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These last several months have certainly been a wild, crazy ride. We are so thankful to be settled (at least we think we are!) once again. We all love having our own home with a big yard. Kaylee & Trevor spend more time outside than they do inside..which is how it should be, right? Life still seems busy all the time. I suppose that's just how it is with kiddos. My house never seems to be clean anymore, but I will take a dirty house & my sweet peas any day! I'm reminded every day that they are only little for so long. As I write this, it's just a couple of weeks till Kaylee will be NINE!! How is it possible that I have a 'almost' nine year old?!
We are gearing up for another year of homeschooling. My desk is piled high with new school materials that need to be looked through before our first day...which is still to be determined. We'll start the Monday following Labor Day, at the latest. I have a fairly big list of things I'd like to accomplish before we start school. Actually it's mainly just one really big thing....organizing (or at least ordering!) pictures. I haven't had any prints ordered since Trev was an infant, so not really a big deal..just nearly 7 years worth of pictures to sort through & hundreds of dollars to order...which is part of the reason I always put it off. It's too overwhelming & will be so expensive to order them.
I had big plans to do all these before & after shots of the house, but since I'm so far behind & time is short...here is a few pics to represent the past few months...
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| goodbye gated community... |
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| These country folks are movin' back to the woods!! |
Home sweet HOME.....
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| love my flower bed (when the dog stays out of it!) & the big front porch |
I guess I should start at the beginning....celebrating leaving the gated community, where we rented, for the last time!!
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| Come on it...don't mind our ferocious guard dog. |
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| entryway...to eventually have a bench or somewhere to sit & put on shoes. Although flip flops are pretty much in season all year here. |
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| kitchen, living room & you can see the school room as well. |
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| Living room. I love the doors that lead onto the screened in porch...and looking at this picture, I think I need to move my rug over. It's looks kinda funny this way... |
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| dining room. I was standing in the entry way, so just on the other side of the wall with the shelf is the kitchen & the doorway you see is the master bedroom. |
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| master bath |
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| Master bedroom |
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| school room, (complete with super cute naked baby!) |
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| school room |
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| Kaylee's room |
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| Trev's room |
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| Averyanna's room |
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| kiddos bathroom. The door leads out onto the screened in porch. I love that for when they are all drippy from playing in the pool! |
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The back screened in porch.
That about does it for house pictures....but here are a few things we love... |
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Fishing in our own yard...
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LOVE having a clothes line!
The little patch of dirt you see on the other side of the fence was our first attempt at a garden. It did really well...until it started raining here. Every day. When I saw the ducks swimming over it, I knew it was gone for good. That whole area out behind the fence stays really wet a lot of the year. We will actually have to dig some sort of drainage this fall/winter, if we plan on keeping it mowed & nice. ...unless we can rig up some sort of redneck pontoon mower! :) |
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| having hot dogs & s'mores in the back yard... |
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| The swings that Chad made for the kids... |
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| Popsicles on the front porch... |
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catching baby 'wizzards' .....
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| watermelon!! |
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| swimming in the pond... |
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| having a yard big enough for a big pool.... |
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| ...so we don't get nibbled by the fish while swimming in the pond! |
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| TA-DA!! ...but it took days to fill up with water ..... |
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| ...but we had a blast along the way! |
We also love being close enough to have family visit!!
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This is my Daddy & Step Mom with the kiddos..
And we really love all the trips to North Florida to visit family!! Because it's so much closer now & we can drive, we're able to go quite a bit. |
In May one of my sisters was sweet enough to get everyone together all on one weekend so we could come celebrate all the May birthdays...My Momma, 2 nephews & a niece!
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| Momma (aka, Nanna) Me & Little Bit |
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| Baby Braxton turns ONE! I love this kiddo! |
 http://www.facebook.com/NickiLouBryan |
| Here's all the birthday bunch...Avery isn't cooperating. Kaylee, Trevor, Avery, Nanna, Braxton (who turned 1) Shayli (turned 4) Bryson (turned 2) & Colbi in the back. He's 2 weeks younger than Trevor & they are great buddies! |
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| Cobi lovin' on Avery |
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| Colbi & Trev...they are so cute playing together! |
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| Avery & Bryson |
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| Sweet Shayli Bug, they say she is a mean one...but I've never seen it. Love her! |
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| ....And this is Bacon, the pet pig. He acts just like a dog, hilarious! |
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| This is my Father-in-law (aka Papoo) with Layla, (another precious little niece) & Avery |
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| Avery & Layla chowing down on some rib bones! |
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| A rare moment with Papoo relaxing & being goofy! |
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| This was the new toy Gran bought for the babies, but I think the big kids had more fun on it! It spins around as well as goes up & down. This is our oldest nephew, Wyatt in the background. He turned 12 in July. And Chad & his brother Jeremy on the see-saw. |
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there are no words!!
We also get to visit Lucas, Bekah & Ava when while in North Florida. They are not technically blood relatives, but might as well be! Lucas & Chad have been friends since Kindergarten..... |
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| This is Avery & Ava, they are a couple of weeks apart in age & have so much fun together. |
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| little buddies! |
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| This is what happens when your camera is in an air conditioned truck & you grab it to take a quick shot...it fogs over... |
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| Avery in the pasture at Gran & Papoo's house |
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This is the truck that Chad used to come see me in, when he was 14!! It was new & shiny back then & I loved to hear it pull into our driveway!
Some fun things on the way to my Granny's house in Georgia.... |
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| ...and right across from Bryan's is...... |
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| ....THIS COW HOUSE!! I love it! |
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| I think I'd like to do this to our barn! :) |
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| just for fun.. |
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| We've enjoyed our pontoon boat too! We are out nearly every weekend. |
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| Isn't this just beautiful? This is what they call the 'river' here. It's brackish water. There are tons of these little islands to explore out there, along with a huge sandbar that has a pontoon boat that floats around selling food & drinks! We see dolphins nearly every time we're out & have seen matinees the last couple of times too! |
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| This is one thing I'm not crazy about..snakes! We have plenty of them. This one is harmless, but I kill them first ...then text Chad a picture to find out what kind it is! :) I'm sure not everyone agrees with us, but our theory is 'the only good snake is a dead one' |
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| This was Avery's outfit of choice for a while. Swim suit bottoms & 'flops' |
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| This was Father's Day, I don't remember what was so funny! |
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| Love these kiddos! |
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| My loves! |
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| Happy Fathers Day to the best Daddy ever! |
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| This.....plus no rear air in the van....... |
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| ...led to trading the van in on this a few days ago!!! LOVE IT!! |
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Chad cut down this dead tree that the fence had grown into & I looked outside to find my sweet boy like this...priceless!
The barn that you see in the background is a horse barn on the back corner of our property. It has 2 stalls & a tack room. We turned it into a 'play house' for Kaylee & Trevor. One stall has an old desk that Kaylee & I painted up to look like a stove & the other one Chad hung two swings in for them to play on. They spend a lot of time out there playing. One day I hope we can build one (a real play house!) closer to the house. I don't mind the big kids playing way out there, but I don't let Little Bit go out without me yet. |
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| Trev lost his first tooth! Both his bottom ones are gone now & replaced with 'big boy teeth' |
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| Avery tells me all the time "I got loose tooth, Mommy!" |
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| Avery got her ears pierced just a few days ago! |
