What a blessing you could be?

we are so blessed by our church. i have never met a group of people so dedicated to discovering what a community truly is or leaders that guide us to it no matter how difficult the path is to get there. God left us the bible as a guide & here we attempt to apply it to every facet of life whether it seems impossible or not, because the bible is absolute truth. this has been my experience anyways. we're far from perfect, totally broken, but we are truly blessed to be a part of this family.

this friday night there is a benefit for one special little boy from our church.
meet joshua:

isn't he the cutest?? this sweetie was diagnosed with autism late last year. his family is trying to raise funds for an assistance dog through 4 Paws for Ability. this is a great organization that trains dogs specifically for each child with a particular need. their careful process comes with a pretty big price tag.
that's where the rest of us come in!

so come on down!!

Friday October 1st
Goshen Theater, Downtown Goshen
Silent Auction & Dessert
Event Starts at 5:00pm, Auction Winners Announced by 8:30pm


Some items up for Auction:
Hand made/painted Guitar
Colts Tickets
Manni/Peddi
Original Art
Photography Session
Catering From The Brew
Ecuadorian Jewelry
Furniture
Stamped Concrete
& More!!

Along with the Auction there will be a ton of decadent
homemade desserts that will drift
you off into a euphoric sugar coma!
Sugar coma for a cause!

If you can't make it out you can still donate!
Click here for online

Or mail checks to:
Downtown 808
216 S Main
Goshen, IN 46526
C/O Joshua's Dog

AND, the benfit is taking place during Goshen's First Fridays.
So there's tons of stuff to see & do downtown that evening!
yay!

couldn't write this better so i stole it from Rachel.   thanks chica!!!  see you all on friday!!!

 So as I look back I see that we started this kitchen in July.  OH my....it was built in a day, but the painting became difficult with the heat.  Then the dreaded Basement flooded and we had to move the thing back to the garage with everything else that we own....so here it is.  In a few stages.  Jackson and Avenlea loved it at Jack's party last night!!!  I am sure this might be the best 85 dollars we ever spent.  This will get used for years by both of our children. 

 certain parts were a little tricky....the oven door has a chance to be dangerous.. but it has proved quite sturdy.  As there have been many children standing on it. 

 many hours were spent to get it to look like this.  i have such a handy hubby.  I have always wanted the Pottery Barn kitchen for my kids...but I refuse to have a pink kitchen first and then second...seriously spending that much money is ridiculous (sorry if I am offending anyone who has purchased it for there kids).  But ours was just as cute and it cost us less than 100 dollars for everything. 

As you can see he loves it.  Can't wait to get our felt food from Mariah...but I am supporting her business by letting her use it for display at her craft bazaar in October.  Can't wait to get to play with it all.  I went through so many ideas of how to create or build our own kitchen and I am super happy that we made this one.  It turned out (in Jackson's words); perfect mama, my kitchen perfect!!!

basement pictures...take 1

our upstairs stairs got recovered...for those of you that remember
you are probably saying wow....those look so clean

then Avenlea's room. She will have some additions

coming in the future as we add her twin bed in

when she is ready but here it is until then

these letters will get covered here in the future...

one of the many little projects left to do. Super excited...

Playroom....

 A reading nook back in the new corner...toys neatly organized in baskets on the painted shelves, and a hint of the kitchen...that I am not ready to show you yet...it will be revealed in Jackson's party pictures. 

then Jackson's room:

Love how his room turned out.  Even the letters and shelf on his wall.  I have had his intials since we first decorated the nursery and they have never been displayed.  Love it.  There is a sweet picture that will be on his wall when the hanging system gets delivered and I have a story to tell with that too.  So till we have pictures of the family room and the kitchen reveal...we will see you all later..

Good morning!!!  I can finally say this...we have had two nights of our children sleeping a floor away from us.  Let me say it is good to finally get some good sleep.  For the most part uninterrupted.  Wow it has been a few years since I had two nights in a row.  I am sure it won't last...but we are enjoying it while it does. 


Three years ago on Friday September 7th, 2007, we got to finally bring our baby home from the hospital.  After almost a month in the NICU, four hours away from home and family and friends, we were able to start our life with our baby boy.  Who has continued to brighten our lives and keep us on our toes ever since.  Can't wait to celebrate his birthday tonight with our friends and some of our family.  He has been so patient since we had to cancel his party in August due to his high fever and then our house falling apart.  He woke up this morning and said mama  I awake and my party today.  Super cute.  Hope we are able to get a nap today with him so excited for his Handy Manny party. 

