An Easter Weekend

{1} Maundy Thursday.  Easter weekend starts on Thursday, right?  We hosted our church community group Maundy Thursday meal.  I spent all of Wednesday and Thursday cleaning, setting up, preparing, and it was so worth it.  We love having people in our home and sharing our evenings together.

{2} Menu.  I've really enjoyed our chalkboard wall! I mostly use it for scripture and menu planning, but it's a fun way to sprinkle a little bit of creativity into each week.  This week it's been home to our family dinner menu.  All of my favorites, including my mom's pot roast and my granny's deviled eggs:)

{3} Community.  We love our community group.  It is a constant source of fellowship, encouragement, and fun in our lives.  These people are simply the best.  The evening was spent hanging out, eating the most delicious potluck ever assembled, worshipping with a song, and sharing the ways in which we have been served and blessed in the past year. What a great way to get the Easter weekend started off!

{4} Dine. We are pretty casual around here when it comes to dining (I call dinner, "supper").  But, Easter is a special celebration, so we went so far as to set the dining room table for family dinner:)  I haven't done a lot of that since we moved in, and although I don't have a lot in the way of linens and place settings, I had fun getting creative.  I see more of this in the future...

{5} Easter Best.  I sure do love this little bunny!  Last year she was sick on Easter Sunday and I don't have a single pic of her!  We ran her pretty ragged, but I think she had fun.  At one-and-a-half, we're still trying to master how to say Jesus, much less explain his promises and resurrection, but I so look forward to the coming years to teach her why Easter is the most important celebration in our faith.

{6}  Family.  My entire family was in town this weekend.  I sure do enjoy spending time with them! Living far away from them stinks, but it sure does make us cherish our time together.  The weekend was spent playing, shopping, cooking, eating, worshipping, and enjoying our beautiful weather! Thank you, Lord!

{7} Easter Treats.  I enjoyed spoiling Avery with her Easter basket.  Her favorite to play with were the Peeps, although she has decided she doesn't like them.  Her favorite gifts were the books.  A girl after my own heart.

{8} Celebrate.  My sister and her fiance, Ross.  Our families couldn't be more excited! We love these two together, and their brand new engagement gave us even more to celebrate this weekend.  What a blessing to receive someone new into the family.  Plenty of wedding plans were discussed, and a destination wedding may be in the works:)  This matron of honor couldn't be more excited to start planning a wedding!!!

{9} Joy.  The word pretty much sums up the weekend.  Joy in The Resurrection.  Joy in time spent with family.  Joy in time rich in community.  Joy in even the simple things, like the weather and a good piece of cake.  Because Christ died for us, and because he rose from the dead, our lives matter.  Our experiences are deeper, our relationships more meaningful, our hope much stronger.  Christ is risen, He is risen, indeed!

Kitchen Progress II

Well, we've had minimal progress since the last time I posted about our kitchen, but it's already making quite a difference!  We started our kitchen backsplash right after Christmas and had all of the tiles up in just over a week.  We were feeling very accomplished at that point.  Then we found out we were expecting and this momma crashed!

We look at it almost every night and go, "We really need to finish the backsplash...".  Truth is people, I'm just too exhausted to work on it, plus the adhesive scent and my hound dog pregnancy smelling capabilities do not jive.  But, as the second trimester looms VERY near, I keep promising Taylor that a grouted backsplash is just around the corner!

Wanted to share our tiny progress with you...

Here is the kitchen the last time I posted here (note: the laminate backsplash is still intact along the right counter).

And here is the kitchen today...

We chose plain white subway tiles.  Like I said, the progress has been minimal, but even just having the tiles up drastically changes the look of the entire space!

These puppies are up next.  The plan is to replace all of the outlets (most are caked with grime) and cut tiles to fit around them before grouting.

Good news is that the BFF is moving back to Tulsa!  She is generally the wind beneath my wings when it comes to projects because she is very motivational, so we should see a spike in productiveness in the coming months:)

Snapshots: January/February 2013

Let me preface this extremely (un)exciting couple of months by saying that I have been extremely exhausted and sometimes under the weather (refer to #5) the last couple of months!  Projects have stalled, blogging has ceased, and most afternoons have consisted of lovely naps (which is a good thing).  Therefore, I don't have pictures of a lot of the things that we've done or witnessed since Christmas, most regrettably our one and only snow this winter :(.  Here are some things I did manage to catch...

1 & 2} Kitchen. We started our kitchen backsplash with vigor right after the New Year! We have most of the tiles up, but no grout.  This project has stalled because my morning sickness and the adhesive glue scent do not jive AT ALL.  Looking forward to finishing this project soon. I must say that it has already transformed our kitchen!

3} Breakfast.  I love eating pics of the little one.  She is so independent and loves to feed herself any and everything, even if I don't think she'll be able to eat it.  This results in multiple wardrobe changes throughout the day, but such is life with a toddler.  Here we are eating at one of our favorite breakfast places in Tulsa.

4} Treat.  Avery loves going to the gym as much as I do!  They have the best smoothies and she loves getting a "teet" post work-out.

5} Coming Soon.  The best news!  Avery and I surprised Taylor with the news when he came home from work one evening.  His reaction was priceless, but those photos came out too blurry to share. I am actually due on my birthday in late September. Crazy, huh? I really enjoy being pregnant, especially after the first trimester.  It's such a miracle.  I'm praying for one like the last.

6} London Calling.  Sometimes Utica Square is my salvation.  When we just need to get out and move around, I love taking Avery there, stopping at Starbuck's or Queenie's for a treat, and strolling around.  Sometimes we go in shops, and sometimes we don't, but the square is always full of people, good smells, and beautiful landscaping.  This time in particular Avery was drawn to one the red telephone booths.  She spent quite some time playing in it.

7} Canon Rebel.  Still practicing with my camera.  Avery is of course my favorite subject.  I tapered off a lot in February, but I'm resolving to break it out once a day in March!

8} Organization.  Folks, there is still a lot to be organized in our house, and we moved in over five months ago!  I scrubbed and organized the laundry room one very cold afternoon while Avery was sleeping.  Trust me, it needed it!  I hadn't felt so productive in months.  Sometimes organization just feels so good to my soul... I'm too embarrassed to show before pics.

9} Zoo.  Avery's second trip to the zoo.  This time we went with a bunch of friends.  The day resulted in a three hour nap, and a zoo pass, and Avery learning several new animal sounds.  I know where we will be heading once the weather is nice!