Kitchen Bling

Yep, this is a post about putting hardware on our kitchen cabinets.  Our lives are just not that exciting, people...we've got to fill up the blog space somehow.

Let me just preface this project by saying that we lived in our last house for five years and, despite the fact that we had black painted kitchen cabinets, we never wanted to "splurge" by adding hardware.  Lesson learned--when it came time to sell, we (Sean) had lots of paint touch up to do.  So, with that experience under our belts, we decided to drive to our neighborhood Home Depot and finally get going on jazzing up these ho-hum cabinets.  Did I mention there's about a million of them?  We selected a different type of hardware for the upper cabinets versus the lower ones, mostly because the upper cabinets are considerably taller and a tiny knob looked kind of silly.  The pulls on the drawers were easy...I've always liked that look.  (If it works for Martha Stewart, it works for me!)  Plus, it helped break up the monotony of our dark brown cabinet convention.  

Here are the Before & After shots for your viewing pleasure:

I am really happy with how they turned out.  Another project checked off the list, thanks to my handy husband!

Happy Easter!

Hope you had a joyful Easter weekend!  I always loved Easter growing up...a new dress for Sunday school, new white shoes, egg hunt (my great-grandpa always put money inside the plastic eggs), the smell of vinegar and hard-boiled eggs...   I still look forward to this holiday every year.  Some day, we will celebrate it the traditional way again.  For now, it went like this:

On Saturday, Sean took the boys to our neighborhood Egg Hunt.  Since the boys came out of that event with only ONE egg total, Sean staged a private egg hunt in our front yard!  

the neighborhood egg hunt

 At least they got to meet the Easter Bunny!

 The Beilman Egg Hunt experience was a success!

On Sunday morning, the boys discovered their goodies from the Easter Bunny!  And yes, they were up before 6AM, so I got to see them enjoy their Easter surprises before I left for work that morning...it made my day.

 

That Bunny is so smart...he KNEW the boys needed new Crocs!  How cool is that?!

Who doesn't love a good game of Chutes and Ladders?

The new Cootie game was a hit...and so were the chocolate eggs, by the looks of it!

Unfortunately, Easter always falls on the weekend, so that meant I was working instead of egg-hunting and rejoicing. (Apparently, babies are born even on holidays.)  Anyway, sorry for the mini pity-party...I digress.  I did get to leave work an hour early on Sunday!  (An hour earlier means I am home in time to see my boys before they go to bed.)  We celebrated by having a burrito picnic outside on the front porch.  What a nice treat!  It was a beautiful day and we made the most of it!  I hope you and your loved ones were able to do the same.  Happy Easter!

Man-tastic!

Sean is Mimi's biggest fan, I think.  Having Mimi here means he had a free babysitter to watch the boys while he did "man projects".  After he got back from Atlanta, he had two full days to work on projects that have been bothering him for a long time.  First, he fixed the door on his car that hasn't opened in months (kind of a big deal, I admit).  Secondly, he got to install about 100 (okay, maybe 10) new lights in the garage...to further enhance his man cave.  

He built the loft area above his workshop last month.  There's still an 8 ft ceiling above his work space and he can still stand up in certain parts of the loft.  It holds a ton of stuff and opened up a lot of floor space. I joke with Sean that if we only had a small fridge and an air mattress out there, he could just live in the garage.  Honestly, I don't think he would mind it one bit!

 The loft and work space.

Lights, lights and more lights! 

Many Thanks to Mimi

My mom came to help us out last week while Sean was out of town to attend one of his quarterly meetings.  Mom raised one daughter (obviously), so it amazes me how well she handles my two rowdy boys.  They are a handful, people!  I say that in the most loving way, but seriously, I'm 36 and it's exhausting for me most days.  Anyway, my point is that it's not easy task to come in and take over 24 hour parenting duties for Carter & Davis.  Mimi does it willingly and makes it look easy.  Thank you, Mom!!  We love you and appreciate your help so much!

Easter Eggs

Spring has sprung around here & that means...time to color Easter eggs!  Both boys enjoyed the eggs this year and we only had a couple of egg casualties.  Mimi has been in town helping with the boys while Sean was in Atlanta, so she and Davis colored eggs together.  

The Easter fun continues with our neighborhood egg hunt next weekend.  Fun!

Meet Millie!

Millie is our "new" dog and the newest Beilman, although the people from the Boston Terrier Rescue think she's about 10 years old.  She is the sweetest girl!  She has had a rough life, but has the most laid-back temperament despite it all.  Millie gets along with the boys and Macey just fine (whew!) and so far, the transition has been very smooth.  We love our new little girl!

Just getting cozy with the boys during snack time.  Sean came home from work & put the kabbash on her sitting on the furniture.  Bummer, Millie!

Sunning herself after breakfast. 

Screwdrivers for Breakfast?

The boys have started waking up (their usual wake up time is 5:30-6:30 am) and going straight downstairs to play, without coming into our room first to wake us up.  I have mixed feelings about this since I am definitely not a morning person.  The extra time to sleep is great, but the flip side is that you could go downstairs to find your four-year-old with a screwdriver in his hand, in the process of changing the batteries in his toys.  This is what I walked in on earlier this week:

Lovely!

Hitting the Slopes

Sean took a couple of days off last week to go skiing while Josh & Christy were in town.  They hit Loveland on Wednesday, then Josh & Sean took Carter skiing on Thursday!  Uncle Josh got some great videos and photos from the day--thanks, Josh!  It is amazing to see my little guy on the slopes like a pro (yes, I'm biased).  For four, he seems pretty confident out there--way to go, Carter!  Davis is chomping at the bit to go skiing with his brother & daddy--only one more year, buddy!  

 Daddy & Carter on the lift

Sister, Sean & Josh

 What a beautiful day!

Let's do this, Dad!

Snoozin' on the way home.

Milnes In Denver

This past week my step-brother, sister-in-law and step-sister visited us and we had such a fun time.  We all met up on Tuesday afternoon for lunch downtown, then Kelsie watched the boys so we could have an adults-only night on the town!  We started at Tamayo for dinner and it was dee-lish.  I mean, who knew they could swirl a margarita like that?!  Oh, and the food was great too.  

 Josh and Natalie and our future niece, who will join us in July.  :-)

 Three Milnes and a Beilman

 Shortly after we decided that Sister could move to Denver & start a fondue food truck--best idea EVER!

 Pedaling the rickshaw, in anticipation of growing the fondue business (you had to be there).  

 Sister being mauled by the bronze bear.

 d Bar was our next stop...

 To. die. for...Homemade churros with rum & coke ice cream and chocolate dipping sauce.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Natalie's upcoming birthday with dinner & cake at our house.  Since we usually miss out on these family celebrations, it was fun that we got to take advantage of the opportunity to wish her a happy birthday before anyone else!  

*Side-note: on Thursday, the guys went skiing and Natalie and I had a "Girls' Day" with massages and pedicures, then   junk food and a Red Box selection to end the evening--does it get any better?!  (Too bad the movie was a bit odd.) It was great to spend the day with her--we had so much fun!*

 Aunt Sister helping Davis get acquainted with skis.  

 Two of my favorite guys!  From college days to talking about fatherhood...I cannot believe how far these two have come.   

Kelsie was happy she was not on diaper-duty this night!

We had a great week with everyone in town and the house feels so empty now.  Just remember that the Beilmans are always ready for company and you can come back whenever you like!  Miss you guys!