Day of Rest...

    Sundays are probably my favorite day of the week.I have the privilege to go to church,worship in song & scripture & connect with friends.Then i get to come home,throw on some sweats & a comfy t-shirt & spend the rest of my day with the people I love the most in this world!
     I had nothing planned for lunch till we were about 5 minutes from home,I decided lunch would be biscuits & gravy,quick,easy & delicious.
    Then it was nap time for the kiddos & much needed catching up time for me & A!

    It's just not Sunday unless we have popcorn,so out comes our trusty popcorn maker,two popcorn poppers full? I ask,& was answered with a resounding YES!

I love the fact that there's no laundry to do on this day of rest,no house to clean,lunches to pack,trash to burn etc.It's just me & my family,getting to spend the day together,doing whatever we please!...& today it was games...checkers & connect four,two of our favorites right now.

    Andy had just made a 3-jump move on Aalyvia,note the look of glee on his face.
Had to laugh though,none of us could get a win @ checkers except Andy,but when 4yr. old Weston played connect four w/ daddy,Weston won the 1st go-around & was hardly trying,in fact Weston didn't even know it till we pointed it out:)

    I had a quick notion tonight to make something special for my family for breakfast in the morning so I quickly put together a batch of pumpkin cinnamon rolls w/ brown butter icing...

    There will be some smiling faces when they wake up & see these.A great way to start out a Monday morning!

     wishing you all a fabulous week!

Big January Birthday Bash!

There are only 6 birthdays in January on my in-laws side of the family,Grandpa,2 Aunts,a cousin & 2 of our boys! so January is a big celebration month.This year we got to celebrate a special birthday,(all birthdays are special) but when a baby turns a yr. old here it's a pretty big deal:)

 I found the idea for this monkey cake & the birthday banner above on Pinterest
although Dawson claimed it looked more like a bear,I think I agree.But it didn't matter to River,monkey OR bear,he enjoyed his cake thoroughly!

 he's probably thinking,really? you're actually letting me get my hands messy?

 goin in with both hands with the encouragement from his brother

 Mmmm...thats good!

 when his shirt is off he is constantly playing with his chubby belly rolls,so he would dig into his cake then touch his belly & repeat,so his belly was covered with chocolate:)

& now i've had enough!,is what he seems to be trying to tell us.

 what can I wish for that I don't already have? maybe a DS,like the one the little friend on the right brought to the party & mom caught me sitting in a corner playing with while my friends were off having a wonderful wrestling match,hmmm,yea thats what I want!

 tearing into presents!

 after all the practice River got over Christmas,he knew just what to do when it came time to open his gifts.I swore if anyone ever gifted a drum to one of our children it would go back to where it came from...it's still sitting in the living room with all the other toys though:(

 big sister eager to help

a 100.00 dollar bill from grandpa Raber to start a savings account with,thank you granpa!
Lots of great gifts,good food,& much-loved family times!

simply white

There was a time, not too long ago when the only thing I wanted to do was walk into this bedroom & turn the lights off so I wouldn't have to see it.

It's the last room of our home to get a facelift.I've been putting it off because I wanted it to be perfect.

1st I'm going to show you you before photos & you'll see what I mean...

We discovered we had mold underneath our wallpaper & that was all the motivation I needed to start tearing it off the walls & start fresh...tip from my local hardware,equal parts water & bleach sprayed on to the mold & wiped clean will kill any mold that you have.(it worked great!)

It's not a happy place...

And then there was the master-bath...

Now before you go & get too depressed,I have the AFTER photos...I now have a room that I'm very much in love with!

If I just lay here,would you lay with me & just forget the world...(part of a song that I love).

There is more to the bedroom than this but it's occupied by a little person yet & I didn't think his crib would be too flattering in the blog:)

This photo turned out really bright,the sun was brilliantly shining through the window,but you can see that I painted the vanity cupboards completely white.

I purchased these jars at my local Walmart but didn't like the shiny silver lids so I spray painted them a nice bronze color.Now they are holding bathroom essentials.

The paint i used throughout the whole bed/bathroom is colorplace,premixed white,purchased at Walmart & I'm very pleased with it!Now It"s a happy place:) one that I wanted to share with you...