Painting!

Thursday the fun began. The kids and I went to Lowes and purchased 10 gallons of paint. This is just enough to get me started on the bedrooms. We started on mine and Andrew's bedroom since it is the biggest. I love painting but loathe doing the ceilings. My neck was so sore from looking up. Lance couldn't wait to help so I let him give it a whirl. 

The roller was just a touch too heavy for him to hold up at high. 

Thursday I got the ceilings done and Friday we started on the walls. The kids loved helping mommy!!! 

Lexie mainly stood in one area with the paint brush. Lance went to town and got allot done. I was super impressed with how good he did. He stuck with and wasn't messy at all!!! He even painted me this elephant!

I am super glad to have the blue walls and blue ceilings covered up!!! 

Our room is light grey and will have dark grey and teal accents. This big mirror was left in the house so I sanded it and painted it to hang in our room. 

I even ordered our comforter set already!!! I got a smokin' deal on Mother's Day that I couldn't pass up!!

Today the kids are going to be playing with some friends while I finish up their rooms. Even though we had 3 painters the job went pretty slow. I'm ready to get in there and get stuff done with no interruptions!! I love letting the kids help though and including them in everything, but I'm ready to move on to the next project. 

Thursday's thoughts

So much is going on. Lots of moments happening that I don't want to forget plus lots to look forward. This post is all over the place.

Use to when I would cook we would have plenty of leftovers for Andrew to take for lunch the next day. Now there is barely any left. It all gets eaten up. Just another sign of how big my kids are now. 

Up until the last week Lexie has always set in the seat in the grocery cart. She is now constantly asking me "please mom, I want to walk by myself mom. Don't hold my hand!" She has done really good staying with me in the store. Lance has been out of the cart for a good while since Lexie took his spot. I was pretty nervous about having two walking with me, but so far it has went pretty smoothe. Lexie does get easily distracted so I have to make sure to keep an eye on her since she likes to stop and check things out. Each time has gotten better. Today we was in and out of the store in no time!

Both my sisters have had birthdays this week!!! Julie's was the 5th and Sarah's is today. I wish I could be with them to celebrate. We will be sure to go for pedicures in July when I visit.

Lance is a big help at the house. Last night we went out to the farm to do some work before painting can start. Andrew textured the drywall

while Lance and I cleaned up the yard a little and Lexie slept in the car.  We made a little fire burning some brush. Lance was pretty cute running around with the spraying keeping the fire under control. 

Andrew got me a couple strawberry plants for Mother's Day. I was super excited to get them planted.

Our friends Joe and Sarah in Southeast Missouri found out they are having a girl due in September. I am soooo excited!!! This will be the first girl born in Joe's family is several generations. I have a feeling she is going to be super spoiled. 

Our friends, Nate & Rebecca in Cordova Alaska just found out they are having twins due in November. This will be #5 and #6 for them!!!! 

My dad has been a fishing fool lately. It seems every day I am getting text with pictures of his catch for that day. Check out this picture with y nephew Hunter.

Andrew said he should be called Fisher instead of Hunter. 

I am counting down the days till my parents arrive! Just 21 new days!! 

Lately When Lance is referring about me me to Andrew he will say "your wife". I have heard him telling Andrew "your wife's parents will come soon" or "your wife took us the store today". It's kind of strange. 

Painting starts on the house THIS WEEKEND!!!! 

Lexie's dance recital in May 31st!!! I can't wait!! Lance's 5th birthday party is also May 31st!!! 

Me heart is so full of joy. It's such an exciting time for our family. God is so good to us!

Little moments

There are a few little Moments that I captured on my phone that I don't want to forget. 

Mommy and Lance snuggle time

Lance's model car he built and painted.

A fun little shadow puppet show that the kids put on for me at the museum. They were so cute as the made up silly stories.

A sweet selfie I found on my phone of Lance. 

Lance helpin me make breakfast. He is very good at flipping pancakes. 

Watching Lexie at dance class. We got to be the audience. 

Lance at his favorite restaurant, Shoguns

Sweet little pig tails.

Lexie tapping the watermelon to see if it's a good one before we buy it.

Lexie lugging around one of the not so little puppies.

Some other sweet moments that happened recently were:

Lance praying and asking God to "bless our farm and help our crops grow big"

Lexie keeps talking about getting married. She wants to marry Lance but he says he can't because he is going to marry his friend, Haley. He says "we are meant for each other"

I was telling The kids about Easter and why we celebrate it. This is what Lance got from it. "Every year on Easter Jesus becomes alive again" his Easter kind of sounds more like Halloween or something. 

The kids found my box of baby books inthe closet and drug them out. I was very protective of the books as I didn't want anything to happen to them. We went through a few of the books and the kids loved it. Lexie kept saying "awe, I'm so cute!!!" They loved our wedding pictures too, but were pretty upset that they weren't invited lol. We will do something very special next year for our 10th wedding anniversary to include the kids. 

Weekend housework

Every weekend for the next month or so will be spent working on the house. Andrew has let his boss know that he will no longer be able to work weekends for the summer. Getting the house done is a huge priority!

This weekend we took the last of the junk to the transfer site and sold a few items at a friend's garage sale. Once all the junk was out of the way we got to work on replacing some moldy spots on the drywall that were caused by junk being left against the wall for a while. Everyone got to help. This house is a learning experience for all of us and we want the kids to be included in everything. 

Every evening we notice that the mosquitoes get horrible outside. We bought some big killer that Andrew spread across the yard before we left on Saturday evening. Also Sunday before heading down to farm I bought some lavender plants to plant beside our front door. This was the perfect project for the kids while daddy did some sanding. Mosquitoes hate lavender! 

