A NEW SEASON & A NEW COLOR

This is our living room.  We've painted every room in the house but this.  Think we have been putting it off because it just seemed too big a project.  Well, after  9 years in this house, yes...NINE, I couldn't stand it another day.

My mom brought paint chips over and after looking, studying, imagining, picturing every possible color for hours and hours, I finally decided.  Mom went to Cabiness for me so I didn't have to wake/load up three kiddos.  My wonderful husband told me when he left for work, "Whatever you decide, I'm behind you."

And this was our stark white mantle.  This was taken in the Spring, hence the Easter egg.

Mom insisted on the first stroke because she likes to see the color change.  Growing up, whenever we painted a wall, a rabbit went on first.  There are at least 7 in this house.

Mag would have no part in listening to "this is an adult job."

My dad was entertaining Mag with tossing socks in the ceiling fan.  See Mary curled up on Brett's lap?  Not only did we paint our family's hang out area with 3 little ones but I decided to up the difficulty value by tackling this when the two babies had a throat virus and 103 temps.  Yep.  Kids burning up, whining, crying, etc.  Mary climbing up ladders once her Motrin kicked in then wailing when it wore off.

Sickly little man wanted to snuggle with his Maggie this night.

Every night that week, I believe.

Lining up to check temps.

Sweet Mary's got such a sad face.  And her shirt is covered in drool because her throat hurt so badly.

The dust probably didn't help matters.  Brett had to do some sanding on the walls so everything was covered in this mess.

We called it quits that night.  We knew we had a sleepless night ahead of us so we decided to catch an hour or two of sleep.

TA DA!  The next night, Brett and I stayed up until 1am doing the other three walls.  BTW, those ceilings are really high.  I climbed up and painted those bad boys too.  Brett was my assistant but I painted the entire thing by myself.  Yes, I'm proud.  ;)  And now, all furniture is vacuumed under, walls washed, etc.  Ahhh, feels nice to have everything deep cleaned.  The carpet cleaning comes next.

Brett rubbed some dark mahogany stain on the mantle to tone down that bright white.  Doesn't make that big of a differnce according to the camera but it's really so much better.  He did a fabulous job.  And no, my Fall mantle is not complete just yet.  And, when a room is newly painted, you automatically want all new pictures, etc.  We still have naked walls for that reason.  That and who wants to poke nails holes in pretty walls?

Here are a few Fall projects I/we have been working on.

Got this idea on Pinterest.  Which I'm highly addicted too, btw.  Maggie gathered acorns for me and we dropped them along with the chocolate candy corns in the bottom of the vase.

She started her a project tonight.  Also found on Pinterest.

Such cute pumpkins.  Those are rolls of toilet paper in there.  I was really impressed.  She tucked, glued the stems, cut the leaves, and twisted the vines all on her own.  When picking out fabric at Walmart, I tried to steer her away from the blue.  She said, "Well, not all pumpkins are alike."  A lady stopped and asked me how old she was.  She was shocked by the grown up convo we were having.

These were easy as pie and I love them.

Burlap. Is. Messy.  I made my first fabric rosette tonight.  I know.  I'm way behind.  I glued the second one I made on my wreath.  Can't really see it but it's on the top left.  I also attached a button that belonged to my grandmother to the middle.  Brett spray painted the "S" with black then covered it with glitter paint.

MACMAN IS THREE!!











Happy 3rd birthday to our thumb sucking, Charlie Brown looking, W obsessing, Lightning McQueen loving, funny, quirky, precious little Macman!!

