The Story of Us...

Monday, September 10, 2012

Back to School

Kennan Joshua,

2nd Grade

Brayden Lynn,

Kindergarten

Grayson is also ready for "cool" and can't wait until he is "alder" (older) so he can go too!

And they are off!

(Yes, I know. Brayden's backpack is almost as big as she is!)

Aren't these pine trees beautiful? If I just showed you this picture you'd probably think it was taken in the Piney Woods of East Texas. In fact, I may have a picture or two like this from my days of summer camp. Well, this picture was actually taken in my front yard. We have 6 pine trees in our yard. 3 on each side of the house. And they.are.huge.

And messy. So much mess, that it takes lots of (Kenny's) time raking and hauling away pine needles.

The pine needles and pine cones fill the flower beds and line the sidewalk and driveway.

The one thing nice thing that they do - provide countless hours of entertainment for a certain 2 year old. And probably lots of opportunities for fun crafts once fall and winter arrive!

For the record, we are taking estimates on getting them cut down. Anyone in the market for some firewood? :)

I'm Baaaccckkk!!

We are in a season of new beginnings around here. School has started, soccer is underway, Grayson is saying leaving baby-hood and fall is coming. A perfect time for a resurrection of this blog! So, rather than consume myself with playing catch up I'm just going to start from the "right now". Here goes nothing!

Alisa suggested in my last blog that I show some pictures of the new place, so I am going to do just that! The house is a LLOONNGG way from being complete but it does feel like home, is perfect for our family, and it's huge!! (On another note, our house in our old town still has not sold. Please pray for that to happen very soon!!!)

Here is the entry way. I just love the stained glass in the door. (My back is to the family room, to the right is the formal living/dining and to the left is the master and guest room/office)

The formal/living dining room. As you can see, we have no furniture to fill it and it has beautiful pink curtains. The curtains came with the house and it isn't high enough on our "wish list" to replace them just yet!! Those two windows look out to the front yard.And the door to the back right leads to the kitchen. Oh, and can you see the window on the right just to the right of the piano? It's a window that looks into the family room. Weird? Yes.

This is the office/guest room. It has a really great walk-in closet that is organized and labeled perfectly. Not!!... It's full of odds and ends and stuff might fall on you!

The master bedroom. (Some history...we bought this house from a man who was flipping it. We signed the contract before he was finished so he was able to make some changes that we desired. The guest room and this room used to share a jack and jill bathroom that also had an entrance off of the hallway. We had him close of the other two entrances so it could be a true master bathroom. You'll see why later on in the tour!)

Dressing area

Master bath, shower/tub behind the door

Family room - the most used room in the house. It has a skylight and the doors on the right lead out to the patio and back yard. We had the option to close off the weird window that is open to the formal area but decided not too. This room does not get much natural light because of the shade of the patio, so the skylight and light from the "pink" windows really helps!

The kitchen from the family room.

Kitchen and dining area from the formal dining room

Another pretty popular place in the house...we have to eat somewhere! To the right is Brayden's room and through the other door is the laundry room.

Laundry room - kids bathroom is on the right and down the hall is more kid space.

Brayden's room is huge! This is because this was supposed to be the master bedroom. Originally the house had the two rooms in the front, two rooms in the back, and a workshop in the back (garage was converted many years ago). We didn't want to have 2 kids in the front, us in the back with a kid and then the bonus space. So, that's why we had them convert the front - so we could have an "adult wing" and "kid wing" of the house!

The kids bathroom is off of Brayden's room and the laundry room. No pictures of it - it's pretty small- but it has all of the normal bathroom things. :) She also has 2 HUGE closets - one walk-in and one regular. Her windows look out onto the patio.

This is a really interesting bonus space. The boys' rooms and this room used to be the garage. So, we made it into a kid's office space. It is wonderful!!!!

Grayson's room!!!

Kennan's room! When we signed the contract on this house, this room had been used as a work shop. So, the man we bought it from built a closet in it and had air conditioning run to it. What looks like a window is actually a door (that we do not use).

