4 Away

Happy Friday everyone!

Guess what!

I am only 4 followers away from reaching 100!

And to celebrate I am going to be having a giveaway!

Soon!

Help me reach 100 followers and I will give away a $5 Amazon.com giftcard!

So spread the word and help me reach 100 followers!

Play Park

 Close to the town we are going to be living in (soon...very soon) is a bigger town where we will be going to do our shopping and playing. Chloe Jo and I came to Oklahoma to stay with my sister and her kids while her husband was out of town. While I was there we took the kids to an amazing play park in big town.

 This park is about phenomenal for a city park. I even had a ton of fun!

The merry-go-round was so heavy I had trouble pushing it, but Chloe Jo is a hoss and was running with it giving Brianna a ride.

Brenson hung out with Momma most of the morning on the bench. It was very sunny out so he had to wear his hat so his fair skin wouldn't burn (plus he looks so cute in it!).

We had so much fun just walking and running through the play gyms. We didn't even do many of the activities because most were for older kids but it was still fun.

Chloe Jo was being especially brave that day and she went down this very tall slide several times by herself. I was surprised she even wanted to because usually she is very timid about things like that. She didn't go down the tallest swirl slide, though. She got up to the top and decided it was too high.

Brianna, who is completely fearless, had a great time making her mommy nervous. Chelley was so afraid Brianna would jump off of one of the higher areas.

After we were done playing at the park we stopped by Atwoods to see the baby chicks. Sometimes this store has other animals (like horses!) inside, but that day they just had baby chicks. And, um, ugh. Brianna does have her mouth on the lip of the metal. Gross!

The baby chicks were so tiny and sweet. I had to keep telling myself that sweet, tiny, soft baby chicks turn into hens. Yuck.

We had a fantastic day playing at the park and going to see the baby chicks! The best part was the great naps the kiddos took after we got home! HA!

House Details

So yesterday was supposed to be our closing day. That didn't happen, but, honestly, we were not too torn up about it.

We have had a few bumps with the appraisal for the home. The original asking price for the house was 127,500. After negotiating a few times back and forth, we agreed upon 123,000. The first appraisal came back at 111,000 which is not good at all. At 111,000 we would not have been approved for our loan and we would have lost the house. Since it was so low, the homeowners paid for a second appraisal and that one came back at 112,500. We were pretty sad about the second appraisal because we thought we had lost the house. I'm sure the homeowners were a thousand times more devastated than we were. Because the two appraisals came back about the same, we can not finance more than the 112,500 for the house and that is bad for both sides. So we waited to hear from our realtor about the next steps. Then the sellers decided to come down to the 112,500. Now the paperwork is being processed and we should be closing sometime next week. On one hand I am so excited about buying our first home, but I am also sad for the sellers because they are not getting the price we had originally agreed upon and that is going to be hard for them. I know that is just a risk you take when buying and selling homes, but it is still stinky for them.

I am happy that we are getting such a phenomenal deal on the house and that everything has worked out in such a good way for us. So, if all the paperwork goes right then we will be moving in to our first house next weekend!

Mother's Day 2012

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

I received my presents on Thursday because I spent Mother's Day at my parents and Russ had to preach Sunday in the town we are moving to. I will do a separate post all about that!

Chloe Jo gave me two fun vases for my craft room and a coffee mug and Russ gave me the 3rd season of NCIS. Love me some Gibbs and Abby!

Sunday was also fantastic. My sister and bro-in-law were also at my parents so we all were able to go to church services together. That is always a special treat since my Dad still preaches some and since Russ preaches we don't get to do that very often.

Love this picture of me and Chloe Jo!

I am so thankful to have a wonderful Mom who is a great example and support in my life.

This is a great picture with my mom and sister. We always love getting together!

And one of the littles because they are just too cute! Love these little girls!

I'm going to do a post all about our house tomorrow so if you want to know some details, stay tuned!

