Category Archives: Lily

Fall Festival- Kids having fun

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Everyone is trying to find the “treasure” hidden in the corn

Kendall LOVED this slide, I think she went down it 10 times but because of the sun I could not get a picture of her. Lily only like the slide, which means 5 or 8 times down!

Pumpkin Bowling… Kendall threw a strike!

Lily’s turn at pumpkin bowling

Face Painting was our first stop.

Lily chose a butterfly and Kendall got a crown! Zach watched, next we headed to the color hairspray. Lily ended up with purple streaks and Kendall with green hair.

 

Kendall in the Bounce House. Zach and Lily joined her on our second turn.

 

Zach’s favorite thing of the whole time was the “tractor” I even managed to get in this picture!

End of our Fall Festival Fun!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • School mornings have not been the problem around here. But school evenings are a whole different story. Zach has been so bad the last couple of evenings. I want to leave. I am hoping that once we get into a good routine he will settle down if not then I may just cry all evening too!
  • Speaking of school, the traffic at both the elementary and High Schools this year has been awful. To pick up from both school is taking Matt close to 2 hours. Part of the issue is that the Elementary school, is forcing everyone to sit in the car lane and pick up kids from the sidewalk.
  • On a positive school note, Lily has had 2 “gold” behavior days. This is the best she can do!! I hope it continues! Haley has spent time doing homework 2 nights in a row, this is a huge positive as well!
  • The goal for preschool this year is 3 days a week. Kendall is working on learning to write her last name as well as recognizing all the letters. Zach is definitely a lefty and working on recognizing colors and some letters as well.
  • We are continue to try and limit our grocery spending by eating food we have and  only purchasing things we are out of! The plan is to go to Costco on Thursday.
  • I am attempt to get my weight under control again. I have been counting calories today on an app. I did 30 minutes on the Will last night and will do another 30 tonight.

Random Thoughts Tuesday 8/14

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•We got back a $10 rebate from paint today so currently, we are over budget by only $4 now for the Renovation. Matt is going to take some scrap metal to the recycle center on Thursday so that will put us under again until I purchase the matching bed set for Kendall.

•Zach is currently sleeping in his new room, he “tried” giving up pacifiers last night but that did not go well. He currently only has the one in his mouth which is a decrease of 3. I really don’t see how he is going to give these up! But I also do not want to give up any more sleep in this battle.

•Matt is starting to work in his new office. I “think” all the work in the other rooms is finished! We even switched out door knobs on the little girls room after Kendall managed to lock herself in. So now that door does not lock.

•I am not planning a huge grocery trip this week. Instead we hit up Walmart tonight for the couple of items we are out of. I was only able to find one of the 5 deals I was looking for with my coupons. But on the bright side, we found a $1 clearance table with shorts for Zach. I purchased 6 pairs of shorts and 1 T-shirt as well as a skirt each for the girls. Total spent even with groceries $24!!

•As I moved clothes this weekend and yesterday, I discovered/confirmed that only Zach will be in need of clothes for this winter. He does not need a new coat or shoes or pajamas. My goal is to spend less than $75 on clothes for him this winter. Hopefully, I will be able to find a really good sale on jeans and pants as this is the biggest need for him.

•We started a new schedule around the house this week. We have moved every one’s bedtime to 7:30 except for Wednesday nights. Kendall and Lily both will be up later till at least 8:30 because of church. Lily also will have a second late night due to cheerleading. The even bigger change is a schedule during the day, which greatly reduces television watching and includes “school” time daily except for Thursdays. So far both evenings have gone much smoother and things seem not so “hurried”. Matt has work time and hopefully we can find a balance and maintain it!!

Renovation Update 8/13

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Lots of changes have been going on this past weekend. So I wanted to start sharing with you. We have not spent any more money but  mostly likely will end up spending more on a matching bed set for Kendall and a third dresser for Zach as he is sharing a closet and needs some more space.

Kendall’s new bed it fits so well!

Notice the cool strip and both the new dressers in Zach’s room

The finished product

 

Right before bed…………… don’t they look innocent?

 

 

 

Renovation update 8/9-The numbers!

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One of the advantages to staying home on vacation this week, is that we are making amazing progress on the renovations. Haley’s room is 100% complete. See below for all the details!

