An Addition

We are pregnant!  I'm only about 8 weeks along.  I'm due at the end of June.  We haven't told the kids yet, only because when we told them I was pregnant with Ava nine months seemed way too long for them to wait!  We'll probably tell them around Christmas.  I've been feeling fine so far, just really, really tired!

Dastardly Decor - Part I

It's dastardly because it takes way too much of my time and brain space and yet the pictures don't seem to do it justice!  I feel like everything looks better in real life and the pictures don't portray how much time and effort I've put into all of this!  Sigh.  Anyway, here's the first round of pictures of our decorated home.  These are the rooms that are pretty much finished.  And that were clean.  :)  The loft is finished but is a horrible mess right now (go figure) and the office is pretty much done, I just have to hang up some shelves.  There's still some final touches in each of these rooms, but like I said before, I know none of you care or want to wait!  So, here they are!

This is the dining room:

This is the family room:

The kitchen:

Cole's Bedroom (Ava's and Claire's aren't totally finished yet):

Master Bedroom:

Coming Soon To A Blog Near You...

...will be a new post.  Yes, I know it seems impossible to believe, but as we all know I am a fair-weathered blogger.  I only blog when my life is not busy.  Obviously, my life has been busy.  But, I've gotten so much grief from people about not posting that I FINALLY will...soon.  Grant and I have to give a talk in church this week and I have to finish designing a wedding album for a client.  So, after this weekend I will resume blogging.  And, as many of you have requested, I will put up pictures of the decorating I've done (which has consumed my life).  Of course, everything's not as finished as I'd like yet, but I know that will take a while and most of you don't want to wait that long!  So, look for an update next week!  Thanks to all of you who care enough about my life to want to see what's going on with me!

'Delicate' Explained

Ok, I know I have way too much catching up to do on this blog to be posting about this, but I've gotten so many comments, questions and other responses about my 'Delicate' post (my 11 year old sister called me bawling after she read it, just to name one), that I feel like I have to do a little explaining.  I was trying to document some of my feelings in that post and how vulnerable you can feel as a mom watching your kids grow up and deal with life.  Claire is totally fine and has friends and everyone likes her.  She ended up playing with the girl that I wrote about in the post.  She can be shy at times and also, since she doesn't like to run around too much on the playground :), she sometimes plays alone at recess.  But I've noticed that a lot of other kids play alone, too.  It's kind of the nature of that age.  It's just hard as a mom because you worry so much and want to make sure other kids like your child and that she never feels lonely or left out.  I'm sure Claire doesn't even remember the incident and didn't feel nearly as vulnerable as I felt for her!  So, anyway, there's no need to worry about Claire!  :)  I just needed to get some of my feelings out to make me feel better!  

The Valley of the Sun

So, here's our new house! Sorry it's taken me so long to all of you who've been asking to see pictures. Of course, it's still empty so you'll have to use some imagination. We close on the 15th and all our stuff will be delivered the 18th.



The formal living room:

The dining room:
The office:

The kitchen:

The family room:The laundry room:
The loft (sorry it's a bad pic):One of the kids bedrooms:
Kids bathroom:

Master bedroom:
Master bath:
Backyard (notice the mountain view!):

I'll be sure to post more when I've decorated a little bit. Those of you who know me best know that I've already been unable to sleep most nights trying to figure out how I want to do everything!

Goodbye Red Brick House

(Title should be sung to the tune of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road")

So, I have big news to report. We have officially moved from Milwaukee and are in the process of moving to Phoenix, AZ!!!! Amazing, huh?!?!? Grant got a new job with PetSmart at their corporate offices in Phoenix buying dog food (yes, I'm serious). Once Grant accepted the job I had one week to move. Luckily, PetSmart paid for packers and movers, which obviously helped a lot, but there was still so many loose ends to tie up! This is why I haven't blogged in forever. Life's been very crazy. We are on vacation in Utah right now and will go to my family's house in Spokane afterwards. Grant starts his job July 28th and the kids and I will officially move to Phoenix on August 2. And we found a new house! It is SO amazing! The housing market there is one of the worst in the country, which means it's awesome for buyers, so we got quite the steal. I don't have any good pictures to post yet, but I will when we move their in August. I can't wait! I've been having a really hard time living in Milwaukee for a few years now (horribly depressing winters, far away from family, old homes, etc.) and so I could not be more excited about this new opportunity. It was really hard to say goodbye to friends, though. Our last Sunday I was a mess. And I will miss our little house. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally stoked to get a new huge home, but this house was our first home and where we started raising our little family, so it will always be special to me. Anyway, now you know what's going on in our lives!

Delicate

My stomach is in knots. The look in those big brown eyes. I can't stand for that look to be crushed. The sheer hope that lay deep within there...

My sweet girl told me that her friend said that they were going to have a playdate on Friday. She didn't ask me if she could have a playdate with her like she usually does, she told me that the friend had said it was going to happen. And that look in her eyes when she told me. It made my stomach twist with the insecurities of childhood. Did the friend really want her to come over? Or did she just casually toss the idea out and Claire clung on to it, so excited that she was being invited, accepted by this girl? Don't break my sweet girl's delicate heart. I've seen her at recess a few times, off by herself kicking rocks while all the other kids play around her. Is that just normal kindergartner behavior? Don't they all play by themselves sometimes?

Please don't hurt my baby.

How to Be

I've just realized, from a few different experiences, that I don't think of myself as a teacher to my children. I mean, generally, of course, I know I teach my children things, but when I think of my role and relationship with them I don't think of a teacher. I think of being someone who loves them and helps them, but not necessarily teaches them.  This strikes me as odd.  Isn't that an obvious role I should see myself in as a mother?  Especially when my mother was as much a teacher as she was a breather.  Shouldn't that be my obvious natural response when I find myself a mother, to be a teacher?  I guess not.  But, I definitely feel (and seem to have been prompted) that I need to be and view myself as more of a teacher for my children.  I don't necessarily think that means I need to teach them their ABCs and such, although that's part of it, but I need to teach them how to be, be a good person, be a kind person, be a smart person, be a righteous person.  Food for thought...

Zoo Walk

Claire's school had their EFW Walk/Run at the zoo a few weekends ago. Despite her athletic attire, Claire doesn't like to run and chose to walk, which was fine with me, of course. (I was telling my friend Shannon once that Claire doesn't like to hang out with a certain group of girls during recess because she says they run too much, to which Shannon replied, "Sounds like her mother!") So, we walked through the zoo, which was confusing to Cole. He kept asking us why we couldn't stop to see the animals. Claire had a sucker and was utterly devastated when she dropped it and it broke. In fact, that's about all we heard about for the rest of the walk. When we finished the walk, we rode the carousel to the absolute delight of the kids. They always ask to ride it and we never do, this was the first time. It definitely is a rip off, though. I think you pay around $2 per kid and I swear the ride only lasted like 2 minutes. Anyway, then we saw a few animals and went home. Ava LOVED the fish and I had a hard time getting her back in the stroller when we were done seeing them.









Grant kept making fun of me because we were at a "run" and I was wearing what he called heels. I wasn't planning on running, so why did I need running shoes on? Actually, the only real athletic shoes I have are from my senior year in high school. I've always hated wearing athletic shoes unless I'm working out and when do I do that? :)

I Dated David Cook

Ok, so he wasn't the same David Cook that just won American Idol, but I can still claim it since he had the same name, right?

Just had to say I'm excited that David Cook won. I felt bad for David Archuleta and thought he'd win cuz he did so awesome Tuesday night, but I've been a David Cook fan from the beginning and thought he had the most overall talent. So, way to go David Cook!!!!!