Friday, September 27, 2013

Ava's Turn

Well, we've almost been here (as in this house) for 3 years. About 6 weeks from now will officially be the three year mark. Wow. There's a couple rooms in the house that haven't gotten any attention since we moved in. Ava's room being one of them.

It was easy to just leave it since it was a little girl's room before. Purple carpet, purple walls, green curtain, and besides-Ava just didn't care. Lately though-well, really for like FOREVER- she's been struggling to sleep on her own. She sleeps awesome on our floor, doesn't wake up at all. But put her in her room and its a battle. Like terrified of something-battle. So we haven't pushed it. Hmmm....can anyone say baby of the family?

We decided to let her help redo her room in hopes that it would get her excited about sleeping in there. With a little guidance from me she made most the decisions and helped A TON. I wish I would have gotten pictures of her actually helping.

She LOVES birds. All summer she watches them come to the feeder, grabs the bird book and tried to figure out what kind they are. Her favorite is a "Chickadee-dee-dee". So she was pretty excited when I suggested a bird themed room.

Of course I ASSUMED I had before pictures from her room and didn't take any-yeah....can't find hardly any.
 
Here's a few though. And a plea from me.
 
PLEASE don't EVER put up a wallpaper border, for the sanity of the one removing it someday, if nothing else. This was the 3rd room that had it on, not fun.

 
And here we go.

3 walls are painted "Pink Chill" and the window wall is "Crushed Velvet".
This wall is the most different, some will like it, some won't. I think it needs a few little birds hanging from the branches. The cute robin in the picture below was a birthday gift from Oma and Papa.
Birdcage reading lamp above the bed. The cage was one of those used for weddings, like a card holder I think. I just painted in and ripped the circular piece of metal up top off, and inserted the lamp cord.





 
Below: I really wish I had a picture of the dresser before. It was a dirty cream with flowers stenciled on. Painted it "Overcast" and sprayed the gold handles white. The gallery wall will be added to over time but for now there's a picture Ava drew, the paint chips framed, a embroidery hoop with fabric in it and the old mirror from the basement bathroom painted blue.

This is one of her favorite spots. We paid $60 the crib when I was pregnant with Anson, and used it for all 3 kids.  It was fun to find another use for it. She had to decorate it with her birthday lights from White hair Grandpa and Grandma.

I remembered halfway through the room project what her name means. Pretty funny how well it fits the theme.

This is one of my favorite things in her room. I thought the verse was so fitting for someone that obviously has some issues with nightmares and being afraid at night. She helped with the bird art on either side, gluing the pieces on.

This is probably the most fun before and after. I was going to paint the fan but didn't really know what to do with it. My SIL Kim suggested doing this and I just love it. And better yet it didn't cost anything, always an added bonus.




 
There's still a few odds and ends to do, throw pillows for the bed, bed skirt, etc. but for now its done. She has spent the last 2 nights in there and is doing great. She even has a Chickadee-dee-dee nightlight by her bed. I'll just apologize now for the layout of the pictures. I'm back to using blogger to post and don't love the way it prevents me from moving things around.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Country Girl

"What? You're going to blog this?!"




Why yes, yes I am.

Paige has show and tell tomorrow- she's been talking all week about her Skunk Story she wants to share.




She took the camera out and took all the pictures.


And then figured out what to say about each picture.


Her teacher is Mr. Outdoorsman, he's always bringing in pelts, sheds, and various forms of wildlife to work in to science time. She is just eating it up-loves that kind of stuff.

Apparently Ava thought she needed one too, cause she found some pictures we didn't want and disappeared. Twenty minutes later she showed up and asked me to take a picture.



I'm pretty sure this show and tell wouldn't be the norm in somewhere SLIGHTLY more populated. Gotta love the country life!

Between Seasons

Ready for fall, prepared for
winter, holding on to summer.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Just Because

I've been wanting to update the kids' name-in-sand photos every year, I finally got around to it this year. The sun always makes it tricky to get a good shot, so this is what I ended up with this year.



Monday, September 23, 2013

Catch Up

I apologize for the state of my blog lately. Apparently the kids' pictures had taken over the entire page-selfish little buggers! I finally fixed it though and thought I'd throw a few pictures up from our month thus far.

We started out the month with visiting a nearby corn maze on Labor Day. We've heard it was fun, but had never gone ourselves. Kids' had a blast and it was a great way to spend the afternoon!




 
Before we knew it summer had officially come to an end and the kids were off to school!

This was their "Come on guys, act like you love each other" pose. One perk to not doing daycare this year is, I have the freedom to run the kids up to the Hwy. to meet the bus instead of them getting picked up at our house. WHICH MEANS...they don't get on the bus until 7:45 now, instead of 6:50. SCORE!!!! We're loving having a longer morning together, although I still need to be better about a routine with them before they leave.

 
After the first 3 days of being in school for the year,  we took them out Friday to head to Rochester, we're awesome parents like that. On our way through the cities we stopped at Jerem's Grandparents for a little visit. Ava and Great Grandma Marge were match-y match-y.


