My new kitchen.

Meet my new kitchen.

It is spacious and lovely.

I think it is dark and with Oregon being an overcast cloudy state, I wanted a bit more light....

It is great this way, but I didn't love how the floor and the cabinets blend together. I wanted the floor to pop and the cabinets to pop on their very own.

One of my favorite parts of the kitchen is the breakfast nook. LOVE it.

It is also that amazing honey color...

Just to much of something is never a good thing. hehe

We spend a lot of time in this area of the house. I wanted it to feel open, warm and inviting.

So we called Julian the painter. (Not gonna paint the cabinets on my own.)

And 1 week later we have ourselves a new kitchen.

So let me introduce you to our NEW NEW kitchen...

I feel like the floor pops.

The cabinets pop.

The island definitely pops.

And I happy as a clam.

I couldn't wait to post these pictures, but there are still some things that need to be done:

1. The pulls need to be added to the drawers.

We had silver knobs, but with all the light cabinets, I wanted to tie in the dark granite, so I bought 25 black knobs, and 15 black pulls.

2. The backsplash will be replaced with subway tiles.

But the biggest part is done, and I am in love.

The island is my favorite part. The color is Seafoam by Benjamin Moore. It is a gorgeous color. Not crazy bright, but just different enough that it takes your breath away when you notice.

There will be pulls on all those drawers and even the middle drawer that doesn't actually move. 

It looks like a piece of furniture and I LOVE.

Now I just need to put everything back into the kitchen, pretend I wanna cook again, and go run off the lbs I am sure I gained from us eating out so many nights!

But it is worth it. I love it.

The Reason for our Crazy Summer

We bought a house!

Tyson was talking to a patient about wanting to buy a house. 

That patient happened to be a mortgage broker.

We had heard that we couldn't by a house without owning the business for 2 years.

We were discouraged because we have rented for 11 years! 11. That is a long time to live by someone elses rules. 

This patient of Tyson's said she could work with us.

Her underwriters were great.

It would work.

LONGEST STORY EVER...

It didn't work.

We were so bummed.

Two weeks before closing it came back to the 2 years of owning the business. 

They just wouldn't let us. It wouldn't pass the Frannie Mae/ Freddie Mac guidelines. 

We didn't fit into their box.

Other people fit into the box that have tons of consumer debt, and no money down... but a couple who is smart with their money and had 20% down didn't fit into their box because of one small problem...

It still sounds messed up to me...

Well, in the end this mortgage broker took our 5 inch file to a small bank in town who do not have to answer to Frannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and got us loan.

It was such a crazy time because we had to be out of our rental on June 30th.

He was nice enough to let us extend until the 7th, however we didn't even know if we had the house until the 12th when we closed, and we didn't get to move in until the 17th when the other party had signed, and the sale had been recorded with the state.

So 10 days of homelessness is no fun, but very doable with fabulous friends who fed us, let us stay at their house a couple nights, a great hotel with a fabulous pool for a couple nights, and some friends who just happened to be going on vacation for a week and we got to squat in their house. 

Anyways, we LOVE our house.

Both Tyson and I love it equally. I didn't have to talk Tyson into the house or vis versa. 

It was a mutual falling in love.

This is Tyson's favorite floor.

The daylight basement. 

We like this floor because it will grow with our family. 

Right now it is full of balls. All sizes, and the kids just run around like crazies.

In a couple of years it will be a game room with arcade games and a pingpong table or a theater room.

My favorite floor is the main floor.

I had some things that were high priorities but not essential.

1. I wanted a view. 

If I have to live in Oregon I want to see the beauty of it. :)

2. I wanted an open floor plan.

I wanted to be able to be in the kitchen but watch my kids play in the other room.

3.  I wanted a white kitchen.

Oregon is so gloomy in the winter. I want my house to be the opposite of that. I want light and airy. Bright and happy.

This house had 2 of those three things. 

And the one it didn't have, the white kitchen, was easy to fix.

When we walked into the house with the realtor and saw Mt. St. Helens from the huge windows that wall the back of the house, I was smitten.

The open floor plan is to die for. I really couldn't ask for anything more open.

And the kitchen is dreamy. HUGE. Roomy and would be great in white. 

We call it home.

How exciting is that?

We will be adding our personal touches, but after 10 days of homelessness, painting of walls will have to wait. We just wanted to get our stuff in.

