Well, our house is FINALLY looking like a home!! We've received all the furniture for the family room (for now), and we are so happy that everything matches and looks great!!

Here's the before...

The during...
And the after!!!!

Meet Gypsy Rose!

The day after the bookshelves were delivered, Lillie was playing with her blanket. Before I knew it, she had twisted it into a rope and somehow stuck it on her head.

The next feat was curtains. This was a painstakingly long process. Not to actually make the drapes, but to decide on what we wanted to do, and what we could afford. When we purchased the couch, the company also made custom drapes. We decided to look into it to see what our options were. We have 5 windows in our family room, 3 of which are fairly large. The designer we were working with, quoted us almost $5000!!! We almost fell over. We kept hearing words like, custom made, exclusive fabric, professional installation, blah, blah, blah!! We weren't buying it. That led us to a small family owned and operated shop here in Prince Frederick, near our home. We went in, had a little talk with the owner (Agnes), and she said she could get us a great deal. We found the manufacturer of the "exclusive fabric" and noticed a wholesale store right here in D.C. Agnes made a few calls and wrote up a proposal for exactly what we wanted from the 1st store, but with a price tag of $2300. A big difference, but we were still not sold on the idea. We found out the fabric we were looking at IS pretty exclusive, and that is what drove the price since the fabric was $50/yard!! Well, we just couldn't see paying that much. So that led us to look for different fabric. We finally found one we both loved, but it still about $30/yard. We did our homework and after scouring the internet, I found a website that sold the exact same fabric for $16/yard, which was much more reasonable for us. Still cringing at the cost for everything (now at almost $1800), Keola got this bright idea...Kim can MAKE the curtains!! I thought he was kidding at first! After much convincing, I decided to take on the project. Keola helped prep the first panel. We cut, ironed, pinned everything, and then I went to work sewing it up. We were so proud of ourselves, until...we held it up to the window. We noticed the bottom hem was short...4" short!!! We couldn't believe it! I lost all hope after that. Then Keola had another idea...call Aunty Bertha. We did and she gave us some great ideas on how to cut the fabric more evenly and some tips on how to do everything else. After a week of getting my confidence back up, we forged ahead and tried it again. This time it was much easier and we were much more successful. We calculated that after a little lag after the first panel, it took us about a week and a half to complete the drapes. This past Friday we went out to find the rods, had them cut to our custom lengths (that is a whole other story!!), and we were ready to install them ourselves. Saturday we attended two wedding receptions, then when we came home, Keola asked, "should we put the drapes up?" He didn't have to ask twice. I was so excited to see our new drapes up. After some measuring, drilling, and attaching...here's the end result!!

We are so thrilled with the results. The drapes make the whole room look different. We absolutely love the outcome!! Now, when Keola goes downstairs, he always says, "Who's house IS this?!?"

Now for the next project...the kitchen drapes and decor!! Stay tuned.

I couldn't leave out pictures of Lillie. Tonight she decided to be Sleeping Beauty. Notice how perfectly straight and flat the blanket is...our little perfectionist!!

Well, not always!! She's not crying, just making faces for the camera.

Memorial Day celebration!!

Ok, so it's been almost a month since Memorial Day, but better late than never right?!?! We actually had a visitor stay with us the week before Memorial Day. Many years ago, the Morgan family lived in Hawaii and we were in the same ward in Kailua. Heather was actually one of my young women when I was the YW president!! Anyway, Heather is here in D.C. doing an intership, but her housing wasn't ready for the first week she was here so we were so happy to invite her to stay with us. We didn't do a whole lot with her since she was working, but we did celebrate Memorial Day together. The funny thing is, I didn't get any pictures of her!!

For Memorial Day, we headed to the Calvert Marine Museum. Some friends told us that it was pretty fun for kids, so off we went. The first stop was a kids room with a bunch of hands-on activities. Here's Lillie greeting people from the lighthouse.

Next stop, the little dress up cottage. Lillie makes a cute pioneer girl.

Here's her somber state

Ships AHOY, Captain Lillie!!

A little observing time at the live sea life tank. Here's Lillie checking out the horseshoe crab. See her clenched fist...she kept her distance.

Lillie also saw turtles, jellyfish, fish, and clams. No pictures of those sea creatures.

It's OUR Little Mermaid!!

After seeing LOTS of different kinds of sea life, including these 2 sea otters that entertained us for quite a while, we went on a boat ride!!!

