Efficient

I like to call it "killing 3 birds with 1 stone"  :)

New Photography Blog!

I have a new photography blog that I have been working on for a while.  It is still "under construction"  but I just wanted to put it out to you, my family and friends, so you can check it out and see what you think.  I am still tweaking things... but it is getting close to finished.
So PLEASE check it out and tell me what you think!!!

http://tcophoto.com/blog/

If you check it out, please let me know what you think :) You can leave me a comment or email me!
Thanks so much!!

new happenings

• Madeline now has 6 teeth... kind of crazy that, at almost 18 months, we are still counting teeth in single digits!
• Our heater/AC went out last Saturday and it will take just about all of our taxes to fix it.  Taxes that were supposed to be going to pay off one of our credit cards.  Will we ever get out of debt??!!
• On the way to pick up Hana from school I hear Madeline in the back say, to Brooke, "figers out mouf"... Maybe Brooke will listen to Madeline, since I have been saying it for months!
• Hana is still doing well in Kindergarten.  She is reading and knows all of her Kindergarten core words, we have moved on to the first grade words!
• Brooke is almost 4! She has decided to get her ears pierced for her birthday (at least right now).  We told Hana she could get it done for her 6th birthday, but she wanted to wait until she was 7.  So Brooke will get them done first :) 
• Madeline is talking a lot and putting 2 and 3 words together regularly... see above :) She has quite a lot of personality.  She is full of life... and a little full of herself :)
• I gave Madeline her first taste of guacamole and she loved it! The whole time she ate it, she said "yike it yike it" 

 

• We have SPRING FEVER!! I am so sick of cold weather... I hope the warmth is here to stay!!
• The girls are enjoying their new bikes...

 

That is it... I hope you feel up-to-date! 

Hana is 6!

Hana turned 6 on Friday!  It is so hard to believe that my first baby is 6!! But that is another post all together... this is about her party :)

Friday was her actual birthday, so we started off with cinnamon toast for breakfast and opened one present before school.   I surprised her at school with a special lunch.  Then after school she opened the rest of her presents :)

Nana and Poppy came in town for her birthday party so we all went out for dinner.  

Then on to Saturday... I went for a run in the morning then came back in time to get ready for the party. We were blessed with a very nice day!! The kids went outside to paint birdhouses and picture frames.  While my children very much enjoyed the painting... a lot of other kiddos were drawn by the swing set and the beautiful day :)

painting...

outside playing in the wonderful sun!

I lured them in with singing and cake :) 

The party ended with the kiddos back outside in the beautiful weather :) All of the adults deemed it a successful party... which is good enough for me!! Even if everyone didn't notice our awesome new outside... ;)

pay attention or you just might miss it :)

you have to pay careful attention to the house number... or you just might drive right past our house!! we have done some awesome improvements to the outside!!
a friend of mine, who was in the other half of my moms group, her husband is a general contractor.  we got in touch with him to replace the posts on the front of our house.  they have needed to be replaced since we moved into our house.  they weren't attached to the concrete and you could move them.  not very sturdy!  i like that casey, the contractor, made the posts himself.  he didn't get pre-made ones and just attach them.  (if you are doing any work and would like his info... i will be happy to pass it along! he was great!)  while the guys were painting the posts, we had them paint part of the trim as well.  I also painted the door and shutters black (i never liked the blue!).
i am sure our neighbors think we are trying to sell our house... why else would we do all of this work?  we would, in fact, like to sell our house.  but that wont be for a few years.  we have debt... so until we are out of debt we will be staying put.  we just thought it would be a good idea to tackle a few projects in the next couple of years, so that we won't be so overwhelmed when it is time to sell.  it is also, nice to be able to enjoy the improvements for the next couple of years!!  there are still a few things we want to do to the outside, but this was the most major :)

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

 

like i said... you have to pay attention to the house number or you will not recognize our house!!

square one on the road

this past weekend we went on our church's second annual retreat in myrtle beach.  we spent a little over 24 hours learning how to "fight for our marriage".  as always it was wonderful! 

there was some added drama to start off the weekend.  we went to dinner at pf changs on friday night.  while eating some yummy chicken, jack got choked and had to have one of the other guys in our group administer the heimlich :)  after some applause from the rest of the dinning room and some rapid heartbeats, we were able to finish our dinner and head to the retreat.  

the retreat is always a great reminder that our marriages are worth fighting for!!

here is our small group (well 4 out of the 7 couples). they had everyone dress up and pose for pictures... 

the one in the middle with the white hat (charles) is who saved jack's life :) thanks charles!!

 

the church blog about the retreat.