Cookie Ornaments

I guess about 5 years ago, my aunt told me about a special tradition that her and her daughter do every Christmas, they make cookie dough ornaments, paint them and hang them on a tree. I loved the idea and set out to start that tradition with my family. Our first cookie ornament tree was in 2007 but the past three years we haven't done one.....I guess we were in transition for about that long and our tree was in storage. Anywho, we got our tree out, dusted off the "cobwebs" (not really) and continued the tradition. This was Lili's first time to do the ornaments. She had so much fun and did such a great job! Emma really enjoyed taking her time paying attention to detail. She painted some great ornaments!

Just out of the oven and ready to paint!

Emma's peace ornament that she worked very hard on.

Our finished tree! I've saved all of the ornaments from previous years so I hung them too!

Girls just wanna have fun!

And boy are they good at it!

Catching up

We are loving the beautiful fall weather we have been having. Today was a rainy day though, so we decided to make the most of it and make some yummy marshmallow treats! We made it extra fun by adding food coloring so that the marshmallow was orange. The girls had a lot of fun with it.

At home

We've been so busy settling in to our new "old" home that it's been hard to post anything lately. We love being home and are slowly but surely making our way down that to-do list. We have been working on various projects around the house as well as beginning new friendships with our neighbors. We are so excited to have such friendly neighbors both right across the street and to the left of us. I'm praying God will open doors for opportunities for us to share His story through ours. I would love for you to pray with us. We do not want to set our eyes on anything else but His cause. And though I love renovating and remodeling an old home, I know that He has us here for something much greater than that.

And I've been at war within myself, this flesh that I fight... but God is so good. I've been reading about Paul's conversion in Acts 9 and Paul's words in 1 Timothy say that God set him apart before he was born to be an instrument of God's grace, to show Jesus' perfect patience (the whole of His long-suffering). I'm so thankful for His perfect patience in my life.

We are learning so much through this season of our life. God has brought us down an interesting road. One that when we set out we didn't realize would be as winding and rocky and long. I have had to depend on the Lord for strength when I've just felt I couldn't do it anymore, faith when I've questioned why if it's the Lord's will does it have to be so hard, patience when it seemed there were so many obstacles in front of us, constancy when it seemed our feet were not planted in one place very long, contentment when the walls of our apartment seemed to be closing in on us, and grace when it all got the best of me. And His grace is sufficient, His mercies are new every morning. And even though we may be hard pressed, we are not crushed. He works all things for the good!!

These pictures are very special. One night a couple of weeks back Emma and Lili asked if we would like to go to a dance after dinner was over. After we said yes they went into our closet and picked out outfits for both Mike and I, we were all very dressed up for the special dance that was to take place. Lili had on her princess dress and spent most of the time in her daddy's arms just as in one of the pictures. They both love to dance with their daddy.

This was just the first of many precious memories to be made in our new home.

Weekend Projects

Like I mentioned, we are slowly but surely working on that to-do list. Here are a couple of projects we will be attempting to finish over the long weekend.

I purchased this night stand from my sis-in-law for Lili's room. I loved the feminine detail :) I thought it'd look pretty in her room after I gave it a face lift.

Here it is after a couple of coats of light pink. The dresser to match in the background. I will get pics up when it's complete!

Our bookshelves have been a pretty major project! Mike built them himself using old bead board.
We painted this dusty blue straight onto the bead board. We did not sand the bead board, we wanted a very rough/distressed look. It is going to be the base coat for a technique I'm using to finish the shelves. I'm a little nervous about it but excited to try something new. Hope to finish it this weekend and I'll get some pics up.

This old shutter I found on the side of the road. Gotta love free stuff! I loved the distressed look of it. I put a couple of hooks on it and now it's functional again :)

Stairs/Floors

Here are a few pics of the finished stairway and floors.

We still need to stain the handrail and banister.

And after 4 coats of polyurethane, our floors are finished.
(This pic was taken after 2 coats were applied)

Some of the character of our aged hardwoods.

These were taken with only 2 coats of poly, the grain is a bit smoother now.

Playing in the garden

My mom gifted us with a membership to Huntsville's Botanical Garden :) We have loved it!

Emma found tadpoles in this little pond.

Nanny came for a visit a couple of weeks ago, we love having her :)

Emma with her pal Humpty Dumpty

Butterfly house

Looking at turtles...

Talking about turtles

Lili made a couple of friends, I think they just wanted her food.

Enjoying a good ol' push pop after playing in the garden.

Thank you Nanny for giving us this great gift! We are loving the garden!

Stairs/Carpet

We have been working on painting, boarding up, and carpeting stairs this week.

I made Mike take a pic of me "working". I needed proof that he wasn't the only one working on our house ;) Although, he's done most of the work!

Emma loved the carpet! We stopped by after school to check on the progress and the guys were finished!

Our contractor is working on the balusters next, so no more butterflies in my stomach when me and the girls are walking upstairs ;)

Read this today..

" There is One who gave and who gives more than any mother. And how mothers need that which He has to give - for those times of weariness there is the gentleness of the Lord and the knowledge of His loving-kindness. For the sense of inadequacy there is His sufficiency, and for the joy of being a mother there is the delight of sharing it all with Him." ~ Doris Coffin Aldrich

Mother's Day

Just thinking about all that God has given me.

Pensacola Beach ~ took a short visit to let the girls see the beach and play in the sand.

Lili made a sand angel.


Emma, my oldest has been such a blessing. God has taught me so much through her. She is a gift.


A few days ago, they were pretending to be Indians.

Went to the Botanical Gardens today, just me and the girls. It was an afternoon I will treasure. We just took time to enjoy the beautiful weather, we didn't rush b/c there wasn't anywhere else we needed to be. It was so nice to just watch them play, laugh, and run. I love the little moments.

They each had a map for the garden, they were directing me where to take them next...

My beautiful girl.

Digging for earth worms...

It was opening day for the butterfly house. The butterflies were everywhere. This one stayed with Emma the entire time we were in it.

She loved the little guy :)

I'm so thankful for my family and for the gift of being a mom.