Christmas Pajamas -- A Look Back

2009


2010


2011


2012


2013

Christmas Pajamas

We had fun taking our annual Christmas pajama pictures at our new house this year. We actually took these the night that we moved in, which was exactly one week before Christmas!  One of our favorite features of the new house is our fireplace on our back porch.  It was a last-minute addition, we added it during framing, and I'm SO glad we did.  We have enjoyed it so much.  As you can imagine, Graem was itching to build a fire in it, and since we didn't have a tree up we thought it would be a good backdrop for the boys in their Christmas pajamas.





This is Duncan's "Say Cheese" face :-)

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to anyone who is still out there!  :-)  It's funny how taking a break from something can really make you miss it.  The thing I have missed most about my blog is looking back through my old posts and pictures.  For 2014 I have decided to give it another go.  I've dusted off my "real" camera and am planning to start toting it around with me again.

I started with Mason & Roper's basketball game on Saturday, although the pictures aren't great because I grabbed the wrong lens!  Clearly I'm off to a great start with my return to blogging.  :-)

Team huddle...


Roper with the ball...


#1 fan chowing down on concession stand french fries...


These impressive bench-warming skills came straight from me :-)




I'll be back soon!

Last Day of Preschool

Today was Mason's very last day of preschool.  Ever. 



In a few short months he will be a kindergartener! 

I can so clearly remember his first day of preschool.  Wow, time flies!!



Ro finished up 3K today.  Next year he will have Mason's same sweet teachers that have done such a fabulous job of getting him ready for "real school." 



Now...bring on summertime!  :)

Building our Home

A very loose timeline...

• We have known for years that we eventually wanted to live on the lake.  We started casually looking at lake properties about 5 years ago.  We knew it would take time to find the right one, and we were willing to be patient. 

• We had several criteria that we weren't willing to budge on: 
• We had to have a dock.
• You had to be able to jump in the water off the dock.
• The house had to have 4 bedrooms and a garage.

• I wish I had kept count of all the properties we looked at.  Countless!  Although we focused our search on "our" side of the lake, we came very close to making an offer on a house on the "other" side (I'm so glad we didn't!).

• We made lots of offers.  I think we made offers on seven different properties total.  The most memorable was in January 2012.  This sweet little elderly lady wanted to sell her vacant lot.  It wasn't listed -- we just heard about it by word-of-mouth.  We checked it out, got the dock approval, plat, etc, and came up with what we thought it was worth.  We made a reasonable-low offer.  Get this -- she LAUGHED at our offer.  Wow! I'm SO glad we didn't get her lot!  What we ended up with is SO MUCH better!  Who's laughing now?  :-)

•  Last summer we really got serious about looking.  I knew Mason would be starting kindergarten in 2013 and I wanted to at least have an idea of what we would be doing before he started school.  Also, it seemed that values were not going any lower...so the time seemed right.

• I'll never forget the first time I had Graem drive through the neighborhood that I had fallen in love with (that we eventually bought in)...and he made the comment, "this is out of our league."  Then I had him drive out to look at the lake front lots by boat.  The lots were small, but they had GREAT water.  Deep, with sand instead of mud, and views of the dam.  And the more we looked, we realized that most of the lots on the lake are long and narrow.  That's part of living on the lake!

• We crunched some numbers and realized that we could buy a lot and build the house we wanted for about the same as buying a house that needed a lot of work.  I hated the thought of a fixer upper.  Truth is, we are NOT handy.  We are probably the only people in America that don't even watch HGTV!  And who wants to spend their weekends working on house projects when you live on the lake?

• So, in October we bought a lot.  In the neighborhood that Graem thought was too fancy.  We got a great price on a foreclosure -- as in, we paid almost half what the original buyers paid!  It's zoned for great schools, it's in a great location, and the neighborhood even has a pool & tennis courts!

This was back in the fall...shortly after we closed on our lot.

• Also in October we put our house on the market.  Our neighborhood was selling, but not quickly.  We listed our house high, thinking it would take 6-8 months to sell, and we could build in the meantime.  If we got close to finishing the new house, we could drop the price.  Our house went on the market the last week of October and it was under contract by the end of November.  Thankfully the buyers (who happen to be friends of ours -- we had no idea they were even looking at our house) didn't want to close until the end of January. 

