Thanksgiving dinner

We had a very nice thanksgiving with the Metcalfs and Melissa! It was fun being at our new house and hosting great friends. Thank you all for coming over and sharing in our celebration to be thankful! We had the basic meal with pumpkin pie for dessert. YUM! We were going for no leftovers and I think we pretty much accomplished it. :) Thankful for Melissa and the Metcalfs!!

His shirt says it all! Ironically though, we had a baked chicken instead of turkey. Shhh...don't tell!
(And thanks to Cary, well Martha, for the fun shirt!)

Katie LOVES Ann. She is such a Momma at heart. Thankfully also Ann was pretty laid back with Katie continually trying to hug her!

We love you Melissa. Thanks for making our home one of your stops while here in NC!

By the end of the evening, right before everyone started to melt down, we had so much fun playing and looking for "Henry". Henry is our purple imaginary elephant that comes and goes around our house. Katie and Issac had flashlight hunts trying to find him. At one point he was hanging on the fan, but had his wings ready to fly off! Henry is quite the exciting elephant!
PS I think the PJ's that Issac has are super handsome!
Thanks for playing Metcalf kids!

PS-We thought fall this year was magnificent. Just recently, as in the past few days, have the majority of the leaves finally fallen from the trees. It has been in the 60-70's for about 2 months and the colors have been breathtaking. I am sure Katie and Owen heard from me, a thousand times, "look Katie and Owen at that tree!" Every street was filled with deep brilliant colors! These two trees/bushes were next to our house. Amazing!
And seriously, we have been thankful for this fall. We have played and played outside. It is a reminder of the Glory of God. ...And His glory is beyond this!

Mimi came!

Yay! Yay! Yay! Mimi came for a visit!

My mom blessed us by coming out for a visit this past week! It was a treat to have Mimi here. We did plenty of stuff, but mostly we played, read books, went outside, practiced school and did errands. Thank you Mimi for coming! We LOVED it. :)

Katie seems to be continually fighting off a dairy allergy. It is so RARE to have her fall asleep outside her bed. This is precious. She fell asleep while we were watching, "people that get ouchies" or American's funnies videos. She was plum tired after a day of a runny nose and cough. I am glad though that she acted fine since it was a special week. So precious these days to hold a sleeping 3.5 year old.

Owen showed Mimi how he plays in the toilet and with the paper!

Mimi and Katie had fun in her room playing with the door shut. She just wanted Mimi to herself!

Since my mom is a 4/5 grade teacher she had a blast and so did Katie doing school! I think they finished an entire workbook. :)

We went out to eat in Cameron village and enjoyed the warm temperatures at around 70!

Thankfully, Mimi loved playing outside with Owen. I was able to do a few things inside to organize and Owen was so content outside...SO CONTENT!

And finally, Mimi left us plenty of Christmas gifts. She hid them in the laundry closet. Each of these bags is stuffed with goodies. But I have promised not to open them until Christmas. We will see if I wait, hehe-okay Mom, I will wait!

Thanks Mimi/Mom for coming out. It was a blessing and we loved it! We hope to see you and Grandpa (and Aunt Pie/Uncle Dustin, Uncle Tommy/Aunt Julie!) soon. Hugs from your NC4

Journaling-Home

I read these in a PB book on decorating. If the secular world can pen these words then we as Christians should embrace them all the more!
I changed a few words to say "home" where the author originally wrote, "bedroom".

Home is a place of sanctuary, and no other place gives us a profound sense of shelter. It is where we find respite from our daily cares, and an intimate space that clearly expresses our identity. Furnished with individual style, a home should be comfortable, a personal place to rest, relax, read to children, and even work. As a place where we rest and restore, a home must convey warmth and softness, comfort and serenity.

Create a home that's a great canvas for the things that you love.

It's been said that a person's home tells more about them then words ever could. Maybe that's because our homes allow us the unique freedom to surround ourselves with our favorite colors, textures, objects and memories.

I pray that our homes all invite in the weary to rest their troublesome hearts. That our families are encouraged. Where there is plenty of laughter. A place that mimics our heavenly home. Work hard ladies at this high calling!

Katie says...at 3.5 years old

Daddy, will you put your arm around me? It makes me feel comfortable. (Aww..love this!)

Katie, do you want to pray tonight?
No, I have issues.
Like what?
I am just to silly.

From the back seat I heard:
Momma I took Tinkerbell to the bathroom and had to have a conversation with her.
Wow, really, what for?
She was not listening to me.
Hum.
I told her what she was doing was serious and she needed to learn to obey right away.

This past weekend we were painting our chandelier cream and we heard this from Katie.
--Mommy, you really need to add more texture to those. They are to plain. Texture helps things look nice.
I guess she has been listening to me WAY to much. I have been talking about adding textured things to our home like a linen lampshade or a cotton throw or our leather ottoman. Texture helps things look nice and welcoming especially since our home is mostly cream/white/tan. :) In case I didn't know...yep, she is listening to EVERYTHING we say.

