mantle makeover...

Tyler has always wanted to mount our TV over the fireplace. I, however, was not a fan of the idea. I don't really like the idea of the TV being the center of attention. However, I finally gave in to the idea and the idea of having a whole extra corner in our living room for seating. The only hitch to the project was that the mantle was too high for viewing. We were able to find a mount at a thrift store, brand new that was full motion (it tilts down and to the side)for $15!! That's super cheap by the way. But even with the full motion it was still too high, especially for Adelaide if she's sitting on the floor, and goodness knows we have to be able to watch VeggieTales without getting a crick in our necks. So we cut the mantle down 4 inches. 

This was after the mantle came off. You can see from the dust lines on the wall how tall it was originally. I love our mantle, it's huge. 

This is the corner of the living room the TV used to sit in. Tyler was working hard to remove the piece of wood the mantle was screwed into. We got to remove the TV stand and create a whole new seating area with my flea market chair. We'll be selling that TV stand at a garage sale the last weekend in May if you're interested.

I didn't take a picture of the whole process but we just cut 4 inches off of each side of the mantle and reattached. Here's what it looks like finished. 

With pictures around it the TV doesn't stick out too bad. I'm hoping to sort of redo what's on the fireplace slowly but this works for now. The wall behind the chair is screaming for a picture. We're getting family pictures done at the end of June and that is going to be the perfect place for one. 

A picture of our full finished living room. 

This is the awesome piece Tyler found at an estate sale last week. It actually has 3 levels but 2 fit better here. The doors flip up and you can push them in. So cool. I think I'm going to hang the 3rd level in the extra bedroom/craft room. We were able to put an extra lamp in the living room because of this which is great since there are no installed lights in this room. 

The other cool project we finished not too long ago was a sofa table. We wanted a place to put the laptop that wasn't on the coffee table where Adelaide could get at it. We got some old barn wood from a neighbor of Tyler's parents for free and then bought some metal pipes and presto, you have a sofa table. 

Restoration Hardware-ish

One more cool thing we've added to our house...

I've always been in love with the Pottery Barn kitchen set but am totally unwilling to pay $250 PER PIECE to buy it. Someone in Leawood was selling theirs for CHEAP! We got two of the 4 pieces for $25! The other 2 parts weren't in good condition. Adelaide loves it, it's the perfect height for her. She likes to crawl into the oven for some reason. See below...

Weirdo!

She's learning so many things so quickly now! Still not walking but getting close. She can say nose and point to it and to her belly. She gives kisses and every time she sees a fish she opens and closes her mouth. Also roars at every lion. Loving this age!

our ever changing lives...

It still amazes me how much we change and evolve in such a short amount of time. I guess when you see a child grow in a year it gets you thinking about your own life but I've been thinking a lot about this lately. In the almost 7 years since we graduated high school we've gotten degrees, married, a dog, moved 4 times, had 4 jobs (between the two of us), bought a house and had a baby. Whew! Sounds exhausting right? Well it was/is and during that time I was using that excuse to stay distant and apathetic towards Christ. I was too busy and things kept changing too much and I would get to it when things settled down. And now they have...

I feel like our family is evolving once again but in a good way. We aren't changing houses or jobs or having another baby just yet but we're changing the way we're living our lives. Starting to rely more on God's will and less on ours. I've forgotten that in all the hustle and bustle of life. Although I had a reminder of God's constant love in the blessings He's given me and my family, I chose to say thanks, this is great but continue on in my daily selfishness. We've recently started our small group at church and have also started the membership process as well and are so excited to be plugging in and serving in our community. These people, although we've only known them for a short time, are already blessing us more then they know. The accountability and friendship are just what we needed. It finally feels like we've made a home here in Kansas City and a church family to love and share our lives with. I feel like I can already see the difference it's making in our marriage, our family and parenting Adelaide and the way we live every normal day. It feels so good. So we'll continue to change as we always will but keeping in mind that all these things are not for me or my family but for God's glory. 

So anyway, enough with the heavy, here's some pictures of what we've been up to lately. I've been a bad blogger and haven't posted in forever!

Here's Adelaide and her cousin Allison in the Barbie car at Grandma and Grandpa McKee's. They actually look kind of alike in this picture.

This is Adelaide and I outside that day, it was very windy. 

Here she is playing in the kitchen. This girl loves to be naked!

Playing with Cheerios on the kitchen floor. 