End of the School Year!

The end of Kindergarten!

How did it come and go so quick!

I was one of those parents...

I totally cried.

Most of us with Mrs. Bridges. She was the best kindergarten teacher. We couldn't have asked for a better one! Merrick didn't want to be in the picture. He didn't want to hug or hang with his teachers, just a wave from the door on the way out. That is so Merrick. 

Have you ever seen a cuter picture? We had missed a couple of days of school with our cousins in town, and so Merrick didn't have time to ready himself for being up in front of lots of gushing kindergarten parents.

 Life become doable after a few minutes...

It may seem weird, but it was nice to see him cry, and to realize they are still small and still my babies, even though they are growing up and heading on to new adventures.

Mrs. Bridges.

The instructional aide... Mrs. Trammell

I think their favorite part was Grandma, Aunt Megan and our cousins were there for the kindergarten performance. It was so special to have their family there.

 Can't ask for a better older cousin. Ethan is fun, supportive, and caring.

We got to show some of their artwork up in the classroom...

 Until next year...

On the last day of school, they had field day.

 I remember and LOVED field day, so I knew I had to go and get pictures of these cuties enjoying their first one.

If this didn't drench them, then the sudden freak  rainstorm did...if there is ever such a think as a sudden freak rainstorm in Oregon.

 Snowcones... gotta love eating ice with sugar water poured on top.

COUSINS!

Here we go on the great catch up of 2013...

Lets start back at the VERY beginning of June... when Tyson's sister and family came to Oregon for a visit. 

We have been begging for friends and family to come visit, so we were super excited when the answer was YES! (We really aren't that desperate, but we love visitors!)

The day they arrived we headed to Silver Falls State Park.

We had a picnic with sandwiches, Oregon picked berries and Oregon made potato chips.

Oh how we love our cousins!

We played at the State park before our hike to the South Falls.

 This is our favorite fall. We haven't done the long hike, so I guess I can't say that I know the others, but I have seen pictures of them all, and this one is just so beautiful.

 This cute thing loves her papa.

The girls in their matching skirts we made last summer.

We went and showed them Tyson's office. That was a treat for the patients...

Nothing says a good visit than baby smiles and yummy foot suckers.

We had fun taking pictures of our feet.

We went to the Children's Museum in Salem. That is always a bucket full of fun.

It was Quincy's first time as a walker. She was in heaven.

 The tiny grocery store is ALWAYS a favorite.

And I can't help but love this picture of Q just loving those piggies.

We walked across the Willamette River on the walking bridge.

It was absolutely beautiful while our cousins were here! 

 We wore these kiddos out everyday. This particular day, while they slept we pounded some Sonic.

Megan and I ate way too much food while they were here. :)

 Grandma Scott came half way through the trip. It was nice to have her, and smart of her to fly to the place where 7 of the 8 1/2 grandkids were. :) (Missed you Taryn.)

We worked on a banner for when she walked up to the door.

The first day that Grandma was here, we headed to Portland.

We stopped at the Portland LDS Temple. 

It is gorgeous!

 Waffle Window. Duh! We had to share this piece of Portland with our cousins!

Oh they are so yummy.

We went to OMSI. A super cool museum!

 We had such fun with the crazy mirrors, random musical instruments and experiments.

 Grandma and the babies.

Such a fun museum.

 We went to Salt and Straw for some amazing ice cream.

This time we tried Olive Oil and many other random flavors. I like most, but I didn't like the Olive Oil.

Think we were done with  food....

Nope!

We headed to Voodoo Donuts to pick up a couple dozen to share with everyone...

Another day we drove to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

We toured the factory and tried all the different cheeses... (My favorite part.)

Little miss was loving grandma time!

Then we headed to the beach for some photo opporutnities. Too bad that the day we decided to go to the beach it was cloudy, windy, and overcast. :)

There was really cool light and a neat fog, and with the tide so far out it created some really cool pictures.

We climbed the sandhill. (I don't know why I do this every time. It is so steap and crazy.)

But yet I continue to trudge up it.

Megan and I then took jumping pictures.

We had such a fun time. We played at parks, and ate food like we were never going to eat again, we all crammed into our 1100 sq ft 3 bedroom house and loved every minute of it!

Thanks for coming Rasmussens! I hope you enjoyed it and want to make a return trip sometime!