Picking her first apple...

She was quite serious about the whole thing.

I found one mommy.

This is harder than it looks.

I did it!

Precious hands!

Put it in the bag!

And then take them all out of the bag :)

Lowes Build & Grow Workshop

Have you ever gone to a Lowes Build & Grow workshop for kids?

If you haven't, you have a chance to go this coming Saturday. It's so much fun! We went for the first time last weekend. Just sign up ahead of time, get there on time and it's FREE! Last weekend the project was building a firetruck. It thought I was going to have to do most of it because it was recommended for school age children, but Christian pretty much did everything. He hammered every nail!

He figured out where to put all the stickers.

TaDa!! Isn't it cute??

An Update from Malawi

Remember how there for awhile I was constantly blogging about my college friend Jamie and how she was going to Malawi, Africa? Well, you've got to see what she and her husband, Daniel, have been up to! I mean seriously, I can hardly believe she's in an African village killing her own chicken dinner! Keep praying for them!

This is it...

the official last picture from my old camera. I got a new camera last year for Christmas but still loved my old camera because it was small enough to stick in my purse and have with me all the time. But right after Christian took this picture, the camera was handed off to McKenna and she pushed enough buttons to destroy it (neither mommy or daddy were paying attention). All I can get is error messages and the lens won't close. It's probably not worth fixing, so it's time to say "goodbye" to my dear camera. My first digital camera. It served me well. I know for a fact it took over 5,000 pictures! Well done, little Canon Powershot! I'll miss you!

Cousin Time!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much we've missed Abby and Emma!
And Nathan is now Christian's most talked about "best friend."
We were so thankful they could come for a visit, even if it was just for 24 hours!

All the knight gear came out...

Even Abby got in the action.

Imaginations were running wild...

and pretty soon they were off to slay something.

These two were so happy to see each other. Christian went running out to their car as soon as they got here and Nate shouted, "Hey it's my best friend Chrish."

Do you notice anything different about Abby? You guessed it! Two missing teeth!

PopPop and Grandmom joined the party too!

McKenna just loves time with her Grandmom.

Of course we tried for the picture of all five and once again it was a bit of a disaster. It probably would have been decent if McKenna had some pants on, but that's her new thing...she loves to take off her pants and diaper which always creates some interesting times.

I just have to talk about Abby for a minute. She is one of the bravest girls I know! She takes fear and sadness and deals with it in the most mature way. I took the kids to the dentist while they were here and Abby was watching Emma get her teeth cleaned and I could tell she was getting more and more nervous by the minute. She went from standing next to Emma watching it all unfold to practically sitting in my lap, squeezing my hand. But she didn't cry, she didn't say a word about being afraid. She didn't ask to leave. She climbed up in that chair when it was her turn, opened her mouth and squinted her eyes (preparing for the worst). And she did great and was so proud of herself when it was over.

And then it was time for Abby to leave. (That's when I took the above picture). Abby cried her heart out. She loves her Grandmom and PopPop so much. She loves Christian and adores McKenna. She loves being with all of us. She just loves family and I know she feels the same way about the other side of her family too. It was so hard for Abby to leave. She always has a hard time with goodbyes, which makes the rest of us have a terrible time too. But Abby's joy remains ... always! There is a spark in that girl that can't be quenched and I am so thankful for the work Jesus is always doing in her life!

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Thankfully there are a few big birthdays coming up in October, so we should have some cousin time again pretty soon.

"All over the place"

That's how I would describe the house buying process for us!

We can't make up our minds.

This house is heading to foreclosure and we like it, but it's in a neighborhood.

Then there's this beauty (hmmm...not quite). I don't even think we could live in the house... yes, it's that bad. Let's just say the only thing that lives in it right now is a multitude of cats. But it's headed to auction and it's on over 4 acres. Love the land, not the house. We would have to tear down and build ourselves.

We loved this house, but it just sold at Sheriff's sale a week before we closed on our old house.

We probably would have bought it and loved it, but I guess that wasn't God's plan for us.

And then there's our dream house (I took this picture from inside yesterday). Can you see why? Look at that view, look at the fields. We have had our eye on this place since March. It's been in foreclosure since last December and we LOVE the land. We LOVE the location (it's perfect) but the house is a mess. I mean a big mess. Lots of plumbing and electrical problems. Bad construction, etc. And the house is big, so the utilities would be expensive. What to do, what to do?