Oh How Pinteresting!

Today I am linking up with The Vintage Apple for Oh How Pinteresting!

Last Sunday night we had a meeting after worship services to discuss this years VBS. We all received our teaching materials and Chelley and I immediately started brainstorming ideas for decorations, games and crafts. Our theme this year is Hunting for Treasure: Finding Gems in the Book of Proverbs.

Here are a few fun things I pinned to help us prepare!

This first picture is from Oriental Trading Company (I didn't actually pin it so there isn't a link). We are going to try to build our own boat and pier for the front of the auditorium and make the anchor and ships wheel to flank the entrance.

This bag is something I am planning on doing for a craft one night. I haven't decided what we are going to fill it with, yet, but it will definitely coordinate with the Bible lesson.

I am hoping to copy this classroom door. I think it is so fun!

Source: room-mom101.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

My sister and I think this will be fun for the foyer. We are going to tea-dye muslin and glue it to a foam board. We are also going to tea-dye a large piece of muslin and make a treasure map for the hall.

Source: hwtm.com via Lisa on Pinterest

We think we can use this idea for a game. We will write a number on each "treasure" and it will coordinate with a question about the lesson.

Source: pinterestoffer.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Love this message in a bottle idea! We will write a Bible verse on it.

Source: parisbourke.com via Lisa on Pinterest

The last night we are really wanting to coordinate a scavenger hunt for the children. This is just an idea of how to make clues for the classes.

Source: manditremayne.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

We are really looking forward to doing our VBS this year. I love teaching class and I think the crafts and games we have come up with so far are going to be great. And, of course, Proverbs is always a great book to study!

Link up {here} and show us what you are pinning!

Recent sewing projects

 Last week was a big week for me as far as sewing went. Since I bought that super cute clearance fabric I had all kinds of ideas running through my head about what to do with it!

I decided to make a couple of summer outfits for Chloe Jo out of it and I am so thrilled with the results. I am thinking more and more that I want to reopen my Etsy shop after we get moved and life settles down.

This is the first outfit I made. I used a pattern for the shirt and pants, but added the flower to the shirt and added the ruffle to the pants. Don't the additions just add so much to the outfit?

I came up with the next outfit by myself. I bought the t-shirt from the local hobby shop and added the ruffle and the buttons. I used a pattern to make the shorts. Shorts and pants are so easy to make so the real time consumer in this outfit was getting that ruffle right.

And lastly, you may remember this shirt that I made for Chloe Jo to wear for her birthday party. It is Strawberry Shortcake inspired and oh-so-cute. Well I didn't think Chloe Jo would be comfortable wearing the matching tutu all of the time so I made a pair of matching shorts to go with it.

I have to say that when I put a pair of red Mary Jane's with it, this outfit was adorable! It may even be my favorite out of the three I made last week!

Now I need to start thinking about curtains for my craft room! There's always something on my list!

Down to the end

Last week was so hard, but it is finally over. I am emotional at funerals in general and it was a million times harder at a funeral for a baby. I hope the healing process goes as smooth as it can for my friends.

We are getting down to the last week before closing (or so we hope) and I've been getting ready to get moved in. I have bought several things to help make our house a home and am ready to get everything in the house and set up like we want it.

I went ahead and bought Chloe Jo a new comforter for her bed. She also is going to have a side table for her bed so I bought her a lamp for it. I still need to get her a bedskirt and we are going to paint her room before we load it up with her things.

Last week I went shopping with my Mom and bought all the rugs we will need, a new table cloth, dish towels and dish rags for the kitchen and new bathroom towels, washcloths and a curtain.

I liked the curtain that the current owners had in the bathroom so much that I went and bought one of my own! HA!

We are so ready to get into our own place (as I'm sure my parents and sister are ready to have their homes back to themselves)!

We still haven't heard back about the second appraisal so we are waiting with fingers crossed that it comes back correctly this time. I am really hoping that closing doesn't get shoved off because of the issues we have had with the appraisals. All we can do is wait and see!

