Loss for Words

I tell you, I'm at a loss for words this morning. Usually, I have something in mind, or something hits me when I sit down. This morning, nothing. Nothing. But, I've got a personal goal to blog 5 days a week so, I'm posting some pictures instead. In no particular order....

Here's the twins. We both wanted 2 leather chairs. I wanted something exactly like the Pottery Barn Manhattan chair. Jim wanted one of those gigantic cushy "grandpa" recliners...well, he knew for sure we didn't want one of those, but in his dreams that's what he wanted. We found a happy compromise in these...

Bebo and Bacon at their part time job, posing as accent pillows.
Grace snuggling a real accent pillow. See the cushy back? I didn't want that, Jim did- but I admit to all of you, I'm glad we got these. They are really comfortable.

We had our first dinner with friends a couple of weeks ago. I totally spaced taking pictures with the Wipfs...but I did take a picture of the spiral's first use in the new house!

Here are some pictures of Hudson's room. The light was very poor for pictures, so I didn't get very many, but you'll get the idea. The frame's third pane says,
“let us see that we keep God before our eyes; that we walk in His ways and seek to please and glorify Him in everything, great and small.”
- j. hudson taylor (1832-1905)

H's room has a "Lion of Judah" theme. Here's the verse in this frame:
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."
Revelation 5:1-5 NIV

I get chills every time I read that passage. Whew!


Here's Hudson demonstrating how he sleeps in his crib...
There are two more pictures in frames like these on the other side of the window, each frame has a picture of a lion, in sepia tones. I really like his room.

Hudson likes it too.

Indecent Exposure

My house is about 55% "dressed". There is still much for me to do in the way of "homing" this place up, but for now, I'm at a standstill with decorating, happy that things are livable, knowing I've got lots of time ahead of me in this place. We still need to grab a couple of chairs for the living room when we can both go together to pick them out, and then our living room will look a little more rounded out. Hudson's room and the girls' room are totally untouched other than their beds and clothes in the closet. These rooms are so fun to decorate, so I want to take time with it. As for all the other details, when the mood strikes me and I get inspired, I'll go for it. Until then, I can live with this. I tell you, I'm very excited to paint, but thrilled that I have an excuse not to do it right now! (Jim, go ahead and take your time deciding when you're going to build that wall and replace the floor...but not too much time... :). )

Anyway, though I'm risking some "indecent exposure" showing you this just-over-half-dressed house, I know many of you want to see the new home for the Kochs...

Here's our house- it was really muddy that day so I couldn't get in the yard to grab a better picture, and crossing the street meant walking through a huge puddle of water (in ballet flats) so I didn't go for it. I have no idea what color my house is. It's grey. But some days in certain light, it almost looks blue. I'm telling people it's grey. It is definitely mostly grey... We're excited for the SNOW to GO AWAY FOR GOOD so we can make big improvements to the landscaping and the girls can plant flowers with Jim.

Here's our back yard...again, not a super picture...it was so muddy.

The Master Bedroom is off the Living room. The Master Bath and Walk-In closet s-o-l-d me on this house. I'd had my heart set on another house, but Jim really wanted this one. The mini "suite" for me set apart from the rest of the house (and children) was very attractive. Now, I'm so glad we got this house- it seems to suit our family really well, the neighborhood is lovely and I'm so glad we chose it. I'd promised myself I wouldn't be disappointed if there wasn't a Master Bath in the house we would buy, so I wouldn't turn down a good house just because of it. So, it was a nice bonus in my mind. Always keep low expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised most of the time! Ha! :)

Here is our kitchen. As I see these pictures today (I was in a hurry yesterday so I didn't look at them) I realize how poor they are. Sorry if all the angles are weird. You get the idea.)

This is the hallway that leads to a Main Bath on the left and Hudson's room on the right. He was sleeping so I didn't get a picture of it. You'll see that in the before-and-afters in the months to follow I'm sure. It's tan. There's a crib and that's about it right now. Very exciting.

Here's our basement, which is actually bigger than this, again, sorry for the awkward angles. That's our utility/laundry room to the left.

The girls' room. Again, I'm so mad at how my pictures look! (And yet, I don't want to re-take them...) I promise, the room is bigger than it looks in my poor picture. I LOVE the huge closets the basement rooms have. More than enough room for three-girls-worth of clothes and shoes. Storage space makes me absolutely giddy.) We're going for a pink-red-orange scheme here, and their sheets tie everything together. It will be great. Once we have some time to get creative.

The home school room is next to this one, and is a mirror image of it. Again. Huge closet. Can't wait for all that great storage space for all of our school stuff and my craft stuff too. The school room is a summer project for me- like, when it becomes too hot to go outside all day and we need to stay in. Then I'll get it done. No doubt it will be the last room I finish.

