seven years

12.20.02 Our Wedding Day. (we were just kids looking back at these photos!)


These last seven years have been the best seven years of my life. Adam is in Arizona and I'm home in Idaho so sadly we're apart on our big day but this man knows I still love him! Thanks for being my man A!!!!!!

HOUSE UPDATE!!!

Can it be??? Are we finally moving in tomorrow??? I REALLY HOPE SO. I had to make a break in my blogging catch-up to update the status on our house. After three weeks of renovation, it is nearing completion. Looks like tomorrow is the big day! But really, I thought we would be in before Halloween, then by the time the Howells came to visit, then Thanksgiving, then last Sunday, but finally...I am pretty confident that it could be tomorrow. They just finished staining our wood floors and the sealant went on today, which I think would put us in tomorrow...HALLELUJAH. But really, I'm kind of freaking out right now. This might be the worst timing ever! We've been here five months now and we're moving in 5 days before the kids & I take off for Christmas....uuggghhh. So I've been trying to get all of my Christmas shopping done, presents mailed out, and I can say I'm about 95% done with my shopping, yeah! Last package mailed today. So once we're in the house we can focus on unpacking.

Renovation update...I couldn't be happier with how it is turning out, it's a brand-spanking new house on the inside and I LOVE IT! I've been stressing about colors for about the last month, which tan do I paint, what colors to put in the kids room since I don't have their bedding yet. But it was time to paint and I gave our Renovator Man the colors...after everything was finished the tan was lighter than I was hoping, Kenedee's room didn't turn out like I wanted (I painted three walls gray and one pink to match her new bedding). Her gray walls were looking very purple because of the pink wall...which not to offend anyone, I'm not the biggest purple fan, actually I kind of hate purple. So when it was looking purple to me, I was kind of cringing everytime I saw it. But I was just hoping that with her furniture in there, blinds on the window, that it would tone down the purple and look more gray. Well, we set up her bedroom this week, new bedding and all and it looks AMAZING...and GRAY. I've been so excited about how it turned out cause I was nervous I would have to repaint it, but nope, IT'S PERFECT. As for the tan, I'm really starting to like it. It's not as much contrast as I was hoping but we painted a few walls dark brown (from our previous house) so the tan is looking quite pretty. Really, I am so excited to get in there, can you tell! Well, after all this, I thought I'd give you a preview of one of the rooms...the Kitchen. This baby needed a major overhaul. You'll notice in the pic towards the ground, white powder...let's just say this kitchen was covered in boric acid (not good). The cabinets were just so-so, appliances had to go, new sink needed, horrible lighting in there and now the transformation is looking awesome. New paint, new sink, new appliances, cabinets painted, crown molding added on the cabinets, crown molding added on the ceiling, light taken out, recessed lighting put in and here you have the Before and After... ENJOY!!!

GEORGIA VISITORS!!!

Our Georgia buddies flew into town the second weekend of November. Marissa and me planned this about two months ago thinking we'd FOR SURE be in our house by November but turns out I was wrong! So they stayed in a hotel and it all worked out. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I picked them up at the airport and the tears started flowing - cheesy I know but it was sure nice to see these guys!!!

Christmas came early for the Howells... (skirts, capes, and shirt - from previous post)

The girls looked darling in their matching skirts...Kenedee & McKenzi

McKenzi and her new cape (in action since she didn't want to stand still for the pic)

Jaxson and his new cape (HE LOVED IT! and it made me so happy). He basically took it everywhere we went that weekend, hilarious.

Another pic of McKenzi in her skirt. Marissa and me hit up Scottsdale Fashion Square and the kids went crazy!

Here's Jaxson & Kenedee being goofy for the camera...

We got a few looks that day each pushing our double umbrella strollers. Kenedee & Jaxson wanted to ride together so Lincoln & McKenzi went in the other one, which led a few people to ask us if they were twins, too funny.

Here they are holding hands...

And Lincoln goes in for the hug!

Friday Night we took the crew over to see the unfinished house (since we had just closed!) Afterwards we hit up Oreganos and it was tasty! The top pic includes Bryan Howell, Tyler Partridge, and Adam. It just so happened that Ty had a work conference out here the same weekend Bryan & Marissa came so it was a little surreal to be hanging out with everyone like old times. After dinner that night it felt like we were going home to our house in Georgia after hanging out with Howells and Ty...kind of sad since we miss our group of friends.

Saturday was spent at Old Town Scottsdale. I love this place! It's been pretty sweet seeing all of the old 'downtowns' of the surrounding cities because it is full-on the Old West. You drive down the streets and can envision the dirt road with the saloons on both sides, swinging doors and all, crazy.

