I sure can pick'em

Saturday afternoon Andrew and I were heading back home after a day of hard work at the new house. He was getting excited because I had started painting his room so he started to tell me all the things he wanted for his new room. His little mind was everywhere and was really dreaming of all sorts of creative things for his race car room. In his little mind there was nothing we couldn't do. We settled in on a couple of ideas and I reminded him that our new home is a blessing and we are blessed to have Daddy who can build such wonderful things for our family. Andrew agreed by saying, "yeah, I'm glad you picked him to marry." Me too, Andrew...Me too! I'm glad he picked me too ;-)

Join Mary for more Tiny Tot Tuesday fun.

A little eye candy.

This is my favorite development from all of our weekend toils. We did something a little different in the dining room. Instead of a chandelier we went with these amber colored lanterns grouped together. We may need to tweak their arrangement after we move in to achieve this look when you view the dining room from the front door. Mark is a little frustrated when I say that since he hung each light twice already trying to please his little woman. I tried to take more pics but my camera died. I'll take more next week once the kitchen counter tops are in. Things are really coming together. Here is one more picture I was able to get today.
This gives you an idea of how all the woodwork looks now that it is done. Mark has a few trim out pieces to finish around the window seats. I just love how warm it all looks! We will have some beautiful marble tile surrounding this fireplace in a couple of weeks. If you really want a shocker, go back and look at this post with the slide show of before pics of the house. You will truly see we have a SICKNESS for old houses. Mark and I both agree that this restoration and addition has cured us! We won't be doing this again...for a few years ;-)

Unconventional Thanksgiving

We are having an unconventional Thanksgiving to remember. It is just the four of us and we are keeping it simple. I ordered a Greenberg Turkey and bought some pies at fundraisers. The only cooking I will do is my mother's GREAT cornbread stuffing recipe. We will be painting at the new house all weekend long so we will stop long enough to eat our feast. We might even eat our dessert picnic style in the new dining room floor. I hope the boys remember this Thanksgiving we spent painting their new bedrooms fondly. This has been a challenging year for all of us. All of the challenges are bringing us to even more we have to be thankful for every day...not just today. God bless you all and may your belly be full of turkey & pie!

Patti is in the mood for Christmas and has kicked off the season on her blog with a fun Christmas cookbook giveaway. What better way is there to start the season than good home cooking! Go on over to Patti's blog and sign up. While you are there you can meet her adorable family and take a peak at her recipe blog. I have gotten many recipes from her and they are always great. Here's to the start of a Merry Christmas season!

DEEP THOUGHTS FOR THANKSGIVING...

"If you're at a Thanksgiving dinner, but you don't like the stuffing or the cranberry sauce or anything else, just pretend like you're eating it, but instead, put it all in your lap and form it into a big mushy ball. Then, later, when you're out back having cigars with the boys, let out a big fake cough and throw the ball to the ground. Then say, 'Boy, these are good cigars!'"
- Jack Handy
Deep Thoughts

This just made me giggle. I know, I have issues ;-)

THE BIG REVEAL

I AM SO LATE ON THIS UPDATE BECAUSE OUR LIFE HAS BEEN PRETTY BUSY AS A RESULT OF THIS BIG REVEAL...

MASON'S CAST IS OFF!

HE IS SO HAPPY TO BE ABLE TO GET THAT THING OFF. IT WAS REALLY BEGINNING TO CRAMP HIS STYLE. HE DID HAVE TO WEAR A BRACE FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS JUST AFTER IT WAS REMOVED BUT COULD TAKE IT OFF FOR THERAPY. NOW WE ARE JUST TAPING HIS FINGER TO HIS MIDDLE FINGER FOR SUPPORT. HE HAS BEEN SEEING A HAND THERAPIST IN DALLAS TWICE A WEEK AND IS MAKING GREAT PROGRESS. I AM SO PROUD OF HOW HARD HE IS WORKING. IT ISN'T EASY WHEN IT HURTS BUT HE PRESSES ON. HIS THERAPIST, ANN AT CHILDREN'S IS WONDERFUL! SHE MAKES IT FUN EVEN WHEN IT IS HARD. MASON HAS REALLY CONNECTED WITH HER AND DOESN'T WANT TO LET HER DOWN SO THAT IS GREAT. YESTERDAY HE FINALLY WAS ABLE TO BEND THAT FINGER FAR ENOUGH TO TOUCH THE BOTTOM OF HIS PALM. THAT IS A HUGE MILESTONE FOR HIM AND REALLY ENCOURAGED HIM TO WORK EVEN HARDER TO MAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL. I CAN SEE GREAT CHARACTER THE LORD IS MOLDING IN MASON THROUGH THIS EXPERIENCE. I CAN PRAISE HIM IN THIS STORM!