I hope everyone has a good week!

Hard

I have several things to post about, but I just haven't felt like it. The last couple of days have been really hard. One of the couples from our new church family was expecting a baby girl within the next couple weeks. I found out yesterday morning that the precious baby girl went to be with Jesus. She was 38 weeks gestation. We have known the couple for several years and they are very close with my sister and her husband. We are all just devastated and trying to cope with what has happened.

Up, up and away!

The weather was gorgeous yesterday! It was bright, sunny and there was just enough wind to be able to go try out Chloe Jo's new kite!

She was so excited to fly her kite! When I asked her if she even knew what a kite was she said "of course. Boots has a kite." I should have remembered that. :)

We picked out a ladybug kite and it was so fun to watch!

I let Chloe Jo fly the kite just long enough for me to get a picture. I thought she was going to fly away with it! Tiny little thing!

She is begging to go out and fly her kite again today, but I don't think it is quite windy enough. We will definitely have to go again soon, though!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It's midweek and that means it is, once again, time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

If you would like to play along, link up {here}!

I'm loving that we only have 3 more weeks until closing on our house (if everything works out like we want). I can't wait to move in and for things to get back to normal.

I'm loving that Wal-Mart had a great sale on fabric the other day. I bought 8 yards for a little over $12.00. Those of you who buy fabric, you know what a great deal that is!

I'm loving the great new nail polishes I bought yesterday. I had been wanting some new colors so I hit the buy 2 get one free sale at Sally Beauty Supply.

I'm loving my sweet Chloe Jo. She has been so irritatingly clingy lately, but I still love her dearly!

I'm loving beautiful, park-going weather! We were able to make our way to the park last night and played for a long while.

I'm loving the precious pictures I have been getting of sweet CJ lately. She will pose for me most of the time now.

I'm loving NCIS. I know I'm waaaaaaaay late getting on this bandwagon, but I started watching online from the 1st season several months ago and have been loving it.

What are you loving on this wonderful Wednesday?

This and That

*Since being at my Mom and Dad's house, I have been forgetting to leave my camera out so I can take pictures so this is going to be a no-pictures post. I know. That's soooooo boring!

*I took Chloe Jo to the library for story time this morning. I'm so happy to be somewhere where story time is actually organized. I'm excited that there is a story time close to the town we are moving to.

*I'm so ready to get moved and put all this drifting behind us. We are so thankful for the family and friends who have helped us out this last year. We have really had to lean on others to get through some of the difficult times. I am anxious to start paying it forward.

*Speaking of moving, our house appraisal was done last week and it came back way too low. The homeowners offered to pay for another appraisal. Since no one agreed with the original appraisal (no one meaning us, the homeowners, the realtor or our loan officer) we are really hoping it was just a bad job and everything will turn out all right. We should hear something back soon.

*Chloe Jo has been having a difficult time adjusting to all the craziness that is our life right now. She is being ultra-attached to me lately...much more than usual. She keeps asking about sleeping in her bed and so I know she is missing her things.

*I think we are going to try to go to the park this evening. The weather today has been gorgeous. We didn't even have to wear jackets to the library this morning.

I think that is all for now. I'm going to go scour the internet for craft ideas.

Sum, Sum, Summertime

I would really love it if the weather would warm up a little more. I wasn't really thinking when I packed for our stay with Mom and Dad. I packed for spring/summer weather and that is not what we are having!

I'm not sure if I like the new blogger changes. It's going to take some getting used to.

I never posted the second finished dress I made for Chloe Jo a couple of weeks ago.

I love the way it turned out! It ended up being too short (how does that happen!? The first pattern was too long!) so I put some leggings under it and it is so cute with them! I'm kind of glad it turned out that way! 

I have been slacking so bad about blogging lately! I will try to do better!

I hope you all are having a fabulous week!

XOXO