Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Chalkboard Picture

I got this idea from Pinterest and thought I would do it for my boys.
 
It is a great way to show their picture, their age, their likes at that age, and their expressions/personality at that age. I will probably continue to do this every year and probably during the half way point of their year as well. Super fun!
 
 
 
It was tricky getting the camera to focus good with the glare of the flash. I could've played around a little more, but this is what you get from a busy mom. I may try again and read up on some photography tips to get a better picture with the chalkboard.
 
Any suggestions?
 
More coming from Kipton and his interests :)
 

Monday, August 27, 2012

Insta-Monday

An iPhone dump of pictures. What we've been up to:


A trip to the new Cabela's store. All of our boys were in love! I admit it was pretty awesome :)
 

 
We went up on a Friday evening and stayed in there for almost 2 hours and the boys didn't say 1 word. They were in awe of the fish tank and the stuffed animals. Then we had dinner at a steakhouse and it was just AWFUL! Awful food, service, and Kipton took about 8 years off of my life that night. We soon remembered why we don't go out to eat. The 2 year old restaurant style is no fun.
 
 
Nature hikes with momma!
 
 
Trying to get a picture with the boys is HARD! How do people do this?
 
 
Karson has really been enjoying the Wii. He loves playing Wii Sports and the new hunting game that daddy got the boys from Cabelas
 
 
Pinterest Idea: Gummy worms in Dirt :)
 
 
Kipton at his friend Haley's house for a playdate. He LOVED this baby doll. It was super sweet. Karson wanted NOTHING to do with it. Kipton rocked it, hugged it, kissed her, put her in her crib and told her Awwww about 100 times. It was super funny.
 
Then he found a REAL baby at bible study at church. He was IN LOVE except for he wanted to touch his eyes and head and that made me a little nervous for the mommy.
 
We made homemade playdoh! He was so easy. I will never buy it from the store again.
Super fun and easy
 
Enjoying a Sonic slushy. Loved grape!
 
Homemade spaghetti sause and baked in the oven. YUMM! Kevin ate 3 plates. :)
 
 
What a face!!
 
Another moment with a baby doll - O boy!
 
Hope you have a great week!! We are getting everything ready for Karson to start preschool next Wednesday. I am SOO excited for him to get this experience.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Show us your Life: Laundry Rooms

 
Kelly's Korner is hosting Show us your Life: Laundry Rooms
 
I really wanted to have a laundry room in our new house and made sure there was one in the house plan that we decided on. There is nothing special about it but I'm so happy to actually have one!
Eventually I would love to paint the laundry room and add special sayings around about "laundry"
 
 
 
 
We have 1 local grocery store about 10 minutes from our house and right beside is a Goodwill. I hadn't been in there but decided to give it a try. They had this wreath for $2.00
 
 
It was just the grapevine with the yellow flowers and I added some fall flowers inbetween and a scarecrow on the side. I LOVE it! All for $2.00 I was so excited.
 
 
I LOVE FALL!
 
How about you? Are you getting anxious to put out all of your decorations?

Friday, August 24, 2012

Pros/Cons of Country Living

I thought I would share a little about how we moved from the "subdivision" life to the "country".
 
I grew up in West Virginia and lived in the "country" my whole life. My husband  Kevin grew up in a small city but it was still near local stores (Walmart, McDonalds, etc). He could walk to school and always had a buddy to play with. I on the other hand, did not. It was a lot different having friends over. Their parents had to drive them so it was harder to get together outside of school, but my sister and I still managed to have a "social life".
(Our old house - Halloween Night 2011)
 
When Kevin and I got married in 2007 we moved to the city where he grew up and rented a house in a subdivision with intentions on soon buying the house. I seemed to like this life but there were the cons and the pros to it just like the country life has it's ups and downs.
 
 
*Note that this is my personal opinion :)
 
Subdivision Pros
 
-Easy to take walks around the neighborhood
-Local parks nearby
-Always a close person if you need a quick babysitter
-Close to Walmart, Fast Food, etc
-Other kids for our boys to play with
-Always something going on around in the neighborhood
-Block Parties
-Kids Parties
 
Subdivision Cons
 
-Nosey neighbors (this was #1 on my list)
-No privacy
-No land or space
-Competition between neighbors
-Keeping up with "The Joneses"
-Gossip
-The kids are constantly coming over. When we were outside it was
free game for the backyard to be flooded with kids. No family time.
 
*These are just some of the things that happened in our subdivision. My main reason for wanting to leave the subdivision life was the competition/gossip portion of it. It seemed like everyone was so worried about what the other was doing and gossiping about it. When we were just married it seemed ok. I will also admit that I was in on all of the talk. But after I had kids something didn't sit right with me anymore. God had put it in my heart to stop the talk and raise my kids the right way. The together family way, and that just wasn't with the subdivision life anymore.
  
