It has begun...

the great kitchen remodel is under way!

These are the things we dislike about this kitchen and why we're completely redoing it...
*The fake wood finish on the fake wood cabinets
*The layout (we're moving the fridge and dishwasher)
*This could probably go along with layout too...but I hate having the cook top and oven across the room from each other. We've got a range waiting in the garage already! :)
*Electric cook top...we're converting to a gas range but the oven will still be electric
*Press on linoleum tiles that are coming up off the floor
*The kitchen is dark, dark, dark. I know a lot of people love black granite but we don't. It's hard to keep looking clean and it makes the whole kitchen too dark
*The florescent lighting and the "shade" the previous owners put up when they "remodeled" the space
* The fake aluminum back splash
*Lack of pantry space
(Gabe-did I miss anything?)

Here are some before pictures so that you know what we're starting with.
Gabe had several co-workers, and a couple of friends, come over Saturday morning to help with the demolition. They worked hard and had everything out of the kitchen before I came back with the pizza for lunch. In fact, they were taking a "break" and playing video games when I arrived. Here's evidence of the hard work they put in before noon! And here's what the kitchen looked like when I came back with lunch:Crazy huh?
Saturday afternoon and night, I pulled up the rest of the tiles while Gabe dealt with a plumbing issues. It only took him 3 trips down to Home Depot to fix things up! Sunday morning I started unpacking our new cabinets while Gabe laid down wood on the floor to bring the cabinets up to the same height the new floor will be. Then my dad came over to help Gabe put in the upper cabinets. So here's the state of our kitchen currently.
Not sure how much more we'll get done this week, but with the three day weekend and the flooring due to arrive from Seattle this week, I hope the next update shows some huge progress!

Public Service Announcement

I don't really use this blog as a platform to communicate much about my personal ideas or beliefs. It's mostly a way to keep family and friends, both near and far, updated on what we're up to. But I chose a book for our girls night book club that I absolutely feel everyone should read. So, please pick up Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It's about the oppression of women and girls in developing countries around the world. They share many stories about the lives and experiences of young girls and women. From the brothels of India and the young girls who are trafficked for sex throughout Asia. To the women of Africa who are dying by the thousands during childbirth. Or some women who struggle through days of labor only to loose their baby and in the process of this labor with no medical interventions, they get a fistula. These women are ostracized from their community and basically left to die. The authors share these horrific stories of how women are treated in the developing world. But their intention isn't just to share these stories. I love that they also share stories of how people (most often women) are working to change what is happening. There is no reason why, in 2010, girls in many countries of the world are not be allowed to attend school, but their brothers are. It's ridiculous! It blows my mind and makes me so sad. This book inspires you to want to take action because these issues are things we should all be working to change. And the authors offer hope by sharing what people are doing and the great things they are accomplishing. These are things that can be changed if only we all make the choice to do something...anything!

I decided I couldn't just read this book and do nothing. One area the authors stress greatly is how education is really the key to ending the oppression of women around the world. So, I decided I wanted to do something to support this effort. After doing quite a bit of research, I'll be donating to CAMFED, to support educating young women in Africa. If you're interested in learning more about the book and taking action (before you start reading), check out this website!

So, I have a copy I'm willing to loan out if anyone would like to read this powerful book. Or go get it from the library! I hope it reminds you of how fortunate we are, and how with that...we all have a responsibility to do something about how women around the world are being treated.

Our little Angelfish

Levi and I are finished with our first week of "swimming" lessons. Although, for Levi it should really be called floating and splashing lessons! He's really good at both of those things but not very interested in kicking! He is pretty brave about putting his face in the water. The only thing is his mouth is always open so he can drink the pool water. Yuck! He's suppose to blow bubbles. He won't do it himself but sure thinks it's funny when Mommy does it.

I signed us up for two more weeks so maybe at the end of those I can brag about his "swimming". No matter what, it's been fun!

Getting into Trouble

How much trouble can one baby boy get into before 11am?

