A Home Decor Post?

A midst all the craziness lately, I managed to get a few little projects done to make our new house feel a little more home-y.  Actually I started them a couple months ago, but life happened (as it is known to do) and I couldn't finish them til the other day.  I was proud of myself so I decided to share here on the blog.

Believe me, I am no interior decorator or blogger who has beautiful pictures of projects and step by step.  I am just excited about what I did in the kids playroom. Lol 

The playroom was pretty bland and boring.  We had two big white cabinets in there that are used to store home school materials, toys and other things. The walls are white, and there were no curtains on the windows...  

I found some hot pink and lime green curtains and decided to try them, not knowing if I was really gonna like them. They turned out okay and may end up going eventually. But, they work for now....

So I decided to paint the cabinets multi-colored....from a decorating idea book I had. Plus I didn't want to make it too girly or pink because the boys didn't appreciate that. Justin was a great little helper! The other boys helped paint the cabinets as well...I just didn't get pics.

 Then we covered the paint with some sparkly Disney clear coat (shimmering glitter paint).  You can't see it in the picture, but it looks kinda cool. Throw on some Mickey Mouse & company stickers and call it good!  

Here's another few angles of the room.  The door in the shot below opens to the boys rec room. They have a little foosball table, legos, etc plus the puppies sleep in there.

The two pictures above show a shelf that my handy hubby built. It was originally built to have cubbies and hooks for school stuff plus hold books. Now it's multipurpose and works great in the playroom.  Mark is pretty handy to have around most of the time.  :)  Can you see my sweet puppies in the picture?

The girls have their kitchen set in there plus all the baby dolls they could ever need. Lol  You can also see the curtains in this pic.  The trampoline has been around a couple years now and was the best $140 we ever spent. Inside in winter and outside in the summer.  That thing has seen alot of use!   

 My other little project was the chalkboard/magnet board you see between the cabinets.

They have a lot of fun with it, but it's not quite finished yet...I'm waiting on  Mark to make the frame so it can hang on the wall.  

For the board:  All I did was buy 2 boards the same size from Home Depot. One was already chalkboard sided (although you can also just buy chalkboard paint) and the other was just basically particle board. Can't remember exactly what Home Depot called it, but both boards were 2' x 4' and about 1/4 " thick. Used some wood glue to glue them together, painted the magnetic paint on one side, then covered it with the silver metallic paint to make it prettier. The chalkboard on the opposite side...obviously.  You are welcome to comment on this post if you want more details.

 

The picture below shows a magnetic spray paint, but I don't recommend it.  I ended up having to buy another type of magnetic paint that I rolled on.  It worked great, and the spray paint didn't so much.

Magnetic roll on paint.

This is the Disney shimmering glitter paint we used on the cabinets and the magnetic primer we rolled on for the magnet board.

Oh and just a cute picture of Justin playing on one of the swings.  He and all the girls absolutely LOVE to play on them...so do the big boys if they can get away with it. Behind him is the playroom.  :)

Oh, by the way....

Our playroom NEVER looks that clean! I took those pictures on a day that all the other kids were in school and I had just cleaned it.  

I wanted to mention that lest you think my house looks that way all the time. NOT!! 

Well it's already February! We haven't had much snow and the weather has been really warm for winter in Colorado. Yesterday we finally got a bit of snow, but not enough for our poor dry state.  We definitely need some moisture to avoid more forest fires this summer... 

The girls have enjoyed the warmer weather and being able to get outside a little bit to play...

 And to talk...

And dig in the dirt.

The boys have loved getting to ride the horses more, and always of course the four wheelers and dirt bikes. Sorry no dirt bike pics. Sam has a dirt bike, but it just makes me too nervous to photograph.  Lol

The girls absolutely LOVE riding, too!  

To add to our busy family life, Samuel is playing basketball and we've been trying to make it to all his games when possible. Daniel has been managing the girls basketball team (7th grade), and recently started wrestling so we'll be adding that to our schedule soon as well. 

One of our favorite things has always been watching our kids in all their activities/sports which have traditionally been football and wrestling. Samuel has chosen to play basketball this winter instead of wrestle, so it will be something new for us. He is doing great as a freshman and plays on the JV team.  Of course basketball is my sport so I have enjoyed "coaching" him from the sidelines.  

Here's just a few more random favorite pics.

Love these silly girls!  They are all doing well and staying healthy for the most part this winter.  They LOVE school and apparently adored by everyone there. But then again, who couldn't adore these faces??

I would like to ask all of you for prayers for my family.  My father just recently had surgery for a blocked intestine.  He is 79 and does pretty darn well for his age, but became septic during his surgery and is now in ICU on a ventilator. He is slowly making progress, but not out of the woods yet. Also, please pray for my mom.  She was recently diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer (breast cancer from 2001 returned) and had been trying to cope with all that when this happened with my father.  

He is the most wonderful loving kind man and a precious soul!  My mom is so loving and caring and giving and would do anything for anyone in need.  She has had a tough time and needs prayers for strength and peace and healing for both of them.  Thank you so much!

This is my sweet dad loving on Madalyn after her open heart surgery.  

And this is my mom talking to Madalyn before her OHS and then with all the girls.  I love both my parents so much and it is so very difficult to see them in pain. 

Adoption. Is It For You?

 Have you ever considered adopting a child?  If so, what stopped you if you didn't take those steps toward the adoption process? 

