Kitchen Remodel

In our home as in many others, the kitchen is the "hub" of activity.  Corey and I love to cook and the walls of the kitchen were pretty confining and there was little room for seating.  Dinner parties meant a few people in the living room, and others in the kitchen.  We have always said that the one thing we would love in a house would be an open concept kitchen / living area. A few weeks ago, we realized that this was actually a real possibility in our current place.  The wall between our kitchen and living room was not load-bearing, and a row of upper cabinets could be moved to another area without any loss of storage space.  Bye bye ugly blue countertop!

In just a few weeks, the transformation is almost complete!  We also added a bar for extra seating. I can now see the lake while cooking breakfast and talk to Lily while she plays in her room!  Here are some "Before and After" photos.

 There is room to seat 5 or 6 at the bar. Woohoo! Party time! Excellent.

Big Woods Brewery

The word "shy" would not be included in any list used to describe this kid.  I wanted to share a few photos from our recent dinner at the brewery in Nashville.

Lily really liked the man playing guitar.  In return, she had to do a little performance of her own.

Next, she chatted up the guy behind the counter.

She loved the dough they gave her. 

Good times!

Everyone always asks, the dress is from http://www.betterwithabow.com She makes amazing things! This one is a little too big for her, but she insists on wearing it nearly everyday, anyway :)

Senior Video

For those who do not follow my business blog, I wanted to share this Senior Video we created a few weeks ago.

Brook Rieman Photography Senior Experience from Brook Rieman on Vimeo.

Unsettling

Last night Lily slept in our bed. She's started getting more fearful of the dark and last night she had a rough time getting to sleep and wanted to be with us.

At 3 in the morning, I wake up to quiet giggling. Then maniacal laughter while she is still fully asleep. Then, in the happiest voice imaginable, she sing-songs "Dad-dy got a base-ball, Dad-dy got a base-ball".

Next, she says "Mommy! It bounces!! It flies!!!". Then she rolled over and finished sleeping. Too funny.

Horse lover

Lily has been talking more and more about horses. She likes to pretend she is a horse and when she gets tired of that, Corey and I have to play the role of the horse. She can often be found riding around the house or the grocery store on an imaginary horse, saying "Gimme Up Girl!". We tried to tell her it's "Giddy Up" but she doesn't believe us. She says we need to buy a real horse and can't understand why she cannot have one right this moment.

She loves to talk about the horse my mom had, Rusty. Tonight she said "Mommy, I'm going to play Grandma and you play Rusty". We played for awhile and suddenly I was overcome with emotion, realizing in what a real and tangible way my Mom's soul is continuing to live on through her grandkids. Lily loved her (and continues to love her) so much. It only makes sense that Lily wants to be like Grandma and I can't really imagine a better role model for her to have in life.

Unfortunately for Mom, I was never bitten very hard by the horse "bug". What fun she would have had teaching Lily all about horses, their care, training, and of course, how to ride.

Fish Family

We are the very lucky recipients of a hand-me-down fish tank from a friend.  I knew it was a nice tank, but I guess I didn't realize it was THIS big. It is really amazing!

The base was a natural pine that didn't really fit with our living room decor. A quick coat of paint helped it match our other furniture quite well.



Lily was ready for fish right away. As the tank filled, she kept asking where the fish were, because she couldn't see them yet. We plan to keep cichlids in this tank and after doing quite a bit of research online, it looks like we need to let the tank cycle for anywhere from 3-6 weeks before adding fish (for best results). That is a long time for a 3 year old. To help add a little "life" to the tank, I decided we needed to add a photo of our very own fish family. I set up my lights in the kitchen and took a family photo, carefully placing our bodies in such a way that we could be seen behind the tank ornaments. I wanted us to be exactly life-sized, so I meticulously measured our head size and had a 20x30 print made.



I attached it to the back of the tank and voila...





I just love the way it turned out. It definitely takes guests by surprise.