Merry Christmas!!

Hi everyone! We hope you all enjoy looking through our blog. I spent some time updating it. There are now the rest of the house pictures, as well as pictures of the nursery and some other things. Just click the “older posts” at the bottom of the page to see everything on the blog.

Here are a couple of pics of our "kids!"

We wish you all a very merry christmas and great 2010!!

-Joe, Kylee, Fiona, and Finlee

Rees' Nursery!

We have had a great time finishing the nursery for Rees! I found this bedding and fell in love with it. The crib is from Grandpa Steve and Grandma Kathy. The dresser is an antique that I found on craigslist, which we painted and changed the handles. It works perfect as her changing table. The cubby shelves are also off craigslist. We painted those, and I lined the backs of the cubbies with matching fabric. The glider is so comfortable and wins the award for “best buy” of the nursery- we found it at this awesome overstock place in Independence, MO that had lots of gliders (and tons of other furniture). Finally- we painted the artwork, spray painted the light fixture and sewed some basket liners. And…how could I forget the moldings on the wall that Joe did. It amazes me how handy he is- every idea I get in my head, Joe completes perfectly! I hope Rees loves her nursery as much as we do!

Before (too bad I didn't get a better before picture of this room- it had green walls, a pastel border- that took FOREVER to get off, and a primary colored fan!) I can't complain too much about this room being dirty...at least they kept their children's rooms clean!?

Here is the room "in between"... what it looked like when we moved in (new paint- that didn't last long- and new carpet) We did not install a light fixture in this room until it became the nursery!
And...the finished product! Yellow, red, blue, and yellow :)

The birds above the painting are hanging from the ceiling (but you can't really tell by this picture!)

close-up of basket liners:

Annual Christmas picture!

After reading about Finlee’s ordeal, you can understand why it has been so long since the dogs have had a hair cut! As you can see in these pictures- they REALLY need one (which is scheduled for next week.) We had to take our annual Christmas picture. This is round 1...I think we will try it again next week after they get hair cuts (since you can't even see their eyes!)

Here are their Christmas t-shirts :)

Only a mother could love these faces!! (I'm not sure if Fiona can even see!)

Their Christmas tree dresses!

Merry Christmas!

Finlee goes under the knife!!

Here is a recap of the interesting time we have had with Finlee over the past month! It all started when she went to the vet for a comprehensive exam. As we were walking out the door, the vet mentioned that she found a lump on Finlee’s side and told us to “keep an eye on it.” Two weeks later, the lump was still there. Finlee was going in to get some baby teeth extracted and her teeth cleaned- which requires general anesthesia. We thought this would be a good time to remove the lump if the vet thought it should be removed, since she would all ready be asleep. I thought it just felt like lipoma (or fatty tumor) and wasn’t really too worried about it. I was in a residency interview on the day of the surgery- so Joe had to make all the decisions. The vet first did a biopsy of the lump. When she looked at it under the microscope, the cells looked very suspicious- like a lymph node (in a place where a lymph node shouldn’t be!) She didn’t feel comfortable leaving it in, so they decided it would be best to remove it and send it in to pathology. After my interview, when I went to pick up Finnster (our nickname for her!) – I had lots of questions. The main information I got from the vet was that she felt there was about a 50/50 chance that the lump was cancer, but we had to wait for the pathology report to come back to know for sure. I was crushed (= lots of tears!)

Here is Finlee on her first night home. She would hardly move- poor baby!

That night was a very long night… Fin had pain medicine, but she was hurting so bad! I got like 3 hours of sleep because I was up with her. She would cry and cry every time she moved. The incision was about 4 inches long- which takes up about ½ of her little body. The next day I was scheduled to go to Wichita for another interview. Joe was originally going to come, but we couldn’t leave Finlee at home alone because she needed her pain medicine and antibiotic. So…I headed to Wichita alone. (I think Joe was relieved that he didn’t have to go!) We were ecstatic when I got a phone call on the way there from the vet saying the lump was just infected fat cells?!? – but not cancer! So… now we just had to get her feeling better.

Here is the most exciting part of this story…
I had a dinner that evening before the interview. When I got back to my hotel room, I had about 4 missed calls and texts from Joe. I immediately became concerned because Joe knew where I was. When I got a hold of him- Joe quickly told me that Finlee had gotten her cone collar off somehow and had chewed out half of her stitches- leaving a gaping wound! Joe immediately grabbed her up and took her to the vet ER, since the regular office was closed. Since it was going to be awhile (they had to sedate her to sew it back up), Joe went back home to wait for them to call when she was finished. At this point, I was driving around Wichita trying to find a gas station and some cereal! I get another call from Joe…he had gotten the call to go pick up Finlee, but when we he got in his truck, it wouldn’t start! What a mess! Luckily- our friends Brandon and Kelly were able to come pick up Joe, take him to the vet ER, and return them back home! I felt so helpless being in Wichita. Anyway- they made it back home and Joe just considers this night “training” for when Rees comes- he handled it so well!

After this incident- Finlee continued to be in so much pain. The next week we got her a fentanyl patch (a human narcotic- getting a canine prescription filled at the regular pharmacy is another story!) This helped her some. When she went back to the vet to get her stitches out, they determined that her cone collar was scratching her side up and was now infected! We are currently on our 4th bottle of antibiotic trying to get it all healed up. To remedy the collar problem- I wrapped the collar in fabric (which is attached with duct tape- real classy!) She is quite a hit at the vet. They all think I covered the collar to be stylish! We have become very familiar with the vet staff since we have been there weekly for the past 4 weeks. :)

Here is a picture of the incision. All the tape is where the fentanyl patch was taped on. Over the next few days the whole area under the tape and around the incision became crusted over and infected! (it was very gross)

Finlee is now doing much better. She still has her funny collar on because the wounds are not completely healed, but she is back to acting like herself!! The best thing about the whole experience is seeing Fiona with Finlee. She has been sooo nice to her- giving her kisses every time she comes home from the vet. She is always watching to make sure Finlee is keeping up when they are outside and she has been very gentle with her! What a good big sister! Our goal is to have the collar off by Christmas! We are so thankful that Finlee is okay and can’t wait for her to get all the way healed.

Finlee's stylish collar :)

After looking back through old posts, I realized that I didn't ever post pictures of the rest of our house- specifically, all of the upstairs! I will save one room (the nursery) for another post!

So…here we go!
This is the upstairs hallway, which is also our Fiona and Finlee gallery! Someday soon, we will have to replace some of them with baby pictures, but for now…it always makes us smile to see “the girls” when we come up the stairs.

Here is the wall word we added going down the stairs :)

Now...back up the stairs-

At the right end of the hallway, is “the east bedroom,” also known as the guest bedroom! This room had a big hole in the wall when we moved in that Joe had to fix and was, of course, very dirty. He also put down the hard wood in the “nook” area. It’s great to have a place for guests to stay.

beforethe "nook" before (once again- these pictures do not truely show how disgusting and dirty this house was!!)

after

The next room moving down the hallway is the office. I loved decorating this room , but have to admit, I have not used it as an office yet! Joe does use the desk, but I usually sit in the living room to study. I do love this room for the extra closet- this is where I store all my scrapbooking, card making and sewing stuff! The chandelier in this room was an extra one that my parents had. It started out brass with lots of prism things hanging on it…we spray painted it bronze and added a bunch of crystals with fishing line! It definitely one-of-a-kind and adds some sparkle to the room!

before (a plain, boring box!)

after

Moving further down the hall is the best room ever…Rees’ nursery! It is directly across from the master bedroom. I will do a separate post for her room. :)

Also in the hallway is the main bath/guest bath/Rees’ bathroom. The vanity was the main project in this room. We found the vessel sink and faucet on ebay, the we re-painted the existing cabinets and Joe made a stained wood countertop! It turned out great.

before

after

Finally, at the left end of the hallway is the master bedroom and bathroom. We had fun fixing up this room. Scraping the ceilings throughout the house was a big chore, but it was especially time- consuming in the master suite with the tray ceiling in the bedroom and the really tall ceilings in the bathroom. However, it was all worth it- we think scraping the popcorn ceilings really made a huge difference in this room. The chandelier in the bedroom was recycled from the dining room. I took off a few pieces, spray painted it bronze and added crystals (of course!) We also found Styrofoam tiles online, which we painted bronze and put at the very top of the tray ceiling! The master bedroom also has my favorite wall decoration- the garage sell frame (which we spray painted), a wall word and a canvas print of one of our engagement pictures! As you can see…Rees’ first bed has also found a spot in our room- a cradle that we found on craigslist and painted! The master bath also got a total makeover, except... it has the only floor in the house that was there originally!

Before

This fan wins the award for 'Dirtiest fan ever!!"

after

bathroom before

after

Wow- I'm bad at this!

Well...I'm officially not good at updating our blog! Lots has happened since last time I was on here. Well- last time I updated I knew I was pregnant, but we weren't telling. So now the word has been out for awhile and we are in full preparation mode for baby Rees! I will try to do a quick recap on what's been going on! I have had the month of August off to prepare for boards (which I took on Aug 22) and get my residency application ready. This last week, we have been getting as much done around the house as possible. We have lots of busy weeks and weekends until the due date- so we wanted to get a jump start! This week we have painted the nursery and put the crib together! There is still quite a bit of work to get done, but we have a great start. I have found a lot of great "stuff" on craigslist for Rees (one of my favorite things to do!) So now Im trying to paint some of these "great finds" (her dresser, some shelves for the nursery, a side table, and a cradle for our room). We are due Dec 31- so I'm 22 weeks today! Over half way there!! I do LOVE feeling her move, but have to admit that the rest of pregnancy has not been as great as expected. Oh well...I know it will all be worth it in the end. We have had 4 sonograms (the only great thing I had found about medical school so far- a few free sonograms on the side!) Each one has shown she's a girl! I absolutely love seeing her during the sonograms. She has been grabbing her toes the last couple of times and we think she has here daddy's nose (from the the 3D pics!) Time will tell :) I'll attach a few pics of the baby stuff- it always makes me smile, so hopefully it will make you smile too!

Here is a pic of her bedding on her glider rocker!

Joe and his helpers (aka Fiona and Finlee) putting the crib together!

Who's crib is this??? Fi and Fin trying it out! (This is just a sneak peak of the nursery- I don't want to post pics of it until it is all finished! We love the crib...thanks Grandpa Steve and Grandma Kathy- it is beautiful and just want we wanted- modern and sleek!!)

Baby Rees's closet (at 22 weeks old!) This is what happens when your mom and Grandma love to shop! I'm pretty sure only a couple of things in here were bought at full price...bargain shoppers!!

And finally...I also broke out my sewing machine this week and made curtains for the kitchen and breakfast nook (I have had the fabric since we moved in!) I'm still trying to decide if I like them...but they'll work for now!

So hopefully you're updated a little on our life...basically it has been consumed by Rees lately! We are so excited for her to get here! Look forward to finished nursery pics sometime soon and possibly a belly pic...I'm still not sure about this (it makes me feel like a zoo animal to post pics of my growing belly...) Hope you are all doing great!!

dining, breakfast nook and laundry!

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a awhile...I'll try to catch up a little today and finish the downstairs :) (or I guess it's the main floor- the basement started unfinished and still that way!) In other news...just work and school :) We are both keeping busy. We were really sad that we had to miss Abbey's eighth grade promotion. We are proud of her and thought she looked so pretty (and grown up) in all her pictures! My parents and Abbey stayed with us last night and we took them to the airport this morning. They are on their way to London and then to Qatar to see B and Celia! We know they will have lots of fun. We can't wait to pick them up in 2 weeks. I'm not sure what I'll do, not being able to call my mom whenever I want for 2 weeks?!? I'm also really jealous...I wish Joe and I could have gone along! Maybe next time!

Anyway- hope everyone has a great memorial weekend. Here are some pics :)

Dining Room:

We think they used this room as a playpen for their kids and animals :) The walls and carpet were filthy! Notice the chandelier...it actually gets "re-used" in another room upstairs (after a make-over)

All empty- no more popcorn ceilings...primed walls...no flooring!

Paint color...round 1! (It matched the rug, but clashed with the kitchen color!)Paint color...round 2! Also see Joe's handy work on the faux wainscott!

Dining room...finished and ready for guests :) My favorite light fixture (Joe gave it to me for my Christmas gift!)Breakfast nook: Not the greatest picture, but shows the popcorn and previous ceiling fan! In between stage... I don't have a good picture of our work area, but you can see the purple base (Joe's old drafting table). We took this base and put an old door on it (which was Joe's desk in college)- this "table" became our work table. We set it up in the breakfast nook- lots of work was completed here!And...finished! Sorry it is kind of dark- you can't see the green color very well. It's about the same color as my old bug (which I miss!) and is one of our favorite "rooms" in the house!

Finally- the laundry/half bath: Yes- it was also the "lovely" pink color! I don't have many pics- so no "in between" stages. The washer and dryer will go behind the half wall.

After... (the blue actually looks a little darker in real life)

You can see the new floor...And our craigslist washer and dryer- working great so far!