Thursday, May 31, 2012

New House: The Living Room.

It's been a bit since I've revealed more of the new house. I suppose blog posts about the new house are very similar to packing.... you get to a point where you are comfortable where things are at and just kind of quit. ha! Sorry about that!

Here's a reveal of our living room. It's kind of a work in progress (well, that kind of applies to most of the house). I am going to redo the mirror (spray painting it ivory and then glazing it), and I am making the letter M on my mantle into one of those cool moss letters you see on Pottery Barn and Pinterest. I also have a large antique window that needs to be refinished, and once I complete that it will hang over our leather couch as a frame for black and white portraits of the boys :)

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This is the view from the hallway by the kitchen (which has yet to be revealed-- I feel like it's always so dirty and cluttered!)
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And this is the view from the backdoor that leads to the backyard.

I SO wish I had a wide angle lens because from these pictures it seems a lot different than it real life.
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I found this frame (along with a couple of others that were similar styles) at TJ Maxx. The lantern is actually an outdoor lantern, but I loved the rustic/vintage feel it had and it went well with what I was going for on my mantle. It's also from TJ Maxx. I LOVE that place!
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Here are the other distressed frames I got from the TJ. These are displayed on my entryway.

In case you missed them, here are the other rooms I've previewed so far:

Brayden's room/guest room

backyard
entryway
playroom 

(I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner tomorrow for the Show Us Your Life blog hop about living rooms-- you should too!)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Meet Ms. Zoe Grace.

I'm drowning in 2039483 pictures from Memorial Day Weekend. We've been having a blast hosting my mom, sisters and my little niece, Zoe Grace this week. I've gotten some sweet, sweet pictures of the cousins together-- Brayden most definitely loves having a baby around the house, although he's not quite sure why she cries :) Thought I'd give you a little sneak peak at the cuteness... I'll be back soon!
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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Kansas City Family Vacation: Day 2: Coco Key & Union Station.

(You can read Day 1 of our Family Vacation here and here)

We all woke up on Saturday (day 2) of our Kansas City vacation exhausted, but ready to hit the ground running regardless. For the 2nd and 3rd night we stayed at the Holiday Inn Coco Key Resort. The hotel was awesome and the water park even better. It was perfect for the boys-- they had a small zero-entry pool that had two slides, water buckets that dumped, and several fountains. Then in the bigger part of the park was a HUGE playset. Think the largest playground equipment set you've seen, but there's water squirting EVERYWHERE. Above said equipment is a HUGE bucket of water that dumps out periodically over the entire park. Our little family of 4 didn't know it dumped out, and so the first 10 minutes we were all welcomed with a nice shower of water. This freaked Connor-man out, so he spent the remainder of the time at the park apprehensive about things.


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This is what the park looked like on a normal minute... but if the bucket was dumping out.....
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you were soaked. Is that not insane??? We were right under that big parrot on the left when it dumped the first time we were there. No wonder poor Connor got freaked out!

Brayden was big enough for all but the largest slide at the park, and took full advantage of everything it had to offer. He was literally non-stop anytime we were in the resort. It was absolutely perfect in every way for him.

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Saturday afternoon we all took naps after a long morning at the water park. When we woke up, we headed to Union Station, the old train station near downtown Kansas City. The boys were a little young to enjoy everything that Union Station offered, but they did like the model train exhibit.


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Sometimes when I'm in places like this I wonder what kind of stories the walls could tell.
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The picture above this one is the main corridor for the train station. Each side of the corridor was lined with doors such as this one.
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sibling pictures just don't happen these days.
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Connor loved the "choo choos"
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You could make crayon rubbings of different types of trains

After the train station we headed to little restaurant nearby called Fritz's. It serves burgers and fries via trains. The entire concept is pretty cool and I was certain it would be an awesome experience with the boys. Unfortunately Connor and Brayden were pretty cranky pants, so we spent most of the meal trading off who take care of a child.




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This was our actual food basket being lowered. Drew was out with Connor, so I didn't get any pics of B and I while we ate our meal :(

After Fritz's we headed back to the hotel, where we swam the night away, and topped off the vacation with none other than ice cream cones (the hotel has an ice cream parlor in the lobby!).


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We loved Kansas City!

Friday, May 25, 2012

The Boys Side-by-Side at 18 months.

I love putting pictures of the boys at the same age next to each other so that I can see their similarities and differences. Here's Brayden and Connor, both at 18 months. Don't even get me started on Brayden's blonde hair.... I get teary eyed just thinking about how light it used to be :( I can't believe my babies are getting so big!

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Connor @ 18 months IMG_9380edit2
Brayden @ 18 months

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Kansas City Family Vacation, the T-Rex Cafe.

After the entire day at the Kansas City zoo, we were all pretty pooped and VERY hungry. Drew and I were both a bit leery about going out to dinner with two boys who were tired, but since we were pretty much going to have to eat out regardless, we threw caution to the wind and made the 30 minute drive to the T-Rex cafe.

When we got to the entrance of the restaurant I knew it was going to be a hit. Brayden was in awe of the dinosaurs and kept telling Drew to "wook Daddy! Wook!"


