Elyse is 8!

My baby sister is 8 years old today.  I was reflecting the other day, with the school start up and parents discussing the bittersweet feelings of their kids being back in school all day, of how great a blessing this sweet girl has been in my life.   I could relate to the moms of the older kids on how they'll miss their helpers.  Elyse has been an amazing helper all summer long playing at my house.  She would do dishes, sweep and mop floors, help entertain Charley, help make sandwiches for lunch/snacks.  But even more than that, Elyse litterally is in the top 3 best things that could ever have happened to me (next to marrying Travis and being Charley's mom). 

 In high school, it was my Sophmore year.  Amanda was a Sophmore in College.  Robin in her senior year of high school.  It was about Christmastime that I realized "I will be the only one home with mom for the next two years!"  The thought scared me for a few weeks, then I really started liking the idea.  Then, during Christmas break one morning I woke up to Amanda yelling "mom are you pregnant?! Whose pregnancy test is this?"  My mom answered with "it better not be yours!"   Readjustment had to take place as I realized not only would I not be the only one home now, I would be home with a newborn!!  Elyse was born about 8 months later, Robin and Amanda left for college the week she was born, and I started Jr year.  Because of personal situations my step dad lived at a desperate residence at the time, so a lot of evenings were just me my mom and baby Elyse.  I became her second mom. My mom worked, and her time additionally was split between two households, but Elyse's presence in our life prompted some serious healing from past trials in my heart. 

She continues to amaze me, make me laugh and smile.  Her heart is a big one, she's friends with everyone, quick with a hug and fast to help.  She's always looking for a way to help her brother, mom, and big sisters.  Super loving and kind, and only gets sassy when she gets bored (which can happen easily).  So, here's my shout out to my favorite baby sis!  Happy 8th birthday beautiful girl!

Family Home Evening

I'm pretty proud of us.  This has been on our list of things we should be doing and we're finally doing it.  I went through a small spurt of doing really well with personal gospel study-and I say gospel study because sometimes, in all honesty, ancient prophets sound boring (which is the nice way of saying scripture study sounds boring).  So I was reading from the marriage and family institute manual about successful parents and families and it really drove home the message of family home evening.  Now that I'm in a study slump I'm at least happy to say we're maintaining our FHE practice.  

First week Travis used FHE as a reason to get some books for Charley.  We had fun at Barnes and Noble and brought home pat the bunny touch and feel zoo edition.  My favorite page is the frog with the sticky tounge.

Second week we went on a walk while I told Travis about the importance of FHE I had just learned about.  I always knew it was important, but, never did I understand why as clearly as I do now.  We now have a goal more than just to have it, but to use it as a tool to encourage righteous children, develop family unity, and increase family love.  The article I read was here:  https://www.lds.org/manual/print/eternal-marriage-student-manual/parenthood-creating-a-gospel-centered-home?lang=eng

Our 3rd week we went grocery shopping at Sams Club and had dinner at their concession.  

Our 4th week Travis' parents came over and Travis and his dad chopped wood for winter fuel.  Yay!  We shared the scripture "if ye are prepared ye shall not fear."

Our 5th week was this last Monday, and we added to the routine an opening prayer, song and lesson.  We just used the primary sharing time outline for the lesson because I have to give it this upcoming week.  We talked about how we can in our family improve our sabbath day observance.  Travis was in charge of the activity and he decided we would do yard work.  So he mowed and I weed wacked.  Charley slept most of the evening in his baby carrier.  

Future ideas I was to use for FHE's:

-Clean out the garage 

-Take treats to some of the single members and or the less active families in our ward, and or the families on our visiting teaching/home teaching routes. The idea being that we are going to be a family that thinks of others and shares and expresses love.  I have a long list of people included on this activity.  It will be repeated lots.  Good missionary opportunity as well.

-Walks

-Bird watching

-Aurora watching

-Berry picking

-Family photo nights 

-lake play (because we need daddy to have these kinds of days with us!)

-making treats for holidays

-decorating for holidays

-singing songs together

-playing board games

-playing old classic games (old faceful, the penny and flour game, honey do you love me, ect)

This is just a start of all the fun things we can do for family home evening.  I'm looking forward to adding to the list all the ideas Travis has, and really taking the time to stop what we're doing to spend a quLity evening together be in in work, play, service, or song.  It's gonna be great and we're gonna do great things.  What are your favorite family home evening ideas?

House makeover pictures

I never did share the finished look, probably because its not finished.  I guess I shared on Facebook, but that doesn't count.  I want it documented on the bloggity blog.  Anyways, to finish I still need to:

      -Put a second coat of paint on the doors and trim in the Living room.

      -Put a first and second coat of paint on doors and trim in the hallway, and kitchen/garage door.

      -Touch up a few spots of the brown along edges

      -Touch up the ceiling where brown got messy

      -Put a second coat of paint on the Kitchen Walls.  Remember I did that one with just a quart?  It had such a big impact that I called it "good for now" but the longer I sit around with it, the more I see how badly a second coat is needed. *Sigh*   

I also have been having fun with tie it all together with accessories which I have made all by myself!  GASP!  Really, actually, my mommy helped (Did the majority of it) but the idea of all by myself means I picked the colors, bought raw material and created something rather than going to the store.  Its beautiful, and VERY satisfyng.  Making a home your own is really what how ownership is all about.

Anyways, without further ado:  Here's my crib :)

The Brown is called "Brown Tepee" by Behr.

The Blue is Behrs "Celtic Grey"

The Ugly Old Kitchen Color.  Had greenish yellow undertones.  Very Cardboard-esque

Pillow Covers on my moms couch.....for facebook photo update ;)

The Blue is the main accent color in the Living room, and is closely related to the Celtic Grey in the Kitchen.  The Yellow from the other pillow is the second smaller accent color in the living room.  The Green from said pillow is the kitchens accent color.  Next we need to figure out what to do with the sun room....  next summer.  I've got painting burn out right now.

The left over fabric with green surround made for a great table runner.  My mom coached me through making this, but I did do it myself.

What I have done to make everything coordinate:

1) I bought the pillow cover fabric first.  I knew I wanted to redo my house colors, but I didn't know where to start.  There are so many options.  I had pinboards on pintrest with inspiration, but paint sample after paint sample to try and mimic the feeling of those rooms just didn't sit well (aside from the celtic grey-but, go read that story here)

How did I choose fabric not knowing what I wanted the end result to look like?  I chose the stuff I liked that was part of the 70% off sale.  There were other fabrics I also liked, but they weren't as deeply discounted, and they would have probably produced an entirely different feel.  Still probably would have been good choices, but I let the finances make the decision, and I'm happy with how its gone.

2)The colors in the most colorful fabric (biggest pillow and table runner) have been what I use for inspiration of all the walls and accent colors.  It really ties everything together in a way I never thought I could make things tie together.  Also, I haven't tried to find exact matches.  Just things that blend with it.  Like in the living room, when I decided yes to do a neutral color in there, the perfect match would have been a taupe-but I just thought those paint options were too dark or too grey and thus ugly colors.  I went with Brown Tepee because I liked it, and I decided gosh darn it it was gonna have to work.