The House Tour…

Let me begin by saying, we LOVE our new house!  We feel very blessed to be here, and we look forward to making many happy memories here!  I know several of you have asked for pictures, so here you go…

View of the front.  It is such a dreary day!  Notice my van in the driveway.  It’s out there because…

our garage looks like this!  Ahem…lets move on!

This is what you see when you walk in the front door.  This house is very open, which I love!  We are probably going to set up our formal dining room table where the kitchen table is…eventually whenever I find the screws that go to it that connect the table top to the legs…oh the joys of moving and losing stuff!

If you look to your left, we have a couch (in our kitchen), which has a funny story.  We were going to put this couch in our bedroom, but we could not get it through the hallway!  So, we brought it back out, set it here and ended up really liking it, so we just left it!

If you keep walking and look to the left, there is the den.  I’m getting some pillows made to add some color since everything looks so bland right now!  I am also looking for some end tables to we can get some lamps up.  Also, a big thanks to my mom and Frank for our new TV!!

If you turn around from the den and look back the other way, you see the kitchen.  I LOVE my kitchen!!!!!!  There is so much storage space and so many neat details.

I also love the view from my sink.  If I am washing dishes or cooking, I can look out and see the girls playing.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my walk-in pantry!  Oh my goodness!  Because of this, I have many EMPTY cabinets in my actual kitchen since all of our food is stored here!  As well as cleaning products and odd shaped things like our crock pot!

Past the pantry is our laundry room – not very big, but there is motivation to keep it a little clean since there is no door!

Between the laundry room and door to the garage there is a half bath, but I didn’t get a picture of it.  I do love our bench and storage area by the back door!  I have good intentions to paint that canvas to go above the hooks.  Wonder how long that will take me!

This is a view from the hallway looking back into the den

This is Selah’s room!  There is still a lot to do in here.  I need to get some type of rug/carpet and get things on the wall.  You can see the mirror that goes over her dresser, though.

Another shot…I love the built in bookcases and toy box in the middle of them.

Here’s Myla’s room!  We’ve got to get stuff hung up in here too.  We are also painting the white dresser pink.  She picked out HOT PINK, so we’ll see how it turns out.  I love the bedspread on her bed.  My grandmother made it a long time ago, so it is special!

The girls’ bathroom…pink and girly!  Nothing else, would do!

This is the master bedroom!  I love our room although we still have lots to do.  HA!

I love having a little sitting area in our room.  I’ve got to find a table and lamp to go in between the chairs.

Our bathroom.  The shower was a walk-in shower that doesn’t require a curtain, but I couldn’t handle not having a curtain!  It has two shower heads and a bench in the middle which is neat.  Oh, and to the right of the shower is a floor to ceiling mirror.  Lovely.  Just what I’ve always wanted.  A gigantic mirror RIGHT outside of the shower! The toilet is also to the right in its own little room.

We have a screened in porch on the back of the house, which I know we will enjoy as it gets warmer.

All of our firewood!  HA! 

View of the backyard

As I mentioned before, I love the details of the kitchen.  I love these built ins. 

And I love these basket drawers…great for our bread, etc.

I also love that I finally have a good place to hang this picture that my mom gave me and Michael our first Christmas we were married.  I’ve just never had a good place to hang it.  Now it is above our stove…which is gas, and I LOVE it!

I also love this little built-in bench seat by the front door.  Again, I must find something to hang over it!

I’m such a nerd, but this might be my favorite thing about the house.  There is a huge walk-in closet/storage room in the garage.  I love having all of my wrapping stuff handy, and it will make getting Christmas stuff out SO easy!  We also have a floored attic for the things we don’t need as often!

There you have it!   That’s our new house.  I will have to post more pictures as I get things better decorated.  I hope you enjoyed your tour!

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

Joshua 24:15

PS…I just counted that I used the word “love” 19 times in the post.  Can you tell how I feel about the house???  HA!

Here Goes…

Okay, so I am going to attempt to catch up! There is nothing terribly exciting, but I went back through my pictures over the past couple of weeks, and I am going to try and give the highlights! 

Something that God has laid on both mine and Michael’s hearts recently is homeschooling.  Myla will start kindergarten in the fall (which blows my mind), and so her schooling has become a popular issue in my mind.  I will save my convictions and reasons for another post, but recently a member of our church, who is also a homeschooling mom, invited us to come observe their day of school a couple of weeks ago. My friend, Jamie, also came, so you know Selah was beside herself that August was there!  (As far as the homeschooling goes, if you think about it and God lays it on your hearts, would you please pray for me…that I would make the right decision.  Thanks!)  Okay…back to Selah and August!