Here's Kenedee riding a rocking horse and sitting on a $4,000 chair, dang!

These two munchkins entertaining themselves...

Lincoln goes in for the kiss, success!

Adam was scaring him with this spider and he was not liking it!



The four kiddos together again!!! Lincoln, Kenedee, Jaxson, & McKenzi

Family Christmas pic...joking

They flew home Sunday after saying our goodbyes. Thanks for coming to see us. We miss you guys!!!

November Catch-Up

November has been a busy one. Sewings projects of course, friends come to visit, house closes, renovation started, family comes for Thanksgiving, and more house stuff. So here's what myself and my sewing machine have been up to lately.

PILLOWS FOR OUR NEW HOUSE

I found this quick and easy slip cover tutorial on Candace's blog (Adam's cousin). So I found my material and went to town. LOVE EM! I wanted some texture to my plain green fabric so I sewed 4" squares together and turned them on their side for a diamond look, which turned out sweet. I can't wait to put these on our new brown couches...exciting.

Next up... PINK SKIRTS for some girly girls (Kenedee & McKenzi Howell)

Some of our closest friends came to see us in November so I kind of went to town. I made these little twirly skirts for the girls. I was nervous though because I only know how to make Kenedee's size (no pattern or anything) so I cut down the measurements and converted my 3T skirt to an 18 month skirt - turned out darling! I was quite excited to see this little girl wearing an itty bitty skirt.

SUPERHERO CAPES!!!
Boy Cape - (Batman & Incredibles)

Girl Cape - (Batwoman & Princess)

I've been wanting to make this for Lincoln now for awhile, it's the only thing I can think of to make for a boy (there's endless possibilities for girls but zero cool things for boys, throw any ideas my way). So I decided to make reversible Superhero Capes for all of the 4 kiddos (Jaxson Howell, Kenedee, Lincoln, and McKenzi Howell), a lot of work but glad I did it. I loved how they turned out and so did the kids. One more thing I can throw in our dress-up box once we get into our house.

Last but not least, some Flower Embellishments for Marissa and me. I found these Shade shirts for a killer price so I bought one for Marissa and myself to try out these flower embellishments. I've seen them around and decided to experiment with two different fabrics to coordinate with the shirt. I didn't want to sew them on since they'll shred in the washing machine so they are pinned on but can be arranged in a few ways, (sorry for the horrible picture taking - one with flash, two without with me holding the camera and taking it in front of the mirror. good times.) But here's the idea.
Around the neck -

'V' down the middle or Laid out across the side

18 MONTHS Little Man!!!

Lincoln turned 18 Months on October 14th (I know I'm a month behind but better late than never). I just got him in for his check-up/shots two weeks ago and let's just say this was a BIG MILESTONE for LINCOLN...he finally made the weight chart! At about 6 months old Lincoln dropped below the Weight chart and started making his own curve underneath everyone else, which is when I had to start taking him in monthly for a weight check. Anyways, Lincoln finally passed up the 20 lb marker...putting him at 2% on the weight curve. I know it's not much but at least my little guy is on there now...2% makes me laugh just thinking about it. He was 21 lbs (2nd percentile for weight) and 32" tall (25th percentile for height). FINALLY.

Here's a few things about Lincoln that I don't want to forget...
- You are the busiest little boy I know! Seriously outta control these days. You are into EVERYTHING and I like to refer to you as 'mr. destructo' on many occassions. You love to pull everything out of my purse, take all of your clothes out of your suitcase and throw them on the floor (yes we've been living out of suitcases for 4 months now), and you keep me EXTREMELY busy. Kenedee can sit there and entertain herself for hours but you need to be busy and right by my side.
- You love to copy EVERYTHING Kenedee does, what she says, how she walks and dances, what she climbs on, what she eats, you name it. It's pretty cute to see you follow her around everywhere wanting to do what she does.
- You love to take things apart (we think you'll be some kind of engineer someday). You can open and pull apart almost anything. Seriously amazing.
- You LOVE LOVE LOVE fruit. You could eat fruit all day...grapes, apples, bananas, canteloup, pineapple, watermelon, if it's anywhere in sight you want it.
- You LOVE LOVE LOVE candy/chocolate. We keep a candy stash back in our bedroom for Adam and I so you kiddos can't find it but you know exaclty where it is and try to sneak in and get it. On MANY occassions I find you sitting on the ground with wrappers around you munching on my chocoalate (stinker)
- You can say a million words, I swear. You are a much quicker talker than Kenedee. You can say 'mama, dada, Jesus, ball, bath, bird, flower, milk, apple, moon, i wan dat (I want that), bompa (Grandpa), lizard (Aunt Debby has a lizard that lives outside her front door each night that you LOVE to look at), and a few more that I can't think of at the moment
- You are one happy boy. You may be my busy boy and drive me crazy but you are such a happy boy and love to laugh. Just about anything makes you laugh. And you are also extremely ticklish
- You love your bath
- We're pretty sure you're left-handed (like your dad). You do everything with your left hand
- You love to give hugs and kisses
- You fold your arms and bow your head when we pray and it's the cutest little thing to see

Thanks for bringing so much laughter and craziness into our lives. YOU SERIOUSLY ARE THE CUTEST LITTLE BOY EVER!!!

