Rainy Day Fun!

So we finally had a fallish day here! On Monday, it rained all day, which was so great, because annie had the day off of school. so we decided to do rainy day fun! We made some pumpkins for a centerpiece on our table...



Then we made our own play-doh. now that school is in full swing, days at home are rare. i miss them, i am glad we will have more of them when we move to iraq.

Flipping Out!

this is our backyard entertainment...



Annie doing her best flip yet!!



Toby is not to be left out on all the action!




this is where they learn to do their stunts...

The Final Room!

This is when we started working on it. notice the walls used to be red, then cream on wood paneling with a lovely forest green carpet with mystery stains.
so tim and a few guys he hired worked on dry walling the whole thing, including a tile drop ceiling that was falling apart. then we hired someone to tape and mud it.
we also hired someone to paint, technically we hired two people to paint, but the first took off with the money. at first i thought the spots on this picture were on my lense, i cleaned it retook the pic and the same thing, i finally figured out it was just dust in the air. nasty.
finally we got a new frieze carpet installed...AMAZING! a great place for us to wrestle and play.
finally we found some furniture. we got that chair, a sleeper sofa, a coffee table and a foos ball table for under $75. we are still unloading a few book boxes and some pics for the wall, we think this will be a HUGE selling point for the house. i want to buy it! =)

We have been working on this house for over 4 months...it was only supposed to be one month! story of our lives! but it has been a GREAT learning process for us. not only do we know how to do a lot more projects, we also discovered how it shed light on our own hearts. we realized how much more renovation we needed in our hearts than we thought.

Family Fun Night

this is annie jumping from the coffee table to the couch...a favorite family event. i mean that is pretty cool...how can i put a stop to such fun??
we aren't always the best parents, in fact, rarely would we put ourselves in the best category. but we have managed to set up a few things we do well, one of those things is family fun night. we started that in GA when Annie was 3! We have managed to do a lot of creative things in the last couple of years and we have rarely cancelled. Every Friday night is dedicated to us as a family! Tonight was no exception! We decided to watch a borrowed movie from the library, have a pancake picnic on the floor in the living room and then we spent the rest of the time making some movies, taking goofy pictures, and being wild! that's what we do best! i love my family!

this is jesse performing his death-defying flip...look at the pointed toes and well placed hands!!

everyone wanted to lay by daddy for the movie...oh...poor me!
one of our goofy pictures...we laugh so hard after each one...gotta love digital pics.
trying to look cute and be serious...
here's toby's leap...he looked right at me...look at that...maybe he really is a superhero.

Jesus Wuvs Me

this is sweet jesse singing his song with a little help from everyone.

Y-E-L-L-O-W spells burp

annie has learned a song to go with every color at school and this is our favorite one. the boys are even learning all her songs. she is LOVING kindergarten these days and we are so thankful. we really love Mrs. Upchurch and feel like she is a spot-on teacher, she doesn't let annie get away with anything, which is so good for annie. at first annie was a little taken aback by this, but the Lord knew exactly what he was doing. she now knows her place in class and gets green smiley faces every day in her behavior chart!

Toby's Solo

"there's a police
he plays the guitar
at the hotel
down in detroit
his name is leroy
and he drives a great big car."

This is a song that Toby learned with Ms. Marie, his teacher on Wednesdays and Fridays at our church. She is a HUGE blessing to Toby and the other kids in that classroom. She has them whipped into shape and he is learning SO much! He sang this song as a solo today in front of everyone. so sweet. so funny.

just stuff

life is same old, same old around here. we have been busy. i can't believe how much school rules our days. we get up, run out the door, come home, take a quick nap and run out the door again to get annie, run home and have time to play a little, then it's dinner and bed and time for the same thing the next day.
this is jesse dressed up like a girl. he was lovin' it...his big sister and big brother thought it was great fun and hilarious. i am sure he will hate this picture some day! i know Tim already does...but it was too funny not to post.
here is my sweet annie girl who insisted that going through the torture of having her hair pulled every morning as i brushed it out was better than having short hair, because "God gave me long hair, so i should leave it long." but i was cutting the boys' hair the other night and she decided that she didn't want to miss out on the action. she plopped herself in the chair and told me to cut it shorter than mine. i was a little nervous, but after evening it out some, managed to come up with a cute cut. she LOVES it! she said , "mommy, i just feel so beautiful." as she bounced her new do up and down and giggled. i have to agree. and it is SO much easier to do in the morning.
This is nature in action in our front yard. we came home the other day to a hawk in our yard...apparently he had gotten into a tussle with a squirrel...guess who won?? it was pretty cool to watch. it took him hours to eat it and then he decided to leave the rotting carcass in our yard. by the time tim came home at dinner, it was swarming with flies and smelled so horrible.
the hawk let me get really close to him. i was only 6 feet away at one point, although a look like this made me want to get a little further back! don't worry buddy, i am NOT going to eat squirrel!

so tim got his gear on and went out there and scooped him up. apparently lots of bags don't cover the scent, because then he rotted in our dumpster all weekend. it permeated our entire backyard...let's just say, i will never look at a fly the same way again.