It's about time!

I have a skewed mentality when it comes to blogging. I've convinced myself that I can't blog what's happening now unless I blog everything I've missed!

Obviously, it's not working so well for me. There's no way I'll be able to effectively, let alone cleverly, blog everything that's happened in the last... year?

Here's a quick run-down of what I need to blog about. Maybe you could leave me a comment or two asking for me to expound about some or all or none of these specifics:

1. THE move- we moved from Hemphill to Nacogdoches and LOVE. IT.
2. Samuel- the cutest, sweetest, most personable baby. ever. (besides our other 5)
3. Birthdays (Katherine is 10 1/2, Travis just turned 9, Olivia turned 7 yesterday, Ella is 5, Bryn is 3, Samuel is 8 mos, Johnny is, oops, got carried away)
4. New friends (we have met some of the nicest people- neighbors, members of our ward)
5. Fun projects (we are making bunkbeds for our kids, installed a bunch of cabinets/countertop for homeschooling, painted- see pics below, gonna make bookshelves in the hall)
6. Postpartum depression (yes it's real, yes I had it, yes I'm doing better, no I'm not going to write about it tonight- but maybe soon)
7. Goals (health, family, personal, routine, future)
8. Johnny (his job, his health, how wonderful he is)
9. Jill (might be included in the ppd post, but maybe not. lots of things she wants you to know about her.)

Okay, that's quite a bit. :/ Well, the initial reason for posting tonight is...

drumroll please...

Monica came for a visit- you know that means we did some major home improvements

in a short amount of time! :) We're talking, Extreme Makeover (on a budget of course)!

Her first night here, she and I stayed up talking and laughing and not eating- but wishing, until 2:30 a.m.

During that time, we chose paint colors for our living room/dining/kitchen/hallway. We were SO excited. We went to Lowe's last night at about 8:30 p.m. and bought 2 gallons of Mexican Sand and 1 gallon of Mesa Tumbleweed, both semi-gloss. We put the kids to bed and painted and painted and painted til we dropped! That was about 3:30 a.m. Yikes! We moseyed out of bed and picked back up this morning. From about 9:30 or 10 this morning til 3:30 this afternoon, we toiled and conquered! :)

Before you go to Sherwin Williams website or Lowes website looking for those colors, why don't I just show you what they look like? Huh?

But first, I need to tell you I had Monica bring a few gallons of her leftover paint. I really like her living room/kitchen/foyer color- it's green and FREE for me! :)  She was super generous to donate it for our cause.

The yellow had to go!

If you forgot, allow me to refresh your memory:

(notice the 12 tiles above the sink. Yeah, not my favorite, but that's another project for another day.) 

The kitchen and part of the hallway. Yellow everywhere! 

Excuse the laundry- at least it's clean! 

Don't get me wrong. Yellow has it's place- just not in these rooms.

Ahhhhh...the after pictures:

(these pictures were taken today, just to show the amazing difference- we'll take more and post after we  decorate.)

 Like I said, this was taken during the process. Kitchens a bit messy, sorry. That's what happens when I go into project mode.

 The vaulted ceiling was fun to paint. Huh, Monica? She is an expert painter!

 Travis wanted to help. I think it says, "Walmart"- not sure why.

 After you're finished looking at the beautiful walls, take a glance down at the cute boy headed for the camera ;)

The bay window is Monica's green color- nice accent wall, eh?

Really leaning toward replacing the Roman shades. Maybe I'll make some. Later.

 You can see into the den at the cabinets/desk. We decorated with pictures of Olivia because yesterday was her birthday. Just thought I'd add that. ;)

Doesn't it just look like it was always supposed to be like this?!

Thank you Monica- never could have done it without you! You are the BEST!

Don't run off just yet... wouldn't you like to see some super cute kids? I snapped these tonight while the kids watched a DVR of America's Got Talent:

Notice Katherine is crocheting while watching the show. 

(Mama, Brenda, Monica, Melissa- you should all be so proud! I know I am!)

Monica and Brenda have taught her so much. I'm glad she's wanted to learn and had such great teachers.

Lia will be staying a week and a half while Monica is at Girls' Camp next week. Our kids are in HEAVEN!

Samuel is already in bed (hopefully for the entire night since I'm going on 8 hours of sleep for the last 2 nights combined. It's worth it.)

Here's a recent pic of this beautiful boy:

♥

Cousins, Cousins, Cousins

When Sarah came for our reunion, we got to visit in Vidor for a few days. We lined the babies back up on the couch and took their 6th-ish month pictures :)

There they are in age order, again. Notice the two little "bookends". Since Bryn is too mobile, Katherine held her for the pictures. Thanks Katherine! Aaliyah was feeling a little sluggish, and those boys sure are charmers!
Roman, Ella, Bryn and Ethan
Khalil (pronounced Ka-lel)Khalil with his Uncle Johnny- so sweet.

Melissa was so nice to let us swim in their pool while they were on vacation. In between (distant) thunder and rain, it was lots of fun!


This is Travis's baby, Aaliyah. Isn't she precious!? her shirt says, "Social Butterfly" and lately she's had to be, sweet girl. After my reunion I took her and her brother, Khalil, home with me for 5 days. Their mom was in a car accident, separate from Travis's, and she broke her leg and collar bone, so our family has loved taking care of them.




The next day, Lia (aka Olivia's BFF), got to come for a few days while her mom was at Girls' Camp. Brandon came too- which made Travis and Khalil really happy!


Brandon and Lia were such big helpers with all the babies. Can you believe we had 9 kids for a few days! (4 of which were in diapers- lol)

This is probably the only "sleepover" our kids will ever have, since we don't do sleepovers as a rule. They look cozy, huh?

Katherine, Travis, Brandon, Bryn, Olivia, Lia, Aaliyah, Ella, Khalil- say that fast! Or just say, Livy, Lia, Aaliyah, Ella, Khalil :) Quite a tongue twister huh?:)

Poor Aaliyah was not feeling well when we got here, and she got worse. Before we took her home, she had been to Dr. Packard's office twice- finally being sent to the hospital for a chest x-ray: pneumonia. The original plan was for Monica to take all four of the kids home after camp, but we had to take them home a day early. Aaliyah was admitted to Baptist Hospital in Beaumont (she's home now, but with lots of breathing treatments, etc. and Khalil is on breathing treatments too.)

We had fun having so many cousins come visit and we're glad Aaliyah is feeling better.