Our girl

Today we are remembering our girl. Celebrating her life.

We will eat pink cookies, answer hard questions and tell stories to the boys.

 We will thank Jesus for blessing us, nine years ago, with a little girl who changed our lives.

We love our girl.

Oh, Christmas Tree

I love our annual trip out to the Christmas tree farm. This year was no exception.  What's not to like? Bundling up, searching for the perfect tree, free popcorn, a visit with Santa, and driving away with a tree on the roof of your van. Good stuff! Here is our 2010 Christmas tree experience.

Our first stop was to see Santa. It was quite funny to see how different each of our boys were with this.

Jake ran right up first thing, not one bit leery of this jolly fellow.  He told Santa he wanted "Optimus Prime". Which is what he said last year too and I believe he even got one. He has never seen any transformer anything and never played with the one he got but asked for it again this year. What in the world?! Peer pressure I suppose.

Evan was next. He was visibly nervous. I think last year was the first year he was able to even walk by the Santa hut without a complete meltdown caused by fear.  He was so nervous that when Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas he stammered around before proclaiming, "rocking chair". Santa looked to me for clarification and Evan stuck by his answer. I was trying so hard not to bust out laughing. It was clearly the nerves talking.

Colin was not one bit happy about Santa. He managed to stand in front of him for the promise of a candy cane but there was no smiling and absolutely no talking.  Funny kids! Then it was off to find our tree.

My boys posing in front of "the one".

I'm pretty sure Matt will be happy when the boys are old enough to help with this.

Following our fearless leader.

For some reason I just love seeing our tree atop our van. The boys really enjoyed decorating the tree this year too and we only had two broken ornaments!

They are so into long underwear right now. Jacob asks to wear his to school almost every day. I think Colin just likes it because he thinks the word underwear is hilarious. After it was decorated they ooooohed and aaaaaahed over it for a really long time. I don't blame them. There is just something exciting and beautiful about a Christmas tree all lit up and decorated.

I love this picture. What you can't tell from looking at it is that they were singing their version of Christmas carols inserting the words, underwear, toot, stinky sock, and toilet, where they thought appropriate. Life with a houseful of boys is...interesting. I love creating traditions with them, knowing that we are making memories that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Tennessee

We took a little trip over the boys fall break.  It was our first time traveling with no diapers, no feeding schedules, no pack-n-play, and unfortunately no DVD player.  The boys did super for the long van ride and I give full credit to their lunch box's.  I got each of the boys a new lunch bag and filled it to the brim with goodies.  PB&J, pretzels, yogurt raisins, cheese stick, sliced turkey, fruit snacks, grapes, snack mix, almonds, water bottle, Capri sun, and a go-gurt! I gave them permission to eat whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They thought it was so cool, it kept them happy the entire drive and we never had to buy them a meal!  I will be doing this for every road trip here on out.

My grandpa lives near the Hang-gliding capital of the world.  It was one of our first stops after visiting with grandpa.  The boys loved it and we were lucky enough to see a glider take off. 

We hadn't been down to see Grandpa since Colin was born so we were long overdue for a visit. When we asked the boys what they're favorite part of vacation was, Jake said, " Seeing Grandpa Clifford!" 

They also enjoyed the hotel pool, of course. We had it all to ourselves the whole time we were there. BONUS!

We went to Rock City and the boys were at the perfect age to enjoy it! That was definitely a highlight. We also got to go on a train ride at a train museum we visited.

If you ask me what I liked best, that's easy.  I don't even have to think about it.  Quality time with my four guys!

I love my life!

Fall

I love jeans and sweatshirt weather. I love the view of our tree lined street.  I love apple cider and pumpkin patches.  I LOVE FALL!

I am filled to overflowing with gratitude for the blessing of family, beauty, love, and provision.
Blessed.
Amen.

What he does

Evan has always loved reading.

He finds books wherever he is, plops down, and gets down to business.

It is the first thing he does when he gets home from school.

If anyone ever wonders where he is, the answer is usually, "He's in there with the books."

The library is his favorite place to be. He always leaves quite a pile of books to be re shelved.

My voice gives out long before he tires of sitting with me while I read to him.

Books are what he's into. It's just what he does. All. The. Time.

Kitchen Re-do

Our kitchen has been a two part process. Part one made the kitchen functional and part two made it pretty. When we bought our house we tore down the wall paper and painted  in the kitchen. Then three months later we added an island and different cabinets so the set up made more sense.  That was part one and we did it on the cheap, in hopes of being able to do more later.

Forgive me for these first set of pictures. They were taken back in the dark ages before we had a digital camera. I guess we are still in the dark ages because we don't have a scanner so I had to take a picture of the pictures. Oh well I thought it was important to show you the BEFORE, before pictures.

Yes, that is a tiny little Evan in the corner there:)

Here are the second set of before pictures. These were taken right when we were starting to make some of our pretty changes. The wainscoating was already up around the island and even though the kitchen was far from clean I knew I had to take before pictures while they were still before. 

I have never been known for my decorating skills and up until recently didn't know what I wanted or what style I was.  I'm getting better and I get lots of help from an expert who happens to be related to me. She is the one who encouraged me to go for it when I showed her the blog post that inspired the style I was going for in my new kitchen. Then she helped me pick out colors and details, she is awesome.

Here is my new kitchen. I wish I was a better photographer but I'm not so you'll see shadows and the color is probably all wrong but you get the point. (I hope)

Shout out to my electrician husband who did all the lighting. He is dang good at his job and he built these lights himself when we couldn't find what we wanted for the price we needed. Awesome.

                               

My husband also built this cabinet. (For the same reason as above.) Yes, he can do everything. I married well, very well.

                                

I love my new kitchen and it has given me the bug to re-do all the other rooms in my house! One thing at a time I suppose.

*I'm linking up today at Metemorphosis Monday.

Did you know?

This little guy started preschool at the beginning of the month.  He goes two mornings a week.  Do you know that means I have an hour and a half two mornings a week without ANY kids at home?  It has taken me off guard and I like it but it's weird at the same time.  It should mean that I have more time for getting things done around the house or actually updating my blog, but so far it just means I'm basking in the loveliness of quiet and doing nothing.  I know I will probably miss all the noise once my boys are grown but right now I am loving my hour and a half two mornings a week!