We have a One Year Old!!

Gosh, I can't believe our little girl is 1!!! It seems like yesterday that I was in the hospital giving birth to our precious miracle. It seems like only yesterday that I learned out I was pregnant with our little girl. I remember the moment I discovered I was pregnant. It was 18 months ago, that I was having a rough time trying to make it through a day. Rosie and I were constantly butting heads, she was a tough bugger to crack to fully open up to me. It took months and months, no years, for us to have we have now. At that point she had a great relationship with Nate, but didn't want to get near me. Constantly said she hated me and i didn't know how to handle it that my daughter didn't love me. I want' feeling myself, something wasn't right with my body. I felt awful all the time and it was like flu. I felt quesy in the morning and soooo utterly exhausted by 2 o clock in the afternoon AND talk about emotional. 9 months before that I would have instantly thought I was pregnant, but that didn't cross my mind instantly in this case. It took about 4 weeks for me to finally think in my head maybe I should take a pregnancy test. I didn't tell Nate, because of course this was absurd, i mean we had tried to get pregnant FOREVER and it never worked out. So I had a left over pregnancy test under the sink and after I dropped Rosie off at preschool I took a test. 3 minutes of by and there is two pink lines. I go through shock, and then severe terror. I am already at my wits end and have more than I can handle and NOW I get pregnant. Is this real? I immediately call Nate at work and tell him the good/bad news. At this point it hasn't sunk in. I am riding a roller coaster of emotions. But after talking and calming down over a few days it settles in that I am really pregnant. AND then the fear of losing the pregnancy sinks in. UGH... it's amazing that I even survived the 9 months. We and so many fears..... are we going to be able to carry this baby full term? are the other kids going to be negatively affected by a baby? if we lose the baby and tell the kids how will losing one more thing going to feel to them? how can we add one more child to our family and share the love? It was a crazy 9 months but in the end we had a miracle and GOD had a plan in store for us. No one could believe that this story of our life actually happened but it DID!!! AND LIL MISS came into our lives. The kids couldn't love her anymore and they adjusted amazingly well to having a little sister. We have been blessed beyond belief. I feel like I don't deserve all the wondrous things that the Lord has bestowed on me, but I am utterly grateful. I wouldn't change lives with anyone in the world.
And now that lil baby girl is ONE! I can't believe it. She has grown amazingly in the last 12 months... she is walking, has 8 sharp teeth, in 12 - 18 months clothing, she says dada, momma, bubba, baba (bottle) and is getting quite a personality. She completes our family and we love her.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!

Here's to many more years of making our life sparkle!!

Play Dates, Tooth Fairies, and Tae Kwon Do

We've been busy. Mommy is putting more and more miles on the van getting kids from here to there. A Couple weeks ago we had Nate's brother and family come and visit us. It was fun having family here and showing them around the house that we call home now. The kids were super excited to get to play with their cousins and have them spend the night. We celebrated our nieces birthday while they were here and just enjoyed time with them. It makes us glad we are a few hours closer to family with the move that family can visit a little easier. {Nate took forever lighting the candles.... it was quite funny, Dale the fireman had to get in on the action to get them all lit!}

I can't believe this girl is 11. I remember when she was born!! She is now such a beautiful lady and I am very proud to call her my niece. Rosie just LOVES hanging out with Megan, she is pretty much her Idol. LOL

In other eventful news, Rosie lost another tooth. This year she is defiantly going to be able to sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"!! Because there is a wide gap on the top. Her speech is slightly different as she figures out how to talk and eat without those very important teeth. The tooth fairy visited and brought $1.00 -- she was quite excited and has plans to add it to her coin purse to the money she is saving to get something "really cool, mom!"

Family time and snuggling was on the agenda for this past weekend. Nate got the fireplaces running in the house and we have been enjoying sitting in front of the fire and just relaxing. After church on Sunday, Nate had the coffee pot programmed so that when we walked in the door our coffee was ready. It was heavenly, thanks honey! The kids got some books and puzzles out (little monster was taking a nap) and we just chilled for a while. Rosie is becoming an excellent reader it is amazing how far she has come!

