Easter

What a lovely Easter we had this year. We had a fun morning with a little Easter egg hunt supplied every year by my Grandma Inez. Had a few pieces of candy and headed to church for a wonderful Easter service celebrating that Jesus is RISEN!!!!! We are so thankful for such a wonderful Savior!!!!!

After resting and taking a small nap time we went to my moms for a yummy ham dinner with wonderful side dishes. She made a new macaroni and cheese with pimento and banana peppers. It is our new favorite!!!!!

WOW it has been a while!

Where have I been? I am not sure so far 2011 seems to be a whirlwind of a year! Just a few updates Grace and Ashten are growing up literally. G has grown almost 3" in 8 months. And Ashten I think an 1" in the same time. School is great and we are continuing to learn all 50 states. We only have this month and May to go and we are done!!!! Let summer begin! Oh yes and I turned 30, we had our 10 year wedding anniversary and Keller turned 35. Wow what a year!

We have been working away slowly but surely at house projects here and there. Keller just completed Grace's new bed. It looks amazing. Good ol pottery barn style for a fraction of the price. It was a neat first build project for Keller and really went together great. Now I want one too. ;) We have plans and hopes to finish the kitchen off this summer with tile counters and a few little touches. Looking forward to that and also starting our first family garden. Looks to be a fun summer.

Graciously Gratefully 8

This year our little girl turned 8. As usual the year seemed to fly by as we enter a new chapter of our daughters life. She is growing up so quickly. :) She is up to my shoulder and getting taller every minute. Since August of 2010 she has grown 2 inches! WOW. She is our little helper around the house and an excellent student and a sweet sweet sister to her little brother Ashten. It is a joy to watch their friendship and we pray it continues into their adult lives. :) She loves to read her bible and books and loves to learn. She is also always crafting or making an art project of some sort.

This year her Meemaw and Boppa surprised her with a sewing machine. WOW is it neat. She has already started learning stitches. We are going to make sleep pants are her first official sewing project.

Few more Christmas

Just a few more pictures of Christmas day. It was a blessed day full of family. We first had breakfast and presents here and then went to Keller's parents house for dinner and presents.

More Christmas Photos

This was our craft station extravaganza for Christmas ever craft time!!! :) This is now our Christmas eve tradition to make crafts together. We had Christmas eve, eve service this year too. That was nice to have family dinner and craft.

A few of our ornaments. They will be on the tree for 2011 vintage inspired Christmas.

There is not a picture of Ashten he made a few and then went to rest. The rest of us were in it for the long haul!!!

Christmas day in pictures

Ashten practicing for our Christmas card shot. We went out side instead. :)

Keller sporting his awesome new warm shirt.

Ballet doll for our new little ballerina from Meemaw and Boppa

Gracie's first Easy Bake oven!
More pictures coming tomorrow because I am getting sleepy. :)

December 2010 Part 1

Our attempt to get our Christmas tree. :) We got stuck in the snow and ended up having chili, coffee, hot cocoa and fun sledding down a hill with friends instead. It sure was beautiful.

Our petite tree =)

Sugar cookies YUM!

Ashten Turns 5

My oh my how time flies when you are having fun!!! Ashten is 5!!! He was very very excited to be a big boy. We had a great time celebrating his special day.

Gobble Gobble

Boppa and Ashten reading a book

Cutting potatoes for mashers

Carving the Bird

The table

Here is our family Thanksgiving dinner photos. What a blessed day to spend with our family. We had a lovely yummy dinner and great conversation.

Will update soonish ;)

I have so many things to update on the blog. We have our last trip in September/October, Ashten's birthday, and the final bathroom pictures. So much going on and so little time to post on the blog. Also we will have Thanksgiving pictures and then tree cutting to post after this Saturday. So hopefully I will get to it all by the end of this week. :)

Mom's bday

We went to Quincy for breakfast at the Morning Thunder Cafe. It is a beautiful drive. :) It was a fun morning to celebrate my moms birthday. And no I won't share how old she is. ;)

Grouting the shower

On labor day weekend my mom volunteered to help me grout the bathroom shower while Keller and two friends helped him rid the barn of pigeons!!! It was awesome to tackle two big jobs in one day and could not have done it all without great friends and my mom. The barn was pressure washed and the upper vents closed in and stalls cleaned out. :) Both kids really helped out too Ashten in the barn with the men and Gracie with us.

That evening although we were all exhausted we had a wonderful dinner at my moms. She made a complete dinner based around dinosaur bones! You can tell that our kids love dinos. My mom made yummy t-rex ribs, pteranodon wings, herbivore salad and dino egg potatoes. Thanks mom!!!! The kids just loved it.

Silly Kids

The kids were playing outside last night giggling away and having a great time with the doggy before bedtime. As it was starting to get darker the kids wondered if they could stay out and watch the twinkling stars while laying on the patio. Since it was a school night we decided they should wait till Friday night. :) They went out to play for a little longer and this is what I found when I went out to check on them and have them come in for bedtime. They just made us laugh!!!!

First day of school

Camping

The outside of the tent

Gracie and Ashten love to set up tents at lease every other day!!!! This one was one of the biggest and took up most of Gracie's room. I was even invited inside to see. :) Love how their little (BIG) imaginations work!!!!

Found some fun pics

Gracie and I in curlers one morning before church. Thought it was a good mother daughter moment to capture on film.

Bathroom project update part 3

Before removing all the tape holding the tile in place

Here is the finished tile 2 hard days of work and it looks so great!!!! We now have to grout and seal the grout and then the bathroom is complete.

Bathroom project update part 2

The top half done

This is the first half of the back wall.

So after many starts and stops due to vacation, colds and just plain life we are now tiling the shower. WAHOOOOOOOOOO It really looks amazing and we are loving seeing our vision for the bathroom come together. The smallest room in the house is maybe one of the hardest to remodel because it has so many components. It has been a long journey but in the end fruitful. :)

It is a two part project. We had to put a board up and start the upper half and now we take the board down and begin the second half today. Then grout and seal the tile. Will post another blog when it is all finished.

Gracie's Graduation from 1st grade

On Saturday we celebrated Gracie's graduation from first grade! What a fun afternoon. We had a lovely lunch with my mom and Keller's parents. Gracie was able to show her work from the year and our projects. Now on to summer!!!!! Happy first day of summer to everyone.