I Heart Faces~ Anything But A Face!

I am entering this photo into the I Heart Faces weekly challenge :)  This week's theme is "Head, shoulders, knees and toes...anything but a face!" and I immediately thought of the recent images I took of Hayden's little toes.  Oh how I LOVE those little toes!

Sharing with "Monkey"

Hayden has oatmeal almost every morning.  I put him in his highchair and let him feed himself, then I come back and get him down when he says "all done," "out" or "down" (he makes sure to let me know when he is done, and just keeps saying it over and over :)  Anyway, today was no different except that he wanted to bring his monkey with him.  I didn't think much of it and left him to eat his oatmeal.  When he started hollering at me, I came over to get him out and noticed he had shared his oatmeal with monkey...

 For some reason, I just thought it was the cutest thing ever and of course ran to get my camera :)
Monkey also joined Hayden to watch his favorite show, "Caillou."

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Patience...

...it's something that I am trying really hard to have with this whole house buying/selling process!  Probably the best thing for me to do is just not really look at houses till we have a contract on ours so that I don't keep getting attached to houses that I can't buy.  (Notice, I said that's the best thing to do...I didn't say I am actually following my own advise...)  Yesterday, I went to the grocery store and came home with these...

I keep looking at/daydreaming about houses even though most all of the ones I like (AND that fit in our budget) seem to be either a foreclosure or short sale which means the bank is the one who accepts/rejects the offers and they are not willing to accept an offer contingent on the sale of our home.  If I found a home that we wanted to offer on that was an ordniary re-sale by the owners, then they would be more likely to accept a contingent offer so I have been trying to only look at properties that are not bank owned or bank approved short sale.  The problem is, I am not having much luck finding anything I like in that category :) 

I know in my heart that God has everything under control and He has a plan for us.  But, in the back of my mind I have doubts that creep in.  I think to myself, what if God doesn't want us to move and I am wanting to move for selfish reasons?  Although my main reason for wanting to move is practical (more space for our family to grow) I know that I also have selfish reasons as well.  The truth is, it's not impossible for us to live in this house with another child, I just don't want to.  I don't want toys taking over my living room (or the kids' bedrooms) and I don't want to have to keep some of my small kitchen appliances in the garage because I don't have enough cabinet space.  I don't want to make the extra bedroom a nursery and move all of Jeff's clothes and shoes into 'my' closet.  I don't like feeling like we can't host parties at our house because we don't have the space. 

The selfish reasons continue...I can't wait to get started on projects in a new house.  I want to give Hayden a 'big boy room' but I am waiting until we move so that I don't have to re-decorate it twice.  I want a fireplace so I can have a mantle to decorate with the seasons.  I want a playroom for the massive amount of toys that you accumulate when you have kids.  I want a house that we can make our own, mabe even a 'fixer!'  How fun to have a project to work on together and make beautiful.  There are so many ideas floating around im my head that I can't wait to put to use in a new home. 

I may have a lot of selfish reasons for wanting a bigger home, but I justify it by the fact that I am not necessarily wanting a much more expensive home, just a bigger one.  I am willing to get a house that needs TLC.  I am willing to paint, change out flooring, fixtures, hardware, etc.  In fact, I would prefer a house that needs a little work so that we can get more for our money.  And I am still not willing to give up being a stay-at-home mom in order to get a huge, expensive house.  Even if it means staying in this house, I will not sacrifice my life at home with Hayden in order to have nicer things.  We decided long ago that we would give up certain material things and have a different lifestyle in order for me to stay home and that is still the plan.  And I know that God is capable of working within that plan to give us what our family needs and keep us within our budget.

*Sigh* And then there's this little blog...it will take on a whole new life with the blank canvas of a new house to decorate and personalize.  I will get to post about all my new projects, decor and ideas!

But, for now I will continue to daydream...and look at real estate mags.

