I was hoping to get a post up before Thanksgiving, but was too busy with preperations and travel to Jordan and Melissa's, but here it is at last. It's been a while since the last post, but that certainly isn't because we haven't had anything interesting going on worthy of taking pictures. As I mentioned in our last post we were going to be moving to an apartment that needed some renovating. We are now officially out of the place in Edmond, but still working on our last room while living out of boxes as you shall see... but first I begin with before the move:

 It's so handy having a beautiful model when you are going through a photography class.

I hope to be like her someday!

art

Who says playgrounds are for kids?

Boxes in storage = moving has begun

Enjoying some fellowship with Hannah and Lily after a days packing. 

Thank you so much for your help, ladies!

First day of renovating. Step one: mud all holes in wall

Cleaning the only finished room... the bathroom. Glad we didn't have to fix anything in there!

Now for a tour of the "before" pictures...

The boys room aka Marscel's room.

My room... as well as the library and sewing spot. It opens into the boys room (the green in the lower picture) and through the double doors to the....

Living room

Top view is taken from the kitchen door and the bottom from my room

The kitchen... with cockroaches. Thankfully they have almost all been annihilated

The pantry (and closets for the master bedroom)

The master bedroom

The kitchen and pantry both had five layers of wallpaper and paint that had to be scraped off

The five layers in the pantry

Learning how to mud and tape from Mr. Bender

So many friends came to help on the weekend

AND a lot came the next weekend too! We are so blessed! Thank you all so much for your help

At first we thought the master bedroom was just paint... then we noticed parts of it peeling away. Seems they painted over wallpaper

After all the cracks and holes have been filled (all the little white patches) the texturing can begin

Knocking it down

"I think he is ready to go pro!"

After the texturing comes the priming and then ceiling paint

Next the paint. If you're tired of my tutorial like comments feel free to skip them. I won't be offended.

One room down five to go

Boys room after... the only room we were able to take after pictures in before the boxes arrived.

Starting my room. At first I wasn't sure of the color. It seemed like I was painting tomato soup on my wall. I love how it looks when it's dried though, so warm and colonial-ish.

We all kind of fell into a routine of "our" job. Mom does a great job on the trim!

The right side is before I cleaned the excess paint off the window. The left side is after.

Forever etched on the walls... for the "ever" that the walls are there anyway. Whether written on the walls or not the true love will remain

Speaking of love... Our photo assignment for the week was to take a framed picture.

*smile*

Moving day has arrived! This is the first move I was not there for the major moving day. I had the opportunity to go to the Gospel Centered Marriage Conference with Matthew and Micaiah. Unfortunately, since we only have one camera I don't have any pictures of our time there (You can order the set and hear what we heard at the NCFIC store). Back in Oklahoma I was told the camera battery died after this was taken. Just picture a bunch of busy people loading the truck, driving, and unloading.

When I arrived back I had to capture the memories of what it was like.

Just enough room for a mat. I can't wait to see the "after" pictures of the rooms :-)

Not sure where all this stuff will end up

Yeah, things are a bit packed

We just finished painting the pantry today, so it looks nothing like this... well the walls look nothing like this... everything else looks similar

Having to work around all the boxes was an added challenge...

It made for some interesting, fun situations. I was only balancing on a pole from the staging that wasn't set up and  was only balanced against the wall. This was my happy solution. I ended up having to move things to set a ladder up in the end since I can't cut the paint in behind my back... not yet anyway.

Pa working on one of the most warped, patch needing places. Looks great now.

Mom painting, sprinkling more love here and there

At first glance I thought all the hard work was aging Marscel rapidly. 

He sure cleans up well though

Practicing with reflectors and indoor lights with our neighbor Brad.

In case you think we always look good... here you see we don't wake up looking all with it. Nevertheless we wish Mom a very happy birthday. We usually go sing to the person when we first get up. Sometimes we like to light a candle and stick it in an apple or orange, but having neither we thought cookies were a happy alternative and having the candles packed the lighter worked.

The Cochrans remembered it was her birthday and put up decorations when we visited them.

Happy Birthday, Mom! You don't look more then 24! No wonder people think we're sisters! I love it and I love you!

One more reason I love our small town 

*Note: Children do not try this at home without your parents permission

Our first visitors in Guthrie! The Rudds braved our box filled house to be able to visit.

Taking time to smell the roses... or in this case pet some puppies

We're so glad you were able to come! 

What would a tour of Guthrie be without a visit to the drugstore museum?

One more shot together... I always loved these type of shots.

The advantage to playing the same song over and over again is you still remember it years later and can play it when you visit the First Publishing Museum

Fancy what we'd see on the back of the piano!

They did end up using one of the pictures we took back in April

The more the merrier? You bet! I love the saying "There's always room for one more". Overlapping with the Rudds, Stephen also got to stay with us. Since he was working at the horse show during the day we would catch up in the evenings.

Thanks for all your help, Stephen! If you ever need big appliances moved (ie fridges and freezers), or a bunch of cans and jars stacked, Stephen is the man.

Good friends, good conversations, good times

We thought we should get a picture of how he spent most of his time... since most of his time was spent sleeping. I wonder if he always sleeps smiling :-)

Me and two of my "little" brothers.
As Mom is with Michael and Rebekah (stay tuned for whether I'll have another nephew or niece!) We didn't have a camera for the rest of the week and thus, were unable to take any pictures of the American World Quarter Horse Show. Thanks for taking us Stephen!

Hopefully I'll get a thanksgiving post up soon... sooner then later anyway.