Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I LOVE decorating for Christmas... once we found out that we were moving and it being the end of October... I think the first thing I said to Nathan was... I'm still going to want to decorate for Christmas!  He said, "I know"  Good man ;)  He really is...  The girls were really excited about decorating the tree and it really didn't take that long either... I guess 5 people decorating the tree fills up fast!  But it is OH SO BEAUTFUL!  I didn't even move around the ornaments that the girls put on... so they are clustered but I like it that way this year :)

                               
                                 Addy was sooo excited to see Charlie! :) We miss the Brownds :(

                                                                             All done!

And here is our mantel or lack there of... there isn't a mantel on the fireplace so I had to come up with something else...  it turned out cute.  (But a mantel is going up in the next week or so :)

I might post some of our other Christmas decorations just because its fun! 

Payton's big girl bed

How did this happen?  Where did the time go?  Payton is in a big girl bed.  She is 2 years and 2 months in this picture.  With our new house and figuring out where everything is going to fit, we decided to go ahead and set up her bed.  (Taylor's old bed since we got the girls bunkbeds)  Plus its easier to store the crib than the twin bed.  Payton is doing great in the bed and only gets up a few times.  She hasn't really been a problem with it at all.  It has been really nice to lay with her too and cuddle. :) Isn't she sooo cute!

We only have one baby in a crib in our house... thats the first time in 3 years!  Just thought it was worth mentioning! lol (yes we're saving the crib for another baby... one day, hopefully :) Hopefully soon we'll only have one baby in diapers :)

Never to late for Thanksgiving...

Ok... I am really behind on my post.  I want to try and catch up before Christmas... (LOL) we'll see.  Anywho... I wanted to write about Thanksgiving.  It's never to late right...thats my matto!  So my in-laws moved to SC and bought a beautiful home.  We were excited to see them and their new house and Morning Star, the church, ministry and school that they have been going to for about 2 years.  Our family and Ben and Teresa (Nathan's brother and his wife) and their kiddos came to break in the new house!  And that we did!  We spent 4 days together and had a great time.  Their new house is beautiful and fit all of us with plenty of room to spare.  Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful but most importantly the fellowship was awesome.  We were able to see alot of friends that live there and catch up and reminice about "the old days."

Here are the kiddos at the "kiddie table." 

 I made names tags and I really don't know what I was thinking because within 1 second both Nicholas and Payton had theirs torn apart... too young! lol  But they were cute while they lasted and the older girls enjoyed them.

 Jackson playing with his Daddy

 Jackson rolling around the floor

Me and Taylor  - her hair is a mess!  She is really into getting herself dressed and doing her own hair and I am really trying to let her and let go of that control... cause it's important and it's good for her.  She loves headbands right now and she likes them behind her hair not pulling her hair back.  So messy hair it is but she is still beautiful! :)

Thankful...

I find myself Thankful this evening...  I am so Thankful for many things but today its the basic essentials that we all take for granted that I am so thankful to have.  Take air conditioning and heat for instance... we don't think twice about it when we are all toasty and warm in our homes when its cold outside.  There are homeless people sleeping in the freezing cold!  Of course something sparked these thoughts.  I woke up this morning to a freezing house and we had no power.  So I was up 7 am no HOT shower and NO COFFEE...  But we made do I decided to bundle the kiddos up (because it was 60 some odd degrees in the house) and if we are up this early might as well do something.  I had some errands to run and decided to take the girls to storytime at our library.  Don't ya know... as soon as I have everybody ready and about to walk out the door the power comes back on!  Oh well... we headed out anyways.

