Closets

Before...After...

I was inspired by this project on a blog I love to read a long time ago, so when we realized that we could only list our house as a 4 bedroom if we added a closet to Hailey's room I knew this would work great!

On either side of her bed we added a PAX wardrobe from Ikea. Then we cut about 5 inches off of the bottom of her existing headboard so we could install the wall sconces. Since there was obviously no room for a side table to sit a lamp on, we decided that wall sconces were the way to go. And because Ikea is awesome, we found lights that didn't have to be hard-wired!! Yay for no electrical work! :)

All in all, it took us about 2 1/2 hours to assemble the boxes, put the doors on, and get everything put back into place.

We both looked at it and went, "Why on EARTH didn't we do this a long time ago??"

I'm really falling in love with this house again now that all of the unfinished projects are getting done... :/

(obviously the quality of my phone pic doesn't even compare with the professional one, but you get the idea... ;)

On the market...

Our agent had her photographer come and take some pics of our house for the MLS and I can't believe how great it looks! Here's to seeing if our house will sell in this market?? :/ If it won't, it won't and we're good with that. Whatever God wants for our family is what will happen.

We covet your prayers as I attempt to keep my house "show ready" with 2 small kids. ;)

Our family trip...minus pictures :(

So, let me start out by saying that although I charged my camera battery the day before we left for Fort Mills, SC it died on me during our first outing with all the kids. What the?? Must need a new battery or something. At any rate, Lisa kindly offered me her pictures and said she'd load them on our computer before we left. And they are on our computer! Unfortunately, they're on Todd's computer which has finally decided it will NOT charge when plugged in anymore. No problem, right? The computer repair place nearby said they could replace the part in just a few hours! Horray!! Oh, except they'll have to order the part from China, so it could be a week. (insert sad face here)

Well, let me narrate the trip for you and add pictures later, ok?

Our flight out East left Seattle at 6:05 am. Yep...we had to be at the airport just after 4:00 am which meant getting up to get out the door at 3! I almost just stayed up, but knew it'd be a long day. We flew to Detroit and then had a 40 minute layover!! I'm talking we scrambled off one plane and RAN to the other gate and literally walked directly onto our next plane. The timing was perfect because my sqirmy-wormy son was TOTALLY ready to sleep as soon as the plane started moving. Wait...why isn't the plane moving yet. Oh, right. Because the pilot's seatbelt was broken and it needed to be fixed before we could get moving. How important can his seatbelt really be, people?? It's HOT in the back of a parked plane and my kid is beside himself. (because again, he woke up before 4!!!) Finally we got moving and he slept the whole flight. Perfect.

We got to Aaron and Lisa's BEAUTIFUL new house in Fort Mills and the kids were in heaven playing together. I'll save that commentary for the post with pictures. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Owen went to bed at a normal time (which was, of course, 3 hours earlier than usual). Then it came to Hailey. She was SOOO tired, but playing her usual bedtime games. And continued playing her games every night we were there. She screamed and cried and came downstairs and brought Todd and I to the end of ourselves. We survived, though, and loved every other minute of our trip.

Some highlights:

*playing at this indoor play structure that was basically a McDonald's playland on steroids...that gets disinfected several times a day. :) We so need one in rainy Seattle.

*Hold 'Em...mostly because Lisa and I took all of Todd and Aaron's "money".

*Baking Halloween sugar cookies...that I crowded all onto one pan, only to make one very large Halloween sugar cookie. :)

*Carving pumpkins. Two princesses (one that looked a little like Lord Farquaad from Shrek...sorry Hails :/) and a dog. With his whiskers cut out! The pictures will prove it...they were seriously amazing pumpkins.

*Visiting Aaron & Lisa's church. We visited on a day where the fill-in music leader put a VERY "Southern" twist on the music...and it was fun. :)

*Trick-or-treating with the kids. So cute. And Aaron and Todd came back with full buckets of candy AND some overflow that ended up in an old pillow case. Then we all "inspected" the candy. You know the drill...safety first! Sugar headache later. :/

Our trip back was quite the challenge with Owen. That poor kid did NOT like being cooped up in two different planes for such a long time. And the lady in front of us on our second flight did not like him. And said to me at the end of the flight (after MANY huffs and puffs of frustration and head-shakes throughout) that "at least I knew I couldn't travel with him." To which I replied, "How can I not travel with him? He's my SON!!" Rude. Let's just say I was rather thankful that it took us forever to get to baggage claim after we landed so I didn't have to endure anymore of her mean-mugging.