I got a few things done around the house. I promised a picture of my finished canvas for my foyer and this is what it became. A first "Lynn" piece of art. {my boy in his Tae Kwon Do uniform}

Little girl has big hopes of playing with the big kids. At the Y when I go into child watch the ladies tell me they have to put her in a walker for her safety because she tries to play with the big kids and they aren't so nice to our little girl. Gigi has told me that "The kids don't like when my sister tries to talk their toys." So lil miss is banished to a walker until she learns to ask politely for a toy and not just take. The problem is at our house she is waited on hand and foot by her big siblings and she doesn't know about kids taking her toys away, not yet.

Her has been my regular morning routine.... get up, try to get kids ready and out the door, go workout at Y, run errands, and on really special days treat myself to a Starbucks. Oh what a day! Don't mind the stack of books on my nightstand that I am trying to read when I am not trying to do everything else. Eventually they will get read, maybe in front of the fireplace one of these evenings.

A typical morning for Gigi includes some fun time while lil miss naps. She has been so eager to play with daddy's ipad. I jump in the shower after the workout and Gigi plays a few games. Our kids are spoiled!!!

Here are my new running shoes, I am so excited because the pumas I was using made my feet numb after running about 10 minutes. Now I don't lose feeling in my toes, YEAH!! Looking good while you workout makes it easier to go to the gym and get in front of everyone and workout. Next on the agenda is to get some cute gym clothes... but for now tshirts and Capri jogging pants will do, I refuse to get more clothes in this size and am determined to lose the weight. A struggle but am trying. It is funny to hear the kids ask if this is healthy or tell their friend that is mommy's diet cereal. Maybe if I lose this gut, my son will stop asking if I am having another baby. :-( LOL I think it would put daddy over the edge if that happened! LOL

Lil girl has fallen in love with the "Sing Off" like the rest of us. She gets her snack and sits in her Bumbo and watched the action.

{this girl is just in love with her new room}

{Gigi at the zoo on a playdate}
This week, me and the kids are trying to find any excuse to be out of the house. It is hard to do anything with no kitchen countertops and kitchen sink. All get installed on Wednesday! Can't wait. So lots of activities out of the house are planned.

Today we met up with friend and her girls at the Family Museum and took a music class (alot of hopping around and singing) The girls had a blast. Gigi knew all the songs and even Lil Miss was shaking her booty.

I tried and tried to get a video of it, but of course when i urn the video feature on she doesn't do it. But Lil Miss is officially walking more than she is crawling. Right before her 1 year birthday she is a walker! Yippee!!!

Gigi liked driving the old car..... She did tell me that she had to turn some music on in the car before she started driving. Priorities, right?!? We have been getting lots of groceries at the store to stock up for our party this weekend. The girls have been big helpers. Gigi holds the grocery list and checks things off that I put in the cart (sometimes things I didn't get) so I have to double check the list everytime and Lil Miss has started to pull things off of the shelves when i get the cart a little too close to an aisle. it is great to get to the checkout and see 6 boxes of elbow macaroni in the cart, I now my little swipper has been at work!! We have had a few minutes here and there to even get our pumpkins done for the year. This year because of the kitchen renovation i didn't want to bother carving pumpkins so I used good old Martha Stewart for inspiration. We glittered pumpkins instead. They turned out soooo cute!! {supplies for pumpkins}
{here is our work in process}

Mommy sprayed the adhesive and the kids glittered. There was glitter all over but I think of it as pretty dust! Mommy had sparkles all over when I went to the salon to get my hair cut.

Happy Fall!!!! Here is the Front Entrance all decorate for the holidays!!!

It feels like home to me....