 When I look through these things, I always get distracted by all the $1m. + homes and start drooling over them.  And there are so many of them!  I didn't realize we had that many rich folks here in East Tennessee :p

I know that God has the perfect house picked out for us, we just have to wait on Him.  We don't want to settle for any less because we know what He has for us is so much better than anything we could try to find on our own.  I feel like if we rush and try to do things on our own, we will end up in the wrong place and I certainly don't want that.  It's just difficult (for me) sometimes to be patient enough to wait for God's best.   

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

"Mr. Grumpy"

My little man is wearing his "mr. grumpy" shirt today because he is just that, grumpy.  And with good reason...poor little guy isn't feeling well. 
Or maybe he is grumpy because mommy won't keep the camera out of his face! :p  Of course, in these images he doesn't look very 'grumpy' but don't be fooled.  He has been going into crying fits where nothing makes him happy.  Last night when he was screaming non-stop, I finally pulled up "Elmo's Song" on Jeff's phone and it got him to stop.  Whew.  Thank goodness for Elmo ;)

Poor baby has dry lips...

There are those feeties I love so much...

What a sweet boy...

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

The 'sick house.'

Even though he woke up this morning with a fever, runny nose and cough, Hayden is in good spirits and has been eating and playing normally (and talking up a storm.) 

He has been playing with his Valentine's present.

I got him a book that has magnetic alphabet letters since he is showing an obsession interest in letters (wow-was.)  I never thought that I would be teaching my son letters at 20/21 months, but he started showing so much interest in them.  He knows and can recognize about half the letters in the alphabet so far.  Everywhere we go, he looks for letters that he recognizes and starts saying them (over and over.) 
I acutally am hoping to get him some alphabet flash cards but they didn't have them at the bookstore I was at, so I got the book instead.  I know this is the proud mama in me, but I just love that Hayden loves learning, it makes me so happy :) 

Well, me and Jeff are on Tamiflu (me as more of a preventative since I am the caretaker!)  So, hopefully our little family is on the mend.  This little guy seems to be dealing with his symptoms pretty well (so far...)  I hate to see my little guy sick :(

He always has to have "moke"

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Happy Valentines Day!

My little heartbreaker wants to wish all of you a Happy Valentines Day! 

And what is Valentines Day without sweets? ;)

I made some raspberry filled chocolate cupcakes, yum!

As I write this, my sweet hubby is very sick with what may be the flu (they aren't really sure.)  He is now on meds so hopefully he is on the mend but pray that he gets well soon and that Hayden and I don't get it! 

Even though we are not having the most romantic Valentines Day ever, I am still so thankful for the wonderful life that God has blessed us with!  I am married to a wonderful man who has been my best friend almost from the moment we met and we have a beautiful, healthy little boy who is the joy of our lives!   Thank you Lord for blessing me with so much more than I deserve! 

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Well, it's official!

We listed our home today!  I must say, it seems weird to look out and see a "For Sale" sign in our front yard.  I like it, though :) 

I realize that this could be a long process but for the sake of my sanity, I hope the house sells quickly. 
I have so many thoughts running through my head.  So many questions like,
   What if it doesn't sell?
   What if we end up having to pay to get out of it (please NO!)
   What if we sell it and can't find a house that we love and can afford?
   Where should we move?
   Should we buy a newer house in another subdivision or an older house with
lots of charm and character?  What did I get myself into? 



They say that moving is one of the most stressful things you will ever do.  Add that to the fact that I am the most impatient person on the face of the planet and well...I'll be surprised if I have any hair left after all this is over!  ;)
We are just praying for guidance as we hope to find a bigger house for our family.  We don't know what God has in store for us but the hardest part (for me) is being patient and waiting on Him.  I just hope that this can be as smooth a transition as possible and that we are able to find the perfect place for us to grow as a family. 
As for you readers, I will have lots of great new blog material from all the projects we will get to do in the new house!  That's a reason to move in itself! I kid, I kid...not really.
     