All in all, it was a great trip and we loved having so much wonderful time with our family. We miss them already and have vowed to do more skyping.

We love you Gabby, Mason, Lisa and Aaron and can't wait to meet baby Fry #3 soon! Thanks for hosting our craziness for the week. :)

Fire-Breathing Dragon

How on earth was I supposed to pick just one?? :)

"Week before Halloween" Party

A typical family dinner turned CRAZY when Nana suggested treats, games and costumes!

I think Caser thinks that banana in his pocket is really a gun in a holster...Here they are...the three amigos...Maggie would have joined them, but she was sleeping. So cute!

Kissing cousins... :)

I didn't know that Strawberry Shortcake was friends with a monkey?? Who knew?

"Straw-ba-ba-ba-ba-berry!!"

All in all, such a fun evening...those kids make me CRAZY with their CUTENESS! :)

Can you tell we've been busy??

With fall in session I feel like it's been ages since the last time I blogged! Sadly, I've also been quite lacking in the picture-taking department. Here are a few random things we've had going on lately -

*Beauty and the Beast - we got this movie recently and let me just say, I can now recite the entire movie without even looking at the television screen. ;)

*Hailey's "stall-itis" at bedtime has been getting a little better, although she has also stepped up her game in the creativity department. Gone are the days of the simple request to "try and go potty one more time" or "get a drink of water". Now we're dealing with "I'm scared of Pirates" and "Mommy, I don't think I had my vitamin today". It's pretty funny, actually.

*Owen is getting so much more grown up these days! It's like every day he's doing something new! Most recently he has started sitting on the rug in our kitchen when he's hungry. It's so incredibly cute. He just sits there and waits for a snack. :)

*Todd just finished building his first house start to finish! This is quite exciting, especially since it was sold months ago just days after it was listed. This kind of thing does NOT happen these days, so we know that the Lord had His hand in it.

*I'm still involved in Young Life, a full-time mom, and doing the books for our business (which has been stepped up a notch since building our first spec home...and just trying to do a better job at it) - our CPA, Wendy will be proud! The Lord has really convicted me of taking our job for granted and laid it upon my heart to be a better helper to Todd in this area. Hence, the lack of blogging lately...

*We're also gearing up for a fun trip to South Carolina here in the near future to see the Frys and CAN'T WAIT! Hailey is literally chomping at the bit for some good time with her cousins Gabby and Mason.

Well, that's about it for now! I promise, I'll work on some pics soon (if I can get Owen to sit still long enough)!! :)

first meeting

So, by now everyone knows of the arrival of my sweet niece Maggie Rae...she's literally the cutest thing you've ever seen! Don't believe me? Check the Camps blog...no joke.

Anyways, I was privileged enough to be IN the delivery room for her arrival! Which, to be honest, I thought would be a little longer than 4 minutes, but Christy is a champ and she was out in 3 pushes...crazy. Sharing that moment with Chris and Christy as they met their daughter for the first time was the sweetest thing I've ever experienced. Thanks for that, you guys, it was unbelievable...and now I'm crying as I type. :)

Sadly, the day of her birth, both my children decided to come down with colds. Seriously?? You can't have a cold around a baby, so we waited, and waited, and waited for them to be well so that they could meet their new cousin. Hailey's wait was finally over last night and she got to meet Maggie. She's enamored!! Owen couldn't come since he's still got a runny nose, but to be honest, Owen's kind of a "Nana-hog" and will not be excited one bit for her to be holding Maggie... ;)

I didn't bring my camera (I know...I know), but Christy got some pics that I'm sure she'll share soon. Hailey couldn't wait to get her into her swing, so after my mom and I each took long turns holding her, we put Maggie in her swing for Hailey. Hails covered her in a blanket, gave her Sweet Pea (Hailey's build a bear) to hold (which was hysterical since Sweet Pea is 3 times the size of Maggie) and was talking sweet "baby talk" to her. In the end, Hailey declared that Maggie is her best friend.

So sweet.