Sorry to be M.I.A for so long. Since May we have been very busy cleaning and remodeling our new house. Still many years ahead of us too. The day after the house was ours I removed all the original 1972 yellow shag carpet while my dad cleaned the garage. Then the curtains had to go as they were the ugliest lacy curtains you've ever seen. All the ceilings had acoustic popcorn and them and had to be scraped. Next was cleaning and we have been living in the house since.

The first outside project was removing the driveway from the main road to the garage. Now we have doubled our front yard and made and easier fence line. We still are not finished with this project, currently have 8 loads of dirt sitting the front yard that need to be spread out.

The next project was remodeling the apartment over the garage. The best feature of this house is the apartment and additional income potential. We convinced my sister to rent it out but we still had to do some updating. What started out as a complete bathroom remodel, and new coat of paint turned into: moving a door, running gas line to add washer & dryer, new drywall and texture in about 25% of the place, new tile floor in bathroom, laundry and kitchen and new paint. We still have small finishing touches but Steph has been living here for about a month.
Hope you enjoy the hard work we have done so far.

Living room before carpet and curtain removal and the popcorn ceiling removal.

Our current bedroom with and without carpet. Now working on wallpaper removal.

The front exterior of the house. Now all the junipers in front of the windows are gone too.

More popcorn removal. And, my dad got carried away in this room and removed the wallpaper and paneling.

Lucy cleaning the refrigerator

The old driveway slowly disappearing.

The apartment...

Dan Herrin and Grant installing the tub/shower unit.

Removing wallpaper from the closet.

The new tub/shower.

Steph moving in ... all done!!

Lucy's BFF

A week has gone bye with the newest Martin family member, Tex. Tex is a pure bred Catahoula brought to us from our great friends the Rodgers family in Texas (hence the name.) Lucy was smitten from the moment she saw him and they have been inseparable ever since. Although she has learned to say 'No' very well every time he grabs one of her toys and thinks it belongs to him. This has been a very good lesson in sharing.
Tex is great with Lucy also. She pulls him around by his tail, and ears. He is sat on, jumped on and laid on. There is nothing that Tex hasn't been exposed to yet when it comes to Lucy's love.
THank you Scott, Lyndee, Gunner and Karlee for our crazy puppy!! These are pictures from the first day he arrived. We have many more to come!



. .

. .

. .

Easter Fun

Lucy had a great Easter. Her Easter began Friday with Grandma Joyce coloring eggs. I'm glad grandma was the daring soul to do this messy fun with her. As you can see in the pictures Lucy began having fun with the colors and the t-shirt had to come off. Grandma gave a good report, the kitchen was not ruined and she's a natural at coloring eggs.
. .

.

So now it is my turn to color eggs with the munchkin. I'm sure this fun time would have been better if I let go of my control issues and allow her to be a 1 year old. I could not get over the fact that she was using one spoon in every colored cup, drove me crazy. I soon remembered she is only 1 and to let her do this her way. She is a natural and did color some great eggs.

Funniest thing was that she kept tugging at her shirt. Since grandma took her shirt off to dye eggs I had to also, so that's why I have a half naked kid.

. .

. .

The Easter bunny hopped into our house. Lucy woke up earlier than I had liked so Grant had to keep her amused for a while which is impossible in the morning. I then gave the word and heard foot steps running down the hallway. Nosy Lucy just wanted to know what her mom was doing without her. She saw her basket and dove right in. I think she enjoyed everything inside her basket, especially the silly puddy.

. .

Grandma Joyce came by with another basket that the Easter bunny dropped off at her house. Crazy bunny hopped off the trail and got lost. Oh well, Lucy loved the chick peeps container and the sunscreen stick. She made sure everyone had sunscreen on their face.

. .

. .

Then we were off to the Roloff Easter gathering. Aunt Cathy and Uncle Al have the best yard for an egg hunt. Lucy picked up the idea of an egg hunt instantly. This was her first one and she nailed it. It's a good thing she has a tall daddy to help her with the high eggs too.

. .

. .

. .

. .