Dear children...

Aug 30, 2013


Yes and yes


Anyong...

Aug 29, 2013

Adding a member to our family has so far been a raging success.

I have never seen Scarlett warm up to anyone as quickly as she did with Heon.  As soon as we got home she spent a good hour chatting away while he unpacked.  Chris and I smiled at each other as Heon broke the ice with a piece of carmel.  We knew from that moment on Scarlett would have a new best friend.

If Heon is awake, she is there.  Tuesday, while I was at work and my mom was at the house babysitting, Heon took Scarlett on a walk (probably her idea), by himself.  So sweet.  And every morning, while I am getting ready for work (granted it has only been two mornings)  this is what is happening in the guest bedroom.

Scarlett and Dominic seriously invading his space.  But he is go gracious.

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I am beyond certain that this was the perfect decision for our family.  What a blessing Heon has been in only two days.  Looking forward to the rest of the school year.


I tried a pin...string art

Aug 28, 2013

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This was a surprisingly easy project.  I had an extra piece of wood from my homemade clip board project...also in this picture and also a Pintrest find...and I decided to create a "B" for our undecorated nooks.

What you need:
Nails
Wood
Hammer
String
Design Template from paper

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How to make it:

Using your template hammer the nails in even spacing around the shape.  I didnt worry to much about the actual spacing or whether the nails were exactly straight because my shape was so simple and the actual design was not that important to the final product.  The more detail your design the more nails you will need and the more important spacing and straight nails will be.

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When I was all done with the design I just quickly used my fingers to straighten some of the nails that were very obviously crooked.

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Take out the template and begin stringing the nails.
Start by tying a knot around one nail leaving a tail.  You will use this tail at the end of the stringing to create a final knot.
I started by outlining my image to create a clean line.

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From there you can just zig zag around the shape until you fill it in as much or as little as you like.

There is no right or wrong with this project.

When you are finished with the zig zagging, return to the nail that you started from and use the tail that you left behind to tie off the string.  Knot the string a few times and cut.  Use super glue or clear nail polish to solidify your knot and to keep it from unraveling. 

Enjoy!

Final days of summer...

Aug 26, 2013

We are in the final days of summer over here.

We are filling our time with puzzles, art projects, board games, and lots of time outside. (And of course naked in the sunshine.)

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Upon opening our home...

Aug 23, 2013

Next Monday Chris and I will be the proud parents of a Valley Christian High School Senior.  I am incredibly unsure of what we are doing, but absolutely sure that what we are doing is 100% the right thing.

A some point of every day Chris and I look at each other and say "what would this situation feel like if our student where here?" and I am always encouraged by my husbands answer of "we would treat him like a member of the family".  We intend to hold him to the standards of our family and we hope he will embrace us as a home away from home.  

With two young kids that we can tote around here and there during the week, we have never allowed ourselves space for our life at home.  We have never intentionally thought through our use of technology, we have never settled routine eating habits, we have never created a structured expectation of our evenings as a family.  The impending arrival of a high school student has caused us to reflect on our lives in ways that the addition of our two children hasn't.  Chris and I are really really good about talking about the changes that we want to make, but not so good at pushing ourselves and each other into enforcing them.  We want to eat better, we want to exercise more, we want to spend more evenings playing cribbage over a cup of tea.  Unfortunately the chaos of two kids, Chris taking two sets of classes on top of both of us working, we are mostly just living, day to day, getting by.  When we talk about our lifestyle we rarely regard it with a smile, but almost always point out the things we desperately want to change.  But when do we make our family life a priority and how? How do we start making changes when we have become so comfortable just getting by?  

Well for us, I think it is going to be adding another child.  We are going to skip the years of waking up in the middle of the night and go straight to calculus homework and cell phones.  When we started talking about housing a student we realized there was a lot more to the conversation than just needing an extra bed and a desk.  How are we going to manage use of technology and will we have to hold ourselves to the same standards?  Can we still make peanut butter and jelly for Scarlett and call it good, while Chris and I scarf down a bowl of canned soup  and a tuna melt on the nights that we just have too much going on and can't imagine making dinner?  Do we start chore charts and include our student?  Do we need a family calendar for social events?  We decided yes, we will recenter our lives around the lives that we want to live when our kids are grown.  By hosting a student we have forced ourselves to be intentional.  We are testing our idolized visions of our future as a family on this new addition.  

I am still a little nervous about the changes we will need to make, but I am also excited to start living an intentional life style.  This is one crazy jump, but after almost a year of prayer regarding our home and how we can best use it for His good, I know we are exactly where God wants us. 

So if you see a random Korean kid popping up in our photos, this is Heon, the newest member of our family.  



Big bear family vacation...

Aug 21, 2013

Vacation with two kids is not really vacation.  I prefer to call it a trip.  Babies never sleep soundly and nap time is always two hours later than it should be. Regardless, our second annual family vacation with my parents was still a blast.  We squeezed enough activity and relaxation into those three full days to make it absolutely worth our while.

Night one:  Indoor spa night
This was one of the weirdest experiences.  This room was a wood paneled room with sliding glass doors, carpeted and filled with a 10 person spa.  Strange inside spa experience.

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Day one: Alpine slides, go carts, puzzles, cosmic bowling

Alpine slides - This was a blast. Scarlett had us all giggling our way down the mountain as one at a time we rode with her, top to bottom. After the first ride, she was a pro. She spent her entire second ride with me, giving me detailed instructions on what to expect. It was strangely comforting to know that at least one of us knew what we were doing. And then I reminded myself that she is three.

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Go carts - Lets be honest, Scarlett was just an excuse for the adults to play kids while riding in a tiny fast car.

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We spent the remainder of the first day relaxing as a family. Building puzzles, keeping Scarlett entertained with her new "school" book, and watching Dominic follow Dexter (the dog) around the house.  
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But mostly we were just excited to be together...and that my 94 year old Granny decided to make the trek up the mountain with us.

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Also, the older "kids" might have squeezed in a couple rounds of cosmic bowling, and I might have realized when I took my sweatshirt off that my white shirt was covered in stains only seen in black light.  Totally gross and completely blamed on baby food. 

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Day two - Boat - freezing cold, but worth every penny

After decking out in swim suits and sunscreen we quickly realized that the perfect 74 degree day can turn icy cold on the water. But then this overload of cute happens and you cant help but smile at Dominic's loss of all movement and Scarlett's complete lack of neck.

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Day three: Quick hike before home

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