Room Re-Do

For several years now, our daughter's room has been a pretty pink girlie room! It was full of pink gingham with lime green accents. But this year, she decided that she wanted to re-do it for her birthday present. This sweet picture of her with some of her friends gives you an idea of the pinkness!


The inspiration for the new room came from our friend, Lindsey's room. Our daughter looks up to Lindsey, so it was a natural for her to want to pattern her room after Lindsey's. Our daughter picked out the bedding and the rest of the room was built around that.

After lots of shopping, crafting, painting and more, here is how the room turned out:


Lindsey painted the big C on an old ceiling tile that I had salvaged from the trash a couple of years ago. She also created the wall hanging you see on the right near the lamp.



The lamp is one I had crafted to fit in the pink room. Here is what it looked like then:


We removed the ribbon and painted the shade brown. Then we added a bow and button to embellish it.



We already had this jewelry box in her room. It has three little windows for placing photos. To make it fit in the room, we glued ribbons to the back of the spaces. We also added little 'gems' to make it even more interesting. You know, once you get started with that glue gun, it is hard to stop!


Add this canvas creation also by Lindsey,



and the curtain scarf and ribbon embellished mirror,




and the room is complete! Our daughter is thrilled! I think it is a much appreciated birthday present!

(You can see more of Lindsey's work by clicking here.)

The Gift

Our son as been asking for a "real" bow and arrow for a long time now. Usually, when he asks for something, its a passing phase and he will quit asking after a while. That wasn't the case with this. The closer we got to his birthday, the more he talked about the bow and arrow he wanted. This last week, he kept telling me about how Daddy was going to go to the store and get him a bow and arrow for his birthday.

So, a couple of days ago, Daddy DID make a trek to the store and got our son this:


When he opened his gift yesterday, there was no surprise. He'd been telling me for days what he was going to get! There WAS a lot of excitement, though! And he was more than willing to try out his shooting skills in the back yard. Daddy had set up some "hay barrels" for target practice. It turns out that this model is too big (the pounds of pressure are too great for him to be able to shoot it by himself), so we will have to exchange it for a smaller one.

It doesn't matter, he got his real bow and arrow and the stories of shooting hay "barrels" and someday a moose have replaced stories of Daddy buying a bow and arrow.

My Baby....

...is not a baby anymore!



Happy fifth birthday, baby!

Birthday At the Beach Revisited

One of the fun things about our family beach trip this past month was that it was in the same place we stayed on vacation six years ago. In fact, this year we stayed in the house right next door to the one where we stayed six years ago. It was at the same time of year too! We celebrated our daughter's first birthday while we were there.

I took the picture on the left on the beach that day. I had written birthday wishes to her in the sand and sat her down for a picture. You can tell that the bright sun hurt her blue eyes, and she wasn't so happy.

I remembered this picture during our recent trip and decided to replicate the picture (on the right). Her blue eyes still don't handle the bright sun too well, but she looks little happier. And a lot older...and a lot taller...and a lot more grown up........can't keep her a baby forever, can I?

The Beach

Our lives have been in a little transitions lately, so I have not taken the time to write many blog posts. You see, we are transitioning from a laid back summer routine (full of lots of fun) to the more scheduled routine of school. And while I LOVE the flexibility and spontaneity of summer, it's always good to return to the structure of the school year.

So, before I get too far into the school year, I must finish telling you about our summer. Our most recent trip to the beach was a wonderful time for us. We met my hubby's family at Surfside Beach, South Carolina (near Myrtle Beach) for a week of togetherness. We rented a large house with a pool one block from the beach. All twenty-two of us gathered for family fun, and we're glad we did.



Right away, we gathered on the beach at evening for some family photo opportunities. You can check out how it turned out by clicking here and here and here and here and here and here. (Hey, if that's a lot of "heres" so you could just click on over to my photography blog and read and scroll until you've seen them all)
.
We also had our Christmas in August celebration, and were excited by how much fun that was. You may recall that everyone was to buy a gift for the person whose name they drew. The only rule was that the gift could cost no more than $1 to buy. It's amazing how much fun it was to bargain shop and use coupons to accomplish this task.

Here's the run down on the gifts we bought:

To our nephew, our son gave a battery operated boat...perfect for playing in the pool or bath tub.

Our daughter gave one of the nieces a Barbie doll.

My hubby gave his brother-in-law 4 micro-fiber cloths for washing his vehicles.

I gave my sis-in-law a recipe package which included 3 cookbooks, index cards, pens and fingernail polish.

All of the items we gave were paid for with ECB's at CVS. When you sign up for a CVS card and purchase select items, CVS gives you Extra Care Bucks that can be used like cash at your next visit. I had accumulated enough of these for us to get our gifts and spend no money out of pocket.
Want to know more about playing the "CVS game"? Check out this tutorial at moneysavingmom. I highly recommend this program at CVS as a very effective way to save a LOT of money! While you are at it, check out all the other ideas for saving money on moneysavingmom.com

The gifts we received at the Christmas in August celebration were great, too!

Our daughter got a diary complete with a lock and key. She was THRILLED!

Our son got a child-sized basketball with the Florida Gators logo on it. He was THRILLED!


