Gorgeous Rainbow

 One night at dinner we had the most amazing, vibrant rainbow. These pictures are good but don't give justice to the beauty God gave us that evening.

Sweet Notes

 The girls go through phases where they write each other notes on their napkins at dinner time. And some nights it just frustrates me because dinner is ready and instead of setting the table like they should be, they are busy writing notes. Frustrated yes, but equally touched with what they write to each other. Brandon took a picture of his napkin one night.

Analise went to work with Brandon one evening. While he worked, she created this flower picture with reasons why she loved it. I made it bigger, but it's still hard to read those reason. Regardless, it's something he will always remember.
She wrote:
You give me candy
you play the Wii with me
You give me birthday and Christmas presents
You play with me
You take me to demolition derby
you take me hunting with you
you love me

After reading the list, it's pretty obvious what her love language is. :)

Spring Break

 Spring break was in mid March. And I will be blunt - I had myself a short-lived pity party. I'll be real with ya. I had really wanted to get home with the girls. However, schedules didn't allow, and I am too chicken to drive 15 hours by myself with the girls. So we were stuck in Kearney. And the cousins would be gone. In addition to that, we'd been invited to Estes Park with good friends, but we had to turn that down due to Brandon's work schedule. This all added up to my pity party. Once that was over I was determined to make it a good week for us. We had some fun things along the way.

Tabitha and Jesse stopped by to see the girls. 

Tessa came by later in the week to see us, too.

Brandon was able to get away from the office on Weds. We took a family trip to Lincoln; it was just what I (we all) needed.

We went to St. Elizabeth's to eat lunch with Grandpa. This was a special time to be back at the hospital where Sadie was born. We enjoyed time in the cafeteria reminiscing what it had been like five years ago. We also went to Grandpa's office to see where he is working these six months. 

After leaving his office we went up to the 4th floor to see who was working. I was able to see Annie, one of my nurses from my 9 weeks there. 

We then tortured the girls with a little bit of shopping. However, we made up for it by taking them to an indoor park/inflatables place called Lost in Fun.

It was a hit for all five of  us! I loved seeing and hearing Brandon enjoy it as much as I did the girls. He needed this break more than anyone.

 I spy three cute girls...

 It might be blurry, but it's proof that I was in there jumping, too!

After we wore the girls out there, we ran to Kohl's, and then we finished with dinner at Famous Dave's.

I was so thankful for this family day right in the middle of our week!

Sadie is Five

 Here is the birthday girl! Five already - how can that be?

We had waffles for breakfast that morning; I believe I tried a new recipe.

We had our family party that Saturday for lunch. I made "Chick-fil-A" sandwiches complete with homemade buns. We also had fruit salad and waffles fries. Our bonus at this family party was having Sarena and Danny there.

 My baby and me

 Sadie loved getting new cars from her cousins

 And what 5 year old doesn't want a new ball?

 New stamps and ink from A. Sarena

 Sadie's wish list consisted of what she hears her older sisters say - i pad, i pod, camera...thankfully she also had bike on that list. Much more appropriate for a 5 year old.

 She loves her new bike!

 Sadie wanted an Orca cake. Orca - what child asks for that? Only one who remembers how much she loved them at Sea World. 

This is what I came up with, and for me, I was pleased.

 And she was, too. Phew!

 Her cousin wrote her a sweet note on her new Boogie Board.

 Maisie snuggling with U. Derek

 Later in the afternoon Sadie opened more gifts. This is what we got her;  it's hard shopping for the third girl.

 Grandmom and Pops sent some new clothes and Lego sets. All three girls love Lego sets!

 Sadie reached the age for her first friend's party. I kept with tradition and went with the mother/daughter tea party. Needless to say, she was beyond excited. She loved getting the table set for her friends. Analise was a big help getting ready, too. Later that night I wrote her a note in our journal thanking her for her help. She later wrote back and asked me if it was worth all the work getting ready for that party. Why yes it was!

 Sadie chose this scrapbook paper that I used for place mats.

 Cookies and cream cupcakes from scratch topped with homemade frosting. Mmm!

 After her four friends played and had tea, I had someone come in with pottery to paint. I think all the girls enjoyed the painting, and they turned out to be really cute keepsake boxes.

 Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to crank out these place cards rather quickly.

Sadie, it was simply a delight to celebrate you this year. Another year full of God's blessing on your health and development. You have grown a lot this year; you love school and look forward to it each day. You don't get so nervous when I leave you anymore. You keep up with your sisters and have to do whatever they are doing. You have the funniest facial expressions. I love how you help me and others, and I am thankful you love Jesus. I can't wait to celebrate more with you.

Make Over Making Me Happy

 I'll be honest; I wish I could have a bigger house. Another couple of bedrooms, more storage and bigger kitchen are a few dreams of mine. However, at this point in our lives, that simply isn't a reality. Since that option was out, I really, really wanted to repaint some of my main floor. But where to begin and end? I also wanted some new furniture. We  had been blessed with handy me down furniture, and we appreciated it. But after several years I wanted something new. 

My parents gave me some money at Christmas to put towards a new loveseat. We looked for some in January, couldn't agree or really know what we wanted...so we paused for a month and then started talking about it again. We both knew that for us to be the happiest in the long run, we would get the matching leather loveseat. But it was just too expensive to justify it. One Saturday afternoon after looking and discussing our options again, I called Mrs. B's - the discount store for Nebraska Furniture Mart where we had gotten the other pieces. I asked if they happened to have the loveseat to our set. They did not; however, they had the full sofa....at a great price! SOLD!

That was so exciting we began looking at paint colors. After more discussion, we bought our paint at Ace, and Brandon started in on the project. I am his little assistant. When Brandon does a project, he does it right. This can mean it takes longer, but we are both pleased in the end.

Above you will see the living room getting prepped for painting. Our walls were a tannish color that over time began to look more peachy. I was simply tired of it.

We chose a tan that had more of gray base to it. In fact when we started applying it, we thought it looked elephant gray. To the point where we talked about 'do we change colors?' We decided to have him paint an entire wall before making that decision. And we learned we liked it.

Moving furniture out of the way

 Eight years ago, we had meticulously painted these stripes in the hallway.

 We had some friends that wanted our old furniture, so we carried it out to the front porch. We looked like rednecks for 24 hours.

 The other room I really wanted to paint was the kitchen. Again I was tired of this color; it looked great eight years ago...but not so much now. (And now you can see why  I would like a bigger kitchen. :))

 The weekend after redoing the living room and hall, we tackled the kitchen. The girls are enjoying donuts with the bright, hot lights.

 So long green, hello yellow/gold!

 The finished living room, complete with our new couch. My SIL helped me with the flower decorations on the wall.

 Oh blue, how we like you. It really is blue; the pictures give it more of a periwinkle look.

 and gold, you make me smile

 My favorite corner where the two colors meet.

 Here is my picture frame where I write verses with a dry erase marker. It's been good for us.

 Believe and Pray stand about my cupboards.

A huge thank you to my husband who sacrificed lots of time and energy to make the project look great. I enjoyed the time with him, too, as worked together. We talk frequently on how we make a great team, something I am so thankful for!