Life of late

I am so full of love and joy in my heart right now. I am bursting with gratitude. It is amazing that Phil and I (and Micah) have so many loving, caring, and generous family members and friends in our lives.

A bit old now...I am already at 29 weeks now!

Last week was my first week of summer. The week before was hectic and full of wonderful times like Kindergarten Graduation. I'm going to miss this group of kiddos! They are all reading too!

Got to hang out with my cute little cousins (Emma seen here) at the Pacific Science Center when they visited

Here is the little one, Jessica, with her friend

My cousins Doug and Sarah with wishful thinking rally caps at the Giants/Mariners game.

Phil and I got to celebrate our friend Jaime's birthday in the best way ever...a Giants game!

I flew home for almost a week to spend time with family and friends. I'm so lucky that my cousin Debbie flew in from Chicago just for a short weekend!

It will be fun having kids around the same age...I idolized my cousin Elizabeth as a kid and now I'm learning so much from her!

Isn't Lulu just the cutest!?

And here is my cousin Amy's daughter playing in the pond fountain. Adorable!

Thomas kept asking me if he could have another cookie. Pretty funny kiddo!

My Aunts gave me a fabulous baby shower. Every little detail was so thought out and adorable! Look at these center pieces made out of little washclothes, socks, hats, shoes, and puppets that Micah will actually get to use!

Some people had already heard our name reveal and others hadn't, which was fun. I can't believe Aunt Leslie made this cute onesie from the photo I sent on e-mail just a week or so earlier! For those who don't know, Howard was my Papa's first name and I was super close to him and think the world of him. Micah will hopefully inheret many of the same wonderful qualitities that I learned from Papa.

Yummy mini bunt cakes so cutely displayed.

Each table had little hand stiched onesies and shirts or bibs as part of the centerpiece. So cute, yet practical!

Debbie and Aunt Ginny contributed another adorable decoration...a clothesline full of outfits for Micah.

Such lovely inspiring women from my family

More amazing women from my family and my friend Ryann from pre-school!

More inspiring ladies from good ol' San Carlos and my family



Lovely long time friends

Such fun gifts for Micah...boy is he going to be spoiled.

My dad will have to fight Phil for Micah's outfits...Broncos or 9ers!

My mom is so crafty and amazing!

Micah's Great Great Great Aunt Shirley at 97 years old hand made him the cutest outfit!

So thankful for everyone that gave him little Giants outfits!

Gramma found and gave Micah the baby blanket that she used with my dad in his baby buggy. So sweet!

Me and my Sister-in-laws!

So nice of my brother and Beth to fly out from Denver.

Thank you sooo much to Micah's Great-Aunties! Wasn't it an amazing shower!? I think so! I am so greatful!

Work on the house is going, but slow. Phil is still working on that tile in the master bathroom. He has also begun to re-build our next door neighbors fence that we tore down.

And the winner is....

Not Phil Jr. or Benjamin Jr. or Ebenezer or Jedediah or anything like that.....Baby Boy Vrbas is from now on referred to as..........

Hope you like it since we are not changing it! We love it and can't wait to meet him!

Get Angry...a.k.a. Tiling

Phil happened to have all of last week off of work (transitioning between locations...he's now on the big UW stadium job and already loving it. Check out this website to watch the cool time lapse photos: http://oxblue.com/open/huskystadium). While Phil was off all week, he worked more hours than he usually does. Instead of doing electrical work, he got down and dirty with our white subway tiles and hexagonal floor tiles in the master bathroom. In four eight to ten hour work days, a lot of anger flowed towards the tile in our house (can we say tedious!?). Phil has been so good and pleasant throughout this remodel, yet somehow the brunt of his frustrations came out against the tile. He is still doing an amazing job on it and I continue to be amazed at how many skills he can pick up and master on his own and in no time. It just seems to be one of the most monotonous jobs he has done yet and he still has more of the floor tile to tackle along with all of the grout work. If anyone just loves to tile...we may need your encouragement and inspiration to keep going. Phil took the weekend off to relax and hang out with my 14 year old cousin...did I say relax and 14 year old cousin in the same sentence??? Ha! Isn't Phil just amazing?! I certainly think so!

Orange thing is the heating mat that goes under the tile :-) Can't wait for that!

Our soon to be gorgeous shower!

Another view...still more work to be done like on the little ledge

 

A Kid Friendly Kitchen

Thursday was a big day in remodel-land. Phil stayed home so that the countertop guys could come and install our beautiful silestone dark grey quartz countertops. Phil also worked more on putting backerboard in the master bathroom, plumbing the faucets onto both sinks, rehooking up the dishwasher, and fixing up more of the cabinets. He was working on the house since about 8:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night! I had Kindergarten Round Up for incoming families at school Thursday night, so I didn't get home until almost 9pm to see it. Wow is it worth the wait! Definitely a kitchen that was worth so many microwavable meals, doing dishes in the tiny bathroom sink and the tub occasionally, and having a pantry in plain sight in the living room.

Phil took a much deserved break and went on a guys golfing trip up near the Canada border all weekend and so I got to stay home and "play house". I spent Friday evening and most of Saturday unpacking boxes that have been in the garage since September and finding homes for every item. I had two boxes full of give away items (like all of our mismatched coffee cups and those martini glasses that have traveled with us all the way from San Diego, yet have never been used) and some food items to donate. We still have a few cupboards and drawers that are empty, which is amazing. There are also still a few items that just don't want to fit where I put them and I'm sure we will find another kitchen box or two in the garage that we don't know are missing yet (I already know the cookbooks are out there somewhere!). I am so pleased with our resulting kitchen. Phil can't get away from it. He is practically hugging the countertops any chance he gets. Who knew I would be so excited to do cooking and dishes again!

Phil hugging the counters

Our bar area

The one Ikea purchase...the farmers sink

view of the island from the stove side..still need one more handle

Our temporary pantry

our temporary pantry part 2

Love that Lavender and Rosemary!

view from the breakfast nook

Haha! Our first official dinner in the new kitchen together...Kraft Mac N Cheese! This is going to be a kid friendly kitchen!