Selah just squeals with delight anytime she sees August.  August, on the other hand, would run for cover, I think, if he knew how to run yet!  It all starts out pretty innocently…just a gentle tap to the head!

Then she moves in for a kiss!  As you can tell, at first, August is a little unsure.  I love the look on his face!!

But then he decides he is game for a kiss, so he grabs her by the hair and lays one on her.  HA!!  These two are so funny!

That same night after we had seen the Booths, the girls went over to their house while Michael and I went on a Valentine’s date.  We were going to go to a nice restaurant on the Square with a gift certificate that we had, but when I picked Michael up at work, he said, “Do you just want to go have Mexican?”  He knows the way to my heart!!  So, about the picture above.  Myla asked me if she could pick out her clothes, so I said, “Sure".  Thinking over the course of four and a half years, surely I have taught her a little about dressing and looking cute. BUT, much to my chagrin, she doesn’t think she looks cute when I dress her.  In her mind, she looks much better in an ensemble that she picks out!  She couldn’t believe that I was letting her wear this out, so she was SO excited and proud of her outfit!!!  I love Selah’s face in this picture.  She’s like, “Oh my, this is an interesting get up.”

Then she’s like, “I can’t even look!!!”

Gotta love a girl for standing out in the crowd!!

Last weekend, we decided to put the trampoline up. I’m not sure if I mentioned on the blog (probably not since I haven’t blogged in ages), but several weeks ago I found a full size, brand new trampoline at Goodwill (LOVE that store) for $69.  Myla loves a trampoline, so we decided to get it for their birthdays.  The girls were so excited!  Patience is not a virtue of Selah’s, or mine either for that matter, but she kept saying “I jump, I jump!”  We kept telling her to be patient…I think that is what Myla is telling her above!

She finally started saying, “Be patient” and just dying laughing everytime she said it!

YAY!! Success, it was finally put together and ready to jump on!

We are going to get an enclosure net soon, but for now, Daddy just got on there with them to keep them near the center.  AND, within FIVE minutes of jumping, Selah starts screaming her head off.  We didn’t even see really what happened, but she evidently dislocated her wrist.  She was holding her hand, and when we looked at it, it was just dangling at the wrist joint.  (Sorry, I know that is gross…especially for “non-medical” people like myself).  Michael immediately starting looking at it and did something and he said her heard a pop.  He was so worried it was broken.  He was very concerned, which in turn made me terrified!  We made a run to our pediatrician’s house, whose husband happens to be Michael’s boss as well as a PT, so we wanted them to take a look at it.  She looked to be fine, but it was certainly scary!  We vowed we would sell the trampoline, but I think we have decided we are going to keep it.  I just pray we have no more injuries!

Later that night, after Selah recovered, we decided to make s’mores in our fireplace!  The girls loved it!!  We are enjoying our fireplace so much, and Michael has become really good at starting fires and keeping them going!

Another thing I’ve done recently is paint some furniture that we inherited from Michael’s grandmother.  Selah needed a dresser in her room, but I didn’t really want it to be brown, so I picked a color that was in her bedding and painted it!  I forgot to take a true before picture before I started painting, but you can still tell the original color.

These were the drawers before

And here is the after!  I love how it turned out!  I would love to get new hardware for the drawers, but goodness, those little things add up and I figured that is something I can always do later.  I did spray paint those with some Rustoleum paint, and it does look a lot better!  I also painted the frame of the mirror that goes with the dresser, but I didn’t get a picture of it! AND, it has yet to be hung on the wall!  Why is it so hard to hand stuff on the wall when you move??

In other exciting news, Michael and Selah both had the flu last week!  I took Selah to the doctor thinking she probably had a upper respiratory infection.  I was shocked when they said she had the flu, but she did.  We started Tamiflu that day, and by the next morning, she had this reaction on her legs, ankles and wrists.  It looked so bad!  (I’m putting these pictures in case this happens to anyone else!)

By the next morning, it had spread and it looked like purple bruises.  You really can’t tell that from the pictures, but it looked BAD!

It has also spread to her back, neck and face!  I took her into the clinic again, and they said it was a reaction, most likely, to the Tamiflu.  There is like a twenty letter name for it, but I have no idea what it is.  Needless to say, it definitely had me alarmed, but I’m happy to report that she is much better!  She will still get red and splotchy if she gets hot, but for the most part, she is cleared up.

I have mentioned on here how much I love Pinterest!  I’ve gotten a lot of ideas…some I have done and some I’m still waiting to do!  But, I saw these blocks on there, and I just loved how they looked!  So, I made a set for each girls room.  I thought they turned out cute, and they will add a lot of color to the walls…you know…one day when they actually get hung up!  This is the set for Selah.

