Happy Thanksgiving

First time in a couple years that all the cousins were there for a picture...

Stuffed Animals

....she's drowning in them!!!

And she's asking for more for Christmas.  Yikes!!

Goalie

Nicholas had a great game last night!  One of his best for sure!! 

Gorgeous Hair

Our Little Orphan Annie

Gianna was AMAZING this past weekend!!!  She had two performances and both were fantastic!  She remembered every single one of her 50 plus lines and her singing was wonderful!  Who knew she could even sing?  Crazy!  After the show, I introduced myself to the theater director.  She asked me who Gianna's voice coach was.  Haha!!  I told her I didn't even know she could sing.  Wow.  I think we should get her some voice lessons for real.  She's a natural!

So many friends and family came to support her this weekend...

Nana's birthday

Happy Birthday Mom!  Still young and beautiful!!

Five

First there was one...

Then there were two...

Then there were three and that made our family complete...

I love my little family.  Feeling grateful.

Early Thanksgiving

CeCe hosted our annual Smith Family Thanksgiving. As usual, I didn't take enough pictures though.  But it was really fun and the food was delicious! I love Thanksgiving!

Of course I got pictures of dessert, right?  : )  That apple pie was the best!!

and the cream puffs...yummy!!

We played games and of course our family favorite..."Button Button"!

Happenings

My baby girl before she got on the bus for school...

This is pretty much the last colorful tree left...

The kitchen is about 95% done.  We are still waiting for several missing items and replacement pieces to be shipped from the cabinet company.  The contractors won't be back for a few weeks which is fine with me.  I'm enjoying having the house to myself again.  We did have a lot of things done this past week though. Like putting up my new chandelier...

I love it!!

All the tiling has been done but it won't be grouted until the guys come back.  Do you see a missing drawer handle?  It was so funny.  The contractor was concentrating really hard on making sure he had the right pulls for the right drawers as we were using three different kinds.  He had put all his stuff away in his truck and vacuumed...when I noticed he missed one.  D'oh!!!  : )   Guess that's going to have to wait a couple weeks too.  

We finally got the stove and microwave put in!  Yippee!!!  I made brownies for the kids the other day for an after school snack.  They were so thrilled!!

The tumbled marble looks so nice...

The electrician raised the pendants up over the breakfast bar.  Sooo much better...

Next up...the stairs, upstairs hallway and we are moving forward with sprucing up the fireplace.  Very excited about that!  So as usual...to be continued.

Here are some videos from the past week of our talented and busy kids.

1.  Nicholas checking (he's #10 white jersey).  He got a penalty of course.  

2.  Gianna learning how to FLY at tumbling.  Unbelievable!!!

3.  Julia working on her solo at Kerry's studio!!  It's surreal having her dance there. Never thought I would see that day come but so glad it's here.  Thanks to Uncle Ricky for getting this going!!

Almost done

We are almost...almost done.  So close.  It's been seven full weeks with no appliances. Yikes!

So this is what we have so far. We had the granite installed this week.  It's really pretty. We picked it out so long ago I was hoping I would still like it.  And I do! We're not keeping those chairs by the way.  They are just old bar stools that we had from our old house. Our new ones will be counter height and should be here soon along with our dining chairs. The table is being refinished too.  If we don't have them soon, I'll probably set up the folding table and plastic lawn chairs again.  : )   We need to sit somewhere, right?

The lights over the breakfast bar need to be shortened a bit...we'll do that next week...

We had the stainless steel hood put in.  I love it!  We also had the sink, dishwasher and cooktop installed on Friday!  Thank goodness!!  It's so nice to have actual running water in the kitchen again!!

Our fridge came this week too!  The replacement double oven cabinet is finally here but just needs to be installed.  Hopefully that will happen next week.  Then we will have a working oven!!!  Yay!!  I can't wait to bake and cook again!! That glass cabinet is the wrong size and a new shorter one is on the way.  Once that arrives they can finish the molding.  : )

I'm so happy my new red clock is hanging on the wall!  It's exactly what I was looking for.

Danny has painted one coat of yellow paint on the walls.  It's so pretty.  I've always dreamed of having a bright yellow sunny kitchen!  He'll paint the second coat after the contractors are all done with their work.

I spent most of the day putting everything back in the drawers and cabinets. We're still waiting for the shelves to be put in the pantry cabinet.  I'm really looking forward to putting everything back in its place.

Next up...tiling, putting up the rest of the molding and trim, and replacing two doors.  We are replacing some of those defective cabinet doors too.  They will probably take several weeks to arrive.  The contractor said he'd put the door handles and pulls on anyway and just replace the doors when they come in. I love the handles and pulls we've picked out.

The second half of the project will be installing hardwood on the staircase and upstairs hallway.  It's going to be beautiful!!

To be continued...

Halloween

Nicholas...morph suit...

Gianna and her cute friend as "Batman and Robin"...Yes, they fight crime for candy...

Love how they break the girly girl mold...

Nicholas and his friends...Danny and I were cracking up at their different body shapes and sizes...so stinkin' cute.  Can you pick out Nicholas?

Julia as the "bloody doctor"...

Batman and Robin taking her out...Boom...Pow...

Cute friends after a long night of trick or treating...

Counting and sorting of the candy...

Another Halloween done.  Over and out.