This much:
First taking almost every Kleenex out of the box.
Then trying to read...oh, I mean eat...Mommy's magazine. Things on the couch are now accessible to this mischievous little guy.
Last, but definitely most exciting...climbing the stairs. The pictures aren't very good because I made sure I was close enough to break a fall if necessary. Especially when he got up to the third step. At that point, I had to put a stop to Levi's fun!
All of this, combined with a 45 minute nap this morning and refusing to eat lunch, is making for a long day already! Good thing the sun is coming out. We're getting out and going for a walk before swimming lessons this evening. Packing up the kitchen will have to wait.

Morning at the Zoo

We've been wanting to take a trip to the zoo for quite some time. But since summer has yet to arrive, it's been way too wet to go. We decided to brave it yesterday morning even though the forecast didn't look great. Turns out, other than it being cold, the rain pretty much stayed away. We did get a little coastal drizzle from time to time, but it was nothing! The weather also kept the big crowds away, which is always nice at the zoo! I hate fighting the crowds to see the animals. Especially with Levi in the stroller, he needs to be right up front to see anything.

Not surprising, Levi's favorite was the elephants (just like Daddy). Here are the elephants playing and Levi trying to talk to them!
We were able to see almost everything before Levi started to get fussy. He needed a nap and some lunch, so we came home. But now that we have a membership, we'll hang out there more this summer and fall. The zoo is maybe 10 minutes from our house so it will be a great place to hang out if the summer weather ever arrives!
This picture of the zebras proves what a wet spring we've had. I can't believe how green everything is. I don't think I've ever seen it like that!

Here's one more shot of daddy and son spending Father's day at the zoo.

First Father's Day

What a great first Father's Day. Got woken up by Heidi and Levi and was presented with a card they had made together. Levi had done the decoration on the card by placing a big hand print on it, with a little help from mom, of course. We had breakfast and headed for the zoo. I haven't been to the zoo in quite a few years, so it was good to see a bunch of new stuff. I think Heidi will be blogging about that trip more tomorrow. Since we went before Levi's morning nap, he skipped it as we roamed around the zoo, there was plenty to keep him occupied. After the zoo, Levi got a short nap and then it was time to play. His new playroom (the dining room) is now off limits as it's crammed with new cabinets waiting to be installed in the kitchen remodel starting next weekend. Playing in the living room is a little more exciting since there's more to explore and get into trouble with, especially since he's pulling up on everything now. We had a good time though. The evening wound down with me getting to choose the pizza from Papa John's tonight (a big deal around this house), and then Levi watching some Baby Signing Time. All in all, a fun day, despite the rather poor weather.

No pictures of my Father's Day present, mainly because I've had it for a few weeks already, and it was raining for most of the day today. It was a nice new electric lawnmower. Our old gas mower didn't make it though the winter, so it was time for a new one. Since our yard is so small, we figured an electric one would do the trick, plus they're quiet, and I think Heidi might even use it!

-Gabe

Closing the book...

on this school year brings me an immeasurable amount of joy. This has definitely been the toughest year of my six year teaching career. My friends/co-workers who have come back to teaching after maternity leave, warned me about how difficult it is. They were right. I wouldn't wish returning from maternity leave to finish out 5 1/2 months with 150 8th graders on anyone. Even my worst enemy (if I had one).
To make things more challenging, there was the fact that I taught 2 different content classes, because of the layoffs last year my class sizes were the biggest they've ever been (a room of 32 fourteen year-olds is at times unmanageable), and more big budget cuts looming over our heads all spring (we have three teachers not returning to our building next year and four retired, those positions will not be filled. Plus, two office/support staff were laid off.) As of writing this, I'm pretty sure I still have a job next year but we're taking a pay freeze again, plus cutting at least 10 days off the school year which is almost half a months pay. Times are tough.

I've let myself get too bogged down with the negative stuff. That's silly since I'm in the mood to celebrate! So, in honor of the start to my summer "vacation" here are all the things I'm looking forward to in the next 2 & 1/2 months! (Starting with taking my mom to see the Lion King tomorrow of course...) In no particular order:

*Lots of snuggle time with my baby
*Swimming lessons-sign up is tomorrow morning!
*Walks and swinging at the park
*SUNSHINE
*Going to the zoo
*Starting a new painting (I bought some canvas almost a month ago)
*Reading-finishing this, then reading this and this
*A new kitchen-remodel starts next weekend!
*Story time at the library
*Planning and throwing a 1st birthday party
*Our vacation to the Olympic National Park and San Juan Islands
*The annual camping trip-this year we're going to Trillium Lake
*Starting, and maybe finishing, Levi's baby book (crossing my fingers on this one)

What a BEAUTIFUL day!