 
There are also the pros and cons of moving to the country. It is not the life for ALL but definitely for our family. We are so happy with our move, and I am pretty sure the boys would say the same.
 
Country Cons
 
-Gravel roads (not great for pushing a stroller or wagon)
-No houses/people in sight!
-No kids to play with nearby
-Some flat land but more hills to mow, walk, etc.
-More land to keep up with (we have 4 acres)
 
Country Pros
 
-We like to work! So living here we have plenty to do. We love being outside as a family and working on something. (mowing, planting, having a huge garden, cutting/splitting firewood, building campfires)
-Having so much space! We have plenty of room for a barn, chicken coop, to have our boat, our house, plus about 3 more acres of land.
-So much privacy! No one is constantly watching you and when you come and go!
-More family time with no distractions from others coming over
-Plenty of places to ride our 4-wheeler
-Ponds nearby to fish. Acres in our backyard to hunt (Kevin)
-The boys can be boys and enjoy nature and "boy" things
 
We love finding treasures like acorns, nuts, pinecones
 
 
Enjoying and raising our chickens
Getting fresh eggs
 
 
 Rides on the tractor in the open fields
 
 
 
 
Nature walks
Bonding as brothers
Finding treasures
 
 
Sleeping on the front porch swing
Being on the front porch in your pj's  :)
 
 
Beautiful trees/scenery
 
 
 
 A pro & con - all the hard work!
 
 
Enjoying the barn
Riding tractors
 
 
Digging away with no cares
Sharing life with his best friend - his brother
 
 
Loading the deer feeder with corn
Watching the deer from our back door while eating breakfast 
 
 
Pretending to "cut the trees" down
Using a screwdriver to cut the tree down. HA 
 
 
Building small fires in our fire pit
 
Building BIG fires all around our property 
 
 
I hope that this post doesn't come off to some people that the subdivision life is not a good life for raising a family. To some it is. But for our family the move to the country was the right one for us. Of course I feel like you must love the outdoors and have a passion for working in nature to make you LOVE living in the country. I think because of the fact that we have BOYS makes our move much easier. I don't know that we would have made the move had we had 2 girls. I know that sounds strange but I think raising boys in the country is pretty easy. I try to think what it would be like if we had two girls living in the country. I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy with lots of hard work and dirt all the time, but maybe?? I was raised in the country and it was fine but who knows?
 
I am glad to have documented this so that I have a record of how I felt about our move to the country. Hope you have enjoyed it!
(October - 2011)
 
(August - 2012)
 

Monday, August 20, 2012

Getting anxious for Fall

I know it is super early but I am ready for fall! The cooler temps here are making it very easy to take the plunge and dive into fall decorating and cooking. Of course I LOVE Pinterest like the rest of the blog world and love getting new ideas.

I love all things FALL: Pumpkins, MUMS, Cooler weather, College football, Hay rides, Decorating for fall, Orange/Red colors,Sweaters and Boots, Beautiful country scenes, and dressing the boys in fall clothes...I am READY!


Here is a recipe that is super easy that I found on Pinterest. I made it last night and it is awesome! It is Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread. I love anything with cream cheese so this was a recipe for me!


1st: Use 1 8oz package of Cream Cheese


2nd: 1/2 Cup of Pumpkin

Then add in:

1/4 cup of Sugar
3/4 teaspoon of Pumpkin Spice
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla



Mix is all up until it's smooth

and you will have Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread!

Great for bagels, rolls, and I have been eating it with Vanilla Wafers :) YUM!

I'm also adding a pic of my favorite people :)

Enjoy your Pumpkin Spread

Friday, August 17, 2012

Show us your Life: Porches

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today on "Show us your Life: Porches". I decided to share a few pictures of our front and back porches with you guys. If you are new to our blog we just built our house last summer and moved in last December. We still have a lot of work to do and no grass :( That will be our big project this fall.

My fern have gotten super big this year! I don't do anything special to them besides lots of water and miracle grow every other month. I've heard you can put epson salt (sp) on them and they will get HUGE but I have never tried that.


We really enjoy porch swinging. We have these rocking chairs and our porch swing.


I love making wreaths! It is one of my favorite things to do. However, I have learned that with our new white door the grapevine wreaths are not good for it. I had my 4th of July wreath that was made from grapevine up for a few weeks and it made like brown marks all over my door? I was worried it would ruin so I have to stick with other types of wreaths. This is a berry wreath I made.

I picked up the country stars that are in ferns at a country store in our area.

The front view of our house.

The back of our house.

There are some things I would like to add but it is fine for now. We eventually want to build a big back deck outside for more space for chairs and entertainment area.

We eat out at our table alot. It is super nice to sit outside and eat together. Our house is in the country so it's just woods, chickens, deer, to look at. Which is awesome!


Thanks for stopping by for the "Show us your Life: Porches"