home

I know, I know...it has been forever since I last blogged.  

After we moved 3 weeks ago, things were CRAZY for the first 2 weeks...some of which I don't want to remember!  Here's what I do remember: trying to finish the house (Chad had a list about 2 pages long of plumbing/electrical/carpentry/landscaping/etc that had to get done), cleaning, getting it to pass inspection, unpacking, putting everything away, cleaning, decorating, getting it ready for the parade of homes, cleaning...yeah, there was lots of cleaning going on.  Oh, and not to mention meeting the needs of our two little girls :).  Everyday was FULL, and there were occasional mishaps, but God graciously got us through it! 

And it is OVER.

We can hardly believe it.  We kinda feel like we're on vacation.

Chad was seriously giddy last week.  I was just relieved.  And our girls seem to be happier now too (amazing how that is, huh?).  

Thank you to EVERYONE who made it possible for us to finish this crazy project!  All those who labored on the house and the lot (all 14+ months), those who watched our girls, those who helped us move (and even stayed to help us unpack almost ALL our boxes in one day!).  You all are awesome :). 

And now that it's over, there are few things fresh on my mind that I've learned...and want to have to written down to remind myself for the next time we may build ;).

• Chad is an amazing builder (I am not at all biased)...TRUST him...he knows what he's doing
• The mistakes in the house that I thought were a big deal at the time, faded away IMMEDIATELY after we moved in 
• It's way too nice for us...but we will ENJOY it, and USE it while we have it :)
• It's just a house
• It's God's...always has been...always will be.  Keep an open hand!

Enjoy the pictures! And my models ;).  One big thing that's missing is our windows/view from the great room/kitchen...I'll try to sneak that in sometime soon.

And please stop by anytime...we LOVE visitors...seriously.

a lil' summary

So, we sold this baby a few weeks ago.  After listing it with an amazing realtor ;), it was on the market 5 days, had one showing, and was sold.  Praise the Lord!   The buyers were able to wait for a June closing too...so all in all, we feel very blessed with how everything worked out.  

Are we ready to move on?  As much as we've loved living here and have loads of memories from the past 4 and half years...we definitely are ready to move on and have our "normal" life back.  Building has definitely taken it's toll on all of us.

But in the midst of building, working, selling, packing, errands, a garage sale, and taking care of each other...God has given us some much needed moments to play and enjoy each other too.

Still loving food!

Our resident bag lady :).  Yep, all those buckets and bags are filled with Liv's trinkets and treasures from around the house.

They love each other soo much.

My two helpers while running errands...they do SO well for all we pack in each day.

We've also been blessed to be at the big lake a little too.  Livie has loved hanging out with her cousins...and  Tink's baby raccoons (or just watching others love on them) ;).  

And we are just 4 weeks from moving into the new house...God willing!  We are SO close to getting everything done, but there is SO much to do yet.  Please pray for us that we can get everything done before the parade of homes on June 16th.  Besides finishing the house, "everything" also means getting moved, unpacked, decorating it, and having it SHOW READY!  

Daily, my head is spinning with getting stuff done, keeping everything straight, and making sure my family is taken care of.  Please forgive me if you've talked to me and I've said things I don't mean or that don't make sense or if I seem to be on some other planet!  Some days I feel like I am.  

Chad and I feel SO blessed though.  God has given us His amazing love, grace, salvation, eternity with Him...and the blessings of each other and wonderful family and friends.  Keeping that in mind makes everything better :).  And we just keep saying "5 MORE WEEKS" and this craziness will be behind us!!

In reality, it'll probably be 5 weeks until I post again...so, see ya on that flip side!!  

Livie

Where do I start with this little girl?  It seems like everyday I have some good story about her, or something funny she said, or something cute she did.  She is just a really funny little kid!!

Can you tell she's into to princesses??  And babies??  And PINK??  Oh my.  Seriously, if anything is pink...she notices RIGHT away.  

One night we were out at the lake and Chad kept trying to get her to watch the sunset...but she, of course, was busy playing with her cousins ;).  After awhile she moseyed over and suddenly yelled, "It's PINK!  It's PINK!  Look Dad!!".  Haha.  It actually was a cool moment - great to show her that God likes pink too :).

