Welcome Home

A week and a half ago marked our one year anniversary of living in our home.  I wanted so badly to get this post up on the exact date but life got too busy that day, and the next, and the next.  Heck, it's amazing I'm getting the post up now.  I felt very nostalgic that day.  I kept thinking about how hard it was to say goodbye to my St. Louis family.  My heart ached for every person on our anniversary day.  It's funny how even the people that we weren't super close with, felt like our family.  I was so excited to come here to Tallahassee but it was incredibly hard to say goodbye to the most wonderful, life-long friends I've ever had.  St. Louis was so good to us and will always be a wonderful, cherished time of our lives to remember.  

Living in Tallahassee has been wonderful.  I cannot get over the incredible weather we have here year round.  I find myself saying almost every day that it feels like paradise.  I guess I'll always be a Southern girl at heart which means I love flip flops and shorts.  Good thing I live in Florida.  The people we've met here are so genuine and kind.  It feels like home here for sure.  I am loving being so close to my parents, too.  We've made wonderful friends and are feeling so happy to be in the Sunshine State.

So, here's a glimpse into some of the rooms in our house.  I didn't photograph every room because some are just completely bare or weren't clean when I took the pictures.  Haha!  I didn't take any of the outside, just for safety reasons.  The first room here is Jenna's nursery.  Daniel has been sleeping in there since we moved in.  We tried to get him in the bunk bed but with no luck.  Finally, about two weeks ago, we told him that his crib was broken and he had to sleep in the big bed from now on.  It worked like a charm.  He doesn't even ask for his crib anymore.  Jenna is loving being out of the pack and play and getting to sleep in a real crib.

I really love how Jenna's nursery turned out.  It's soft and simple and just feel delicate.  It's funny how every piece of the room has a special meaning to me.  The crib was a hand-me-down from my brother and sister-in-law that we've had for all of our kids.  I love that the first time I took my baby girl home, (Anna), I put her in this crib.  It has now survived all four kids and is still holding up.

The rocker is one we bought in St. Louis and recovered ourselves.  My mom helped me do it.  It used to look like a true glider, with wood showing, but we took some batting and covered the wood and then made a slip cover.  I wanted it to look more like a piece of real furniture.  I still haven't finished it completely but it works for now.

I love the "I am a Child of God" saying in her room.  I hope she always remembers who she is and how much her Father in Heaven loves her.  I had to add her blessing picture too, of course.  ;-)

I love this baby quilt I found.  It is so soft and elegant.  Josh cannot understand why we needed some of these little touches but don't worry, I assured him that a woman's touch will always make it feel more like home.

I made Jenna's monogram.  I bought a jigsaw and went to work.  It took quite a bit of time, but I love how it turned out.  Not perfect, for sure, but that's life.

My sweet, sweet friend Kathy made this for Jenna's room before she was born.  She had no idea that these were her nursery colors.  It could not have fit the room more perfectly.  I LOVE it.

One thing I really like about our house is that every closet has tons of built ins.  They're so helpful in keeping our stuff organized.

I love the clear knobs for her room.  It is the jewelry of her nursery.

This changing table was brown but we painted it white and added the knobs.  I love how crisp and clean it looks now.

Andrew and Daniel's room was so fun to put together.  Funny story though, we had their bunk bed and dresser delivered to our house the day after we moved in.  Josh and I were out buying mattresses that day and my mom was here taking care of things at home.  We told her which room to have them put it in.  She said they were here for hours putting it together.  I was shocked that it took so long.  Anyways, when we came home, we came to the conclusion that we should actually have the bunk beds in the OTHER kid room.  Ahh!  So, my sweet, sweet, SWEET husband kindly took it apart to fit it through the doorway and then had to put it back together in the room next door.  He didn't even complain about it.  I felt so bad, but it honestly worked better in the second room.

I LOVE this airplane.  I found it long before we moved in but waited until we got here to buy it.  I love how it looks hanging from the ceiling.  Andrew is obsessed with airplanes, so it fits his room just right.

These bookshelves were hard for me to decorate.  They stayed empty for months.  Slowly but surely, I finally filled them up and am happy with the result.