And here is Myla’s set.  I hope that with God’s help, we will be able to teach her these things!  She is such a sweet girl with a kind and loving spirit!  I pray she remains that way.

Okay…that’s as caught up as I can get!  Next up…pictures of the house!  I’m going to take some today because we have friends coming over so it will be semi-clean and picked up!  By the way, it is 7:53 am, and I have been able to do this entire post this morning while the girls are STILL sleeping! Gotta love late-night revival!!!!

WOW…

I feel like my blog is dying a slow and painful death!  We have had the busiest couple of weeks since moving into our new house.  We are right in the middle of a two week revival at our church that has been incredible.  I have never been more challenged spiritually than I have this past week.  Needless to say, by the time I get home a night after a 2 hour meeting (which has my mind in motion) and get the girls in bed, I’m pooped!  I haven’t taken many pictures recently either, but I’m going to start doing better.  AND, I’m going to try and get some pictures of the house this week since several people have asked me to!  We are loving the house, and maybe one of these years I’ll get it decorated and actually have pictures on the walls!!  Sorry to be so behind, but I plan to play catch up soon!  Oh, and did I mention that Selah AND Michael had the flu last week!  Did I mention  we’ve been busy…

Valentine’s Day!

I’m a little late posting about Valentine’s Day, but I have felt a little behind with the move and all!  We are getting more settled in, and I hope to post some pictures of the house soon!

I had the girls’ little gifts waiting for them on the table.  This was them walking in.  Ignore the suitcases and boxes!  HA!

Selah was MOST excited about her Elmo balloon!  Every time we go into the Dollar Tree, she loves to see the Elmo balloons, so I was excited to get her one.  The poor guy had to go blow one up because all they had blown up was Valentine’s Day themed ones!

Myla loved her balloon too!

Selah also got a Elmo that gives kisses, so she was “Elmoed” out.  Myla got a My Little Pony and some candy.  Can you believe My Little Ponies are still around??

Daddy wasn’t left out on the gifts either.  This was his bag…17 years…wow!

Of course, I got this idea off of Pinterest, but I got a deck of cards and made a little booklet with 52 things that I love about him.  I think he liked it! 

Another Pinterest idea, but I made the canned cinnamon rolls into hearts. The girls loved it!  They love their “cimmanin” rolls!

I tried to get the girls to pose before we ran some errands.  They decided to play an impromptu game of peek-a-boo!  I’m so thankful for my Valentines!!

Weekend…

This weekend has been very laid back and fun!  On Friday we had some friends come over and play and the girls anxiously awaited their arrival at the door!

Our friends from church, the Carpenters, just started the adoption process. They are adoption from South Korea, and we are so excited for them to start their journey.  Jill came over on Friday so we could brainstorm some fundraising ideas.  Oh, the joys of fundraising!  They are starting from the very beginning, and although we have been greatly blessed, we still have a ways to go too.  I think we have some great ideas though, so we are excited!

Myla stole some hugs from Selah while they waited! For the most part, they get along well.  Of course, there are moments where they pull hair, hit and scream, which makes moments like this picture above so precious!  They really do love each other!

This may be my favorite picture of all time.  I wish the light coming through the front door wasn’t so bright.  Selah is so sweet on her tiptoes while Myla is kissing her on the head.  Melt.My.Heart!

After our friends left, we had lunch.  Selah ate a whole bowl of Ramen noodle with her hands.  I’ll let you imagine the mess I had to clean up!

Friday night, Michael and I went to an adoption conference and got to hear Russell Moore, author of Adopted for Life, speak.  It was awesome!  My parents kept the girls and they, of course, had a blast at Checkers, Holli’s Sweet Tooth, and Square Books, Jr.  They got some Sesame Street tattoos, which they all applied Saturday morning.  Selah calls it a “pattoo”.  She thought it was a sticker, and she kept trying to peel it off. 

The girls got quiet Saturday morning, so I went to find them and saw sweet little feet sticking out from under the drapes in our room. 

They were hiding in there with their big bag of candy from Holli’s chowing down!

After naps, there was some play time with Daddy!

Lots of dancing and twirling and flipping!  Selah wore jeans for the first time, and it was hysterical.  It was like she couldn’t walk in them.  Too funny!

For dinner, we went and had Mexican.  Selah was introduced to cheese dip, which was a BIG hit!  She would just lick it off her chip over and over…then she dipped her quesadilla in it and licked it over and over…then just her fingers.  To say she liked it was an understatement.  She kept us laughing the whole time we were eating.  For dessert we went to Sonic and got ice cream.  She loved it too!

Myla requested a Oreo Sonic Blast, and she was sweet enough to share some with her sister.

YUMMY!

Love this picture.  Myla smiling…Selah shoveling ice cream in!

