I just have a quick second to update - whew - the week has FLOWN by! It has been my most busy/stressful week in a LONG time (well - probably since June 27 - when we had to move OUT!). Moving in is overwhelming, but tonight is do or die time - we are moving in at the stage it is at - and that is MESSY! There is so much to still do, but I really just want to get in there! I won't have final pics until everything is much more settled and "pretty"! Stop by if you are in the area though!

Besides a couple mental breakdowns things are good - some day I will have to blog about my parenting thoughts - lots to talk about on that front! I should be hooked up with internet at the house now, just haven't gotten a chance to really check it out. The Tech guys for our cable company were there last night until 7:00pm (which is ridiculous to me), and they claim I am good to go. I left at the same time as them b/c we hadn't eaten and we had nothing in the house - Kyle was waiting for us b/c we were supposed to go out to eat and to Sam's for a big grocery run. Instead we did dinner out and came home to put kids to bed and left to go to Meijer for regular groceries - my parents have been so good about us leaving at night - we will TRULY miss that!!! Anyway - so Sam's Club will be another night!

Ok - hopefully I can do a real post at some point this weekend (kind of doubt it!). Have a happy halloween and you scrappers out there - go check out SMJ's new shabby kit - I did a page with it - found here!

Bye!

Crazy Busy Life

So, it's been crazy busy life as usual! We are finalizing stuff on the house, and with three kids it's just near impossible for me to be there and get anything done. I took them with me on Mon. and Tue. night and it just doesn't amount to much. They get crazy and run around and they stress Kyle out! Anyway - the cleaning ladies are there today and yesterday they cleaned the whole upstairs. I can't thank Kyle enough for hiring that part out. On the last 2 houses we built we did EVERYTHING. We built most of it, cleaned it all, etc... I am telling you right now - the best thing we could have done on this one is have these ladies in to clean it! They know just how to clean every nook and cranny!!! It is going to look great and be all ready for us to move stuff in this weekend!!! The plan right now, if we get occupancy permit, is the move our stuff in slowly this weekend - but still live with mom and dad until maybe middle of next week! I would love to be all settled and organized in the house before actually living there! VERY exciting! And get this - the 27th of Oct. will be 4 months exactly from when we had to be out of our last house! We built this house in 4 months which to me just seems inconcievable! It went quickly!

So our weekend last weekend was great! It was awesome to have an adult weekend away! The weather up in Drummond Island was beautiful - about 45 degrees and sunny. We hung out, played games, talked, went bowling, went quading, and I even went for two decent runs! (I've been trying to excerice a little more and I'm pretty proud of myself! I want to get this workout video too!) Anyway - I have a LO that I did when we were up there of us all bowling - I'll share that. We really didn't get any other great pictures. We took quite a few pictures of the FLY mess we had to deal with. I am now utterly facsinated by the life of a fly - let's just say that!

Off to church tonight - night off from the house! We hope to start moving stuff in on Fri. night, so if any of you locals are looking for something to do feel free to come on over! :)

Home Pictures!

I haven't updated our house pictures in a while so here ya go!

The Great Room - kind of a tan color brown

The office/sitting room - and Braelyn, Kylie (my niece), and Selah - the color is a Restoration Hardware blue/green

The Dining Room and Kitchen - again the same blue/green! We also now have our hardwood flooring down - so I need to take pictures again, but Kyle and I went today to cover the floor with special paper so they don't get scuffed in the rest of the process! They look awesome though!

Front entry! Same tan brown as main living space!

This is the girls bathroom. The green will get punched up with pinks and tans!

This is Braelyn's room - special order PINK! Her bed is black and her spread has many colors so that should tone it down!

Gracyn's room - the same green as in their bathroom (saving money by using less colors!) Her room also gets punched up with some fun and playful pinks!!!

And this is Selah's room. It is BRIGHT. We had used this color corral (bright salmon color) in Braelyn and Selah's room in our old house, but only on one wall. We used it again because we knew it matched the bedding we had. IT IS BRIGHT. When the sun is shining in you need sunglasses! Hopefully it tones down once we get the carpet up there and once the black bed and stuff goes in! Yikes - it is BRIGHT!

For some reason I didn't take pics of our master bed and bath - those are looking great too! This week is fnishing up the plumbing, finish electrical, getting carpet laid, tile backsplash done, and numerous other little things. The thing is - Kyle and I leave for up north this Wed. night. Nothing like perfect timing - right?! We are TOTALLY looking forward to getting away though!!! The house can wait - right?! We are way ahead of schedule and we need to have a little fun! Anyway - so our target move in date is like the following weekend - we'll see how it goes. I think we will stay here at my mom's until about the 1st of Nov. I wouldn't mind gettting everything in and settled before we actually move in. It will be nice to have everything in it's place for the most part, and then move in! So there you have it - the most current pictures I have!

Tomorrow is back to work for me - just one day again this week. Tue I am going on a field trip with Braelyn's class to the pumpkin patch, and at night Kyle has a father night with her at school. Tomorrow night we need to work at the house! Toss in there packing for our get-away and we have one busy start to the week! Hope you all have a nice week ahead too!