HOMEOWNERS ROUND 2

WE CLOSED!!! I've been hush hush about this house because of how long it has taken, I didn't want to get all excited about it & post and then have it all fall through. But let me just say that this has been the most FRUSTURATING thing ever. WAITING FOR 2 MONTHS. We found this house the first of September, loved it (with serious work needing done) and put in our offer (foreclosure of course, everything out here is either a foreclosure or short sale). That weekend we had three homes accept our offers (two we previously had offers on). But our favorite and smartest investment was this house we just closed on...so we turned down the other two and said 'yes' to this house. At that time, they had verbally told us that they accepted our offer, so we were waiting for the paperwork to come through to sign to move ahead...one week later we received the paperwork, signed and faxed it back, and waited for them to sign off on it so we could start the inspection, appraisel, all that fun stuff in order to close...two weeks later (so a total of 3 weeks at this point) we finally got the go-ahead to start our inspections, which by this point we should have already been three weeks into closing with a week left. But the bank that owned this house took its SWEET time with EVERYTHING - no wonder these banks are having problems!!! So after three weeks of waiting we quickly got everything started, inspections, appraisels, underwriting on our loan, etc. At that point our lending was all in place so we were hoping to close in three weeks. Our original close date was Nov 4th so we were hoping to beat that by a week...more time goes on. We signed our closing docs last weeks, bank again needs more SWEET time to sign off on our home because they were swamped so we waited and waited and waited. AND FINALLY, WE CLOSED!!! TWO MONTHS LATER!!!

But...we can't move in yet. This home is trashed on the inside (cosmetically trashed that is) so it will take about two weeks to fix up the inside before we move in. But it will be brand-new on the inside and I couldn't be happier (I really hope it turns out nice). It's getting ALL new carpets, new lighting, recessed lighting in the kitchen, crown-molding in the family/kitchen area, new base boards, new toilets, sinks, appliances, you name it. This house was a mess!!! But we got it for a killer deal so it's definitely worth it. Kenedee refers to this house as the 'yucky dirty house' and that is correct. But hopefully in two weeks this home will be brand-spanking new!!! And we should have some pretty sweet before and after pics...get excited! I feel so bad we have been living with his aunt/uncle for four months now, but two months ago when our offer was accepted we thought we'd be out of here much quicker than it's been. They have been more than generous and we owe them big time!

As for our home in Georgia, our renter is awesome and should be converting to a purchase in February. Sweet!

Being CRAFTY is ADDICTING

Am I addicted to sewing when all I think about now are new sewing projects I can create. I look at the detail on every shirt I see and pass while out & about thinking, 'I could add that to a shirt' 'I could make a dress like that'. I'm now finding my favorite shirts of Kenedee's and wanting to re-create these for her and me. SOOO ADDICTING and I feel like there are endless possibilities out there with all of these 'crafty' blog sites, which is a bit overwhelming!!! But a favorite of mine at the moment is SO YOU THINK YOU'RE CRAFTY... I stumbled upon this blog since I follow quite a few of these crafters' blogs on my google reader. There are 10 crafters that were chosen to participate. Each week a theme is given and they must create something from that. Their ideas are posted and everyone can vote. At the end of the week the winner is chosen. The winner then gives a tutorial on that winning item...it's been to fun to see all of the different ideas out there. Check it out!

(PS. I just finished sewing some pillows for our new house and they turned out so dang CUTE! Speaking of our new house - I'll be venting my frusturation and excitement soon, once this two-month ordeal is closed!!!). I also finished a few more projects that will be posted soon... one of my closest friends from Georgia is COMING TO SEE ME!!! Along with her family! So I decided to make something for her two kids and my two kids (AWESOME) and the cutest little twirly skirts for McKenzi & Kenedee (the cutest things I've ever seen) and something for Miss Marissa as well. Can you tell I'm excited to see these guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We miss our friends!!!!!!!!!!! Only TWO MORE DAYS!!!