Our special visitors

Since we have been going over to the house to analyze and draw up some plans on what we want to change, the neighbors have been stopping by and introducing themselves. They are all very friendly.  There are quite a few original owners on our block. It's great listening to the history and hearing about the 28 kids who used to live on our cul de sac!! Most of the homes were built in the 1960's including ours. Our next door neighbor has the exact same floor plan as our home (at least for now). What is great about our house is that the bones are awesome. Its a very well built home. During our first few days we encountered some fun "neighbors" Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.

Can you see them? They are kind of hard to spot.

Here is our backyard! We are in love with our backyard, minus the dandelions. It definitely needs lots of work too but we love having a large level space for the boys to play and us big kids too. Okay enough eye work, time to let the sweat start pouring down! To be continued...

Our Fixer Upper

We just closed on a home and I am very excited to share our sweat and our tears as we start on the path of remodeling. With three very young kids and Mark working full time I know this is going to be the hardest season of life yet. We are doing mostly all the work ourselves to save money and because that's just how we operate. It feels like we really started this journey in November 2014 when we sold our house and started looking for our next place to call home. I don't know how many houses we saw but it was A LOT. It started to get really discouraging and we started to wonder when we were going to ever find one that fit our criteria and our budget. But the Lord is faithful and after a bidding war with eight other offers, and a few new grey hairs, we got the house. Its EXACTLY what we told our agent we wanted before we even sold our first house. Our first plan of attack is to get a structural engineer out to see if we can vault the ceilings.

Here is our FIXER UPPER

 

I wish that I had a wide angle lens to get better pictures but these will have to do. 

Living Room




Current Kitchen (door to garage) and yes that is parquet flooring!





Bathroom (of course)

Hallway to three bedrooms

The downstairs is halfway "finished" but our main focus right now is to get the upstairs remodeled and then start down there. Bring on the late nights, coffee, cursing and red bull.  To be continued...









best smoothie ever

I seriously think this is the best smoothie I have ever made at home. I just have a normal blender but the texture comes out like a commercial blender. So smooth and thick. I can't take credit for this creation. Thanks to Marks cousin Megan I have been making this smoothie for months. 

I don't measure anything, so this is a guess...you can just play around to get the taste/texture you like

• about 1 frozen banana (break the banana up into smaller pieces about 1" and then freeze)
• generous scoop of peanut or almond butter
• about a tablespoon of cocoa powder
• about a cup of almond milk (I use vanilla unsweetened, you could use milk too)

Blend until nice and smooth about a minute...enjoy! I will try and take a picture next time but I can't resist drinking it right away. :)

the farm

Last year we went to Swans Trail Farm and we had a lot of fun even though Miles was only 8 months old. We had to go back again this year being he is much more aware of his surroundings and what we are doing. Plus Luke needs the same experience ;) We went with our group from church and my mom came with us too. We got a late start and it was a cloudy rainy day, but it didn't matter. It was actually kind of nice because I don't mind the rain and there were not very many people there. Win win!! There were lots of fun animals to see including 10 & 5 week old kittens, soo cute and soft!

Miles and Grandma Jody in the corn

Miles loved the corn box (free for 2 and under)

the farms first tractor, not our best pic

Miles tried to sit on all the pumpkins

Luke had a great time too

We took a family pic but it was blurry and awful! The pumpkins are definitely more expensive, its more about the experience. There are lots of great eats too.  Remember to wear your boots!

goal accomplished, thank you to many

While pregnant with Luke, my sister Julee somehow convinced me that running a half marathon when Luke would be 4.5 months old was a good idea. The thought of being in shape enough just to finish was dreamy. After having Miles I don't think I started running again until he was closer to 5 months old. Your body moves/functions much differently after having children. But out of love for my sister and the challenge I was open to the idea. Around the end of June or so I got a call from my sister letting me know she signed me up for the half marathon. Oh crap!, is the thought that went through my head. At that point it was real in my mind that I had to get this body into shape if I was not going to finish before the sun went down. Immediately I started to get online trying to find a workout plan that I could stick to. Thankfully a couple weeks later my sister helped me get a "doable" work out plan that a mom of two could accomplish. I printed it out and stuck it on the fridge to remind myself daily of my goal and timeline. Each time I completed a workout I decided to highlight it to feel a sense of accomplishment to the end goal. Once I got into a routine (and my body wasn't severely out of shape) it felt great to get outside and run. All of a sudden it was October and race day was not very far away. I was going to leave my three "boys" at home and head down to Vancouver, WA with the girls. I love my family but I was really looking forward to a "night off" of momhood. Race day was here and everyone was as ready as they could be to start. The rain held off which was great. The whole time I was running I felt great. I kept feeling pumps of adrenalin flowing through my body just as I needed it. My playlist was keeping me moving too. I finished with plenty of room to meet my goal. But the real reason for writing all this is I wanted to say thank you.

Julee, thank you for so much!!!! Signing me up for the race, creating my workout plan, running with me, running with me and the boys, motivating me, etc. Because of all this I feel really great. It was perfect for my soul to get outside and run even if I didn't feel like it. It gave me more energy and got me back into shape way quicker than I ever imagined. I love you and am very thankful to have you as my sister.

Mark, thank you for pretty much having to "train" with me. If you didn't sacrifice the time I needed to run to watch the boys I would have never been able to meet my goals. Especially on Sunday when I had my long run and it was a race to get to church on time. Thank you for telling me to run even though I didn't feel like it some days.

Truly there were many people that made it possible for me to run and complete the race. Those below were in small or large ways a part of this accomplishment, I am truly grateful for you:

Julee, Mark, Mom, Pat, Paul, Anne, Grace, Miles, Luke, Nicole, Amanda, Shannon, Kristin

where have you been

Its almost been a full year since my last post...there are many factors adding up to the lack of postings. Mostly the lack of time or energy to post. Since November 22 a lot has changed. I was pregnant and now have my second son, Luke. Miles was a "baby" and now is a toddler. I was working at T-Mobile  but now at home. I was 27 and now I am 28. The list goes on. I am hoping to try this blogging thing again. I want family that is not close by to get updates on the boys and I want to be able to share this blog with the boys too when they are older. Its also just fun for me to look back and be thankful for what God has blessed our family with.

mark is 30

This September Mark turned 30 (I know its almost December) I am a little behind on my posts. But I figure better late than never. I wanted to him to get away with his family to just relax as well as surprise him where we were going. After much hunting for a place that would be big enough for all of us (our family, his brothers family, and his parents) and not too far of a drive. I decided on this beautiful home on Lake Sutherland, http://www.vrbo.com/317581. I feel like a lot of the time when looking at places online they never look just as good in person. But this place definitely looked just as awesome when we got there as it does in the pictures in the link above. It was soo perfect.

Miles took his first ferry ride and enjoyed some jojos.

The weather was beautiful!!

We even got a pretty good family snapshot, took a few tries, and Miles isn't looking but it was fun.