Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Before Pictures

So here it is (for my sister who keeps asking for pictures).....I'll post some of the "before" and try to actually take pictures of the "afters" to upload in the next day or so. Problem is some things aren't completely "finished" so it's hard to post something in the half finished form!
So here is the outside with our driveway.....we park & typically enter into the side door under the carport--yay no stairs to climb!
These are are family/play room--unfortunately I didn't really get "true" before pics, I started taking them more when the house was in demolition mode--oh well, at least it's still before to some degree. Notice the very hideous carpet on the stairs that go up into the kitchen from this room, this was all over this room. Tile has been put down and we are still in process of trying to paint, add lighting, etc. in here. We had some water damage so we had to replace studs & drywall on the bottom half of the wall around the room. And back in the corner is a full bath that will be the kids bathroom---we still have to paint & probably will eventually update some, but for now it works & we'll use it as is when we get some tools out of it this weekend! Oh & the best part---see the closet in the back--there are 2 sets of them, the one on the far left has our washer/dryer--yay! No basement to trek down with loads and loads of clothes! I'll take that anyday over having to do laundry in basements the past 6 years!
So as you walk up the stairs you enter into the kitchen--again full demolition mode. All of this was ripped out and floor ripped up, so very brand new kitchen! I never thought that was possible. But it's been so wonderful indeed! We still have some lighting to work out in here but basically this room is done! Looking straight ahead at the fridge is the "old dining" area, it's small so we wanted to use the other side that was more open. So the "old dining" (which still needs painted is going to be craft room---and could serve as a school room in a few years if that is the route we feel led to : )

Formal living room in the front of the house. Right now is painted--I love it! But at this time we don't have much furniture, so we did put all our furniture in the back family room. Currently this room has a collection of all our "other things"---so hopefully this weekend we will get it cleared out and will probably set up Casey's office in here til we can put it elsewhere in the house and/or get more furniture to use it as another living room--great for get togethers or bible studies, etc.
This is one of the 2 bedrooms of the kids upstairs---basically both look the same with the awful wallpaper. There was also some water damage upstairs as well, so once the wallpaper was down we had to have the walls all re-dry walled....so it's like new up there! And there is a half bath in between the 2 rooms--again it was all ripped out b/c of water damage & the dry wall redone. It's almost finished, but not quite ready to use. This picture doesn't do it justice but these rooms are probably 3 times bigger than the 2 tiny rooms we had at our rental house---so great for them to have so much more room to play in and spread out! But on the flip side our master is downstairs and is probably on smallest room yet of all 5 houses we've lived in. Our furniture fits so that is all that matters. As I found in our last house with the gigantic bedroom it just became a breeding zone to collect piles and piles of stuff, that was so unorganized! So I'm hoping the less space for us the better--as there is no extra room to put anything that doesn't belong in there! So below here is our room---also had to remove wallpaper and has now been painted. Trying to figure out how to dress the windows still......
More to come soon!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Luke 2


So all of December we worked on memorizing the passage of Luke 2: 1-14. Over the past year we've worked on memorizing longer passages of scripture, as Reed has raced through the single verses I had very quickly! Last Christmas I saw another blog where this was done with young children, so I knew I wanted to try for us to do it this year, since we've been doing longer passages the past several months already. He did so good! I know this video doesn't quite do it justice because he was very silly and I had to help him-- as he was saying it very fast---but he basically got all 14 verses; so I'm finally now just posting! And I know this is really exciting for grandparents---probably not so interesting to anyone else : ) FYI: And for some reason I've uploaded multiple times & it still is not in sync with audio & video??!! Does anyone else have this problem with videos?? What am I doing wrong? I made with our photobooth & for some reason it keeps doing this. So no one may really want to watch this except grandparents!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Merry Christmas! and Happy New Year!

A little out of order....but here are some of our many pictures from last week! Today is Casey's birthday! As you can see from the picture above--he is 34! He likes to remind me that I am still older as he is just now turning 34 and in October I already turned 35......ha, ha, funny isn't it
So we celebrated with a some decorations, a big meal tonight, and a cake.....Emery-Claire kept saying all day "happy birthday to me!" When I constantly reminded her "no it's Daddy's birthday." She didn't really seem to care much except for asking me for the cake! So here's to our New Year's birthday......we love you & are so thankful for you! As all day he has been working nonstop on getting our house ready to move into next weekend! Yes, next weekend we are moving it all in! I can't believe it's coming up so quickly....Wednesday my mom is meeting me to keep the kids for a few days so I can actually be productive in taking things over there. I can't wait to begin to post more pictures as it has come such a long way!

Christmas day--since we stayed put this year due to our big upcoming move! We had some dear friends also in town....so we all ate together that afternoon. Here is Reed with his big buddy, Deacon!

