Fun Weekend!

Sk and her buddies at the Science center on Friday morning!

Playing in the discovery room at the science center!

This weekend has been quite a fun one I must say.  After our fun morning at the science center with some friends, we went home and got all dolled up (well, maybe just mommy and daddy, but Sk ended up in a cute skirt too so she could look like mommy!).  Michael and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Friday.  Woohoo!  We were thankful to have a friend watch SK for us to get to go out for the night and celebrate.  We had so much fun trying out a new yummy place and just getting to enjoy hanging out just the two of us.  We haven't had a date all summer, so we were long overdue. 
Saturday morning was a lazy one, starting with sleeping in till 8 (even SK!) and then heading out to Soulard Farmer's Market.  We love this market and don't make it there often enough.  The prices are crazy cheap and really good produce.  SK got to pick a treat (strawberries) and went to town in the car chowing down on them which was fine since the carton only cost $1!
Saturday night, we were actually able to go out again (I know, crazy--2 nights in a row!!).  Another sweet friend came and watched SK and we headed to meet some friends to hang out.  We had fun getting to know them more and playing cards till after 10!  (2 late nights in a row for me--not normal at all!)
We have had a good weekend and are looking forward to heading to Alabama soon to see family and friends and have a week off from work and school here. 

Of course, I didn't take any pictures this weekend of us and our fun nights out, but got this one of SK loving her strawberries from the farmer's market in the car.  I will try to do better this week...

My sweet hubby got me these roses too at the farmer's market :)  Aren't they pretty!

Sewing like crazy :)

I know I have been pitiful on blogging lately. I guess we are just too busy having fun this summer :) We are continuing to get settled into our new home and loving living where we are now. I have also been doing lots of new projects lately too. So after finishing the shower curtain (ok, so technically it is not finished since I didn't hem it before hanging it, but maybe I will get to that sometime soon...), I have found some new ideas for SK I have wanted to tackle. It all began with this little website/thing (what do you call it???) called Pinterst. It can be quite addicting, but oh so fun. I have found so many fun ideas for recipes, sewing, crafts with SK, and just plain fun

stuff. So far, I have tackled 3 things...

First I finally tried my hand at these reusable snack bags. I knew they would be a quick fun project and easy. I also wanted to figure them out before having some friends over tomorrow night to show them how to make them :) I can't wait to make more of these. SK loved it too, which was fun. I used this tutorial, but came up with the idea to use a nylon material that was easily cleanable without having to thow it in the wash after every use. I have to give Michael the credit for coming up with using a shower curtain liner, and it worked wonderfully and was really cheap, considering how many liners I can get out of it!

The next project was for SK's new bathroom. I needed something for her walls to match the new shower curtain that I made. I came across this canvas at the free store that had something on it that didn't necessarily go with our decor, but add a little spray paint and some fun flowers and we have a free art piece for her bathroom! I got this idea here.

Lastly, I made this little dress for Sk today. I used this tutorial for it, which was super quick and easy too. After I made it, I realized it reminded me of something...Sk's nursery :) The walls were the color of that sash and had black and white on everything. I loved that nursery...anyways, back to the dress. So simple. You use a t-shirt and make a bubble skirt to attach. Fun right :)

SO that is what we have been up to this week outside of the normal stuff. I has been too hot here to get outside much. We are on the countdown now to our Alabama trip. Michael will finish greek next Friday and then we are off for a week of fun! No alarm clocks, lots of hugs and laughs, and good times :)

Were going on a treasure hunt...

So I decided that SK and I would have a girl's morning out while Daddy needed to do some Sunday School prep. We got up this morning and headed out to some garage/estate sales. Sk got her purse all ready this morning with her money (all of $2) and we set out for some "treasures" as Sk said. It was fun to hang out with my girl and see her get so excited to find some fun things. So after 4 sales, Sk spent a whopping .45 cents which got her a fun flower, a book, and a spin top thing. I spent $3.20 which got a lamp (with shade), a picture (I got for .10!), a mason jar, a cork board and a copper cake pan thing (I am sure there is an actually name for this, but I can't think of it...). I have some crafty ideas up my sleeves for these finds. I was happy to find the lamp since our dining area really needed better lighting and it seemed to be just the right size. After some hot glue and ribbon, I think it turned out pretty cute :) Maybe I will get around to the other projects this week and show you, but for now here's the lamp and of course, this blog would not be complete without a picture of SK, right :)

And, I might as well throw in one too of our fun last night at the seminary picnic. Sk had a blast playing in the sprinklers and pools and some swinging too! Can you see those dirty piggies! She was covered head to toe in dirt after that night, but she had fun and that's what is important!

We are loving living on campus, now if we could just get there weather to chill a little (hehe) we could enjoy some outside time some more.

Fun weekend!

