Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Happy 4th Birthday Wesley!

Wesley Paul, 
Happy 4th birthday Bubba!

You, my sweet boy, bring so much life and excitement to our family!

You are passionate, loud and brave.
I pray that you would use your voice for Jesus....that you would proclaim His truth and always stand up for what is right. 

You are nurturing and loving and the best brother. 
You are going to make a great Daddy and husband one day (and you have already promised to live next door to me forever...so don't forget that). 

You are one smart and creative cookie.
I love to see your little imagination at work.
Sometimes it is used coloring crayon on the patio (we are still working on channeling it in the right direction) and you love.love.love. scissors. You always know where the 6 pairs we own are in the house. 

You are the best helper. 
God has definitely given you a heart of service (just like your Bapa).
You love to help Mommy and Daddy with whatever we are doing and you especially love to help Mommy in the kitchen.
I'm sure one day your going to be whipping up gourmet meals for all 6 of us!   

You love your "stuffies".
Last night you had 13 in your bed. 

You are funny. Like really funny. 
You know what to say at just the right time to make us laugh. 
Heck... I just love listening to everything you have to say. 
And you have always have a.lot. to say. 

You are my little curious George. 
You love to explore and get into things that well... you shouldn't be into.  
I don't think you will be touching this stuff again soon.  

You love to redefine the rules of fashion
And we love to see your creative outfit choices. 

You still love to snuggle.
And be held. 
Today I asked you if you would still let me hold you when you were 100 and you said that I could. If I could still pick you up.

You are the cutest thing ever.
Seriously...such a handsome boy. 

You love to play sports and are so excited to start soccer next month!
I'm pretty sure you have more energy then all the players on the teams combined so you should do awesome. 

You have the best laugh.
Your joy is contagious. 

You are a people person.
You pretty much hate to be alone. 
And you will walk up to a total stranger and talk their ear off about anything and everything.

We are so thankful that you are our son and that you are a part of our family! 
We love you so so so much! 
Happy Birthday!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

House tour

Hi everyone! 
Welcome to our home!

I thought it might be fun to give you a little house tour. 
It's nothing super fancy, but it's us. 
And no my house is usually (almost always) not this clean. 
Unless it is on Thursday after our cleaning lady comes.
Then it's clean for about an hour. 
Oh that sweet sweet hour.

This is our entry way (the front door is on the right of the dresser). 
We found that dresser at Goodwill for under $20 and painted it French Pale Gold by Behr. 
I love the pop of color it brings to the downstairs and it is a great "catch all." 
The dresser is filled with kids coloring and crafting supplies.
I was worried that I would regret keeping them in a place where the kids have free access to them but so far it has worked out great.

Oh and the dreaded shoe bucket.
I hate it and love it all at the same time.
How is it that the matching shoe is always at the very bottom of the bucket?

If you turn around from the yellow dresser you will see our family room. 
One of my favorite parts of this house is the collage over our couch. 
Aaron totally gets credit for helping me lay it out and for nailing it up. 

And I know what you are thinking...
a white couch with kids. You are crazy! 
Yes..it gets filthy BUT the whole thing is washable so when it gets dirty you just take the covers off and throw it in the wash. 
Super easy. 

*In between the 2 couches we have a basket that holds all of our blankets and the end table and stool to the right of the white couch we painted with a coral color. 

When we moved into this house we ditched our giant entertainment center and mounted our TV on the wall.
I'm so glad we did!
It takes up so. much. less. space.
Most of the items on the mantle are from Target.
And that cute yellow bird is a piggy bank.

Across from the family room there is a small wall that was the perfect spot for our desk
When we moved to this place we realized that there was no room for our bookshelves (my hubby is a major book worm) so Aaron built some above the desk. 
I love how they turned out! 

