we've reached THAT stage...

pen on the chair

crayon on the wall

chalk on the floor

the little artist

I thought it was love...

when I used my scoop to make chocolate chip cookies, but I was wrong. I realized it was true love when I used it to make peanut butter cookies.

no messy hands from rolling little balls of dough?? (insert angels singing) Heavenly!!

The cookies tasted pretty good, too. =)

p.s. Happy Birthday, Dad/Papa! We love you!

painting the toilet wall

The girls kept begging to help paint the front room. They had been fairly patient and even helped keep Nate distracted so Josh decided to let them help a little. He took the tiny amount of paint we had left over (he did a pretty good job judging how much to pour in the tray) and let the girls use the roller in the toilet. That room along with the bathroom and laundry, is next on the list to be painted. They thought they were pretty special using the roller to paint and they did a fairly decent job too.

front room

okay, here's the pictures of the finished room. And yes, I was lazy and used the unpainted room photo yesterday, Helen. =) It really is painted. And I don't know whether it's the paint or the new arrangement but the room seems much larger. very nice. and I haven't decided what to put on the walls so are leaving them bare for now. Except for my clocks. See them above the bay window? I have Hervey Bay time, TX time and Greenwich Mean Time. Any suggestions instead of GMT?


There's always something about Mama and Daddy being busy in a room that is off limits to make the kids want to hang around all day. =)

well...

my front room still looks the same. I mean, we painted and it looks GREAT but we haven't moved the furniture back yet because I got the brilliant idea that we should hire the carpet cleaning machine from Woolies and clean the carpets while the piano is pulled out. Great idea. just hasn't happened yet.

So, I'm thinking about moving the furniture around. perfect opportunity really.


this photo shows where stuff normally is plus the fact that I'm getting two bookshelves built to go on either side of the window. this is also the reason that the green chair is getting moved out. anyhoo, I'm wondering about switching the piano and the red couch. or maybe moving the futon out as well and just having the red chair and couch by the windows and then the piano under the shadow box thingies and maybe a chair on the wall under the mirror? any thoughts or suggestions??

I also spent some time looking for wall decorations. I have the scrapbook frames for each child plus one for our wedding and the name plaques that Dad made for each of us. I also have the clocks that show our time and TX time. I found this awesome vinyl decal from etsy shop holly. And I adore this poster from etsy shop emrick123. And I'm loving this poster from the same lady for the kids' bathroom.

I bought this embroidery pattern that I love from etsy shop wild olive.

So, I'm trying to decide what to get/make and where it will go so I'm not putting lots of nail holes in Josh's freshly painted walls. =) Thank goodness that we are having playgroup at the pool tomorrow because apparently a room with all the furniture pulled into the center is a great place to play. or so my children think.

can you guess...

what I'm hoping to get Josh to do this weekend?

lunch with the Elson's

so...

we've been home for one month and one day. In that time we have had:

• 1 week of VBS
• 1 national holiday
  
• 1 broken arm
• 1 trip to the hospital and 2 clinic visits for the broken arm (she got her cast off on Friday and is moving her arm around just fine so I will cancel the other appointment we were given.)
  
• 1 dr. visit for Catie. she has alopecia areata
• 1 visit to the pathology lab for blood tests for Catie
• 1 visit to the community health centre for hearing tests for all 3 girls.
• Beka was diagnosed with moderate hearing loss.
• 2 visits (and 1 more tomorrow) to the doctor to work on clearing and draining Beka's ears.
  
• 1 round of antibiotics for Beka.
• 4 birthdays--Catie, Roseanne, Auntie Jennie, and Andrew
• 2 lots of babysitting--watching Ben and Emily while Jennie had a meeting, and watching Noah and Dave Elson while Shane, Marlana and Maggie went to a meeting.
• 1 weekend of fun with the Elsons
• 1 playgroup
• 1 ladies' meeting
• 1 week of the most horrible humid weather I can ever remember.
• 3 partial weeks of schooling.
• 1 afternoon of swimming with HBCA
  
• lots of colouring, working quietly together, watching dvds on the laptop in my room in the air conditioning.
• lots of late night, early morning, heat, or any combination of those, crankiness.
• trying to remember to just "go with the flow"
• lots and lots of busy-ness that just hasn't been recorded on this blog.

I forgot to mention that we've also used up 1 jar of grape jelly and 1 bottle of hershey's chocolate syrup. I guess I'd better ration that last jar/bottle of each. =)

I love...

my pampered chef cookie scoop

cookie dough made on Sunday and then refrigerated

fresh cookies straight from the oven for afternoon tea

random photos from last week

Emma's tower that she very sweetly let Nate knock down after I took a picture

"skyping" with Grandma on Catie's birthday

Nate enjoying a birthday cupcake

Catie about to blow out her candle. We had yummy cupcakes for her birthday dinner.


Beka and her tower