Resolutions

Our church put some Resolutions in our church bulletin by Jonathan Edwards. I have seen these before, but a few of them really stuck out to me that I would really love to make my 2013 resolutions.

1. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die. (my fav)

2. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself.

3. Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.

4. Let there be something of benevolence in all that I speak

5. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others, and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

There’s so many more wonderful applicable ones to mention; but for the sake of brevity and clarity, I will stop at 5. Happy New Year friends, I hope it finds you closer to the Lord than ever before.

Our new home’s floor plans

 

So, I know I have not really announced this. Not because I have been trying to be secretive, but because this is a long process, full of ups and downs, certainty, then uncertainty, then everything changes. So, without further ado; Dennis and I are building a home! Yay!!!

Townside Construction is building our family a ranch style home with a basement (unfinished until we do it) due to be finished in 6-8 months. Jerry says 6, but I think it’s wise we just settle in for the 8 month goal so that we don’t grow impatient waiting. The home will be built on the corner of Buffalo St. and Blackhawk St. in the Cherokee Hills neighborhood. I am happy about this location for a number of reasons:

1. a LOT of our dear friends live in this neighborhood.

2. It’s in a great, grown up neighborhood great for walking and our particular street is a double cul-de-sac so that Daniel will be pretty safe playing.

3. It has a great school system, should, for some CRAZY reason, Daniel HAS TO go to public school.

4. It’s on a great side of town.

It’s been the neighborhood we have kept our eyes peeled on for the past year, if not the past three!

This blue print is not 100% accurate: the kitchen and dining room are reversed. I had a small issue with walking into the house from the garage into the “dining room;” I’d rather walk in to the kitchen itself.

So, the front door is the indention in the middle between the garage and front of the house.

The last two pictures are close ups of the house, sorry the last picture is a little blurry! :/

In a nutshell:

-3 bedrooms

-2 full bathrooms

-a living room/kitchen/dining area great room with vaulted ceilings

-unfinished basement

The plans for the unfinished basement include:

-a great and awesome office for me to run my business out of with a place for my sewing materials and crafting stuff. It’ll be called the room of magic! I do create lots of magic in my office. hahah.

-a large homeschool room complete with bookshelves, tables, and everything needed to school our child(ren)

- a large 4th bedroom with a bathroom for guests. (or a third child, but that’s like, probably never going to happen at our rate, the real intention is for his parents mainly.)

- Another large living room

- a third bathroom

The time frame on finishing this basement is probably a good 5 years, doing it in spurts. In the mean time for my office, Jerry has built me a little place for my computer, etc in a section of the kitchen that will be hidden. It’s not perfect, but it will do until we can make a comfy place for me downstairs.

Thanks for reading about all of our great plans! I can’t wait to take pictures of the ground being broken in a few short weeks!

Happy New year everyone!!!

Christmas 2012

Christmas can be summed up in one word: Kitchen!

Yes, our SON received a kitchen this Christmas morning because we knew that he would LOVE LOVE it. And we were right! He really loves it. It’s been 5 days since Christmas and Daniel still wakes up in the morning and after nap and goes STRAIGHT for it to pour us coffee, and put things away! He is one busy kid!  

This year for Christmas we spent it at my moms house for two reasons: 1. because we live there now. 2. because we wanted to be surrounded by family and fun. Greg and Kyndall spent the morning with us, and it was just a fantastic morning. Afterwards, we had breakfast casserole, muffins, and milk/juice. Dennis left with Paul and his parents and spent some time with Tommy at the Rescue Mission, and I was able to take an after Christmas morning nap.

See what I mean? He adores his Christmas present.

Later on, we went to Paul and Jill’s for Christmas dinner and to spend some time with the Maggi family.

Daniel is enjoying an early birthday present here from Grandma and Grandpa.

And then after that, he enjoyed some snuggle time with Grandpa! It was sweet.

if you’re interested in what the grown ups received; I was given a ton of goodies from my parents. As usual, mom spoiled me with a ton of new fall decorations. It’s a yearly tradition. Fall has become just as big of a decorating ordeal as Christmas. So, she has done a fantastic job providing me with great décor for that. Also, I received a book I have been dying to have. It’s a book to help me unpack the wonders of Lightroom 4, my editing software. Dennis received a juicer, shoes, slippers and some undies. And, MOM, received an iPad from her children among other little things.

I have a lot to update everyone on, more posts to come.

Saying goodbye to Harper

 

First of all, since I skipped all of November, and half of December, I don’t expect that anyone is reading this, but, here’s a shot at blogging again.

