Bedroom Preview

Our bedroom is finally finished after two coats of paint! I am totally in love with the color (Neptune Blue by Behr in eggshell), but it was my first time ever painting a room anything other than a neutral. Yep, even growing up I always had a white bedroom. My father designed our lake home to be very minimalist in style to showcase the structural elements of the house, meaning even the paint color was minimal, aka white. I love how the house looks, but I always have yearned to use color in paint. So, what do I paint the first two rooms I ever have the opportunity to paint? Beige (in the house my parents bought while I was in college to live in) and gray (our house's guest bedroom). Needless to say, I broke through that trend with this room.


More pictures to come when all the wall art is finalized (we're doing black and white photos of our Europe trips), the curtains have been added (a nice ivory to balance the color a bit), and ivory accessories. I love it, and Kevin really likes it, too!

I really do like neutral colors, but it's nice to have one room that really pops. I think the ivory contrast will also bring out the subtleties in the color more, too!

On a side note, it actually was kind of nice to remove everything but our bed in our bedroom. Kevin may disagree with me on this, but it allowed us to edit everything we have in there instead of just keeping things exactly the way they were. All of our furniture is of course back in the room, but I'm slowly adding back decorations.

Upcoming painting

Here is a look at what we are pretty sure we will be using for paint in a couple of weeks! I know, we've almost been in our home now for a year, but I really like to know for sure that I like a color and it's not just based on a season (otherwise, every spring I would have all brightly colored walls and fall would all be brown and beige). I also really wanted Kevin to like the colors, and he doesn't get as excited and motivated as I am for picking colors. Without further ado:

For the master bedroom:

Neptune Blue - our bedding is light taupe and cream, and we will be using cream accents (lampshades, curtains, and photo frames) to brighten up the room to counteract the intensity of the color.

For the living room, hallway, and guest bath

Sandstone cove - just a bit of warmth. To be honest, this is the color most likely to change. If we get the sample and it's not the right darkness, we may adjust.


For the kitchen/dining and master bath
Koala bear - a grayish hue with a tint of green (in case monitors make it difficult to see the green). We have a sage green curtain in our kitchen, so this will be a nice neutral to go with that without making it too matchy-matchy.



For our front door

New brick - our house is ultimate beige and portobello (light beige and light brown) with a beige color brick, so we're hoping this will give a bit of color to the house. Again, we are definitely going to get a sample to make sure we like it.


And, just for continuity, here is the color we chose for our guest bedroom that we've already painted. We LOVE how it turned out.

Dolphin Fin Gray

Photo credits: www.homedepot.com

Let me know your thoughts!

Doggy Anniversary

Dearest Benton,

A year ago today, we brought home our bundle of fur. Oh, how you have enriched our lives! From a recently shaved shelter dog who was brought in as a stray and hoarded treats to a well-adjusted beautiful dog, you have grown so much in only one year! We knew immediately when we saw you that you were special.
And now, we couldn't imagine our lives without you. You are smart, sweet, and still the best cuddler we've ever met!
Happy "Anniversary" Benton! We love you more than we can put into words!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Doggy Sitters

Kevin and I took care of his Aunt Julie's beagles while she was away on a family vacation. Mabel and Ivy were fun to watch!

We made sure they had plenty of cuddle time to make up for their Mommy being away!

Catching up

Over the last couple of weeks, we've had fun making changes to our house and having visitors!

Here's a brief review:

Kevin's sisters and mom visited for a few days. They came over one afternoon to play with Benton.


We finally received our patio panel for our sliding glass door that leads out to the deck. We ordered it months ago, but the fabric we painstakingly chose was on back order. It was settle for something else or wait...we chose to wait. I really don't like vertical blinds, and we open the door constantly for Benton to go in and out, so we wanted a retractable curtain.


And, we continue to enjoy cooking together. This one wasn't really Weight Watchers friendly, but it turned out well.

Hildebrand Visit

Kevin and I were so excited to hear that our friends, the Hildebrand's, were coming to Wichita last weekend! I used to babysit for them starting right after Andrew was born, and he is starting kindergarten next year! gasp!

They came to Wichita for a softball tournament. Dave is the coach, and Amber, the oldest (10 now!), is a pitcher. They were happy that we could watch Aubrey and Andrew on Saturday afternoon/evening during the tournament since it was SO hot, and it gave them something fun to do. I was so happy to see them!

We went to Exploration place, and they enjoyed some of the mind teasers.

Aubrey focusing
Andrew concentrating


They also loved playing on our Wii at home. We played DDR and Mario Cart. Benton enjoyed having company.

For dinner, we took them to Olive Garden. It was yummy!

Silly Andrew :)

Dave and Darci came over to our house for a little while after the last game of the evening was over (Amber desperately needed to cool off at their hotel pool, so I didn't end up getting to see her). It was great to catch up.

I hadn't seen them since our wedding over a year ago!



Oh, and their team won third place! Congrats, Dominators!

4th festivities

Kevin and I had a wonderful, restful weekend. Saturday, we relaxed most of the day and had a date night. We saw Knight and Day, and really enjoyed it. After the movie, we ate dinner at Abuelo's.

Not the best photo, but we were in a hurry to head to the movie.Sunday, we did some major cooking! Kevin grilled a fabulous flank steak, and we had potato salad, green beans and bacon, watermelon, and blueberry cheesecake for dessert.
We hosted Emily and Jose Sunday evening after going with Kevin's aunt and grandparents to see fireworks (Emily's brother was in a fireworks accident in Manhattan and had to be moved to Via Christi's burn unit in Wichita. Thankfully, he is doing much better now).

Monday morning, Kevin made a wonderful quiche for breakfast, and later I did some shopping while Kevin enjoyed playing video games. It was so great to have a long weekend!
Benton also enjoyed himself, but we found him in a secluded corner Monday morning with his blanket. Apparently, he had about as much fun as he could take!