A Bunch of Characters vs. Chattanooga

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Abbie

Believe it or not, Chattanooga survived us! We met up with Mark’s family in Chattanooga and toured and visited and laughed and giggled for a few days.

How fifteen children in one house can get along so well is nothing short of amazing! They continue to grow close and it just blesses this mama and aunt’s socks clean off (How’s that for a Southern colloquialism? Oh, and ya’ll will be happy to know that I didn’t need a spell check on “colloquialism.”)

How’s that for posing! We rocked the quick pictures before we left.

Grandmere and a helper getting ready for supper! Just so ya know. When we’re all together we typically rotate who is in charge of supper and go light on lunches and then rotate breakfasts. And yes, we plan out each meal ahead of time. It’s really a necessity with our large crew.

My nephew T. Ceili Rain was in Baby Heaven.

Chattanooga has the Tennessee Aquarium. Everyone enjoyed acting trapped in the piranha tank.

Group photo…at least we got them all in the pick.

And a train ride for my train lover. I was informed by him that the train ride was boring but he loved the tour of the machine shops and watching the train on the round about. He’s an engineer to be!

All smiles after seeing the trains in the trainyard and listening to the tour guide talk about restoring trains.

Visiting Civil War Battelfields. The lives lost were tragic and the courage of the men on both sides was amazing.

The matriarch and patriarch of the family! I think Ace took this picture.

I walked outside to get a picture of the beautiful scenery and hear, “Aunt Abbie!” above my heads. My nephews were having some quiet play time on the deck.

A beautiful view!

Tour Da House…Entryway

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Abbie

I’m back…Lest you think I have done nothing in my blogging absence, here’s my “to do” list at the beginning of the month:

I added blogging to the end. While we’re not quite completely done with it, we are very close.

Since we’re almost through with Autumn, I thought I would show our front door decor.

For my birthday, my parents brought me two gorgeous rustic bird houses. I may move one to the back at some point but for now they are on the stoop. The bench is an old piano bench that I painted cream color and I made up the pillows really quickly.

This was pinterest inspired:

Source: lookiewhatidid.blogspot.com via Abbie on Pinterest

I was too impatient to find a basket holder or figure out how to do a wooden letter, so a metal flower holder and vinyl letter were my compromise. I love it because I can change out the flowers with each season like this:

I think it’s simply beautiful! I’ll take the peppermints and presents off after Chirstmas for my winter decor.

Here’s the stoop all decorated for Christmas!

Sadly, the plants in the tricycle are dead. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Anyone? Yeah, me neither.

We’ll be back

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Abbie

Ah, Christmas season is upon us and while our calendar looks decent there are still so many things that need to get done so my blogging is sporadic right now.

Here’s two funnies to tide you over (well, only if you’re not on facebook…hi mom).

***
Before breakfast I told Ceili Rain that she must go get dressed. She walked off to her room saying, “If you say so.”

I said, “I say so.”

“If you say so.”

“I say so.”

This went on until I ended with a stellar rendition of “Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So.” She was not really impressed.

***

At supper, the kids decided to name all of the
people in the Nativity (which is in our dining room).

Obviously,
Joseph, Mary and Jesus were named first.

Then the rest of the Nativity
visitors had to be named.

The wise men include Frank,
Murray and Goldberg. Their camels were George, Bob and Roger. The
donkey’s name is Don Quixote (get it. Donkey-Don Quixote).

The
Shepherds were Tim, Ben, and the boy
shepherd was Jotham (a character in the Advent story we’re reading).
The sheep include Joshua (from Lucado’s The Crippled Lamb), and all the
rest are Barbara (at which point Mark and I launched in to Barbara
Manatee). The one cow we have is Bessie. Josiah wanted to name one of
the sheep Cold Cuts though. He came up with that on his own.

One Day

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Abbie

I am about three days late with this post but I thought I would share anyway. The “assignment” was to photograph one day in your house. The date set was for November 14th which happens to be my birthday.

So, I documented our day with a few hours break because I was clothes shopping. Alone. And it was awesome.

Here’s our day:

Starting the day off with a little bling.

Breakfast! My dear, sweet husband brought home cinnamon rolls so I didn’t have to fix breakfast in the morning.

How can you not start out with a good day when you see this sweet face? And his brothers and sisters as well!

Morning Table Time-Bible, Greek, Giggles

Time to get dressed.

And brush our hair (and pose)

Diaper changing time. On the floor. It’s much easier with a wiggley baby.

Time to brush teeth.

School time

Meanwhile…

Ceili Rain and Bryant put baby down for a nap.

And played hide-n-seek.

They hid in the same spots over and over again and thought it was so funny when they found each other.

Special treat with supper out at the pizza buffet.

And chocolate cake made by Mark and the rest of the bunch!

And then off to Awana for some ~~chocolate pudding~~ Bible memorization.

Not a totally typical day but close to it. This was fun to document and is a must to do again!

