Please don't call DHR!

I just realized that my last two posts included pictures of Sunshine crying from injuries! And I'm standing around taking pictures! I'll do better - I promise!

One Tough Cookie!

Do you remember how last week I told you that the girls learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels? Well, Sunshine, the daredevil of the two, has the scars to prove it! She loves to skid and yell, "Awesome!" It often ends with a little road rash, but it doesn't keep her down for long. I told her a little while ago that she has to wear jeans or leggings this week when she rides her bike because she is getting so beat up. She begged me to not make her wear pants because "It's such a hot day." I guess she'll keep learning the hard way.

Sunday Fun

The ecstasy: And the agony (after suffering from water up the nose!):

L'il Man's turn:

Go girl!:

It was GORGEOUS today! I met my mom halfway between here and her house to pick up Sunshine. We returned to the lake and spent part of the afternoon on our "lake neighbor's" slide and diving board. They have the best toys at their house and have been so kind to allow us to use them even when they aren't there!

The kids were having such a good time that we didn't leave until close to dinner time so that we could grab dinner at Niffer's on the Lake on the way back home. So a little before 8 p.m., we arrived at Niffers. We didn't get the memo that were closed on Sundays! So the kids fell asleep in the car and we carried them up to their beds without any dinner! They played HARD on the lake today and I imagine that they will be starving when they wake up. I hope they don't wake up hungry during the night! I hadn't thought about that until now...surely not.

Have a great week!

Because She Said So...

KitKat and I had a "date" Friday night to one of the elementary school's Spring Fling. Sunshine was with my parents, L'il Man was with M, and AAA was spending the night with a friend. We had a super time. Her favorite part of the evening was having her hair spray-painted pink! She said to everyone we knew, "See my hair?", as if she had to ask! Anyway, she REALLY wanted me to put this picture on the blog. So I am obliging her. Sweet Girl!

Happy Birthday, little love...

Your eighth year in review:

"Suddenly, through birthing a daughter, a woman finds herself face to face not only with an infant, a little girl, a woman-to-be, but also with her own unresolved conflicts from the past and her hopes and dreams for the future...As though experiencing an earthquake, mothers of daughters find their lives shifted, their deep feelings unearthed." - E. Debad



Today my oldest child, my little girl, turns nine years old. Nine years. Wow. That means that next year she'll be in double digits and that just breaks my heart. I never really understood it when my mom or my grandparents said to me, "I wish I could put a brick on your head to keep you from growing." I would so put a brick on her head if I could. I love watching her grow and become her own unique, beautiful person, but I would put that brick on her precious little head in a New York minute. Slowly but surely my little girl is growing into a young woman. A beautiful young woman both inside and out.


I don't even think that there are words to describe this little angel of mine. She is her own little person and I love her to pieces. She is competitive, active, responsible, friendly, independent, affectionate, funny, bright, lovely. She makes me proud. She makes me worry that I am not a good enough mom to her. She deserves the very best. I hope I am adequate. But I don't even want to be just "adequate". I don't want to fail her. She is so lovely and I want to be the mother to her that God wants me to me. And I am so aware that I fall short every single day. One thing is for certain, though, and that is that she keeps me trying. I adore this little lady and I want to be the BESTEST mom to her. I want her to know that I try. I want to nurture her and lead her to Him.



Triple A, I am so proud of the young lady you've become. You know Jesus and He knows you even more. That calms me and reassures me. I love watching Him mold you into the person He created you to be. I am so blessed to be your mom.

Happy 9th Birthday, my little love.

Kool-Aid! Kool-Aid! Get Your Kool-Aid Here!

We live right down the street from the elementary school and this morning L'il Man's class went on a walking field trip right past our house. So on their way back, we surprised them (and the other four 1st grade classes) with a free Kool-Aid stand. They were so cute sitting on the street curb drinking their kool-aid! And so well-mannered. I was so impressed with the number of little kids who said "Thank You" without being prompted.

Here's Sunshine and KK (a.k.a Gabriella) preparing the treats:

Good -bye cutle little first graders!

They had a police escort, so the policement were included, as well. And then the garbage men drove by, so they were also invited.

Poor Sunshine had a little accident (she wasn't even riding her bike!), so she had to sit and rest her little leg:

Today is AAA's 9th birthday, and I'm writing about L'il Man, Kit Kat, and Sunshine. Don't worry...she'll get her own post later!