It's finally starting to feel like summer and it sure does lift the spirit.
We took full advantage of our first warm, and dry day of the summer, by heading over to this part of town. We wanted to check out this event, but ended up heading over there a little too early. The parade didn't start until 3 and the actual race didn't start until 5. We walked around, played at the park and had a late lunch here. Most of Portland was recovering from their early morning at the Rose Parade (which we'll have to attend at some point in a few years...after all, it is a Portland family tradition), so this event wasn't as busy as I was afraid it might be. As I get older, I enjoy crowds less and less. Well, at lunch Levi was starting to get pretty fussy and we made the decision to bag it and head home to get the little guy his afternoon nap. Problem being...once we got home, he wouldn't take one. So we could have stayed and "enjoyed" the rest of the afternoon with a crabby baby. Although after our numerous failed attempts at an afternoon nap, we did wash the cars...so that was productive.
It's hard to be disappointed on a day like today. I think we'll definitely go back again next year. Only we'll dress up our bikes and ride in the family ride.
Gabe and I are ending our evening with BBQ steak, wine and a dip in the hot tub. I really wish summer was truly here already.

Here's a picture of Levi enjoying the swing at the park...for the grandparents!

Long Weekend at Black Butte Ranch

Levi stayed up late on Friday night celebrating at Enzo and Finn's first birthday party, so we didn't get a very early start on our trip to Black Butte. That was fine because it was a pretty low key weekend. Lots of walks. Here's Levi and Gabe with what we're pretty sure is Mt. Washington in the back ground. It was really cloudy the whole weekend and it's pretty tough to identify the Cascade Mountains without seeing their distinctive tops.Here's the view of two of the Three Sisters (Faith and Hope). I believe the one with very little snow is Black Crater.We also did a lot of napping, eating and enjoying drinks by the fire. Well, at least Gabe and I enjoyed that last one when Levi was in bed for the night. We also spent some time at the pool. Levi hasn't been in a swimming pool since he was just a few weeks old and he pretty much slept through that experience. So, I wasn't really sure what he would think of the pool now. He enjoys splashing in the tub but a swimming pool is a lot bigger.
Here he is ready to swim!I know...so serious! This kid takes everything seriously.
Levi loved the pool.
It was a great weekend. A perfect time spent just relaxing and getting away from the huge list of things we're always trying to get accomplished at home. Fun family time for sure. And a great way to start the "summer".

This means it's offically SUMMER! Right?

Few things say SUMMER like watermelon dripping all over your face and arms. Levi's sure got that covered. Man this kid loves to eat. Good thing watermelon is one of his favorites.
Although our relaxing weekend at Black Butte Ranch made it seem like summer is here, I have 14 more days left at work that say otherwise.
We got back today with enough time, and sunshine, to get veggies planted in our garden. Gabe's outside mowing the lawn now. I'm embarrassed to say it hasn't been mowed once since we put that new sod down weeks ago (or has it been over a month?) So, I'll promise to be back on here in the next few days to share pictures of our holiday weekend and the West family garden 2010 edition...right now the hot tub calls.

Happy Memorial Day and the "unofficial" start to summer!

Garden Project...step 1 complete!