Emery-Claire thinks Deacon is one of her best friends too!
Christmas morning.....Mary Etta in her new chair
Reed with his new Georgia football---almost every picture I took that morning looks like this--same expression just different gift! So cute, he was just so excited!
Our one attempt at a family photo of all 5 of us........best one we got
Waking up to the presents.....so we don't make a huge deal about presents (we don't do Santa--so they know their presents are from us); the kids only get 3 each & and I had a family one (movie & game). But with Reed only being 4 and the oldest, it obviously just didn't register that this "morning" is a little different than other mornings. So they woke up at their usual time, come to me asking for breakfast, and then as we all walk out to the living room it was so cute as their eyes got so big and Reed kept saying "What!!", "What is this?!!!"--then there was laughing & giggling & running; they were so excited & full of energy! It was so cute & fun!
Some Christmas Eve pictures after our church service
Does anyone else's pictures usually end up looking like the above one?
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!! We are so thankful for all the Lord has done in our family this past year, and look forward to this new year ahead of us! What many blessings He has bestowed upon our family. May we bring Him all the glory and honor due His name--as we grow in knowing Him more & making Him known!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas Program

Reed had his first Christmas program this week! It was so fun to see him up on the stage (and he was on the front row too!) As you can see from my pictures our seats weren't that great too many heads and I wasn't directly in front of him, so I kept getting teachers heads, other kids, or blurry shots---oh well, these were some of the best ones I could get. I did videotape quite a bit of it too. I have never been able to download directly from our video camera to the computer, so I may try, but not sure if I'll get it or not. So for now the pictures will have to do.
Smiling so big! He did so great & we were so proud of him! He sang along and belted out every song they sang! And they did about 5....as you can see his side profile below very into his singing!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

A Growing Girl

this week our sweet, sweet Mary Etta turned 17 months!!! How are we almost to a year & a half old already??!! She is just growing & doing so many fun new things. I'm realizing in the craziness of 2 other children, moving, & just life in general I have got to record these things so I don't forget! So this may be boring for most of you....so you can skip this post unless you're a grandparent---who always loves hearing these milestones too!
  • saying so many things these days (I almost don't know if I can remember them all at this exact minute) but some new ones I've noticed are: "men" (as she folds her hands for the start of the family prayer at meal time and then tries to join in the 'amen' at the end), baby--all the time! upon seeing pictures, playing with dolls (which she'll just be like her big sister as she is carrying them all over the house), of course Daddy, Mama, bye-bye, uh-oh, shoe, ball (are still heard often in the day too)---there may be more I just can't think of them all right now
  • loves music!! she is into musical toys and books and will press the buttons over & over again to bob her head & shake her body to the music as she dances
  • loves fingerplays too---shakes her little finger for "this little light of mine" all the time for us to sing it to her! and even tries to join in on the "mine" and "no".......as well as playing peak-a-boo (she just smiles & giggles as we say where is Mary Etta)
  • chasing her brother & sister! she just thinks it's the funniest thing for her to chase them or for them to chase her---even though the loud screams seem so loud in our tiny house, it still is so sweet to see them having so much fun together
  • she loves doing the Catechisms! i think awhile back i may have posted (maybe i did, maybe not??) that at 14 months she started answering the 1st question of "who made you?" and she would (and still does) say "Ga" for God; now for the next one "what else did God make?" she opens her hands out wide (as I modeled this for her for some time now) for 'all things'
  • she love to be held, snuggled....such the baby of the family! and loves if you're on the floor to sit in your lap....she does the 'back up' (where she backs into our lap); she'll occasionally wake up in the late evening or even the middle of the night---nothing on a consistent basis, but just sometimes....and after cuddled will go on back to bed & sleep fine; she does tend to be our light sleeper, so when we move in a few weeks she will continue to have her own room for now until she is a little older
  • she's such a sweet, sweet baby girl.....and we are ever so thankful for her---our little "surprise" of a blessing, that i found out about just a little over 2 years ago.....i didn't know how i would do it with 3 children under the age of 3, but somehow the Lord has sustained us all---some days harder than others, but only by His grace indeed!!!
I have more pics to upload from some fun things this week, but was too tired to do it. This post is mainly for me to record about Mary Etta. Be back soon!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Sisters





Can really have lots of fun together, having tea parties, playing with dolls, just doing lots of girly things! I'm so glad it seems that these 2 (just barely 14 months apart) are really beginning to adore each other! It is fun to watch the two of them interact & engage with one another. Of course right now Mary Etta still doesn't have many words in edgewise--compared to her very chatty big sister, but I know before long it will seriously be non-stop chatter around here! Oh how different boys are for sure! But I do love having both & experiencing their many differences, a blessing indeed!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Christmas Time is Here......

Enjoying our first snowfall here this past weekend!!






Isn't that the line to one of the songs in Charlie Brown Christmas? I believe so......as I should know since I think I can quote that movie right now--as when give the option to watch a movie, that is ALWAYS the top choice these days! We are Charlie Browned out around here!! We have a book, the movie, my mom even found a CB tree they can put in their room---they love it! We have also been working on some new scripture memory--we're trying to memorize part of Luke 2 for this advent season (and Reed likes to always tell us that is what Linus says). Anyways, lots of Christmas around here....we decorated this past weekend (still with our artificial tree--boo :(
I had hopes for a real tree this year since we are not traveling, but with all our house preparation going on Casey hasn't been home much, so basically there is no time to go in search for a real tree. Maybe one of these Christmas's we'll get to it. We've been doing our advent calendar (thanks to my friend Rebekah with her wonderful list of verses & symbols--they look forward to it EVERY NITE!!! And just lots of music and singing.....we did a white elephant gift exchange with my family when we were together at Thanksgiving & I've been (well we all have been since it's in the car & the kids ask for it constantly!) enjoying my new CD (thanks Sarah & Rusty :) Dave is a good friend of theirs.....& I love the sound as it reminds me of my Harry Connick Jr. Christmas cd. That's all for now, as I'm off to be productive while it's still naptime.....because I'm sure as soon as I do I will hear little people waking up :)