Tour Da House…Mudroom

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Abbie

I’m slowly catching up to what we’re organizing. This week I’m showcasing our mudroom. One of the things on my list that was what I considered a “luxury” was a mudroom. A place to drop our things and was out of the way. Well, imagine my delight when we looked at this house and saw a nook right beside the garage door! From the moment the contract was signed I started plotting what I was going to do with the space. And I’ve done it.

But first, we had to get our ducks in a row. I decided this space would be our big paint project for the month. And picking out colors is now starting to drive me bonkers a bit! But I did it.

Here’s the befores:

The bench was a coffee table and something else I can’t remember. I used an old crib mattress that was falling apart to provide cushion and then we added baskets underneath for storage. At our old house it was the shoe cubby and worked great (when the kids put their shoes up). We purchased the cheaper cubby type shelves from Lowe’s for shoe storage at our new house. I had thought about putting in baskets but then remembered that the kids typically may pull the baskets out and put the shoes in but then they would forget to put the baskets up. I don’t want more stuff to step around.

This is the message center. It holds our jurisdiction list, chore list and buddy responsiblities (I’ll share more on those later if ya’ll want…just let me know). We also have a place for prayer cards for missionaries. And there are hooks for keys, dog leashes etc. Hopefully, by next year I’ll have something more like this:

Source: onecreativehousewife.com via Abbie on Pinterest

And all my organized friends just drooled. Me too. I hear ya.

Anyway, back to the mudroom. Here are the afters:

Crimson and gray! Roll Tide! I had my eye on some pretty Alabama fabric for the bench but when we got to the store it was $10 a yard. I quickly realized that spending $20 on recovering a bench was not worth it and this fabric at under $4 would work just fine (it was 60% off). I’m thrilled with how it all came together. It helps that I took the fabric and matched it to the paint! This is coming out of the half bath.

Walking in from the kitchen, great room, garage.

My beautiful bench. That sucker is over ten years old. We got it from Big Lots when we first moved to this area.

Got our Bama pics up!

Photo Op

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Abbie

A home school day at the lake turned in to a photo op for my adorable little ones. The older kids were too busy being “anti-social” to take pictures (playing games like four square and skipping rocks with friends kind of anti-social).

If I keep smiling, she’ll never know I just ate a leaf.

Josiah is refusing to dress like it is fall.

Hands down, Malachi is Ceili Rain’s favorite person right now. Do ya’ll remember Elmira from Looney Tunes? Well, it’s that kind of favorite. Bless him, despite all she puts him through he still smiles and laughs at her. I think he either forgets that she carried him by his toes all around the room or he’s just letting off that nervous “don’t come near me” laugh.

I scored some cute rainboots for Bryant for $4. He had to wear them. They take up almost all fo his foot. And make him look 10 billion times as cute as he is. Especially when he has a stick for a sword.

Oh, back to me…okay, time to ham it up!

The little kids with their little friends. They explored, pretended and romped around until we finally had to tell them it was time to go.

October Randoms

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Abbie

In October, Malachi is slowly getting out of the commando crawl. As such, he likes to stand on his feet and move around like a bear. He won’t crawl. Just stand and move one foot around and then get back on his belly and go. He’s now taking more and more crawl steps on his hands and knees though.

Do you see how cute I am?!

Because, I’m really cute. As cute as my brothers and sisters! He crawled to the mirror and proceeded to “kiss” the baby in it.

Game time in Awana. You never know what will happen.

We got our cultural studies in at a concert of Czech-Slovac Folk group at a local concert.

One crazy afternoon, I had Kristina’s kids and had to take Zoe to piano and the boys’ to golf clinic. So, I loaded all ten of them up (one was with Kristina) and off we headed. And being that Kristina is a bestie, she stopped off at McDonald’s and got lunch for our crew. And we picniced. At the driving range. In the parking lot. We’re cool like that.

Chick-fil-a hosted a Pirate’s and Princess night. Ceili Rain informed us that her Colonial dress was a princess dress and she was most happy to wear it and get free ice cream. She also enjoyed getting her face painted.

Zoe’s First

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Abbie

So, awhile back I mentioned that my parents have mad skillz when it comes to finding awesome furniture at great prices. Awesome in that it is old and used and needs some updating and that is fine with me. That kind of awesome.

When last they came to visit, they dropped off a beautiful old vanity that needed a bit of updating. I decided that Zoe was just the age to learn how to refurbish an old piece of furniture. We scoured Google and pinterest and found the same vanity updated and she said she wanted hers to look like that. So, we set to work. Her design required staining too. I believe that it’s been at least 10 years since I’ve stained furniture so this was a good refresher course for me. I think I only had to call my mom once to make sure we did it right.

This is the determined/concentrated look.

Staining! I forgot how much I enjoyed staining. Polyurethening is another story. I’m always worried I’ll have too many bubbles and it’ll look horrible!

We had an audience that day. Can I just say that I love having a garage to work in?

