June/July

Continuing on....

 Zack and I took a trip to the cabinet showroom to look around and make some choices. We finalized our kitchen layout (double ovens!), cabinet colors/styles, any special drawers, pulls/knobs, bathroom cabinet colors, bathroom sink shapes and layouts, bathroom counter colors, finishes (matte!), and edge styles, bathroom pulls/knobs, laundry room cabinet color and laundry room laminate color. 

Here are the kitchen cabinets (kind of an antiqued cream color) with the handles we chose.

 I chose a darker wood for the island cabinets, which is this rich brown color without the paneling.

 For all the bathroom cabinets, we chose the dark espresso color on the left.

 Here is the sink color for the kids and hallway bathroom - cultured marble in a color called Carolina Cream. Ignore the board I held up - wrong color. Sink shape will be oval.

 Master bathroom will have this color counter, although not with that edge and not that sink bowl. We'll have the oval sink bowl.

 We chose this geometric type edge below for the Master bath.

 Handles... good thing we liked what was on the showroom piece, because there were several walls of these, and then catalogs galore.

 Bottom handles were chosen for the kitchen and master bath, with the top left knobs (no fancy print on them) for the pulls. The other bathrooms will have the handles on the right, with round knobs. Everything is in rubbed oil bronze.

 These white cabinets will be in the laundry room (without the glass).

 This is the color laminate I chose for the laundry room sink counter. Grey/tan with blue.

 Caught Endo sleeping with her mouth open.

 Block essentially finished.

 Check out our steps.

 And the ventilation pipes.

 More gravel.

 Looking into the garage.

 Back view of the house.

 Sitting on our front steps for the first time.

 Seeing some progress with the floor and the garage!

 We have a large walk-in crawl space. This is the back right of the house.

 The kids have a ball running around under here. No sand, but the dirt is very dry.

 View from the back left of the house. (garage is next to the pile of gravel up there)

 Hmm, who is this cutie?

 Seeing the floor coming along.

 And keeping our kids from dying.

 Here, he told me a bug went in his ear.

 And he runs and runs, trying to find his sister who is playing hide-and-go-seek behind a pillar.

 Such a funny, cute little man.

 Parking in the garage.

 I think Z made it big enough.

 The smallest praying mantis ever! See it, next to the screw head?

 Here the kids are playing choo-choo train in a tire track.

 And Isaac thinks it's fun to slide down the rock hill.

 Family gathering on the front steps, which are now accessible from the ground.

 We always have water and snacks available for the kiddos while we're inspecting.

 Took a weekend trip to Lewisville to visit the grandparents AND tour Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville - where you can PET THE GIRAFFES! And llamas, cows, goats, ostriches, emus, water buffalo, etc. How cool is that?? We took a horse drawn wagon through the ranch, packed sandwich lunches, stopped for ice cream at "Front Porch". We also crammed in a lengthy trip to a neighbor's pool (Mara = 3 hrs) and even got Isaac enjoying himself! Giggling, squealing and splashing - I was astonished! Graham hung a rope swing which I think I enjoyed the most, Mara/Grahampa took an "adventure" through the woods, and there were a few lawnmower rides here, too. Isaac got sick Sunday (we blamed the pool water... but Z isn't feeling well this week... so not sure).

 The ranch had a huge playground, but we had to watch Isaac b/c there were fireman poles throughout and we knew he'd bust it.

 Mara feeding an emu.

 Mara right before the ostrich bit her hand and held on. I felt terrible.

 Isaac was excited to see the ostrich as he had been fascinated with the one at the zoo a few weeks earlier.

 Checking out a huge turkey and crane.

 Here we are on the horse-drawn wagon.

 Llama.

 Water buffalo.

 Feeding a water buffalo.

 Feeding the giraffes!

 This is Luther the rhino, who we couldn't feed but he was pretty neat to look at.

 Itty bitty baby potbellied piglets.

 Mara feeding the Brahma cows.

 The goat and sheep petting zoo part.

 Mara told me one of them wasn't sharing the food.

 This little one escaped!

 Here's the look of pure happiness at Front Porch ice cream. Only chocolate will do.

 Isaac mooching off Cherry's ice cream.

 Happy kid.

 Here's Patti's pool and the little fish that stayed in there for like 3 hours.

 Garage poured on June 30th.

 Tons of lumber piled around the yard.

 And we were able to walk on our floor and see the rooms chalked in!

 It feels very high!

 We got our transformer.

 Here's the view from the driveway.

 Kids exploring and balancing.

 Mara and Daddy napping before we went to the July 4th slip and slide.

 Here are the kids, before Mara started feeling bad.

 Annual slip and slide (aka slip and bleed). Mara enjoyed herself for a bit.

 Even Isaac had some fun!  And his lips are blue from eating cupcake frosting.

 Mara's happiness didn't last long, and once she convinced us to go home, she started throwing up. :( Poor kid. 

 So I took Isaac to Elam's 2nd birthday party (Curious George themed) on Saturday. I don't think he slowed down the whole 4 hours we were there.

 Kirby made the cake (so cute!) and all the decorations were adorable. Those are marshmallow yellow hats back there.

 Caught ya, Uncle Hunt!

 We did miss little Mara, but since she was still throwing up earlier that morning, Zack kept her germs at home.

 It was hard for Isaac to focus on eating when all he wanted to do was PLAY! 

 But he did snack. A lot. And I kept spiking his mohawk.

 There are the boys. Yes, Isaac took the toy chainsaw outside. 

 Here's my haircut. Isaac got his done (by Daddy) on the same day. Isn't he getting so big? He has that smirk that just TELLS you he is trouble.

 The boys enjoying a (rare, very rare) quiet moment together. Quite the hair color difference, huh?

 Isaac admiring the balloons.

 The boys helping each other out.

 Isaac payed some attention to Elam's baby brother, Case.

 Here are the three munchkins. The mommies were all pregnant at the same time, and they are 2 months apart, I believe. (Isaac = May, Elam = July, Ocie = September). Be prepared for more of these pictures soon, from Holden!

 I thought Ocie's face in this one was adorable. All frumpy while the boys stuff their faces. Hahaha.

 Mara building with some Lincoln Logs I bought off someone at my work. She built this with no assistance.

 While Isaac did this.

 Hahaha. He just likes the music part of Mara's jewelry box.

Other apartment/work/family life:

• Hit the Asheboro zoo at the end of May with Graham, Cheryll, the Justices and their parents, The Butlers and their parents/relatives, and our family. Isaac couldn't stop talking about the polar bear, ostrich and otter poopy. We wrapped in Isaac's 2nd birthday celebration with some chocolate chip cookies at the zoo.
• Got to see the Butlers new (and huge!) house and spent a lovely weekend evening in their kitchen, on the screened in porch and in their yard.
• Enjoyed dinner at the Justices - fun lawnmower rides and yummy food included
• Still taking trips to some parks/playgrounds to fill the weekend voids while escaping the apartment. There have been lots of summer storms, so we watch movies during those. (Frozen, Despicable Me 2, The Little Mermaid, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Lego Movie, and anything we get on Netflix or from the apartment office)
• All (except Z) had a tummy thing and fever for 24 hours.
• My work has been insanely busy - I'm clocking more hours than I am used to just to stay afloat. I'm playing softball again this year and doing alright so far.
• Mara and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 in the theater - such a cute movie!
• The house now has been framed downstairs but I haven't downloaded those pictures yet. Stay tuned.

And on a parting note, since we don't invite anyone over to our little hole of a basement apartment... here's what you're (NOT) missing:

Hahah. Thankfully, it only takes a few minutes to pick it all up. Happy July, everyone.