I feels like home to me, It feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back to where I belong..
Okay now that I have that song in my head. :-)
I promised Nate a long time ago when I started the blog that I wouldn't put music on the site so that when you type in the website name and the website loads... loud blaring music comes through the speakers. I don't blame him, I often look (or snoop) at other people's blogs and when that music, which is unexpected, starts playing I instantly leap for the knob to turn the music off. I couldn't imagine being at work and some music I would pick, such as Ingrid Michaelson or The Fray or better yet a rockin Bon Jovi song blares through the computer. I snicker at the thought. maybe I should add some music. Just Kidding honey! But that can't stop me from singing music in my head or blasting music while I write. :-)
The last couple of days this has really felt like home. I don't feel like we are doing tons of projects and waking up in the morning it doesn't feel like I am somewhere else. The dust is accumulating, the toys have spilled out into every room, I find kid's socks everywhere (not kidding, yesterday I found one tucked in between couch cushions) Yep it's our house. We have definitely taken ownership. There is enough "Lynn touches" to make it feel like home. {daddy working in the kitchen}

The kitchen has had the most transformation and it is far from finished. The two things we compromised when buying this house was the kitchen (got smaller) and the garage (didn't get bigger!). So right away we started brainstorming what we could do to make the kitchen fit all my stuff! It was suggested by my sister Kathy, to get rid of a few things (yes ironic, I think so! LOL) but I truly use everything I own. The things I don't use (like the bread maker -- against Nate's wishes) I get rid of, but the things I use such as pancake griddle, crockpot, baking dishes, etc. I need near me. Not down in the basement. We discussed knocking down walls, tearing out cabinets, re-working the entire kitchen, and we finally settled on tearing out one set of cabinets and putting in a pantry. This seemed like the least expensive and least amount of construction. I don't know how I would endure a couple months of construction! You would have to commit me.
Here is the kitchen now without the new countertops that are coming a week from today! YEAH!!! Take a good look because this might be the last time the island isn't piled high with mail, homework, snack wrappers, shoes, and of course socks (they are everywhere!).
{eat in -- before}
The kitchen was not ME when we bought the house. It really needed updated. As cute and modern as the rest of the house was, the kitchen just didn't flow right. And on the wall with the refrigerator was a desk and top cabinets, but I needed more cabinets. Hence, the pantry.

I changed the curtains dramatically. The rest of the kitchen is pretty neutral so i decided to go all out with the curtains with a pattern. I was looking for a print with the aqua and red in it that I have accented in the kitchen. I couldn't find a cool geometric print so I went with this floral -- hopefully not country like Nate thinks. I love it.
This bowl I fell in love with at TJ Maxx. It so went with the rest of my colors and I fell head over heals. A great find!!!

{ The ugly red painted had to go..... after much elbow grease they went away!} .

Do you see how many holes were in our walls? This was just the kitchen, but there were holes in every wall of the house!

{half bath}

The half bath is located right beside the kitchen. I originally had a cool chilled wine color picked out (a deep purple) It was intense but Nate said "No" very strictly. I was totally shot down. So I quickly picked a different color as Nate was headed out the door... and here is the end result. Now I have to admit as it was going on the wall, I hated it. It looked like I had butchered something in there. But after putting the fixtures back up and put my touches back up, I like it. Not love, but going to live with. ;-) I don't want to paint anymore.

I made these frames from some Ikea picture frames, scrapbook paper, and letters from Hobby Lobby. I like that it is just something different and isn't a whole bunch more pics of the family like I have posted everywhere in the house. LOL

{basketball hoop -- an after school favorite}

I don't know what I would do if we didn't have this basketball hoop. The kids are so entertained by shooting hoops and playing pig after school. It gives me a few minutes to get supper on the table. All in all the house is ours. Not just beacause we pay the mortage, but because it is "US". All my little things that I have created ..... the things nate rolls his eyes at.... that makes it "OURS".

{I took a folding chair from our stash and painted it hot pink for Rosie's room. It turned out great and the look on her face was priceless. I painted it while she was at school and she walked in the garage and said "oh my gosh mom! how did you know I wanted a pink chair?" A mother always knows! 'wink wink'
I finally added some personality to the girls room and put up these shelves all by myself!! Giving myself a pat on the back for this. Between putting up shelves and using the drill all by myself this week... I am superwoman. LOL

This wall in the foyer was bothering me. It had a few holes of course, and we weren't going to paint ... remember previous comment... I am done painting. So I had to create something to fill the spot.

Here is a creation I am working on.... final pictures up on the wall to come later! All of these things get the creative bug out of me and make the house a home. I love it and feel comfortable and settled, sorry to bore you with more pictures of the house, but it is alot of work and we are proud of what we have done!!