A birthday boy and our first Christmas at Upper Hembree

It's 2012 and there's so much promise in a new year. We finish 2011 celebrating Wells and sharing Christmas with friends and family.

Wellington had a HUGE 3rd birthday party. With all our family and only a few friends, our house was fun of people. It was great! we had chili, cake & ice cream, a pinata, and party favors. Kids played in the yard, inside, upstairs and under foot. With 13 under 5 it's never a quiet house when we all get together, but I'm so thankful for lots of cousins for my boys. I hope they all grow up to be great friends.

At 3 years old, Wellington is speaking very very well. His favorite book is the children's encyclopedia. He asks us to tell him stories about the earth, sun, and stars - meaning tell him what the sun is made of, what it does, how it works, etc. And he seems to understand and remember it all! He loves to do puzzles, play with playdough, build train tracks, and watch Thomas youtube videos. For the most part, I can't get him to nap during the afternoons. But he stays in his room for a little quiet time. He got a bike with training wheels for Christmas and is already riding all over the place. Wellington goes to Creative Play at the park center and loves playing with all the other kids. He's so friendly! Everyday I am amazed {sometimes dumbfounded} by the things he says and does. I love my little man!

We got our first Christmas tree ever this year! It was fun having it. I got a "chugging train" for the boys and we had it set up around the base of the tree....it barely survived.

 Since I haven't met many of our neighbors, I made granola for them and walked them over...unfortunately, no one was home when we went. :(

Josh and I were so excited about giving the boys bikes. At least half of that loot was for family, but I definitly got the boys too much...it took us all morning to open gifts on Saturday {we did Christmas on Christmas eve morning}. They would open one gift and play with it for 30 min. then come back for more. :)

 We didn't have any ornaments except for the silver bells my mom recently handed down to me. So the boys and I made some glitter stars. They were a fun activity!

 Fielding, my fixit man, got a ton of tools for Christmas. He "works" with me now..."like Daddy" as he says. :)

 Oh yeah, I pulled my back out right before Christmas....It's was terrible and I'm still recovering.

 Since we did Christmas as a family on Christmas eve, we had lots of time. We did a little grocery shopping for that night and picked up lunch. I think sushi and Champagne would be a great traditional Christmas lunch. ;)

Wells by the Christmas tree. Isn't he handsome??!

 He was wiped out and we were just about to drive to Lawerenceville to hang out with the Tadsen's for Christmas eve...needless to say, he fell asleep on the way.

Christmas morning we went to my parent's house and had a beautiful breakfast then opened gifts. It was very fun and a bit crazy...and...I didn't get any pictures. :( After my parents', we drove to Hannah's house where we did more gifts, had lunch, and played. Here's Fielding and Andrew taking over the food table.

 Oops...this was Wells on his bike at home Christmas morning. A little out of order....

 At Hannah's we also did some DDR type game. It was fabulous. :)

It was a great holiday. We're ready for 2012 and are already trying to improve our lives in many ways. We're excited about this year and plan to make it a great one!

The outside is almost done!

Happy Monday! My last post seems like ages ago. I'm having a hard time keeping track of things....Over the last week, the exterior has been painted {stucco and trim}. The inside walls are completely painted and trim is being painted now. Here's a picture of the exterior in progress.

A before paint from the back....

We took a little break on Saturday {after going to look at granite again} and celebrated my nephew Josiah's first birthday! Man, he loved that cupcake. He's such a cutie and love my boys. He just watched them the whole day like, "man, I can't wait till I can run and do that too!" :) We had a great time celebrating with them.

Wells was just beside himself. :) He even sang happy birthday with us! Fielding had a good time too, but can you see how tired he was...

I just love those naked bellies!

Back to the house...On Saturday, we picked out granite and signed a contract. We picked out a granite called "St. Cecilia." So today, I've been trying to nail down a cream that I like. This picture doesn't really show what it looks like in person. But it will be in this pallet but a little darker than shown. When I left the house earlier, the guys were taking the cabinet doors off to sand and prime. I also met with a carpet guy earlier to get a quote for replacing carpet upstairs. We're undecided about doing that right now.

Here's how the keeping room looks now. It has new paint and trim. The trim hasn't been completely painted yet. The floors are going to be started on Thursday! That means we need to bust it to get the cabinets and trim painting finished before then.

Foyer is looking nice....still have that lovely chandelier. Anyone want to give me a new one??;) We've been looking at fixtures online. We've found plenty we like but not with the right price tag. Maybe we'll find something on craigslist.

I love these little outdoor lights Josh put up.

We got some new hardware for the doors. I love how the oiled bronze looks. Obviously, I need to get new locks too. Its so depressing though going to HD just for door nobs and hinges and having a huge bill. But they look good!

The floors have been patched and are refinishing starts on Thursday! That means we have to finish all the painting of trim and cabinets before then.

I love that we have hydrangeas at the house! I love them and have never had any!

So remember how the guys didn't use a form board on this stoop? Yea. They didn't really level it either. I think it has to come out. And that has to be done before we can put the column back in. But the paint makes it look so much cleaner! These photos make it look really great...the stucco seems more muted in person.

All these boxes FILLED my house. We still have some clothes, a few dishes and our furniture at home...but I think we could easily fit everything we own in this addition.....crazy....

So, for this week I have choose a cabinet color, maybe choose carpet, pack, show house/choose tenant, be a runner for the workers, decide what to do about the back patio. Our options are 1) tear out, 2) resurface or 3) cap with stone. The fear with capping is that it will probably crack at some point and should we invest in doing the stone now? What would you do?

Update on Fielding ~ He's doing great. His pink eye cleared up really quickly and he's not showing any sign of his ear(s) hurting him.