We have been going through a ton of change, an one of them required saying good bye to our dog, Harper. It was a sad departure. Here is a brief recap.

Dennis and Daniel said goodbye.

I said goodbye.

And we drove him to Copper Hill, VA to be with his new people. They seemed to really adore Harper.

I already miss him, but I do think that he will get so much love there.

We have 1 day left in our home. We move out on Saturday and will wait for our home to be built on Buffalo St. in the Cherokee Hill neighborhood. We are excited, but will miss our very first home as man and wife.

Reformation Night 2012

 

Daniel showed up as a baked potato. And a very frustrated, angry baked potato. It was a terribly designed costumed, and Daniel hated wearing it. Next year, we are sticking to store bought.

21 months

I took some time “off” from editing other families to concentrate on mine! I love familiar little grins! Daniel turned 21 months on October 17th. He has grown so much in so many ways. What a gift to be his mom.

Some things that stand out about Daniel right now is that he is attached pretty seriously to his blankie and paci. It’s a sort of miracle that we managed to keep it out of these pictures. I have cracked down a little bit too. I don’t mind at all if has these things while he is napping or sleeping, but 24/7 all day long is just not my cup of tea. He looks around for it in a whiney/whimpery voice if its missing. He even checks under my legs, or behind me in case I am hiding it. Smart boy, but I am smarter.

Another thing is his vocabulary building. He isn’t talking to me in full sentences or anything, but he is putting two words together. This to me, is pretty impressive, but this is my first rodeo after all. He says: please, more, mammie, momma, yeah, no, baby, all done, night night, Hi, Hello, Bye, Bye Bye, daddy, again, down, God, Amen. He is a great listener, and follows most all of my directions like: go throw this away, put this in your hamper, go get your shoes, get ready to eat, wipe your mouth, sit down, etc. Pretty great if you ask me!

He LOVES to be outside!!!! He LOVES to be with his daddy even more. Take a look at this expression below. He was mad at me for trying to help him push his car out of the yard. Independent.

He is a great helper!!! He was helping Dennis take this to the road for the trash to pick up. He will also be sure to shut all of the doors in the house including the dryer, dishwasher, closet doors, etc. I caught him putting his pajamas from the morning in our dirty laundry basket! Quite the persnickety one.

He is still the happiest little one I know. He is so personable and friendly. He loves to give high fives, say hello to strangers, etc. He gets the attention wherever he goes. However, he pretty much hates structure. He doesn’t like the library because he has to sit down. He doesn’t like to do activities. He likes to do what Daniel likes to do, and that is pretty much it. I guess we need to work on this at home.

Loves to play with trucks. Loves to read books. Loves sweets.

……………and he has no idea that his whole world is about to be turned upside down because we sold our home and will be moving out in about 45 days or less.

Thanks for all of you that made it to the end of this post to find out our happy news.

Take me out to the ball game…

 

While I was busy taking photos this evening, Dennis brought Daniel out to the ball field to watch our nephew play football.  

So grown up lookin!!!

Layman family farm

Today we went to Layman Family Farms to their pumpkin patch. We went with some church friends, and had a great Saturday afternoon out!

Thanks Ty for sitting through Daniel’s screamin’ session during the ride.

Yuri, Cohen, Caleb and Jax were interested in these little kittens under this building. You can see their little paws if you look closely enough.

Our children practically took the entire moo-train!

I am SURE, especially knowing Lilah’s mommy that it wasn’t an accident that she ended up in the “LuLu” train! I love her relaxed look!

Go Cohen!

So sweet, huh? But really… this was the chaos in the background. I am not typically a “cropper” of pictures because I usually compose a photo in real life the way that I want it, but I had to with the one above.

We ended up picking out a 26.5 pound pumpkin!!!! I am excited to get it on our front porch!

fun at daddy’s work

today we visited Dennis at his work to bring him lunch. Daniel likes to join in on the fun and the work!

take a look..

 

 

Hey friends,

periodically from time to time I will take videos of Daniel, and will post them to YouTube. There is a bar (above) that shows my latest videos. Take a look at them if you are interested in some pretty boring videography. I take these videos not so much because Daniel is doing something important or saying anything important, but because I want to remember the way he sounded, the things he did, and his facial expressions. If you are interested, give them a look. The latest is of Daniel mowing the grass like his daddy mows the grass. It’s sweet! Enjoy!!

oooo….

Is this a sign of fall I found today?

I think so………

Baptisms

 

I love our church.