Our first attempt at finger painting (it's edible, don't worry)

The finished product. 

This is one of Adelaide's new best friends, Elijah. Elijah's parents are in our small group so they play together a lot. He's one of the sweetest little chunks you'll ever meet. There is our recent lives in a nutshell. Hope to keep keeping you posted!

a moment...

My sweet girl took her last bottle tonight. I held her while she was drinking it and it made me sad. This is one of the only times during the day that she lays still and we just watch each other. That moment is gone. Although I do get a moment every once and a while where she'll "cuddle" with me, she likes to roll around on our bed and play with the blankets and pillows and she'll plop over and lay there for a minute then get up and do it again.  I won't, however, miss buying expensive formula. So we'll move on. In replacement of our sweet bottle time together she did learn how to give kisses today which made it all better. She won't do it all the time but if I say "kisses!" and pucker up she'll lean in and say "mmmaaa"! LOVE it! 

Some 1 year pics. We went with a Groupon at picture people to save a little dough and they turned out pretty well. Not the gorgeous professional pictures we've had of her in the past but it took 20 minutes and was super cheap. And you can't make Adelaide look bad.  

She can now stand by herself for a few short seconds every once and a while and I think that walking is going to start here pretty soon. She's acting like such a toddler. It just amazes me. I'm loving this time though, conversations with her that sound like a mix of french and chinese, new messes (like almost pooping in the bathtub) and her exploring. I swear she's one of the most talkative one year olds I've ever seen. You should come talk to her sometime. 

snowwwww...

I love the snow. I figure if it's going to be cold, it might as well snow and look pretty too. Adelaide got to experience her first snow since she was 2 days old this week. Lets just say she enjoyed herself a little more this time. 

She loves to look out the window, our little storage box in front of our front window is the perfect size for her to lean on. Daddy was letting her admire the snow falling on Monday. 

Adelaide and Tyler went out sledding while it was snowing but didn't get any pictures so of course I had to take her out on Tues. to snap some. Poopsie got a toddler sled for her birthday and was breaking it in. 

We even have a slight slope in the backyard so a little push sent her flying toward Tyler. She just sat there and smiled. She didn't seem to be as big of a fan of sitting in the snow. These days she just wants us to help her walk around everywhere so sitting her down is sometimes a challenge. 

She really does love being outside. We're really excited for it to get nice outside so she can crawl around (or soon walk around) a bit. We're hoping to do some work on our backyard this spring so she'll have plenty of dirt to play with! 

I'll leave you with a picture of something that seems to happen every time we walk around the house. Adelaide is drawn to the back door, like I said, she likes to look out the window. Amos always seems to follow her there and they stare out the window. She tends to lick the glass while she's there too, weirdo, but it's cute. She and Amos are starting to become great buds. She pulls his tongue, he nips her hand, she laughs about it and it happens all over again. 

potatoooooo...

So, I don't normally blog about recipes because I normally forget to take pictures or stuff doesn't turn out the way I want them too. I also don't bake much so sweet recipes are out; too much work and mess for something that will be gone in like 2 days. I'm getting better about it though. So today I thought I'd share one of the McKee families favorite recipes, it's actually one that I received at a wedding shower from my Aunt Marci. Thanks Aunt Marci!! We make this all the time.

Baked Potato Soup

So, this recipe is really easy but not for those on a diet. Lots of butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon.  You start out by baking the potatoes. We baked them straight in the oven (without foil) for 45 min.  Take them out and let them cool. This time made them the perfect consistency, when you cut them up they are firm enough to hold their form and soft enough to mash a bit too. 

Excuse the crappy pictures, not great lighting in my kitchen. I used 5 potatoes. Next you make a roux. This is where you add the large amount of butter, melt it and then add the flour, salt and pepper making a thick bubbly mixture to thicken your milk.

Add the milk to the roux mixture. I usually add a cup and make sure it's mixed and thickening before I add the next. I do that the first 3 cups or so then just add the rest. You bring that to a boil or until it starts to thicken. Next, you take the milk off the burner and add the sour cream, whisking it in. Then add the potatoes and cheese and bacon. That's it!! Enjoy!

There is the finished product. All ready for the fridge. This recipe is soooo delicious and so filling. Adelaide helped me out in the kitchen. That is to say, she rolled around and threw magnets off the fridge and ran into my heels with her roller and mushed up granola bar all over herself, all of this while yelling babble at the top of her lungs. At least she stayed occupied. 

