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.

snow days

the beginning of january we were hit with some really REALLY cold temps and quite a bit of snow for greeneville tn. in the past when it has snowed it never lasted very long b/c by the next day the temperature was back up. this time around we were in the teens for about 9 days! the kids of course loved how long the snowed stayed but it was so bitter cold it was hard to even enjoy it. it was also hard for me to enjoy it b/c it meant more days cooped up in the house with all the kids. garret had about 4 more days off school on top of christmas break due to the snow. but we were able to get out to the camp and do some sledding. so on to the pictures.

the dining hall covered with snow.

dad was in town to help dave finish up the house next door so he got to FREEZE with us.

all the kids took turns sledding with dad.
this is the lazy mans way to sled. george would wait at the bottom of the hill with the atv and a rope and bring you back up after your run. not to shabby.
it was fun but i am so thankful for the 54 degree weather we had yesterday! my body still runs with florida blood.

visit from papa p and gram

my parents and mack came up to visit a few days after christmas and to have an entire second christmas. they totally spoil ALL of us. there were WAY more gifts under the tree the second time around than the first. they are so generous and we are so thankful. while they were here we put them both to work too! dad worked with dave next door finishing up the house we needed to have ready for tenants and mom helped me get the house back under control after i had let so many things slack off from not feeling good. we also celebrated moms birthday while they were here too. we had a great visit. i didnt take many pics again this time but we did manage to do a little mini shoot at a barn on their way back to florida. they had everything packed up and ready to go and we just drove up the road a little to this spot and took a few pics of the kids and grandparents. it was FREEZING! like 16 degrees FREEZING so we didnt stay out for to long but i think we got a few great ones.
this is one not so great one but makes me laugh. brenna couldnt take the cold any longer. poor girl!

for the rest visit bwidphotography. thanks.

still catching up

our christmas in pictures....
family picture taken with the tripod and self timer... only one we got before the battery died... like my toosh hanging out behind garret, nice right?
gram made these dresses for the girls for christmas. they turned out so cute. as soon as i saw them i thought they would be so cute with converse and stripped socks. i am not sure that was what mom was thinking, but i just love it. dave said it was a bonnie poirier outfit.

i just love the shoes...they are on some pretty cute girls too :)
making cinnamon rolls on christmas eve morning. this year we started a new tradition for our family on Christmas Eve. It ended up where it was just going to be the five of us so Dave thought we should come up with something all our own. we decided to go to Bristol Motor Speedway where they have a HUGE light show. you even get to drive on the famous nascar track. we thought we would just hope that there was some place to eat that was open on the way. the ONLY place open was a chinese place. :) this makes me smile just thinking about it. we ate a simple chinese diner on christmas eve. not your typical tradition but it was GREAT. after dinner we did the light show and hung out in the middle of the track where they had a little carnival set up. you could roast marshmallows, eat kettle corn and the kids each picked one ride. it was so much fun. the weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. what great memories we have of that night.
christmas eve night after santa had come and loaded up the tree
christmas morning i didnt get my camera out.... sometimes i feel like i miss out on things b/c i am always behind a black box, but later in the day we went outside to enjoy the amazing weather and show the kids their last surprise gift... a trampoline!!! i just love garrets face as he looks to raelyn with so much excitement.


and this one was just too cute to not include :)

major update...

so really it has been since november that i really posted anything personal.... it is hard to get back into it when it has been so long. it is also hard because i dont feel like i am a very interesting or entertaining writer. i wish i was. i LOVE reading blogs that a written by friends (or strangers) that have a talent for writing.

ok so anyway, the reason i have been MIA for almost two months is because of MANY reasons. we have been so busy. so here i am at the start of a new year going to try to recap what has been going on for the last few months and what lies ahead for us. i think the easiest way is to just put everything in a list.... see... so boring! sorry!

1. in november after the weather started getting a little cooler we noticed we had some mouse droppings. so we put some poison out and killed the mouse. only one big problem! the mouse died in one of the walls of our kitchen. the smell was the most terrible i have ever smelled! the computer is in the kitchen so this is what started the pause in my blogging originally. dave, who is my hero was finally able to find the mouse and removed and disposed of it. thank the lord!

2. we spent thanksgiving with daves family here in tennessee. about 50% of us all came down with the stomach bug! not very much fun

3. we are renovating the house next door to us. COMPLETELY renovating the house next door to us. it has been an amazing transformation but has taken up SO much our time. (i will post pictures soon)

4. we spent christmas here in tennessee as well b/c daves has been SO busy with this other job, replacing all the roofs for greenevilles housing authority. the job has been a huge blessing but sure has been a really busy non-stop job. my parents and mack came up a couple days after christmas and we were able to celebrate together. it was a good time.

5. now probably the main reason i have not been blogging is because i have been feeling pretty terrible. this is because i am pregnant! yep , i am about 12 weeks now so the nausea has gone away a little but i am still feeling really yucky. my body just does not enjoy being pregnant.

we are super excited about having another just really hard to get past the feeling so bad.

so there is the fast recap of the past two months. i will give more details of the pregnancy soon. but that should be enough to bore you for now.

if you love me or even if you dont and you read this anyways, please leave me a comment. i need to know you are out there. thanks.

5.