Funny things the kids have done recently:

1. Wells informed us during our walk on Sunday that he is not Wells, he is Wellington.

2. Michaela told Wellington the other day that he was going to be her husband. Wells then looked at me with kind of a paniced look and said, "But...I'm still little??" As if to say, "I'm not ready for that mommy!" :)

3. Fielding is trying to potty on the toilet - to no avail. He just points at himself and then at the water like he's trying to tell it to work.

4. Wellington was playing blocks this afternoon and told me it needed to be painted and that he was building an addition.

5. Just after #4 Wellington said he was "going to work" then would come running to give me a hug saying, "I'm home!"

6. Tonight wells poured out the wire trash can, put it on his head, and said he wanted to play catch. We don't watch TV. Has he seen a baseball game???

There are more too, I just forget them so quickly. They are constantly doing hilarious stuff. I love my kids.

That's all for now! Have a great week!

Helen

Birthday Week

I am so blessed! Last week was so much fun hanging out with friends and family and eating way too much chocolate cake! I guess chocolate will be a big part of my 29th year.... :) I think I gained 5 pounds last week and am now having chocolate withdrawal as I try to detox from all the sugar. Ha! I started the week off by selling some items we no longer use {I love purging!} on craigslist. Wells ran into the door and got a nasty bump as you can see. But he's fine.

On my actual birthday, Josh came home from work and let me go use my Christmas present ~ an hour massage and an hour facial!! It was so relaxing. I have a wonderful husband. That night we ate cake, and Wells blew out candles for me. :)

Later in the week some of my girl friends had a play date/birthday lunch for me! So sweet!! It was great letting the kids play, catching up and not having to make lunch. :) My boys love play dates. They got to hang out with Michaela, Alexis, William, Mary Frances, and Xander.

They're getting so big!

Here's the kid table. Karen is holding Katy's Mary Frances and feeding her William as Wells and Michaela look on.

Here are the lovely ladies that blessed me so much that day. I'm super thankful for all of them!

{Lft-Rt: Katy, Karen, Lindsay, & Vanessa (host)}

For the rest of the week, we ate cake - with candles on it of course and worked on stuff around the house. I have a feeling that 29 is going to be a great year. I have so much to be thankful for. A wonderful husband, great kids, lots of family, more friends than I've ever had, and a God that wants good things for me.

Party, party, party!

Happy New Year everyone! This is definitly a catch up post, annnddd...the pictures loaded backwards. So, sorry....I'm too worn out to delete them all and repost at the moment.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you did too. We had lots of family time. We're lucky that almost all of our family lives in town. The week of Christmas we found that the boys had ear infections, but we were all healthy enough by Christmas to enjoy being out of the house. Every year I feel so blessed and humbled by how much people give me. Again, our families have been so generous to us. I hope everyone knows how thankful I am for their generosity and love. We are blessed in so many ways.

We finally had a make-shift party for Wellington. My mom bought him a trampoline for his birthday and wanted to be there when we set it up. So they came for dinner and helped {really I sort of helped and my dad and little brother assembled it} set up the trampoline. Wellington woke up from his nap that afternoon in no mood to please anyone and didn't even try to jump. Fielding, on the other hand, loved it and still is so excited to jump with Wells...who now loves it. It's amazing that my kids can already go outside and play without me! Of course, I bring Fielding out there and zip up the netting and check on them every minute, but still...they are getting so big. Josh crawled in with them today and they thought that was great!

We have the best friends! Below is a picture from our annual "Holiday Dinner". These people are so dear to us. All the guys played highschool ball together and have known each other since they were around 12 years old or younger. We've had our own dinner together since we've all been married. This was our fifth year. We always have the greatest time telling stories, laughing, teasing, comisserating...they are like family. We are so thankful for the Hoffers, Henrys, and Cahills! {Please keep the Cahills in your prayers. They had a small house fire that evening which created a lot of damage. Thankfully, no one was hurt.}

Here are some pictures of Wellington's party....sorry they are backwards!

Wellington loves having people sing happy birthday to him and blowing out candles. The next day we finished off the cake and he insisted that we do candles again and again and again...after each bite. :)

We had white Christmas! Can you believe it?!? We left our house early Christmas morning and headed to my parents' house {Mia & Boss's}. We opened gifts there then headed to the Brookers for breakfast and more gifts for the kids. While there, it started snowing....and snowing...and snowing! It was beautiful! Here are the few pictures I remembered to take during all the paper throwing, candy eating, toy playing, and gift giving. {these are in order :)}

Fielding loved "swinging" with my brother Dane.

Trains. They've already provided hours of entertainment. I love them!

I set this up....thank you very much. :)

Christmas really takes it out of you.

Our humble abode on Christmas night.

*sigh* The holidays came and went so fast. It's been good..... If you're still reading, I'm impressed. Now for a short update on our house hunt. We put a second offer on the house going to auction but never heard back. I am/was very excited about it, but we are reevaluating what our next move should be. We've placed an offer on a small rental property in the area. I know this is a wiser investment in my head...it's short term lost {not getting to move} long term gain {having another rental/other source of income/valuable property, etc.}, but I am still coming to terms with it. Honestly, I've been convicted of how selfish/greedy I have been about this whole situation. Since thinking about getting that house for us, I've started nagging Josh and wanting it and trying to figure out what we can do to get it...maybe it's not time, maybe something bad would happen there, who knows. I do know that I have so much already. I have a very comfortable life and home and it's unfair of me to demand something more ~ especially when there are others in my life whole are struggling with real issues....not they just aren't getting something more. So, I'm trying not to say another word about this house. If it happens some how, that would be awesome. But as of this moment, and you are my witness, I'm giving the whole desire for a new house up to God. If our current house is where I need to be, then okay. Sorry ~ I said it would be short didn't I?....okay. The End.