September #1

1st day of Preschool!

Swing!

Do not be deceived by this sweet spaghetti covered face. He has been a royal stinker. (some of the time)

Celebrated mom in law Donna's birthday. Frogmore feast at Dave and Gina's. Four generations present.  Thankful for this woman and that she is willing to let us crash their pad while we finish our house!

Front doors, partially installed kitchen, hickory flooring in great room and our ugly old fridge to keep it real.

The brothers working hard to make me happy.

My boy. He lost another tooth!  When does this stop?

August #2

I was able to take the 3 littles to Dutch Wonderland before we moved south.  The older two worked hard and read tons to earn their free tickets to go. I took Van along and he loved it. Always fun to have a day of yeses with the kids. Loved it.

In one of the lines I saw what my brother could look like in the future...almost.

Uncle Dave is a hero when he gives go cart rides. Notice the safety goggles on Joash. Safety is obviously a priority once again on the Spangler farm.

Some of us don't like it when the ride is over. You can tell that I am very sympathetic.

Spangler fam reunion 2012!  Dennis' dad is in the blue on the right with is siblings. Yes, 10 kids.

Van and Joash at their preschool open house.  They are not in the same class and I think it's probably a good thing. TROUBLE!

*For all of you that are thinking...ya ya ya...where are the house photos? Hold your horses, they are coming.

August

Dennis has been super busy. Bless his hard working self.

We had an anniversary! 13 years. Love him. Dinner at home with the kids (well...really at Tina's where we were camping out for a week while she was at the beach with her family.) Spinach & garlic stuffed pork loin, roasted potatoes, asparagus.  Went downtown for dessert at Pour where I had the blackberry sampler (no longer in season) and Den had a salami plate.

At our Lapp home staycation.

He broke into his buddy Sydney's shoe stash.

Our life in boxes.

Took one last walk/ride down Clearview Rd.

Some of us didn't get it at first.

One last ball game in the yard.

A paint mishap from the early years.

What I was greeted with when we first  moved in during a huge snow of January 2005.

What I won't miss. 

 

 

 

 

 

We were grateful for this home. It was a lot of room, a lot of character and very little rent. It allowed me to be close to everything convenient and close to some dear friends who were a support in the first "dark years" here. We brought 2 babies home to this house.  This place was a gift.  But I am over it. Being close to all those places and people...not so over that. But the healing will come. To this house I say "Yes, go.  I would not wish you back again."

Floors

Last week I heard the sounds of progress. It sounds loud and wonderful. We have a ways to go but a good chunk of our hard wood flooring is in!

A huge thanks to these guys! Dan, brother in law Dave and my man Dennis.  Here they are standing in the kitchen with the dining room behind them.

Coming in the front door.

Powder room.

Part of the hallway that is between living area and laundry room. The laundry area will not be hard wood.

Have I mentioned that we are officially homeschoolers? I received my approval letter from the district a couple days ago.  We are just doing a few things here and there to get their juices flowing again, before we dive into it once we move in.  Some math and grammar review and Eden is starting to learn cursive.  Why homeschooling? I'll tell you later.  I need to go to bed.  Also you may or may not notice that this is not our table.  Jesse's lungs don't agree with our current home. So this is the second time that we've been able to stay at someone's place while they are on vacation. This week it's Den's sister at the beach.  Next week another dear friend offered her home while they also go to the beach. I've been calling it our stay-cations.  It is nice that we are close enough to home to run back and get a few things done in the morning and be able to come back and have naps, dinner and bedtime in central AC. AND use their wifi...that we do NOT have a home. Thus my more frequent blog posts. Everybody wins.

Squeezing in Fun

I'm sure the kids are actually having a lot of fun this summer. Days on end at mom mom's and with cousins while I was painting is nothing for them to sneeze out. But if you know me you know I don't like to be left out and I want to see their fun!  SO....

I finally let Van play on the computer. Jesse was playing Barney at 2 1/2. Van is 4.  At this time our home computer set up isn't really ideal to be sharing with the kids.  But while we were house sitting I was able to bring my (new) laptop and let him go on Starfall.  Fun for me to watch him develop the coordination skills and increase his knowledge of the alphabet.

Slip n slide, picnics with juice boxes! Fun for me to see them get excited about the simple things.

Fun for me to see their creativity.  Simply sliding on their bellies was not enough. They invented different ways to risk bone fracture on the plastic death.  There is the dance, the Airplane, the Twist, and my favorite one to gasp at...the Save Beck.  This came from Beck standing in the middle of it when they wanted to go.  They decided to just go for it and grab or "save" him on their way.

ain't got no rythm

That's how I feel. The past few summers we have fallen into a rhythm that suits us, but this summer it just ain't happening.  We've been back and forth working on the house and....well that's basically it. It's a means to a beautiful end, or shall we say new beginning? Yet it's still a bit rough.  So I'm trying to focus on the bright spots and enjoy my kiddos when we are home.

Staining baseboards..

Sorting flooring..

House and pet sitting...

enjoying aunt Gina's big bathtub...

with our favorite people...

doggie photo shoot...

because they love their puppies...

and sophie is getting up there....(she actually shares a birthday w/ Jesse...she's 11 too!)

We've been doing a lot of going back and forth lately. Back and forth from Den's parents place so we can work on our place. Painting duty has officially begun for me. I get to scoot across the field in this sweet ride while the kids stay behind and play with kitties and cousins.

On my first day of painting the older kids helped paint the garage. Yesterday I let Van help for a tiny bit with some dining room touch up and Den is going to great heights to reach the awkward angles. har har har...  But seriously. I UNDERESTIMATED how much time it takes to paint. The cutting in or edging along the ceiling takes 4-EVER!  I was in near tears as I drove down Tuesday morning. But when I arrived my angel sister in law Gina said that she was going to help me! Tears of joy.   Then that evening I got two more phone calls from painting fairies. So Wednesday I had a helper and it looks like I might have one Thursday or Friday. The Lord really did hear my cries.

I was able to show the kids their painted rooms yesterday. Jesse's still needs a bit of touch up, but nothing he would notice.  His color is called English Saddle. aka brown.

It was one of those times when she didn't feel like sharing her opinion. Which means she probably likes it. On the left is her bedroom in Forgotten Promise (what? turquoise.) On the right is the PINK (should have gone lighter, this is the lesson I'm learning when choosing colors) bathroom or Daddy's Little Girl.  I want the color naming job. I couldn't do worse.

Some of us sweat and paint in the humidity and some of us lounge in the pool. Beck prefers to swim in the nude.

When we are home the older two have been camping out on our floor because we have an AC window unit and for some reason Jesse wakes up wheezing in his room.  Reason #243 why we need to finish our house.  I digress. So I'm checking my internet junk before I climb into bed and Eden asks me to turn around. She has created clothes /accessories for all her stuffed animals that she sleeps with. Love that girl.

- for the record the kids requested their colors for their rooms.