We just got back from taking Michael, Alli and Haven to the airport for them to head back to Alabama. So sad. The time went too quickly. We had so much fun with them. The girls did so good having slumber parties in SK's room each night and napped every day, so that was nice. So here is a rundown with pictures of course of what all we accomplished with them:

Lots of hugs were shared :) This is at Grant's Farm on the first day after they got into town.

The blue mouths are from some yummy shaved ice treats! They thought they were big stuff checking out the clysdales with their daddies!

Lots of hand holding :) We walked over to the house that I nanny at for a dip in the pool after naps on the first day.

Sunday morning (Yep, matching skirts!) getting ready to head to church!

Sunday afternoon checking out the arch!

Sunday night we headed to SK's favorite place, the Old Spaghetti factory and had a yummy dinner and even got special balloons (purple flowers of course!)

At the Magic House on Monday morning getting all electrified!

Haven's turn!

Icecream treats after nap on Monday! They wanted chocolate with pink, so the closest we could come up with is chocolate icecream with strawberries and it was a hit! (and a mess!)

We did lots of dressing up, even dressed up to go play ping pong at the community center on campus!

Tues. Morning playtime at the playground before heading to the airport. They wanted to squeeze into the 1 seater car, it was tight, but they fit!

Swinging!

So there ya go. There are plenty more pictures, but this will do for now :) It was so fun to see the girls get to play together and have so much fun! Michael finished with greek 1 on Friday and started 2 yesterday, which seems like it will be quite the amount of work. 3 more weeks till we can say we made it through summer greek though. I think we can. I think we can. I think we can. Then we are off to Alabama for a week! Woohoo!

Exciting Weekend ahead!

I haven't blogged too much this week have I...too busy I guess. We have been busy bees getting our house settled as much as possible before our first guests arrive. My brother, his girlfriend and my sweet niece are flying in town tomorrow to spend a few days with us. I am so excited to see my niece (Michael and Allison too, but esp. that little girl!) SK is even more excited. She tells everyone she sees that Haven is coming and she can't wait to hug her and let her sleep in her bed. We have gotten pictures on the walls and the place is looking a bit more like home, so I hope to get some pictures soon and share with y'all but for now, I must get back to cleaning...I promise there will be more posting next week :) I hope at least...

I am off to clean up more, but tomorrow morning, I will be squeezing this little girl...I can't wait!

Crafty things going on :)

Moving always inspires me to be crafty and change things up with our decorating. I wasted no time with this move. My poor husband didn't get much break, other than not having class last week, so that helped :) So on to the projects, right!?!

I found these ledges from this website that I absolutely love. It is also the website that inspired the kitchen that we built for SK last year. For the first time since moving to St. Louis, we went to Lowes. It was so fun. We spent a total of $10 on this project for the wood and already had the stain, so a cheap project to say the least. We decided to do 3 foot ledges instead of the 4 foot like on the website, being in a smaller space and all. I think they turned out fun and a great place to display some of our special art and pictures.

Speaking of special art. You see the yellow artwork of SK's on there. She had a blast getting out our paints and painting a special picture for our new ledges. If you can't tell, she drew 2 arches (like the famous St. Louis arch downtown).

Also on the ledges, you see the fun chalkboard? I decided to turn one of our pictures that I had decided I was not really loving anymore into a chalkboard. It was a super easy project. I took the old frame and spraypainted it in a fun yellow, then used chalkboard spraypaint to spray the glass. I already had the chalkboard paint, so the only cost was the yellow spraypaint, which I am sure will come in handy for more projects :)

We also now have 2 bathrooms in our apartment, whereas our last apt. only had 1. So I decided I would rather make a cute one for SK than buy a store made one. I LOVE how this turned out. I bought the fabric on sale last weekend and found this idea online for making a pleated shower curtain.

So that is it for now. I am happy with how each of these projects turned out and look forward to more, but now for rest. Maybe one of these projects will inspires someone else to get their craft on!

26...

I have thought about this blog for a little while now. I really thought it would turn out different and more exciting, but it isn't.
For 26 months I have dreamed of being pregnant.
I have thought..."if we get pregnant this month, SK will be this old when the baby comes and this is the month the baby will be due...
I have thought of multiple ways each month that would be fun to tell family and friends that we are expecting.
I have hoped and prayed.
This month was hard for me. I really hoped and thought this would be the month it would finally happen.
It didn't.
I hate finding myself in this dumpy place and don't like to be in it. I want to be content with all that we are blessed with. I want to be at peace with where the Lord has us. My desire is to be able to "Make a joyful noise" and to be able to "consider it pure joy" to face these trials. I would be lying it I said I was right now. I just really am struggling to rest in Christ and trust only in Him. I am so sinful it is ugly. Really ugly. Instead of clinging to the cross right now through this and clinging to scripture, I want to hide under the pillow and give up. Don't worry, I know I won't stay in this place. I know the Lord is redeeming me and sanctifying me through this, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it does it? I wish I could understand. I don't. Maybe one day I will.
Ugh.
Ok, I promise not to stay dumpy. We have been doing some fun things around here getting our new place feeling like home. I will post soon on all of the projects we have been up to, but here is a quick rundown of them:
*Making THESE ledges for our dining room
*Making a cute chalkboard to go on said ledges
*SK's new artwork to also go on the ledges
*Sewing a shower curtain for SK's bathroom (yep, we are back to having 2 bathrooms)

