Christmas 2013

Our Christmas card is hot off the presses.  Below is the 2013 edition.

As 2013 draws to a close we are grateful for another year filled with friends, family, and the blessings of faith in Jesus Christ.  Our girls continue to amaze us with their perfect blend of goodness, silliness, cleverness and--contrary to the photo montage--individuality. For a glimpse of who’s who and a few highlights of our year go to: chris10sen.blogspot.com       

The photo montage was not photoshopped or altered other than to combine slices of original photos of the girls. Even we were a bit surprised at the results.  To see who's who, scroll down.

…..and a Happy NEW Year!  What’s NEW with the Christensens in 2013?

• ·      In May we purchased a 1970’s ranch home that needed lots of love and remodeling. It was a different type of move for us—just 2 miles away—but we love it. We are enjoying the extra bathroom and finished basement.
• ·      Rob is the NEW early-morning bible study teacher for 18 youth at our church each weekday morning. His favorite NEW toy is a commercial-grade backpack blower to tame our 28 trees (mostly oaks with a billion acorns).
• ·      Flori has a few NEW hobbies: reading home renovation and DIY blogs, scouring Craigslist, refinishing furniture, and painting every single room in our house.
• ·      Maddie is a junior and loves her NEW pastimes of dating and driving (she’s almost ready to get her license). She is singing in Jazz Choir and a capella club and learning about photography with Rob.
• ·      Eloise is NEW to high school and AP classes.  She also sings in a capella club and is learning CAD in a design class at school. She has a knack for design and has taught herself to use Illustrator for some awesome projects.
• ·      Sarah Jane is a NEW middle-schooler, with the pressures of honors classes and a busy, changing schedule.  She has a great singing voice, but she wanted to try something NEW—she’s now playing the oboe in band.
• ·      Bea started 1^st grade at a NEW school(the only boundary change with our move). She is happy and friendly and makes NEW friends wherever she goes. She got her first permanent teeth this year and also started piano lessons with her sisters.

We are looking forward to NEW adventures and experiences in 2014!

Something Old, Something New

We scoured the internet, drove streets, pestered realtors....
We looked at many homes, finished and beautiful and ready to live in.
We had a contract written up for another house and things fell through at the end.

And then we saw this house. We were strangely intrigued and attracted. We couldn't stop thinking about it and talking about possibilities. It was an amazing price and in just the right location. But it was not what we were expecting. It was dirty and unloved and needed a lot of work!!  Thus began our leap of faith and a steep learning curve.
We were so busy planning, painting, sanding, cleaning, unpacking and rearranging that we didn't take step-by-step pictures of every room. But 6 months in, I can finally say I love our house and how it has turned out. It is comfortable and quiet. It has room for friends (but not too many) and works for our family's needs. I have learned so much about painting and decorating and PATIENCE. We still have a few odds and ends to finish--painting closet doors, touching up trim and cleaning windows, etc. And now that the inside is finished, we have LOTS to do outside in the spring. But for now, we are taking a small rest from all the projects and enjoying having friends in our cozy home.

Following will be some posts about individual rooms with more pictures!

Dining Room

We think the dining room was originally a bedroom, because it has a closet and two narrow doorways. However, there were no doors and it is close to the kitchen, so it became our dining room. We* widened both doorways to make it more accessible and open.

 Standing by the front door, looking in to the newly widened doorway.

 Second doorway, which leads out into the hall.

 After new floor installation, but before painting. It was an awful swimming pool blue. We went with "Gray Owl" by Benjamin Moore and love how it turned out. We* installed board and batten along the bottom half and painted it a semi-gloss white. A new chandelier and plantation shutters (now installed) classed it up quite a bit! We have to turn the table on the diagonal if we want all the leaves in, but we usually just have one in, and it works great.

 

Still need to paint the closet doors! This functions as a coat closet and holds our vacuum and other odds and ends that don't have a home yet.