Update on the Basement:  We have carpet, the kids rooms are set up, playroom set up, a chair to sit on (the couches are still awaiting recovering haven't had time), so we are moving along.  We even had our first spill and our first dings on the walls.  That didn't take long right?  Touched up and dried up and we are moving along.  That is why we went with the stain guard pad right?  I will have pictures soon.  Spent yesterday at the hardware store and good thing we did.  I got 7 fabric baskets for my craft storage for 26 dollars...quite the steal for the size.  Regular price they would have been close 60 dollars.  So happy with that.  Big Shout out to Diann for helping me organize it all.  It is so nice to have everything have its own place.  We are gaining so much storage that we didn't have before.  I have loved using things in new places too.  IT has been so much fun and I am super excited to show you all how it turned out.  Just a few minor adjustments to be made before we show you.  My favorite is how we got lined curtain panels for our one big window downstairs for 8.50 a panel...and then adjusted them to work for what we wanted.  They turned out great.  Pictures soon I promise. 

Thank you to all our friends and family for there help and support as we went through this process.  Without the encouragement from afar, the physical help and the massive amounts of questions answered and advice, this all would have been difficult.  So Big hugs and Thanks to everyone. 

We are ready to kick back and party tonight with Jackson!!!  It is long overdue for all of us. 

On the home front

 ok after much deliberation...with my self...I decided to go with my original idea in Avenlea's room.  I fell in love with some fabric a long time ago and I have been pondering making her a quilt...I gave in a decided to make her some curtains.  GOT and absolute steal on the fabric....so this changed the whole decor of her room.  I have witnessed too many of my mommy friends not having much of a say in there kiddo's rooms once they are a little older so I decided to take advantage early.  I have been loving all the owl stuff here recently...so I am in the process of making a couple of owl pillows...fashioned after a few I found on etsy and in the anthropologie and pottery barn links.  Plus I had to take advantage of my friend Diann and her amazing freehand I might add, paintings.  isn't she fabulous. 

just a few more butterflies to go.  I tried my hand at one last night...it is pretty good, if I say so myself.  We are working hard on saving money on all of these decorating things...cuz you know....we just paid for basically a new basement.  So I am proud to say with Diann's help...we spent nothing on paint...used up some of the nursery colors by making our own.  It definitely got frustrating at times and down right funny others.  especially when I attempted to make a primary color out of non primaries.  I know, I know, you already now it didn't work...but it was a nice attempt right?  

The rest of our basement is coming along nicely.  We got the trim up last week and we are now doing some touch up painting.  on the trim and painting one of our built ins too, which is going to be toy storage.  Got some baskets today for a grand total of yes let me say it 15 dollars.  four of them!!!  and wait to you see them...they will just be perfect in the spot.  Already started sorting the toys into them.  I am also taking pictures so that Jackson can help put the toys away in there appropriate baskets. 

We also made the decision to carpet the stairs, after a very informative conversation with my sister in law.  I decided it was to risky to put wood in the entry.  The risk of just someones shoe with a stone destroying it made all the work not worth it.  So we are carpeting both flights.  We remembered we had a remnant from when we moved in for the upstairs ones...and yes wait for it...it was JUST THE RIGHT SIZE!!!  GOtta love that when it happens.  I am starting to feel the tides shifting, we might be in for less gloomy times ahead.  So as the lists start to get smaller and smaller...we scheduled the rest of the carpet to be put in next Thursday. 

On the preschool front....HE LOVES IT!!! he gets excited to go and he has been doing so much.  HE is clearer when he talks, and he has started eating alot of things.  I am going to cry when I write this...but he ate Chicken last night with no gagging and even asked for more.  WE have eaten up to 10 grapes at a time and he is always wanting what everyone else is having.  I am thinking we might not have to wait until his graduation Grandma Corrine, before you get to fix him one of his favorite meals.  HE has even started to try to drink out of a cup.  Preschool, all though not really extremely challenging to Jack in the normal school stuff....has been an amazing motivation in the speech therapy realm.  I don't think I could have asked for anything better!!!  The unfortunately news is that Jackson is going to have to have another surgery.  HE has had bone growing over the plates in his legs for about 6 months now and the Doc's say we can't wait any longer.  We got a second opinion and both docs agree...So on September 29th we will be headed down for yet another surgery.  WE are happy to share this one will NOT include a cast.  only a few days of no jumping or falling in Jackson's case.  Low key activities for a couple of weeks. 

That is about it.  Looking forward to unloading the garage and setting up our new basement family/play rooms and we will get pictures up as soon as it is ready.