3rd of July

Remember Craven' Melon??? Well, they made an appearance in the "Thrill" aka Rock Hill on Saturday night, so we went to see them and some fireworks on Saturday night. We talked the Holby's into going with us as well. I snapped some pics of some of the kids. Some clothed some not so clothed.

Anderson and Aubree playing in one of the wagons. You should have seen us hauling all of the kids into the concert in their wagons.

Aubree starting to decide she doesn't love her dress Aubree trying to get her dress off She was so proud to get the dress off (and a little cooler too) Watching the Fireworks The big boys loved the fireworks Aubree wasn't scared of them at all

Grayson wasn't so fond of the fireworks, nor was Owen!

On July 4th we bought some kiddie fireworks and blew up some money out in the street! We all had a blast.

Little Miss Aubree

Just some pics of Miss Aubree from the other day. I took some of her on Thursday to try to enter her in a cute kid contest for the consignment sale that I sell my things at, but I got lazy and never sent them in. I thought I didn't get any good ones, but once I looked at them they turned out ok. Grayson jumped in a few... Of course, he's cute too! He's in his usual "no clothes" mode this day!

As Promised!~

For my mom, sis in law Bek and and any others who want to see how the house is coming along, here ya go! Some rooms are shaping up, but some are still holding areas for things that haven't found a home yet. For example, Brandon's office below is just holding some furniture that I didn't want in any other rooms..who knows what we will do with it?? The guest room/my sewing room is full of pics on the floor so I didn't even take a pic of it.

He eventually wants a nice desk in the office...eventually! The office is right off of the front entry way to the right.

The Dining Room is right off the front entry way to the left. We got a new table, which fits in nicely and a rug. In time, I will I want to do some type of wainscoting on the lower half of the walls and paint the upper and of course do something on the windows.
Grayson's Room: This was originally supposed to be Anderson's room, but things got switched around (long story) The opposite walls that you can't see are khaki. I still have some projects for his walls, just haven't finished them yet. I painted the canvases to match the vehicles on his curtains.

Anderson's Room: The opposite walls are khaki as well and vintage airplanes are on his curtains that I made. There isn't anything on his walls yet... more projects I'm working on.

Morning Room: This is our next room to paint after the kitchen is finished. We are painting it a shade lighter than the family room and kitchen color.

Family Room: The only room that is done. Actually when I took this pic, the mirror wasn't even hanging yet. I knew I had to keep my red couches, so I found this fabric as soon as we decided to build the house and decided to take a risk and pair it with green walls. The coffee table and end tables were our old lighter color wood ones, and I spent a LONG time sanding and re-staining them. Let's just say when I started I was wearing my ski jacket and gloves at the rental and when I finished them four days ago I was melting outside in a tank and shorts. It was a long project that got stalled during the spring when the pollen was so bad. I couldn't stain while it rained the yellow stuff.

Our monster ceiling fan

TV wall: The pic reads: All Because Two People Fell in Love... Love it!

The mirror is up now and so is my S

This S was in the old house, but it was gold. It's scary what a girl can do with some spray paint. I have several spray paint projects for the morning room as well. I think Brandon is pretty pleased with the fact that I'm recycling some of our old stuff and just making it look different. I'm so GREEN!! :0)

And Finally My Lovely Appliances!!! My fav: the Dishwasher!

Microwave and Cooktop. They both were too big for the holes that the builder left for them to fit in. You really don't want to see the underside of the cooktop. I think my dad took out some stress on it, while trying to beat it down to size. It fits though!!!

Double Oven and Fridge. Check out all the fingerprints already

Lastly... my half painted kitchen

Brandon still has to trim the top, so I can finish the rolling. I'm going to carry the same red and white fabric in the kitchen for the two windows over the sink.

So, we've done a lot, but still have a lot to do. Brandon told me to quit blogging, b/c it's starting to sound like a big to do list for him. I didn't get any pics of our bedroom, but it's pretty boring right now. I have ordered fabric for it and have a plan. The fabric is khaki and orange and we are going to go with chocolate brown walls. I don't even want to think about painting it though, b/c I'm pretty sure it will take a 5 gallon bucket of paint. So if you stop by make sure you bring some old clothes and your paint brush!!!!

Maybe I'll Sleep Better Tonight!