• So...in January we moved to the tee-tiny patio home that I bought back when I was single and 23 years old.  I never would have imagined moving back there with my family of 5 plus 2 dogs!!  It has been quite an adjustment.  I'm thankful that we don't have to rent...and that we have a roof over our heads, blah blah blah but yes it is hard.  The thing is that we LOVED our house and we really miss it terribly!  We have 3 boys sharing a room that is about the size of the closet in our old house.  And we have NO backyard.  Being in limbo is not fun.  We aren't settled, and there just isn't room for all of our stuff, even though we pared down to the essentials.  The silver lining is that we are saving lots of money by living there and we are able to do some things in the new house that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do.  So we are making it work.  But I'll be the first to admit that it's not always with a good attitude.  :-)

• Back to the timeline.  After closing on the lot we were on the hunt for houseplans.  I had a good idea of what I wanted to house to look like...I have a favorite house on the lake and I knew I wanted a similar style.  It is not a huge flashy house...but it is very Southern, with big covered porches.  And metal roofs.  And a loggia.  To me it just looks like a lake house!  And as it turns out the architect of that house is a former elder of our church and his niece is one of our favorite babysitters.  Due to the shape and slope of our lot, we had a hard time finding plans that would work {sigh}, so we had no choice but to use the architect of my favorite house on the lake.  :-)  Some things are just meant to be.

• The very first time we met with our architect was also the day that Duncan had his MRI.  Those were some dark days, definitely the hardest I've been through as a parent.  Yet Graem and I had something fun and interesting to focus our attention on:  our house.  We were plenty worried about Duncan, and designing our new home was a welcome distraction.  I'm so thankful that God's timing was just right.  It was all orchestrated perfectly.

• The plans were finalized at the beginning of January, then we had to work out the budget.  It has been a long process!  We had the dock built in March (first things first).  Last week the lot was cleared and they will pour the foundation next week!!  Now things will start clipping along!  I can't wait to start seeing some progress!

Here are some pictures from the clearing and grading...





Standing in our basement!

Easter 2013

We put flowers on the cross at church on Sunday morning.  I love this tradition!





And tried to get family pictures...except that we were running late and no one was left in the breezeway to snap a picture of all of us so Graem and I had to trade off!



If you know my husband, you know he has ZERO patience for being late...one of the main sources of discord in our marriage since I'm forever late...therefore he snapped a picture as quickly as possible, resulting in this:



After church on Sunday we headed over to Graem's Aunt Linda's house for Easter lunch.  All of the ladies in Graem's family are amazing cooks, so we were well-fed to say the least!  Maybe it is because I have been dieting and took a break from my diet for Easter...but I think the food was especially good this year!  The good food must have put me in the mood for picture-taking because I took lots of pictures...for whatever reason I haven't been using my "real" camera much in recent months (possibly because I have become so fond of snapping pictures with my iPhone).  Looking back through these pictures I'm reminded that the iPhone and Nikon are NOT created equally.  :-) 

Again...impossible to get a good picture of all of us!!





Uncle John always has cool "toys" to climb on!



We were glad that my mom could come down to join us, even though my Dad had to tend to the chickens and couldn't get away from the farm!

















What happens when you get chocolate all over your Easter dress?  You hunt eggs in your bloomers!  :-)





Uncle Steve...the "real" Easter bunny!


We had a pre-Easter family get-together with the Ropers on Saturday and sadly I only have a couple of pictures!  Again, great food, diet detour.  :-) 









In case you haven't noticed...there is a common theme of Roper getting his picture made with pretty girls!  The child loves pretty girls!! 

I hope you all had a very happy Easter!  He is Risen!!

A Happy Day with a Tinge of Sadness

Duncan's first birthday was the first time I've felt any sadness on the birthday of one of my children.  Usually I think about how I can't remember what life was like before they were born, and how the day they were born seems SO long ago.

With Duncan I feel different.  The past year has flown by with high highs and low lows. 

I feel sad because Duncan is my last baby and his "baby days" are numbered. He is practically weaned at this point and he doesn't need me in the same way that he has for the past year. 

He started crawling exactly a week before he turned 1.  We have been working on crawling for MONTHS.  As happy as I am that he is finally crawling, it is hard watching him struggle.  I feel sad that he doesn't have more time to catch up. 

Turning one is a reason to celebrate, and we did, with family and friends that we love dearly.  But someone was missing. I feel sad that in a few short months we would have celebrated Wyatt's first birthday.  I feel sad that Rob and Kelli know what it feels like to have a precious boy taken away without any warning whatsoever.

I am thankful for Duncan, this precious gift that God has given us, but I can't help but feel sad that my babies are growing up and life is moving on.  Anyone have any suggestions on how I can make time slow down??

This is what the Lord says:  I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.  I will heal you.  2 Kings 20:5