Lance got some water from the creak to water the plants. The old wooden buckets were left at the house and I thought they'd make cute planters. 

To look around it is easy to get overwhelmed and think "we still have tons to do" but if you stop and think about it you will be able to tell we have already done so much and came along way! 

Last night we went to Lowes to price out a few things and found they were having big sales on allot of the items that we will need, so we ended up purchasing a washer and dryer set, stove, dishwasher, and new kitchen sink. I am super proud of out purchases and after the cash rebate we will have saved over $1,000 and we didn't even have to open up a Lowe's credit card! 

We are having a blast working on the house. The kids are loving playing at the house and just being outside. Andrew and I love do it yourself projects and we are learning as we go. After we texture the walls I will be able to start painting the bedrooms! I know exactly how I want Andrew and my bedrooms and how I am going to paint Lexie's room. I have no clue on Lance's room. He loves orange and Andrew thinks we should just let him pick out the color he wants no matter how crazy bright orange it is. 

I can't wait to start posting before and after pictures!!

God is good... All the time!! 

Ready or Not

Today was Lance's Kindergarten registration. I am not going to lie, I was dreading this so bad. I went to a small school and loved it. We all had such close bonds and were seriously like siblings. We were also extremely smart elementary kids. I remember going to mathathons and spelling bees as a kid. Our school would take 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The bigger public schools didn't even have a chance.

The school where Lance will be attending has allot of the same feel. Next year's kindergarten class is expected to be around 5 or 6 students!!
we started out by being seated in the office with lots of paperwork to fill out. The secretary walked back with Andrew, Lance, and Lexie to show them the kindergarten classroom.

The kids got to stay and apart of circle time while mommy and daddy finished up paperwork and got a tour of the school. I was so excited to find out that I can come anytime I want to volunteer, eat lunch with Lance or play at recess. The school is small enough that they don't have to have tons of rules.
After our tour we went and sat in the classroom and just observed the class. Lance loved story time with the kindergarteners. Lexie loved exploring the classroom. The classroom has apple computers and each student gets his own ipad to use for the year. Its crazy how well funded the Alaskan schools are. Just because the school is small in size does not mean it is lacking any area. They actually get to do so much more because of the small classroom sizes. They do tons of field trips!!
Next was time for lunch. I loved how the kids helped Lance get ready.

They showed him where to wash his hands and how to line up and get a tray in the lunch line. Seeing my big boy standing in line with his tray and chocolate milk brought tears to my eyes. How did my baby get so big?!

They school does mixed classes, so the 1st graders will be in their with them. The smaller kids learn so much from the older kids.
After a healthy lunch of fruit, whole wheat breaded fish sticks, & steamed broccoli; the kids that were done played with some clay while the others finished up. They then BRUSHED THEIR TEETH ( I thought this was awesome) had a quick Show and tell then was out to recess. Lance said he was going to bring his sister for show and tell because she is fun to play with and he loves her so much (melt my heart).
Lexie loved the school experience as much as Lance. How sweet is this picture of my little princess playing with some older girls recess?!

Kindergarten registration was a huge success. We are all now ready for kindergarten! School will start August 27th at 9 am and go till 1:30pm for kindergarteners. We can choose to pick him up or he can stay till 3:30 and either ride the bus home or I can pick him up. The time from 1:30 to 3:30 is considered as Kinder Enrichment time. They do lots of extra activities and play. It is optional, so I am thinking maybe the first week or so we may just go till 1:30 and as Lance gets comfortable with everything let him stay later as he wants to.
We also learned about a parent lead preschool that meets at a local church in the area. A teacher comes from the school and meets with a group of moms that have preschoolers in the area to teach the kids and moms some of the songs, numbers, letters, creafts, etc... that the existing kindergarteners are learning
I am so excited about everything. We are moving to such a wonderful little rural community!!!

Finally.....Home Owners

Andrew took off early on Friday since he had worked TONS already that week which worked out perfect because the title company called and they had finally received the correct paperwork from the seller. We asked if we could come in that day and sign papers.
We signed papers Friday afternoon. We were over joyed!!! We wanted to immediately run down to our house and start work right away but decided that it would be best to just hang out and start the next morning when we would have all day.
We kept talking about a four-wheelers and how useful it would be to us on the farm and all the fun we would have on it. So we decided to go "look". Well looking turned into wanting and well lets just say as of Saturday evening we are now proud owners of two Honda Foremans.
Saturday after picking out our new rides we went down to the farm and started work. We didn't get to pick out fourwheelers up right away because they needed assembled.

First thing we did to the house was change the locks, then we started cleaning everything out. We soon found out that the porch had several rotten spots from years of the snow left sitting and melting on the porch and it going untreated. I took some before pictures which I will post in a month or so when the inside is complete.
We got allot of stuff cleared out of the way. We live just a couple miles from the transfer sight where you can dump off stuff. This came in so handy!
The kids were big helps!! I really mean that. Lance loved loading up the truck and throwing wooded stuff on the fire. Lexie just kind of ran around playing and occasionally helping, but we didn't have to get onto them or worry about them being in the way. It was great! They both love playing on the bridge at the entrance of our driveway. They love throwing rocks down onto the ice in the creak below.

That evening we enjoyed a nice ride before heading home, taking baths, and getting some much needed rest.

SPRING TIME

Spring came right one time this year in Alaska. Each day we caught ourselves saying "tomorrow it is going to be up in the 40's!" then before we knew it we were hitting high 60's!! I never thought I would be so glad to hear the sound of honking geese overhead. Each day brought more and more birds and less and less snow. Then one day I looked up at the trees and noticed buds!!! God is so good. I never tire of His awesome creation and the changing of the seasons.