Board and Batten kitchen nook

Well folks, We jumped on the board and batten band wagon.
I am so glad that we did :)

When we moved into our house the owner had painted bunny rabbits on the walls and it just wasn't our style at all.  So we put up wallpaper.  At the time I was 20 years old and the in thing to do was the wine themed kitchen.  So that's what we did.  We put up wallpaper with french words all over it, had wine bottles and french menu's on the walls.  It was nice but I never really felt like it was our true style.
Then one day I was checking out a few new blogs and I came across one http://www.thenester.com/tour-the-nest .  I fell in love with the board and batten they did in their office.  I came home and told my husband that we had a little project to start.  He of course sighed and was afraid to even ask what my little project for "Us" was.  Poor guy knew he was going to be doing lots of work.
We went to Lowes that weekend and bought all the materials.  I will do separate post on the details later.

Here are some before pics.  I had already started to rip the wallpaper down so please know that our kitchen was much nicer than this shows as the before.
 Before pics (we had already taken down a lot of the wallpaper and all of our decor.):

 My handsome hubby taking care of business.

Getting all the wallpaper down was quite a chore.  We have textured walls so our wallpaper had a special backing on it.  Let me tell you, getting that stuff off was HELL!  We will NEVER put wallpaper up again.


Mr. Handsome got all the board and batten up and started filling the holes. Check out the awesome painting from the previous owners.

Finally it was time to prime.  The kids went to nana's, the windows got cracked and we primed our day away...

 Finally it was time to paint the top, still needed to paint over the white primer but we could see it coming together.

AND THE AFTER:  (Note: we aren't done with decorating the nook yet, so don't judge the empty spaces.  We also plan on painting the round mirror a bright vibrant color and hanging it higher).  The table will someday be white and I will have cushions with a nice pattern on them.  All in precious time.

 I'm wanting to add some striped curtains.

 Still missing some decor on the walls.

 And last a picture of the kitchen, our next huge project.  We will be painting it white, changing the back splash and lighting.   I'm excited....

They say the funniest things.

Julian:  Cooper I just want you to listen (blah blah blah, Julian rambles on and off). 
Cooper: YAH YAH DADDY, I KNOW.  (Major sarcasm included from my sweet little 3 year old).

Cooper:  Mommy?  I saw girl
Me: Oh you saw a girl
Cooper: no mommy a girl
Me: are you saying girl????
Cooper: (loudly) NO MOMMY A CURL
Me:  Honey I'm sorry but I have no idea what your saying and I know your getting frusterated but it sounds like your saying girl and I usually can understand you but not this time, are you saying girl?  curl?  .....................................................................oh wait a minute..... are you saying squirrel?
Cooper: EXHALE LOUDLY "YES MOM, I WAS SAYING GIRL". (SQUIRREL). 

Tonight we are in the car and he says "Taylor Swift is a nice girl and I love her".
Me: oh you do, yes I do think she's probably a nice girl.  you love her huhhh.
Cooper:  Yes I love her and when I get older I'm going to buy her. 
Julian:  What??? your going to buy her? 
Cooper: Yah one day I'm going buy her. 
Me:  Honey you can't buy people, its illegal and not ok to buy people and I'm pretty sure you could never afford Taylor Swift anyways.  Sorry to bust your bubble little man.
Cooper: Oh.............................Hmmm well I think I will still buy her. 
Me: You better start saving right now.


Blakely:  17 months old.
Talking up a storm. When walking behind me out of her room yesterday she shut the door while she was still in her room.  I kept walking not realizing and she starts talking loudly saying "BLAKELY IS STUCK, I STUCK, DADDY I STUCK".  It was so funny to hear her little voice and she's putting her words together so well.

Blakely says "Mouse" instead of Mickey mouse and she says it in this horse low voice.  cracks us up.

Other common things Blake says
"I toot"
"I don't like it"
"go away"  (haha usually to Cooper, and so the brother sister fighting begins)
"IONNA BITE" (I wanna bite)
"IONT THAT" (I want that)
"Pick me up"  (repeatedly until you do)

and so many other phrases, we are constantly laughing with these two.  They are so much fun.

Here are the two little crazy loves in their Halloween costumes.

 Family pumpkin patch trip.

 Our little Blakey lamb

 Our little Coopy Frog

 Such an adorable frog, he was a trooper and wanting to trick or treat all night, he kept going up to the door saying "Trick or Treater"  Haha, it was so cute.

 The lamb tiring out, leggings falling down, exhuastion setting in.

 Cooper was still going strong and Blakely decided she was done on probably house # 6 or 7.  She plopped down on the front porch of some random persons house and refused to get up.  We had to pry her off the wall kicking and screaming.  It was as if she was saying leave me here and come get me when your done, I'm spent!

Update......Yes we are still alive and well :)

I think its been literally 5 months since I last posted.  Wow that is a long time. 
Our family is doing really good.  Cooper turned 3 years old in September.  He had his birthday at the fire department and then cake afterwards at our house.  It was I believe one of the best day's of his life.  He's still talking about it none stop almost an entire month later.  Blakely is 16 months old.  Updates:    Cooper is one of the funniest goofiest little boys I've ever known and I absolutely love every piece of his silly personality.  Blakely is loving and sweet and such a mama's girl.  She's talking up a storm.  She speaks clearly and well.  3-4 word sentences, its great being able to talk to her when she's upset or needs something.  Julian is doing really good.  He completed his first Sprint Triathlon this past month.  I'm so proud of him.  He trained for a year to be ready.  He plans on doing a full tri in his future now that he's done a sprint.  What a stud :)
  He's been doing some home projects for me lately.  I'm excited to share them but we are in the final stages on our kitchen project so I can't share just yet.  As for me.  I'm doing ok.  I had a bad month last month.  Work related issues.  But luckily I'm moving forward now and doing really well.  I'm enjoying some time with my little loves.  Doing house project with the hubs and getting ready for some super exciting things coming up. For instance....
Coming up in our family. My baby brother is getting married on October 28th.  Its crept up on us and I just can't believe the big day is almost here.  Cooper is the ring bear and Julian and I are both in the wedding.  Its going to be so much fun.  He's marrying a beautiful girl named Merric.  We are excited to have her as a part of the family officially. 

I figured I needed to post some pics of the sweet and tinies.  Its been 5 months, I mean good Lord.  Its beyond time for me to give an update.  I will most definitely try to post again soon.  For now check out how these kids have grown......
From June all the way to October 1st.

 9 year wedding anniversary :)

 Outdoor summer concert and cupcakes.  

 Blakely looking presh.

 Daddy and Cooper fishing.

  

4th of July fireworks.

 Cousins.

 My 30th birthday.

 Haha!

Helping daddy out. 

 Adorableness.

 Blakely taking a swim this past August at Daddy's birthday party.

 

Cousins again.

Julian finishing his sprint tri. 

Proud wifey.

 

Mommy's little helper.  

 My sis in law Jamie, My soon to be sis in law Merric and Myself. 

 Handsome little man!

 

Cutie. 

 

 Race for the cure 2012

 Coopers 3rd birthday party. 

 Cooper and all his buddies at his party. 

 Birthday boy!

 Gosh I love that little man.

 Blakey and daddy hanging out. 

 Such a sweetie. 

Well hopefully my next update will be much sooner next time.  Hope you enjoyed our summer pics.