Kitchen

The kitchen is complete! Let's just say the 6 week estimate for completion did not happen, it wasn't even close. It took more like 5 months but it was worth it. It looks great! The counter top is a beautiful granite Steve and I both agreed on right away. Steve was able to install all the cabinets without any major problems and the floor looked great until Spunt dug his nails into it. Oh well, one of the first of many marks the floor will get. Now we are just waiting for our bar stools and a new kitchen table to be delivered. How nice it will be to eat and function in our new kitchen.

Megan's 4th Birthday

My baby has turned 4! Where has the time gone? She has turned into a little princess, so she thinks. Wait until she finds out she really isn't royalty, but I hope she still finds her prince.
We celebrated her big day with a princess party with her friends. I don't think I have ever seen her so excited and happy. I asked the guests not to bring gifts, since she is already overloaded with toys. Instead I had the other "princesses" bring canned food for the Kendall Co food pantry. My girl was OK with not receiving gifts, she was just happy to have her friends here. I hope I can keep that attitude instilled in her in years to come. Happy 4th Birthday beautiful princess, I love you so much!

The kitchen is starting to look like a kitchen again! As of today (4-8-09) all the cabinets are in, even though the picture doesn't show it. Now we are waiting to have our counter tops measured and for the floor guy to put the finishing coat on the hardwood floor. We have a make-shift sink so I no longer have to do dishes in the bathtub!!!! We plan on having a "Yea the Kitchen is Done" party sometime in May.

One of the good things about Steve being off work, is we are able to go to the Dells during the week. This year we went to The Wilderness. The place was huge and we had a beautiful 2 bedroom suite. The kids had a blast, we had to drag them out of the pool everyday. Megan was all over the place and Matthew kept going down the slide. They have no fear!

Spunt's Surgery

Some sad news to report. We took Spunt to the vet to have some masses on his body looked at. He had one on each shoulder, a tiny one on his head and one on his penis that was getting larger and just didn't look right. The mass on his penis turned out to be cancerous. The good news about it is that it is not a metastatic type of cancer. We decided to have surgery performed on him to have the cancerous and non-cancerous lumps removed. At the same time, he also got a much needed dental cleaning. The report after the surgery was not very promising. His vet told us she believes she was unable to remove all of the cancerous tissue and one of the other lumps on his body looked to be cancerous also. We will know for sure when we get the results from the biopsy back. We are praying that Spunt is able to make a full recovery. He is too young to have to deal with this!

Kitchen Remodel

Yea! It's officially started, the dreaded but needed, kitchen remodel! Ever since we bought our house, I have wanted one of the walls in the kitchen to be removed. For those of you that have been in our house, you know how small our kitchen is. With our growing family and traditional Thanksgiving Dinner every year we needed a larger kitchen. It is a huge project because we are also remodeling the bathroom downstairs and putting in hardwood floors in the kitchen, bathroom and breakfast room. Steve thinks this will be completely finished in 6 weeks from 1-28-09. I have a bet with him that we won't.

Happy New Year

January 2009 came quietly and peacefully for us. The whole house was sleeping when the clock struck 12:00. I feel like I'm really getting old. This is the first time in probably 25 years that I haven't stayed up until midnight on New Years (OK except for that one year I passed out at the one and only Schindler party, that was my sister's fault).

All four of us started the night off early by going to dinner at Tommy Nevins in Naperville with Lisa and Greg. We had a fun dinner and some beers then went home to celebrate with the kids. We had some sparkling apple juice in fancy glasses, party hats and streamers. Ten seconds before 8:30 we did a "countdown" to new years and the kids were off to bed! Steve and I had planned on watching a movie but decided we were too tired and would just go to bed. Lame, I know, but if you would be willing to watch our kids on New Years Eve, then I would have no reserves about going out and partying past midnight.