Admittedly, this is the warmest room in the house. Makes sense - back of the house, far from the AC unit, has a door and an attic opening. We closed up the attic with a piece of plywood so the hot air is trapped up there. We also weather stripped the door. It's nice that it has two fans. I don't think Kennan minds much - he is just happy to have his own space!!!

No pictures of the outside, but we have 10 (Yes, TEN) trees in our front yard. 6 Pine tress (I currently despise pine trees), 2 live oaks, a red oak and a crape myrtle. And no grass. The house was empty for 4 years, so needless to say the yard needs some work). The backyard is smaller, but has a wonderful patio and climbing tree. We also have a 3 car carport in the back of the house (can't be seen from the front of the house) and a shed. So there you have it! A tour of our wonderful home. We really love it and are thankful that it worked out for our family.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Back to the blog?

I have never been this far behind in updating the ol' blog. I'd like to think I've got some pretty good excuses...

*We spent the last part of March and first part of April packing, organizing and cleaning.

*Then we were saying good bye and moving.

*Then we were unpacking and trying to get a temporary home comfortable, organized and livable.

*Then we packed back up and moved again, a few blocks down the road.

*Now we've been unpacking and getting organized and trying to make our new house feel like a home.

Those are all good excuses in my book. Looking back on it, I wish I would have (could have) blogged even just a few sentences here and there just to remember fun or little things that happened during those crazy 8 weeks. Turns out not having internet makes things like that a little difficult.

Anyway, all of that to say...is anyone still reading? I don't think I am going to keep this baby up if no one is. It's not that I post just for people to comment or tell me they are reading, but I really don't want to go through the work of it all if no one is. I have always thought I would print these blogs into books as some sort of journal, but who am I kidding? I'm not really going to do that! This blog is 4 years old and that would cost me a fortune!! I can tell through Google Reader that 68 people "follow" me so I think people are out there...or maybe not?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

This is really happening......

A For Sale sign in the yard...

{I blurred the information...the sign doesn't really look like that!!}

A lock box on the door....

LOTS of boxes....

Empty closets....

All only mean ONE thing....WE ARE MOVING!!!

Kenny has accepted a call as Pastor at a church in Somewhere, Texas! {I don't want to post specific information, but it's enough to say that our new home will be less that an hour from my parents and a little over an hour from Kenny's family.} We've told our kids and church family. The kids were pretty sad at first to be leaving their friends, but have now warmed up to the idea. They have seen the new town, rent house, schools and church and are pretty excited about meeting new friends. Our church family here is extremely sad to see us go and we are sad to leave them. They have been nothing but gracious, generous, kind and welcoming since our first day here in 2008. They took a chance on a just-out-of-Seminary pastor and have given him opportunities to grow as a leader, preacher and teacher. We will NEVER, EVER, EVER forget our time here. All that to say, we are excited about what God has in store for our future. We are praying the the move goes well, that we transition into a new town and church easily and that we sell our house!!!!! Join us as we continue on our journey!!!

The Diva

{I'm pretty sure this post really needs no words....but here are a few anyways. Brayden is 4 1/2 going on 13. She is a drama queen. These pictures were taken seconds apart.}

Kennan is SEVEN!

Kennan turned SEVEN on March 16.

How in the world do we have a seven year old?

Interview with a Seven-Year-Old:

What's your favorite food? Pizza and chicken

What's your favorite TV show? Transformers Prime and GI Joe Renegades

What's your favorite part about school? Getting to learn a lot and be with friends

What's your favorite sport? Soccer to play and football to watch

Who are your best friends? Mason and Hudson

What do you like to do with them? Play

What are you looking forward to the most this next year? Going on fun vacations

What is the best part about being seven? Feeling a lot older and being more responsible

Celebrating Kennan!

Our sweet Kennan Joshua is a Spring Break baby, so celebrations tend to last over a long period of time. The Friday before Spring Break we had cupcakes up at school with his friends. His actual birthday day was on a Friday and we started the day with donuts!

Since it was Spring Break, we were visiting family so Kennan got to pick where we ate and what we did. He chose Pie Five for lunch with Grammy, Pops and Uncle Kyle. YUMMY!