Making our house a home

We're in our new house! And now the projects have begun. The house we bought is only 16 years old, so no major renovations are necessary but the couple who lived here before us were elderly so it definitely needed some cosmetic changes to suit our tastes. We are painting EVERYTHIING and there are alot of walls, it seems unending. We have finally completed the living room and entry area but are no where near finished. There are wallpaper borders to be ripped down, cabinets to be refinished, lighting fixtures to change....the list goes on. I'm getting pretty handy with the power drill :) The house is really beautiful and I am so excited to make it perfect for us!

So anyway we are busy busy. School started back for me and the girls, plus college is back in session which makes Jack's job a lot more time consuming as well. There aren't very many spare hours in the day to paint or fix things up so it'll be a long process that's for sure.

One of my favorite parts of the house is our back deck. I love it!

One of the grossest moments ever...

Eww. Eww. Eww....sometimes being a mom is gross. And last night had to be one of the grossest of them all. I've been puked on, snotted on, pooped on, had to catch chewed up food in my hands, all sorts of nasty...but last night, Kara pooped in the tub :( While Kirsten was in there with her. Kirsten NEVER did that and Kara did one other time just a couple weeks ago, but that time it was a simple scoop and dump clean up. This time was NASTY! I'll spare you the details, but oh my...never again. I hope. And to make it worse Kirsten stood beside me giving play by play commentary on everything I was doing. So I had to get rid of the mess and here about it at the same time. yuck.

Most of the time they are pretty stinking cute though, so that makes up for all the nasty we have to deal with. :)


wrestling around in the sleeping bag.

 

these two are crazy!





playtime at the mall

 

she was loving herself in these glasses!



Jack's church softball tournament was today so we spent the day playing outside and watching the games.

Sweet Sisters :)

Home Sweet Home!

Hey there! Long time, no see, huh. It's been a crazy busy month! We celebrated Kirsten 4th birthday, and had lots of visitors and fun! She is getting so grown up! I was thinking about it when I was driving home the other day and realized that we are 1/4th of the way there to her learning how to drive herself! It's a ways off but thinking about it that way makes it seem really soon too. Too soon... I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that!
Anyways...on to other news. We moved out to Kentucky a little over 3 years ago after Jack lost his job at Central. We weren't excited about moving so far away from family, but it was a job, so we went. We have loved living here, but still continued to keep our eyes open for potential jobs that could bring us back closer to family. Jack sent out tons of resumes to places we thought might be a good fit, but nothing happened. So, long story short, after 3 years of questioning where we were supposed to be and what we should be doing, we finally have come to peace with a decision.
We've decided to stay here in Wilmore, indefinitely. No more looking for jobs or trying to get back closer to Missouri. We love SO many things about being here. Jack has a job that he loves, and bonus he makes enough money for me to stay with the girls! We have the BEST church family we could ask for! The town we live in and people we get to be around are wonderful! It's come to really feel like home.

So we're buying a house! Again. And we are very excited to finally officially settle in and call Kentucky home.

But, We'll still be cheering on the Tigers this season! Sorry Cats.

Our 4th of July!

Hey there! We celebrated the 4th of July Wilmore style. Every year we take the girls to see the parade downtown, and then to the little festival the town puts on afterwards.



Waiting for the parade to start!

 



Kara tore into the first sucker that was tossed our way



It was soo hot yesterday we only stayed long enough at the festival for a quick horse ride for Kirsten and then headed off to lunch at Chick-fil-a!  When we got home the girls napped and I made these cookies...so festive right!

Jack bought some sparklers for the girls to try while we waited for the fireworks show to start. Kirsten loved them and did really well with them all. Kara wanted to hold it all by herself too, but she also wanted to point them directly at herself so that didn't happen! Yikes!



Watch out for the creeper :)

 

Watching the fireworks

 

Hope you all had a Happy 4th!

Vacation!!!!

This past weekend Jack's parents came to stay and visit with us for a fews days. Our 7th anniversary was on the 25th so we took a day and went to King's Island, just the two of us! We love amusement parks and water parks! We went to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA in Virginia on our honeymoon and we've celebrated several of our anniversaries by taking trips to different parks. We had never been to King's Island before so we wanted to try it out. It wasn't the best as far as amusement parks go, and we felt lost most of the time trying to find our way around, but we still had a really good time. I'm very thankful to my inlaws for keeping the girls for the day so we could have some time away!

Then on Sunday we all went to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge for a couple of days. We rented a cabin way up in the mountains that was beautiful! The first night we got there just in time to take the girls to Dollywood to see the Gazillion Bubbles show. It wasn't quite what I expected but still very cool and the girls were mezmorized by all the bubbles.

The next day we ate breakfast out at a pancake place before heading back to Dollywood. I spent my childhood going to Silver Dollar City in Branson, so I loved Dollywood! It was so fun to take the girls to do something I always loved so much growing up. They had a blast riding all the kids rides!



Kara "driving" the car with Daddy, you can hardly see her tiny little head :)



Kirsten LOVED driving! She took it very seriously :)



We spent all day riding rides and were all completely wiped by the time we left. It was a very fun day! We spent our last day walking through Gatlinburg's strip, eating lunch at Loco Burro, and then making one last stop at a little carnival area  for the girls to play.



riding the mini train!





Kirsten REALLY wanted to ride the swings at Dollywood, but she wasn't big enough for them yet. So we took her to ride the small ones at The Track

 

 If you can't tell Kara LOVED them too!