KICK!!

Fall Dove Hunting

I know this was a LONG time ago, but I have been getting all my photos uploaded to my Flickr account and I came across these in my September folder.







We didn't get to take any dove that evening. Probably because we were a little too noisy and moved around a bit much. Oh well, it was a fun time and looking at these pictures brought back some fond memories!

Progess...Slow and Painful

Progress at the house has been slow and painful over the past few months. When you see the pictures you are going to think that a LOT has been done....what you have to remember is that is has been a LONG time since I updated the blog. This progress has seemed to take much longer than it should.

I have days where it doesn't get to me and days when I was to just SCREAM at the frustration. Alas, I suppose that is how it goes for everyone during this process.

Okay, here goes the update...

LOTS of wires being put in




Packaging materials and trash is everywhere



Garage doors are in



Upstairs bath/shower is in (you have to look closely)


Bedrooms have drywall


Kitchen bar is framed up


Vaulted ceiling is drywalled


There is actually more drywall up now and it makes the house look a lot different; easier to picture each individual room since you can't see through them, lol!



I promise to update the blog soon with family pictures and stories....cause our house isn't the only thing happening in our lives, just the most time consuming! And seems to be what people want to know about these days.



Hope everyone has a joyous 2012 full of abundant blessings!!

"Then he will give you rain for the seed you will plant in the ground. And He will give you bread from the grain from the ground. It will be good, and more than you need. In that day your cattle will eat in a large field."
Isaiah 30:23

Russ & Cami

The older I get, the more appreciation I have for my brother. He has turned into quite the craftsman, building most anything he can dream up. Russ also grew into the role of "Uncle" quite well. I think it was hard for him at first. 8 years ago he was still in college, living the good life, and it's hard to see the value in your sister's measly family at that stage in life. But now, several years and a niece and 2 nephews later, he has grown up into Uncle Russ.



My kids adore him! He wrestles with them, plays the Wii with them, reads to them and is just plain SILLY! That's the best part of being an aunt or an uncle...you get to be the silly one and not always have to be responsible and a "meanie."

He does spontaneous things, like take them home from our Annual Frazier Thanksgiving in "Miss Daisy" (aka my parents mid-life crisis car)




That girl in the front seat...that's Cami. She is Russ's girlfriend and not only do I adore her, but so do the kids. She is a wonderful person and is as beautiful inside as she is outside. I sure hope she sticks around (hint, hint RUSS!!)

House - November Update

Here's another little house update for you. I know it has been awhile, but it has felt like things were sort of stalled out and there wasn't a lot of interesting things to share. Now it looks like a house from the outside and progress is being made on the inside, so while I can't say that I see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, I can see that we are making the final turn. Here's another look at the plan that we chose and how our house is "supposed" to look.

Here is how the house actually turned out. The biggest differences are that we extended the garage, carried the porch all the way across the front, and did without the dormers.  The garage is also wider, so the double doors just made more sense.  The dormers were purely decorative, so we opted to save the expense of those and use that money in other places.

This is the back side of the house. The master bedroom and bathroom are on the right, you can see the patio doors and picture window under the deck roof, and the west bedroom window is on the left.

We had an unfortunate thing happen over the Thanksgiving weekend. The wind gusts here were so bad that it blew a LOT of the shingle off the roof. They had only been on about 2 weeks, but the temperatures hadn't been high enough for them to seal, so when the wind came up on top of that hill, the shingles just blew right off. They have been fixed, but I haven't been out to get a new picture. I believe all of the siding is also on this side of the house now. I will be there tomorrow sometime, so hopefully I will have a new picture to post.

This final picture is our back deck.  This isn't the best picture and it isn't completely finished yet, but I just had to share.  This is CONCRETE!! 

When we were having the discussion about saving money, I knew that one HUGE chunk was going to be our massive back deck. I had seen pictures of stamped, stained concrete on Pinterest and thought that it looked really awesome. So I asked Kelsey about doing this and he told us that in fact it would save quite a bit of money to go this route vs. the composite decking we were looking at. I am not going to say that it was super easy, because we had to choose almost everything from pictures in magazines or the internet; like the style and pattern of the stamp and the color of the concrete dye. In the end it turned out Amazing and I can't wait to be able to enjoy it in the spring. Kelsey admitted, after it was done, that he was really nervous about doing it and didn't get much sleep the night before. He had never done it before and I told him that it is okay to try new things!! I don't think he or Jeremy had much faith in me when I made this suggestions, but so far the outcome has FAR outweighed the risk involved with trying it. In the picture above it still needs a couple coats of sealant to protect it and make it all shiny, but that couldn't be applied until after the curing period.

Work has moved to the inside of the house now, so I have been told.  I am anxious to go out tomorrow and see all the work involved.  Tomorrow will mark 2 weeks since I have been there and 3 weeks since I was there to pick out the placement for the light switches and electric outlets.  That doesn't sound like it would be that hard of a job, but believe me, IT IS!!

I am starting to get the itch to pack boxes and prepare to move!!  We only have a few decisions left to make and then it is just a matter of getting everything installed and hooked up.  I have told myself from the beginning that I would wait until after Christmas to start packing and getting things ready and SO FAR I have done a pretty good job of that.  But, I know that once the holidays are over and it is time to start packing away the Christmas decorations I am going to be so anxious!