*The "we" who did all the major renovation work was our good friend, craftsman and contractor, Frank Baxter and his team of professionals. He was ever patient with us and worked so hard to make all our crazy ideas come true!

Living Room/Eating Area

This is the room where we do most of our living. It is half eating area, half living room. It serves as mudroom, music room (piano is in here), study area, and visiting space. So there is a lot going on, but it's a comfortable room. We left the wood paneling for a cottage-style look and painted it all a calm, neutral color. New slipcovers for our old couch and wingback chairs made a big difference. My Dad graciously helped us with beautiful plantation shutters for all the windows in the front of the house. By the table, we have bamboo shades.

One of our biggest expenditures was for 5" hardwood flooring throughout the whole main floor. We are so happy with how it turned out. We did keep the original tile in the bathrooms and basement kitchen, but I'm glad we took it out of the kitchen. It really helps the rooms flow together when they all have the same floor.

 An early picture, before we had everything moved in and arranged.

 Standing by the piano.

 Standing by door to the garage. Looking through the doorway in the photo, you can see the front door.

 From the front of the house, looking out to back door and small deck outside the windows. Door to garage is in the middle of the room.

 Looking into the living room from the dining room.

Our beautiful floors! Wish they always looked this clean and shiny!

 The plantation shutters really make it look finished.

Bamboo shades by the table. That light fixture is one of my favorites we chose (from Lowe's).

Kitchen

When we first saw the kitchen, it was separated from the eating area and had a tiny, awkward pantry in the corner. We put beadboard below the cabinets, took down half a wall, and installed a bar with lower cabinets and a full pantry. We kept the original built-in cabinetry in the rest of the kitchen, which we will eventually get around to repainting (and maybe replacing doors). We (Rob and friends) ripped out the tile and replaced the countertops with locally-sourced granite (which we LOVE). Some new light fixtures and appliances and it is now the humming heart of our home.

 Looking into the kitchen from the eating area.

 New opening into the eating area/living room.

 Deep single basin sink and bridge faucet. LOVE.

New pantry and bar (upper shelves and appliance garage not yet installed). We painted the kitchen "Fernwood Green" by Benjamin Moore.

 Bar/pantry looking out to eating area. The door you see leads to the garage and that's where most people enter our home. Not how we planned it, but that's just how it works in the South!

Our Thanksgiving spread! We've done a few rounds of entertaining and it all seems to work smoothly!

The Amazing Orange Juicy

Rob took this picture last week of our pet goldfish, Juicy.  We won her in a scout auction at church about 4-5 years ago--we can't remember for sure. But she has been around for a long time and has survived 2 moves, several rounds of "pet sitting" and even a trip down the disposal, from which Rob amazingly rescued her!

The girls came home from school the other day and peeked in her bowl, then asked, "Where's Juicy?"  I looked around because sometimes Rob puts her in another container when he's going to clean the bowl. Then I saw her laying on the counter below her bowl. Some time during the day, she jumped out of her bowl and dried out. It was so sad and there were a few immediate tears from the girls. Just a little goldfish, but we thought she was cute and fun and she has become part of our home over the last few years.

We buried her under a pretty stone in the yard and said a few kind words about what a nice goldfish she was. :)   I had to hurry and wash out her bowl and put it away because poor Bea would tear up every time she walked past and saw the empty bowl.  It was a sad day for her.

Maybe one day we will get a new fish, but Juicy will always be our favorite.

Empty Nest

Boy, do we have a lot of catching up to do! But since today is Mother's Day, I wanted to share a little glimpse of something sweet that happened at our house. A couple of months ago we noticed a little red house finch flying busily to and fro around our back porch. We soon noticed she was building a nest in an alcove of the porch rafters.  She worked on the nest for a few days and then we began to see her sitting there patiently and realized she must be sitting on some eggs. One day we heard some high pitched chatter and noticed the mother and father bird flying all around. An egg had hatched! We kept watch all afternoon and by nightfall there were 4 little birds cheeping from the nest. We enjoyed them so much for about 3 weeks. The nest was high up so we couldn't see into it, but we could see them through our back door and hear them squawking and chirping. It was so fun to hear them and watch the parents working so hard to feed them. We noticed that if both parents were gone from the nest, the babies would be absolutely silent, but if the parents came close, the babies would cry and squeak for more food and attention.