A thankful capture

I captured these photos, seriously in about one minute, both sets! They are some of my favorites! As I see Katie get older my heart gets soft and I look and pray for the woman she will become...she's truly a treasure!

She was climbing the wall at the Seminary after eating lunch with a friend and sweet girl!

K wanted to be like Mommy, trying my glasses on and hum...feeling a bit cross eyed??!

I think she looks studious!

Lovable, squeezable, silly face

Our Home-Owen's room!

Our little guy's room is now finished! Hip Hip Horay! We have used most of the same baby items from Katie rooms and made it sophisticated and boyish. I love the calm that the room brings to our home, because Owen himself is a ball of energy!

Here is the wall decal that I bought from Etsy which I love. Isaiah 61:3 is a verse that I WANT to be true of O's life.

(Thanks Nana for the birthday gift!)

The bookshelf...yeah....it was a work of Owen. He LOVES to put things away. So after I had straightened his room and uploaded the photos, I noticed the shelf rearranged. Ha! I guess this is a truer photo then my original intent!

To make space in the kids rooms, we took off the doors and added curtains. Owen's dresser and changing pad are in the closet. It does add extra space to have it open.

So our baby boy's room is now complete...that is until I get an itching to add something or to change it up. :) ...Probably in another year or so when the crib will be replaced for the toddler bed!

Owen's first Birthday

It's official, Owen is not a baby any more. He's one, a toddler, and we are proud of him!

Since we traveled back from Kansas on Oct. 8th, Owen's Birthday, we didn't plan on doing much, but celebrating with family (while back in KS) and then a small family party here. But Daddy, decided to surprise Owen and have a pie, gift, balloons and bananas waiting when we got back! What a daddy! Owen was thrilled. It was a bummer that Owen had a mild case of E Coli the week before and was not at his best to celebrate.
And the onesie that he is wearing...yeah, he had a big accident on the plane in which I had to pull out the emergency yellow onesie for him to wear the rest of the trip back.

Owen got 6 new little trucks to roll around. These trucks have rolled about every inch of our house. He also got some new work shoes, push cars, a rocking horse, some new clothes, a wall decoration that say "Owen-Isaiah 61:3", a grab ball and I am sure other necessary things!

...big colorful balloons to play with until they didn't float anymore...then they got rolled and laid upon.

Glad Daddy surprised us!

Do I look happy? Yes, I am happy! I have balloons to chase around! And look at that drool? Whew..

Yum.....ahhhhhh.....roll back and forth, roll back and forth...

Cutie pie~!

And here below, Owen, are some photos of your Birthday flight! You did pretty well, considering all you wanted was to be down and exploring. You napped some, played some with everyone around us and did some fussing as well. And since you were a bit sick, I did enjoy the cuddling when you were asleep. Loved hugging you! But overall, your favorite part was sitting in the seat by yourself.

We LOVE you O~!

Normal family photo in action!

Yeah, this is what we got for a family photo.

This is NORMAL for us.

Daddy, trying to get Owen to laugh and look at the camera. Katie trying hard, but her 3 year old patience lasts only so long (this photo is posted because I LOVE Katie's face-she looks like she's about 15 and thinking....Mom, really? Do we have to take ANOTHER photo?) and me, wondering what I can do to get ONE good photo.
(thanks for your patience Rachel!)
Anyway, at least it shows us as a family-that counts for something!

Our home-guest bath/kids bath

Here is our bathroom. We have two bathrooms (other one is the master bath) and this one gets used a lot! It is right off the kitchen and next door to Katie's room. I do like how it turned out-Cheery! It has a little bit of personalization for the kids, but not overly kiddish. We went with green/black/white. But then some pink and blue peeked their heads in since we have a boy and girl. :)

And if you look in the mirror you will see the pink flowers I added to the top of the shower curtain. That's one of my favorite things! I also love the collage of photos on the back wall of the kids. I saw that design in a PB category, then found two sets of photo frames at Home Goods and sprayed them white. Yay! Oh and a big thank you to Nana for the "Our Story". It fits perfectly!

We also got some green spray paint and painted this small stool. It is a life saver for our backs as we bathe the kids!

A twirling apron!

Dear Ms. Anna,
Awww, it was super duper nice of you to get this new apron for me! Thank you SO much. I think it is helping me cook better. I made a delicious, spicy curry chicken with rice dish tonight (my mom helped me). My apron also has these ruffles on it and they help me spin in circles very well. If you come up here, can I make some cookies with you with the new cookie cutters?
Miss you and I love you, Katie Grace Hime
PS-thank you also to Lindsey and Christie for getting this to me! You're super duper nice too. :)

May I help you?

Our two at one