On Saturday night, we got to catch up with our friends, the Becketts, that now live in Birmingham.  It was great to get to visit with them!  It’s been too long.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures.  And, I didn’t take any pictures tonight at our friends, the Northcutts.  We went there for the first half of the Super Bowl.  The kids had so much fun!!  Now…I’ve got to go.  Three minutes left and the Giants are marching down the field.  Go Eli!!

Cooking for the Month…

This month, I decided to try and have a better plan when it came to meal planning and grocery shopping.  I feel like every week I go to the grocery store and spend over $100 and by Thursday or Friday we are out of food…scrounging around all weekend looking for something to eat!  I hope I’m not the only that feels this way.  I mentioned on FB that I was doing this, and I had several people that wanted to know more about it, so I decided I would do a blog post about it…and you know I’ll “pin” it as well!

The most important thing, to me, is to make a meal plan at the beginning of the month.  While the girls napped on Monday, I spent two hours planning our meals for the month.  Actually sitting in front of a calendar, looking at the days I would need to cook and the days that we would not be home, etc.  I planned meals to cook on Friday that will last us through the weekend with leftovers.  After I did my meal plan, I made my grocery list.  I also looked at the calendar to see if there were days that the girls had to take snacks to MMO, and I went ahead and got things for that too to try and avoid “quick” last minute trips to the store that usually end up putting more in my basket than I need.  I also bought several frozen skillet meals (Voila) to have just in case.  I felt good going to the store with a plan although my list was REALLY long!  Another note…my mom came over after school to keep the girls so I could go to the store.  I find it extremely hard to take them with me when I need to buy this many things!

So, here’s the list!  Long, huh??  It was the first time I ever left Walmart with TWO baskets.  I was pushing one and pulling one.  I heard someone say as I walked by, “She must have a lot of kids!”  Ha!!  Many of the meals that I planned could be fixed ahead of time and frozen which will make life even easier!  Yesterday, I kept a friend of mine’s little girl which was great because the girls were entertained so I did a lot of the prep work for my meals!

I started out with all of my veggies.  I chopped them all up…which is my least favorite thing to do when it comes to meal preparation.  So, getting that done was GREAT!!

I made two recipes of “Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken” that I found on Pinterest.  Although it was two recipes, I think it will actually be four meals.  I went ahead and chopped everything up and put it all in a Ziploc bag.  On the day I cook it, I will dump it in the crockpot, add the liquid mixture and leave it alone.  How easy is that???  Recipe is linked at the bottom

While I was chopping veggies, I thawed my hamburger meat to make taco soup and chili.  I’m going to make those tomorrow and freeze them until needed.

Chopping veggies makes a mess, but at least it’s only one cleanup right??

Another recipe I made for the month is red beans and rice.  I actually ran out of bell peppers (I must have misjudged) so I will add those the day I cook it (in the crockpot…best invention ever).

Another recipe I made was chicken fajitas (also found on Pinterest).  I didn’t want to add all of the liquid ingredients so I just wrote the recipe on the Ziploc so I wouldn’t have to dig through the recipe box (or look on my computer). 

SO…Here is my menu for Feb…

Feb. 1 – Breakfast (pancakes out of box mix)

Feb. 2 – Chicken Fajitas

Feb. 3 & 4 – Won’t need to cook because we have plans

Feb. 6 – Chicken Jambalaya (Zatarran’s box mix) & edamame (LOVE steamable edamame)

Feb. 7 – Chicken Tacos & Taco Rice

Feb. 8 – Pork Tenderloin (Hormel…already seasoned), edamame and sweet potato chips (recipe on Pinterest)

Feb. 9 – Chicken Stir-Fry

Feb. 10  - Leftovers from Chicken Tacos

Feb. 11 – Pancakes

Feb. 13 – Chili & Tortilla Chips (love to make tortilla chips out of Ole tortillas at Kroger – on the Mexican food aisle)

Feb. 14 – Hopefully I’ll be out on a date!

Feb. 15 – Leftover chili

Feb. 16 – Chicken Enchiladas (Recipe is on the back of the Santa Fe Philadelphia Cooking Cream – YUMMY)

Feb. 17 – Red Beans & Rice

Feb. 18 – Leftovers

Feb. 20 – Taco Soup & Cheese Quesadillas

Feb. 21 – Leftover soup

Feb. 22 – Pancakes

Feb. 23 – Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken & Cauliflower poppers

Feb. 24 – Chicken Stir-Fry

Feb. 25 – Taco soup

Feb. 27 – Chili

Feb. 28 – Chili leftovers

Feb. 29 – Chicken Fajitas

I hope this helps someone!  If you have any recipes you would like to share, I’d love it!!!