Our new old house

Okay, so I finally "really" cleaned the kitchen today and decided it was a good day to take some pictures. We have been in the house for less than two months so there is still lots to do. When it's all said and done, we will have re-done everything in the house except the bones of the kitchen cabinets and the bathtubs. Whew! Today, the kitchen/ den are mostly done...a few more pictures to hang...so I'll show these two rooms first.

So we looked at many houses but when I walked in this house, through the back door, and into the kitchen, I knew this was the house for us.

This is the first thing I saw...

Kitchen Before:

Blue cabinet doors, dated appliances, linoleum floors - everything I was looking for!

So from here, you can see into the den which the previous owners used as their dining room (hence the chandelier). The other doorway looks into the front room (a large room we use as a dining/play area) which a beautiful triple window that looks out onto the front yard.

This is the work in progress...the overhanging cabinets were removed and a large, cased opening cut in the wall between the den and the front room. So it really opened up the two rooms and really let the light in.

I must mention here that I did not live in this house during the work. In fact, I didn't live in the same state during this time. My dear husband did. For the three months after we bought the house, he worked all day and then came to this house and worked for several hours at night. He was amazing! He didn't try to conquer all the big stuff though...we did have some tremendous help. As for me, I got to envision and imagine what the house was going to look like... picking out everything from floors to fixtures, helping with small projects Brad brought home, and daily answering questions over the phone with Brad about a house I was in only three times before we moved. We worked as a great team and really had a lot of fun (most of the time). We are very happy with how it all turned out and proud of our hard work.

Kitchen After:

So here's the other side of the kitchen, the den.

Den Before:

This angle is looking into the den (stove is to my right and fireplace is on left side of the picture). I really debated on getting rid of the mauve carpet that was in every room of the house except the kitchen. I debated it for about 5 seconds.

Most of these before pics were taken before we bought the house. In this one, I'm backed up against the wall that we cut the cased opening...

Once the opening was cut, light from the big window in the front room flooded the den - so much better!

Our very handy man Randy

Den After:

To our dear Decatur friends - we placed the painting where we would see it all day everyday and think of you!

This is looking into the cased opening into the front room and the foyer to the left (that's the front door) More pics of it to come!

BIG little girls

My girls are getting so big.

Everyday, it's something new...a new talent, a new phrase, a new word, a new look, a new memory. I wish I could capture them all, remember them all, treasure them all forever because this precious time is going by so fast.

Here are a few examples:

Lillianna is getting big enough to draw portraits...

This one is of "Mommy when she blows her hair."

They are both big enough to enjoy a special treat of suckers...
it just seems impossible that my little ones are big enough for moments like this.

Ellenie is big enough to...

find herself a snack.

Lillianna is big enough to use scissors...

and cut out the family coupons.

Ellenie is big enough to play hide-and-seek...

and she won this night!

So big.

I love this little Gold digger

Same stuff, different day, much love

These are long days

full of funny moments and not so funny moments,

full of hours that last for days

and naptimes that are gone in a flash.

Days full of the same ol' routine

but with much effort,

days full of tiny adventures, "special treats" and

unexpected moments to be treasured.

These are un-chartered days for us...

days in a new house in a new town in a new state,

days with few places to go and fewer people to go with.

These days won't last forever I know.

Winter will soon (Oh please!) be over

and we'll be outside, in the sun, with a new perspective.

It can't come too soon.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Can you blame her? I wouldn't want to wear that hat either.

She's so wise beyond her years.

L: This is much more my style Mom.

We've been trying to get a little Valentine-y around here...

The goodie bags for school, the left-over stash for Mom and Dad, the Feb. calendar, and even heart-shaped petals on the flower. It's true. Take a closer look...

Can you see them? I prmoise the little leaves on the tall weed are truly tiny heart. Lillianna found it last weekend on a walk along the river. It just goes to show that God thought of everything first.

Oh and Ellenie has a question...

Will you be my Valentine?

yuck.

Brad, Ellenie and I have had the worst stomach bug. The kind where I promised myself I would never, ever eat again. ever. The kind where you think this will never, ever end. ever.

But then it all does and I actually ate some soup tonight.

The past 48 hours havn't been pretty or funny but this was pretty funny:

Paci Soup anyone? I was sick, Ellenie had just gotten sick, and Brad was up with her (not sick yet) and decided to sterilize the pacis. He then went back to bed. I'm not sure if it was a dream about the house burning down or just the smell of melting plastic that woke him

but thank goodness it did.

I think we can still use them though. ha.

Thank goodness Lillianna has not been sick. At all.

In fact, she has been entertaining us all with her running, jumping, twirling, and dancing she's been doing around our heads as we lay on the bed, floor, or couch.

Thank you Ellenie for summing up how we have felt.
I promise, baby girl, you'll feel better tomorrow.

A-ha! Moments

I love when I get to be there when one of my girls has a moment. A moment where they "get it" or see it or realize it for the first time. A moment where they've just grown up a little more...

Taking pictures of Ellenie with this hood on...when I would take it off she couldn't figure out where it went...and when I'd put it on she couldn't figure out what it was or where it came from. Then she turned around and saw reflection in the oven door.

Lately, Lillianna really wants to write her letters and her name. I wrote it for her first and then she did underneath. She was so proud! And so was I!

