A nice, but busy weekend

I was so excited to see Chad once he returned home from California. It had been a very stressful week when he was gone, only because of all the things going on with the new house and move. Kiley could not wait for him to get home. Every day she would ask when he was going to be home. He was supposed to get home Sat. night around 7:00pm, but his flight was delayed and he didn't get home until about 8:30pm. Kiley had begged all week to stay up and wait for him. I decided since it was the weekend that she could stay up past her usual bedtime and see him. Creighton and I fell asleep around 7:30pm, but Kiley stayed up and played with him for about 15 min . when he got home, and then she crashed. Sunday, both kids stayed home from church because they had colds and I didn't think we needed to pass colds around when there is this H1n1 flu already in the air. We did take the kids to the park after I got home and then made a trip to Dairy Queen for Blizzards. Chad helped Kiley finish her homework and then he made dinner: Spaghetti, bread sticks, salad, and corn on the cob. Kiley told me that he made it better than I did. Nice. I think we are going to start packing this week and we are all getting very excited for the move. Especially Kiley. She has big plans for the backyard and they include an in ground pool, trampoline, playground, tire swings, bike trails and more. It is a big yard and there is a possibility of a pool and hot tub...and a tire swing, maybe a play set.

It always pays to marry the smart ones

Chad is in California for an architecture convention. I usually go because we use that as our annual vacation for just the two of us. I didn't go this year because we knew I would probably be pregnant and I anticipated being sick, like I was with the other two. Turns out, this is a great pregnancy. So, Chad went by himself and is pretty bored without me. He spends about 10 hours a day at the convention. To kill some time he played a trivia game and won. At the end of the day, the three highest scorers (out of hundreds) had to participate in a "winner takes all" challenge. Chad won, he's so smart, and he is bringing home a Wii and Wii fit. Kiley is very excited.

I like this style of dining area. I was going to do other colors, but after deciding how to decorate the kitchen, formal living room, and family room, this will match the best. Our formal dining room also has that beautiful white paneling on the lower half of the wall, so I will only paint the top half. Since this room connects to the entry way, staircase, and formal living room, I will probably use this color throughout those areas. The family room will be a lighter shade and the kitchen more of a vanilla color. Hopefully, it will all blend well since our mail level is pretty open.

I am not sure what bathroom this would be in, maybe the upstairs bathroom. Chad and I's bathroom in the master bedroom has this great white paneling on the lower half of the wall, so it would probably be easiest in there. I like the simplicity of it.

This is sort of what I would like for our kitchen to look like. I love white cabinets, with stainless hardware. We are going to get all new stainless appliances, since we have to leave ours at our other house. There is already nice ceramic tile flooring in the kitchen and crown molding. Chad wants to put in granite counters. He is extremely handy and talented. Chad will also want a wine rack somewhere.

This is what I would like the Master bedroom to look like. Since we are buying all new things eventually, this will hopefully be the end result. In our room, to the left of this would be a sitting area and fireplace. To the right, would be our walk in closet and bathroom. It will look very elegant.

Decorating the new house...what a stress

So, I guess when you buy something that is 3 1/2 times the size of your current home, you need to also buy lots of furniture to furnish this new house. For the time being, we are going to keep our current living room set and put it in the family room and everyone will keep their bedroom sets, except for Chad and I. We are going to put our bed in the basement and eventually our living room furniture will be down there also. Its exciting to have to start fresh and I have already decided how I want to decorate. We will have to buy a ton of new things though, eventually. Our parents, who are incredibly generous people, are donating some things to us. My mom is buying us a new patio set and a new grill. She offered to buy us a living room set, but come on, we can only accept so much from her. My in-laws are bringing us a new bed for our master bedroom, coffee tables and end tables for our basement, lawn care tools, and perhaps a lawn mower. We had it easy here, never having to shovel snow or mow the lawn, but it also cost us $220.00 a month. I think we could pay a neighborhood kid $50.00 a month to do that for us. Its a win-win situation. I am planning to buy a nice dining room set, a larger table for our growing family for the dinette, two full living room sets, one comfy and casual and one more formal, a new head/foot board for the master bedroom, furniture to put in the sitting area of the master room, and eventually, some new things for the kids rooms. Chad wants a hot tub, of course. The kids want a pool and trampoline. We both want some workout equipment to put in the basement. So, lots of stuff to buy. Here are some ideas I have about decorating.