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!

Making Mealtime Memories

An orange-themed lunch

Since we were having chicken curry over rice with wheat pitas we decided to make a little tent and eat it on the lawn for a fun family experience!

Katrielle

Katrielle--"God Is My Crown"

Pronounced: Kay-tree-el

For four years we've been wondering if Katrielle would join our family.  For four years we've talked about her, and I've tucked away beautiful little dresses from yard sales that have melted my heart.  Don't get me wrong, my sons are an enormous blessing and I wouldn't trade either one of them for a dozen girls, but I've always hoped to have another daughter to dress up and teach and whom could be a sister to Alathia, something I never had myself growing up.  I had prayed for the Lord to give us another girl someday and Ali has definitely prayed her share of prayers for a sister, but we weren't sure if God would answer; after all, it's up to Him and He knows best!  We had talked ourselves into it being a boy so we would be excited and not disappointed, and the heart rate was low and the midwife predicted boy.  She had been right with both of our boys in recent years!  But nevertheless, because the sickness hung on for an extra 4 or 5 weeks this time as it did with Ali's pregnancy, I couldn't shake the hope that maybe....just maybe....we'd have our little Katrielle. 

Ultrasound day arrived. 

I had trouble sleeping the night before I was so excited.

The ultrasound tech was training someone in and it was INCREDIBLY slow-going.  They took at least 30 minutes going over the head, the spine, the stomach, etc.  It was agonizing to sit and wait forever, especially since I desperately had to go potty; we just wanted to know!  Finally she pronounced it was a girl, much to my hubby's surprise.  I asked her to double check and she said, "Yes, it's a girl!"  We were sooo excited!  Even our little boys had been saying they wanted a "gweel" or a "sistah."  My dad was very shocked because he was sure he saw boy parts on the early ultrasound pics I had showed him of the 14 week ultrasound.  But everyone was thrilled when we brought home a pink bouquet of balloons!  I had my friend in Minnesota deliver a similar bouquet to Josiah's family.  Now Ali won't be the only girl among 6 grandkids on that side!  Now my mom can use the dancing pig fabric she's been saving and make Katrielle a baby quilt!

We are so excited to meet our little sweetheart.  I've been pulling out some cute things from yard sales or clearance sales that I've stashed away, little dresses and pinafores and pink pajamas and "Daddy's Little Princess" outfits.  I can't wait to buy some headbands with the big pink flowers on them that are becoming popular.  I can't wait to make our daughters matching ruffle skirts and do tea parties with them together! 

Hurray!

Where Am I?

It seems like for the last few months I've had numerous posts saying, "...here's why I haven't been blogging...."   Just when I think life is going to slow down, it speeds up.  We had a crazy busy April, May, and now June is busier than both of those combined.  Things are moving along really well with our housing contract and we should close within the next few weeks and begin the enormous task of cleaning it and moving into it.  Thankfully we have a lot of offers of help from our friends so we  (hopefully) will survive it.



I'm in the midst of packing and trying to stay sane while taking care of the 3 kiddoes all the time.  For the past few weeks as Josiah has been busy painting the new house (we had to do a TON of work on it to get the appraisal to pass) or helping out in the community sandbagging, due to a natural disaster that hit our area, I have felt like a single mom many days.  I was worn to a frazzle and becoming the world's meanest mom so thankfully my hubby gave me a bit of a break this weekend and we went out to supper one night and I had a sewing night with a friend the other night.




Our current home is under slight threat by the flooding and we have spent a lot of extra time in the last week staying current on the community news, helping neighbors in trouble, etc.  We will probably be fine though, even though we are very close to the river.


In the meantime I will not be blogging much in the coming month.  As we move, try to enjoy the summer weather, settle in a new home, celebrate the 4th of July, etc. and as I continue to get bigger and bigger with child, it will be hard to squeeze in blogging time.  But I assure you I will be back in full force when we are settled and will be posting occasionally as we have big news or cute pics to share (do I sense an ultrasound results post coming this week??????)  I love blogging and I will be back!

Mmmm Good!

Now that the sickness is officially gone, I find myself eating ALL THE TIME!  Thankfully, I've only gained 6# so far but it's bound to quintuple since I'm only halfway through this pregnancy!

I have been sorting my photo files since I'm a year behind on organizing my digital photos on our computer and I came across these pics.  Now...if you'll excuse me...I need to head to the kitchen......

Zuchinni Brownies

Apple Struesel Pizza

Cheesy Spinach Quiche

Vegetable Pizza made with Vodka Sauce

Jell-O Popcorn Balls

Brocolli Couscous Stir-Fry, Homemade Rolls

My Favorite Rolls:  The Duggar's Dinner Rolls

Green Bean Casserole

Blueberry Muffins

Have I mentioned we eat salad about every day?

Fruit Pizza--my yearly birthday dessert

Peach Pie from scratch

Lupe's Authentic Enchiladas, Homemade Refried Beans, Mexican Rice

Fry Bread Tacos

Most of the recipes for these items above are in my Cooking or New Recipes I Love threads!

Fun at the Zoo!

Our family went to Salt Lake City over Memorial Day weekend since a friend of my husband was getting married.  We decided to make it a mini-family vacation!

We met up with some old friends, ate at our favorite restaurant, Olive Garden, played at some parks, went for a hike, did LOTS of looking around at lots of stores we don't have here, and went to the zoo for a day.  An all-around great time!

Even though Justus is very short and little for his age, Prisca is a little shorter than him, and she is 9 months older!  What a tiny little cutie!

Evangeline, who is a year and 5 days older than her little sis, was born the day after Jeremiah

5 little munchkins sitting on a bench at Olive Garden

Family photo on our hike in a canyon

Getting ready to see the zoo!  My hubby thought it was totally dorky that I bought the kids matching sunglasses and turtle hats from the Target dollar section but it helped keep them from getting sunburned!

We spent lots of time in the hotel pool and the hot tub

Our friends swam with us one afternoon and hung out.  Angie and I have been friends from a distance for 5 years after we met and spent 2 weeks together at a CEF training.  Her and her husband are missionaries in Salt Lake.

Yet Another Reason

Here's another reason to love the best sippy cup ever.

They fit very nicely on the handles of our umbrella strollers!

How to Make GORP

I'm not sure if GORP stands for Good Ol' Raisins and Peanuts or Granola Oats Raisins and Peanuts but it is an excellent snack for hiking, the zoo, the park, cross-country skiing, or traveling, etc.

Add whatever ingredients you like.  Options include: dried fruits and berries, nuts of any kind, granola or oats or granola clusters, crackers or pretzels of any kind, chocolate chips, favorite candies, or dried cereals.

This is what looked good to me when I went shopping for GORP ingredients.  If I wasn't so spacey while pregnant, I would have remembered the box of Rice Chex in my pantry and added it in.  I only added about 1/3 of the bag of marshmallows and half of the bag of pretzels.

Mix thoroughly in a large bowl.

Put about 1-2 cups of GORP in each little plastic bag for an individual portion.  Stash in a safe, kid-free zone and throw them in your backpack for a handy, and delicious snack-on-the-go!  Kids love GORP and mommies and daddies love GORP too!

Depending on what you add into the GORP, it can be fairly inexpensive.  I spent about $10 and was able to make around 12 or 13 large portions that served us very well at the zoo and for snacks in the van.  However, if I had been able to get to Walmart to purchase the ingredients, it would have been a bit cheaper. 

*If you have young children be sure to keep in mind what they are able to handle chewing and watch them carefully lest they choke on a craisin or peanut, etc.*