to enjoy it more and more.  It was so fun to see my nephew (and soon to be big brother) having so much fun playing catch and my boys taking batting practice for the first time.  I was not able to get them to smile for too many pictures as they were far too busy, but definitley captured what I could as they were playing around having a blast.  Next year we will have one more cousin  and we all can't wait.....the kids are each wearing a shirt I made to celebrate....and promise I will share in a post soon!  Until then, taking it back to August, finally went through all of the photos to share our special time! 

Peace out 2016, you have been good to us and we can't wait to see what 2017 brings!

Hope everyone has a great time celebrating the weekend!  Happy New Year!

All ready for church on Christmas Eve and waiting for daddy to get home from work!

Holiday lunching with my team at work this week talking about holiday cards and if/when they will start send them out {as most are less than a few years out of college}.  Funny, for me it has been so long I completely forgot what prompted me  to begin mailing them out.  As I was hanging up cards today and going through a box of ones I saved, I found all of our past cards!  Each one has a story, and it all started back in 2007 when Scott and I were engaged!  Not much has changed as all but one card is either us photographing our kids or using a self timer (even back in 2007)!

2007 {our first stab at a self camera timer on our little canon rebel as well as my first try at a circle cutter} 

2008 { given our wedding was just 1 month prior to Christmas send a thank you and holiday wish together }

2010 { skipped 2009, but came back with a sweet picture of Kyleigh at just 3 months old }

2011 { this is the year my love for snow pictures began, every year I hope for a snow early enough for our holiday card, but it has not happened since }

2012 { two memories from this card, it is the only one we didn't do our own pictures but used a photographer, and secondly it is also the same day I went to the doctor hours before and found out we were having twins! }

2013 { the boys card debut they were 7 months old and looking adorable in their PJs, this was also the first Christmas in our new home }

2014 { our first trip to the Chicago Beaches and definitley not our last, I also think it was the boys first time in the sand, they loved it }

2015 { another self timer picture with our matching pjs .....we sure were laughing and the outtakes were the best! }

2016 coming soon!