Cousins

A couple of weeks ago John's sister Kelly and her three girls were in to visit from Michigan! We do not get to see them often, they have been in Michigan for a little over a year and before that they lived out of the country in Albania for eight years. In a few weeks, they will be moving once again to California!!



Here is Ayla and her cousins, Maggie, Madison and Morgan. Madison and Morgan are twins! I just love this picture, it turned out so well!! Normally Ayla runs from the camera when I have it out!



Ahh.. .now the picture is complete with Brennan (Kaleb was out of town)... it was so funny, he loved sitting on Maggie's lap and was soaking up all of the attention the girls were giving him. Oh, I think he is definitely going to be a ladies man!!


Maggie and Brennan



Maggie didn't want to leave because Brennan was loving on her so much!!

This is John and his sister. Don't they look like twins?


Family picture with the parents. (Grandma and Grandpa) I thought this picture turned out so well, so I wanted to add it. We are just missing Kevin, John's brother, he was not over on this day. It was so good to see Kelly and the girls, I wish we could have spent more time with them, the week was over way too fast!

Happy Birthday Sis

Yesterday was my "little" sister's birthday so I wanted to say Happy Birthday to Amy and post a few pictures of the Birthday Girl!! Usually we are at the beach every year on Amy's birthday so it was nice to celebrate with her this year!






This is Amy and her husband John, otherwise known as "Dunc"

Don't they make a beautiful couple!

Aunt Amy and Brennan

Me, Brennan, Amy and Tiny (Amy's mom, my stepmom)


The sisters!! Don't we BOTH look 27. Ha-I wish!!!!! To be 27 again...

Ayla Update

SO FAR SO GOOD!!!!!!!

We are on week three of the Enbrel injections and we have been very pleased with the results thus far! The swelling in her knee is down and she can almost straighten her right arm all the way out! She is walking and running more than she ever has, in fact she walked around our subdivision a few days ago which is a half of a mile. That is awesome for her considering other times she has asked to be carried because her feet hurt.


In addition to the Enbrel, she is still getting Methotrexate injections as well so we just do them both on the same night. One injection in the right thigh and one in the left.

She is becoming quite the trooper. She knows when Daddy puts the emla cream(topical numbing cream) on (which she calls lotion) that she will be getting her medicine. Most of the time when John gets ready to do the injection, I can keep her attention and she doesn't even feel the shot. She cries a little bit, but nothing that a chocolate chip cookie can't cure!!! After her injection, she always says, "That medicine will make me feel better" and then she adds, "Thank you Daddy". John and I will just look at each other trying to hold back tears, it just breaks our hearts. She has such a sweet spirit, especially with everything she has been through!


I mean seriously though , look at this face, she know's she can get what she wants on medicine night (like the car she is on in the previous pictures) Um hum, oh yes, she is catching on QUICK!

Happy Fathers Day!

I hope everyone had a happy Father's Day!!!


Can you say wrapped around your finger!!!!!!!! Ayla is definitely a daddy's girl. With one bat of the eye, she gets anything that she wants!!! She has learned at an early age that all she has to do is ask Daddy!!!!


Brennan is a little replica of his father!

He is definitley on the move all of the time just like daddy! He loves cars and trains and most recently pushing Ayla's baby dolls around in her strollers. It's okay, I am sure it is just a phase-HA!

I hope everyone enjoyed their father's day as much as we did. Thank you John for being an amazing father to our children! We love you very much!

I love faces-sepia tones

I thought I would enter a photo in this week's contest at

The category this week is sepia tone pictures . This is one of my favorite pictures of Ayla! It was one of the first ones I took after getting my new camera at Christmas!!!!

The weekend is over??

And someone should tell me that so is the month of APRIL!!!!!!



