View from our front porch before winter


We have since moved the little white fence that is sitting against the rail


Kitchen and living room windows

I would eventually like two rocking chairs to sit on the front porch, for now I am using our red camp chairs you will see later.



We have since moved the table and chairs that don't belong to us in the back yard.

The tree you see behind the van is a Pear Tree. This house that technically owns it is abandoned


Now I will take you out back.

Door to our bedroom from the back porch




We have cleaned up a lot since moving in. It's been very tiring.
The fan blades will be replaced by summer I believe and the cracks will be filled in as well. Oh, and back doors will be replaced as well.


See the brown wicker table and chairs? They gave these to us and I repainted them Walnut Brown and when I can I will be buying cushions for them.


We have done a good amount of work back here since. I need to find out if I can give the back porch a fresh coat of paint.

I like having a fenced in back yard



side yard and cute stairs leading to the kitchen door

back yard


Back porch


Here we go inside. I hope ya'll won't mind that I am not going in order. Blogger does not have an efficient way to organize pictures in order when uploading them so I would be here even longer if I did that.


Viewing our school closet from the hall way. The door to your left is the bathroom door and to your right is A, M, and Baby's room.



An inside look at the Bathroom. I am especially excited about having a bathroom window! Haven't had one since I moved out of my parents house when I married Jason. I do plan to eventually change the shower curtain etc...

It was chaos moving in...... I didn't actually see this till the guys were done because I was cleaning the town house



Cameron helped push us to get more done since I watched the girls so she could take sweet Sallie to the doctor..We busted a move to have walking space etc....SO, I took these in honor of Cameron! The girls had FUN with Michael getting into things while I was in the kitchen getting pizza ready to eat. I could not help but to laugh and take pix.



Look at Millie and Lizzy... you can tell they are use to getting their picture taken, they stopped and looked at me when I had the camera in hand LOL

Jason taking a final exam right after getting everything moved in.



final exam face....so serious ;p



I caught a picture of Amber witnessing to one of the kids in the neighborhood. She talked to him for awhile about Jesus and becoming a Christian. she did very well and then he said he had to go so Amber thanked him for coming to play and told him she would be here all week while painting if he had more questions but he never came back.....




Just keep smiling baby....



Hope she will enjoy this for a while

Michael decided to help.....paint






roasted pepper for top half and pecan Sandie for the bottom half.
Now, the pictures on the wall are plastered in the wall so they can't be moved. However, I did manage to put my home interiors window pane mirror in the middle and you will see it later.


Michael helping daddy


viewing Alyssa, M and baby's room from kitchen


the hall way used to be yellow


Bathroom....I love how there is a built in laundry hamper to your right. You pull the little door down and drop your clothes, then open the two bottom cabinets to gather the laundry.




Storage above the bath tub


Bathroom





View from the kitchen eating area....don't tell Jason he's balding hee-hee


This is the kitchen before I got my hands on it.

Kitchen eating area and I just thought..... I completely forgot to take pictures of what the kitchen looked like before painting it! The top was a yellow orange (not sure how to describe it) color and the bottom half was white.



viewing the kitchen eating area from the living room


Living room before we painted it.

Living room before we started. Brought our play yard so M could take naps and keep him from getting into toooo much.


living room view from the hallway

hall way view from our bedroom



our bathroom. I first painted it pecan sandie and since I have repainted it pot of cream.

Our bedroom before. We have a cute little door that goes out to the back porch.



Amber's room. She was dieing for Blue, but now has changed her mind to a pink color since we foudn bedding she really loves, so there will be a new project in the making.....but not right now.


Alyssa, Michael, and baby's room. I wanted to paint it a green color, I love green especially sage, but Alyssa won and now tells me she wants it green, but I am not repainting this room.


View at night from our side garage door to the front door. To the left is our mailbox.

From the front door to the garage door. Which is also the porch.


I have since finally found a good arange ment for this bedroom for all the furntiure to fit safely.



This is still before

It was soooo cramped this way


It took me forever to figure out a good furniture arangement that you will see in the next post.




What a mess to go through....but it's over, yay



I will be working on after pix here shortly. Uploading and sorting is a PAIN with blogger. They need to get with Facebook like yesterday.
If the pictures are confusing I a sorry. Just ask if you are wondering something. In the mean time I will be working the after pix.

I am kinda feeling a bit torn right now on what to do with Michael. He is mostly sleeping through the night except when he wakes because he can't find his passy. One night he was crying, we apparently didn't hear him, and he was so worked up we had an awful time trying to settle him down!

I have not broken him from his passy yet.

First, some babies need to suck for comfort more than others, Michael is one of those. However, he is requiring it less and less on some days. I was once told that a dentist said if you try to break them before they are ready then they will find something else to suck on like their thumb (which was said to not be good for teeth coming in) or suck on their tongue like I did (which pushed my teeth out to a large over bite) when my mother wouldn't let me suck on my thumb and yet she let my brother.....hmmm.

Second, Amber sucked on her passy until she was 2 years old or so and she has almost perfect teeth her dentist told us, and she hasn't had any work done on them.