We rode for about an hour on the Chesapeake Bay. Lillie loved looking at all the homes on the bay and all the boats docked at the piers. She especially loved riding under one of the bridges that we often drive over.

It was a fun, relaxing day.

If we talk to you at ALL, you know that Keola and I have been looking for furniture. With the new house, came new rooms to fill. We now have a formal living room, formal dining room, and a much larger family room. We wanted to look for furniture that would hopefully last us awhile. So after visiting many furniture stores, warehouse sales, and scouring catalogs and internet websites, we FINALLY purchased a few things to fill our extra rooms.

We always knew that our "old" furniture from our Capitol Hill home would fill our formal living room. However, since we didn't have any furniture for our family room, we've been using that furniture to sit on. So on Monday, we started the set up of some of the rooms.

Here's the before...

Here's the after...well, sort of. We haven't totally set up yet. We still need to put up some art work that will finish off this room.

The living room furniture was now in place and the long awaited family room began it's transformation. The family room is coming together in stages. What we didn't expect was the LONG wait for the furniture.

Here's the before...

Then the first installment...2 chairs that flank our fireplace. We came across this furniture warehouse sale recommended by a friend. We didn't quite know what to expect, but we are sure glad we went. We found these super comfy, butter yellow chairs for a THIRD of it's original price!! What a steal!

So for about two months, our family room looked like this (with the living room couches)

Then the long awaited call came that our sectional was done!! Yipee! Woohoo!! I was excited!! After two months, TODAY was the day. About an hour ago, this is what came...

Then, this!!!!

Our beautiful sectional is here!!! I am so happy!!! The sectional is extra comfy, super big, and beautiful!!! Now after some rearranging of a few things, drapery and art work for the walls, and our bookshelves, the family room will be done!!!

Can you tell Lillie loves the new sectional?? I've always wanted a sectional, maybe it reminds me of my home in Hawaii.

This is the fabric we're considering for the drapery. That will be our next project.

When we went to the warehouse sale, we were in search for a dining table for entertaining. We found this beautiful and sturdy table for a serious bargain. Get this, the original price was over $2100!! We bought the table for $199!!! Can you believe that!??!? We only paid about 10% of the original price. Unbelievable!! Now, full disclosure, there are some scratches and knicks here and there, but after some polish, I really think it looks great.

I also think it matches the koa hutch quite well, too!

Let's see if you can find the scratches and knicks. Ok, so it's not quite fair since the sunshine is glaring and I think I got the table at a great angle. In any case, it's a great table.

The happy family!!!

On the 23rd of APRIL, we got a little surprise...HAIL!! I'm sorry, I thought it was Spring...Wait, it IS spring!! We were all surprised by the quick hail storm. You should have seen Lillie's reaction. She didn't quite know what was going on.

Happy Easter!!
Ok, so we're a couple of weeks late!! In blogging that is. We did celebrate Easter on Easter day!! Ha ha Well, the Easter Bunny was quite generous this year. At least a few weeks before Easter, Lillie kept asking, "Is it Easter yet????" Finally, the night before, we told her that the Easter Bunny might be visiting the house and might leave her a few treats. So, of course, on Sunday morning, Lillie was up and ready to check downstairs.

Lillie was thrilled to find plastic eggs filled with plain M&M's and peanut butter cups (her two favorites!). She also found a chocolate bunny, gummy bears, chocolate covered marshmallow eggs, a jump rope, princess notebook and pen, a bigger Doodle Pro (best church activity - for those of you with young kids), and of course, more candy.

Nana sent her the cutest Manuheali'i dress! Lillie was super excited to wear it to church.

Lillie with her Easter spoils!! We're working on taking pictures without the squint!

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's...Elmo??!?

Keola bought Lillie a little kite a week ago, but the wind hasn't been cooperating. Finally, today the wind was whirling and Keola decided to take Elmo for a flight.

As you can see, Lillie loved every minute of it.

One day I decided we needed to have a little photo shoot, just for fun. Here are some of the better shots. Lillie is growing up so fast and she is as cute as can be!! Ok, so I might be a little bias.

Lillie has recently been interested in using scissors. She especially likes cutting shapes. One morning, I decided to try out her skills and see if she could make a picture with her shapes. She was so excited, we made two and continued the next day to make two more. Here are her first two works of art with a caption she made up.

She's getting pretty good at writing her name, too.