There she is trying to get at the camera, granola all over her face. 

Cutie.

I do have to add, after my post of frustration over Adelaide's progression it was like she changed overnight and was going to prove me wrong. Within a few days she was sitting up all over the place and she just started crawling this week. She's also pulling up to get all of her books off her shelves. So exciting!! Our appt. at Children's was so reassuring and I'm so grateful for their input, especially our occupational therapist and prosthetist. They are so helpful and are very honest. They also love Adelaide. We also got to meet a new family at the clinic. Their first visit with their 3 month old. She had a little more arm then Addy but same side. I think it was reassuring to them to see a happy toddler bouncing around. 

I'll leave you with a another pic from Adelaide's birthday party. We're so blessed to capture pictures of Adelaide with her great-grandparents. 4 generations of women!!

5 little fingers, 10 little toes...

My sweet baby Adelaide turned 1 yesterday! It's hard to comprehend that it's been a year already. Tyler and I have had fun reminiscing over all of the crazy and fun and new and not so fun things that have happened since we found out our little bundle was on her way. It's been interesting to say the least but Adelaide has been such a blessing to our little family. She has taught us so much already, since the day that we found out that she would have 5 little fingers and 10 little toes. Those 5 little fingers love to feel my lips and face and love to point to say hello and wave goodbye. And that soft, chubby arm loves to stroke my cheek when I give her a bottle. 
Anyway, enough with my sentimental talk, it makes me sad at times to see her growing but I love the fun and talkative toddler she's becoming. She even managed to say a variation of "thank you" on her birthday and the whole family heard her do it!! So here's a few pictures from the festivities...

We went with Smallcakes cupcakes. Very tasty! This was Adelaide's personal cake. She demolished it as you'll see later. 

Part of the birthday table. The owl theme was a lot of fun! I know she'll never remember this party but everyone had fun and looking back at the pictures will be so worth it. Plus I made all of the decorations on the cheap. 

There she is demolishing. She loves chocolate and she almost ate the entire thing!! Notice that she even managed to get some in her hair. For some reason every time she eats she has to feel her head. That is the entire cupcake table. 

Present time!! She wouldn't even try to open the gifts, she just wanted mommy to open them quickly. 

Adelaide was definitely spoiled this birthday. But how can you resist this face! It just screams "buy me toys and cake" just to make her smile! Good things it's easy to get her to smile without those things. 

a $200 kitchen redo...

Tyler and I have finally finished our cheap kitchen reno! It took us 2 weeks, longer then we thought it would but it turned out pretty well for two people that have never really worked with cabinets. My dream is to eventually gut this kitchen, tear out a wall and all that kind of fun stuff but until we have the finances to do so, this will do. The kitchen wasn't that bad in the first place, just not our style. We needed a little more color or less color, however you want to look at it. So here is the before...

Again, not that bad, just not a fan of orange cabinets. We also were blessed to have my Grandma Sextro donate her oven to us, she got a brand new one and mine, the one pictured above, took about 20 min. to preheat. The new one doesn't match but it works well and some day we hope to get matching stainless appliances...we can dream. Although, as a side note, Tyler did find a free stainless dishwasher on craigslist that we picked up. Not sure if it works yet but the people giving it away just didn't want to deal with it and bought a new one...sillys. So, here is the after...

We put frames around the doors to give them a shaker look. It makes them look a little less homemade. These cabinets were literally built into the house in 1950, guess that's how they did it back then. We still have to get hardware but it feels nice and fresh. I'm working on getting some curtains made with the new sewing machine I got for Christmas! We're also stealing an idea from pinterest and making pendent lights above the sink with Ball glass jars. 

We are really enjoying the new look and are happy to have it pretty much finished. It felt like we were doing all of this for Adelaide's birthday party that's this Sat.!! Some day we also hope to add some cork floors maybe?? One project done and on to the next, that's how we work. Here's a look at some of the chaos that was our house while painting...

That's Adelaide scootin' down the hall, just saying hi! The vent that we uncovered was a mess, had to fix that one. And our dining room was turned into a kitchen. Happy to be back to normal. And I don't think I will ever paint this many cabinets again, it was horrible. But in total we've spent less then $200 and it was totally worth it. 

Need to post Christmas, guess I'll do things a little backwards! Our lives have been crazy lately.