Sneak Peak

A few photos of the house progress...

Looking from the dining into the kitchen.

The island bracket Armando designed and built for us.

Dining room french doors.

Kitchen cabinets, the uppers still need to be installed.

More kitchen cabinetry under the stairs. Our cabinet maker designed several pull out shelves and drawers to make use of every inch of space, even a couple 3" deep shelves to utilize the wall space. When finished it will look like a full wall of cabinetry.

New french doors in master.

Starting to tile in children's bath.

Exterior paint is looking better now that the windows are cleaned.

I promise to post some kid pictures Friday after their haircuts, the first for Lily!

Pick a Door

Vote for your favorite door for our house using the poll on the left.

I'm thinking of painting it a dark glossy black or perhaps stained a deep brown.

Option 1

Option 2 (ignore the fancy glass panes)

Option 3

Option 4

This simple plank style door graces the entrance of designer Tia Zoldan's home. I found a place online that would replicate it for us but my contractor wants to work with someone local who can come and measure, so not sure if I can pull it off yet.

House Paint

They have started painting the exterior. The trim color looks great. We are trying to decide if more of the dormer should be painted the lighter color. It is hard to tell with the windows painted over. It won't look so heavy once that is removed.

I'm not sure if I like the siding color yet. It is a tan color but surprisingly it is looking a bit yellow in the bright sunlight, at least in the front. The back of the house looks pretty good.

I like the dark trim color on the doors.

The samples were supposed to be put up on the front dormer but they put them up in the back of the house instead. Of course it was last minute and they wanted to get started so I approved them. In hind site I should have made them put the samples on the front to be sure.

If I could do it again I think I'd go with a darker stony or beige color like BM grant beige or BM tapestry beige for the siding but hoping this will turn out OK.

They finished floating and texturing the walls yesterday. Cabinets will be installed tomorrow. The next step is the interior trim and bathroom tile. I hope to have some good updates over the next few weeks.

Second Degree

When we were leaving the park this morning we had an accident.

There was a three year old birthday party and they had a portable bb grill right there by the playground. We had to go pretty close to the party because the celebrant and his friends were playing with our wagon. David was loading them up while I was packing Holden into his stroller and Lily ran into their grill! Poor thing, she burned her hand quite severely, second degree with an almost one inch blister on her left thumb.

I can't believe they would have a grill right next to the playground and unsupervised. I didn't even see it. They had a bunch of little ones in their own party for peets sake. Geesh.

And Lily, our sweet Lily, was in a lot of pain. But what shook me up most is how it could have been much worse, very easily. The hostess just said to me, I think your daughter ran into our grill, my daughter did the same thing once at the beach. Just put some ice on it. I was speechless and just went to follow David rushing home with the kids.

***

Updated. The blister kept swelling and extended to the tip of her finger. It hurt her a lot today. She kept shaking her hand and saying ow-ee, ow-ee. It finally popped and it looks really tender. It is bad but thank God it wasn't worse. How easy it could have been a lot worse.

Also, I don't know why I didn't know this but you shouldn't put ice on a burn, it can burn it further. From my Internet searching it seemed that the common recommendation is to run the area under cool water for 20 mins - and for those with small kids, they say to hold their hand under the water even if they cry because it will reduce the impact of the burn. Then of course turn your attention to calming and comforting the child.

The pharmacist recommended treating with a burn gel or spray with lidocane for pain and aloe for soothing and healing. And once the blister pops to treat with Bactrim, not Neosporin. I'm not sure why the one antibotic and not the later.

Butterflies

Chaos

Will can climb out of his crib. Evan can unzip his crib tent.

Last night I finally put Will in Evan's crib with tent and zipped him in. Since Evan can get out anyway I put him in Will's crib. Eventually everyone went to sleep but this morning Lily's crib had been moved to the other side of the room.

Happy

Not a Baby

Holden doesn't know he is only six months old. He wants to do whatever his siblings are doing whether it is playing at the train table or eating popsicles.

He is really agile, he can easily pull himself to standing, hold on with one hand and even reach down to help sit himself back down. That's an 8 or 9 month old task. Last night marked his first time 'cruising' on our ottoman. It won't be long before he is walking.

Surviving Summer

We've had a slight reprieve from a string of 100 degree days. Thank you tropical depression Edouard. But we have a couple more months of hot Texas weather ahead of us.

Our survival plan includes lots of popsicles, plenty of water and indoor playtime after 11am.

Top indoor activities:

• Playing with Thomas train table (logged tons of hours on the new table already)


• Climbing and jumping on the sofa and making tents is a close second favorite


• Reading books or dancing to music or both (tonight we danced and read 'we all go traveling by' which comes with it's own CD)


• Art in their highchairs - they will color for about 5 minutes before mealtime


• Watch favorite DVDs babyscapes alphabet and Thomas or Tubbies and Sesame Street on TiVo


• 'Shock and Awe' - grab a big bin of toys and dump it out in the living room (it's better to engage them in something specific but this can be an excellent 20 minute diversion to buy time when running low on energy)


• In the early evenings we typically spend about 30 minutes playing on the front porch where there is shade and a breeze
  

How are you going to survive the rest of summer?

Drywall

We still have a ways to go but finally, we have drywall.

Next steps: taping and floating then install cabinetry.

Entry living room looking into kitchen.

Kitchen looking towards front entrance.

Dinning room looking into den.

Lily, Evan and Will's room.

Back wall of trips room.

Family room.

Exterior paint colors.