Here's a little video of her reciting her first verse.  Sorry about the "toot" in the beginning...I'm telling ya, she's just goofy!

That was Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"...just in case you didn't get it ;).

She's grown up so much just in the past month.  I think some of that has to do with giving up her paci.  I honestly was dreading the day we would take it away because she was so attached to it and throwing tantrums whenever she wanted it :(.  It was getting pretty bad.

So, I thought if I could come up with something to get her mind off of giving up her paci, maybe it would ease the pain??  Haha, so we bought a fish!  Or Livie did.  With her paci.  

We took her to the pet store on a Sunday evening.  She picked out a "pink" betta fish with pink rocks to go on the bottom of the tank...surprise, right?  And when we went to the check out, I told the cashier before hand that Livie was going to be giving her the paci to help "pay" for the fish.  At first, Liv did so good...she handed it right over.  But as soon as she realized she wasn't getting it back...the crying started.  The poor cashier quickly handed the paci back to me, saying..."She can have it back!".  I was like "No, no, no!  She'll be just fine." The lady was probably thinking, "Yeah right!", as I carried my screaming daughter to the car. 

But she was fine.  After a lot of talking up the fish and talking up the fact that she was a BIG girl and that paci's are for babies...she was fine.  "My gave my paci to the fishy lady," she said over and over.  That night she did cry for about a half hour...but I just sang her to sleep and she slept all night.  And really since then, she's done great.  She did SO much better than I ever thought she would.  Praise God.

So...where are the pictures of this blessed event??  Well, I thought I would have plenty of time to take a picture of Livie and her fish.  BUT...alas, the fish lasted only 3 days :(.  I am NOT the best with taking care of any pet...even fish I guess.  Now Livie says, "My fishy died...went back to Jesus".  

We've promised to get her a new fish SOON...I just hope the next one lasts!!

So getting rid of the paci was kind of the start of having some good heart to hearts with her.  And although she's only 2, she is starting to grasp some stuff.  She does have her toddler tirades...daily.  But we just keep talking a lot about sharing, obeying, disobeying, consequences...trying to get to the heart of stuff.  I'm just praying it's sinking in!  I know we have a long road ahead of us.  But here's my cheat sheet for now (from the parenting conference) in making her see her need for a savior during our daily struggles...

Haha...trying to get answers from a 2 year-old to some of these questions is near impossible!  But at least we're trying :).

I LOVE the fact that she's still 2 though.  She brings us SO much JOY.  Seriously, we're pretty attached to this little girl...

Livie and Adalai with my Dad on his 60th Birthday...

With Neiko on Easter 

(this is the only pic I got that day :(..I need to do better next year!)

Such a trooper...

Emma

Blogging is definitely taking the back burner around here.  LOTS going on...growing, selling, building, moving, celebrating, stretching...and just trying to live life in between it all!  

While I could write a book to catch up on all that's going on...I'm going to try to split up all that I want to write about over a few days.  

And today, I'm going to start with our smallest blessing (and I'm going by size not quality here)...little Emma.  Haha, I don't know if I should call her "little" anymore though.  She may be small...but she is mighty :).  Her chub, cheeks, personality, hair...I mean, check it out!  Anytime we go anywhere, she gets comments, comments, and more comments.  And it just keeps growing...

What else?  Just this week she started to army crawl!  So fun.  And it may just be army crawling, but she's already keeping me on my toes.  Gotta watch this one...

With the crawling has come some feisty personality too.  She's generally a really happy girl (giving LOTS of big smiles and love)...but in a given moment when she wants something, she shows some spice and aggression until she's succeeded :).  Haha, I think we might have our hands full between her and Livie.  

And I'm sure no one is surprised that this little girl LOVES to eat.  If she has her paci in and there is food around...that paci is quickly spat out and her head starts bobbing in attempt to try to get whatever she can :).  Oh, and if she wants more...she starts gabbering...saying, "mamamamama" with a concerned look on her face.  Very hard to resist that!!

8 months is such a fun stage with her!  She is definitely loved...  With our crazy lives right now, I am so thankful for the days (or moments) that I'm given to enjoy her, love on her, and see the little girl God has made her to be.