School Room

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We Are Moving

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The Best Mother’s Day Gift

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Corinne’s Monthly Updates

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Corinne – Two Months

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Corinne – One Month

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Siblings

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Pregnancy Update

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Painted Easter Eggs

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Our Family is Growing!

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Kids snow

A Snowy Weekend

December 13, 2017

This past weekend, it snowed in South Carolina. In December! That never happens. We knew there was a possibility of snow, but certainly did not get our hopes up. Then sure enough, big snow flakes started falling on Friday afternoon. All three of us kept looking out the windows to see just how much snow was coming down. Before we knew it, there was a blanket of white covering our yard, and the kids could hardly contain their excitement. Corey came home from work early and we bundled up (as well as we can; we are not very well prepared for snow around here) and fully embraced the winter wonderland outside.

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New House Tour: The Basement

November 30, 2017

Honestly, the basement was just a bonus for us. We do most of our living, for now, on the main floor. These will likely be some of the last rooms that we make any  major changes to. We hope to have an actual office down here so that Corey can work from home on occasion without the fear of interruptions. And I’m sure that when we have teenagers in the house, they will be fighting over who gets the basement bedroom.

Living Room

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New House Tour: The Main Floor

November 28, 2017

We bought this house (our second, and possibly final home) over the summer. It was built in 1972 and not a lot has been updated since. It has only had two owners; the man we purchased the house from lived here for thirty years! The main floor has three bedrooms, two baths, the kitchen, mud room, dining room, formal living room, and den. The last owners added a sunroom and finished out the basement with a fourth bedroom, third full bathroom, living room, office, and storage room. Everything needs to be repainted, every room needs new flooring, and the kitchen and bathrooms need major updating. But we are excited about the potential this house holds.

Below is a tour of the main floor. I’m going to go ahead and apologize for the quality of these pictures. The lighting is one of the major things that needs to be addressed. We have already started updating a few things, but this is what the house looked like on move-in day (or when we went to look at the house in some cases).

Entry

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Holidays

I Am Grateful For…

November 23, 2017

This time of year it is so easy to get swept up in Black Friday deals, planning meals, the quickly growing holiday to-do list, and arguing about what kind of cranberry sauce is best (canned, of course!). So this Thanksgiving, I am trying my best to intentionally take at least a few minutes to notice what I have been blessed with and be truly grateful.

 

I am thankful for a house over our heads that may not look like we want, but it keeps us warm and safe and we have the ability to put time and money into making it ours.

I am thankful for a husband who works hard for our family every day to make sure we have what we need. A man who leaves before the rest of us are out of bed and will still go by the store on his way home if the kids and I haven’t made it out.

I am thankful for two children to love and care for. Kids who wake me up early on a Thanksgiving morning to beg to make pumpkin muffins. Kids who tell me to close my eyes and then surprise me with a bear hug and a kiss. Kids who can drive me crazy and melt my heart all in the same minute. (Even if they refuse to smile for pictures because taking a family picture is keeping them from playing with their cousins.)

I am thankful for a church family that blesses us and gives us opportunities to bless others. A church that feels like home and shows the love of Jesus to our kids.

I hope you are spending today with loved ones and can find a minute to focus on why we celebrate this holiday! What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

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Our First House

November 21, 2017

Before I share any more about our new house, I wanted to share one final tour of our first home. When we bought this house, it was a foreclosure in pretty rough shape. It was missing most of the flooring, all appliances, light fixtures, it was all kinds of crazy colors, and there were holes in the walls. It improved a lot over the seven years that we called this house home.

Front

Back

Entry/Front Living Room

Dining AreaHalf Bath

Kitchen

Den

Office Nook

Master

Master Bath

Colette’s Room

Cullen’s Room

Hall Bath

Playroom

This house holds a lot of wonderful memories for us. While we are excited about the adventure of our new house and all of the memories that we will create there, this place will always be special to us!

Halloween Holidays

Halloween 2017

November 1, 2017

Since this was our first Halloween in our new house, I wasn’t sure what trick-or-treating would be like. Or if we would even be able to go trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood. I grew up in this neighborhood and there were no other kids when I was little. Things have started to change though. One of our neighbors hosted a pizza party for the whole neighborhood before the kids went out to knock on doors. It was one of the best Halloweens yet!

