Our New House!!! Part 2-The During!!-The Inside Edition!!

This has been a long time coming!!

We.....especially Mike....have been working our hineys off

this past month!!

It is amazing what our home has turned into!!!

But there has been a whole lot of late nights, intense work, and 

a few stressful moments here and there.

Here it is, The During!!!! 

Moments (and memories) from our hard core week of 

fixing up the house!!!

This is our first picture of the work being done on the house!!

My handsome, hard working husband painting our living room!!

We were told it was going to take a TON of paint to repaint everything

but we actually had a contractor DONATE an entire 5 gallon bucket of paint to us!!!

Talk about blessing!!!

When Mike had finished painting the living room, I did not like it!! Ha!

I felt so bad about not liking it because it was free paint!!

But we both had agreed that it was just temporary and we would repaint it later

and at the least, this paint would be a good "priming" coat for future painting......

ok, sounds good no?!

Well the next day we went into the house during the daytime and both

LOVED the color!! Hahaha!!  

Turns out the lighting wasn't so good the night before!!

And our FREE PAINT worked out awesomely!!!

Note to self: Don't speak against your blessings!!! ;)

The Livingroom!!

In the middle of all of the painting, we still had quite a bit of cleaning left to do!!

I had some pretty awesome ladies to volunteer to lend a hand!!

We had so much fun and even celebrated our first birthday in the house!! 

 We had to repaint Adia's room...it was the worse one out of all of 

the kids' rooms....so we decided that we would let her pick out the color

she wanted her room painted.  She, of course, wanted green...her favorite color.

Gecko green!!!

Mike and Seth taping and cutting the room!!

It is very green, but she loves it and it fits her and her little personality

perfectly!!!  She was so excited when she saw it for the very first time!!

Her exact words were, "Oh my, I love it!!  It's so beautiful!!"

Hahaha!!!  Well worth letting a 4 year old make such a big decision!!

Mike ended up doing quite a bit of work by himself, so one day the 

kids and I took him lunch and had a little picnic in the back yard.

I hated him being there all alone.  I felt like I should have been there with him helping.

But he kept reassuring me that I was doing exactly what I needed to be doing,

taking care of our children and packing.

Thankfully he did let me get a sitter a couple of times and come and 

help out some.

The Hallway!!

The Kitchen!!

Mike actually let me pick this color and the color of our bedroom

out!!  I love both of them!!  Our kitchen is Olive and our 

bedroom is Grey!!

Kaleb's Room!!

Our Room!!!

Check out the hideous paint job that it had!!!

We had to rip out the carpet to obviously. It was 

pretty disgusting!!

NEW CARPET!!!!

WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!

Last minute we decided we needed to paint the ceiling....

This is still a work in progress!! 

We do have a few other things we are going to

continue to work on too...the closet bathroom,

repainting our pink dining room, finishing the ceiling...but all of that 

will come in time. 

This is just what had to be done before we could even

move in.  I have a feeling we will constantly be working on this house.

We have really enjoyed working on projects while we have been

in here!!  It definitely makes a huge difference when it's 

your own home that you are investing your time, effort and money

into...a sense of accomplishment that you will thoroughly be able 

to reap the benefits from!!

And finally........

THE MOVE!!!!!

A huge thanks to Stacie Miller for keeping my two big kids 

one morning  for us

and 

to Crissy Megow and Liz James for keeping all 3 of our babies for a whole 

entire day so that we could completely move!!!

You 3 ladies were the biggest blessing during all of this

and I have no idea how we would have done it without you!!!

Thank you to everyone who came out and helped with all of 

the remodeling and painting!!!

Each and everyone of you helped out so so much!!

......Up Next....

THE COMPLETED PROJECT!!!!

:)

Our 1st Mother-Son Luau!!!

I love things where parents can take their children to a special event

and it's all about the kid (mostly)!!!

I love the Father/Daughter dance but Mike has yet to take Adia.

He has always thought she was too young.  And honestly, he would 

much rather take her out to a movie and ice cream than to an event like that.

