Construction Complete!

I feel like I'm finally getting closer to a normal routine now. We've have been working our tails off on our new house! I absolutely love it, and it's a lot of fun to have a place of our own, but I think we initially bit off more than we could chew. We had SO many different projects going on at once, it was all I could do to not pull my hair out some days. But thankfully, mom and dad (and Brian) came to the rescue last week and helped us finish up. It feels so good to just be here sitting on my new couch after Zaylee's been put to sleep blogging, knowing that there's nothing else that needs to get done right away.

Let's see, where do I start? Well, since the time that we moved into our house in April, we have painted the kitchen red, Zaylee's room light purple, and our room light blue. We weeded our yard, trimmed all the hedges, planted a vegetable garden and a separate pumpkin patch, planted a tree, stained the fence and playset in our backyard, bought a baby swing, and replaced the tarp over the top of the playset. We ripped up all the carpet in the house ourselves, installed new wood floors in the living room and hallway, tile in the hall bathroom, and had new carpet installed in the three bedrooms. We sold a majority of our hand-me-down furniture in a big garage sale, went to IKEA in Dallas and bought a new couch, coffee table, bookshelf, mirrors, bedding, and everything else we could before we ran out of money. I've childproofed all the cabinets in the kitchen and all the outlets throughout the house. I planted flowers in two places in the front yard. We've unpacked all but three boxes that are still in the garage, hung up all the pictures and wall decor throughout the house, made curtains for the kitchen and living room, and made pillows for the new couch. Whew!!

So yes, we have been busy! But all the hard work has really paid off. Our house is now a home, and we all love it. I am now officially ready to see Zaylee grow up in this house and make lots of wonderful memories as a family. She has grown so fast, I can't even believe it. Between 4 and 9 months, it just seems like time goes by in an instant. In one minute you're jumping up and down because your little one just learned to turn over, and then all of a sudden they're pulling up on the coffee table and walking around it while they hold on! She's eating "big girl food" now - anything that can be cut in small pieces and easy to chew. She only has one tooth barely starting to appear, but that doesn't seem to stop her from eating everything from Cheerios to pickles. She's starting to communicate a lot more - she definitely lets you know what she wants! She's starting to say "dog" and "cat," along with the usual "momma" and "dadda." I'm taking her to her 9 month checkup next week, so then I'll get to see what she weighs. And, oh my goodness, this girl never stops moving!! She is just go, go, GO all day long (except when I force her to go down for a nap). Thankfully, she wears herself out most days and sleeps very soundly at night.

Robbie's begun to fly a couple times a week. His flights are 8, sometimes 10, hours long! He has to wake up at 2:15 am, and doesn't get home sometimes until 6 or 7 pm. Those flying days are really long days for him and have been really tough, but I think he's still enjoying everything he's learning and the overall mission of his plane. The days that he doesn't fly are pretty normal 8-hr days, so that's nice.

Today, he had the day off so we decided to head to the park to have a picnic and play some frisbee golf. It was a very hot, sunny day, but we brought plenty of water and sunscreen and had a great time. The park we went to was beautiful! It had a rose garden, a pond, lots of wildlife, playgrounds, a frisbee golf course, and even a pool (which we decided we would have to come visit another day!). We enjoyed lunch by the pond despite being interupted by nosy squirrels and geese, and then played 9 holes of golf. Zaylee loves frisbee golf because she gets to hold onto our frisbees, play in the grass, and get carried all over the park. She's the cutest little caddy you could have! It was a great day to just relax and spend time together.
So now the moment you've been waiting for, PICTURES! This is a grand combobulation of before and after pics of our house along with a lot of fun pics from today's outing...

This is the bathroom before we moved in.
Construction zone! This was taken after the old floor (and toilet) was removed in preparation for beautiful new tile. What a mess!
And our beautiful new completed guest bathroom! (Sorry, you can't really see the floors. But trust me, they look good. ^_~)

Our master bedroom before moving in...
And after our personal touches...
The guest bedroom used to be a little boy's room...
Now it's a patriotic office/extra bedroom!

The third bedroom belonged to the previous owners' teenage girl...
Now it's the perfect little spot for our baby Zaylee!
I'm putting sunscreen on Zaylee's face in preparation for a hot summer day - her face is so funny! "Stop it, Mom!"
Possibly the most dramatic change has been in our kitchen. This is before...
This was mid-construction. We had to move a bunch of living room furniture in the kitchen in order to replace the carpet. Another big mess...
And this is the finished product!

The living room before...

...during construction...

...and after!



The beginning of our day of fun - here's Zaylee feeling for her little tooth at breakfast.
Getting ready to go.

Our picnic lunch by the pond. What a cutie!


Swinging on the playset with daddy.

Having fun in the sun on the frisbee golf course.
Our happy little family. ^_^

Love you all and miss you! Feel free to post comments and let us know what you think!