Be Our Guest

We are so excited about this coming weekend! We have friends from Canada coming to stay with us for a week and it is going to be a blast. These are friends that we met a the Sanctuary House of Prayer in Winni, Canada and let me tell you they are stellar. Kristi is a L & D nurse and a woman after my own heart. Shane is a full time intercessor and I think he runs the Santuary. They are so much like us it is almost scary. They are coming to KC for a two week holiday and splitting their time between our house and another set of friends. I feel so honored!

As I am woring away on my kitchen today I was thinking of all that must be done before our guest arrive. Kristi and Shane Farrow are the type of guest that make you want to scrub your house and put out flowers and chocolates. They are the kind of guest that you want to clean, rearrange, and stock your fridge for. The Farrows coming makes me want to bake and use nice china dishes. These guys are the type of guest that you wash the guest sheets in Tide and use Bounce dryer sheets because you want them to smell like you had them pro laundered. We are talking wash the windows, scrub the cracks and corners of your house and buy nice fancy candles for kind of guest. I am just so excited!

Now having said all that.... if I had fine china I would use it, however I got married at 20yrs old and thought that registering for china was what old people did. Now I do have some pretty Fiesta dishes that my grandmother left me and I would gladly set the table with those for the Farrows. (As long as you promise to not break them. :0) Scrubbing I will do, however I might not get every crack and corner as I have a 13mo old cutie tuti that is like my shadow. It is harder to be so detailed with a shadow that wants to help. Clean the fridge I shall do, and stock it I must! As for the rest, well lets face it.... I am less than... let say Martha Stewart and more like Rachel Ray when it comes to cleaning and cooking. No matter cause the Farrows are the type of guest that just want to be with us, and not so much into inspecting our house.

This is going to be a good week of fun, friendship, and getting to love on my little Shiloh!!!!

In True Cooper Fashion

Our kitchen remodeling is still dragging on,but I thought that I would update you all the same. Part of the delay is my fault entirely. I was mistaken on the start date and didn't have the tile or back splash picked out. That cause a two day delay, that I am now living with one week later (still no kitchen sink & the bathroom sink is clogged. Ugh). However, I must give my husband props because what is done thus far is very nice. I picked out a chocolate brown tile for the counter tops and then a nice slate back splash that picks up the colors from the floor and melts them all together next to the brown coutnertops. I think that I am going to paint the walls a dark golden color that will tie it all together beautifully. Since my hubby is a good carpenter we have added a special touch around the cabinets. We have roudered some boards and I faux finished them to look old and rustic. There is also a beam in the ceiling that I will faux to match the rustic look. Don't worry I will let you see the finished product soon. As I type Steven is starting to grout everything. Soon my friends, soon. Here are a couple of picks to give you a preview of the back splash and counter tops.

P.S. I am glad that we decided to grout the backsplash first, as the grout isn't the color that I thought is would be. It is fine for the backsplash, but maybe not the countertops. :-{

Outside and All Around

Our house is busy with construction on the kitchen, a yard full of leaves, and one very curious little 13mo. old. She has been so good not to touch the tools that Steven has in the kitchen, although I can see in her face that the temptation is almost too much to control. She just looks at him with amazement as he drills and cuts, every so often she will comment and then just walk off. She is officially the new supervisor of the project. We are almost done, just need to finish tiling and then wa-la.... a fancy kitchen. I posted some pics to let you see the progress.

Well yesterday and today's weather are straight from heaven I am sure. This is the climate that I would live in forever, minus all the leaves. I love the changing of the leaves, it is my favorite scene of fall but not the raking of them once they have landed. :-) Shiloh and I have been trying to tackle the leaves, but he down pour of new leaves is unending. She has a blast though just wading out in them and surprisingly hasn't tried to eat them.

Sunday was glorious so I invited some friends to go to the pumpkin patch with Shiloh and me. It was so much fun, but I think that as she ages it will be much more delightful. We utilized the horse swing, road a little train ride, and of course a hay ride to top the day off. There were lots of animals, but unfortunately not too many pumpkins at this particular farm. That was the biggest bummer for me but Shiloh could care less I am sure. She had a blast.

Here's Life

Thank you all for continuing to read our blog and stay connected to us. We love that you are here. We have had a crazy summer with so many changes like Steven switching from musician to security officer and from full time staff to full time student. I have stayed at my job with the children's home, however I have stepped into a new role as educator there. I taught my first class the other day on the long and short term physical effects of sexual abuse. Having to research and study this topic was hard, but I was really proud of my class. I will be teaching it again in Nov. as well as teaching medication certification classes. It is a big task. I have also stepped into the season where I am beginning to teach Shiloh. I joined a group called Parents as Teachers and my first session is the 21st. Till then I am trying to read more and talk a lot more during the day. It is fun, and exhausting to be honest.

