Family Room: Before + After

The fireplace wall in the family room had been an eyesore since we moved in two years ago. We cycled through several different options for renovating it, ideally wanting to tear out the fireplace entirely and build a floor to ceiling fireplace in the corner. But we ultimately ended up doing the simpler (and cheaper) option which was having new built-ins installed and then painting everything white. It's amazing how much bigger the room looks now. We also finally got around to getting a rug for the room and actually hanging things on the wall. My favorite feature are the brass mid-century cabinet knobs from Schoolhouse Electric. The only thing left to do is replace the tiny ceiling fan with a new brass light fixture I'm eyeing (also from Schoolhouse). And buy my dream sectional (but that might need to wait until Simon is less destructive). I'm excited to decorate the shelves for Christmas now!

 

Pink is the new Black!

We actually found out the gender of the baby early on, at my 12 week ultrasound. But we decided to wait until my 20 week ultrasound (which was yesterday) to announce it, just to be sure. The girls had been counting down the days to the "gender reveal" and were so excited to find out (hoping it was a girl). The doctor doing the ultrasound ended up with a kidney stone the morning of my appointment so we thought we would have to postpone. But later in the day the nurse called and said the doctor was still in a lot of pain but was going to come in anyway and could see us in the afternoon. Which was great news for us since Ben was heading out of town and would miss out if the appointment was delayed further.

I made little poppers with pink confetti to reveal the news to the kids. It was so fun to see their reaction.


Gender Reveal from Sarah Black on Vimeo.

We are all so excited to have another baby girl around here. And it will be nice to get one more use out of all those girl clothes in the attic...

Raven Rock State Park

The girls didn't have school on Veterans Day so we decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather that day. We missed Ben who was out of town for work that week. We headed to Raven Rock State Park for some hiking. The kids were troopers and did a great job hiking. They loved climbing around on the rocks and playing in the river. We rewarded ourselves with an ice cream stop on the way home.

Yates Mill

This particular walk around Yates Mill was so beautiful. There were leaves falling down all around us the whole time. Simon loved crunching through the leaves and throwing leaves and rocks in the water. He also loved fighting with Oliver over every little thing for most of the walk.

Duke Gardens

Scenes from a beautiful, quiet foggy morning run. It was surprisingly warm and humid for early November.

The boys and I walked around Duke Gardens and loved seeing all of the gorgeous fall colors.

All the kids got their flu shots one evening. The kids were nervous and excited. No tears were shed and Oliver even giggled after he got his shot. I loved this picture of my crazy crew.

NCMA sculpture park

It had rained for several days straight so we were thrilled to get out on a beautiful walk at the Art Museum sculpture park. The boys loved running through the leaves and the fall colors were beautiful.

Simon was so proud of the lizard he caught one afternoon. "Mommy! I caught a wizard!"