Kitchen Reno Reveal

I will start out with the before pictures.

 

I will also say it was a really hard decision to paint my cupboards. I really didn’t mind them, but just wanted something light and less orange. I’ve always dreamed of a white kitchen and we had been considering it for years. M really hated the kitchen cupboard colour, so I didn’t have to sell hard on him.

 

We needed new floors because our laminate was seperating from when the roof was off the house while we were getting new trusses. So I found the new laminate I loved, but it did NOT match our cupboards AT all! Soo if I wanted the new flooring it meant painting the cupboards too.

 

So here are the before:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are the afters. Although the pics don’t quite capture it, it has brightened our main floor like crazy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have run the flooring all throughout the main floor, including the dining room, and our bedroom. We have the foyer left to do,  we have to take tile out. But it does look much more uniform and seamless in here now. 

 

If I am being honest, right after I painted the cupboards, I can’t say I was instantly in love, I missed the wood. I kept saying maybe once the floors were done, maybe once it is all finished. We got a lot of great compliments on it, people think the space looks bigger. 

 

But I can say I am happy with the turnout, the look has really come together with what I have envisioned and I can’t say I regret it. I think it was just a BIG change to get used to. 

 

I think the island is my favorite though. We considered doing shiplap,  it I feared it would be too much white and all I would see is kids fingerprints on everything. The barnboard is more our style anyways and I love how it turned out. 

 

 

Adventure Weekend Getaway

This past weekend we planned to surprise the kids with a trip to my Dads down in Windsor (2.5 hours from us). Our family photos were rescheduled to Friday night, so that meant we couldn’t leave until Saturday morning. 

But it also gave me the chance to goto “book club” Friday night. So it was fun. 

Our family photos didnt quite go as planned, and quickly turned into a lifestyle shoot and we just went with it and made memories instead. Em was all about exploring and didn’t want to be held at all. But we did get some really great photos, which I will share next week!

Our plan Saturday morning was to leave by 7:30 since the kids have been waking soo early, but of course Em slept in until 8:30! So we were on the road by 9. The drive down went pretty well and both of them were excited for an adventure. 

We pulled up to my Dad’s and they still didnt know where we were! When we walked up the driveway, he asked if that was Grandpa’s truck and then recognized his dog. They were soo excited! We visited, made the kids some lunch and put them down for a quick nap. Dad and I went and picked up Arby’s for lunch for the adult. That was my first time ever gong there and the curly fries were amazing! I wasn’t soo keen on the rest of the menu though (picky eater).

After an hour of napping, we woke the kids up, packed them into the car and went to Adventure Bay, which is a nice sized water park. It was pricey considering we were only there a few hours, but it was worth it. We all had a blast!

 

There were lots of water slides, including 2 really big ones and Noah was able to do all of them, except the big blue one. So Daddy took him on the big yellow one first, he seemed to like it, so I took him. Well little did they warn me about the drops and i wasnt able to swear... We got to the end of the slide and Noah fell out, which made me getting off the tube nearly imposisble haha. 

Em had one slide she could do, which kind of sucked, but she LOVED that slide and did it over and over again!! Even after she banged her cheek off the side of it, she didnt react, just kept on going!

We also had fun in the lazy river, which the kids just swimmed around, the wave pool, splash area, water tables and even a rec pool (we didnt go in that). It was a lot of fun. 

We got back to my Dad’s, the kids payed with the neighbour kids before supper. Cindy made us all a yummy dinner and then we played, went to the park and visited some more before we put the kids down. The kids went to bed suprisingly easy for being away from home, but we knew they were tired. 

Sunday morning the kids were up by 6:30, which meant for a long drive home that day. We had breakfast, played and read books for a bit before we packed up the SUV and left. It was a LONG drive home. The kids were fighting over toys, and Em needed to sleep, but wouldn’t. We stopped at Costco as well in London, it ended up being a nice break for the kids. We grabbed lunch and got home just in time for naptime!

After nap we wet outside to soak up the rest of this warm beautiful weekend!

Maggie was trying her hardest to be mad at us, but she couldn’t handle it. 

Before we knew it, it was bath and bedtime!

Crazy how jam-packed this weekend was with fun, we were sad to see it end, but happy all at the same time because it almost becomes exhausting! 

I wonder what our Adventure Weekend will be next month! I should likely get planning that!

Birthday Sale

Its no secret that since Noah started going to preschool we have been labeling everything, especially come boot season. Last year we had another kid take home Noahs boots because they looked alike. Luckily we wont have to worry about that now, because everything is labeled thanks to Lovable Labels!! Well just in case you are in still in need of labels, I thought I would let you know Lovable Labels is celebrating thier birthday and are offering 30% off anything on their site!! 

 

The sale ends tomorrow!! Dont miss out!! Standard shipping is free too!!

 

Use the code CELEBRATE2017

 

Aaptiv App

I just finished a 21 Day Fix round,  but instead of doing all the Fix workouts, I changed it up! I had the opportunity to try out the Aaptiv App. So I thought I would take a minute to blog about this app incase anyone else wanted to to give it a try!

   Aaptiv is an audio workout app. It was quite different from what I'm used to (visual), but I was able to follow long easily enough. Most of the workouts I did I was familiar with the moves, but they describe how to do them anyways.