  1. Haley’s new room- Haley has moved across the hall to the
    largest bedroom with a half bath attached. a) Scrap popcorn
    ceiling- completed, b) repaint ceiling-completed c) Remove wallpaper
    boarder-completed d) repaint walls- e)Replace window- has been order.
    f)Complete floor in closet g) move window treatments    .DONE!!!! Furniture needed: 2 new dresser for clothing. After much debate at IKEA, Haley chose a clothing system that included pull out boxes. She was able to move all her clothing due to the deep boxes. Officially Haley’s room is finished.
  2. Lily and Kendall move into bigger room-a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling
    c) Remove wallpaper boarder d) repair walls and door e) Paint walls f)
     Purchase and hang new window treatments. g) Matt is planning to make a
    new twin bed frame for Lily to use. h) change light fixture for new fan
    already purchased. Furniture needed: New closet divider, bins.      All these items are complete! After discussion, Matt is currently staining a new wooden bed frame for Kendall. My goal/plan for tomorrow is to get all the drawers labeled to make putting away clothing easier. Lily will have her own closet. Kendall and Zach will share the closet in Zach’s room.
  3. Zach gets his own room and closet- a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling c) adapt currently color (yellow) to boys room probably pin-stripping and maybe stickers. Furniture needed:Due to changes in the budget, we decided to purchase 2 small dressers for Zach’s room. Currently, Matt is working to get the wall art complete, and then the ceiling. My best guess on when Zach will be changing to his new room is prior to Labor Day. Not this week but we are making steady progress!
  4. Matt’s office- Matt will need furniture only for this including -desk, chair and shelves. These needs have dramatically changes especially due to our budget and trying to get the most out of it. Matt has decided to make a desk with an old door and unused floor planks. In addition, he was given an awesome chair so it will now be a matter of arranging and using things we have as our budget is gone.!

 Spending Totals for Renovations

Budget information:$1000

Total spent $470 with $530 remaining. 

Total spent $595 with $405 left.

Since the last update, our planned trip to IKEA has been completed. We spent $339 on everything including several candles and all the new furniture. Matt has made 2 small trips to Lowes this week as well to purchase paint and supplies for the bed, total spent $80. For a grand total this week of $419.

We currently are $14 over budget at $1014. I am planning to continue sharing with you updates so that you can see how far we can stretch this last spending spree. I also want to be able to see on average what we spent per room.

Renovation Update

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The latest numbers will follow…. but this is much more fun!

This is the dresser/clother organizer that Haley ended up choosing. Her room is now complete!

 

 

 

 

Lily and Kendall’s room is now almost complete as well! We decided to build and replace Kendall’s bed! Here is a sneak with the final to follow by the weekend.

Renovation Update 7/30

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  1. Haley’s new room- Haley has moved across the hall to the largest bedroom with a half bath attached. a) Scrap popcorn ceiling- completed, b) repaint ceiling-completed c) Remove wallpaper boarder-completed d) repaint walls- e)Replace window- has been order. f)Complete floor in closet g) move window treatments.DONE!!!! Furniture needed: 2 new dresser for clothing.
  2. Lily and Kendall move into bigger room-a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling c) Remove wallpaper boarder d) repair walls and door e) Paint walls f) Purchase and hang new window treatments. g) Matt is planning to make a new twin bed frame for Lily to use. h) change light fixture for new fan already purchased. Furniture needed: New closet divider, bins.
  3. Zach gets his own room and closet- a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling c) adapt currently color (yellow) to boys room probably pin-stripping and maybe stickers. Furniture needed: NONE
  4. Matt’s office- Matt will need furniture only for this including -desk, chair and shelves

 Spending Totals for Renovations
Budget information:$1000
Total spent $470 with $530 remaining. 
Total spent $595 with $405 left,  Hopefully the majority of the rest will be spent on new furniture at IKEA.

No new spending this week. Just some painting going on. I don’t like the pictures because of the faded appearance of the but is really is a pretty color combination!

 

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • My house is really really quiet at 8:17am!!! Why? Because this week our church is having Vacation Bible School. The kids spend from 9-12 for 5 days at church learning, doing crafts and playing games. This year the theme is “Jesus is My Rock”  Haley is the official nursery person and a general helper. Matt is in charge of games. On Monday, they had 116 kids!  From everything I have seen and heard is was awesome. All the kids were singing new songs first thing this morning.
  • This week has also turned out to be one of the busiest of the summer. In addition to VBS, Monday Lily had cheerleading, I went to pick tomatoes. Tuesday Matt has a meeting tonight at church. Wednesday we have to mow our jungle aka yard and pick tomatoes again.
  • My brother is gone with his church on a youth trips so he suggested I come over and claim as many tomatoes as I wanted. Yesterday, I picked 8 gallons. I am so excited about this because we  now have 15 cans of diced tomatoes in our freezer. By the looks of the vines, I probably will pick another 5 gallons on Wednesday, with the plan of a another batch of Salsa. I need to check again on Friday,if I can pick another 3 gallons then those will be used for more diced/stewed tomatoes.
  • We have several answers to prayer this week, first we received out of the blue a check to cover the purchase of VBS t-shirts, and the above tomatoes are another. I have been praying for some extra tomatoes, I have even debated on purchasing some  to freeze. We typically use at least one recipe a week that calls for 1-2 cans of diced tomatoes. My goal this summer was to get a stock pile in the freezer to save this cost.
  • The food co-op ended this week, but I was able to add a batch of salsa and another 4 ears of corn frozen. We will be using some of the corn this week as side dishes as well.
  • I will be updating on my Grocery Store Challenge tomorrow, but to be honest it has been a little bit difficult for me. I currently have a list, of items we are completely out of and my goal is to stay under the budget and purchase all the items. If I were not doing the challenge, I definitely would have already gone and purchased these items because I consider most of them staples. So the challenge is working, but not as easy as it sounds.
  • Nothing new is happening with the renovation simply because we don’t have the time. I am being to wonder if it will be finished before my week of vacation or if it will become the way I spent my vacation?