Apparently, Cullen is getting too old to let me make them theme costumes. He went back and forth between being Spider-Man and Coyote Peterson. He ended up going with Coyote Peterson (from his favorite YouTube channel Brave Wilderness). I gave Colette a few options and no one was surprised that she went with a flamingo, her favorite animal!

Colette’s dress, tights, and bonnet are from June and January. I used felt to make her feet and nose, and felt balls for her eyes.

Cullen already had everything except his hat. He wears this vest every time he goes outside to look for bugs. We added a hat and a toy lizard to complete his costume.

Once they were dressed and we had eaten pizza and chatted with our new neighbors, the kids set out to get as much candy as they could. Cullen has always loved Halloween, but even Colette really seemed to get into this year. At nearly every house, she would announce “Another door!”

These two really do make every holiday so much more fun!

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First Day of School

September 22, 2017
A couple of weeks ago, Cullen started K-4. He has been waiting for the first day of K-4 since the last day of K-3. All summer long he asked “Do I go to school tomorrow? The day after tomorrow?” He is still just as excited every school day.

 

 

The preschool is at our church, and he has the same teacher that he had last year and just loves being in her class! They work on letters and numbers, have snack, play outside, and have music class. They have holiday parties and even a few field trips this year. Some days he comes home and wants to tell me all about it. Other days all I get is “I’m too tired. I don’t want to talk about school right now.” Preparing me for the teen years I guess.
I love that he is having so much fun learning and playing with new friends, but Colette and I certainly miss him during those few hours. As soon as we drop him off, she starts saying “I miss Cullen” in the saddest little voice. And our whole car line conversation consists of “I need Cullen! Where is Cullen?” louder and louder until the van door opens.
While a part of me is a little sad at the start of a new school year (how is he this big?), I am mostly looking forward to all of the memories he will make and the things he will learn!
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We Moved!

September 5, 2017

I mentioned that we had some exciting things happening this summer. Probably the most exciting is our move! For the last seven years we have lived about thirty minutes away from church, Cullen’s preschool, and Corey’s office. We have been hoping to move closer to where we spend most of our time for a few years now. We were actually under contract on another house when I was pregnant with Colette, but it didn’t work out. We kind of adopted the attitude that if we found the right house then we would move, but we didn’t have a realtor and weren’t actively looking.
At the end of March, someone that Corey knew through work mentioned that he was thinking about selling his house and was willing to give us the first look. After one walk through I was in love. It took Corey a little longer to see the potential, but by the middle of May we were under contract and were getting our house ready to sell.
We didn’t use a realtor to buy this new house, but we did use a realtor to sell our house. We listed Friday afternoon and by lunch on Monday, we had a contract over our asking price. We closed on our first house on June 30th, stayed with my parents for the weekend, and closed on our new house on July 3rd.
This whole process seemed to move so quickly, and was a little unexpected. We have been here for two months now, and it is really starting to feel like home. I can’t wait to share more about our new home and all of the plans that we have for it!
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A Blogging Break

July 11, 2017

Thanksgiving was the last time I really even thought about the blog. That was not intentional. Life got busy. Work was crazy. There is a whole list of excuses. But I’m back! We have some exciting things happening this summer and quite a few things to catch up on!

Holidays Thanksgiving

A Weekend to be Thankful

December 1, 2016
This Thanksgiving has to be one of our best so far. We had lunch with Corey’s family, and then dinner with my family. We filled our bellies with all of the best turkey, dressing, mac and cheese, and my take on this cheesecake. It was all absolutely amazing! Colette ate as much as some of the adults, and Cullen had a blast playing with his aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Between lunch and dinner, the kids spent the afternoon jumping in an enormous pile of leaves. And what is more fun than a leaf pile?!

We completely skipped Black Friday shopping, like most years, and had breakfast with my family followed by ice skating lessons from soon-to-be Aunt Sarah. Cullen skated until his feet hurt, and Colette wanted to get out on the ice so badly. They can’t wait to go back!

For as long as I can remember, we have cut down or bought a real tree on the day after Thanksgiving, but because we are a house of allergy sufferers, we opted for an artificial one this year. After not-so-patiently waiting all day, Cullen spearheaded our tree decorating operation. He hung all of the non-breakables (which all ended up in the same section at the bottom of the front of the tree). I have not even re-arranged them once. (Yay, me!) Colette, on the other hand, thinks the ornaments are there just for her to play with.

After such a wonderful start to the holiday season, I am excited for what the rest of the year holds!