Welcome to Our Home

I'm so excited to finally be ready to show you the pictures of our new home.  Let me begin by telling you, that it's important to me that you know how BLESSED we are!  God has been blessing our socks off and we are truly amazed at all He has done for us.  The verse of scripture that God gave to me when we first began thinking of pursuing this house was Isaiah 43:18-24 which says:

18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

20 The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls,

because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

God has truly done an amazing thing and I must thank Him and PROCLAIM HIS PRAISE for all the mighty things He has done.  He gave us this house and answered our prayers so that we would give Him the honor, Him the glory, and Him the praise.  So, that's what I intend to do.

Come in!  Enjoy the tour of our home.  See what God has done!!

Upon entering the house, you step right into the entry hall.  Immediately to the right is the formal dining room with the living room straight ahead.

This is the entry hall.  The hallway to the right goes into the kids' rooms.

This is the formal dining room.  It will remain empty for now.  I'll be on the lookout for some dining room furniture.

This is the living room.  I love the tall ceilings and windows!

On your way out of the living room, these doors lead to the kitchen nook.

This gives you the view from the double doors that lead into the kitchen nook.  The hallway behind the blue chair leads into the laundry room and master bedroom.

This is the kitchen nook or breakfast area. 

And THIS is my KITCHEN!  I LOVE the kitchen!!!  It's so open and big!  I have tons of cabinet space and tons of light!!!

Another view of the kitchen.  LOVE the island!!!  The countertops are corian and I am in love with the stained cabinets!!

Another view of the kitchen.  The hallway to the right leads to the guest bathroom and my office!!

I just love all the windows in this house!  Tons of light!!!

This room is the hearth room or family room.  It is located right off the nook.  We'll play games in here and watch tv together.

Coming out of the family room, this is the kitchen nook.

 

On your way to the kid's rooms, you'll see this area by the front door.

Mallory's room

She has a BIG window that lets in tons of light!

The kids share this "jack and jill" bath.  I have always wanted a bathroom connected between two bedrooms like this one!  I haven't put any decorations in here yet.  It's still a work in progress.

Jack was asleep when I took pictures, so I'll have to show you his room later.  :-)

This is my laundry room.  It has TONS of cabinets and even a sink!!!

Our master bedroom... love the tall step-up ceiling and additional sitting area!

I hung the "Names of Jesus" quilt my mom made me in here.  I just love this quilt - it's my all-time favorite!!

The sitting area is such a bonus!!!

I have my wedding dress displayed here, as well as the wedding memory quilt my mom made for me.

And, this is our master bathroom!  We absolutely love all the space in here!!

And, my office is still a work in progress, so I'll show it to you later, BUT here's a sneak peak at the CLOSET in my office!!!  LOVE all the storage space!!!

We just love it here!!!  Thanks for stopping by!  I plan to put out some spring decorations next week!  I'll be sure to post pictures.  Come back soon!!  :-)

Hi, it's me again!

Howdy friends!!!  My goodness it's been a LONG time since I've seen you!  I have been BUSY!!!!!  We have officially moved into our new house!!!!  WOO-HOO!!!!  I have been  up to my eyeballs in boxes, but have little by little gotten them unpacked.  I can't wait to show you before and after pics!!!!!  I'm having SO much fun decorating!!!!!  I don't have much time tonight, so I'll just leave you with a view of the front...

Later this week, I'll invite you inside for a tour!!!  :-)

Progress Report

Congratulations to those of you who are accepting my Swagbucks challenge!!  If you missed that post and want to see what it's all about, click HERE.  I want to let you know how I'm doing so far with my Swagbucks and give you a few pointers to help you, too.

So far, since January 1, I have bought two $5 Amazon Gift Cards and have enough swagbucks to buy 4 more!!!  Now ya'll, that's not too bad for just six weeks!  That's $30 in free gift cards!!!  WOW!!  Let me warn you that you can only buy 2 gift cards per day from the Swag Store, so you'll need to be prepared for that.  It also takes a week or two to get the cards into your account, so take that into consideration as well.

There are a few ways to get those points fast....  Here's what I do....

1.  You MUST use Swagbucks EVERY time you get on the internet.  Even if you already know the address, search for it with swagbucks and navigate to the site that way.  The more you use Swagbucks, the more points you'll get.  You have to use it to get the points.

2.  Download the Swagbucks Toolbar.  It is the perfect reminder to use swagbucks every time you launch the internet.  It's right there waiting as soon as you open your internet browser.  Just use it!  :-)

3.  Get REFERRALS!  Get friends and other people to sign up under you.  Every time they earn a swagbuck, you do to (up to 1000 points).  I've had two referrals get me 1000 points each!!!  How do you get referrals, you ask?  Well, if you have a blog, tell people about it through a post.  List your referral link and have people click on it to sign up.  Also, link up with Facebook.  Every time you earn a swagbuck or referral, it will post as your status.  People get interested in all your winnings and will try it out too.

How many gift cards will I have by Christmas???  I can't wait to see!!!!!  What an incredible way to earn $$$ and prizes for doing something you do every day?!?!?  Searching the internet couldn't be more rewarding!  So, have you accepted my challenge?  If so, how are you doing?  If not, check it out and get started today!!

Now Accepting Orders...

...for Mandy Jane Bow Embellished Picture Frames!!!

These beautiful dark brown picture frames are embellished with burgundy red and leopard bows.  A stunning silver cross accents the middle.  These frames hold 4x6 photos and would make wonderful gifts!!!

Only $18, (plus $6 shipping if you live outside the Tyler area).

Visit my online Mandy Jane Boutique, email me, or leave a comment to order.

Fun in the Snow

Today we woke up to a winter wonderland!!  Well, actually we woke up to a phone call at 4:45am from Brad's office trying to work out schedules for photographers.  When you're in the school photography business, your schedule revolves around the schools and their schedules.  It's hard to have people scheduled to be in schools all over East Texas and not know whether schools are closed or not.  The phone rang off the hook from 4:45am until 7:30am.... what fun!  UGH!  The schedules were rearranged and we finally went back to sleep until 8:00am when Jack decided it was time to get up.  Oh well.  Tomorrow is Saturday, so MAYBE we'll get to catch up on our sleep.  :-)

This afternoon, we bundled up the kids for a little fun in the snow.  They tried to build a snowman, but the snow was so powdery that it was almost impossible.  They had fun anyway, though.  Here's a few snapshots of our fun in the snow...

Brad wrote Mallory's name in the snow.

It was fun, but now I'm ready for SPRING!!!

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Although there are lots of differences in boys and girls, there are some very distinct differences you'll find when it comes to home decor.  :-)  Today the kids made houses out of two moving boxes.  Take a look at what I discovered...

Jack's house - plain

Mallory's house - fancy...

...and fully-decorated! 

Jacks house - fully functional.  :-)  No fluff required. 

Jack's house - Just right for tv viewing. 

Mallory's house - Just right for a princess! 

Isn't that hilarious?!  Mallory wouldn't even begin to "move in" to her house until it was completely ready... pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals were a MUST!  She's definitely her mother's daughter!   HA!

I hope you've enjoyed our tour of homes.

 

STAY WARM!