Thank You, and LO's

First off, I just want to a HUGE thank you to everyone who said a little prayer for my husband and I, and our family! They were definitely felt! We had a wonderful funeral and burial service. I feel bad saying that about a funeral, but honestly - WOW - the funeral and burial were so heartfelt and beautiful. Grandpa Hains would have been proud of such a service! Thank you all!

So, I do have a lighter side to this LO - some more fun LO's from me! I can't explain how much I just enjoy creating my LO's! Most people think I am nuts and think I maybe spend too much time on the computer. I disagree. You can't tell someone who really doesn't have many memories of her childhood that my books are worthless. I spend as much time or more with my kids making the memories, so it's justifiable to me! Anyway - here are some of my latest LO's!

Full credits for both LO's can be found in my gallery links (which is linked on the right hand side of my blog).

Had a long day with the kiddos today, so I think I might turn in for the night. We have a busy 4 days ahead of us, as Wed. we leave for a weekend in the upper penninsula! Lots to do in those 4 days.

Heavy Heart

I have a heavy heart this afternoon as I just heard that Kyle's grandfather past away. Grandpa Hains has struggled with cancer just in the past 3 months, but up until that point was such a healthy man. These last few weeks are always tough though as we watched him slowly slip away from us. He is a Reverend/Pastor, and was still actively preaching at Royal Park, and some other events up until probably 6 months ago. Almost a year ago he baptised my third daughter, as he did both other girls too! He married Kyle and I, and so we have so many special moments to remember. my sister in law Sarah wrote a beautiful couple paragraphs about Grandpa HERE. I am 100% certain that he is a saint. The man knew God so well, and he lived out his life for Him. He is the epitome of what a christian should be and how a christian should act. I am so thankful that my girls got to know him a bit. I pray that Braelyn and Selah at least remember parts of him. I told them this afternoon that Papa Hains went up to heaven to be with Jesus. This is really the first time I have tried to explain this to them. When my grandmother died a year ago they just wouldn't have grasped it really, so we didn't really talk to them much about it. Braelyn knew Papa Hains quite well, because grandma and grandpa Hains are quite active in their great-grandchildren's lives. Braelyn just said she didn't want Papa Hains to go up to heaven, and said she would miss him. I tried to explain heaven a little bit and then told her that if we love God and accept Him into our hearts, then some day we will get to see Jesus and be with Papa Hains again. I hope I did a good job with such a big topic. Yikes. That's the part of parenting that no one prepares ya for. So yeah - just a heavy heart today that we will miss Grandpa Hains here on earth, but wow - I bettcha Jesus and the angels are rejoicing, and I can just hear Grandpa's beautiful voice singing praise to his King! Thank you listening!

Templates & Quickpages

I've just had a chance to play with some template this weekend from Janet Phillips! Her grab bag is out right now until the 5th!!! Run and grab it!!! There are a TON of great templates in it this month!!! Here is a LO I just finished up with one of the packs!!!

And check out these quickpages by Amy Martin - all done with the Oct. BYOC!!! Another great set of LO's that will help you scrap those memories when you are running short on time!!!

All I did with these quickpages was add a title and some journaling and a few extra little bits!

Off to the pumpkin parade today! Braelyn is on the white banner float for her school!!! She is very excited and does not want mom or dad to walk with her. :( Make sure to yell for her if you are at the parade today - she will love picking out faces she knows!!!

Birthday Messes and Other Messes

Gracyn's birthday was very nice! We had a great party and she seemed to enjoy all the attention! It was a busy loud night! :) Here are some pictures - as promised!

Gracyn with her balloons!

Braelyn loving on the birthday girl!

Gracyn eathing her webkinz!!! (And yes - I registered her and I LOVE playing the games and earning points!)

Gracyn adoring another soft cuddly singing bear!

All the cousins looking on the presents!

The Feast! Meat and cheese sandwiches, meatballs, beans, chips!
Aunt Tammy and Gracyn


The Cake and cupcakes - pretty simple - just picked it up in the morning from Zeeland Bakery!


Gracyn had no problem eating the whole entire cupcake. She still wanted more!




I love messy 1st birthday cake pictures!


These messes however.....I do NOT like them. Today is the day that my nieces are all over at my mom's and since we live here, we have 6 kids here all day! Well the two year old must feel like they have to prove that two year olds are really in the terrible twos. My mom found these two girls in my girls' bedroom with the vaseline and cornstarch and baby powder. Ugh. After a little chuckle an some pictures it was time to clean it up. That's the worst part.


And then, after they got in trouble for getting into things they are not supposed to, they went outside to play and they decided to take the whole gallon jug of car wash cleaner and dump it in a bucket of black dirt that my mom had and also on the driveway. Ugh. Needless to say they got chucked in their beds for naps mighty early! Right now they are playing together beside me...where I can SEE them! The morning situation was kind of our fault b/c neither my mom or I were really being hands on watching them, but this afternoon I was right outside on the driveway talking to the neighbor when they got into the carwash stuff. Naughty naughty naughty is the word of the day.

We have church night tonight, so I better figure out what to feed the kiddos and get ready!