Preston Turns 8 - part 2

It was a hard decision this year. What type of party to have?! 

Preston waffled back and forth between several things before finally deciding {maybe with a little coaxing} on LEGOS!

I was excited because I had seen several ideas floating around on the internet via Pinterest for C.U.T.E party ideas!  Have I mentioned my adoring love for Pinterest and the Internet?!

Since this was the 8th year of big, themed parties, I decided to scale this one back just a bit and focus on one small area of the house and to limit the number of friends that I let P invite.  It sounds really harsh, but it made for a much LESS stressed out mama on party day!

The first thing I couldn't wait to make were the party favor bags!  I saw this idea and thought it was PERFECT!  My bags were much smaller, but I think they turned out just as cute!  A special thanks to my friend Lindsay who bailed me out when I ran into a problem...I didn't have any pop-dots!  She came to the rescue and helped me out!

I also googled LEGO fonts and found the one that I used to make the "PRESTON" banner.  I printed it out in size 500 on white cardstock then cut it out and added it to 6x6 pieces of blue and red cardstock.  Then I threaded them together with yellow string.  The lego men on the end with the #8 I also found on the internet.  I printed the HUGE LEGO head out and just cut it out and taped it on the wall.  The LEGO bricks that I stacked the goodie bags on are just Capri Sun and Kool-Aid Jammers boxes that I wrapped in Dollar General wrapping paper.

Preston isn't a fan of cake or cupcakes, but I knew that a lot of his guests were, so I made a few for them and some sugar cookies for the birthday boy.  My mom has a cupcake pan that is square so I used that to make the cupcakes, frosted them with Lego colors and added M&M's.

Same story, second verse for the cookies.  Only for them I used a pizza cutter after rolling out the dough to make a variety of different square and rectangle shapes.

I had a couple of LEGO themed games planned and the kids obliged me for a minute.  They were really having fun just playing though.

The first game was to see how many LEGOS they could pick up with a straw and put on their plate.  It was a LOT harder than it looked, but they got the hang of it pretty quick.  It was definitely a game that had them thinking strategy...

Sometimes they sucked so hard, they LEGOS had a hard time coming off the straw!

Looks like Kirstin had the most suction power!  Look how BIG that LEGO is!!

The second game was to see who could build the tallest tower in 1 minute.  Jasper had quite a strategy for his tower.

When time was up we set them up on the table to see how they compared.  The birthday boy was happy to see that his tower was the tallest!

Cambree's tower had a bathroom on the top...she told me so!

Dear Preston,

I have a hard time believing that I have been a Mama for 8 years now.  You are definitely doing your part to keep me young!  A love of reading has developed and nothing makes me happier than to see you sitting on the couch or in the chair reading a chapter book!  I also really love seeing you read to your brother and sister.  I know you are creating memories that the 3 of you will cherish when you get older. 

You are learning what it means to be a loyal friend.  Though it's a struggle some days, you are learning what it means to "have" someone's back.  You are also starting to step out of your shell a little concerning your faith.  I have heard you on more than one occassion talk to your friends about Jesus.  That warms my heart.  While I know there is so much more I should be doing to grow your faith, you are obviously taking it in and making it a part of who you are.  Your heart is still soft and you don't like to see others hurt or upset. 

However, you do have a very competitive spirit and you don't like to be on the loosing end of anything!  Being a good sport is something we work very hard on.  You are already talking about college and what sport you want to play when you get there.  I am NO where near ready to send you off to college, but I am proud that you are thinking about your future!

I hope that your 8th year is one of great blessings and great accomplishments for you!  You are turning into the young man that God desires you to be.  Always keep Him in your heart and you will achieve great and wonderful things!  I love you more than you will ever understand!

Love,

Mama

Preston Turns 8 - day 1

Preston turned 8 years old on October 18th. I know, I am terrible late with this post or set of posts. BUT, I was busy planning and executing all the details of this birthday! Better late than never, right?!

The morning started with phone calls from grandparents!  I can't remember, but I think this might have been Papa Rusty on the phone.  If i recall correctly I heard Preston telling him something about a 4-wheeler!  Oh my!!

As tradition would have it, we woke up early on the actual DAY of his birth to enjoy a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls.  This year the night before Preston asked me to have a "surprise" drink for him the next morning. I chuckled a little and said I would see what I could come up with.   After a little thinking I thought that a little Sparkling Grape Juice would be the perfect birthday morning surprise drink!  If you have ever heard the story about our 7 person "romantic" dinner at the hospital when Westynn was born....this choice of beverage will make you smile...just like it did us!

The birthday boy and his yummy breakfast goodies!

We sang happy birthday ~ and Preston did the birthday dance!

EVERYONE loves birthday mornings!!

I made Preston take a picture with both Jeremy and me.  I don't think either one of the guys was thrilled with my request :)

I, on the other hand, don't get many chances to have a picture with Preston, so I was loving it!

 

Preston also took brownie cookies and juice pouches to share with his classmates that day.  We decided to wait and have his party later in the month when his cousins and aunt and uncle would be here to help him celebrate.  They live in Houston and we hadn't seen them since February, so having them here for the party was a BIG deal.  I'll do another post on the LEGO party!!