Friday, May 23, 2014

School Days: First to Last

Fall 2013
Lydia's first day of Kinder and Julia's first day of First Grade

Spring 2014

Lydia's Last day of Kindergarten and Julia's last day of 1st. Will they ever stop growing? 

First Day of School for 2013-2014


 My Lydia 


My Julia

I really can't believe how much my sweetie pies have changed and grown up this past school year. I keep telling them to slow down, and take their time in getting so huge. But they aren't listening. 

I think I will cry myself to sleep now. Nighty-night.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Our New Home

First of all- sorry about the banner and blog title not matching up. I plan to fix it. But, until then, I don't really want to talk about it. :/

So on to the real purpose of this post...

Here are a few pictures of our new house:

When we bought this house, it had no fireplace. I don't really know why they would build a home in North Dakota without one, so we decided to have one put in.  

Our new fireplace with it's new paint color. I hadn't finished cutting in yet when I took the pic, but I love the way the fireplace turned out. 
Beautiful fireplace with the itty bitty T.V.
 We put the bigger T.V. in our basement. This little T.V. actually doesn't seem so tiny when in use, but it does look hilariously little in this picture.
My brother in law reminded me of this episode when he was helping us mount our little telly.
---So. Funny.

Here is the semi-finished fireplace complete with Jen from the Little Couple.
 We plan to mount the cable box inconspicuously above television to make it look better, and make some room for stockings in a few months.

Outside of our new home before we moved in

I love our new front door. It has a springy flower wreath on it now. 

I love the craftsman style

This is how our upstairs living room looked pre-fireplace

Our kitchen. I love it. I just wish it had twice the cabinet space.

Our deck off the back

Our dining room

Another View of the kitchen

We will seed our back and front yard soon. Our back yard is actually huge...it just looks smallish here.

This our basement living area. I love that our basement still has regular sized windows.
There are two bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs. Our girls have the downstairs rooms, and our room and the guest bedroom is upstairs. We have learned that the basement stays about 10 degrees cooler than the upstairs rooms, and we are trying to make adjustments accordingly. We will definitely be ordering heaters for their rooms before fall comes.

We are loving our new home. After things are all unpacked, I will try and get a few more pics added.

Thanks for checking in and putting up with me while I add boring posts while watching Psych at the same time.

Blessings, Amber

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Happy (Belated) Birthday Saige!

On the 8th, Saige turned 2!!! We had a fun time celebrating her little life. 
These days, she is head over heels for Mickey and his Mousketools. So, we celebrated her day, Disney style.
Breakfast set up

Her favorite breakfast is the same thing we have most days: Cereal

Helping Mom make her Birthday Cake

Family and the cake pre-sprinkle

Saige and her sisters did an awesome job adding some sprinkles to her cake
Saige didn't sleep well on the eve of her birthday. I actually ended up giving her a bath at 12:30 a.m. the day of her birthday. She slept great after that!

Saige got to open presents from family and from us in the evening. Thanks to my parents and Dave's parents for the sweet gifts! Saige loved them all.

Two and a half years ago, I thought I wanted a little boy more than anything. I'm so glad God knew to give me my Saige instead. She is such a joy! She loves to spend her days pretending to be a puppy and has an amazing vocabulary. She is strong minded, smart and sassy. She stands up to her sisters with just as much spunk as they have, and tells it like it is. Just the other day, she told me, "Saigie is da boss." I didn't let her get away with that one, but she delivered the message with a smile, and it sure was cute. Maybe someday God will still bless us with a stinky little boy, but if not, my heart is already full!

My chickadees are the best. Love, Amber

Monday, May 12, 2014

Easter - Back-up Blogging

Hello Blog world! I have been without internet for the last 12 days, and I am glad to be back! I wanted to add some pictures from Easter, and also let you all know that although it is still chilly and windy, it also great living in North Dakota. We love our new house, and I plan to post pics on here soon.

Dickinson Community Easter Egg Craziness

Waiting for the craziness

What was collected
 Before the older girls got to go collect the eggs, they turned out the lights and turned on black lights. Then they let the kids loose. It was fun, but I'm glad Saige was at the hotel, napping.

Dyeing Easter Eggs at the hotel

Julia coloring her egg before we dunk it
Lydia being creative
 
Saige drawing/occasionally dropping the eggs
 

Even Dave and I color eggs
Our finished product

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!
We tried out a Nazarene church for Easter and then ate at Applebee's with friends. It was a great day. It even got up to 70 that day. I thought then that that was kinda how the weather would stay. But, I was wrong. :)

Blessings, Amber