On top of all the other things he does, Hubby has agreed to take on renovating our kitchen. I have been wanting to remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room for a long time. We are doing just a little bit at a time but things are really moving along. This is what the rooms originally looked like.

The first step was to remove the doorway -  picture taken June 23

Just doing that made a big difference - picture taken July 1.

Then we took some time off for the birth of our newest granddaughter, Harper, born July 3.

The next week, John removed the dining room side of the wall.

The weekend of the 19th, he built the window seat/storage for the kitchen.

It goes all the way across the kitchen which is a little over 11 feet. Besides all the storage, it will be a great place for a nap once we put cushions on it.

During the next week, we pulled down the upper cabinets and John removed the kitchen side of the wall. What a difference that made!

While Dad and the Scouts were camping July 25th, Lee, Lauren and Mac removed the flooring in the new cabinet location. Below the tile we found one layer of press-and-stick linoleum squares and what must have been the original flooring from the 60s.

Then we could move the cabinet and stove. 

By Sunday night, the stove was hooked up in its new location and the kitchen was back in service.

I am in love with the way it is turning out!

Football Season

One of the traditions we have is to provide the grandchildren with gameday apparel each year. This year I decided to make the girls' dresses. I hope to get a picture of all of them together at some point.

And yes, the goose got an outfit too.

August 2013

A few weeks ago, Lyric and I went to North Carolina to help celebrate Jacquie's 2nd birthday. Coda wasn't feeling well, so she and Mom didn't get to make the trip. Jacquie has a friend that was born on the same day so they had a joint birthday with a Mickey-Minnie Mouse theme. The cake was beautiful!

Here she is with her ears.

Lyric enjoyed the party and the cupcakes!

We had a great trip and hope to see the Thayer's again soon!

As most of you know Mac had jaw surgery over the Christmas holidays. They removed a section from each side of the bottom jaw to make make it smaller, broke his upper jaw into three pieces to spread them out, removed his wisdom teeth and fixed a deviated septum.

He couldn't open his mouth at all the first week and had a plastic brace wired to his upper jaw for another four weeks. He was on a liquid diet for the entire five weeks and lost enough weight to have to take up his belt three holes.

The worst part is over. He can eat again. His braces will come off as soon as his teeth are in the right position for the new bite. We expect that to happen in May if not before.

Here are some before and after pictures for you to compare. He still looks like Mac ... just a little different.

I haven't posted in a while, but I am going to try to get back in the habit and catch you up on what has been going on the last few months. (maybe not all in the same day)

Callum auditioned and performed his magic act in the school talent show recently. This photo is from his audition.

We weren't able to attend his performance, but I have seen the video and he did a great job.

Jacquie has participated in several beauty pageants. From all reports, she and her Mom are having a great time and have won a few awards.

Here are some Halloween photos.

First, the Frankenstein costume I helped with.

Since he is a big guy, he got to Trick or Treat with his friends. He came back with most of the costume and lots of candy.

Jacquie dressed as Minnie Mouse. They have a friend with a son about the same age and he was Mickey. They make quite a cute couple.

Minnie was escorted by her Dad while trick-or-treating. I am sure he helped dispose of the candy as well.

Here is the whole family

We took the girls to the Trunk-or-Treat activity at our church. Lyric, the unicorn, enjoyed playing the games and trick-or-treating. Coda and I handed out candy.

For the last few months, Charlotte has been considering moving back to Alabama to go to college. She has always planned to go to college, but as a divorced mother of two, it was going to be quite a challenge. She didn't necessarily want to move, but since John's VA benefits will cover most of the tuition costs in Alabama it just made sense.

The plan is for Charlotte to take classes at night while we watch the kids. She will probably start at Jefferson State Community College and transfer to UAB later. She will not begin classes until January, but she decided to go ahead and move last week. I would like to say the move was painless but it wasn't. For the last few months, Charlotte's mom has been the primary caregiver of the two little girls and she misses them terribly. There is also the issue of arranging regular visits with their dad in Houston but we know everything will work out.

They have taken over the downstairs area of our house which includes a bedroom, full bath, den and a room probably designed to be an office. At different times we have used it as a guest bedroom, a sewing room, and an exercise room. Now it is a little girls room complete with a Disney princess bed.

We are getting used to having two little people around and they are getting used to us. Coda has allergies and sensitive skin so we are trying to make sure her new surroundings don't make her sick. Our cat has gone to live with Lee and Mac, we are attempting to keep the house clean and are being careful about what they eat.

We are enjoying getting the know the girls and hope to be posting lots of pictures of them in the future.