And, We're Back!

Have you heard? It's true... we moved back to the Triad.

After four long months and some weird circumstances we are overjoyed to get to move back into our house.

Even though the house had been on the market- it had not sold - and we could not be happier.

John started a new job on Monday. Ethan went back into the 1st grade class he left in December. The twins and I went back to what Ethan calls "the normal life".

Right now we are just thankful that moving did not work out- we feel like we are right where we are supposed to be.

Here are a couple things we are particularly thankful for...

First, of all we are thankful to have our own house back. Moving back in was a breeze.
(Thanks for all the help, friends and family).

We are thankful for a nice big back yard and a swing set.
The kids missed both while we were away.

We are thankful for a long flat driveway and suburbia.
It makes bike riding, basketball, and hopscotch so much easier.

We are thankful for renovations- which we thought would sell our house - that are now blessing us. Above is our bedroom pained Svelte Sage. Love that color. Love enjoying it myself.

We are thankful for a brand new master bath. Renovated before we moved. Even though it's hard to see we gutted our old master bath and redid it all... flooring, light fixtures, shower and shower door, built in shelves to the right of the vanity, and (my favorite part) new granite counter tops in "Rainforest".

We are thankful to have our enormous laundry room back.
( I was going to clean it up for the picture - but then I thought- what's the point? This is how my laundry room looks everyday.)

Thankful to have our eat in kitchen with white plates on the wall. Thankful that we also have a separate dining room.

But, mostly we are thankful to be back closer to our family and closer to our friends. And, right in time for pool season and Friday Night pizza parties!

So We Moved...

Greetings friends and family! I finally took the time to go take a picture of our new home so I could update you on our circumstances. It is true... we moved... to the mountains... about 2 hours west of our old home. (I don't want to divulge our exact location for all the crazy folk that might try to come burn our house down!).

Here is our new home. We feel blessed to have found a mountain home to rent until our house back in The Triad sells. It is quaint and has plenty of mountain charm (and stairs)!

This was on move in day. My awesome friend Amy, one of many who spent the day helping us pack, clean, unpack and drove up the mountain with us. We are so thankful for our friends!

This is our family room.

Awesome friends, Emily and Ashley in the kitchen trying to unpack and organize my stuff! The greatest challenge with the house so far has been trying to figure out what we really need for the next 18 months of our lease. The house is adorable - but a lot smaller and not all of our stuff will fit. (And, we seriously thinned out our "stuff" before we moved!).

I will post a tour of our house once we are decorated and all the boxes are out... so next June!

The kids are all doing well. Ethan has started 1st grade at his new school and all has gone well. We have also tried a couple things at our new church- MOPS and AWANA and everyone has enjoyed that too. Overall, everyone is adjusting well and enjoying the new adventure.

Everything concerning this move happened really fast. It seems like one day we decided and the next day we were driving the trucks up here.

Even though it is an exciting season of new adventures it is also a time of sadness for us. We really loved our church, our house, and mostly our friends back in the Triad.

On the one hand there are so many things we are having to let go of... and on the other I know there are so many things we are going to be able to take hold of in our new life. It is an emotional season and we are still adjusting.

To our friends and family, thanks for all the prayers, gifts and help you provided in making this move happen. You made it so much easier for us (and so much harder- if you had all been jerks it would certainly been easier to say good-bye!).

Happy Birthday to Me!

So, we have concluded birthday season here in the Hoots' house. We ended the birthday marathon with my birthday. Usually, by the time we get to my birthday I am just plain birthdayed out! I only wanted one specific thing... our dining room painted. So the handy husband obliged me and the dining room was painted. Now you can see all the glorious trim in the room (it was hidden by all the wall and trim being the same boring builder beige). Take a look...

Before... junk everyone and furniture in random spots. trying to get the room clear and ready to be painted.

And, after! A traditional room with olive green on the walls and bright white trim. It feels so much more like home. We choose Palm Leaf by Sherwin Williams.

Now my family black and white's really stand out.

We still need to add a few things to the room (a rug for one).

And we need to take a few things out (a train table for one).

But, at least we are done with the boring beige.

The Pink Palace

Well, I am 95% finished with Livy's room, and since I am (always) slow to finish the last 5% I thought I would go ahead ans show it to you...

As you can see- Liv had one request "PINK"!

Here's the stuff I did...

1. Bought a quilt on clearance from Target. This set my color palate.
2. Started with Laura Ashley "petal" on the walls,
3. Painted an OLD hope chest that came out of my great grandparents house. It used to be light blue- now it is Laura Ashley Magenta,
4. Made 16 pom - poms to hang from the ceiling,
5. Painted a recycled (from John's old office) cork board,
6. Painted and hot glued ribbon on a recycled (from Adelphe) dry erase board,
7. Purchased curtains (I gave up sewing for lent several years ago and I never intend to go back) and hung them one snowy afternoon,
8. Painted wooden flower shapes and made a ribbon garland with them,
9. Purchased some cute accessories from Hobby Lobby (love that place!),
10. Spent 15 hours and burned my index fingers making a flower lamp shade,
11. John purchased and hung new blinds,
12. Bought and hung Pottery Barn Kids flower petal pink canopy,
13. John painted a full size bed we happened to have in the attic (but we did not like the color),
14. Bought new bed and mattress from local outlet,
15. After a month of working tucked my happy big girl into her big girl room!