THE "BUZZ SAW" COMES OUT AND OFF IT GOES!
MASON THOUGHT IT WAS SO WEIRD THAT HIS HAND WAS WRINKLY. HE SAID, "IT LOOKS LIKE AN OLD LADY'S HAND". SO FUNNY. WE COVERED THE FINGER SINCE WE THOUGHT NO ONE WOULD WANT TO SEE THE PINS STICKING OUT. MASON WASN'T TOO CRAZY ABOUT THAT SIGHT.

WE SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER BIG REVEAL NEXT WEEK. WE ARE GETTING SO MUCH CLOSER ON THE HOUSE. CABINETS THAT ARE STAINED WILL BE FINISHED, COUNTER TOPS, TILE AND FLOORS...THAT WILL MAKE THINGS LOOK MORE LIKE A HOME.

I CAN'T WAIT!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

I was reading a post on Jodee's blog about her fun visits to her hubby's parents home that reminded me of a story I do not want to forget, so since this is our family journal, here it is...

Mark's grandparents are just some of the greatest people you will ever meet. They live in a tiny town in Kansas and going there to visit truly makes you take a break from things because life is much slower there. Grandpa is now 94 and Granny is 89 but that doesn't slow them down much. When we lived in Kansas, we spent many weekends at "Granny and Grandpa's" house. They were there for us in so many different ways. I grew to love them so much in such a short time. Once we moved to Texas and the boys came along it was harder to make it up to Kansas so often but when we did it was so fun. Granny's TV was OLD SCHOOL so there is no way you are hooking up video games on that baby. The TV rarely made it on unless KU was playing basketball. So what do you do with all of your time? You spend it playing games, reading, granny attempting to teach you to knit, granny actually teaching you how to cook, meandering through antique stores while the men were at the hardware store, looking at old photographs of hubby as a child in his best 70's attire...good times.
On one particular visit Mason was 5 and Andrew had just turned 1. Andrew had spent the day attempting to get into EVERYTHING at Granny's and Mason had a blast checking out Grandpa's workshop and doing man stuff. We put Andrew to bed and decided to play some card games and teach Mason to play Dirty Aces. It is a pretty simple game where everyone gets one card. You can decide to keep it or trade with the player your right. Once you have traded, you are stuck with the card. The highest card wins but Aces are considered the lowest card. Mason was sitting to the left of grandpa and kept trading with him only to get a dirty ace or something else worse than what he originally had. Mason was starting to get tired of this and started pouting and tearing up. Grandpa would just giggle every time. Granny didn't like her little baby getting upset so she kept telling grandpa, "Marvin, leave him alone, Marvin, don't let him trade with you if your card is bad" and the such. Mason finally looked up and burst into tears and said, "I don't like this game and I wish everyone would quit calling me Marvin!" We all roared with laughter. Poor little guy didn't realize that Grandpa's name was Marvin and thought we were calling him names. We still make him giggle when he is upset by saying, "I wish everyone would quit calling me Marvin". It gets him to smile every time.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet...

They did get plenty of good things to eat.

Mason was a cute little 50's James Dean-ish little guy...cute I must say.

Andrew wanted to be a big football player so he wore his brother's football uniform to look the part. He even carried the helmet to collect his candy and had to hold the football AT. ALL. TIMES to complete his look.

I love these little guys!