OK, that brings the tour to a close. Can't wait to see all of you who live near us! We're glad to be back!

Minnesota Livin'

Here are a few pictures from our days at Jim's family's home in MN. The accommodations at G & G's B & B were excellent. We'd recommend them to anyone. Now that we're gone, they're open for reservations.

Farm Fashionista Lily

Here's a fun snack I made for the girls- Please tell me you can tell what they're supposed to look like! They're vanilla wafers for the "bun", and a Keebler fudge-covered mint cookie for the burger. I wouldn't have thought of buying icing in the store, but since we were away and I was hoping for an easy project in light of the fact I wasn't in my own kitchen, I bought some of the Betty Crocker icing in a tube. Happily, I found the red to look exactly like real ketchup, something I couldn't have created at home. Then the green looks like lettuce...I hope. They were actually really, really good- especially after they sat for a day and the mint flavor infiltrated the entire cookie.
I surfed the web a bit for one Pottery Barn book, and ended up sealing a DEAL on all five of these. All new, in excellent condition, and because the shipper was in the cities, I got them in two days- even with media mail. And the best part? They retail for over $100.00 altogether. After shipping, I paid $38.00 for them. Viva la good deal!
My thoughts about Jim? This kiss pretty much sums it up.
But, when I was feeling especially sad in his absence, all I needed to do was glance at this striking picture of the Man of My Dreams, circa 1998.
Once Daddy got home on the weekends, it was all about horsin' around.

My Sickly Valentine

In lieu of what I was going to write for Valentine's Day, in light of what I said in yesterday's post, I thought I'd post some pictures from V-days past instead. Oh, how our little lovebugs have grown....

Patie and Grace, 2005

Patie, 2006

Patie, Lily and Grace 2007

My 2008 Valentines

(Hudson's shirt says "Mommy's Little Valentine". I bought it for him before he was born. It's great to see him wear it!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas 2007 In Pictures

Here's a few pictures from the last couple of weeks- some from our own family Christmas, and some from our time in Minnesota with Jim's family- where Mom and Dad took naps for once and the kids seemed to forget how to take them. We ate lefse, spent time with tons of family and saw some beautiful snow on Christmas day. I hope I'm back to daily posting by tomorrow, we'll see. This morning was spent taking down the Christmas stuff. I say without hesitation that I experienced a Christmas miracle this morning- I got done packing everything up neatly in a little over an hour and a half! (I do have four little kids, you know- just in case you think that sounds like a lot of time.) I am fiercely sentimental so while decorating for Christmas is a very special time for me, taking it down is a sappy, remembering old memories sort of affair. Usually some tears are shed. Today was no exception, though the tears were very few. I was mostly a packing machine, with one clear goal in mind: finishing sometime today. I even got our tree (new this year) back in the original box. I even just left the lights on it and it still all collapsed beautifully and neatly. I'm lovin' the new tree- I loved it when it was up, and the love has grown deeper now that I know how easy it is to put away.

Three Months

We can't believe it. Hudson is getting
sooo big.

Fun Around the House

Here are a few random pictures I wanted to make sure I posted of Hudson, you know, mostly for my memory's benefit, and one of Grace pretending to be a horse for Patie (an extremely popular game in our house. Lily can even ride now, too). I can't believe how fast Hudson went from a tiny newborn to his currently very chubby self, growing out of all his first outfits. Well, I can believe it, I guess, but no matter how much I know about how fast kids grow, it never ceases to amaze me. I'm living in a constant state of fluctuation between the emotions of being excited with them for all their new victories and skills, and also feeling like they're growing up too fast and time is slipping through my hands! Hudson was actally really happy and comfortable when I took this picture, although looking at it now, he looks like he wasn't...

Adorable outfit courtesy of the fabulous April Thompson

Big smiles when Daddy got home!

First Snow

When we woke up last Tuesday morning and looked outside, it looked like this: However, our house still looked like this:
It almost never snows here, and I thought, "How many chances will I have to put up the Christmas decorations when it's actually snowing outside?" We were travelling somewhere else for Thanksgiving, so I didn't need to worry about that, and decided I'd get everything out. It was so much fun, and so exciting. The girls were so excited right along with me. Now, the mantel looks like this:
Here's a picture of the girls when they woke up surprised to find snow outside:
Here's Hudson fascinated with the tree. While I took this picture, he was in the middle of a 10 minute conversation with it:
We LOVE Christmas time in this house! The are so many special, sweet traditions we've already started, many of them centering on remembering the precious gift God has given us in His Son. A new tradition we started this year is Adornaments. I'd highly recommend them if you have small children.