We have a kitchen...

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home. Let me just say I never thought I would be able to have a kitchen like this. We found a great cabinet guy thru our builder and he was so nice an friendly, just great to work with. And my kitchen is great because my sister designed it just for me.

I love the amount of counter space I have and plenty of floor space so that several people can be in the kitchen at once and not feel to tight.

Here is my island that I just love and know that this is probably going to be the busiest counter in my kitchen. Plus when I stand there I can still look into the living room and see everything that is going on or talk with Scott.

Here is my entry way and some of the colors I choose to paint there. You can't see it very well in this picture but I bought the Ralph Loren paint that is called River rock so it has texture to it. My walls might have looked a little bit better if I sanded them smooth like they suggest but I think that they still look nice even if I didn't do that.

I love my house so far and can't wait to get into it. We are getting down to the wire so I will probably have several posts with pictures of our house for our friends and family who are far away and we can't take them on a personal tour.

With lots of help from friends and family....

Well we did not put the counter top in but Laura designed and drew it all up for me to order it.
Here is a full shot that shows the counter top a little bit better. This counter top was not very easy to get. After many calls back and forth to the granite company Laura I finally got what we wanted. For a while there I thought I was going to have this counter top cut into 3 different pieces. But it is all in one piece and I love it.

I know that I have already put a picture of our flooring on but I have to let you know that Jeremy, Laura and Cody helped us install this flooring. Jeremy knew what he was doing and mostly we just did what we were told and my hands were very sore the next day. Pregnant women should not be down on the hard floor all day.

And last but not least and friend from Scott's work came and helped Scott put in this slate tile floor. He also helped us finish up the hallway with the laminate flooring. We couldn't have done it without him.

I lied. The entryway wasn't the last thing that we got help with. We have also tiled both of our bathrooms and we got a lot of help from Steve Huston (Laura's father in-law) and from my dad. I would show you pictures but the floor is covered in paper. I will post pics once we have them grouted and uncovered.

The builder added trim...

Here is our pantry, and like I said before I am so happy to be getting a pantry in our house.

Here is a shot of our hallway with the two kids' bedrooms and linen closet. The builder was going to put in 6 panel doors but we decided to upgrade to these doors. I am so happy that we spent a little extra money to get these doors.

Here is the trim that is going to be throughout the whole house. We decided to stay with a natural look for our trim and doors. We like the way it looks and feels... light and bright.

This is the bottom of our pantry door next to our laminate flooring.

Interior paint....

Here is the sign that our builder put up in front of our house so that everyone knows who built our house. Also you can see that some of our dead wood is gone from the front. We had a friend from work come out and get some free firewood and now the front looks a lot better.

Here is our empty kitchen and pantry. Once the cabinets are in it will look great. I am just so happy that I am going to have a pantry in this house.

My sister helped me pick out this color (meaning she picked it out and said it would look good after I told her I wanted a taupe color). I don't paint anything without asking my sister Laura for help with colors. She helps me get past my fear of choosing the wrong color and it always looks great. I would not have picked the color on my own. This is part of our great room and the stairs to the walk-out basement.

We went to the doctor early and...

Last month Scott told me that we would find out if the baby was a boy or a girl just after Father's day. Then I got an idea. I called up Real Time and asked if I could move my appointment up a couple of days so that I could find out the sex on Friday instead of Monday. They said it was no problem so my plan began. I wanted to surprise my whole family. I did not tell anyone except Scott what I was doing. So for the past month I had to keep quiet when my real appointment was and not tell my family (and we tell each other pretty much everything).

So on Friday I went to my appointment at http://realtimewasilla.com/ and Gretchen did my ultrasound. I loved her. She was so great. I would recommend her to anyone. She has been doing this for a long time and says that she is still doing this because she just loves doing it. She could tell us what the baby was doing and looked all over the baby to make sure she had ten toes and ten fingers and that her heart looked good. At first the baby looked like she wasn't going to let us see if she was a boy or a girl because she was laying on her belly. She then turned her back to us (I guess she was being a little camera shy) = ). But Gretchen had me get up and walk around and go to the bathroom to maybe move the baby and get a better angle. Then she tried again and of course the baby was almost in the same position. I guess she had moved just enough. Once the baby moved her foot she said "It's a girl." and Scott immediatly asked her "Are you sure?" and Gretchen said she was 100% sure it's a girl. I really did not care if I had a boy or a girl but my sisters have been so sure that I am having a girl. I have been getting excited about that and have been picturing a girl this whole time so I was very happy.

Gretchen then printed out a picture for everyone in the family. She also gave us a DVD of the ultrasound to take home with us. Now my plan was in motion. I went shopping by myself which I don't hardly do anymore because someone in our family usually wants to go shopping. And why go alone when you can get family confirmation that you are getting something cute or getting a good deal (that is a whole other post). I went to Wal-mart and found a cute little princess picture frame that I could put the picture of the ultrasound. It says "Hi Grandpa". That way I could wrap it up and give it to my Dad to tell my whole family it was a girl.

When my Dad opened the picture frame not everyone got it at first. They saw the ultrasound and started asking why I bought a pink frame when I might have to change it once I found out if it was a girl or a boy. Then Holly asked if we know for sure that it was a girl and I let everyone know that it was a girl and I had gone in early to find out. Then it kind of exploded in noise because our family is loud. It was so great. Everyone could not believe that I kept it a secret for two days without telling anyone (I can't believe I did it either). So now let the buying begin! I now know what I want to start shopping for and I can't wait!

The house is painted!!!

Windows and dormers are all in...