The rest of the downstairs

Living Room, Dining Room, Office, Entry, Bathroom, & Laundry Room

The living room- as you walk in the front door, it's the view to the left.

Again, my mom and sister get all the credit for the amazing decorating. We gave them a budget and photos of the house from before we moved it, and they found some amazing things that all fit perfectly!

I love the wall color and how bright the living room is!

The view of the dining room from the living room.

Dining room

It's fun to have an actual office now!
The only difference to the office since these pictures were taken is the new desktop computer we just got. I'm so excited to have ALL our pictures and music on one computer instead of spread between two laptops!

There are more built-ins in the office.
The picture on the right in the above photo was a wedding gift to me, from Rick. It's a picture we took on our trip to Kauai- we got engaged on that lagoon! He had the photo enlarged and framed, and I love that we found the perfect place for it in this house. (It had been on the wall in the old house, but taken down to make room for the playroom storage unit.)

The office has been the perfect place for all of our framed pictures honoring Portland. Eventually we will fill the book shelves with some of our favorite books and lots of photos of our extended family!

The entryway

The view down the hall to the kitchen and family room. The door on the right is a bathroom and the little entrance on the right leads to the laundry room and out to the garage.

Bathroom

Laundry room

View of the stairs from the entry/front door.

And looking down from the upstairs

Don't forget to check out the Kitchen & Family Room pictures by clicking here!

Coming up next: Part of the upstairs.

Finally- Pictures of the house!

Kitchen & Family Room

It's hard to choose a "favorite" room in our new house, but if I had to choose, the kitchen and family room would be close to the top of the list! They are so cozy and make it easy to entertain with lots of open space.

A full view of the kitchen

I love the island!

It's hard to tell because of the island, but the kitchen has 2 ovens... never thought I would love that feature as much as I do now! Cooking multiple dishes for holidays and everyday occasions have been great!
Built-in desk in the kitchen
If you look closely at the wood box on the desk, it says Portland Bottling Co.- a gift for Mother's Day that my mom found at an antique store!

The countertop

The kitchen and family room are right next to each other, I love how open it is.

And I LOVE the built-ins in the family room!

Mantle above the gas fireplace

I have my extremely talented mom and sister to thank for all of the decor'- they are wonderful!


Coming up next: Living Room, Dining Room, & Office

Also to come: Master Bedroom & Bath, Kids Rooms, Bonus/Play Room, and Others

Happy graduation to me!

I pretty much got the best graduation present ever from my wonderful husband...

Yep, we're going back to Disneyland!!

In mid-July we will pack up and head down to SoCal for 5 fun-filled days at The Happiest Place on Earth! Now, if you recall, Rick and I went to Disneyland on vacation last year, which you can read about here... without the kids... which was SO MUCH fun.

This year, we'll be taking kids- or rather a kid. (Yes, let the Mommy Guilt and years of future therapy begin.) We will be bringing Riley with us and leaving the boys behind in Oregon (please don't judge!). We have talked for years about taking trips with the kids alone at some point in their lives, because with 3 kids less than three years apart, alone time with mommy and daddy can be limited. We decided this would be a great time to take Riley to Disneyland, but not so much Cooper at 20 months... We were on the fence about Tyson, but ultimately decided to just take Riley. A small bonus- she is over 40 inches, making her tall enough for many of the rides, hopefully she'll be brave enough to try some of them! :)

We're all set for the trip:

Non-stop flight on Alaska, which I know doesn't sound that exciting, however Southwest doesn't fly non-stop from Portland to Orange County, so I'm looking forward to it!

Almost 5 full days at the parks!

Riley's Halloween costume still fits- Sleeping Beauty- so, we're hoping to get her all dolled-up at the Bippity-Boppity Boutique!

The new water show at California Adventures will be open by then!

And my favorite part- we're staying at the Disneyland Hotel! :)

I have loved Disney since I was a very young girl. I remember the magical feeling I felt walking down Main Street- a feeling I still get every single time! I have so many fond memories from family trips to Disneyland growing up and with different friends over the years. But, I am so excited about this trip and seeing Riley's face light up over and over throughout our visit... I can't wait!

Like I said, in my eyes, the best graduation present ever!

A sweet moment

A little over 2 years ago, when I started this blog, Riley and Tyson had just celebrated birthdays (2 and 1, respectively), and Rick's mom Doris had passed away within 5 days of their birthday party. Unfortunately, the kids were much too young to really remember their grandma, and the day of her memorial service we found out we were pregnant with Cooper, so there aren't even any pictures of her with Cooper.

We need be better about talking to the kids about the grandparents they will never really know in person- Rick's dad Cecil passed away 15 months before Doris did, while I was pregnant with Tyson. We had a couple of pictures of them up in the old house, but haven't put any up in the new house- yet.

Rick wanted to go and visit his parents' grave site on Mother's Day and bring flowers, so he decided it would be a great time to take Riley and Tyson, too, now that they are getting older and have a better understanding about things. On the drive over, Rick told the kids where they were going and explained that they wouldn't be seeing Grandpa Cecil and Grandma Doris in person because their bodies had stopped working and they are in heaven. One of Riley's questions was: "How did Grandma Doris drive to heaven if her body stopped working?" :)

Since that day, Rick has had a couple of other great conversations about Grandma and Grandpa with Riley, and I am so thankful the kids will grow up at least hearing stories about them.

Here are a few pictures from their visit:

My favorite photo from their trip...

Prince and Princess

I love how creative kids are and how their little minds work!

Last night, Riley brought down a blue princess dress for me to help her put it on. Right on her heels was Tyson, carrying a purple princess dress... for me to help him put it on! I gently suggested that maybe he could be a pirate instead, but he insisted on wearing the dress because he needed to be a prince! Quick thinking... I dug deep in his drawers and pulled out the perfect outfit for a prince...

Doesn't he look handsome?
I knew all the ring bearer suits would come in handy someday!

They were happy to play around as prince and princess...

Even doing a little dancing! :)

Cooper was having fun with all of the music, too!

Mother's Day 2010, featuring Daughtry

I can sum up Mother's Day weekend at the Thames house with these words:

I'm blessed.

I love quality family time.

and

Daughtry!

This sweet angel made me a mother for the first time a little over 4 years ago, and I've loved her a little more everyday since then!

Riley is at an age where she finally enjoys sitting for pictures with us- the boys, not so much!

We got a couple of great shots with grandpa!
(But none with grandma, which would have been appropriate for Mother's Day!)

Cousins

Mother and daughter- aren't they cute?!

Mr. Wonderful!

And our endless attempt to get a quality family picture...

This one would have been perfect if I hadn't been looking at my grandma's camera instead of our camera like the rest of the family. :)
Not bad
Good, but not good lighting
Better lighting, but a grumpy Cooper! :)

My sister, Robyn and I went to Seattle Sunday night to see Daughtry in concert- AWESOME!! Rick was nice enough to watch all 4 of the kids so we could go- he's amazing. :) Going to the concert with Robyn was a great way to end a perfect weekend filled with family and celebration!

A quick drink and bite to eat before the concert.


Enjoying an adult beverage in the beer garden before the concert.

And the Avatar versions of us! :)

These two guys are in Cavo, the opening-opening band. We missed their set, but got to see them up close and personal afterward!

It's about to begin!! Robyn was SUPER excited (I was too, but she is a super-fan!)

A couple of good shots of Chris Daughtry

Sisters