Trim is BM Fairview Taupe, siding is BM Manchester Tan (samples painted in reversed in photo). Actually, the lighter color in this photo is F&B Matchstick, there is a little spot of Manchester tan on the sample that is a bit darker.

'Vegetable' and 'Thank you'

I've noticed that although our crew is picking up quite a bit of Spanish they do seem to be struggling with one word in particular - 'por favor' or 'please' for you gringos.

When I listen more closely Lily tends to say 'Veg-e-table' or 'Begh-e-ble' for 'por favor'. Must sound the same to her.

Will says a myriad of things in place of 'por favor' including 'bor -ee-bor' and 'pop-i-cal' (also used for popsicle). I guess any three syllable word will do.

It appears Evan says something most similar like 'bor-ba-bor' and 'bor-bee-bor'

On the bright side they all have 'gracias' nailed.

I've got to get this on video.

Walk it Out

Evan's You Tube video picks for all you hip hop tots out there....

Tubbies Walk it Out


Happy Feet Walks it Out

Splish splash at Zilker

I took the boys to Zilker's water park the other day for some relief from the Austin heat.

Like ducks on a pond...


Apple juice tastes go000000od.

Mom, Me and Memo

I discovered this old photo I love of me and my mom GG. I think Will looks the most like me at this age out of our four. Oh, and check out my mom's cool owl necklace...mom, do you still have that somewhere??

Will aka 'Memo' 15 months

Boys Room

photos from The House that A_M Built via Camillia at Home via Barnes Vanze, wheh!

Side note: I've started a separate design blog Studio Freas to have a landing spot for my decorating and design ideas. But I couldn't resist adding these photos of this beautiful boys attic room for you moms out there, and well, it's crunch time and I need your input.

Our upstairs will have this converted attic look. These sloped walls are not unsimilar to our new triplet room, although our back wall is long will hold three beds (toddler beds initially) and we have two windows above. We won't have all those built-ins and lovely wood detailing, but it isn't it nice?

The carpet is great too, it would be fun for the kids to play with trucks and cars and be more forgiving than the neutral wool sisal I selected. However, since this is in a 6000 sq foot Virginia 'farmhouse' something tells me this is not inexpensive. And for those of you who do not know us in real life, our home is more of a 'cozy' cottage. I don't mean to mislead with the fabulous images I post from my dream houses.

Here is a peak into my latest ideas for our boys room. I need to decide this week so I can order curtains and select paint/flooring. I love this stuff, but designing an entire house is making me nuts. Some rooms can wait...as long as I can pick the paint now but I at least need a start.

Option 1:

For curtains, I am drawn to this Rodeo fabric from Golding. David is starting to give in to my nagging come around to the idea. It's mostly boy but does have a cowgirl in there - see her sitting on the fence? and just a snippet of the red cactus flowers on ther left. This fabric would give me a way to bring in some nice color, texture and interest.

Here's another view of this fabric in a bedroom. It has a very different look when shown in full, not so 'themey' looking as long as I don't add bandanas and ropes :)

I'd like to paint the walls a similar shade to the background of this fabric like shown in this photo(something like F&B skylight), with a darker blue trim (say F&B parma grey). I just take my paint chips to my local paint store and they can match.

For bed skirts perhaps something like this PB chambray in Red for their toddler beds below. We can use their cream sheets and blankets, but I'd like to get them crib sized comforters and pillows. Something simple and neutral for this option.

Option 2:

These quilts (on sale now at PB) and striped curtains, light blue walls. this may even go with that carpet I like in the first photos.

Option 3:

Go with a similar carpet to the first pics and find some patchwork quilts and striped curtains (see peaking out from the right).

Need help. Your input appreciated.

Toddler Speak

This is a follow up post to my previous 'changes' post. I didn't capture how much their language has changed recently. They are much better at telling us what they are thinking. This is huge - it's great to know what they want or need in stead of guessing.

Lily will repeat anything you say but here are some of the things they all say unprompted.

• They ask for certain shows in the morning - usually 'tubbies' or 'thomas'.
• They say 'shoe off', 'shirt off', 'diaper off' - given the choice they prefer to be nude.
• They ask for 'breakfast', 'more fruit', popsicle 'pok-eh-cal or pok-eh-do' or 'no want it'.
• They like to play chase and say 'ya voy' which is kind of like 'I'm coming (to get you)' in Spanish.
• When in bed they babble to each other. One of their favorite things to say is 'dino' back and forth - I don't know why. Maybe it is 'night night' in triplet speak.
• They are all learning their manners but especially Will. We get a lot of 'tank -u' and 'gracias' from him. They say please too 'peese' and 'por favor' but it comes out more like 'bor-buh-bor'.
• They now say 'timeout' and 'settle down'
• Last night Lily was making her doll walk and saying 'baby camina', 'baby camina' which is 'baby walk' in Spanish.
• They like the alphabet song and know a smattering of the letters, more than I posted before. They will rattle off different letters like O-P, I-K, Y-Z, and 'now I know my'. Lily is fond of 'W', I think she finds it impressive. Will likes to say O-P and can identify 'Y'
• They say 'potty' and I think I forgot to post it but Lily used the potty for the first time a few weeks ago - and not again since.
• updated with one more, how could i forget - we have also gotten our first 'i love you's - melts your heart

Curtain Rods, Drapery and Blinds - Oh My!

All those windows I was so excited about....they need curtains or other covering. So I'm now measuring and figuring and calculating and need to find fabric and blinds. It's a lot to do.

Once this project is finished I'll never want to move.