Alicia & Ben » Blog

Some of our favorite people came to visit recently – Christy, Matt, Maddie, Lucy, Wendy, Aunt Judy, Hope, Spencer, and Payne.  I love when friends and family come to town; gives us an excuse to explore and play.

I won’t give a day by day accounting but here’s an overview of the fun between Thursday to Wednesday:  visited the beach thrice, trip to the zoo with the Haggards and Kimmy, family party at Aunt Debbie’s, my dad’s birthday party at Mike and Sarah’s, Lucy’s 1st birthday and McKay’s 4th birthday party, sleepover with the triplets, and pool day at Aunt Debbie’s house.  Our family also went to Orlando all day Saturday to visit the temple since I had a two hour wedding to photograph there.  It was a busy and fun few days!

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Matt’s homemade dot-to-dot for the boys.

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His birthday day.

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Playing Red Light, Green Light.

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Sadie and her friend, Abi, attended a week long dance camp in July.  They had so much fun!

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The theme was “The Sound of Music” and on the final day they did a little performance.  There were only 4 girls so they were short a few parts.  Sadie played the part of Liesl and Abi was Gretl.  Here are a few videos and pictures.

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  • August 18, 2015 - 9:02 pm

    Shannon - Cute! I love dance. I can’t wait to get Katelyn in a class. Great job Sadie!ReplyCancel

Moe is officially 4.

Wow.

His birthday day was a bit of a wash.  Pun intended.  We’ve had loads of rain lately and on his birthday we had nearly 9 inches of rainfall in Tampa.  We had planned to visit Chuck E Cheese mid-morning and then go out to lunch.  Unfortunately, the roads were closed so we just had a calm morning at home.  It was a Monday but Ben took the day off so it was really nice to have him around.  Thankfully, the family was able to come over and the rain stopped mid-afternoon so we still had a fun party for him.

Christy and Matt were in town and Lucy’s 1st birthday was the day before so we did a combined party.  Also, the triplets and Wendy were in town to help us celebrate.

We had favorite foods from our childhoods for his party – hot dogs, mac n cheese, pizza, PB&J, fluffer nutteres, nutty buddies, fruit roll ups, gushers, yohoo, apple juice, chips, and fruit.  It was terribly unhealthy but I think everyone got a kick out of it.  I think the adults indulged in the junk food more than the kids.  They were too busy swimming and playing.

McKay loved his presents – faves were his new accessory kit of magnetic blocks and his bow and arrow.  He put his tooth fairy money and Grandma Cliffie’s birthday money towards a quadricopter which will arrive in the mail tomorrow!

After a month and a half without one, it’s nice to have a 4 year old again 🙂

 

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  • August 18, 2015 - 9:05 pm

    Shannon - What a fun party. I didn’t realize he’s just a year older than Katelyn. I’m losing track of how old everyone is getting. Happy Birthday to McKay! He is so adorable 🙂ReplyCancel

Today started off as a relaxing, drizzly drop rain type of day.  After a busy, hectic week we were having a catch up day at home.  Just after 1 o’clock the kids started chasing and tickling each other.  I was at the computer editing pictures and Jax was hiding next to me when suddenly I heard a loud cry in the family room from McKay.  It was one of those cries when you know something terrible has happened.  I ran in there and scooped him up off the floor.  I saw his mouth was bloody.  We ran to the bathroom and grabbed a tissue to stop the bleeding.  I wiped the blood and on the tissue I saw two teeth!  After that I yelled for Sadie to grab my phone and call Ben.  I wasn’t sure I could handle this one alone!  I left a message for Ben and grabbed a bigger cloth because the tissue wasn’t cutting it!  As I pulled the tissue away I saw a large, gaping hole and cuts on his upper and bottom lips.

I asked Sadie about the details of his fall.  She said he was sitting on the sofa and she tickled him and he lost his balance and fell off.

After I got McKay calmed down I called the dentist.  She told me there wasn’t much that could be done.  If the cuts are in the mouth or on the lips they usually don’t use stitches (such a relief because I knew he would have HATED stitches!).  She told me they don’t reattach baby teeth as there are often complication.  We went over some ways to offer him relief – cold popsicles to reduce the swelling, taking motrin for the pain, and gargling with warm salt water.  We plan to go in to the office on Monday for xrays.

Ben came home from work to help me make the judgement call about stitches and watch the kids so I could go to the grocery store to buy some soft, cold foods.  Wow, is it nice having him so close now.