Here’s our inspiration:

Source: comfylittleplace.blogspot.com via Abbie on Pinterest

Beautiful! And shabby chiced too! We didn’t go shabby chic but we did the dark stain on top:

The girls’ love it. I wanted to go for another bright pink but was vetoed by everyone I said it too. So, classic white with stained tops it is. We’ve still got to find a chair so I’m on the look out for something with character (ha.ha.).

Didn’t Zoe do a wonderful job?!

Tour Da House…Kids’ Rooms

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Abbie

I know. I’m behind again. So sad. I’m still working hard. As evidenced by this room. The girls’ room. I gave Zoe control over it when we unpacked. But she soon realized that she needed a bit of help (okay, I told her she needed a bit of help). I took a Saturday in October and we spent two hours in this room. Two hours in one room…just organizing and rearranging.

We made it through though.

Ceili Rain has the bottom bunk. The girls’ bed was a Craigslist find. Mark and a friend from church headed out the night we closed on the house and picked up the bed. They took it to the new house in a down pour very similar to our move in day. On the way home, they saw a guy on a bike. He was trying to peddle home in the down pour. They had room in the van for the guy and his bike because the seats were all out. So, upon the suggestion of the friend, they picked him up. Mark and our friend said that this guy would not stop talking the whole trip. Apparently, his “motivation was in the tank” and he “used to be a cabby in Philadelphia” or somewhere like that.

And that has nothing to do with the girls’ room. I just thought I’d share.

Ceili Rain stuffs things around her bed. I have since scooted her bed to one side and will be getting a bookshelf for the other soon.

I know. I know. She did her best with what she had.

This is a before of the closet. The girls love American Girl dolls so having a walk-in closet was wonderful! They now have a place for the girls to “live.” And these girls typically live in a style of luxury.

One of the “sold me” parts of the house was the walk-in closets in two of the bedrooms.

This is the organized after picture. Ceili Rain was showing me where the girls were sleeping. We arranged it so they could get to each of the dolls. I moved the bookshelf in to the closet so they have more space for something I’ll show tomorrow.

I’m keeping their bed linens in this small hang up place.

I repainted their dresser before we moved. When we first purchased the dresser it was painted red. I repainted it with a castle on the front drawers but I knew Zoe was getting too old for that and the white flat paint that we used as a base was getting dingy. So, we found a bright pink, funky fabric, and pink spray paint. I dipped the fabric in fabric softener and smushed it on the drawers. The ends got frazzled and still are, so I hot glued ribbon around the edges. It won’t stay but we can swap it out easily when the girls get tired of the fabric.

I can see the floor! And two adorable and beautiful little girls.

Jumping for joy! Just had to throw this in there.

Boys walk-in closet. We mainly hang up church clothes in both rooms but having the walk-ins allows them to have play space and, we’ll have plenty of room to hang up “real” clothes when they get older. Josiah enjoys helping give tours. Okay, he enjoys photobombing.

Ties, colonial costumes, and backpacks. That’s what we store in the boys’ closet!

See. Tour photobomber. We have four boys in one room. Malachi has a separate room that will eventually double as a guest bedroom. For now, it’s all his until everyone comes in to play with his toys. His bedroom does not have a walk-in closet, is not finished, and really only contains his crib. Hence, I didn’t see a need to post the pictures right away. I’ll do that later.

I purchased over the door shoe organizers for the boys’ and girls’ rooms. This gives the girls plenty of space for their dolls and it keeps the boys’ shoes organized. We only keep Sunday shoes in their rooms since the rest are in the mud room so that gives extra storage for whatevers. The girls keep their few Barbie dolls in them and I’m not sure what else. The boys’ still haven’t figured out what to do with theirs. But Bryant was very upset this past Sunday when he couldn’t find his shoes (that were in the organizer).

You can head over to A Bowl Full of Lemons to see some ~~better~~ more organized kids’ spaces. We are continually working to stay organized and clean and right now, my goal is to have a place for everything. Making it look cute will come ~~when I win the lottery that I don’t play~~ later.

Moo!!

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Abbie

Our annual trip to the dairy farm and corn maze almost didn’t happen. With moving and getting ready to go out of town and the like, we’ve been really busy. We decided to make time. It’s that important for us! And it was a great stress reliever. The day was a bit rainy but not enough that we couldn’t go!

Don’t worry. That gray is gone now. I look much younger (at least I keep saying that in my brain).

My kids are aspiring dairy farmers.

No, I don’t know who Liam is riding with. But he was kind enough to share the cart with her. Such a gentleman!

Buddies. My heart melts.

Josiah made sure Ceili Rain was safe too. He loves protecting his little sister (when he’s not beating her up because she took his toy).

I’m not sure what the lip biting is about. She got the cart all to her self! Lucky girl.

There is an amazing young lady who was doing face painting at Chick-fil-a one night. Everyone got their faces painted except Zoe. So, Zoe didn’t want to miss the opportunity to have it done when we saw her at the dairy farm. She is really talented on face and with other media! And my daughter is beautiful.