Party at our house - Part 3!

Friends, it's time to reveal the kitchen. This was similar to the living room in that I really had to see past the paint colors. And I like color, clearly I really do, but yellow doesn't do a thing for me, and neither does floral, and the green cabinets were just a bit much. Please observe:

Also if you zoom in and look really closely, you'll see that all of the knobs and drawer pulls were the shapes of different fruits. Though I initially didn't like it, both Sara and Julia said how helpful it would be if you could instruct a small child to get something out of "the banana drawer" or "the peach cupboard." Regardless, those things didn't stay.

Of those two doors in the corner, the one on the left leads to the dining room and the one on the right is the pantry.

Remember my psycho specific list of things I wanted in a house? And how mature citrus trees was on the list? This is me freaking out about owning my very own orange trees. It is also a good view of the chandelier that was above the dining area that had small lamp shades with roosters on them. Hmm, can you guys think of anything that is LESS me?

Anyway, here are the afters. When you walk in our front door, the kitchen is straight ahead.

Oh how I love the grey. Erica, of course, picked out the new light fixtures, and accessories. The slate flooring is not my favorite. In fact, if anyone is thinking they want to install slate in your house, come walk on mine first and listen to me complain about trying to keep it looking clean. But it is what we have and I'm dealing.

We had our cabinets painted and replaced the knobs and hinges (shocking, I know). I love having the island a different color, and though it isn't what I thought it would be, I like it a lot. I'm not a fan of the butcher block counter top on the island though. Everyone that cooks well says they love it, but remember that I don't cook, so meh.

I finally got filler for this lovely little basket that Erica found, and the whole thing came from Home Goods. I am seriously a slave to that store.

Erica made the 'EAT' sign. Just whipped it up the night before she brought it over. She is amazing. She has a tutorial on her blog if you'd like.

And one more to show that we use our kitchen. I miraculously had this morning off of work, and Philip made me pancakes. He tried to teach me, since my one and only attempt like 6 years ago was disastrous, but I told him he can just be in charge of making them.

Our house is truly feeling like our own, which I love. Erica was fantastic in getting our kitchen and family room decorated within a few months, and we've slowly but surely been working on the rest on our own. We have now finished the downstairs bathroom and are almost done with the office. I'll then tackle the front living room and dining room, which I'm not going to lie, I'm dreading. But then at least all of the downstairs, aka spaces that people see, will be finished. I feel that this will forever be a work in progress, but I love making my house all homey. I still sometimes can't believe that I'm an adult and that this is all mine. Love it, love it, love it! Thank you again Erica!

Newport Beach 2011!

Last November, Sara and I talked about how much fun we had when we went to Newport Beach waaaaay back in 2007. And how we LOVE the beach. At that point, we decided that we should plan a trip for this summer! So our vacation idea baby grew for nine months finally became a reality last month! It was fantastic. Enough said.

We were in charge of the bikes this year since Sara and Jason took them last time, and seeing this set up the morning we left made me ridiculously happy, because doesn't it just scream, "VACATION!"?

CALIFORNIA OR BUST!

This is how Philip insists on doing road trips now. If we are ever not talking, or I am reading, then he gets to watch X-Files or a movie on the ipad. It's a really safe thing to do.

So we got there, and we rented the same beach house as last time, which we absolutely love. And then we just hung out for the next seven days. Our entire Jones family came, which was pretty much the best ever, and therefore, I now present pictures of random adorable children and siblings. Since most the time the caption of these pictures would just read, "Adorable!" I'm not going to narrate these, unless something specific comes to mind. Just know that I have the cutest nieces and nephews on the planet.

Someone thought he was quite tricky...

These boys LOVE Philip. And though this picture is crazy blurry, I love how hard they are laughing.

We roasted marshmallows every night. And Sara and Philip almost grounded me from the marshmallows because I couldn't stop eating them. Roasted marshmallows = small piece of my soul.

Just messing with my camera trying to figure out settings, but isn't my ring pretty? 6 1/2 years later I still think it is prettier than any other.

We took the ferry to Balboa Island one day, and the twins were seriously concerned about the situation. When we rolled down Nate's window he yelled, "Noooo!"

"My name is Jake, and I like to work out." Seriously, what Jones does that?

I love this picture and everything that is going on in it. A bit of castle building, Amy's head only, Kev being skinny, Beth lifting Sophie out of the waves, and most likely some merciless teasing in there.

"I weigh 44 pounds!" says Amy. "So do I!" says Natalie. Stinkin' skinny minnies.

At one point my goal was to see how many of Caleb's bones I could get in one picture. After several attempts, I think this was the winner.

One night my mom played Don't Eat Pete with the little kids, and even after Sophie would get to Pete, she would still eat the rest of the Apple Jacks as fast as she could. Maybe someone hasn't had sugared cereal before. :)

When Reese's glasses turn to sunglasses in the sun, Sara always says he looks like a blind baby. But isn't he the cutest blind baby you've ever seen?

Remember that they love him? This was about the time that Nate started calling him "Daddy Philips," which was totally awesome. I got a video of him reading to them because they thought they were really funny and cracking themselves up. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

These kids say hi to everything and everyone, and loved to just stand by the gate and wave and people watch and point.

Sara trying to help Jason with his shirt situation.

Love these next three...

Nail painting party!

Sara and Aly were such fun moms and took crafts for the kids to do and things to make. They made necklaces with bottle caps and the kids all wore them for the next two days straight.

Amy is such a little lover. She'll be a mom to anyone who needs cuddling.

Chasey is such a stinker but you can't help but TOTALLY love him.

Nielson girls being cute and crafting it up.

Bros before hos yo.

Pouting. Lol, life as a 9 year old is rough. I mean, someone took his seat, and that just wasn't cool.

BIKE RIDES!!!

Watching a 5 and 6 year old try to play smash ball is hilarious bordering on crazy frustrating.

The Tommy Bahama chairs might have been a Costco special this year and maybe everyone in our family bought a couple. We would go set up camp early so that we could stake out a spot big enough for all 95 of us.

This is the start of the greatest sand castle ever...which you'll see about a thousand more pictures of.

The boys had the brilliant idea of using that giant green tub as the base of the castle and it took all three of them to lift it, only for it to crumble almost immediately.

Brynn's buns. Now that's just cute.

Caleb's scapulas, also cute, but kind of hilarious.

This picture is going to resurface in about five years when these girls are 13 and think they are super hot.

Okay, at this point our castle is totally awesome and we built a tunnel and wanted to see the water go through it when the tide came up.

Noelle was the master of the stairs and built stairways everywhere on the castle, as well as the small roads to the surrounding suburban communities.

Jake telling Chase about how important this bedroom community is. And that track homes are the way to go.

TA-FREAKIN-DA!

So after it was finished, the goal was then to get the tide to go through the tunnel, as well as the moats on either side. We were waiting for the trifecta. We all sat and watched the tide for like 20 minutes.

And it finally happened! But unfortunately my camera was zoomed in and I didn't realize it so I missed the actual shot of all three moats being filled with water. Lame.

And then right after the trifecta, it collapsed, which was the perfect way to end our week at the beach.

We love Newport, and love our little beach house.

Maybe again in 2013 we'll get to come to our Newport home and once again have the most relaxing week of our entire year. Sighhh, who wants to go back with me?

And of course we had to make sure that the Hula Pie didn't go to waste before we left...

I can't believe that our vacation is already over and I am already trying to decide where to go next. It was such a fun week to have absolutely no plans and just be completely relaxed and spend time with my favorite people in the world! Beach, books, Joneses, my babe, Sugar Shack, and shopping, there really is nothing better!