And folks, here are the pictures of our dining room that I told you I would post. However, I think that you would enjoy and appreciate these pictures a whole lot more if I would go back and show you the "before" pictures from 5 years ago. I will go ahead and answer the first question most of you will probably ask yourselves..."Are they crazy?" And the answer is yes, we definitely are. To answer your second question, "How did they actually live in that house?" A: We actually renovated the house enough to make it livable and then we moved in. There is no doubt, this house has been a ton of work. But the handy and talented hubby has made it fun and well worth it.
The
before pictures. Don't you love the green shag? Classy!!
Dining room looking into what is now our entry way
We made the room with the stairs our entry way. So, entry way looking into the dining room.
Looking into the kitchen from the entry way/dining room. The kitchen carpet is totally gross. The wiring in this house was scary too.
You will see that we actually moved the front door in order to make this room our dining room.
View from the kitchen looking into dining room. We had to move walls around to get the dining room/entry way arranged properly.
We moved some of our furniture into this room. However, I don't think we were actually living the the house in this picture yet.
So, you've seen the pre-renovation pictures. The pictures I am going to show you now are how our dining room has looked up until a few weeks ago.
When we moved in, I was all about paining the dining room red. I was in love with red. That has since changed!
The room isn't huge to begin with, so red just made the room look dark and small.
And the reason I chose the window coverings I did: to hide some really awful looking ancient windows. However, in the past year and a half or so, we've replaced those.
Here is a before picture of the doorway before Kaycee arched it.
The arch in process. I love the character that an arch brings to a room.
We decided to bring on this mess over New Year's Day this year. It consisted of building the arch, repainting the entire room a neutral color, and replacing the curtains with blinds.
"Trouble?" "Who says I look like trouble?"
Oh Austin.
I'm not exactly sure what they are trying to do, but it was so much fun to watch all three of them play together so nicely.
My lanky cowboy. I call him "Cowboy Skinny".
Eatn' bacon for breakfast.
Carson and Kylie love to play in Austin's crib. Funny kids!
Carson telling me he wants to pray. So sweet.
Now that Austin climbs stairs, we spend a lot more time upstairs.
Kylie's doll hospital.
She's gonna be a nurse someday. I just know it!
Austin LOVES to play with the pink kitchen.
My little 5 year old who loves to color. 
No, your eyes aren't tricking you. Austin climbed into a slow-draining bathtub when we weren't looking. Pj's and all. Oh Austin.
Carson just celebrated the 100th day of school.
Opa and Oma came to babysit so Kaycee could take me out for my birthday. Thank you Opa and Oma!
Austin is constantly upstairs. 
Very entertained but always making messes for Mom to clean up.
I made some number flashcards for Kylie. It's fun to make up games to help her learn them.
The climber.
"Ah, I have a question. Can I go upstairs?"
Kaycee and I are trying to keep this boy out of cabinets. Somehow, it's not working very well.
Had to pick Carson up from school last Friday due to a fever. When we got home, I got him snuggled in on the couch and sweet Kylie ran upstairs to get him a teddy bear. 
It was a rough weekend with a sick Carson but he is finally on the mend! Hopefully back to school tomorrow.