Another thing that I am thankful for is a working dishwasher.  I haven't done a kitchen full of dishes by hand in a long time.  It is now out of the norm if you DON'T have a dishwasher.  How did we ever survive! lol  I am glad that I don't have to find out.  I must of been in the kitchen for over an hour!  YUCK!  The dishwasher that was here when we moved in didn't work good so my in-laws had a new one installed last Thursday.  I was soooo excited!  I never had a brand new dishwasher before and didn't have a second thought that it wouldn't work right... well it is worse than the old one!  It leaves a soapy residue on the dishes. Anywho... having to do a sink full and a dishwasher full of dishes tonight by hand had me very thankful for a working dishwasher.  I am getting another new one tomorrow! (hope it works!)

Simple things yes.... but I want to count my blessings and be THANKFUL in all things! 

Bike Rides...

We now have a nice long drive way and live on a culd-a-sac.  Let me tell you how much we are lovin' this!  We have been outside everyday and now that we are in FL... well the weather is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!  The girls are loving riding their bikes, walking, and playing outside.  So anywho... here are some pics of what we've been doing outside.  The girls chose to ride their bikes today.  By the way... The girls faces are yucky because of playing outside... just had to clarify. :) 

Our new house

I've been promising some pictures... so here they are.  We are so blessed to be able to live in the house that Nathan grew up in.  My in-laws built this house and raised Nathan and Ben here.  I think it is so awesome to now be able to raise our children here.  It is a large house with lots of room and STORAGE!  It's 4 bedroom/2 baths and has a huge bonus room. Here is a mini tour of the house.... the rooms that are ready that is!  Which is the kitchen.  We have lots of plans and ideas for the house.  We are going to paint just about every room in the house over time.


                                                        Here is the front of the house

 The kitchen and part of the dining room. That is the breakfast table and the open door is a room off of the kitchen/dining room and that is my craft room and Nathan's music room.  The hallway off the kitchen leads to the pantry, laundry and cleaning closet. I told you there was alot of storage!

 The kitchen and breakfast table.  Tons of cabinet and did I mention STORAGE!  Can you tell what I'm excited about! :p

Standing in the kitchen looking at the dining room and breakfast table and the craft room/ music room is the door on the left.  You can see the entrance to living room to the right of the picture.  No pics of the living room yet...

This is the hallway off the kitchen.  The first door on the left is the pantry that is HUGE, the second door is the laundry room and the door straight ahead is the cleaning closet.  I told you STORAGE!  There is a place for everything!

The pantry!!!  I just had to show this!  It is a HUGE walk in pantry with tons of shelves and space.  It is sooo NOT ORGANIZED yet... I'll get there one day.  But despite the mess I still had to show you :)  I am sooo excited about this pantry that yes I have plans to decorate the pantry (hee hee).  In the house that we moved from I had a 1/2 closet for a pantry and had to use shelves in the garage for can goods and other things... so after that... you'd be excited too!



Hope you enjoyed the mini tour.  I will update it as I finish more rooms.  Right now the pics would be of stuff everywhere.

Taylor and Addison's new bunkbeds

Well... we are at the place that we had to start stacking the kids! lol  We decided to get bunk beds mainly b/c the rooms in our new house are a little smaller and we wanted more space for them.  We found a great deal on these bunkbeds on Craigslist.  We were nervous about getting bunkbeds for them when they were so little, so we were picky about the kind that we wanted.  Nathan really wanted the kind that had stairs so it would be safer for them to climb.  Yes, Addison is on the top bunk and Taylor is on the bottom bunk.  Which is should be opposite... but Addy wanted the top bunk and Taylor wanted the bottom bunk.  So they are both happy!  So far its been fine and no issues.  There are some rules that go with the bed though.  And they are listening but it's only been a week! :) lol  In case your curious the rules are 1) no standing on the top bunk. 2) 1 at a time on the stairs. 3) They are only aloud to get on the top bunk (besides sleeping) if Nathan or I are in the room.  The girls were excited about their new bed.  We'd been telling them about it for a while now.

 Addison on the stairs

                                                            Taylor on the bottom bunk.

                                                                  Taylor on the stairs.

           
                                           Addison and Taylor, do they look happy or what! :)