Monday, March 23, 2009

Braden's party

We had Braden's birthday party on Saturday. We called it a "speed party" because we started with presents and cake so that we would have more time for the actual fun! Marshall and I surprised Braden and his guests with the parts to put together their own marshmallow shooters. Then we all went out to the playground to test them. I think we went through 5 bags of mini marshmallows! The kids, big and small, loved it!
Here is Braden getting his ready for the next shot!


Operation Hospitality update

We are moving right along in what my friend, Dee Dee, calls "Operation Hospitality". The mission to get our home ready for the Biblical command of hospitality. We have been working hard and I wanted to show off a picture:

This is our "new" dining room. The box is a shelf that needs to be returned to IKEA, and there are several things that need to be hung on the wall, but we are very pleased with the switch.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Opa's bag






When Marshall's mom moved in December, our children received their Opa's bag from when he was in the Marine Corps-he served in Vietnam. They had such a ball going through the stuff! Here are some pictures:





Thanks, Opa! The kids really were excited about all the "old stuff" in there!




What's going on at my house

We have been very busy around our house. We are getting our home ready for the practice of hospitality! My sweet friend, Dee Dee, (you may remember her from my traumatic event with the car in June) came over two weeks ago and helped me. We started switching our school room and our dining room. The new dining room will now have more space where we can actually eat in there and add tables if necessary. We also took the table and one chair to a repair shop so that we will be able to use them! They belonged first to Marshall's grandparents and then to his parents so we would like to keep and use them. It was pretty hairy for a while because we had to wait before the china cabinet was in the right place. I had my great-grandmother's china all over my kitchen counters for a week! My poor children were banished from the kitchen!! The former dining room is now the office. We put up shelves around the walls and moved the computer in there. We do school in the kitchen anyway so it is all turning out nicely. We also bought more shelves for the living room when we went to IKEA so that has been turned upside down also! It's been a crazy time! It seems like everything has been a "hurry up and wait" issue. We are having to move heavy pieces of furniture and then piles of stuff. Then more furniture and then more piles. And Marshall is having to put together lots of shelves and is really giving his tools a workout!! But it is coming along and looking very nice. I'm posting a picture of the living room today and when the other rooms are done I'll take some more. So far there has been only one casualty: my wedding china sugar bowl, so if anyone is taking notes for Christmas, it is a Lenox Federal Gold sugar bowl-*sniff*





Here is a picture of the living room shelves:





Don't they look great!! Now I just need my Aunt Mo to come over and "tweak" it all! There is more to be done and it won't happen while I'm blogging!


Sunday, March 15, 2009

Happy Birthday Braden!!


I can't believe my little man is 6 years old today! It seems like yesterday that we were racing to the hospital only to have Braden before the doctor even got there! Life moves too quickly! Braden enjoyed our family tradition of chocolate chip pancakes for dinner!!