Happy Fourth of July week, friends!

We started our long weekend off getting this one shorn – kid can seriously grow hair. #superpower

I was laughing at this picture – Nicole took it of me one morning at Gammy and Pops’ house about 6:30am. Baby girl had been up most of the night, but I was still up at 5am to meet my deadline. This is not a pretty sight. But it’s how things get done. 😉 

Every night, friends. Holiday weekend or not, here we are, painting, staining, caulking, painting, staining, demoing, painting and staining. 😉

Hard worker guys, like Nathan used to say. I love love love LOVE the paint color we went with – it’s “Perfect Greige” by Sherwin Williams. Such a warm color and it’s exactly the same color as small child hand prints, which was the top of my new paint must-have list. 😉 Ha!

My mama is in there somewhere. 😉 Thanks Mom!! If she isn’t watching kids, she is over working at houses. She and Dad have put in a TON over this month. And to top it all off, we are all living with them at the same time. Saints.

And then it was the Fourth of July!! The kids didn’t come in all day. And we all unanimously agreed that we would not work at all this night. Gammy and Pops truly have the best bike riding yard ever – the kids rarely come inside.

Two girls, au naturel. 😉 Little Miss was getting nervous about the fireworks everyone was talking up, I think.

Just sweaty messes, the lot of them. Not sure what we are going to do with those two. They are too cute for their own good.

The best way to hold a sparkler is to dance around with it while loudly singing the Star Spangled Banner. Right? Right.

Love this. Every year, Pops and Uncle Bryant put on a big fireworks show for us all. So fun.

Happy Fourth!! We are so thankful for the men and women who keep our country safe and allow us to celebrate our freedom. May God continue to bless America.

Little Miss went ahead and kept growing even with all the chaos going on around us, little traitor. 😉 She turned six months old and we decided to try solid food. She started with sweet potatoes.

She wasn’t sure what to do with it at first but then she figured it out really quickly. 😉

Little love. Those rolls – I could just eat her.

Middle of the night banister staining – it’s the best. 😉 And it’s coming along!!

I’m staining basically all of the orange-stained wood through the whole house. The trim will all be painted white. The left of the beams have been stained, the right is unstained.

After much debate, calculating, re-calculating and re-re-calculating, we decided to use our backyard budget and redo the kitchen before we move in. It’s a much more pressing need and the kitchen is just in non-salvageable condition. Our hope was we could clean it enough to make it last for a few years, but I just don’t think we can ever get it as clean as we like things. So, good-bye kitchen! Dad sacrificed his back for our house – so thankful for him. And Bryant – despite moving himself – also came to help. Love the men in my family!!

DEMO DAY. I think the guys actually liked this night. 😉

Once we got all the cabinets out, it was like, well, gee, I wonder how all the mice were getting into the house? There are holes EVERYWHERE. Time to patch those holes and bleach!

Another view. Jon went and rented a tool to rip up the tile the very next day.

One of Jon’s friends from work, Coach Toby, came to help with the tile removal. Long, hard days right there. Jon’s poor arms were done.

Meanwhile, back at my parents’ house, this is where the boys live. On their bikes, in the backyard. Love those two.

I love this picture. This is what a boy in the summer time should look like. Baby toad, green grass, bike helmet. 😉

BEST DAY. I hated hated this appliance garage!! It just made this weird box that stuck into the dining room and didn’t make any sense at all. Plus, I figured the mice were just renting out condos inside it – (something like: “GREAT ROOM -VIEW OF THE KITCHEN”). 😉 We let the boys break apart the drywall. Needless to say, they were pretty excited about being told to put holes in the wall.

Sweet baby playing in the midst of the mess. 😉

This kid THRIVES on a project. He lives to help Jon and Pops fix stuff. He was pretty much in heaven in the middle of all the chaos.

Parker helping Pops patch the holes in the drywall. Mice, be gone. Notice the appliance garage is nowhere to be seen! (Insert confetti)

New cabinets are here!! We are so excited to start seeing the new kitchen take place!! And Nathan was so excited that the delivery guys let him help them unload. 😉

Oy. So much going on! SO MUCH. Deadline, three kids, major remodel… 😉 Lots of blessings in the midst of everything. We are so thankful for dear family and friends!!