But I'm hoping he will give in one year....maybe next year!... and finally take her.

I think the reason I desire so strongly FOR him to take her is because

my Dad and I never did anything like that while I was growing up.

I mean, how cool is it to get all dolled up and be able to go out on a date with

the one male (in most cases...) that you love and look up to the most?!?!

Well in March, a local church hosts a Mother-Son Luau!!!

How awesome?!!!

So my friend Crissy asked if I would like to take Kaleb and Titus to it....

ummmm, heck yeah!!! Hahaha!!

So we did!!!

That Saturday was one CRAZY day!!!  

I ran non-stop from the time I woke up that morning til the time I

went to bed.

My great grandmother passed away that Monday and they had her funeral 

that Saturday afternoon in Adel.  So I attended that and then got home to get me

and my big boy ready for a date!!  Now the Luau ended up being squeezed into the day.

Right after I got home from the Luau, I had to change and head out to my sister's 

bachelorette party!!! NON-STOP ALL.DAY!!!

But I did slow myself down so I could really enjoy the time I 

got with my K-man!!

He wasn't in the greatest moods but I was lucky for 

Mike to get a good picture of us before we left!!

He is such a handsome big guy!!!

We met Crissy and Titus there and were able to get a couple of shots

before the dancing started!!

This is the boys' 1st album cover!!!

Doesn't Titus kinda look like Ray Charles?!!!

.......maybe its just me! Hahaha!!

Once we got inside, there weren't too many people and the boys

did great!!  Kaleb wasn't really into the dancing for some reason.

He was completely psyched about the lights though!!!

.....and the snacks.  So our entire 30 minutes that we were there was spent 

between oooo-ing over the lights and running to the snack tables!!

Lol.  The joys of a 2 year old's attention span!!!

As soon as the boys had had enough, we decided to take the 

after party to the park!!!  Titus shared some lollipops and they got to play and 

spend a few extra minutes with Moms...what more could a little boy ever want?!?!

It was definitely a fun experience and I do plan on starting a new tradition!!!  

I love making new memories and learning so much more about the little 

person Kaleb is becoming!!!  He holds such a special place in my heart!!!

Muffins With Mom

At the end of February, Adia's preschool class had a little event called Muffins with Moms!!

I was super excited about it!!  This was the first thing that I got to go to as a "Mom"

for one of my children.

When we got there, the children came out and got their Mommy and led her back

to their seat.

They had it all nicely set up with a name tag, card and little gift for each mom.

How stinkin' cute?!!!!

Their cards were just as adorable!!!

......but I was just a little confused as to how my child 

perceives me....hmmmm.....

I never knew my favorite food was Chinese!!!  Or that 

I am 4 years old!!!  Hahaha!!!

Then we got to feast on some delicious muffins and pastries!!!

It was such a cute set up and I love that they allow for the children

to have this one on one time with their Mom.

I strive to have one on one time with Adia but it's hard work with two 

others that are younger than her.

But this worked out perfectly and I loved being with my little boo!!

After the refreshments, the children sang us a little song and then were

dismissed for the day!!  

We decided to stop by MawMaw and Pop's pet store before 

heading back home to the boys!!!

What a wonderful way to have a little "girl" time!!  :)

Kase is 11 months old!!

Okay, so I know I am a little bit behind.......ummm, A LOT behind!!

So forgive this post being a month late!!  Hahaha!!  But trust me, it's worth it!!

Just wait until you see what is coming in the next few days with all of the new posts 

I have got to finish writing!!

So just hang in there with me!!!  It's soon to be very exciting and interesting!!

Kase is 11 months old!!!

He would not sit still for this picture or sit with the beloved 

giraffe that was in all (or almost all) of the previous pictures!!

Just a sign of the times, I no longer have a little baby who chills out in a 

seat anymore....he is moving and there isn't anyone standing in his way!!!

Someone has discovered that he is quite a cute little guy!!!  Hahaha!!

He definitely likes looking at himself in the mirror!!