One of the biggest drawbacks of our new house is the size and shape of the yard. From the moment we walked into the house, I was in love with the layout and size of the house, but the yard almost made us walk away. The lot has some great old fir trees and the creek in the back, but the previous owners took out the front yard and put down river rock. Definitely not our style. Low maintenance, but not what we would want. Not to mention that the house faces south, so the front yard really is the sunniest most ideal place for a garden. So, a front yard garden it has to be!
Gabe decided he didn't want to go with wood to make the raised beds this time around, so he designed his own steel beds.
Here's the "somewhat" before picture. I didn't get the camera out quite fast enough. Gabe and his dad where already getting the steel unloaded when I got out there. So this is the the view from the street.When Gabe's dad and Joanne decided they wanted to come up this weekend and see Levi, I don't think Gabe told them we had this project on our agenda. It sure was wonderful to have Tom around to help Gabe put the beds together and shovel up some dirt yesterday. In between the rain/hail downpours of course. Then Gabe and I finished loading up the beds with dirt this morning, while Grandpa entertained the little guy. Now we're all set to move on to step 2...
I know we'll be planting our garden really late this year. And I've been pretty frustrated listening to all my friends talk about how they've planted their gardens already. I'm hoping it might work out ok for us in the long run since all the hail we've had this spring has done a number on plants. Not to mention the frost we've had a few mornings in the last few weeks.
So here's a picture of our beds filled with dirt and waiting for some sun to dry out the soil a bit...and some veggies of course! This view is from the front door looking out toward the street.It feels pretty great to have one huge item off our massive to-do list. Planting is the fun part!
The rest of the rock removal from the front yard will just have to wait until next year.

9 Month Update

Our little guy is 9 months old!
Gabe took him in yesterday for his well baby check up, so I have some stats to report. At this point Levi is weighing in at 22 1/2 lbs. That's 80% on the growth chart. He's 30in long, 94% on the growth chart, and that also means he's out grown his infant car seat. The restrictions on it are 30lbs or 30in. I was pretty sure he was getting close but was hoping we'd have a little more time. I guess we are on the hunt this weekend for his new seat.
It's hard to believe that 9 months have past already!
I don't really want to think about it, but pretty soon our baby won't be a baby anymore.

Happy Mother's Day

Levi must have missed the memo about letting his mom sleep in today. He was up before 7 again this morning. Why is it that during the week I wake him up each morning at 7, but on the weekends he's up well before that? Yesterday he was up at 6:15! Anyway, after I fed Levi, Gabe let me crawl back into bed and sleep for another 1/2 hour or so before both my boys woke me up with a nice warm cinnamon roll and coffee. That's the way I wish every morning could start!
Levi (with his dad's help of course) got me this set of pots and pans. I've been wanting them for years. The little guy seems to like how much noise you can make when you clap the lids together. I'm sure there will be more playing with them in the weeks to come but I've already put them to use making Levi's food for the week.
I've been thinking a lot today about how last year at this time I was getting excited about meeting my little guy. It's hard to believe that he'll be 9 months this week! Time sure is flying and he's growing way too fast. I wish there was a way to slow things down some.

Oh, I forgot to mention...please excuse the bed head in that second picture...someone forgot to let me know I should brush my hair before photos.

Walkin' in the woods

Oh, man the weather has been beautiful the last few days! And I'm so thankful we've had a chance to enjoy it this weekend. I'm looking forward to the forcasted sun we have for later this week too. Just not looking forward to spending it in my classroom with 155 8th graders...who all have a serious case of spring fever!
Yesterday afternoon we took a quick trip to Woods Memorial Park to hike a bit. It's not far from our house and we haven't been up there to check it out yet. Since it's heavy forest we ran into quite a bit of mud but it was great for a quick hike between nap times. And we didn't have to drive 30+ minutes.
In the evening, we drove out to my Uncle Rupe and Aunt Nancy's house to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and Mother's day. Levi had not met several of my uncles, aunts, and cousins so it was fun to show him off. He definitely didn't think it was fun at first. He gets a little scared of new people and there were lots of those to see. Plus loud noises bother him and there's always plenty of that in my family too. Everyone got to see a few tears and Levi's big fat lip come out. He warmed up pretty quickly. By the time he was in his pjs and ready to head home, I think everyone saw his smile come out and his grandpa and grandma were showing him off something fierce. It's so fun to see how much one little kid is loved!

We no longer having a dining room.

Levi, and his toys, have taken possession and it's now his rumpus room. Since the dining room is the only room with carpet on our main floor (I know...who puts carpet in a dinning room?!), it was going to happen eventually. We were thinking about replacing the carpet with hardwood when we start our kitchen remodel in June, but seeing how much Levi loves rolling from one end to the other without the gentle care he takes on the hard wood, we'll probably just replace it next summer. Plus, he's been getting up on his knees a lot the last few days. It's probably easier now that he isn't sliding around on the hard wood floors. Anyway, here's a picture of Levi enjoying his new "play room", previously known as our dining room.

