That's My Baby!!

Charissa and I stopped in at a thrift store on the way down to Charlotte while Britt was in a meeting. Since bargain shopping is a passion of mine, it was a lot of fun. It was also a lot of fun because Charissa is my own personal doll that I get to put ridiculous hats on. Although it doesn't seem that she minds too much.
How beautiful is my child? I could just kiss her little cheeks all day! And it appears that her Nana thinks Charissa makes a good doll too. Nana bought Charissa a turkey headband that she surprisingly didn't mind and wore for a long time. Isn't she a cute little turkey?

We hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving break as much as we did ours!

Two Great Books

Another reason why I haven't been blogging lately is because I've been working on Christmas presents. My goal was to have all my presents done by Thanksgiving (bought/made and wrapped), but I still have a few to go. I would say I'm 90% done though - which is still amazing! Britt and I started looking for houses in the middle of October, so I had a feeling that we would be moving in December and that wouldn't make Christmas preparations very easy.

I made a lot of my gifts this year, and there are two books that I want to recommend to you. The first is Better Homes and Gardens Gifts to Make. It has tons of ideas, and most of them are very affordable and easy.

The second book is Simply Handmade: 365 Easy Projects for Every Occasion. In this book, they arrange their ideas by season and they have some really cool decorating ideas.

I would tell you what projects I did, but some of the people I'm giving them to read this blog so that just wouldn't be a very smart idea.

I checked both of these books out of the local library. (And by the way - use your local library more. The library has so many cool things there and such great resources!) Actually, I checked out like 8 books on gifts and crafts, but these two are my favorite.

Don't despair with Christmas coming up - presents can be both affordable and fun! I certainly had fun working on all my projects, and I'm really looking forward to giving them.

House Update

Sorry for the long absence from blogging ... we've had some changes occur in our lives.

That's right. We're not getting that house. We had an inspection done on the house, and discovered it needed a completely new roof, repairs on the foundation, new siding, a completely new heating and cooling system, the driveway needed to be fixed and some other "minor" repairs. So after hearing that list we decided the wisest thing to do would be to bow out. God was very gracious to us by not letting us go through with it and then find out all those things.

But there is good news! We got a new house! Here it is:



It's not a great picture because I took it from my car. But that's it! It's a 4 bedroom ranch and it's pretty cute. And get this - it's right next door to the Sylvesters! How amazing is that?! The sovereignty of God is so fascinating to watch. So we're pretty excited. :)

We are closing on the house Friday, December14th and we're planning to move on the 15th. We're actually going to do a joint move with the Sylvesters, so any and all help is much appreciated! Even if you can't lift stuff (or don't want to) we could use help unpacking or watching the babies. Also, if you have boxes that you can lend us or let us have, that would be great!

We're excited to see how God is going to work through us in our new neighborhood!

Piles of Laundry

That's ridiculous. One little girl's laundry. This picture doesn't even do it justice. Piles and piles of clothing. And so many socks! She just has two feet!! Actually, today was the first time that I lost a sock. I looked and I looked and I looked ... the laundry machines really must have ate it.

Someone please tell me that children create less laundry as they get older!