Bits and Pieces

My friend, Jennifer, officially has me hooked on http://www.scrapblog.com/. I absolutely love it! Although, like her, I'm not sure how to print the pages since I don't want to print them on my home printer. My first one took me on and off all day, but I really like how it turned out. Click here to check it out. http://www.scrapblog.com/222ABD9B-E0C6/1C57D549-7549 Hopefully you can view it. I'm still working on getting on my blog. :)

I have been surfing blogs the past few days and I've found some great crafty blogs. You should check out http://www.colorfool.net/ and http://craftapple.wordpress.com/. I've been inspired to try making some things for Christmas this year. I'll have to try a prototype out for myself first. I'll let you know how it goes. For now, I've got to get my sewing machine fixed and find some extra cash for material.

My daughter is so much fun to watch. Who needs to pay for entertainment when I've got her?!? At the moment, she's running from one end of the room to the other throwing herself on the couch then against the entertainment center. Maybe it has something to do with the few bites of ice cream I gave her a little bit ago. She's also been playing with her babydolls the last couple of weeks. She loves rocking them saying sh, sh, sh, feeding them, giving them a paci and the latest-taking of their clothes and changing their diapers. It amazes me how she knows to take care of her doll.

Enough for now, I need to wear the little sweetpea down so she'll sleep tonight and then clean up the kitchen.

Bows, Time Outs and Working for Food

Natalie has been wearing pigtails for sometime now and I've finally made some bows for her to wear. If your interested in any bows for your little princess just let me know.

Well, I have discovered that time outs work much better with Miss Natalie than spankings. On Monday, she was playing with my feet and bit my toe. Yeah, I know it sounds funny, but it made me scream. So, I sat her in time out. She cried like I had just broken her heart. I told her she had to sit there until I said she could get up. Surprisingly she sat there for a few minutes and stopped crying. I loved on her and told her that we don't bit even to play. She was great the rest of the day! Who knew! I am so excited that this method is working.

We had fresh corn for dinner the other night and Natalie decided she wanted to help me clean it. She did a wonderful job!

Finally!

Well, we finally have our internet reconnected. So, here are the promised pictures of our beautiful home. We still have some projects that need to be finished an I'm working on unpacking the last few boxes and getting all the decor up.

Kitchen

Entryway & Front Door

Hallway

Livingroom

Livingroom

Natalie's Room

Natalie's Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Our beautiful little girl is 17 months old today. I'm still trying to figure out where all the time has gone. She's changing so much here lately. She's talking like crazy repeating everything you say and do. She's so beautiful!!!

Settling In

Well, we are finally getting all settled in our new house. We still don't have internet hooked up so I'm playing on Michael's computer at the office. I'll try to remember to bring some pics up to the church to post online for everyone to see. It's so nice finally being able to settle down in a house that is ours. I can't explain the joy of being able to decorate and hang pictures! Natalie is adjusting well to the new place. She loves her new room. She's finally starting to sleep through the night again and sleep later than 5 am. I just have to say that God is good all the time-even through all the crazy plumbing and ant problems we're having. Things are starting to settle down now that youth camp is over. We're taking the youth to Six Flags Thursday. I'm very happy to say that Grammie is coming to stay with Nat so she doesn't have to go. We had a wonderful (but crazy) weekend with family and friends. Natalie loved playing with her cousins, Avery and Lexi. Michael and I also enjoyed getting to play cards with his brother, Justin, and sister-in-law, Valeta. Michael and our friend, David, took out the alternator in my car and hopefully will be able to get the new one in tonight with no problems. I guess that's all for now. I hope things are going well with everyone. Look for pictures soon!

Finally Moved

It is finished! We are all moved into our new house! It's a total mess, but hey everything is there. We still have little things that need to be done, but we can work on that at night after Nat goes to bed or when she's napping. We moved out just in time for the family who is buying the house we were renting. As most of you know, my friend Jennifer, who is buying the house, had her baby girl Kate Marie last night. Both are doing well and Kate is absolutely beautiful! I'll post pictures of our house as soon as Michael gets back from youth camp and we get our computer all set up. Yes, Michael is at youth camp this week. From our short conversations, it is going great. Please continue to pray for the youth and counselors as they finish up the week and come home. Thanks so much to all of our friends who have helped us remodel the house and move. Just to name a few Brandon and Jennifer, Kerry, David, Johnny and Tricia, Matt, Terry, Brandon's cousins (for helping us move yesterday while Kate was planning her arrival), Brian, Eugene and Vicki, and anyone else I forgot to mention (I'm sorry if I missed anyone I'm running on little sleep).

Roommates

This week has been crazy and it's only Wednesday!!! Our friends, the Kindles, sold their house on Monday and have to be out by Friday. They are buying the house that we are currently renting. Our house isn't ready yet. So, we are going to have roommates for a while or they are going to have roommates-whichever way you want to look at it. Their three boys are going to sleep over at their Mimi's across the street and Brandon and Jennifer are going to sleep in their new room upstairs. Hopefully, our carpet will be in today or tomorrow. Then, they can set an install date. Please pray that it's sometime next week. Michael is leaving for youth camp on Sunday. So, it'll just be me and Nat. I'm hoping to get all the painting finished this week. I can only do it at night after Natalie goes to sleep if I have someone here with her. The past two nights I've had wonderful girls from our youth group stay with her. I've gotten a lot done, but I still have a lot to go. Michael and Brandon have been working so hard to get the floor tiled. They're not done yet, but it looks great! Last night and today they've been moving our stuff to the new house and moving the Kindles things in to our current house we're renting. Did I mention that Jennifer is due on July 20th?!? Needless to say it is CRAZY around here. Here are some newer pics of our house. I'll take some later today of the tile and the paint. Natalie is asleep so I think I'm gonna rest for a bit. Until later...

Remodelling Update

Everything is going great with our new house! Michael and Brandon finished replacing insulation and sheetrock. They can finally rest a little bit. The guys finished taping, bedding and texturing this morning. So, we can start painting tomorrow!!! I am so excited! It doesn't even look like the same house on the inside. Michael has the camera at the new house, so I'll have to post pictures later. The only thing we'll be waiting on to move in will be the carpet. They've got it, but it may be a few weeks before they're able to lay it. Michael leaves for camp the 13th, so I'm really hoping that they can get the carpet in before he leaves. It would be even better if we could get moved in before he leaves. We'll have to wait and see.

As I was browsing through my friends' blogs I came upon a newstory where two young men were killed in a drive by shooting. Both were devoted Christians. You can read more about them at http://mrsmommyd.blogspot.com/. Please pray for the Swan and Butler families during this time.