Also, Alyssa sucked her thumb and never a passy. Now, she did stop at 2 or so but that was because Jason had the flu and I took a bath in the girls bathroom and forgot my razor. She got a hold of it and sliced the padding on the thumb she sucked on, so between the bandage and pain...it broke her. She never cried not being able to suck but she did whimper at night a little when going to bed.

Okay, here is my problem.

I would probably let M cry-it-out forcing him to learn to sooth himself at night so I don't have to get up, go into his room, find his passy, and pop it in his mouth so he drifts back to sleep because that is all he wants. This is a big disruption in my sleep being pregnant and having to get up with Jason is taking it's tole on me.

To make something clear-- He, Michael, would not be crying out of pain or suffering but rather a change in routine of soothing himself by crying-it-out. But it's always harder for mom to listen to than it is for baby to go through it. I can handle that part! Been there done that and they don't remember it anyway. AND, it does not damage anything physiological.

The problem is, Jason has to get up at 4:15 in the morning, and I get with him to make his breakfast, lunch, make sure he does not forget anything so the class will not be punished, and to pray with him before sending him off. He has to have a good nights sleep and rest. Sound travels in the house! And, M has strong set of lungs, and is LOUD.

My reasons for letting M cry-it-out.

One-- so it's not a disruption in my sleep or his any longer. It's important that babies get good sleep for growth and other purposes.

Two--I DON'T want to be getting up in different hours of the night between Michael and a newborn unless I want to physically kill myself with sleep deprivation!

Reasons for letting M cry-it-out.

Jason HAS to get a good nights sleep and adequate rest in order to make it through the academy. His class does not graduate until July 11th. One fella was let go from the academy because he had a 2 week old baby and was not getting sleep and it was effecting his training etc...so they let him go.

I have a plan for Jason when our baby comes. I don't want what happened to Jason's class mate to happen to him unless at that point in the academy they let the class go in later than 6am like the previous graduating class got to do near graduation.

I plan to have Jason sleep in Amber's bed and Amber will sleep with me while I keep the baby in the bassinet in my room since I have a rocking chair and most importantly a very close bathroom! I figured this way the baby crying or waking to feed will not be a disruption to Jason's sleep and rest.

There is NO way I can take care of a new born and walk all the way down the hall to M to find his passy in the middle of the night after having given birth and getting up for feedings.

So, I don't know how to get him sleeping through the night without it disturbing Jason. I don't know what to do!

Note my sarcasm lol....since we live in a house now I forget we have a garage. In my defense it's been yrs since I have lived in a house with a garage! This one is small and we have some things in it (all of it's not ours). I don't think my van would fit except for the entrance which is good so if it rains I can pull in and we can get out and into the house without getting wet. Jason usually leaves the truck parked on the street so he can get in and just leave to be at work.

WELL, he told me yesterday that he had "thought" of putting the truck in the garage the night before (the ice storm), and I just looked at him speechless! Then I said "I think the truck would fit, but there is stuff in the way". He said yeah, I thought about moving a couple of things but I don't know why I didn't. SO, I went out there last night moved "a couple of things and pulled the truck into the garage! Do you all know what that would have save us yesterday morning! What we went through in the cold to melt the truck......MEN LOL

So, I heard on the news that they expect a refreeze over night. Well, this morning my van is covered again, and he took it for a drive last night to go to the chiropractor so it was thawed out....I guess he needed professional services after I cracked him. The doc said his neck was out but that was due to boxing....not from me heehee

I had one small scare when I went out to the truck to pull it into the garage yesterday I forgot about the slippery ice, I walked on a patch and almost fell, my heart skipped a beat and do I worry about me or the baby? no, I worried that Jason was going to kill me because just that morning while helping him with the truck he kept getting on me where to walk and not walk and to be careful to not fall.....I started feeling like a two year old even though he had the best of intentions.

So, here are my before and after pictures...from not being in the garage to being int he garage. AND I would like to point out how much faster his departure went this morning!

Before! Now keep in mind this picture is after a lot of work to get the ice off!













I would say I did purrdy good!




A dry truck!


Garage door to the front door.


View to the garage door from my front door.

Good ole TX! Everything is frozen over this morning. They said on the news that this ice storm was the worst on in 6 years. It's currently 29 degrees with a wind chill of 23 degreese. I helped Jason thaw out the truck this morning, the doors were frozen solid and was hard to open....he had to be at the academy at 9am this morning in stead of 6am for safety. I for one appreciated that! He called me once he got there, I was worried because the roads are so bad. I waited on pins-n-needles till he called me once he got there, he told me the roads were nerve racking and he only slid twice. Scary. Pray he makes it home safe and sound.

From my door on the front porch.

]Just zooming in...

Out back
Chickened out and went back inside....it was toooo cold!

Notice Jason does not have a goatee any more! btw..HEET works but it takes tooo many cans which is why it was on clearance at wally world. We bought one can and then resorted to using Cold water to finish off the windows so he could leave.
Opened my garage door for this one!



Well, I am off to mop and get somethings done!