The 1st half of the kitchen remodel (by Jill, not Ellie)

(The pictures are sort of out of order, but try to follow me here.) Here are Adam and Bill at 12:45 a.m. Monday night after the last cabinet was installed.

Ellie listening to Adam play the piano.

Adam was hooking up the water line, but Ellie thought he was sleeping. The parrot/copy cat that she is, she decided to lay down and "sleep" too.

The guys installing base cabinets, with Brewer's help, of course!

We will be putting in an over-range microwave.

The pantry units/cabinets around the fridge.

They had to build/rebuild a soffitt around nearly the entire kitchen. Lots of hard work!

We widened (about doubled) the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen.

Ellie helping Dad.

The soffitt in progress.

A before picture

The new doorway in progress

This is the picture that still induces chest pain for me! There was so much dust and mess. They did a great job keeping it contained and cleaning up at the end of every day. Next picture PLEASE!

Another before picture.

Before picture.

The day our cabinets were delivered. We were so excited!!! (A bit overwhelmed, too!) Our garage was filled with the 17 new cabinets, along with the old ones.

Ellie's new big girl room. In a matter of days, Adam primed, repainted with 2 shades of pink, replaced the baseboards, added chair rail and crown molding, and repainted the closet door. Now we need to repaint the bedroom furniture and install a closet system. Ellie is inheriting the canopy bed, dresser, and vanity table, chair, and mirror that was my grandmother's and mine. I can't wait to see her enjoy it!





As you can see, our house has been very busy lately! We are no where near done, but we're so excited to have such a great start! Adam's dad, Bill, came down on short notice to help, once we realized just what we had gotten into with the kitchen. We are so grateful for his help. He and Adam worked 12-18 hour days for 4 days. Lots of hard work, but it is already worth it! I can't figure out where to put everything now...there are just too many options!! I love it!

On the Ellie front...she went for her 18 month check-up last week. She is 21.5 lbs. (5%) and 31.5 inches (10%). Her head circumference is at about 50% though (she gets her big noggin from me!). She is petite, but still growing, eating like a champ, and still has her baby rolls! She is recovering from a cold. The thing that has us really concerned is a nasty rash around her mouth that has gone to her diaper area. She's had it for 2-3 months now, and nothing we've tried has helped. The doctor now suspects that it is a food allergy or hypersensitivity (after ruling out pacifier rash, fungus, and eczema) since it is on both "ends" now. The probable culprit is tomatoes. She LOVES cherry tomatoes and we eat tons of food with tomato bases. We've cut them out, along with peanut butter (another possible but unlikely culprit). We can do a blood test for food allergies, but we'd like to see if this helps first. Our poor little bean!

On the Peanut front...I am 18 weeks, but look about 26 weeks!! I haven't gained much weight, but my body is definitely filling out. I am very obviously pregnant. We go for our "big" ultrasound Dec. 9th. The baby is very active, and I've been feeling his/her move for a few weeks now. It's so exciting!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for! We will be celebrating with our neighbors, Beth and Deanna, and their kids Ellen and Ian. For the 1st time in our married life I do not have to work that day! Yeah!

We hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for still checking up on us! Ellie will be back next time we post! Love, Jill, Adam, Ellie, and Peanut