  





All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

"De-personalization"

We are hoping to put our house on the market by this weekend...I will have more on that in a later post. ;) I am in the process of de-personalizing our home in order to appeal to more buyers by allowing them to picture themselves living in my home.  This means, I am taking down all personal photographs which is much harder than I thought (emotionally, not literally!)  I love photographs (if you can't tell) and I have them displayed throughout our home.  But, in an attempt to make our house a place that perspective buyers can feel at home in, I am removing them for showings.  Most of them I just put away, but there are a few that I will leave out and put away when we have showings.  I mean, I can't be expected to pack away every photo of my precious baby for who knows how long, right?  :)  Anyway, as I was putting them away, I realized that I would need to replace some of them with something to avoid it looking a little too sparse.  I kept trying to think of things to put on my shelves to take up space without having to buy new stuff and without it looking mis-matched and ridiculous if I just tried to use items I already had.  Then, it came to me...subway art!  I had been seeing a lot of it around bloggy land lately, but didn't really think it was for me (probably because I didn't want anything taking up space that could be used for displaying my precious photos!)  But, I thought it would be perfect for some inexpensive, neutral art and I could use the frames that I already had on display!  So, I found a free subway art printable here and printed it out, cut the excess paper off and stuck it to a piece of brown craft paper then placed it in an 8x10 frame.  If I had some nice, tan resume paper it would have looked a little nicer but I just used what I had. 

(Don't mind the un-even lines, I can't cut straight to save my life, plus it was like 1 a.m. when I did this...)
Then, I decided I wanted one more for my favorite Pottery Barn frame with a burlap matte.  I didn't want to do another subway print, so I decided to create something myself on the computer and print it out.  I just went with a simple "dwell" that I typed up in wordpad and printed it out on a piece of resume paper I found in my craft bin.  It's not really the color I would have chosen for the paper but again, I just used what I had.  I love how it turned out.
The best part is, the cost of this project was basically free since I just used supplies that I already had. 

So, now we have some 'neutral' art displayed so that when we show our home, people won't feel like it is 'someone else's house.'

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Love is in the air...

Since it's getting close to Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a good time to post about the "L" word ;)
I don't brag enough about my hubby and I blog a lot about our little man, but I am very blessed with such a wonderful man who loves the Lord, loves me unconditionally and works so hard for our little family!  As much as I hate to admit this, I am not always the greatest wife or the easiest person to live with.  But he tells me I am the best wife ever (which just proves that love truly is blind ;)  I can be in the grumpiest mood and he will hug me and tell me how much he loves me.  And even though as a stay-at-home mom I spend many of my days in sweats and tee-shirts with barely any makeup on, he tells me that I'm beautiful.  It's those little things that remind me of how lucky I am to have him for a husband!
For our first Valentines Day in 2004, he gave me a cd with a song he wrote for me recorded on it.  I had the song played at our wedding reception 16 months later ;)  The chorus says

"You leave me breathless I can't speak, sometimes I can't even breathe.  You mean the whole world to me.  And I mistake life for a dream, but I am not asleep, you are my reality.  I'm breathless."

I love the words to that song and it reminds me of how much he loved me even then.  We had not been dating that long when he wrote that song for me, but he loved me from the beginning.  My dad told me that Jeff won my heart with his love for me.  I think that is so true.  When Jeff and I first met and became friends, I didn't have romantic feelings for him but he was so sweet to me and truly cared about me and that is what made me love him. 
Two months later, he proposed.  I felt like the luckiest girl in the world when he gave me this ring

I now wear 3 rings on my finger symbolizing our engagement, marriage and five year anniversary.  I still can't believe how fast the time has flown by. 

This year we will celebrate our 8th Valentine's Day together.  I hope God gives us 80 more ;)



All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Barber Shop

I took Hayden to get his 2nd haircut the other day.  Lucky for him, his uncle Jerry is the best barber in town :)

Oh, and I can't forget to mention that Hayden was absolutely perfect the whole time!!!  (Of course that may have had something to do with me poppin' an organic sucker in his mouth when he got in the chair ;)

He just sat there & let Jerry do his job.  What a good little boy I have!

Notice the drool dripping off little man's chin ;)

What a face...I love that kid! 



All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Ten Tiny Toes...

Oh how I love these little feeties! 

I love that his toenails look exactly like his daddy's  :) 

Happy little toes ;)


All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!