We had a nice visit and am glad we were able to do it, I'm thankful for the special relationship Jerem has with his Grandparents.

 
Last stop, White Haired Grandma and No Haired Grandpa!! (Yes, that's our kids' for real names for them).
 Jerem's older sister Marsena came over from Chicago for the weekend as well. Her and I had plans to run a 10k (my first!) on Saturday. The kids were going to do the 1 mile fun run as well.  Below is a picture of her pointing out some grey "Aha! I'm not the ONLY one getting older here!"

We woke up to a nice Saturday morning that quickly turned blistering hot. The run itself wasn't very organized (in our greatly experienced opinion). There would be around 200-250 running in the 5k/10k and I think there were about 20 kids there doing the fun run. (Below) Paige and Auntie 'Sena warming up.
 
I love her smile here! She did her mile in 8:15, so proud of her!

Anson had a strong (too strong) start and after carrying the lead for a while dropped back to 4th. He really turned it on at the end though and beat out his competition who was trying to take over 4th place. I wasn't at the finish line to hear his time but based on the others I heard it was under 7:30 for sure.


 
 The 10k wound through some of Rochester's biking/walking/running paths and seemed to go on FOREVER!!! My ear buds broke half way through so I missed my upbeat music that usually helps me keep going..and my tracker telling me my pace. The parts of it were run along a river (on one side) road (on the other) and between that and the heat my equilibrium started going wacky and I DID NOT want to be that one person that you see getting carted in by the golf cart EMT's. Embarrassing. So after the 4 mile mark I walk/ran the rest to avoid that outcome. This picture was taken about 2 miles from the finish...the family had driven over to cheer us on then hurried back to the finish area to see us there too.
 This was Marsena's second 10k, she's becoming somewhat of a pro at this running thing. We ran together for the first part then at the end too. Although I gave up about 1/4 mile from the end. I just couldn't. run. any. more. I loped back in...but it wasn't pretty. Oh yeah. and according to her tracker we ran 6.8 miles..not 6.2..we're thinking they didn't have a real official distance measured...among other things.


It was a great weekend though and I'm so glad we did it. Now that I'm caught up on September, maybe I'll be better about keeping up with current events here.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Happy Birthday Ava Lou!

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Just a few pics to start off her birthday fun! We’re off to swim and have lunch with friends. I can’t believe how fast the last 4 years have gone..Ava is such a fun child to be with and watch grow.

Our prayer for you on your 4th birthday is that you trust the Lord as your Savior while you are young and desire to do His will in your life. Love you Ava Lou!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

It’s About Time!!!

Seriously, I had TOTALLY planned on blogging more-the last couple weeks have been a blur though. So, I’m going to do a few quick posts on summer catch up. Starting with, our Missouri trip.

The kids and I were gone for a full 19 days (4 were spent in the car). We had so much fun having a nice relaxed visit. (Well, relaxed in the Kent house may not be the true definition of “relaxed”).

We all got in some good workouts while there, including one of my adorable nephews, Elliott.

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Paige “flying” through the obstacle course.

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We took in some tennis matches that Quynn, Clark, and Graham participated in.

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Paige had a super special birthday celebration there too.

Fancy breakfast with Auntie Ellie, a birthday tradition for Paige!

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More friends over to play and make fruit kabobs.

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Her first flower delivery from Auntie Tasha and Uncle Matt (and the boys).

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Painting a mural.

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One of two (yes two!) birthday cakes. Oma sure knows how to throw a birthday celebration!

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Princess party dress-up.

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My dad organized a softball game for one Saturday morning. My sister and boyfriend flew in from Idaho for a few days, and my 2 brothers and their wives came home for the weekend.

Anson felt pretty official in his baseball uniform.

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Slliiiiiiiide!!!

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Getting some help from Uncle Chet, Uncle Jasper looks to be taking notes as well-but he may have been taking fashion notes, not athletic ones.

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And she’s off!!

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The gang-minus Jerem and one sister, Avery.

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The last Saturday we were there, Tasha and I were busy baking pies for a pie contest, so Auntie Ellie kept the kids busy with a lemonade stand.

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“Hermann’s Best Cousins’ Lemonade Stand”

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The stand brought in $57, which was $2 under what Uncle Chet spent on it-maybe more of a fun thing than a lesson in turning a profit.

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Like I said, Tasha and I were busy baking pies. I got talked into it at the last minute since it WAS a fundraiser. I made a Caramel Apple Pecan and Tasha made a Triple Berry Rhubarb, they were both AWESOME!

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Definitely making mine again. I ended up taking first which was fun, and doing something together like that (on her birthday too!) made it even more special.

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I’m thankful for my family in Missouri and the loving home I grew up in. The kids have such a great time going back to visit and its always bittersweet leaving to come back up here, to what is now “home” for us.

A back view of my childhood home from a hole in the fence.

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