Maybe tomorrow I will find some time to post on some of these projects. I really just needed be honest with where I am today emotionally. Call me crazy. I know I feel like I am today. I don't like it, but have a hard time getting myself out of it when I get here. My dear husband did a good job today though of turning today into a fun family day at the Magic House and Chick-fil-A (free food for dressing up as cows!!--maybe I will be able to post some pictures from that too soon!)

4th of July festivities!

We had a fun day yesterday celebrating our country's freedom with some new friends. We got together with 2 other families, all of which have girls, so there were a total of 5 little girls having a blast playing together all afternoon and into the evening. I will let the pictures give a run down of our time:

Pool time--This is the first of about 100 times down this slide :)

Sidewalk chalk fun!

Popsicle break!

Watermelon break--So yes, the day had lots of yummy food involved :)---And I didn't take any pictures of our actual meal, but yes we did eat more than just snacks...

Mini-pools :)

Marshmallow and graham cracker snacks!

On the way to go see the fireworks--red cheeks are from running laps around with her buds for a solid 30 minutes. And, I forgot to mention she totally didn't nap yesterday either before headed to our friends place. She was running on fumes and I guess the sugar helped too :)

We loved the fireworks show! She occasionally would do this saying it was "so, so loud!"

This is the reaction she gave the rest of the time watching the fireworks. It was so fun to see her gasp and light up when the purple ones lit up the sky. Purple is her favorite color and she was so excited to see the purple ones and would totally gasp with just about every one of them :) and then clap and say "More!! Please!"

We headed back to our car at 10:00 from watching the fireworks and were completely tuckered out. I put her into jammies in the car and she was fast asleep within 2 minutes and is still asleep this morning. Fun times!

Getting settled in....again.

These were the only pictures taken on our move day. We were a little busy for picture taking.

We are officially moved into the new place though. woohoo. Moving really is just no fun. Really no fun. And we like to pick extreme weather conditions to add to the fun too. It was 98 degrees yesterday with the heat index well over 100. Hot. Really Hot. And it is crazy to think that our last move in January it was snowing as we moved furniture in and this time it was blazing hot. Makes for a good story at least right? :)

Let's see. Where to start. We were very blessed to have a good sized group of men come and help get us moved. We were so thankful to have so many hands. We loaded up the truck and ended up not being able to fit everything in 1 load (We got a smaller truck than the last time thinking we had downsized and could fit in a smaller truck, and had already taken many car loads of all of our boxes and stuff). So the guys took the first load and then a couple came back to finish up the last bit of stuff. SK was great considering. She wanted to help to begin with but ending up figuring out pretty quickly that she would be safer to sit in her chair (that is until it got taken to the truck...) playing her leapster. She did that very well while all the guys loaded. Then she hung out at the empty place with me while we waited on the gas company to come and cut the gas off and we had to clean too. So while SK and I did that, the guys unloaded all of our things at the new place. MIchael got back to the old place and we all headed to the new apt. with the last of our things.

One of the guys helping offered to (well, his wife offered) to take SK for the afternoon so I could get some stuff done and she could have so play time with their girls. It was such a blessing to have that time to knock out some stuff like getting beds set up and going back to the old place to make sure the place was all clean and leave our keys and such.

By last night we were pooped. We did a little bit of furniture arranging but not much. Still haven't arranged a whole lot, but I am trying to not get stressed over that and push my sweet hubby too much after he worked so hard yesterday. We tried to make today a little more restful. Last night some friends of ours (Thank you sweet Cowan family!) had pizza delivered to us and another family that lives in our building brought us dinner tonight. We are so incredibly blessed. It has been nice to not have to think about dinner while trying to settle in here.

I love where we are. I love air conditioning. I love living so close to work. I love that Michael can walk to class. I love the community that we have felt already and the friendships that we will build here that I know that will come. I love air conditioning (did I say that already???).

I want all the pictures to just hang themselves now. And in a cute manor. I want someone to come in and tell me where things will look cute and make this place look like home. I am tired of arranging furniture and setting up "house". Michael is not really into the decorating thing. He could really almost care less where the furniture goes and what looks cute or not. I need a female to talk through it. My poor husband. He barely rolled out of bed this morning and I was asking what he thought about puting this table here and that chair there.

Ok, I think that sums up our last couple of days. Picture will come of the new place sometime. You don't want to see it yet, believe me. Its a wreck. It will be cute, maybe. At least I hope it feels homey soon. And cute.

Ok, I am rambling. I need sleep. Maybe I can sleep past 5 am tomorrow.....