one fair day

Wow a daily post? Hell must have frozen over ;)

Yesterday Matt was off work and asked if he could take Samantha and I to the fair. We had to clear our busy social calender of course, but Sam would never miss a date with her favourite Uncle. Here are some cute photos from Sam's first trip to the Texas State Fair.

Everyone needs a picture with Big Tex at the fair, this is Sam's first ever!

She wasn't a huge fan of the huge truck.

Wee!

Sam eying my fried oreos!

Her first fair food, fried oreos (obviously they were a hit).

Yummy, fried oreos!

Matt trying to keep her quiet and happy (he hasn't quite gotten used to the baby crying or whining in public thing yet lol)

At the bird show.

Watching the bird show.

She was getting a little grumpy and tired so we bribed her with frozen lemonaide ha-ha

Bribery works every time ;)

All worn out and ready to go home.

mantle

Some family and friends have been asking for new pictures of the house since we have been doing so much work to it. I don't have any fabulous ones since nothing is really completed yet *sigh*. So here are the pictures from refinishing the mantle. I hope to have it stained and finished next week so that I can paint the brick (white).

This is the fire place and mantle before. Well kinda, I had already taken a little bit of paint off the front to see how easily it would come off. I forgot to take one before hand.

Me brushing on the first coat of the paint and varnish stripping chemical.

After waiting 30 minutes this is what the paint looks like...gross.



Ready to start scrapping the paint off.

A side view after the first coat was applied.

Matt scraping the paint off with a putty knife.

This is the result after 1 coat of stripper and some heavy scrubbing.

After coat number 1.

Underneath after coat 1, still super thick.

After coat number 1.

The top after coat 1, you can see why we decided to apply another coat of stripper.

Ok this is me applying the first coat, but I didn't get a pic so lets pretend this is me applying the second coat of stripper chemical.

The top after a second coat and a few more hours of scraping and scrubbing.

After coat number 2 and lots of elbow grease.

From the front after coat number 2, sorry no action shots.

My pretty new leather sectional attempting to escape the dust storm.

Me sanding, which lasted about 4 days total. Thank god for the invention of the electric belt sander.

Yeah I defiantly wasn't this chipper the whole time.

The calm after the storm.

My poor house, and my poor tv under there, everything was COVERED in brown dust.

Me after the sanding...that's a lot of dust.

Um yeah that's an inch of brown dust on the recliner...don't worry we are getting rid of it, normally I wouldn't allow my furniture to be "dusted".

My hair looked like this after each day of sanding, ew.

Finally here is the finished product, well kind of. I still have to stain and polyurathane, but here is the fully stripped and sanded mantle:







Annnnnd here are a few pictures of the massive clean up that took a full two days. These are just a few of the many many piles of dirt and dust that we swept up around the house:

Truely final pictures coming soon!

so much for a week off

This past week my sweet baby cheeks was off sailing the Caribbean with her mommy so I was left to twiddle my thumbs. Of course I decided to work on the house, little did I know that one simple job would turn into a 5 day long project that almost killed me. Ya see we have an old 1970's fire place, with an old 1970's mantle to match. The previous owners painted the fireplace and mantle in an attempt to bring it up to date (um yeah painting it an awful shade of yellow tan is NOT modern). We are eventually going to re-stone the entire fireplace with a fabulous natural stone but that is one of the last things on our house to do list (buying a house full of furniture and new cabinets/counter tops is on the top of the list in case you were wondering). So last week we decided that we must find a way to update the fireplace and make it bearable until we are ready to re-stone. We bought white paint and planned to paint it all but then I had a "brilliant" idea...while examining the mantle more closely I thought there HAS to be a beautiful piece of wood underneath all that paint. I was right. Now normally I loooove being right (yes its a flaw of mine, oops) however this time I almost wish I had been wrong. We spent 1 full day stripping it with a nasty nasty chemical, which left me with a few chemical burns BTW. Then we spent a 1/2 day using another chemical to clean the gunk off that was left behind from the first chemical. Next I began to sand, and sand, and sand. 5 days of sanding later, yes 5, we had a brand new piece of wood. Oh and then I spent 2 days sweeping, mopping and conditioning my new leather furniture. My entire house was covered in fine brown dust, it's gross. This weekend I will stain and gloss it. Shit.

While Samantha and Mommy were doing this....

And this...

I was doing this.....

And this....

Guess who's preggo?

My life is currently to busy to take the time to make a long post but I do have some exciting news to share with the blog world: (Hope I didn't fool ya with the title hehehe)

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE!!!!!!!

My big sister Laura (aka the best sister ever) is pregnant! The baby is due March 14th and they are planning to not find out the sex :) I am beyond happy and excited! I have been begging her to have a baby for years now ha-ha. Im so thrilled to have a baby in the family finally and Iam even more happy that Eric and Laura will get to experience being parents. I am also excited for my parents because I know they will make fantastic grandparents. Matt and I can't wait to spoil our little niece or nephew (I think its going to be a boy btw). That's about it for now ;)

Here are some pictures of the parents to be:

Here are some pictures of me and the mommy to be:

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! xoxoxox

lazy list and a few pics

I have a million things to post about seeing as we just got back from a week long vacation not to mention how much Samantha has grown this month etc. With that said, I have absolutely no energy to post anything of substance. Instead you are getting a list. Yes a list....deal with it, if you're lucky I'll take the time to post a picture ;)

Because it's Thursday and NOT Friday we all need to remember what makes us smile (even if it is only Thursday) Here is what has me cheesin this week:

-I just got back from the Caribbean...nough said'

-My tan is hanging in there with some help from the fine people at Jergens

-Samantha is getting her FIRST tooth

-We finally bought a new couch and it was delivered this week...it's beautiful

-Our house is currently cleaner than it has been since we moved it

-My husband has brought me dessert in bed every night this week, love him

-Today is a 1/2 day, I have to go grocery shopping and finish cleaning tonight but I'll take it

-My parents and my dogs are coming today to stay the weekend

-My puppies will be living with me for 3 weeks while my parents are in China

-This weekend is wine fest, October fest and the balloon fest all within 20 mins of my house

-I get Sam on Fri and Sat this week this means my parents can pretend they have grand kids lol

-The contractor is coming out next week to finish our living room...then comes paint

Ok that's about it for now. I have an equally long list of things that DO NOT make me smile right now but today is a day for positive thinking. So I will be thinking about my list today and when I get a chance I will try to close my eyes and attempt to remember how it feels to be laying on a beach in the Cayman Islands with a fruity drink in my hand....

Here are some vacation sneak peek pictures: