Two whirlwind weeks

Nana, Grandpa, and the kids, relaxing outside and drinking tea.

In the last couple weeks we did some yard work, went back out in search of a breakfast place, had the grandparents over, and made some progress around the house...

First, of course, comes my husband's amazing home improvement skills, which prove that intelligent men of words and numbers are also men of action. In other words, he changed the monster chandelier in the dining room and even got rid of the dimmer (which was making the thing overheat and kill light bulbs). I was so impressed.

Look at that thing. It's massive.

Here is the new fixture:

The table needs to be painted but I can't make up my mind about how... I painted the kitchen island and didn't love it so now I'm trigger shy.

I love it that new fixture though. It is softer and lighter, and it doesn't have 10 bulbs in it. It reminds me of the one we had at the rental (I was in love with that fixture) but it also has that cage in the center that goes well with the fixture in the breakfast nook. Which by the way I finally put some stuff up on the wall in that room.

 I think it's one of my favorite corners around the house so far. I did always love that room, from the first time we saw this house. Although since we moved the bookshelf to the corner by the windows that little reading nook has also been a favorite of mine.

Miss E and Mr E went on a flower-cutting bender and now there are mums all over the house.

And then we also tried out another breakfast restaurant. It was delicious but it was also very adult, I thought (a very hip, we-accept-reservations kind of place). And a little bit far for my taste -in downtown Amarillo, which is on the other side of town. But seriously very yummy.

there was a picture of me smiling but I liked it even less than this one, lol :P

And Miss E and I had a lot of fun painting her wall.

We had the grandparents over that next weekend. The kids were missing their grandparents so much and were super happy to see them.

It was all kinds of fun having them around again. I am super sad that I took a very long, super sweet video of Nana reading to the kids- and they were talking about the book and it was just all kinds of cute- and now it is not in my camera or in my computer anymore. I think I may have deleted it by accident, thinking it had already been saved? I don't know what happened but I think Nana and Grandpa need to come back soon so I can have a re-do please.

Today was also lots of fun for Miss E because she got to go to Ballet class for the first time. She was super cute in her outfit, if I may so, and she had so much fun. Sundays are a weird day, if you ask me, but it was the only day that had openings left, and it's entirely my fault for taking so long to decide what class she should go to (in the end, I didn't have a choice anymore).
But anyway, cuteness and fun. So so very cute. I'm like, "E, go stand over there so I can take your picture" and this is what she does:

That's my pretty, spunky little girl.

And then at the studio..

And there we are. Even in all the craziness... life is good. 

Our first guests and this week's fun

Last weekend we enjoyed the visit of our very first house guests! They are friends of Quijote's and it was so fun to share our home with them. They also came bearing gifts! I'll be making some fried okra this weekend ... yumm...

But I digress. Here they are, how cute is this?

We took them to the Palo Duro Canyon (thus the crude joke. You'll have to excuse us, we're all toddlers in this house of late).

And there was merriment, music, and great food (yes, Quijote cooked) as well as a late night or two of crazy fun conversation.

It was pretty great :)

In  preparation for their arrival, we went on a crazy cleaning spree (and miraculously kept the house clean for long enough to take some pictures) so here are a few pics of what the place looked like before they came. I've made some changes already, so some of it doesn't look like this anymore, but for the sake of recording the process, here we go:

I'm almost done with the kitchen!! YAAAY! though Im taking a break from it for now...

I took this close up picture of the Old White cabinetry because I'm relieved it's a good match, but I think I might still darken it with another wax coat and even distress it a little. It looks very crisp- which can be good, of course, but I dunno... Im kinda digging the "lived in, has a history" sort of look these days... so... we'll see what happens haha!

This week we did some work and went out for the first time (in search for our next brunch place, and it was okay, but not *the* place)...

And I set up my desk out by the entryway. By which I mean to say that poor Q moved it around the entire house for an hour before I could be convinced to try this out... I want to be out where I can work during the day. I worked at night before (and I still have to a lot) but am trying to do more during the day and less in the crazy hours of the night. We'll see if that works ;) And of course the kids had to give it a trial run. It was so cute.

Today Q and I worked around the yard and he moved the mums from the garden box into our pots so we can plant actual food stuffs in the back :)

Look at all that spaaaace!!!!

And that's what we've been up to lately :)