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So right now we are waiting! We're doing nothing (much to the dismay of our realtor). Since we don't have peace about anything, we're not going to do anything.

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And that's the update. Maybe next time I'll have something more exciting to share.

Guess who was here?

Who could it be?
One of the sweetest boys ever...Nate!
Ok, so it was a week ago that he was here. I'm just a tad behind with blogging. Last week was busy at the beginning and then I wasn't feeling so good, but I'm going to get caught up today!!

My Kind of FUN!!

You guys know I love a good bargain! And you know that I'm the coupon queen! Well, I also love decorating and I especially think it's fun to go visit model homes. I've visited most of the model homes in our area at least two times and I'm even such a dork that I take my camera with me to capture all the creative decorating ideas I see! So when I found out that one of my favorite model homes was having a furniture liquidation I was beside myself with excitement. I didn't really know how it would work and I had no idea if the deals would be good or not, but I went anyway. Ryan gave me a budget ahead of time and we talked about the things we actually needed (like a dining room table, dresser for Christian, etc.) and I went without much expectation and without much of a plan.

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For those of you who care...here's how it worked. It was cash and carry, so they had prices listed on stuff and you would either pick up the item you wanted and carry it around with you or you would sit on the item or keep your hand on it until a sales agent would come and mark the item as yours. When I arrived at the model home there was a line and they let 10 people in at a time. You got 20 minutes to shop and then the next 10 people got to come in. It was crazy. People running around yelling "mine." Ahhh...I loved it! So fun! It's kind-of crazy to actually be allowed to act that selfish in public, but it was "who ever gets it first wins." So about 15 minutes into my turn I called Ryan and told him to bring the other car...he got a little worried. Then I called him back and told him to call one of our friends to bring a truck. Then he was really worried.

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The deal were awesome! I wish I had been more prepared! But here's some of what I got.

Love it! Love it! Dresser with a mirror for my bedroom. I've never had a bedroom set before :) It just has not been one of our priorities...I mean who ever sees my bedroom anyway.


Okay, try not to be jealous of my room. I know, those are in fact my old living room curtains in my bedroom that don't match the bedding and they're even hung on 97cent white metal curtain rods from Walmart. And what you can't see is that there are 3 windows in the room and curtains at only two of them, but you can't see that...right? And don't look at the frumpy bed....LOOK at the black four poster bed!! This picture doesn't do it justice. I'll have to show it to you again when it's in my new house and there aren't unpacked boxes in the corner of the room. Anyway...I LOVE IT!
Alright... I hope nobody thinks it's tacky that I tell you how much I paid for this but here goes! It was $99.00 Now that might now seem like a great deal to you until I tell you that it's from the Pottery Barn Teen line and I looked it up online and that thing originally cost $1,100.00 WooHoo! What a deal! Won't that be cute (when it's not in my kitchen...apparently those metal drawers are really heavy and Ryan refused to carry it up 30 steps to Christian's room) in Christian's sports themed bedroom one day. My only regret is that I didn't buy the bed or the side tables. They were selling the side tables for $45 each and they cost $350 new. Ugh...why didn't I buy them. Oh well!

Aren't these apothecary jars the best! Can't you just picture them filled with Christmas ornaments at Christmas time and acorns in the fall and eggs at Easter....so many possibilities!

Pottery Barn Teen trash can for $5

Leather tote for $5

Isn't that a cute accessory for McKenna's room!
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What I didn't take pictures of is the brand new full Serta mattress set I got for $69 and the brand new twin mattress I got for $35! Now we have McKenna's big girl bed all ready for her, whenever she's ready!

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So the bottom line is...if you ever hear of a model home furniture liquidation - GO! And get there early! And bring cash! It's so much fun! I didn't get a dining room table (it was too expensive) but I was blessed to find some other great deals and most importantly I've been blessed with a husband who loves to spoil me and who doesn't seem to mind when I buy more furniture to pack into our already way too small house :)

1-2-3-4-5 little reasons I haven't had time for blogging...

Yes, they were here! For less than 24 hours, but they were here none the less! Please don't miss the fact that Nate has a matchbox car on top of his head! He was very proud of that balancing act!
And McKenna was very proud of her sunglasses. And the matchbox car is still there!

Emma wasn't feeling so good, so please pray for her this week that she'll be feeling better soon!

Many more pictures to come...whenever I have time to get them off my camera!