His 2 best friends!!!

Gosh, he is just so perfect!!  I sure do love this baby and can't believe

 that we are at the one year mark....

HAPPY 11 MONTHS MY BABY LOVE!!!

Our New House!!!-Part 1-The Before!!! The Inside Edition

The Before!!!

The Inside Edition

Mike and I very excitedly bought our first house this week!!  

We are completely in love with it and are looking forward to moving!!  But we can't move in right away.  The house we bought was a foreclosure...I know sounds scary...but it is seriously the best foreclosure we have ever seen (and others have said the same thing!)

Mike went and looked at the house first.  It <obviously> impressed him so he called me to tell me about it and I met him out there to check it out.  As I walked in, I loved the open floor plan but was completely deterred by how dirty the house was.......like disgusting!!!  But Mike said, "Don't look at the walls or the floors.  Just look at the house itself before you decide if you like it or not."  It took me walking through one time with him and I knew that this was it!!!  Initially everything moved very fast.  We put our bid in on the house and had to wait a week for the silent bid to be up and see if we had won.

There were only 2 downfalls to this house......1.)  We really wanted to use the USDA loan and it wasn't in an eligible area so we had to prepare to have a down payment and cover some closing (Which God worked all of that out!!  Who knew that you only had to put $100 down on a HUD house?!?!)  and 2.) No garage (but it has a GIANT floored attic! So it evens out.)

6 days later, we get the call that we had won the bid!!!  I was ecstatic!!  I started running around my house like a crazy lady yelling and screaming while Kaleb trailed behind me saying, "We got house, Mama!!"  Hahaha.  The long road that we had traveled to find our perfect home was finally coming to an end!!

So, of course, we had to deal with all of the technical stuff up until closing but I don't want to blog about all of that but I will say this.....If you are in the market and need a Realtor call Tony Barker at Anchor Realty!!  He was AMAZING!!  He was so patient and wonderful with us....and we felt like we were probably driving him crazy at times...hahaha....and there was NEVER any pressure.  He just kept telling us that "the right one is out there. You just gotta wait for it to come up."  And it did!!

This house is a tremendous blessing.  I knew that God was going to bless us and I kept speaking it over our lives, but I never knew He would exceed everything I had imagined!!!  Above and beyond....HE IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL!!  We got exactly what we wanted and neither one of us felt like we had to compromise!!  And there is even enough room for more babies....for when we adopt!!!  Our house is 4 bedrooms, 3 & 1/2 bathrooms and 2525 square feet!!!  We have 1.25 acres at the end of a road that is really private and has a nice large fenced in back yard!!

So enough about all of that.....now onto the house!!!  Here we go:

THE BEFORE!!!!

THE LIVING ROOM

THE LAUNDRY ROOM

LOOK AT HOW DIRTY THE DOORS WERE!!! 

THE HALLWAY TO THE LAUNDRY ROOM, PANTRY AND ATTIC

THE DINING ROOM

YES, IT IS PINK AND PURPLE!!!!

THE KITCHEN

Apparently all of the appliances were taken or stolen out of

the house while it was vacant!!

THE BREAKFAST NOOK

MASTER BEDROOM

This was horrendous!!!

The people had pet birds and they lived in the master bedroom!!

The carpet was disgusting and ruined.

There was feathers and bird food EVERYWHERE!!

Not to mention the horrible paint job!!!

MASTER BATHROOM

And it looked like they had chickens living in the shower!!!

Disgusting!!!

THE FOYER

THE CLOSET BATHROOM

THE KIDS' HALLWAY

KALEB'S ROOM

Yes, that is camouflage wall paper and yes, it's staying...hahahha!!! 

KALEB AND KASEN'S BATHROOM

The best looking bathroom!!

KASEN'S ROOM

His was the best looking room in the house!!

ADIA'S ROOM

They had a dog that chewed up several door frames!!!

ADIA'S BATHROOM

So this is it!!!  Stay tuned for The During!!!!  Lots of hard work and love!!! :)

Ashleigh