MAGGIE'S DECISION

Our Maggie is very special to us.  She's been with us the longest and has broken us in well.  She's not very average.  Pretty mature.  I get asked things like "Was she just born grown?" quite often.  Don't get me wrong, she can still giggle, be silly, and pout like every other child.  But, there is just something different about her.  Could be that she had to grow up fairly quickly having Mac come along when she was barely two.  She's always been my little helper and taken care of her babies.  And does a fantastic job.  I remember when Mary was born, it was crazy.  Mag wasn't even 3 1/2 and Mac was 15 months.  Sitting in the kitchen one day, I was trying to feed Mac and Mary was squalling in her car seat.  Mag calmly said, "I've got it."  She gave her a paci, rocked the car seat back and forth and sang her to sleep. 
Having gone to school at Northport Baptist since she was a year old and having wonderful teachers at church, Maggie has been surrounded with Christianity.  Her wheels have been turning for a while now.  She zipped through her bible in no time during our nightly reading and her questions were getting deeper and deeper.  It had not crossed my mind though that this day was approaching.  On September 11th, she left church in tears.  A friend mentioned her grandfather's death.  Her Sunday School answered with something to the effect of "Well, one day, we'll all get to live in heaven forever."  That stuck with Maggie.  At five, you don't understand death, much less going to this "heaven" and staying there forever.  We talked on and off all afternoon.  I tried to answer her questions as simply and best I could.  Not easy, mind you.  By that night, she said she just couldn't get the thoughts out of her head.  Yep, just like her mother.  I was the weird kid that cried every night in fear of dying in my sleep.  Don't judge.  Laugh at this one if you want but I'm really a deep thinker.  I wish I weren't but that's how God made me.  Anyway, Mag gets it honest.  That night, we had very lengthy discussions.  Questions from her with lots of hand movements like, "Why can't God just sit right here and talk to me like we're talking now?" and "If Jesus comes back before we die and I sin, will my sin get back to heaven before me and Jesus do?"  Ummm...Pass.  Then she started in a different direction.  I was shocked.  Brett had joined us by this point.  I looked at him and whispered, "I think this is it."  After her talking for a bit, I asked her if she was wanting to ask Jesus in her heart.  Very calmly, she replied "yes."  It was an amazing experience to hold hands with Brett and my oldest child and listen to her pray.  And in typical Shewmake household form, Mac and Mary busted in while Brett was praying.  Yelling, climbing all over us.  I had to giggle when he prayed, "And thank you also for these other two crazy kids."  I know my Maggie better than anyone.  She'll get on stage and shake her booty with no problem but can sometimes get strangely shy with people she knows well.  When she's not sure or not serious about something, she gets sheepish and giggly.  This was not the case that night.  I know some may think that she is way too young to make this kind of decision.  Do I think Maggie is ready to walk in front of the church and be baptized?  Probably not.  That may need to come later.  And that's fine.  Do I think a five year old of 4 days can thoroughly comprehend all of this?  No.  Do we, as adults, comprehend everything?  No.  I don't think we are made to.  I do know that God has been working in her little heart. 
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me."  And she did.

I CLOSE MY EYES FOR JUST A MINUTE & SHE'S FIVE!



Oh, our sweet little angel.  The most difficult baby I've ever been around.  It's amazing that we ever had Mac and Mary.



1st b'day



1st b'day party.  Bama theme.  After all, it was a game day.





2nd b'day.  This is the year she started picking her fav place to eat for her big day.  It was only fitting that the biggest belly in town dined under the biggest cactus in town.  And Brett's shirt made him look like he worked at Foodmax.  "Paper or plastic?"  Macman came along 18 days later.  My easy little man was a welcome change.



2nd b'day party.  Fairyland theme.

Ugh.  I'm a tad swollen.  And shiny.  It was not the easiest setting up for that party.  I had the bright idea to haul tons of plants and trees from my parents' house to make the woodland forest.  It was beautiful though.

3rd b'day

Once again, Taco Casa.  And once again, I'm pregnant.

3rd b'day party.  Pink and blue theme.  She had that picked out for about 7 months.

Of course, Jakers has been with her through them all.

Our pink and blue fam.

4th b'day.  Chick-Fil-A was her choice.

4th b'day party.  Princesses/anything with wheels/giant water slide/bouncy things.  Joint party for Mag and Mac.  It rocked.

5th b'day party.  Joint pool party with Sawyer and Jake. 



And since we have church tomorrow night, we went out to dinner tonight.  Yep, Pizza Palace was what she was craving.  So funny.  I'll post more about that later.  Right now, I still have two monkeys to beat tuck in the bed.



Happy Birthday to my first born, my little friend, my Maggie B!