New Grass...New Drum

This was what Gabe and I were up to this morning. We have new grass. It looks great but now we also need to do some maintenance on the old grass. It's now clear how bad we've been at taking care of it! We had it all done, including a trip to Home Depot to pick up sod and look at their kitchen remodel stuff, before noon. That's what happens when we're up and ready to get to work before 8am. Oh, the days of sleeping in on Saturday mornings are long gone.

When we ran errands this afternoon we couldn't resist picking out a toy drum for Levi at Target. He's reached the stage where he loves making noise. Especially hitting the tray on his highchair at dinner time. We figured he'd love having something that actually made music when he banged on it. So, here's a picture...mostly for the grandparents out there!
Well, Gabe leaves for Florida in the wee hours of the morning...again. This will be the third trip he's made in six weeks! I'm so sick of it. Luckily they're quick trips. But it makes me sad for him to be gone, even for a short time since we see so little of Levi as it is. This little guy is only going to be a baby once and I hate Gabe missing out. Even if it's only for 48 hours at a time. Having to work gets in the way of everything. Speaking of work...I have 8 more weeks myself!

Earth Day 2010

Well, it's the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and I really wanted to celebrate by doing something big this year. I've been racking my brain for weeks, and up until the last minute...right before bed last night. Yet, I was unable to think of anything Gabe and I could really do this year. Neither of us were really willing to turn our 30+ minute commutes to work, into an hour or more by taking public transportation.
Of course we would love to put in one of these, but that is definitely not happening this year. Maybe for Earth Day's 50th anniversary. Perhaps since we're good at living "green" every day, we can be off the hook this year? Oh, wait! Gabe did print the coupon he just took to Dairy Queen on previously used paper. That counts right? Unfortunately, the gas he's using to drive there and get our blizzards will cancel that good deed out. (Everyone has heard about the buy one get one for $.25 right?)
Happy Earth Day!

Spring Cleaning...(sort of)

Wish I would have thought to take some before pictures. Gabe and I started the process of "remodeling" our yard. We have some big dreams of what we'd like to do. Get the hot tub up and running again, gas fire pit, lots of native plants, new sod, steel raised beds for the veggie garden, taking out the rock front lawn and replace it with no-mow grass. Those are just the big things on the list. Well, this weekend all we really got done was a little trimming and some demolition. Gabe tore out a bunch of wild blackberries and was going to mow the lawn. That was the plan anyway. He worked for about half an hour trying to get the lawnmower working but with no luck. Leaving an old lawnmower out in the elements all winter is probably not the best idea. Guess I know what someone will be getting for Father's day.

I worked on removing a stupid flagstone path in the yard. I hated it. It just took space from what little yard we actually have. So, we'll need to lay some sod in the next month to give Levi a little more grass to play on. I also removed what was left of the previous owners water feature. They left the small "pond" of stagnant water but took the electric fountain. It was disgusting. The smell almost made me lose my breakfast. So, now we have a huge hole in our flower bed. Oh, I also removed at least 100 iris from the front yard. I'm giving some to my mom but if anyone else wants some let me know. We have no idea what color they are. I just don't like iris...unless they're of the native variety.

So, we don't really have much to show for all our hard work, other than our sore muscles. The yard actually looks worse right now. I guess I'll have to go at it alone next weekend. Gabe's off to play with his dad and his buddies for the weekend.

It was a very productive weekend. Got lots of other cleaning done around here that I've been avoiding. But in the mean time, also avoided the school work I brought home to do this weekend. Guess I can't do it all!

Happy Easter!

Levi slept over at Grandma and Grandpa G's house last night so that Gabe and I could go out with friends to the Spring Beer and Wine Fest. We met up with the family at church and then went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch. Here's Levi checking out what the Easter Bunny left for him in his basket. No chocoalte bunnies this year.We had a nice but short visit with the family...the little guy refused to nap!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter. Next year Levi will be on the hunt for eggs. That will be fun.