One afternoon, we noticed there were only 3 birds. Oh no! We wondered if one had fallen from the nest. And then another disappeared and we realized they were learning to fly and leaving the nest. By the next day, all four had flown away and the mother abandoned the nest too.  I felt really sad all day long. I loved seeing and hearing them and watching the girls get excited about their observations.  Of course I drew many parallels about how soon our nest will begin to empty and how I will feel about that.

Two years until Maddie goes to college!!  It seems just a few years ago she was finishing kindergarten and I had 3 young children who were so busy and I was always exhausted. Now our fourth daughter is finishing her first year and I will never send another child to the first day of kindergarten again.  I am exhausted from running teenagers around and staying up late to hear about dances and parties!  But I did love having the little bird family in our life for a while and thinking about how quickly the times and seasons of our life can change. I sure do love my pretty little birds. I'm so glad to be a mother.

Things I Love Today

Love this Man. L.O.V.E.  Love it when he works from home. Love it when we get to eat lunch together. Love to cook for him, talk to him, laugh with him, get old with him.  XOXO

Yesterday on NPR I heard an interview with Nigella Lawson about making your own Valentine's dinner, so I decided instead of a fancy lunch out, we'd have a fancy lunch at home. I made the Tagliata (steak with tomato vinaigrette) and it did not disappoint. We're going to make the Mac & Cheese All'Italiana tonight. We also had butternut squash and Trader Joe's basmati and wild rice blend. I love to cook and love to spend time in my kitchen making meals for those I care about!

17 Years and Counting

Our 17th anniversary was not one of the get-away romantic types, but we had a wonderful day. Rob has been wanting a little truck for a long time (to haul stuff in and for Maddie to drive--Yikes!) He found a deal on Craigslist, but it was about an hour away, so we made a day of it and all drove out together.  Along the way, we stopped for a barbecue feast at White's Old South Barbecue. We also ventured into a little thrift store and found a perfect set of 12 Dallas*Ware stacking mugs. We have been collecting these mint green vintage melamine dishes for a few years and love them. The mugs were a lucky find and made the perfect anniversary gift.

The truck is a 2003 Chevy S10 with sa-weet detailing on the side and two little jump seats in the back of the cab. Sarah and Bea think that's the coolest (they are the only ones who can fit back there!)

On our drive, we recounted to the girls about how and when we fell in love. Twenty years ago!!  It was so funny to hear their reactions and fun to remember that time of our lives and all the wonderful things that have happened since. We are still crazy in love and it's the best!!

Christmas Day

After all the excitement of having doting grandparents in town, our Christmas was very quiet. (My mom and Dad left on the 23rd.) Bea came down with an ear infection on Christmas Eve and we passed a few other mild illnesses around during the holiday break. So, we spent a lot of time watching movies, playing with new toys, taking naps, and just hanging out together. The girls all got along and were mostly happy and helpful, so it was actually a restful break and I was sad to see it end!

A Holiday visit

We were so spoiled to have Nanny and Grandpa (Flori's parents) visit us for 10 days right before Christmas. Of course we did lots of sewing, shopping, cooking, playing, and eating, but the only thing we took pictures of was our weekend trip to Savannah, Georgia.  We rented a 12 passenger van (it sure took my parents and me back to the good old days of the LeBaron family van!) and drove about 4 hours south to the coast. It was COLD! We didn't get in the water or even spend much time on the beach, but we did eat some great seafood, climb to the top of a lighthouse, and walked around downtown Savannah. It was beautiful and fun!