Joel got an autographed poster of Tim Tebow. He was THRILLED!


I got goodies for a pedicure, a manicure set and a pretty toothpick holder (its a pineapple, which I love....a great southern icon which symbolizes hospitality). I was THRILLED!

Everyone had fun giving their gifts and telling how they had purchased them for $1 or less. It's amazing what you can did when you get creative!

We also celebrated our daughter's birthday while we were at the beach.


She turned seven even though I didn't want her to. I made a sand bucket cake since we were at the beach, and she opened gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousins.


Nana and Papa and two other families pitched in to take her to "Build-A-Bear."


She's been wanting to go for a long time and knew exactly what she wanted to get. It was fun to see her having so much fun.


I think this is the longest blog post in recorded history. Thanks for sticking around long enough to read it.

This Man

This man is an avid Gator fan.


This man loves to pass his Gator-love on to his son.


This man knows how to have fun.


This man is very smart.

This man can carve a "mean" pumpkin!


This man collects Mr. Potato Heads (that's a story for another post).


This man lets his family travel with him on work related trips.

This man misses golf tournaments to attend his daughter's tea party award ceremony.


This man teaches the Bible to his children.

This man plays the guitar.


This man is an awesome youth pastor!

This man looks great in a suit.


This man is a wonderful provider for his family.


This man likes to stay healthy.


This man is an adventurer.


This man loves to spend Saturdays on the lake. He's awesome on the wakeboard and kneeboard.

This man builds sandboxes (and other great things for his kids).


This man loves his wife. He's so kind and forgiving.

This man turns 39 today.

This man is hot!

This man is all this and so much more!


This man is mine!

Birthday Cowboy!

We had our son's birthday party today. After a day of rain yesterday, we were glad for sunshine and the chance to be outside. We had a small party at our house, because that's what our son wanted. The ''cowboys" painted mustaches on their faces and did a little "pistol practice" with water guns (which quickly turned into a fun water gun battle....showdown at the O.K. Corrall!) They also rode and then roped the pony(which turned into a game of "rope the kids" when my hubby started chasing the kids around)! It was lots of fun and my son was very happy!

My BABY Turns Four Today!

Its hard to believe that my baby's no longer a baby! Where did 4 years go? I'm so grateful for this gift from God. What a joy and blessing my son is to me every day.


After the difficult labor that I experienced with my daughter, I wasn't sure what to expect from my 2nd pregnancy. It was a breeze! I was induced at 6:30 am, given an epidural at about 10:00 am and gave birth at 12:30pm. I only had to push 3 times. When my Mom called about an hour later (she lives in another state) and asked how things went, I said I couldn't believe how easy it was! My son came out screaming and hasn't slowed down since. He was never happy about being unable to get around on his own and when he started walking at 9 months, became a much happier child. Now he keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh A LOT!

Its My Firstborn's Sixth Birthday!

This is a bittersweet milestone for me! Six is so big and grown up. It means she's no longer in K classes, she's a 1st grader! She's losing teeth and getting taller. She's starting to lose interest in big hairbows and bishop dresses. Every day she demonstrates more and more "big girlness." Its bitter cuz I'm sad that the toddler days are over and time has flown by. Its sweet cuz she's turning into such a beautiful and sweet little girl.My firstborn came into the world 6 weeks early, when I developed pre-eclampsia. I was induced and was in labor for HOURS before she finally arrived. We were blessed that she went straight to the regular nursery and did not have to be placed in NICU! (I, however, went straight to ICU for3 days.) She weighed 4 lbs, 6 oz. when she was born and only weighed 3 lbs 15 oz when we took her home 5 days later. She was so sweet even from the beginning. When she came into the world, they put her up on my chest for me to look at. She just stared at me with her huge eyes and didn't make a sound. I'll never forget that sight!

God has blessed us and we have never seen any effects of an early birth. The only unusual thing we had to do when we took her home was put her in a bili blanket for jaundice until the home healthcare nurse told us she was fine.

(In the bili blanket)

I am so grateful for the blessing of my daughter. I pray I will be the godly mother I should be.

(Soon after we brought her home)

(7 weeks old - she grew fast didn't she?)

It's My Birthday!

Not really....
You might remember that I've already written about my birthday. It was last month. But my girlfriends and I couldn't seem to all get together to celebrate until this week. Tuesday night they threw a luau for me! We drank virgin strawberry daquiris, ate yummy food, swam in the pool, laughed and carried on. Because of a prank we pulled together a couple of years ago we have come to call ourselves the flipflop bandits. I keep promising to tell you that story, but haven't had a chance yet. So stay tuned...I'll tell it someday. Anyway, at the party there were flipflop decorations everywhere (see the flipflop lights hanging in the window?)


including a cake in the shape of flipflops (the cake was made by a member of our church who has started a cake business on the side. She does a great job!).

My gift was a bag and shoes (perfect gift every time...can't have too many). The shoes were some tevas that I've been wanting for our camping vacation out west. I was thrilled to get them!


Brook, Dianne and Lindsay even wrote and performed a song for me after we got out of the pool! Thanks, friends for a fun evening!