Cuteness

 A friend of ours raise miniature horses and we went out for a visit a few weekends ago. The paint foal above has been born just 2 nights before and this was his first time out in the pasture.  It was so cute to watch him run and play for the first time.

 Above is a dwarf miniature horse- Isabella, and Avery LOVED her!!  It was so cute.  Avery petted Isabella and brushed her.  Avery was so excited and is still talking about Isabella!!

 Focus on Avery's smile in this picture... this girl was purely ecstatic!!  Look at that smile.

See how little Isabella is compared to Beau... Avery asked if she could ride her. HA HA HA!!  I believe my girl shares my love for horses!! YAY!!!

First Day of Pre-K

 This baby boy is growing up! Today was his first day of Pre-K he has the same teacher and is in the same school but I still felt a little ping as he hopped off to school this morning. He is so happy and excited to start "big boy school".  I can't imagine how I will feel next year when I drop he and Avery off at a real school....

Saturday morning beau cooked us sausage.... YUM.  He really did pattie it and flip it on his own.

 Avery spent some time playing in her favorite new mask! Thanks Aunt Eilene!!

 This was our weekend project- Ben built a paneled wall to go above the mantel to hang the TV on.  I also painted the mantel and tile surround white.  It is looking great- now I just need to stain the paneling and put a final coat on the mantel and the living room redo is almost complete.

Ramblings.....

 I would say overall we LOVE our new house.  I love being 10 minutes to the kids school and then another 3 to my office in the morning.  I LOVE the back porch- it is large and screened and the ideal place to read a book, visit with family over a glass of tea or listen to the rain fall on the tin roof.

One of my favorite rooms in out house is Avery's room (maybe because it is the only completely decorated room in the house). I love the color we picked and the bedding I drooled over for weeks and finally bought.  A friend of mine painted the beds (that I bought at an estate sale for less than the bedding ) and created that lamp right there..... see it....

 This was a plain drum shade and I monogrammed it (with felt) and added the trim!  How cute is that!! Thanks pintrest!  I will be painting her bed side table a purple color that is also in her bedding.  It is going to be super cute.

 I am also very happy with house my furniture painting is coming along- I am changing everything from black to white. To brighten everything- I am hoping for a crisp clean feel for this home.... we will see.

I love this little nook below, it is at the top of our stairs and is a wonderful view to come home to. My dad bought this table on craigslist and my mom painted it this beautiful color which just happened to work perfectly with an antique oil painting I had! I think it is a slam dunk! I secretly wish the rest of the house was coming together like this!

 I am still not satisfied with my living room....all I like in there is our leather couch that and our grass rug.  I let our old TV stand come in the house (I swore it wasn't even coming in and Ben promised it was only temporary...) there is nothing else... no art, so color, no style..... I am bummed!  I do have a chair we inherited from Ben parents that is supposed to be in there.  It has been in the process of being recovered for 7 weeks- it was promised 6 weeks ago.  It is going to be my color for the room so without it I haven't been able to decorate at all!  And it is driving me NUTS!!!!  I can't stand anything halfway done- and the room we spend the most time in is defiantly half way done and I am about to loose it..... but then I breath deeply and remind myself I am being silly.

Here is the cutest girl ever!!  In here daddy's knee highs socks.

 This is kinda blurry but you can see how funny the socks were.  She is a funny one and loves putting on everyone's socks.

Pirate Party~

 We had the best birthday party this year! We had a pirate party complete with costumes and swords, pirate fingers and barnacles!

 Granny's Carmel Corn~ it was a huge hit.  I will have to post the recipe tomorrow.

 Ben made this pirate ship out of a refrigerator box and a range box. He did an amazing job and the kids loved it!  We played hunt for buried treasure in the sand box and cannonball throw with water balloons.

 A wonderful friend of mine came over to help me decorate the cake.  I found a picture and instructions online. It was actually pretty easy and with Nashenna's help I think it turned out PERFECT!  It was mighty tasty as well.

 Avery wasn't sure about blowing out the candles but Beau had it down!

 This was out first party at our new home and it was wonderful, there was even a nice breeze!

WHEW....

 We have finally made our final destination!

 We closed on June 21st and moved in the following day! Moving is so much work, something about touching everything you own in a day makes you want to throw it all away and start over!

 Thankfully the week before we closed we were able paint and clean, we worked ourselves and my parents to death! We had only planned on painting the living room above, a blue grey. The evening we had planned to paint the walls Ben decided we needed to paint the ceiling.  It was a cream color and wouldn't have the finished look we wanted with the grey. So we ran off to Home depot picked up ceiling paint.... I thought it was going to be a horrible mess, but it ended up not being as bed as I thought and the bright white ceiling looks great!  That however was just the beginning....

The next evening Ben decided that the master (olive green) needed to be repainted.... and he wanted to try a light color.  So we bought what we thought would be a light khaki.... it was SEAFOAM from the 70's. 

 So running out of time, I took off the following day, painted the ceiling the bright white and the walls a really nice coffee color- which I LOVE!

While buying the paint for the living room color, my mom and I decided that the cream kitchen desk and cabinets above should be painted a different color from the kitchen cabinets- to set them apart and make them look like a separate built in. We decided to take the doors off and make it a display for my everyday dinnerware!  Great Choice (yes it is wonderful having a mom that is also a designer)

 Ben also decided he wasn't happy with the existing ventilated shelving in the pantry and replaced it with built-in shelves that look amazing! (We also painted the pantry to match the living room)

 So after all this work we have started settling in- completing smaller projects in the evening- like these $20 drapes from IKEA!

 The yard at this home is beautiful and I have 6 hydrangea plants outside the kitchen in blue and purple.

The only thing not completed in the house is the kids room and some crown molding in the master... (if anyone's husband knows how to cut crown... we have the tools and the molding- send him over!)

Avery's is first- she will be in a big girl bed soon!  I cannot believe it!

Mothers Day Weekend

 We spent Mother's Day weekend at a cabin in Port St. Joe and it was wonderful!!  This was our evening view, 25 steps from the bay!

Everyone came with us and the kids LOVED Uncle GUY!!  Beau was doing"push-ups".

The weather wasn't great but we still spent a lot of time at the beach!  Luckily it was beautiful on Monday and we spent a half of a day on the beach.

The bay was wonderful and a perfect place for the kids to play.  We saw hermit crabs, fish, and even a small octopus!!  We will defiantly be back!

The little things

Things have kinda calmed down around here. We moved out, cleaned up and closed, then moved in, cleaned, and now that all the dust has settled, life is back to our new normal. We are in a rental which has worked very well for us, it take me about 10 minutes to get to work and maybe 30 to get home (traffic) as compared to 45 minutes each way.  We are hoping to buy our new home in July but really I have kinda put that out of my mind for now as I enjoy this short phase.  We have been doing things in the afternoon, walks, playing at the park and attending little league games. There has been no chores to do on the weekends so we have been doing a lot of relaxing and playing.

This weekend we are going with some friends to the beach so I bought the kids some sun glasses.

Aren't they so funny!! Ben has been out of town this week and these little bugs have been angels. 
Since we have moved Beau has a new response when I pick him up from school, he runs to me and says," what are we going to do now mommy??" I think he is a quality time kinda kid~ and I am loving spending less time in the car and more time playing.  I will be glad to have 2 sinks again though....