dining room redo

here is a picture of the before... this is right after we moved in the house over two years ago, so nothing is on the walls yet, but you can see the color.  i really like the color but we had been really rough on it.  holes in the walls, crayons, food.... the walls were a mess.  
after!  i decided to go with a blueish gray...  i loved how everything looked so clean and fresh but i felt like it looked so cold after having the orange for so long.  
i also felt like it looked a little to contemporary,  i was trying to think of ways to bring some more "old farm house" style.  we had these black and white pictures on the walls before but i remembered we had these old white window frames, so dave helped me hang them and then i put the black frames inside of them.  i really like how it turned out and it adds a little "old" character back in the dining room.  

the best part of all...... all i spent was $9 for a gallon of paint and $5 for a set of black sheets on clearance for the curtains.  yeah.  

apple butter

friday we made apple butter out at the camp.  they have a huge copper kettle and we all take turns stirring the butter.   it always tastes so yummy!  

grand pop taking a turn
mary jo... kay and george's neighbors always come over to make apple butter each year with us too.  they are the apple butter pros. 
time to fill the jars

fenders farm

last tuesday garret had a field trip out at a pumpkin patch.  rae was in school that day so brenna and i headed out there to meet him.  the kids had a great time and of course i snapped a few pics. garret scooped brenna right up and had her playing with him and all the "big" kids on the play ground.  he is such a good big brother and i think he was pretty proud of his little sister as well. 

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lunch with b

tuesdays and thursdays raelyn and garret are both in school.  so this past tuesday, brenna and i had a picnic lunch together up in her room at her little table.  
this table and chairs used to belong to my cousins.  i remember sitting at it when i was just a few years older than brenna.  my aunt gave us the table a few years ago.  i needed some tlc and we painted it up.  it is perfect for the girls room. 

milestones...

garret is growing up so fast right now.  a few weeks ago he mastered tying his shoe laces and Sunday night he lost his first tooth.  well not really.  before he was even two, one of his front top teeth was knocked out while he was rough housing.  i remember crying so hard that night.  i cried way longer than he did over it.  i even slept with him that night in his room.  i was such a baby.   i know it was nothing life threatening but i was sad his smile would be a toothless one for quite some time.  well of course i have grown to love that toothless smile over the years and now that the first one that was ready to come out on its own has happened,  we celebrated.  he was scared at first about it actually coming out.  it probably is pretty scary not knowing what to expect, but once it came out he was excited.

being silly... (look at how crooked his teeth are from that fall when he was a baby.  he now has a cross bite and the other top baby tooth is behind his bottom teeth.  dentist said not to worry, we will just need to watch as his adult teeth grow in)
we put both teeth ( i had saved the first one) in an envelope for the tooth fairy.  this was such a fun night for me, i remember being a kid and being so exited to see what the tooth fairy left.  back then it was quarters. (i just love the above picture by the way.... one of my favorites of garret.)
garret got dollars.  one dollar bills but hey it was still paper money.  

back up...

so how many of you actually back up all the files on your computer on a regular basis?  i have been pretty good at backing up my photos especially since i have taken photos for other people but i have NEVER backed up ALL the other files on my computer.  over 5 years worth of files.... is GONE!  my hard drive crashed about two weeks ago.  i am still trying to process who much information i have lots.  it is really depressing.  we have made a few attempts at recovering the information ourselves with no success.  so then we took it to a local computer guy, he said he couldnt get it either but could recommend someone.  so now we have to decide just how much my information was worth.  hard drive recovery can get VERY expensive.  anyone ever had this problem and know of a good place to take it?  if you have been lucky enough not to, please back up your info!  you wont regret it.  

if you have made it down to the bottom of this post and you visit my blog from time to time, let me know you are here!  it is interesting to talk to some people and they say, "yeah i knew that, i read it on your blog", but you people never leave me a comment.  so now is the time.  let your voice be heard.  let me know you  are here.  thanks,  it encourages me to keep it up.