Bittersweet

AAA and Sunshine doing "tricks": Look Mom!

SOOO Happy!

I'm happy and I'm sad. I'm so proud for my two baby girls, but my heart hurts at the same time! The training wheels came off of their bikes yesterday and they couldn't be any prouder. In fact, KitKat just came inside with a training wheel in each hand and asked, "Mom, can these be our trophies?" I should have them bronzed!

It's a good thing, by the way, that KitKat has a younger sister. That seems to be her motivation for most of the things that she does. She had never expressed any interest in riding her bike without training wheels until yesterday when Sunshine asked me to take her training wheels off. By the way, after having four little ones whom we've taught to ride their bikes without training wheels, this is what we've learned: find a small grass hill to practice. The hill gives them enough speed so that they don't lose their balance. We have the perfect incline in our backyard.

Anyway, my friend Elizabeth recently wrote a post about entering a new era of motherhood. I certainly feel that way now. My babies are riding their bikes! My heart hurts! I think that this is the first milestone of this sort that has made me sad. When I put away the high-chairs, strollers, cribs, and huge car-seats, I was happy to put away those big bulky space takers. But now that I am a little further removed from the infancy stage, I am oh-so-sad that they are just a little closer to independence. AAA will be 9 years old tomorrow, and I think, "She is half-way there to being 18 and out of the house." And trust me when I tell you that she is not the type, like her younger brother, to say, "I'm going to live with y'all for the rest of my life." In fact, she has already told me, " When I turn 18, I'm moving to Georgia." (I'm sure tomorrow's post will be a tear-jerker for me!)

Here's to growing-up, independence, proud moments, and hearts bursting!

Thanking God today for the gift of Motherhood! We are blessed, mommies!

I've been busy...

Unfortunately, I can never seem to get the pictures to post in the proper order! However, the first picture is a picture of what our extra bedroom looks like today. The next two pictures are of what the bedroom looked like when we first bought this house, and the last picture is what the bedroom looked like yesterday! Like I said...I've been busy.

I ran across the "before" pictures today while looking for something else and just stared in disbelief at the room. This is by far my favorite room in our house because it was such a labor of love. I painted each of those shelves and cabinets by myself. My husband wanted to throw them out because they were so old and dirty. Quite honestly, I was tempted to agree with him, but I just knew the finished product would be worth it. But I was not in the mood to tackle this project. And honestly, it's still not finished. The inside of the cabinets are still dirty and unpainted. I've wiped them down, but that's about it.

I call this room the "extra" room and not the guest room because, technically, it's KitKat's room. But she and Sunshine really enjoy sharing a bedroom. I was shocked because KitKat is all about pink and I painted this room just for her. The room that she shares with Sunshine is green, but whatever. She'll come around.

I think this was the only room in the house that only had one layer of wallpaper from the 1960's that we had to strip off the walls. I NEVER thought we'd be finished.

It is amazing what a can of paint can do to a space.

Thanking God today that we survived this entire project! I'll post more before and after pictures of other rooms as I get around to cleaning them!

Have a great week!

Not even a title...

I am seriously not kidding when I say I have nothing to write about.

If you think I'm kidding, then let me confess that I just wrote an entire post about pegboard. I'll spare you from it today, but it may come in handy later on in the week when I am, yet again, at a stand-still.

One day last week, a friend of mine offered for KitKat and Sunshine to come to her house to play with her little girl. This is a true friend as she invited both of the girls. And thereforeI had several hours alone at my house!! I was giddy with excitement. I have always said that my favorite place on Earth to be is at my house with my kids. But my second favorite place to be is at my house without my kids!

So you might be wondering what I did all afternoon while by myself.

And even if you're not, you're going to find out because-here's the thing- when you spend the majority of the day at home without kids and your house is already clean thanks to your dad for wanting to come to your house for Easter so you had to clean your entire house just days before, the truth is...there's not that much to do , and therefore not much to blog about either.

