Sunday, August 30, 2015

The beautiful Bathroom!

When we bought our house a couple of years ago one of the things I really liked about it was that it was pretty well decorated.  It had nice paint, flooring, and even fancy doors.  That's not at all why we bought it, but it was a fun addition because then I didn't have to worry about decorating it.  One of the rooms I really loved was the powder room.  It was red and had a nice huge mirror and felt very fancy.  Now, it really was a tiny little powder room, but at least it was pretty.  

Well, the years have started taking it's toll on the house... you know, with 6 children abusing it daily :(.  The bathroom had some wallpaper and it had gotten torn.  I was pretty heart broken.  That meant that my pretty bathroom for guests wasn't pretty anymore, and that I had to figure out what to do about it.  

I looked through some pinterest ideas and figured out what to do to save the bathroom.  It was time to update the color, and even the fancy mirror.  I found some nice wainscoting at Home Depot and decided to add it to the wall. That also meant I didn't have to deal with removing the wallpaper... simple is better!

Well, after a couple of weeks I was able to get the project finished!  Here are some photos of the progress of the bathroom.

Here is what used to greet you when you opened the bathroom door.  

Dark red... huge mirror, tiny bathroom.  

Seriously some red in this room!  The lights are starting to cover up the mirror because it's so huge!

Oh the wallpaper :/.  This little section is right in front of the toilet... really no way of hiding it.  The previous owners had painted over the wallpaper originally so that's where I got the idea to just add another coat ;). 



Picking a paint color was torture.  I wanted a nice light blue to open up the bathroom.  Really, I just love blue and I wanted a nice clean calm feeling in this small space.  After painting sections of the wall it was so hard to decide on a color.  After I painted the whole bathroom the color on the left it was way too blue... kind of a baby boy blue.  Not really what I was going for.  I don't know why choosing paint is so hard for me, but I decided to try again and repainted with a lighter blue ... this time with success!

Once the bathroom was painted Tiffany came over to help me put up the wainscoting.  I haven't really used power tools before so it was nice to have a friend to help me out.  Also, it gave Jeff a break and he also didn't have to step in and just do the project for me.  I don't think he would have, but I'm sure he would have been tempted.  It was fun to have my awesome friend there helping and making memories with me!


Here I am cutting one of the wainscoting pieces.  Look at me using the table saw!!!

After realizing I didn't have enough materials and going back to the store and even doing the tiny hall that led into the bathroom I was finally finished!  It was a longer process than I wanted, but it was so nice to have it done!  

Here is a side by side... really helps show off how different a few changes can make!

Look how much bigger it feels without the red.  It's so bright and clean!


This gives a better feel for the blue color.  I found this fun painting and figured it was a great piece to help tie the blue and darker tones together.  I just love it!


No more ripped wallpaper!  It's a miracle!  Well, not really, I know how it got fixed and I'm so proud of all of how well it all turned out! 

Now I really want to redo the master bath.  It is so plain and boring.  Time to keep the projects rolling forward.

Chefs in Training!

Sandra was in charge of dinner and had chosen lasagna.  We love to make lasagna!  I am there working through every step with her, but Sandra really enjoys cooking.  While she was working Clark and Lorna wanted to help.  She is so good and let them help.  She helped teach them how to stir the cheese sauce.  I spend so much time helping teach her different steps that it is so sweet when she teaches her little siblings!  She loves teaching them.  I love that Clark found the chef hat to wear too!  Seriously adorable!  Looks like all of this hard work is paying off ;)

Dinner sure was yummy too!




Adorable helpers!

Monday, August 24, 2015

More Piano!

With the start of school comes the starting of piano lessons again.  Sandra kept practicing on her own over the summer and even taught herself a new song.  She loves to learn the piano and is enjoying a new year of lessons with Miss Ashley. 

This year Mhari also is taking piano lessons!  Mhari is loving it and has been waiting all year for her turn to do piano!  She has kept up on her practicing and doing her theory book all on her own.  She is enthusiastic and loves learning from Miss Ashley.  I am excited to see her progress and learn a new skill this year!  

Yay for music!


Monday, August 17, 2015

1st Day of School!

The time came to start school again.  Summer break never seems long enough.  I can't say that we did anything really exciting, but it is nice to not have to worry about school work for a while :).  

Well, we were actually all ready to get going again so here we are starting another homeschool year!  
Talmage is a 7th grader
Grant is a 6th grader
Sandra is a 4th grader
Mhari is a 2nd grader and
Clark is in kindergarten!  

I switched up our math this year.  It has been amazing so far.  I got the program downloaded on the computers last week and Sandra had already done 5 lessons before we had even started school! 
I am looking forward to seeing Clark learn and grow and start reading.  They grow so much in kindergarten!  I love seeing all of the kids learn and grow.  Last night Jeff gave everyone back to school father's blessings.  It is a wonderful tradition and really helped bring the spirit as we start another year!  
I brought the camera out to recess.  I figured it would make for great back to school photos... rather than the posed ones :).

Sandra 

Talmage

Clark

Lorna ... can't wait to start school, but works with me on writing and colors and abc's etc :)

Mhari

The game the boys made up with one of the bike tires that doesn't stay on well...

 I think they were rolling it and then chasing it down...
 Go!

Grant

Back in the school room...
Sandra working on her writing.

Talmage

Mhari typing

Grant doing Grammar

Clark

Talmage helping Clark. 

Oh, and let's not forget that Lorna gets to be in the middle of it too!

I really am so lucky to get to homeschool our kids.  It is a blessing to our home and our children.  I love seeing them learn and getting to spend so much time together!  We were doing a question at dinner game the other day and one of the questions was how do you know your parents love you.  Talmage answered, "Because you homeschool us."  I love that they chose this and that we get to be in this school adventure together!  I really do homeschool because I love my kids!

Thursday, August 13, 2015

6 Flags Reading Fun!

We have been doing the 6 Flags Read to Succeed program for years now... and we are so grateful to get to do it!  This is the only way we have gone to 6 Flags, so it is our fun blessing for reading!  This is our last year with these 4 getting to go.  Next year Clark will get to join us and Talmage will age out.  He can still buy his own ticket, but he won't count in the reading program anymore. 

This was actually quite a crazy year trying to get to 6 Flags.  We usually plan it out and just go with friends or family.  This year by the time we had gotten to the park to meet up with the cousins the park had restarted their rides from being shut down from lightning in the area and the park was going to close in another hour.  Well, that was no good.  We decided we would come back in another day or so and just do it on our own.  At least we would have more time to ride than just doing 1 ride. 

Tiffany was so nice to take the 2 little kids so we could head out early and spend more time at the park! 

We rode so many rides it was awesome!  We rode the Texas Giant, Titan, Superman, Batman, Shock Wave, etc..  Everyone had a great time!  We were all exhausted when we were done too!

Group Selfie!


Talmage

Mhari and Me after Shock Wave!

Grant

Superman!

Going UP!

 Mhari and Me.  She was finally tall enough this year!  She was so excited!


Right before heading out we rode the swings.  It was a nice relaxing way to end the awesome fun day!

Looking forward to more fun and sharing with more kids!!  Until next summer 6 Flags!