Cousins

These pictures are mainly for Grandma G. But I figured there may be a few more of you out there who might also enjoy a few shots of Levi with his big cousins.

We tried desperately to get Sawyer and Levi in the bath tub together. But I guess when you're the big boy cousin you have no desire to get into the bath tub with a baby. So here's Sawyer "helping" me give Levi a bath.Here's one of Levi watching Savannah and Sawyer feed what few ducks were inhabiting the duck pond. I think most of them must still be hanging out down South, waiting for winter to be completely over.And here's the best of our attempted photo session with all three kids. I love this picture but I hate that the depth of field is off and Savannah and Sawyer are out of focus! And it's really one of the best ones we got.This one's ok too. Except the kids are all looking at me on the floor being silly...trying to get Levi to smile, rather than looking at the camera.We got a few more cute "silly" pictures too. Sawyer was definitely more into taking the silly pictures so he could stick out his tongue. So, there are a few more good ones to look at if you're interested Mom.

And that completes our St. Louis adventures. I'm really thankful for our wonderful family. Thanks Heather, Ryan, Savannah and Sawyer for having us. We loved seeing you guys. Wish it could happen more often. We miss you!

Butterfly House

Our last big outing in St. Louis was the Butterfly House. It's now part of the Missouri Botanical Garden, but is located in a different area. The building is basically a giant greenhouse, with all kinds of tropical flowers for the butterflies. For March, the butterfly of the month was the Blue Morpho, there were around 3000 of them flying around the building. There were so many, that at one point or another, I think all of us had a butterfly land on us.


I apologize for the quality of these pictures, they came from Gabe's phone since the building was too humid for our regular camera. It fogged up as soon as we got it out, rendering it pretty much useless.

-H

Anheuser-Busch Brewery

The one thing Gabe really wanted to do in St. Louis was go on a brewery tour. I'm not really sure why. He doesn't even drink Budweiser. In fact, I think he'd probably drink water before drinking one...well, maybe not. So, we pulled Savannah out of school early to head into the city. One of the things on our agenda...the brewery.We saw the brewery, the Clydesdales and historic stable, the bottling facility and drank our complementary free beer.

Here are the boys enjoying the sights and smells of the brewery. Savannah said the brewery smelled bad, to which both her dad and uncle strongly disagreed!

Missouri Botanical Garden

This is the biggest botanical garden I've ever been too. 79 acres of plants! It took us a good 3 plus hours to explore. Unfortunately spring was not in bloom in St. Louis and I feel like we missed the most beautiful time of year to visit this garden. I was surprised to find not even daffodils in bloom yet. They've been in bloom almost a month here and are just about spent. Even though the plants weren't 100% ready, this was still a big garden to explore. Plus they have the Climatron, the world's first geodesic dome greenhouse. It made us feel like we had our Hawaiian vacation...sort of. All the plants in there are tropical and it seemed like we were back on the big island. They have tons of different types of gardens. Here's the entrance to the English boxwood garden.They also have a traditional Chinese garden.And a Japanese garden. The koi in the pond were hilarious. We stood at the railing to look at them and they were all under the impression we were planning to feed them the food you can by in the candy like dispenser. They all swam over to us and just came up to the surface with their mouths wide open. It was funny but also really disgusting. Carp are such a gross fish. Here we are watching (and not feeding) the fish.

St. Louis Zoo

Well, I think it's going to take me a while to get all of our adventures in St. Louis on here.

Levi had his first visit to the zoo in St. Louis. The St. Louis zoo is an awesome zoo and what makes it even better...admission is FREE! We enjoyed a beautiful day. The elephants were definitely Levi's favorite. He made all sorts of noise as he tried to talk to them. And the two baby elephants were running around, jumping in the water and playing. It was so fun.Gabe, Levi and Sawyer also rode the carousel. Here they are waiting in line.And here's Levi after his first ride. It was so cute. Levi rode like a natural. When Gabe set him down on the lion, he immediately grabbed onto the pole. It was like he knew exactly what to do.And just one more shot...here's Levi watching the Sun Bears lounging in the sun.I'm not sure how aware Levi was of all the animals. I think we'll have to make some visits to the Oregon zoo this summer. I'm sure Levi will love it!