So I actually didn't even stay at my house. It was a pretty day and my neighborhood is so pretty during the spring that I thought I'd take the dog for a walk by myself. The kids and I usually take walks in the neighborhood, but it always seems better in theory than in reality. Can anyone "second" that? It seems like a good idea at the time, for the four year old and five year old to ride their bikes in the neighborhood. But them one of them falls, or one yells at the top of her lungs, "You never showed me how to stop my bike" as she heads down the hill. Or equally as bad,...when she doesn't have the strength to ride her bike up the hill, so you push her bike up the hill. And then you decide that it hurts your back too much to hunch over and push the bike so you decide to carry the bike up the hill. Or you encounter a dog and you can't decide if he's friendly or not and your kids pick up on your sense of worry and have a melt down and act like they've never even seen a dog before. Anyway... I'm obviously sidetracked.

So...I let the dog drag me around the neighborhood for about an hour while I tried to maintain some sort of dignity by pretending I always run at a dead sprint with my arms flailing wildly with my dog on the end of the leash.

And that's my post for today.

Yes...that's it. Really.

Here's hoping for another exciting week! Wishing you a good one, as well.

And I love this!

Cut-offs on a four year old (with rain boots...even better): When my four year old and five year tell me they have a surprise for me and this is it (they made their beds):

And when they bring me a mudpie baked with TLC!

This is exactly what I thought motherhood would be! Thank you, God.

I just love this!

Score!

Since I "opened" La T Da a few weeks ago, I have been scouring yard sales and thrift store on a daily basis looking for hidden treasures. I can't tell you how the thrill of the hunt nurtures my soul. There hasn't been a single day that I've come home empty handed. Unfortunately, most of my betters deals end up in my house rather than in my booth. Here are two of my favorite recent purchases (pardon the order of pics): I found this awesome hutch at a yard sale for thirty dollars!! Can you believe that I didn't buy it right away? I left the yard sale and couldn't get the thing out of my mind. I drove back by several hours later and knocked on the owner's door. I was fully prepared for them to tell me that it had sold, but it was still there!

And this is my other favorite purchase. I found this chair at the Salvation Army for $30.00!! It looks perfect in AA's room. I should have taken a close-up picture of the legs - they are scrolled and carved. What a find!

Needless to say, all of this treasure hunting has nourished my soul. I love a really good deal. I almost get a "rush" of some type! it's even more fun when the good deal makes a profit! I started to blog about the profit I made recently - THE SCORE- but I started feeling guilty about making money off of someone else's stuff. I won't blog about it, but be sure to ask me about it if you see me. It's a good story!

Have a Thrilling Thursday!

Thanking God today for my true treasure...His Son and my family.

Whew! That wore me out!

What a wild past couple of weeks it has been. So sorry for the lack of posts! I never really recovered from the laundry from our Chattanooga trip, I had overnight company two nights last week, and I hosted my family for Easter this Sunday (complete with a "neighborhood" Easter egg hunt).


Since I opened "La T Da" at Angel's Antiques, my house has been completely neglected and my dining room has been converted in to a sweat shop. I have two sewing machines out at all times, piles of fabric and poly-fil, mounds of frames, stacks of prints, a various assortment of lamps, and possibly a hundred cans of spray paint.


Originally, we had planned on having our annual Easter family dinner at the lake. However, the "men folk" realized that the Masters would be on TV, and since we don't have a tv at the lake, that pretty much made our decision to have it at our house. At first I was O.Kay with it, but then I remembered why I wanted to have it at the lake in the first place...so I wouldn't have to clean my dining room. I gasped for breath when on Wednesday of last week, I realized that I would have to have my house cleaned by bedtime Saturday night. Yikes!!


I was up until the wee hours of morning Saturday night/Sunday a.m. cleaning my house, preparing food, dying eggs, playing Easter Bunny, ironing Easter outfits, polishing shoes, making salad dressing, setting the table, trimming asparagus, cutting lemons, etc. So everything that was in my dining room, is now in my guest bedroom. Take a peek (if you dare):

Oh, but look at this great lamp I picked up off the side of the road!

And this awesome vintage chandelier:

And these colorful nautical pillows I made:

And this awesome white ceramic bamboo lamp:

So if you're a good frind of mine and you are reading this blog and were planning a visit anytime soon...please don't come! You'll have to sleep in the dining room!

(And if you see something you like...I'll make you a really good deal!) Hehe.

Have a great rest of the week! By the way, if you're a local, did you know that the kids don't have school Friday?!? I had no idea!