I love fall with the color changes and the cooler weather. I have been looking forward to outdoor activities all summer in the fall like pumpkin patches and long walks in the woods. However the cold weather swept us into cold season and that doesn't mesh well with a toddler. So that was disappointing and I have turned my prayers upward for just a few more weeks of nice weather to introduce my cutie to my favorite season.

Keep Steven in your prayers as he is applying for the police academy that would start in Jan. We are not sure whether it is too late to get him in, so we are going to have to wait to see. This would certify him for hire by a local police department and would open a world of possibilities. As most of you know he is getting his BA in Criminal Justice to hopefully someday work in investigating and taking down human trafficking. To get there he will need experience which police work will give him. It is all in God's timing, so we wait in prayerful expectation.

October holds a lot for us. Fall, friends coming in, fun, and a photo shoot for Shiloh. There are some friends of friends that will be coming this week to take pictures of her, for their project called Almost Aborted. Shiloh is one of many whose story will be told through photos and commentary. I think that it will be great, but I hope that day wont be to cold. I don't want to put my little muffin in the cold for pictures. We'll see. We are grateful for her and if her testimony thus far will bless others than we are happy to share her.

Thank you friends, we are blessed to have you!

Shiloh's Green Wig

My daughter loves to play. All her toys are in a big basket and she loves to dig down and find things to create play with. Right now one of her favorite items is a little green skirt. Although this is something that a little girl would typically wear around her waist, Shiloh has found that it serves much better as a wig. She loves for us to put it on her head and then she will proudly continue playing with her toys with her new hair do. Here are some video's of her wig.

Statistics Are In

I thought that I would throw out Shiloh's latest numbers to you so that you wont feel left out of her little life. So here goes!

As of today
She weighs 18.9 lbs

She is 29 3/4 inches long

Her head is 17 1/2 in in cir.

She can take up to 7 steps at a time

She eats 3 meals with snacks in between.

She had her last bottle this morning. Sippy cups all the way.

She uses 1 pacifier in her crib for sleep, and 1 on a string for crisis moments

She can say 4 words well and tries on the rest.

She has 1 mommy and 1 daddy totally wrapped around her fingers.
:-)

I Lost This Battle

Today I stopped by a store to look for Shiloh a little red coat. It is one of my favorite thrift stores and I can hardly walk out without buying something. Well I didn't find a little red coat, but I found an infant life jacket and infant bike helmet. For those of you who know us you might be surprised that we don't already have these items. Well now that Shiloh is one we are looking to hit the outdoors with her in a big way. We have her bike seat on the bike, and now we have a great little helmet. We are big canoe people and now we have a little infant life jacket. Also we are going on a cruise in December and will need that for the ocean. Yes you heard me right, a cruise. This is a dream come true for us. We have been saving for a vacation and I found a steal online for a Norwegian cruise and started paying on it in May. It will be awesome!

Now that isn't what I lost at today. While in the store I found this great little bean bag. It was big and pink with butterflies. I thought wow this is cute but we don't need it. I decided to sit in it just to see what it was like. It was really comfy. When Shi saw me sitting in it she wanted to. Well why not, what could it hurt. Now if this were a movie I would have paused and asked for the audiences advise because this began a war. (un pause) When I picked Shi up to put her back into the cart she arched her back and started crying. These were real tears rolling down her cheeks. I buckled her in and she started trying to get out and reaching for this bean bag. I was like "what is this?" I was baffled. I had never seen a 12 mo old throw a fit like this and frankly I was blank on what to do. I tried all my discipline things trying to get her to stop to no avail. She was wailing and reaching like I had ripped her from her favorite toy ever. Well like a really dumb mom I looked at the price and thought "only $4, I could swing this". Ok right there if someone would have just knocked me up side the head I would have realized that I was majorly giving in to my daughters first fit. But I just put the thing in the cart and proceeded to check out. Well the story doesn't end there. This wasn't the fix that Shi envisions and continued to throw a fit. By this time I was checking out and talking to a friend. I without thinking, picked her up and sat her on the bean bag. Instant quiet. Laughter even. She was so happy. (Pause) This is where I lost. I gave into her little fit and set the standard for how she thinks that she gets things. Isn't hind sight lovely. (un pause) So getting her into the car was again filled with tears, arching of the back and more drama then I care for. I put the stupid bean bag in the seat next to her and she held it with her hand the whole way home. WOW.

Lesson learned.....Stay in control, don't give in, and as my friend pointed out..."it isn't bread and milk". "Drop it take care of the discipline problem, and let her earn it or leave it". Wow what was I thinking?

I Would Say This Girl Loves Purses

My mother-in -law got Shiloh a little pink bag for her birthday. Shiloh instantly figured out that it was to carry and she will carry it all over the house with her. She loves this bag so much. It is really cute so I thought that I would share a snip it with you!