Nesting?

I had a burst of inspiration in which I decided to organize all of our baby and toddler clothing, in part to clear out the junk in the garage.  I loved sorting through all of Ali's little dresses and remembering the fun moments we had with her as a newborn and little toddler.  I concluded that our new daughter will be the best-dressed member of the family and may not have to wear the same outfit twice in the first 6 months! 

Found this hardly-if-ever used bag at a yard sale for $1 and thought it would make a splendid diaper bag!

A friend of mine bought this for us at a local craft fair in the park and I thought it was one of the cutest baby gifts I've ever seen!  Someone took a large muffin tin and made "muffins" out of diapers, socks, bibs, and burp cloths.

Making a House a Home

My Ladies' Bible Study met at my house last week.  These ladies prayed hardcore for our housing situation and that we would get this house if possible, so it was special to give them the tour and serve them goodies.

My mom, aunt, and cousin attend this study!

Picnic time with Grammy!

Endless yard work to be done!  Here Josiah scrapes a raised bed to use the dirt for holes in other parts of the yard.

We love having company!  We want overnight guests to feel especially welcome!

Jeremiah insisted I take a pic of his dinosaur mural my mom gave them for their room.  It, along with the snake poster she gave them, is his favorite thing about his room.

Messy room right before bed

Another basket of towels to fold.  I have literally done 19 cycles of towels in the 2.5 weeks we've lived here thanks to a thrice-flooding toilet.  I feel like a laundress and I'm so thankful we are buying a new, power-flushing toilet!

Laundry room windows so caked with grime and cobwebs you can't even see out!

Front step decor

Thirsty lawn

Evidence of kids' play

It almost seems my husband spends more time at the dump than with me.  He's taken at least 8 loads since we moved in, with another pile to take today.

1/5 of the house is painted so far.  Lots of painting in our future!

Some pretty flowers on the deck that my mom bought and planted for us.

Disheveled couch and storybooks

$4 on sale at a local discount store, this sign reminds me continually what this house is

Yay for Shelves!

This closet is one of my favorite corners of the house.  Located in the living room, I have claimed this closet for my homeschooling nook.  To the left of the closet we will set up a big table for the school table.  I'm glad the former owners left us a few shelves in the closet!

Finally enough space to be able to see all of my homeschooling stuff so it doesn't get tucked away and forgotten!  Most of the stuff we have is from generous veteran homeschooling moms at church who have given us things they no longer use.

The only drawback:  After a week here we decided we MUST replace the living room carpet.  Which means......everything pictured here will be packed up again and have to be re-set-up once the new carpet is in.  Sigh.  However, it will be worth it to rid the living room of this awful cat smell.

Pics of the New House

Our spacious kitchen, after a couple of days of cleaning, is a dream come true!  Lots of cabinet space, pretty cabinets, and I love the sage color of the counter-tops!

They had to re-do our sewer pipes before we moved in so they tore out our front sidewalk.  But, a week later, they replaced it, thankfully!

My mom helped wash down and decorate the boys' room.  She had a dinosaur mural from her old classroom stuff which she put up and the boys love it!  It looks faded here but it's very bright and fun.

About 250 hours of labor have gone into cleaning and fixing up our new home....thus far.  Still lots to do but we are mostly settled and it's mostly sanitary to live in.  After a week of living here we came to the conclusion that we cannot stand the living room carpet, and thankfully we had enough emergency fund in savings to replace that with no hardship.  It reeks!!!!  The former owner's cat destroyed almost every single carpet in the place!  Have I mentioned on here how much I loathe cats?  The downstairs has been re-carpeted, thankfully, so we got to move out of our living room and put things downstairs after 4 days and our master bedroom and living room should get done this week!  Yay!

Ali's first night in her own room!  We are having fun making it a pretty place.

For four nights we had to sleep in the living room, packed together.  It ended up being fun and the kids were up late anyway with 4th of July festivities and neighbors blowing off fireworks non-stop until midnight.  I was glad we had an open window right by my side of the bed because the living room still reeks like cat pee.  We have decided to have it replaced, just like we had all the downstairs carpeting replaced.

The dining area (we'll eventually rip out the carpet--which doesn't smell much like cat right now) and put rubber wood-looking tiles down.

These plastic hooks were stuck on EVERYTHING!  We found AT LEAST 150 of them stuck on walls, closet doors, almost all of the kitchen cabinets, inside and outside, and even duct-taped to the windows.  It has been a challenge to get them all off.

4th of July

Google children's bucket hats and you'll find a variety of free or cheap patterns. I made the boys matching bucket hats for the 4th. I made Ali another ruffle skirt using the Marie-Madeline Studio pattern I bought a year ago.

                           
 

Doing sparklers on the deck.  Fireworks are legal all day on the 4th in our town.

The firetrucks spray down the crowd at the end of the parade.  My kids always hide...not yet to the age where it is a delight!