The weekends just do not last long enough!! And according to my calendar, I am still stuck in April..lol.. Okay well, I was so inspired by every one's bathrooms last week that I went to Homegoods on Friday evening and found these



aren't they fabulous!! I have never seen black and white monogrammed towels before, and they had a "W'', and they have polka dots!! What more could a girl ask for!!! I had originally gone to Homegoods to look for a black and white "damask" shower curtain. I saw a couple in the bathroom tours last week and I MUST have one now!!! So far no luck in the search but I did find these at Homegoods as well



and they look great in my kitchen. I love anything with color, and these bottles caught my eye and they were cheap so it was a win-win situation!!!


While we are talking about good deals, I went to a couple of yard sales on Saturday morning and found this Lilly Pulitzer monkey dress for only three dollars!!!!



Isn't it the cutest?



The best find was Ayla's baby doll. She LOVES, LOVES baby dolls and thinks she needs a new one every time we go into a store!! I paid two dollars for this one and it looks just like a newborn baby.... it has the wrinkled skin, a baby hospital bracelet on and I found out after I got it home that it is definitely a "BOY". Yes it comes complete with the male anatomy! Ayla has not discovered that yet! You can tell that it was an expensive baby doll at one point so two dollars was not bad, especially since it is in perfect condition!!




I also wanted to show you this dress that I found on Etsy. Isn't is beautiful?? I am in love with Matilda Jane clothes although it is impossible to buy any. They sold out in thirty minutes a couple of weeks ago on line. So I found this knot dress and it reminded me of Matilda Jane and I love it. The designer did a great job and the quality is awesome!! I would love to buy a few more of her items, I think I am going to have her make me a pair of matching ruffle capris!!
Here is the link to her store, Kissing Kumquats, check it out, I am sure you will love it!!




Okay, well I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Show Us Where You Live Friday-Bathrooms

You know what time it is!!!! It is show us where you live Friday and this week it is time to tour bathroom's.
Head on over to Kelly's Corner and enjoy all of the other home tour's.

This is the main bathroom and it was the very first room that we remodeled when we moved in. We decided to remodel every room because when we bought our house the inside was still stuck in the 70's, (green shag carpets included)which is when our house was originally built! It has been fun to do and John loves remodeling and has even flipped a few houses on the side.

We chose to use black marble for the floors, so my husband went ahead and tiled the top of the vanity with the black marble as well.


We painted the walls a light grey (that is in the marble), although it does look darker in these pictures.


This is the children's lovely "FROG" that holds their bath toys, soap and shampoo!!

To do something a little different, John put this rainforest waterfall showerhead in mounted from the ceiling!


This is our "little" bathroom that is in our bedroom. Again, I wanted to add color to the small space so we chose this gold paint and have been happy with it. At our previous house, everything was beige and white, so we decided to add different "colors" to different rooms.

Okay this used to be our "master bathroom" but it is now our teenage son's bathroom. Our bedroom used to be downstairs before we had the "little ones". It was just too far away from the babies so we decided to move back upstairs and take Kaleb's room and he got the huge bedroom and bathroom downstairs.


This was originally the laundry room and a bathroom all together, so John put a wall up and separated the laundry room from the bathroom. Everything is tiled, from the floors to the ceilings!!

He even made me a little makeup area!! Okay, that does it for our bathrooms!! Thanks so much for stopping by!! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Another driver in the family...

Guess what, there is a NEW driver in the family!!!!!!!!!


and even though this car is the right SIZE for Ayla, and she is smart and all, um, she is not driving YET!!!

But......
Last Thursday, I took Kaleb my 15, almost 16 year old son to take his lerner's test. He studied ONE whole day for the test and I just knew that he wasn't going to pass. When he walked out with a HUGE smile on his face after the test, I knew that he passed!! Of course I should have known, he is the type that can make good grades with out a whole lot of effort. If he applied himself and actually studied, he would be making straight A's in school. He is always on the honor roll, but he could be doing so much better... But anyway, that is another day and another post



He was so happy and for the next thirty minutes he was texting all of his friends with the good news. I was happy and sad at the same time. My baby is growing up and in two short years he will be graduating from highschool. I guess you could say that we grew up "together" and we have always had a very special bond. I could not have asked for a better son, he is loved by everyone that knows him!

And so the FUN begins........

Please pray for me as I begin teaching him to drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!