There are many roads to adoption. For some, it may be doing foster care.  For others, it may be adopting a healthy infant domestically. And for still others, it may be that they feel called to adopt a waiting child from another country or a child with special needs. 

It's totally worth doing some research to see what might be the right path for you and your family.  Anyway, I thought I would share a few sweet faces who need a family to call their own.

Is it even possible to resist some of these precious faces??

Above is a sibling group of 6!  They are listed in Colorado. They look like adorable kids and what a lot of fun it would be to add this bunch to your family!! Click on the link to find out more.

http://theadoptionexchange.org/child-adoption-profile.cfm?ChildID=10627

This sibling group is in Nevada...Maria, Michael and Nathaniel.  Aren't they beautiful?  Click on the link for more info.

http://adoptuskids.org/_app/child/viewp.aspx?id=40167

The next 3 children have Down syndrome.  Obviously our family has a special love for children with that extra chromosome.  Maybe you think, "oh that's great for you, but not for me."  But I say, "Try it!! You will be blessed more than you could ever imagine and you don't know what you are missing!"

This is Leanne. She is in China. I met this little girl in 2012 when we were in her province to adopt our Emilee. She is super cute and smart, too!

Here is a video I took of her. Pretty cute!  

http://reecesrainbow.org/48172/leanne

And this little guy is in the same city as Leanne.  He looks super smart.  What a handsome fellow!  I do have another picture of him as well for anyone who is interested.   

http://reecesrainbow.org/48170/boden

I love Yvonne!!!  She is "older" but sounds like the perfect child!  :)  Would love to bring this sweet one home myself if it was possible.    

http://reecesrainbow.org/58689/yvonne

If you are considering international adoption, there are many countries that you could adopt from and many different types of children!  All these countries have different and varying requirements for the adopting family.  Please research because I am sure you can find a country that will match your family's needs!  And there are so many beautiful kids needing and desperately wanting a mommy or a daddy or both!  :)

Here's one link that can help start you on the path to figure out what country might be best for you.

http://reecesrainbow.org/new-family/international-programs

Or try this one...

http://www.rainbowkids.com/countries/

Ok, here are just a couple more kids from the USA.  

Many children who are in foster care in the US end up "aging out" of the system.  This means they turn 18 and in many cases are handed a few items or nothing at all and sent out on their own.  They never have a family to call their own, no one to come home to at Thanksgiving, no one to help pay for college or tell them how to fill our a job application.  Even if a kid is already a teen doesn't mean they dont want or NEED a family!!!  

Meet Andrew.  He is a teenager who just wants a family and a sister. A sister!! Make sure you go to the link and watch his video.  Beware...it may jerk on your heart strings.  But don't be scared.  Teenagers are awesome!  They are just big kids who still need to know they are loved! 

http://theadoptionexchange.org/child-adoption-profile.cfm?ChildID=7015

And lastly, meet Desta!  She is a ninth grader and sounds like a pretty typical teen and a very caring individual. Both her and Andrew are located in Colorado.  

http://theadoptionexchange.org/child-adoption-profile.cfm?ChildID=10640

If you want to find out more about the waiting kids in any of the US states, please visit

www.adoptuskids.org 

It is a great site with loads of info about adoption.  

Please prayerfully consider adopting a child.  :)  It may be the best thing you ever do...

New Year New Beginnings

Wow a new year 2014! I am always amazed at how fast the last year flies by!  I'm not sure why that is...  I guess I think it should slow down somehow, but it never does.  

This was the first holiday season in our new house. Yay! We'd been in a house in town with neighbors all around for the last 10 years. We liked living in town for the most part. We had nice neighbors and the kids enjoyed playing with all the neighbor children. Plus I like paved streets/no rough and dusty country roads. But it's just not the same as living in the country.

Before town we were out in the country in a small house with our 2 older boys and 2 little ones. We had a few dogs, a couple horses and a herd of cows. It's where we began our journey with foster care.

We loved the country life and the older boys enjoyed playing in the hills behind our house and swimming in the pond. We even had ducks!  The boys have fond memories of that place. Feeding cows in the winter, branding calves in the spring with friends, playing cowboys or whatever boys do in the woods, riding their bikes up and down the county roads, playing with cousins, and swimming in the pond. It was great!

We eventually had to sell our cows, and we moved into town as the boys were entering high school. As our family grew, we knew we needed a bigger house.

Now we are back in the country but sort of close to town, too. It is a really nice combination of country but close to the conveniences of town.  We finally have our horses back with us which is really exciting! The boys love to ride and can literally walk out the front door and grab a horse.  And as soon as it gets a little warmer, the girls will be doing more riding as well.

Ok well I didn't exactly mean to get off on that tangent.  Ha! But it was fun to go back through the old pictures! 

We are just really excited to now be where we believe God has opened the door toward a dream He gave us years ago. We were never in a position to put it all together before. Well I take that back, it just wasn't His timing. He gave us the vision...call it a sneak peak into the future.  We didn't even totally understand it all back then. It's always in His time that these things happen, and that lesson is a hard one to learn sometimes.  We had to go through a whole lot of refining and growing (literally as a family).  Only God knows what our next steps will be. But I'm here to tell you we are open and ready and listening for His will and waiting for His direction and timing.

And that makes things all the more exciting! 

God gives us dreams a size too big, so that we can grow into them!  But more importantly, we learn to trust Him and His timing, so we begin to understand that we can't accomplish those dreams without Him!