It has been an agonizing last few months with something I've not really said a lot about, but tonight maybe I'll sleep a tad bit easier! When we decided to rent the house in River Hills last August, we signed a year contract thinking we will at least be there a year if not more with trying to figure out where we would live. What we didn't know is how great of a deal we would be offered with Ryan only about a month later when we went and priced out the home. The deal would only be good, if we were to start building in March. We signed the contract in November to build and thought we could just ask our landlords to let us find a sublease... what could be the harm in that??? Right??
Well, we let them know that we were going to be building and asked them if we could find someone else to rent their home, and much to our surprise they were EXTREMELY rude to us and told us no way. I mean they were UGLY with us! Anyway, we were still set to build in March and closing end of May, so we were stuck paying four extra months of rent. Not the end of the world, but money I would rather not throw away. Fast forward to mid April and we get an email out of the blue from our landlords, explaining that they would be willing to work with us if we let them show the house to potential renters while we were still there and needing to know when we would be out for good. Of course we said yes that we would do anything needed to try to find someone else.
A week later we had a sign in the yard and a lock box on the front door and Centralized Showings had my number. If you don't know about them, CSS calls you to confirm someone is coming to show your house and at what time... etc... I cringe when they come up on caller ID, b/c of the 29 phone calls I got with the house on Greybriar... It was exciting to get showings, but it was panic mode most of the time. I NEVER wanted to go through that again. Keeping a house show-ready is NOT my idea of fun! So a few days after listing, we started getting some calls. I tried my best to make the house look decent, but didn't break my back about it. The first guy that looked at it wanted to rent it, but since there was still some paperwork, etc. stuff to work out they weren't sure if he was 100% a sure thing, so they wanted to keep it on the market. Needless to say, that's one of the major reasons we moved over here (with mattresses on the floor) a lot sooner than we intended. We were going to use June to paint, move slowly and do little projects. We ended up sleeping over here on June 1st. We continued to get showings, (one that I wasn't even aware of b/c we had already moved the phone to the new house and we were sleeping at the old house still)... we ran out to church and they saw the house while we were at church... It was a TOTAL mess.... I mean TOTAL!!!!!!!!!!! I was rather embarrassed when I realized someone had walked through there.. Anyway, the house has still been showing (we have everything out now) while this man was still trying to get his money wired in from Mexico (another long story I will spare you of)... and today FINALLY his money is in. We will not have to pay for the last three months of rent, which will make me have much sweeter dreams tonight! If you made it this far... bless you! If not, my next post will be much more fun... full of new pics from the house decorating process. I FINALLY finished painting the monster family room last night and while I'm blogging B is trying to hang curtain rods for the curtains that I made. I will have a pic of that tomorrow.. Walls are green, curtains are white and red... it really doesn't look that much like Christmas I promise. Kitchen is half painted, appliances are WONDERFUL, and most boxes are unpacked or put in their proper rooms. Anderson is in VBS this week and seems to like it so far. Grayson hates clothes these days, and by about 1pm everyday is just "hot" and needs to strip down to his undies. Aubree is too funny with her sweet little words, and phrases. She is the wildest little girl I know. I'm going to quit rambling now and supervise B on these curtain rods... He's getting no where with it. Hopefully there will be pics tomorrow????

Preschool Graduation

It's been a few weeks, but better late than never. Anderson graduated from preschool at the end of May, and is now looking forward to Kindergarten. I can't believe I will have a little guy in Kindergarten in August. He has grown up way too fast! Anderson had a great year in 4 year old preschool, even though he turned 5 the week after school started. He was always a little confused why he was 5 and in 4 yr. preschool. His teacher said he is so ready for Kindergarten and will do well. She always bragged on his behavior and how well he did in class. I'm pretty proud of my little guy. Here are some pictures from graduation.

Anderson and his buddy Samuel (they have been in class together the last two years, but will go to different elementary schools)

Giving me his flower

Walking across the stage

Posing with Daddy while waiting on graduation to start

Oh!! Happy Day!

They're Here!!!

My appliances have arrived! It's a Happy Day for me! We've actually been living at the new house for a little over a week now with our old fridge in the garage, a big ugly white microwave on the counter and a toaster oven. We finally got the grill over here two days ago so we've been cave manning it for a while. My favorite appliance that arrives today is my DISHWASHER! I've felt a little like Little House on the Prairie. I hate washing dishes by hand.. Guess there is a reason I didn't live 100 years ago when modern things weren't invented yet! Pictures to follow of them all installed and ready to use!!!!!! Yeah, I'm a happy girl!

IMPORTANT Things Learned from the Radio

I was listening to the "Matt and Ramona" show a few months ago while I was driving by myself (since I don't listen to anything non kid related while they are in the van with me) and it was Tirade Tuesday. A mother called in about her child sticking something up his nose and how frustrated she was with him. She then preceded to explain how she had to get it out, which I had never really thought about doing if one of my children were to stick something up their nose. I guessed I stored that helpful tidbit in the back of my brain just in case.

Well, fast forward to breakfast this morning! One little particular toddler of mine is in LOVE with her nose. She thinks it's the funniest thing if someone is looking at her to stick her fingers up her nose. Quite embarrassing if you ask me... but whatever! We were having peanut butter toast for breakfast and she wasn't thrilled about it. She spit out a bite and then thought she would play with it a while. Being the mischievous child she is she broke off a piece of it when I wasn't looking and stuck it up her nose. Nice! She started SCREAMING!!!!! She fought me when I tried to turn her up to see if it was indeed a piece of pb toast, which I suspected since while she was screaming she was sticking her finger up her nose. I thought back to that day in the car and remembered what that lady had to do. She put her mouth around the other nostril and blew pretty hard to get the object out. So, I tried once, but didn't blow too too hard. I tried again through her screaming. She didn't have a clue what I was doing to her! On the third time, I blew much harder and the piece of toast shot out! Thanks goodness. I was really dreading loading up the boys and a Screaming toddler to head to the ER for pb toast troubles.... Good thing I was listening to the radio that day!