T-W-O

It has been a weekend jam-packed with celebrations for LJ and MC's 2nd birthday!
How in the world has it been 2 years since our family was blessed with these girls?

 MC, this picture is such an accurate portrayal of you at two years....a whirlwind of activity and your baby (Ne-Ne) is always with you.  You have a very nurturing and loving personality and always make sure LJ has her lovies, cup, blanket, or whatever she wants.  It's so sweet to watch!  Not to say you all don't have your moments of butting heads, y'all certainly do!  You are talking a ton (just tonight when we were putting you all to bed, you pointed to the cd player and said, "Momma, turn it on, please."  Your favorite thing to do right now is gymnastics with B and AC.

Ready to blow out the candles on her cake! 

I made them this year and what it lacked in appearance, was made up for by the taste....I will have to say it was delicious!  I'll share the recipe tomorrow.

 LJ, if I were to describe you in one word it would be joyful.  You are always laughing, giggling, singing....you are just a happy girl!  Well, most of the time.  We have seen a few glimpses of a temper, but you are making great progress in controlling yourself....it's been at least 1 week since you bit someone!
You too are chatty all the time....My favorite is when I ask where someone or something is and you shrug your shoulders and say, "I no know."  You want to be outside all the time and you love reading books...you will sit with a huge stack reading away for the longest time.

We love you both so much and can't wait to see the plans God has for each of you!

A Girl's Day

I've often heard mom's say eight is the age the mother/daughter relationship can grow friction as the girl is maturing and trying out new attitudes, etc.  Even though my girl is a very new 8, I have noticed  how much more mature she seems.  In an effort to give our relationship the one-on-one time our relationship needs, we spent the day Saturday together shopping, having lunch, and just being together.

This girl makes me so happy and I am loving watching her grow and experience life!

First Day of School

Or as I have heard it said by many veteran homeschoolers, home learning.  I think that sounds a lot better and is more in line with our goals.  At any rate, today was our first official day!

 As far as first day jitters, I had them! 

But the day went great and both AC and B said at different times, "this is so fun!"  Mission accomplished, in my opinion.  I am so grateful to have this time with them and even though I know we will have rough days, I see the opportunity for us to learn at home as such a blessing!

We attempted a group shot in our tie-dyed shirts.....they are a great representation of the four personalities!

Lazy Days of Summer

Wow, time has really gotten away from me and my blogging time has been replaced with many hours at the pool, visits with family,  fun day trips, and hot afternoons spent reading stacks of books....all good stuff, but I have missed writing and hope to do so on a more regular basis.
The kids are all growing so fast and changing everyday.  I can't believe how mature AC and B have become over the summer...8 years old is a good time for them and I love watching them develop these older personalities.  The little girls are embracing their almost 2 years- lots of talking, curiosity, silliness, and tantrums!
This summer has also been a season of changes and decision making on other fronts.  We have put our house on the market and plan to move back to Chattanooga!  We are very excited to be closer to our families and old friends, but we are sad to leave dear friends we have made over the past few years.
After lots and lots of praying and debating, we have also decided to homeschool next year!  I am so excited and absolutely feel at peace that this is what we are being led to do right now, but I will admit I am also nervous!  So all of you home schoolers, send me all of your best tips and tricks!
Whew!  I guess that's the condensed version of our happenings, so I will close with some pictures and a promise to be back to regular blogging very soon!

the cousins

Eight

Happy birthday, Brian and Anna Cate!

Gift Wrapping Center

One of the things I loved about this house are the built ins in the hallway, but this particular cabinet had me a bit confused about its purpose because the top cabinet is tall and shallow with no shelves to hold anything and both cabinets have locks on them.  It turns out it's a gun cabinet and the bottom is intended to hold ammunition.

Even though I'm sure it makes the firearm loving soul who built it roll in his grave, I use it as a gift wrap center.
A while back I decided it could use some freshening and organization to make it more useful.  The interior of the top cabinet was lined in red felt, so I had to remove that before giving it a coat of fresh paint.  This took F-O-R-E-V-E-R because it had been glued directly to the wood and it has been there a really long time.  After much scraping, tugging, and applying a plethora of various adhesive removers, I finally got it off.

I used a curtain rod I had on hand to hang the gift wrap and bags from the clips on the rings which frees up the bottom of the cabinet and prevents the paper from getting wrinkled.  The buckets hold ribbons,stationary, and tissue paper.  A mason jar keeps gift wrap essentials like pens, markers, scissors, and tape handy, though it was missing when I took these pictures.  Does this happen in your house?  I have back-up with my huge tape dispenser)
I'm loving how neat and organized this space is and plan to reward myself for my hard work with a little shopping spree for more wrapping supplies....I admit I have a bit of a paper addiction, but at least I now have a cute place to store it!

Linking up with:  Savvy Southern Style,  DIY by Design, Shabby Creek Cottage,  The 36th Avenue, No Minimalist Here, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order, Homemakers Challenge

Treasures Found Over the Weekend

I have been on the hunt for a group of paintings or botanicals to put on either side of the bed in our room for the last few months, but hadn't had any luck finding anything in my budget.  Last week I ran in the Habitat Restore looking for something else and came across these....

 $2 for the group!

I grabbed some frames from my stash in the attic and spray painted them with Antique Brass spray paint.  I used a more modern mat that I had on hand and I'm really liking them with the botanicals.

So glad to mark that off the list, especially for 2 bucks!

Linking up with Southern Hospitality