Ellenie is our curious one. Our curious crawler and climber. She wanted to crawl under the bar stools but then stood up and realized...hey wait, i'm stuck.
E: Don't take a picture mom! Get me out of here.

fun & friendships

We had our first friends come to visit!

We were so excited and honored that the Pylants took a special roadtrip

to come see us last week. It was so nice to see them and so special to get to share our new Columbus life with some Decatur friends. It was especially nice of them to come after they hit a large piece of metal on the highway on their way here and had to spend almost 2 hours getting their tire fixed!

It's always something, right?!

We had so much fun....

We jumped on the bed....took a road tour of Columbus...got ice cream...and

laughed and laughed and

laughed!

The Pylants are so very special to us and it made us all so happy to see them.

It has, however, seemed to have made Lillianna and Bibby realize their distance from eachother. They both have been having a more difficult time in the past week. On our end, sweet Lillianna will break out in tears and then sobs saying,"I miss Bibby. I miss our house, our neighbors. Decatur is so far away. I miss everyone in Decatur. It's going to be so long before anyone comes to our house again." It really is heartbreaking but part of the process. We talk lots about our feelings these days and about our many blessings we have to be thankful for.

It seems to help us all.

We also talk about how special it is that we get to keep our old friends while we make new ones! AND we get to make new memories with our old friends too! Just like we did with the Pylants.

So who's coming to visit next?

Treasures

I want to post about our move and the new house soon... and I will.

Just not today.

Now that we have most boxes un-packed we have really begun to resume life as usual.

Ellenie still only eats the strawberries out of the the freeze dried strawberry-banana mix.

We still hold large tea parties everyday.

We (read I) are back to lots of laundry. With help from my folding elf.

We still all sit around, day dream, and discuss important topics like what kind of pink princess we're going to be when we grow up.

And of course, we still treasure hunt.

And today we found two really encouraging treasures...

First, we tried out 1 of 2 parks in town. The equipment was not that great but the area around it was wonderful. Given that EVERYTHING is on a hill here, it was awesome to find a huge, FLAT, grassy area to run around. Then we found the large acorn "hats" seen on the right of the picture. I can admit that I have a real love for acorns and even though I try to blame Lillianna for all the stashes of acorns around our house...I'm just as guilty for stuffing them in my pockets and bringing them home. Especially the hats. So in the picture above, the ones on the right were found yesterday. The hat in the middle is a regular hat from Lillianna's treasure box and was just to give some scale to the picture. Then the one of the left is one from our favorite park in Decatur. So whattayaknow?! I don't know what kind of acorns those are but I'd never seen one before or since the park in Decatur and now we have one here! It's sign for sure!

THEN...

last night we were enjoying the last of the warm temp before the storm rolled through and one of our new neighbors stopped by. Guess what she told us?! That we are the proud owners of a "very prolific" blueberry bush! BLUEBERRY BUSH? Could it get any better since I am already the proud owner of the most prolific blueberry eater?!!

I'm taking these as two direct blessings/signs/gifts from God. Especially since I haven't found a lot of things about Columbus itself that have made me smile...but these did.

And these two treasures did too.

ONE

One year (and a couple of weeks) ago...

We welcomed Ellenie Lane Parsons to our family. It was a perfect day and it's been a perfect, well, how about a sweet, very full, wonderful year!

Ellenie's first birthday fell on moving day so we had a celebration the night before the movers came with our precious neighbors The Adams and The Hales, our dear friends Mike and Donna, and good ol' Dandy and Wil. It might not have been grand in scale but it was grand in love.

E: Uh, Mom & Dad, I really think you ought to think about what you're asking me to do.

A spoon full of sugar...

Ellenie,

you are a true delight to me and your daddy. You make us smile a hundred times everyday. We are absolutely in love with you and your blossoming personality, heart, and soul.

For the first half of your life so far, you were quiet, content, and as they say...laid back. Then one day, you sat up and decided it was time to get busy in this life. Truly, two days after you sat up on your own, you leaned forward and start crawling. You have been busy being big ever since.

E: Now this is fun!

In the end, icing covered Ellenie's ears, hands, hair, face, and neck. She squealed in delight when I took off her clothes to change her, so she spent the rest of the evening just how she wanted.

A couple of days later, on her birthday, we woke up for the first time in our new, empty home.

The truck arrived several hours later and so we had a Move-In Birthday Party.

E: It's my birthday. I'm gonna party like it's my birthday.

E: Sis, since it's my birthday, I'm in charge!

L: Uh, does that mean I have to change your diaper?

We celebrated her birthday the way every one year old wants...at the local Mexican restaurant!

Or atleast the way this one year old's mother wanted.

Ellenie, you are overwhelmed with curiosity, bravery, and happiness. You love music and have just discovered how much fun re-reading one book 12 times in a row can be. But you really only love books about animals. You do not love to eat. You love to make funny faces and love to cuddle all day with your blankie. You love to be outside. You love your family and it has been a gift to me to watch you fall in love with your Daddy all over again since moving to Columbus. Your sister makes you laugh so hard and also makes you so aggravated. That's the wonderful thing about having a sister. Your sister is so gentle and loving with you 92% of the time. The other 8% she really wears you out. But you are tough and often give it right back to her.

You have been such a joy. I can't wait to see your beautiful face each morning. You have made me a better mother. Thank you sweet child for making my life more blessed.

I love you.