FALL IS IN THE AIR

     SOME BEAUTIFUL FALL PICTURES TAKEN ON     JOHNSON ACRES.  Maybe we should move from the country closer to a town to cut our gas expenditure but personally I prefer the trees to Walmart or even Target.

         Fun on the wood pile. Vanilla in very. very old.  He will let Kaylee pet him because  

                he loves attention of ANY sort, and besides, he doesn't run much these days.

 Kaylee had her first experience with a horse this summer.

      Now she always wants to see him.

   A trip to Papa's garage is always eventful.  Kaylee can be quite the helper. With the additional help of Jesse and

    Joseph, they  got Eric's garage door opener installed.  He sure DOES enjoy it.

Mandy, Jesse and Kaylee. . . . ....................OSU fans to the core!

Kitchen Remodel

Over the course of several years, we have been working on remodeling our kitchen.  It has gone from dark chocolate brown wood cabinets, yellow laminate counter top, drop ceiling/ florescent lighting, linoleum floors, paneling, and wallpaper to this!  It has been a tedious transformation but we are quite pleased with the results, even though its not an expensive designer redo like you might see on HGTV!

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We enjoy the nice soft recess lighting that Eric installed after tearing down the drop ceiling and florescent lighting.  That was one messy job!!  Picture a foot of loose insulation being dropped all over the entire kitchen!  I'm glad that is behind me!

After raising the ceiling, Eric built me some shadow boxes above my cabinets to showcase all my Fiestaware.

We are enjoying the brighter white cabinets compared to the dark, sticky cabinets that we started off with.  It took weeks to sand all the cabinets, prime, and paint them the white that you see now.

We ripped down the old gold and white specked backsplash and installed much brighter subway tiles.  We added a line of black tiles for contrast.  We also roughed up the old counter top and planed it down in order to lay our new granite tiles.

I am enjoying my new stainless steel dishwasher and aspire to owning a stainless steel refrigerator to replace the old one when it breaks.

I couldn't resist a closer shot of Kristin's roses that Bryan gave to her.

The Fiesta dishes add a "splash" of color to the kitchen. (See, even I can use some of those design terms.  Candice Olsen beware of a new rising design star! )

If we can find the scanner, I will post a picture of what the kitchen looked like when we first moved here 8 years ago!

Odds and Ends

    We've been working on the kitchen this

     summer, adding granite tile counter tops.  It was alittle messy getting the old backsplash down.  Of couse, we

     had extra work to do.  We had to raise the whole countertop so the new dishwasher would fit under it. The

     granite is complete and the backsplash, but I still need to paint the cabinets.  I was hoping to finish this before

     I started back up at the preschool, but I started back this week and the painting hasn't even started yet.  Oh,

     well such is life.  At least I have my sink and stove back !

     The beauty of a flower garden!  I don't know the name of this flower.  It came with the house and I have never

     seen it anywhere else.  I call it the butterfly flower.  If you know its name, let me know.

     Our lavender sure brought lots of bumble bees but smelled great!

     Anyone remember this table and chair set?  Maybe even the playfood!

     Eric, Kaylee and turtle!

     Yep, Sadie loves the raft.  She will jump off the edge of the pool onto a raft if it will bring her closer to

     her beloved ball.

     Kids and toys!

     Mandy and Jesse

     AHH, . . . summer, with no stress of school.

     Bryan and Mandy chilling.  It will be sad to close down the pool for fall, but we will enjoy it again today--

     90 and sunny!

     How many ways are there to sit in a beach chair?

     Grazing!

     We love family, fun and food.

     Kristin and Bryan chilling or maybe heating up by the fire.

     Jesse, master fire started and chef!  He just had his 28th birthday!  How old does that make me?

Hope this works

Kaylee visiting for a few days while mom and dad take a needed vacation.

   We had soooooo much fun!

  She reminds me of Jesse with her love for FUN and her high energy level.  That grin seems to say it all.  Life is a 

  blast for Kaylee.

A playdough finger puppet.

I look like my dad here.

Scream and run!

  We did eventually get her settled down and into bed.  I think I fell asleep rocking her before she did!

  Her favorite NEW game was to turn off the lights, throw a small ball and then look for it with the flashlight. 

  We played it for hours.  We took long walks stopping to look at all the cool things like special rocks, flowers,

  sticks, mud puddles, bees, climb a tree, chase the cat and especially climb the steps into the loft of the "scary"

  barn and look out all the top windows yelling "hello" to grandpa.  So much fun to be had and so little time!  

  I hope mom and dad go on another vacation again real soon!

Playing catch .

  Kaylee had fun with Wrangler (the dog) .  She would tell him to speak, then when he barked she would

  pat him on the back and say, "Good boy"  Wish I had a picture of that. Later she would run to get him a treat

   for doing tricks and he certainly liked that!

That's all for now!