Here are a few things I loved:

 - variable workout times. If you are squeezing in a workout, whether it be after a walk, or a quick 10 minutes here or there. There are all different lengths of work outs available, including longer ones - calories burned per workout. I strive to burn at least 300 calories per workout. I need to get better at wearing my fit bit, but I do like seeing a ball bark idea on what I burn.

 - the variety of different workouts, whether you are training for races, on the elliptical, the treadmill, the spin bike, yoga, meditation, maternity workouts - it's all there. Personally I like the cardio or strength building at this point, although this app made me want to try a treadmill work out, however it isn't quite accessible right now!   

- the music is more up to date

 - the personal trainers are great. I'm sure there is someone for everyone. They offer quite a few personal trainers talking you through the whole work out, encouraging you to keep going! No giving up!!

 - the app is easy to use - great for on the go, because you can have it on up your phone.

 - all different levels of workouts available, whether you are beginner, intermediate, advanced, it's all flagged by color, as well it gives you a description of what the workout entails. 

 Overall I would recommend the app, it's a nice change from the regular workouts, would work well even if you are at a gym or working out at home, or training for a race.

If your are interested in trying it out there is a free trial available right now! Don't miss out!! 

Friday Things

1) I am really looking forward to making a new sign and I have found just perfect saying for my next project:

I think I will make another big one and put it above our bed maybe. 

2. Almost done the first round of the 21 Day fix and I've made such big diet changes, but my weight is just fluctuating. I'm noticing in my clothes and in the mirror and I know the scale is just a number, but it is frustrating me more than it should! 

3. I got my hair done Wednesday and it's a lot blonder than I thought it would be, but I love it!

4) we have family photos tomorrow and I am still figuring out outfits for us all!! I'm hoping to do burghandy and navy blue... 

5) I feel like today is going to be a long day!! The kids were both up by 7 AM again and it's only 9:30 right now and it feel like it should be 11. Oh and it's raining. So we are playing in the basement because we don't come down here often. They slept in Wednesday and that day went soo smoothly it has me wishing for days like that every day!  Oh and look at this, a post without pictures of the kids! Can't say that happens very often anymore! 

Thanksgiving Weekend Rewind

We had a fantastic weekend and were spoiled again with warm weather!! This week is busy for us, and we have family photos on Saturday, which I need to outfit plan for still!! Fingers crossed I can keep anymore bumps and bruises off the face for the rest of the week! I did manage to get this sign finished, the frame stained and M helped frame it - just in time for Thanksgiving!! I loved making it, so now I need to find another sign to make!! 

Let's look at the weekend!! 

 Saturday morning we hung out at home, got some housework done, both inside and out! I ran into town solo to grab groceries since we knew it would be busy being Thanksgiving weekend!  

We decided to "drive" over to the fruit stand to get some pumpkins and tomatoes, well they didn't quite have what I was looking for with the pumpkins, but the kids were spoiled with strawberries, and mini pumpkins and we bought some tomatoes! When we came home, we realized we forgot to shut the gate and Maggie had gone looking for us! Thankfully she has our phone number on her and right before we were about to go search, the phone rang and she was just across the street with a lady walking her dog! 

    

 We started the rice for supper and then ran over to the pumpkin farm to see if we could find better pumpkins. We found waaay better pumpkins - they were huge and we had more choice! They also had white pumpkins, which I love! We got a steal of a deal which was another bonus too!! 

 After supper we headed to the farm to grab some corn stalks and straw bales. The sunset was amazing, I wish I had brought my good camera, but my phone took some good ones:

 

 

 

 There is just something about fall sunsets and evening skies! 

 Sunday morning we had Nicole and her family over for a fun visit!! Although it only made me wish we lived closer because it was such a nice visit!! The kids all got along, the conversations were easy. It was great!! 

We made homemade pizzas for lunch, the kids played, we took a trip to the park and found muddy puddles to drive through- which was a bigger hit than the park itself.

Then we sent the guys off with the big kids to the field (because they are working around the corner), while we stayed back with the babies - Em was napping and had some quiet time to chat while snuggling Henry!

 

 It was soo much fun!

After they left, we had some dinner and decided to go for a family bike ride. Noah was simply too tired to ride his bike, so we put the bike trailer on M's bike and he pulled Noah and Em. Thank goodness, because I ended up wrecking my bike completely. I was changing gears and the chain jumped, bent the gear into my spokes and sent me to a complete hault. 

Soo glad I wasn't pulling the kids and wasn't going fast! So now I need to deal with exchanging my bike... I haven't even had it two months! M had to bike home, load up the kids in the truck to come pick me up, because the darn back wheel wouldn't even turn for me walk it home! 

The update is that I exchanged my bike for the same one, so I am back in the biking fun as soon as M adjusts seat and handlebars!    So we decorated the front of the house for fall:

Monday morning we were sure we were 20 minutes late for Maeve's 3rd birthday party - turns out we were a few minutes early instead!! Can't go wrong with donuts and mimosas!! 

We grabbed lunch on our way home, got the kids down for nap and relaxed for a bit before heading to my aunt and uncles for Thanksgiving! We took the opportunity to snap a few family photos while we were at it!

Hope everyone had a great weekend/Canadian Thanksgiving!