This is the chest that came from my great grandparents house in Dayton. primed, painted pink, then painted the flowers on.

A view of the pom- poms. If you want to make some for your little girl or for a shower or birthday party- here is the tutorial I used.

Here is the lampshade I made- I will post a tutorial later on how I did it. I was trying to copy one PBK is selling for $99 (and yes, that is just for the shade). I thought I could do it for a lot cheaper. It was not really that cheap... I bought the fake flowers from the dollar tree- but it took 28 stems (7 buds on each stem) and the cost of the lampshade ($8) and two packs of hot glue sticks ($6). So, after spending so much time and frustration on it - I think I would rather have just boughtnother cute lamp. But, it's done now, and Liv is forbidden to ever touch it!!

I made this hair bow holder for Liv about a year ago... still love it. Sort of planned the whole room around it.

The happy lady and her new favorite doll, yes Tina it is Tinkerbell!

Still to be done...

1. Find affordable girly chandelier to install and throw out old brass ceiling fan
2. Paint another sign with Livy's name on it
3. Paint another sign with a special message to Liv
4. Eventually get new floors- kids are so hard on cheap carpet!
   
   

Deep Space

For sometime now I have been meaning to post about the boys room. I started it last June and completed it in September (yeah - it took that long). I really thought it would take me about a month... but I was terribly wrong and by the end I swore I would never paint anything again. (Obviously I have broken this vow). Ethan is ridiculously into science and outer space and so my inspiration for the room was "Deep Space". I had a couple obstacles... one wall of nasty old 70's dark paneling, a bunch of mismatched furniture, and old shutters on the windows. Take a look...

First I primed and painted the paneled wall several different colors of blue - in stripes. Also painted the trim.

Next I primed and painted all the furniture. All the furniture was hard wood - but mismatched - I made it match. It looks great now, but it was a nightmare to paint and took forever!

Next I painted the ceiling with a swirled effect to look like the night sky... not fun.

Then I designed this sun for the solar system and glued it to the ceiling. Then the husband put in a new ceiling fan. Old one was oak with brass... yuck. I got the inspiration from Design Dazzle

Next I bought planet decals and glow in the dark stars.

A few simple art projects... one here with three wooden airplane pegs (PBK), grapevine wire, and clothes pins to display art work.

I kept waiting to do this blog when the room was all clean and I could easily take pictures- well that just about never happens. So last night I went in while the boy were asleep and took these shots, as you can see Isaac is on the bottom bunk!

And, finally, I know I have a before picture somewhere - but of course I cannot find it. As soon as I do - I will post it!

Working on Livy's room now - I will post pictures when I get done!

The Bleak Midwinter

This is the ecstatic five year old because God answered his prayers and gave this southern boy snow (again!). We rarely get 2 big snow storms a year - so he was thrilled!

Dancing on the table with excitement!

Our back yard... even the cars were all snowed in! We think we got between 6- 8 inches, but all the reports have been different. (We also got an entire day of sleet - yuck).

The twins were not as excited about the snow. Isaac was happy outside for about 15 minutes.

Watching a movie to pass the lazy day.

Twin # 2 was happy outside for about 1 minute! She is an inside girl (like her mommy). Both of us think the snow is beautiful - from the couch with a hot cup of tea (well okay, hot cocoa for her).

Since all of our weekend plans have been cancelled... I decided to spend the weekend getting Livy's "big girl" room started. I went kind of crazy last night and stayed up until 2am painting her room.

This color is Laura Ashley Petal- and yes it is the twin sister of Pepto Bismol. Even though I do like pink I NEVER thought I would have a pink room in my house. But, when I started to plan out what I was going to do - I asked Livy what she wanted (mistake #1) - and she has been insistent on the room being pink. Every time I suggested something else she said, "Big girl woom pink!". She doesn't talk much, but when she does she means it!

More to come on this room update. Still need wall decor, a bed, curtains, and accessories. So far all I have is a quilt, the walls painted, and inspiration! Stay tuned for more on the pepto room and a post about the boys room!

You've Be Flocked

Last night, around 9:15 I was upstairs on the laptop and John was downstairs. I heard the doorbell ring (yeah that's weird for us at 9:15) and then I heard some cars peeling away in front of our house. Well - we were flocked! For all you beginners out there (I just found out last night) that means your yard has been covered in pink flamingos.

You may be wondering who would do this to two innocent adults who already have too much yard work (and house work) on their hands... well we were wondering too...

One of the cars I heard peel away was John. He heard something on the front porch and heard some teenagers yell "run" in our yard. He chased the teens out of the neighborhood and beyond. You could say he startled them with his chasing. The Jack Bauer in him just came out.

A couple minutes later a friend called and said it was their Young Life Group (Several of our friends are YL leaders in the area). You see - John jumped in his SUV and sped away so quickly he did not even see what the group had done (the flocking).

It was all in good fun and they are headed back tonight to get their birds back. And, I can tell you the kids LOVED it. Ethan noticed the "weird pink things" on the lawn right away and the babies spent most of the day staring out the front windows.

Thanks YL for sprucing up our otherwise hum drum week.

Nice birdie.


Grab that flamingo and wring it's scrawny neck.

Please let us out! Ethan gets to have all the bird fun!