I thought for a long time about what to put on these shelves and then I realized, I need to put some things on there that have great meaning to us.  So, this picture is of Josh's grandma, Grandma Nancy.  Her husband, Sterling, was in the Air Force.  They were living in England and one day she was at the grocery store and as she walked into the store, she saw one of the planes go down and crash.  She thought to herself, "Oh, there goes another one."  She felt so sad about it.  Little did she know that it was her own husband, her Sterling, in that plane.  He died in that crash.  She had to leave England the very next day, with her first child being two years old and she being eight months pregnant, all without her dear husband.  Josh said that when Grandma Nancy told him this story, she got chocked up because it is still hard for her to think about him after all this time because of how much she loved him.  What a love story!  This picture has so much meaning to our family.

This is a picture of my grandparents on my dad's side.  I love all of my grandparents so much.  I grew up with both sets of grandparents in my hometown.  I knew all of them very well and miss them so much.  I tell Josh all the time how I wish they could have known him and our kids.  They would all have loved one another, for sure!  I am so grateful for the knowledge that we will see them again one day.  Death is not the end.

Here is a picture of Josh's mom, Lynn.  Lynn died when Josh was just eight years old, Lynn being only thirty-one years old herself.  Josh just turned thirty-one a couple of weeks ago.  It is baffling to us that her life ended so young.  I know it sounds crazy because I never knew her but in a way, I feel like I've mourned her death too because I never got to meet her.  I know she was a woman of faith and a woman who fiercely loved her five children.  Anna is named after Josh's mom, with "Lynn" being her middle name.  I like having this picture of her in our home because it feels like we have a piece of her here with us always.

Josh got me this picture for my birthday last year.  It is where we got married seven and a half years ago.  We got our names put on it.  I love how it turned out!

We love this table and have had it for most of our marriage.  However, we hardly fit here anymore because our family is growing so big.  ;-)

These pictures are kind of yellow but I promise our cabinets are white.  Ha!

This is our piano/reading room.  We send the kids in here every day to have some independent reading time.  This way Mommy can have some independent Mommy time.  Win.  Win.

I love this little rocking chair.  When my Granddaddy was a young father, he saw a rocking chair that was about this size that he wanted to buy for his kids.  He was really poor though and couldn't afford the $8 chair.  He told the clerk that he would bring him one dollar every week until he had enough to take it home.  He went to the store every week and brought a one dollar bill, and on the 8th week, he was so excited to bring it home to his children.  That little rocking chair stayed in his house until he died.  All of his children and grandchildren got to use that rocking chair, (and heard the story about it probably a million times).  When my Granddaddy started having great grandchildren, he wanted each of his great grandchildren to have a rocking chair of their own.   Anna and Andrew have theirs.  We still haven't bought Daniel's and Jenna's but before he died, he made sure there was money put away so that every grandchild would have a rocking chair to remind them of their great granddaddy.  I miss him very, very much.

I started taking piano lessons again with someone in my ward.  My progress is slow but I really am loving it.  I always wish I was better than I am, but I'm trying to just stick with it because I know if I do, one day, in the very distant future, I'll be good enough to play in front of people and not be embarrassed.  It's such a fun outlet for me.  I've started teaching Anna just a little and she loves it.  She always asks me to teach her more and loves to show off what she knows.  I'm so grateful she has such a desire to learn.

Here is Anna's room.  I love this quote on her wall from the new Cinderella movie.  "Have courage and be kind.  Where there is kindness, there is goodness and where there is goodness, there is Magic."

This picture was nearly impossible to capture but we did and I love it.  I also love the "beYOUtiful" sign above the frame.

Here is our playroom.  I love having a room that I can keep all the toys in.  However, at any given moment of the day, there are  tons of toys in every room of the house.  With that being said, I'm grateful I can at least throw them all in here and shut the door.

These shelves are kind of hidden in the room and I love that.  However, this room is rarely clean so I guess it doesn't matter too much.  It's a play room, though.  It's supposed to be messy.  ;-)

I framed the kids' artwork here and love how it turned out.  They are so proud of their masterpieces.  Jenna is the only one not represented here.  I think I'm going to add her hand prints right under the "456".  She needs her art displayed too, of course.

I found these large paper mache letters at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them red.  It's supposed to say, "READ" but they were out of the "A".  I check back all the time for the A but it hasn't come in yet.  I figure, we can always just hang it up and let it say "red" instead.  It works, right?

Well, there you have it folks.  There is our humble home.  I love all of our memories here so far and am excited for the ones we have waiting to be made.