so refreshed

it is funny, but i really feel so refreshed having redone our master bedroom. the first time we drove by this house we new that we loved it. once we got inside there were a few things we werent to in love with but knew we could deal. there are only two real bedrooms in the house. they are both upstairs and we decided those would be for the kids. there was a room down stairs that we decided would be our bedroom. the room had a walkway right through to the kitchen and NO closet. dave closed off the wall last year around this time and that really helped with the feeling of our room but we were still living out of the upstairs closet and boxes under the bed. this May will be three years that we have been in this house... well we decided to take a much needed vacation down to south florida around valentines day. the kids had some days of school so we agreed that we would take garret out of school for a few days and really make a vacation out of it. just so happens that it snowed the entire time we were gone so garret didnt miss ANY school. while we were there, we had a spur of the moment thought to go to IKEA and look for some wardrobes. we had trailered daves motorcycle down with us so we had a trailer to haul our stuff back.

WELLLLL we found a little more that just wardrobes. we ended up with 2 wardrobes, 2 dressers (one with a mirror), a new bed frame and new curtains!!! we have SO much storage i cant stand it. the room looks so fabulous. i am so blessed and refreshed by it. i know it is just worldly things but it makes me very happy right now. i even dont mind putting clean clothes away (for the moment).

a better view of the new head board

dave exposed this 100+ year old fire place a few months ago too. he also built the mantel. for christmas we had the gas logs installed.
i love the history that hides in the bricks of the fire place.

i got some pretty picture frames and finally put some of the beautiful photos that Amber Holrtiz took for us last May. these are all set up on daves dresser. he said i made it look to pretty. still dont have anything hanging on the walls. just dont want to clutter it up. i love how clean and uncluttered it feels right now.

this view is fun b/c you can see all my clothes hanging up in the wardrobe. i love to hang my shirts and have not had that opportunity for a long time. this makes me very happy. it is the small things.....

so thats all. wish i had a before picture for you guys. so who else LOVES Ikea?

19 weeks

...and a sneak peek of our new bedroom. more to come on that soon. tuesday is my ultrasound appointment. we are choosing not to find out the sex of the baby this time however dave says it is a boy and has a long line of believers following him. we will see. i was never good at guessing one way or another.

oh im so tired...

potty training is such a tiring job! i started potty training brenna just a few days before i was hit with morning (all day) sickness with this pregnancy. She had done really good for a few days but then i totally dropped the ball because i was feeling so bad. it has always been my motto while potty training to "never put them in a pull-up" except for while they are in bed. so it has been about 3 months since my first attempt and failure. i was determined to start seriously working with brenna again this week. monday was really rough but she is really doing well now and it is only day 4. we even went to out to dinner last night in big girl underwear and she did great! we still have a long way to go but we are so proud of her. however i think it is just as much work for me as it is for her. i might need to make myself a sticker chart just to stay encouraged to keep it up :)

a diamond in the rough

This past summer the house right next door to us came up for sale as a foreclosure. we had been watching it pretty much fall apart right before our eyes and had dreamed about getting it for a super deal and fixing it up. when we realized that the family had moved out we had a realtor friend check up on it for us. we wanted first dibbs on it if it was going up for sale. long story short... we were able to buy another investment property with my parents for cash! God is good. this is the second house we have invested in with my parents. anways, it was in ROUGH shape. we needed to completely gut the place and start over. about the only thing that was any good was the green metal roof.

before:

After: we completely redid the front of the house. the house had formally been part house/part day care. so there were two front doors and really large windows on the front right side of the house. we took those out to make it one entire house. we changed all the siding, added a porch, removed the chain link fence, and painted the shutters.

and for some more before pics.... to the right is the side the day care was in. these pics just look as bad as it really was. it smelled SO horrible it was hard to be inside it. this view is from standing at the front door looking into the kitchen.

the day care side we turned into a dining room and master bedroom and bath
making progress...
finished hall bathroom. it is a full bath with shower and tub, we put new tile on floors and walls of shower
the view into one of the 4 bedrooms. they all look the same
view of front door and down the hall the bath and bedrooms. the floors were original but were covered in a black tar. they took SO much time to redo but turned out SO amazing. what a transformation!
view looking into the new dinning room and master bedroom (where the day care used to be)
master bath
dave and dad did all the tile work themselves! i just love how this turned out.
view from family room into kitchen.
kitchen complete. mom and dad got new appliances for their own house so they cleaned up their old ones and brought them up here for the rental. they look so good! like new. dave made the countertops and everything too.
so thats our little gem! we were so proud of it. it came a long way. we are renting it now to some friends and plan on selling when the market turns back around. let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday Kendal!

for more from this fun shoot visit the b wid blog.

raelyns 4th birthday

i am so far behind it isnt even funny. behind with everything really! so when it comes to the blog i have to let it go. i still am not feeling well and just dont have any energy to keep up with the kids and the daily grind of keeping up a house (and husband) as well. here are some pictures from raelyns 4th birthday party. we decided to have a pony party and bring lily home from the camp for her friends to see and ride. we were praying for good weather and God have us PERFECT weather. it was awesome. so on to the pictures.

here is a picture of the set up. dave cut me a piece of wood that we set on cinder blocks to make the table. all the girls sat on the floor around the table. it was so cute. i found these great tissue paper flowers at big lots on clearance and have saved them for just the right occasion. i LOVE how they looked.
each girl got a wooden horse to paint and a little treasure box to glue it to when it dried.

then we made "trail mix". each little girl had an ingredient to add to the bowl and then they all took turns stirring the mix.
then we made it outside where lily and daddy greeted us. dave showed the girls how to groom the horse and then we feed her some snacks of apples and carrots.
then the girls took turns riding lily. they were all really brave. everyone took a turn.


this picture makes me smile. raelyn is just soaking it all in while everyone sings happy birthday to her.
i wasnt able to get a fondant cake made for her this year. but we did have really yummy strawberry cupcakes toped with flowers and horses. raelyn had a blast opening her gifts and hanging out with her girl friends. it was nice just having the moms and daughters over for the party. garret was really bummed though. i really didnt think he would want to be at an all girl party but he had his feelings hurt that he wasnt supposed to be there. we let me join in towards the end. he is such a good big brother. all right. well that is all for now. i must keep getting other more important things crossed off the list. thanks for reading.