McKay and I sat on the sofa watching TV most of the day.  It bled for a long time so he had a cloth on it for hours.  Around 5 he agreed to eat a popsicle. Then he asked for another. And another.  Since then he’s been perky and super excited about the tooth fairy coming.  He looks at himself in the bathroom mirror every few minutes and smiles real big at his reflection.  He likes his new smile.  I’m trying to like it too.  I’m pretty disappointed that his beautiful smile is changed. But mostly I’m just happy that it’s nothing worse. No stitches. No surgery. No doctors. Just an awkward smile and slight lisp.

Oh what a day!

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  • August 18, 2015 - 9:06 pm

    Shannon - Ouch!!! That looks so painful. It’s good to see him smiling by the end of the day 🙂ReplyCancel

We’ve just passed the 1 year mark since moving into the house so I thought it might be interesting to see how things are coming along.  We still have a long list of things we need to do.  The outdoors is especially in need of attention and it’s frustrating that things are slow.  It grows faster than we can keep u with. But looking back (here and here)  it’s helpful to see how far we’ve come.  Lots done but still lots to do.  Such is life.

Things we’ve done/bought:

-New AC

– New roof

-Painted whole interior and exterior and ceilings (so happy we did ceilings)

-Ripped out all the flooring ourselves and then bought all new flooring

-Installed new baseboards (still a few odds and ends to finish there)

-Bought and installed garbage disposal

-Bought and installed dishwasher

-Stair renovation

-Pressure washed and repainted pool deck area

-Ripped out leaky shower

-Molding in living and dining room

-3 new toilets

-4 new sink faucets

-New electrical switch plates

-Made and repaired garage ceiling hole

-Added closet organization systems in two bedrooms (best thing we did!)

-Pool safety net

-Installed new fan in master bedroom

-Tore into the stairs and created a door so we can use the dead space under stairs for storage.

-Removed wallpaper in master bathroom

 

Still need to do:

-Downstairs shower is still incomplete!  It’s been demoed and plumber has installed new plumbing but we need to purchase tiled and hire someone to finish the work.

-I’d still like to do something with the master bathroom and shower.  It’s pretty blah.  I doubt we’ll do much if anything, though.  Probably new glass shower door eventually.

-Landscape exterior and perhaps level the backyard a little

-Update or replace light fixtures

-Under cabinet lighting and backslash in kitchen

-New hardware on kitchen cabinets – we’ve bought two kinds but disliked so we returned both

-Perhaps add molding and paint the kids’ rooms.  I think white rooms helps with resale value, though?  So, not sure.

-Ben still dreams of adding built-ins to the living room but I like our setup and I’m tired of construction.

-Put up pictures on several walls

-Buy new rugs

-Buy new blinds

-A few spots need touch up paint

-Find another green bed for McKay.  I bought Jax’s off craigslist and went to buy a second to match it from IKEA but they no longer carry them so his mattress is just on the floor.  Poor kid.

 

It’s been a really fun process but I’m at the point where I just want to be done.  I’m tired of the projects taking up all our free time, and I’m tired of all our hard earned money going into the house.

Our original plan was to buy and flip this house.  When we were house hunting we felt like we couldn’t find a home in a good neighborhood and in our price range that felt big enough for our growing family.  This one, however, is totally adequate at this point.  I think we could make a decent profit if we decided to sell but I’m wanting to stay for a little while.  Not sure how long?  Ben thinks about selling next summer but I’m inclined to stay 3 – 5 years.  He likes to the idea of selling while everything is new – roof, AC, flooring, paint, etc.  I’m just so happy right now so I have no desire to move.  🙂 Who knows?  We don’t have a long term plan.  We may be here a year or a decade.  Time will tell!

Mediocre pictures in no particular order:

 

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  • July 21, 2015 - 1:45 pm

    Raven - It looks beautiful! And I love the minimal toys. I need to work on that. Our floors seem ever-littered with toys. Nice job, you guys!ReplyCancel

    • July 23, 2015 - 5:48 pm

      alicia - Thanks Raven!!! Our floors are frequently littered with toys, too. We try to keep the toys mostly in the playroom, though, they are making their way upstairs more and more 🙂 We often do a pick up just before lunch and dinner.ReplyCancel

  • July 21, 2015 - 3:06 pm

    Joe - The house looks fantastic! If I had money I’d hire you to come spruce up our house a bit.ReplyCancel

    • July 23, 2015 - 5:48 pm

      alicia - Thanks. I like your house just how it is.ReplyCancel

  • July 21, 2015 - 6:13 pm

    Shannon - You have done so much! It all looks so beautiful 🙂 We’re just beginning the process of improving our house and yard as well. I have to keep reminding myself that it takes time.ReplyCancel

    • July 23, 2015 - 5:49 pm

      alicia - Thanks Shannon! I can’t wait to visit your new home. Things definitely take time for us. Some people are more speedy, but we’ve tried to pace ourselves.ReplyCancel