A little love to the Maxfield side

This last week we went camping with the Maxfields and an old family friend (who was also a mission buddy of mine), Chad Clemens. We went about 5 miles up Logan Canyon, and enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend outdoors. We had a great time, even though it was overcast and rainy almost the whole time. We were talking about the blog and decided that we should put some shots of the Maxfields on this site because they are a huge part of our lives. Thankfully, Terrilynne had some photos of a few of us during this last Christmas season. I was pleasantly surprised that she happened to find the pics of us wearing our Halo 3 t-shirts that we got for Christmas. In this picture, we have (from L to R) Terrilynne, Blake, Mare, Kenny, Allison, and Corey. I guess Curt was taking the picture...? Peter and Rachelle have defected to Georgia, but we look forward to seeing them this Christmas along with their kids, Madison and Bryson. Adam is serving a mission in NYC, currently in the Bronx. We also have a picture (below) of Elder Maxfield's most recent investigator, Snoop Dog (JK).

BTBNL snapshot

Oh, sorry Mom. I forgot to include an ultrasound shot of BTBNL. Here it is!

Down the home stretch

Well, our kitchen is finally looking like it will be finished before the end of the summer. As promised, we have a few pictures of the process we went through to get the kitchen from gross to gorgeous.

These photos show Alli in the kitchen the day that we started demolition. Notice the yellow-green cooktop and the white and gold formica, along with the cabinets that have been coated with terpentine so many times that they have turned yellow. We also have a wall oven that is so old that all of the settings are written in latin (jk, but it's old).

The next picture is after 4 hours of demolition. We never realized that the demolition would go so fast or so smooth, because we were always a little nervous about what we would find behind the cabinets. We had to disconnect the power and rip out the old cooktop, tear up some of the already laid tile, and disconnect all of the plumbing. There was also an old vent that came down above where the cooktop was that had to be disconnected from inside the attic, where we had never even seen before.

I wish that we would have taken ome photos of our handyman, David. He was a great guy who helped us a lot, especially with the electrical relocation that I was not brave enough to tackle. The fourth picture shows the near-finished product that we have right now. We were able to remove the island completely and install a much needed dishwasher (stainless steel!) as well as a new sink and faucet. Allison and I did all the finish work on the cabinets and the counter tops. We also re-tiled the floor where the island had been as well as tiled the whole backsplash and changed the outlets so that they were white instead of bisque. The final photo shows the new oven and microwave that are on the opposite wall of the sink and dishwasher. Having the microwave above the range freed up a tone of counter space and adding all those cabinets opposite the window gave Allison a lot more places to put her kitchen goodies. Hope you guys think it looks good!

Oooops...

I had all sorts of grand ideas about this blog when Allison and I decided to set it up in March, but I have been slackin, and all sorts of family and friends have reprimanded me for keeping them in the dark regarding Baby to be Named Later (BTBNL). So, to give a quick update, we have not chosen a name for the baby yet. I am convinced that we are having a girl because of how mild the pregnancy has been. Allison has not even been sick. As a matter of fact, I doubt people would even know she was pregnant if it wasn't for the volleyball-sized bump that once was her stomach. We have discussed the name Brinkley if it is a girl, and I am trying to convince Allison that Shaquielle, Griffey, Amare, and Kobe are good names for a middle class white boy in the event we have a son (if he has a good name, maybe he'll be a good athlete?). BTBNL seems to be doing fine health-wise, and after the next doctor appointment on May 27, we will give another BTBNL update.

As for Alli and me, we are doing fine. Thanks to the miracle of the internet and cable TV, I have been able to watch most of the Red Sox games this season. Allison has been trying to choose a breed of dog for us to adopt, as if we don't have enough animals running around our yard. Last week we decided to undertake a complete kitchen remodel. We bought our house last August, and we have been barely surviving without a dishwasher. You gotta love these older homes. So, we gutted the kitchen to the studs and started over, doing most of the work ourselves. We hired a handyman to re-route our plumbing to the dishwasher and to install a 220 volt outlet, and everything went smoothly, except our 220 outlet is only pushing 140 volts. 140 volts is not enough to power an oven or stove, so we are waiting for our contractor to get a sec to comeback and fix it. Thanks goodness for microwaves and Taco Time. But, the kitchen looks amazing now and we are very happy with the results. We also got news that Logan was the 8th highest metro area for home appreciation last year, so we're feeling good about the house. We'll put pics up soon....