Right next to the family room is the kitchen and dining room. 
Our family rules sign hangs in the center of the house for everyone to see
and we write the kids weekly memory verses for school on the white board (to the right) so we can go over it at meal times.

the kitchen...
nothing fancy 

the other half

One of my favorite things about the kitchen is that I have a great view into our backyard.
I love to watch the kids play while I cook or clean (or sneak chocolate).

Outside the kitchen is our dining room.
I'm still loving the chairs and bench we spray painted to match our table (although they are getting ready for a touch up coat).
Lately we have been keeping the leaf out of our table which has been giving us a little more space. 

Trader Joes has the best flowers! 
Every week I buy one of their $3.99 bunches and put some in the kitchen and some on the table. 
I love having fresh flowers around the house..they are so bright and cheery. 

Here's a peek at our stairs. 
We have another photo collage on the landing. 
We definitely have a picture problem. 
The giant cross is from Joanns. 

another view of the family room

Giant "S" is from Joanns and painted French Pale Gold by Behr
and the turquoise lamp is from Goodwill

Another favorite part of our house is our backyard!
The kids spend at least 50% of the day out here.

We scored this bad boy off Craigslist for $75.

And this week it just got an upgrade.
Duck Dynasty style.
The kids think it is the coolest clubhouse ever.

We also planted lots of goodies in our backyard. 
We added 2 square foot gardens with tons of cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, squash, zucchini, herbs, etc.
We also have a bunch of strawberries hanging in those planters on the wall (they work great and keep out snails and other critters).

The other half...check out our cute little watermelon and that corn!

*Right after we moved it we hung the cafe lights in the backyard. I love to see them all lite up at night! You can see some more pictures of them at night here from Aaron's birthday party.

We got this picnic table at Lowes and use it daily! 
We eat lunch out here just about every day (so much easier clean up outside) and now that it's summer we eat dinner out here most nights too. 
We (and by we I mean Aaron) drilled a hole in the middle of the table so we could add an umbrella to it.
What a lifesaver the umbrella has been. 
Shade=good. 
We also have grand plans to stain and seal it. 
Maybe that will happen...one day!

We finally moved our chickens outside a couple weeks ago and they are so happy out there. We fenced off a little area for them to hang out in during the day then we let them out in the yard to explore for an hour or so when Aaron gets home from work (which is their favorite). Then we put them in the coop at night to sleep. 

And that's about it :)
Well all the exciting stuff at least. 
Here's another view from the second story. 

And the other half.

And this is what it really looks like most days. 
Just keeping it real people. 

Hope you guys enjoyed a peek into our home.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Friday, July 19, 2013

A peek at our week(s)

Happy Friday everyone!
Here's a peek at our past week (or 2)...enjoy!

The kids put on a puppet show for us
pure entertainment.

The tooth fairy came for a visit. again. 
(she has lost 3 teeth and she's not in kindergarten yet...someone tell me this is normal)

cuteness overload

Paula Deen did not let me down. 
Homemade peach cobbler is the best. 

Some days you just need to change things up a bit. 
This day we brought the party outside.

His preferred way of "hanging out"

We got our free slurpees
I love 7-11

We had a smores night at community group.

And we went to the fair.

It's always one of my favorite parts of the summer. 

I grew up going every year with my parents and not a whole lot has changed since then. 
Except now I'm going with my kids (which is crazy!). 
And they have more interesting food choices...half of which involve bacon. 

*I stole Wesley's hat about one minute after we got to the fair. It was HOT and I had a little baby heater attached to me most of the day. 

I had no idea cows were that big!

Friends

The other day this little guy discovered his thumb

and the rest is history. 

The Sellars Express. 

This kid was meant to live on a farm.
I cannot tell you how much she loves our chickens.
She talks to them, pets them, tries to kiss them and cries when they run away from her.

 bedtime stories

 a little Ticket to Ride with friends 

 we took a trip to the library 

 and made this homemade ice cream 

 We spent some time being silly and trying to stay cool 

Hope you guys had a great week too!