where dh and i hope to live the rest of our life....

Over the summer, Dh and I stopped in a model home and fell in love. We also learned how low interest rates are and that we could feasibly move into our 'permanent' home with enough space for three growing boys and all their friends and space for family celebrations... and just everything.

So we put the house on the market

and it sold really quickly!!!

We found a rental and watched as they began to build our new home.

 The boys picked their rooms and wrote their names on the studs....

 He got to pick last... which wasn't *really* picking... and he wasn't happy about it. Since then, we've discovered that his window is open to the rising sun and now he is really happy that he gets to face the sun every morning!

 They put the bricks on!

 Textured the walls, installed the baseboards and trim around windows, shelves in closets, etc...

 And PAINTED the trim and walls..... (haven't done the final touches on paint yet)

Then yesterday, we stopped by on a whim and found THIS:

Which a few short hours later looked like THIS: 

Kitchen!

Master bath!

Upstairs bath! (it has zero light and my flash on my phone isn't perfect so it's a little fuzzy)


AND:

A GARAGE DOOR!


It has been so fun to go and see all the progress. It literally has taken my breath away to walk through and see each addition. There is always the chance of it falling apart and we end up homeless... but if that doesn't happen--- this is will be our HOME>

Skarface

I took a tip from Michelle Duggar and started writing the boys' names on the paper plates we've been using for dinner (don't judge!)........ Then that just got boring so I started putting nicknames to make them laugh..... TO ended up with a fun name that will most likely stick....


Let's go back to last fall.

We were up on the Blue River, in a lovely recessed camp site. We had other families there and the boys were all playing near a stream. There was somewhat a steep hill to get down to the stream and the boys were going up and down back and forth and having a great time exploring. TO found a wonderful walking stick and was using that going down the steep hill.... in a jog. That's when he lost his footing and fell. The way he fell, the right side of his face hit the top of the walking stick. And it punctured it pretty deeply.

He knew it hurt. When he came up to the camp site, he had a stream of blood down his cheek and it alarmed me... Dh took it pretty hard.... we got the first aid kit, cleaned it up, and tried to bandage it as well as we could, hoping it wasn't going to need medical attention. We still decided it was time to go home for us and packed up and made the long drive home.

Later that night, when the wound was still bleeding, we decided it was time to see a doctor. I took him to a pediatric urgent care where they inspected it, cleaned it and derma-bonded it right up.

 It healed well enough. It actually opened up again and left a chicken pox like scar,  but smaller than the original injury. Sometime this spring I realized it wasn't an indention anymore, but more even with the skin and I thought that was a good thing....

Over the summer, I noticed it was starting to form a bump... raised from the skin. Interesting...

Over the past month or so.... I watched it get larger and begin to change to a dark color... almost black. EEEKKK!

I was still in the stage of considering what was going and watching it more closely (daily, instead of weekly) to decide what was going on... when DH saw it.... and FREAKED OUT.

Of course it was a Saturday and this is something that I adore about DH-- when he gets worried about the boys, it CANNOT WAIT. It has to be addressed IMMEDIATELY> >> So, off to the pediatric urgent care we go again.... (it almost looked like an abscess, only black but hard to the touch).  They looked and tried to open it to relive the pressure, but couldn't. It was almost like scar tissue, not really an abscess at all. They said we needed to see a dermatologist.

Monday afternoon... I took all three boys to see Dr. Skin.... who told us that it all needed to be removed! :0

After a lot of talking TO into it, they numbed the area, sliced it open, cut out the ball of skin, pulled out a small black pea sized something that looked like a rock, cleaned it all out and stitched it up.

Oh the fun things we get to do when we have kids....

He was a champ through it all! He did not want to do it and kept telling me it was fine and didn't need to see a doctor.... 

They sent everything off to be tested..... and the thing they removed came back as "piece of wood". 

Hmph. 

A few days later, they removed the stitches.... and put a sticky bandage to hold it closed so it would leave a small scar...

I haven't taken another picture of it yet... it is a little bit of a wide scar... but at least he's not carrying around a piece of wood in his cheek!!!

baseball!!!!!!!!!

I love love love love love watching the boys play baseball. I just love it.

challenge accepted

My friend Tersea is very inspiring to me. Here are two examples:

1) I've had my new camera for almost two years. I've taken TONS of photos and scrap-booked and love it.... but, I haven't ventured into learning the manual settings. Teresa is constantly posting the most amazing pictures of her kids and giving hints and tips that are written in a voice that makes it sound like something I can actually do! So, I decided to really give it a shot. It has been a lot of trial and error, but here is my favorite 'learning' moment.

The Boys were all doing homework.

Double L was in a good spot, with the light behind me as I faced him. I didn't have to change the setting at all. 

 Skarface (I have another story to tell you...) was the opposite. He had the light behind him, but he was a little ways away from it.

You can tell how dark this one is and it wasn't how the room really looked filled with natural light. With a higher f/stop, this is the result:

 Caught the moment perfectly!

Then, I went to find B-man. He was trickiest because he was directly in front of two windows....

Well, that wasn't what I was going for at all! So, I upped the f/stop and finally found the perfect setting:

The next thing I think I should work on is holding the camera straight.... I find lots of pictures that are leaning... maybe my right side is that much shorter... but probably I just need to be more aware of holding the camera straight!
So..... Go play with the f/stop on your dslr and see how your pictures change. 

Here is the second way that Teresa has inspired me.

These were taken in front of the new house! (another post... ) B-man wasn't there... he was at baseball practice. But, later that night, after my run (=red face) and after his practice, I grabbed him.

Skarface jumped in and asked if he could take one since I was having a hard time getting a good one of me and B-man. Other than how old and tired I look... he took a good picture~! 

Of course, Double L wanted some more....

So, the second challenge is to go take pictures with YOU, the MOMMA, in them! Our kids deserve to see in pictures that we were there too.