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We walked inside and it was even cooler. Literally HUGE dinosaurs were all over, the lights were going into in sync with the sounds. It was like Disney World inside. Even Drew and I were in awe! We were seated in the Apotosaurus area. Brayden kept asking me if the dinosaur was going to bite him, but then he wanted to touch him. I don't think he could really grasp if it was real or not.



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I love this pic-- look how Connor is just staring at the T-Rex
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Our dino dinner friends
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Connor kept turning around and waving at them
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there were several salt water aquariums around the restaurant. Connor LOVES fish tanks, so he was in HEAVEN!
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We were seated on the 2nd floor, so this view is looking down into the main area of the restaurant. Cool, huh?
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The kitchen of fire :)
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The triceratops. The restaurant really encourages you to roam around and see everything. It's split into 6 different themes so there's lots of different dinos to see/touch


The food was pretty good and not too terribly expensive (we were expecting it to be outrageous considering it was an experience type restaurant). We had a coupon for a free appetizer, and we went early, so the boys were both held at bay from imploding before our meal arrived. I'm thankful we went early-- the line was pretty bad once we left around 6:30.


We left so grateful to find out about this place... it literally was just as big of a highlight as the zoo!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Kansas City Family Vacation, First Trip to the Zoo.

For the past 3 years we've been well intentioned with going to the beach for a summer family vacation. Problem is, something always came up. Family changes, babies being born, babies too little to travel with, job changes, etc. This summer was no different. Drew recently took a new position at work. The move was a good one, but it meant that he couldn't take off for a solid week straight. I did not want to skip another summer without a getaway trip with the boys, especially after Drew's completion of the MBA program, so I quickly got on the hunt for plan B. We ended up deciding on Kansas City due to the options they offer for families and the ability to drive there in 3 hours.

We drove up after Drew got off of work, which means we didn't pull into the hotel parking lot until right before 10pm. Considering our kids go to bed at 7, this could have spelled disaster. Thankfully both boys were able to adjust well to a later bedtime, although I will tell you it was a little wild and crazy in the hotel room for a few minutes as we tried to brush teeth, set up beds and pack and plays and get everyone to go to sleep in the same room :)

Friday the boys were up bright and early despite going to bed super late. Apparently they didn't get the memo that it was vacation and they could sleep in ;) We ate breakfast, got ready and headed to the zoo. This was both boy's first experience at the zoo. The Kansas City Zoo did not disappoint. We got there when they opened and didn't leave till they were shutting down. 6 full hours at the zoo. You'd think that I'd tell you that the day was full of implosions and meltdowns, but honestly the boys did rather well considering we stayed there the entire day. Brayden fell asleep in the stroller for a good solid hour, so we found a little tiki hut over the pond at the zoo, and set up camp to let B sleep. Connor decided he was revolting against naps in the stroller, so I spent a good hour letting him roam around and play.
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The polar bear was the first exhibit. He was all about showing off his diving skills :)
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watching the Tigers sleep.
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there was a pen in the middle of the zoo that was a sheep exhibit. I felt kind of bad for these sheep... they had the fullest coat of wool I had ever seen, and the temps were in the upper 80s. Poor guys! They were RAVISHING for food. Like, kicking my legs wanting the little food pellets. Kinda freaky.
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I have B some feed and the sheep literally ran after him and cornered him in the pen. At first he was all about it. Then they started chasing him.
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it was at the chasing after part that Brayden decided to make a mad dash for the exit. Ha!
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The boys were so excited to ride a train!
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waiting for the train
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so glad that we don't sleep like the Lemurs :) Pretty sure that's about 5 of them in there
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I just love Macaws
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Connor was less than thrilled with the carosel. Brayden on the other hand rode over and over and over and over again. Each time requesting the "weally big big monkey". Good thing we had unlimited rides
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love how the Elephant had his legs crossed.
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taking a little snooze
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We stopped at a little Tiki hut while Brayden snoozed away. Connor wasn't interested in sleep, and instead watched the geese, turtles and fish off of the deck
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Even Drew got a bit of a rest.
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This was taken 5 hours into our zoo trip. He was a bit tired and less than willing to smile.

If you asked me what the highlight of my zoo trip was, I would tell you it was by far the last 30 minutes of the entire trip, when we got to see the Sea Lion show. We had amazing seats. I LOVE Sea Lions!
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This sea lion's name was Vince. He's 10 years old and awesome
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waving hi
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Brayden was excited about seeing the ball balancing. We often read "The Nose Book" and it talks about noses being useful for playing catch with your nose. He'd asked about it before our trip, so we had watched several you tube videos of sea lions
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Vince came RIGHT up to us at the fence. He's winking at me!
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As we were walking out of the park, we passed by the polar bear again. He was STILL doing flips.
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I was in awe at how big he was
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(I blurred out the random little boy's face... not sure his parents would be excited if his face was on my blog :))
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When we left the zoo I asked Brayden what his favorite part was... to which he responded: "The elephants pooping in the grass." I just had to laugh. Of course that would be his favorite part :)

As if the Kansas City zoo wasn't enough fun for one day, we decided to pack up and head to the T-Rex cafe for dinner.... to be continued....
 

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