When life gives you gray days make rainbow cookies!

Happy Friday

These are just some pics around the house that made me smile this week :) Have a great weekend!

Linky Party

So I've been working on my blog a little trying to freshen it up a bit.  Sorry if you've come and things have been all out of whack.  I've made a new header from a great tutorial from Clover Lane and got a ton of extra tips from Momma Go Round, who also has a great tutorial for creating a blog header as well as getting rid of that ugly blogger navigation bar, adjusting the width of your blog and centering things on your sidebar, which is what I did.  She also shows you other things like making a blog button and adding your signature to the bottom of each post, which I also intend to make, but I wanted to get this post out soon so that I wouldn't miss the linky party.   I'm linking up to Momma Go Round's Beautiful Blog link up party.

                                                                                
                                                                  

Peekaboo

Sadie's new find.

So sweet

This just makes me happy

Happy polka dot dishes given to me by my sister for my birthday, I'm missing her a lot:( , and a sweet little baby bowl.   Having fun dishes makes doing the dishes a little more enjoyable, but only just a little:)

SWAGGER WAGON

I know another post but I couldn't pass on sharing this:)

Update

By the way I forgot to tell you that a family has come forward to adopt Cliff!!  I'm so excited!  I've been praying like crazy for him.  I went to the website to check in and see the update for how much money had been raised for him(almost $10,000.00!) and found that he was on the "My family found me" page.  I just wanted to share the exciting news and ask for your continued prayer for the family who will be bringing him home, they have a long process ahead of them.  And you can still donate to his adoption fund to help the family bring him home sooner.  Just click on Cliff's button on the sidebar if you feel led to give.   Isn't God good?

Where I'm at

This is a good read, Love with abandon, she articulates so well some things that have been weighing on my heart for some time now.

LOVE THESE...
"I want to spend myself-my life, my time, my resources-with reckless abandon.  So that one day, when I stand before Him, I have nothing left.  Nothing wasted.  Nothing squandered."

"And so I will not doze off in the sleepy shire, I will engage in the battle.  I want blisters on my hands and fatigue deep in my bones and scars on my heart from all I've seen and experienced---because too much is at stake."

"Choose to live with eyes open.  Stop spectating.   Suit up, and get on the field, where you strive for the goal, but often meet resistance and sometimes fail.  It is not funner, it's harder.  At times it feels like a burden.  But it is what is true.  What is real.  And it is worth it, because it is where Jesus resides."

" Don't excuse yourself by saying, "Look, we didn't know."  For God understands all hearts, and He sees you.  He who guards your soul knows you knew.  He will repay all people as their actions deserve."  Prov. 24:12

New heads and beds

The girls all got new haircuts on Friday.  I was able to trade two massages for five haircuts, I love the barter system!   Avery had been wanting her haircut into a bob for about a month now , so of course all the girls started asking for it.  They all look adorable and it's so much easier to get ready in the morning.

Madi

Tatum

Ainsley

Avery

Sadie, bye bye shaggy bangs.

And here are the awesome PB teen beds Ash made:)

I still need to cute up the room some more, but I thought I better post a pic now because if I wait for everything to be perfect I'd never get around to it.  Just picture it with baskets underneath and pretty bedding like the pictures below.

And maybe a cute pennant banner like this one, I love whimsy:)

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Strike a pose

This is what I deal with on a daily basis, climbing. She is our one and only climber and she is constantly up and down these chairs. She has fallen off twice this week and still hasn't learned her lesson. How do I make her stop, I feel I have tried everything. So when I caught her again today she looked at me with a naughty grin and I took a picture instead of my usual "no, no Sadie Lynn!" Then she started to strike a pose so we had a little photo shoot.Such a ham.
This pic is blurry but she is seriously posing, no coercing from me at all.



Her hair is always in her eyes, she won't wear a barrette longer than 10 seconds. Ash calls her his Shaggy little sheep dog, but I will be taking care of that on Friday:)

One of my favorite pics this week, Tatum and Sadie doing homework together.

I don't know about anybody else but it has taken me a long time to get back into the swing of things. I literally just put away the last of the Christmas decorations today. I don't know if it was because of all the busyness of this Christmas or what but I want things to be back to normal already. I have let my blogging go as well, I was in a funk this holiday. I didn't get all the pics of my home decorated for Christmas or of the kids like I wanted. But things are getting back to normal around here, I'm definitely getting into that nesting mode. My washing machine hasn't been working properly for about two months and finally took a turn for the worse about four weeks ago. We have a warranty on it so we called them and they are coming out tomorrow. THANK GOD!!!(Insert alleluia chorus) But that call went out three weeks ago and this was the earliest they could come. But during this frustrating circumstance the Lord has shown me the

blessing of friendships, and the wonderful people He has brought into our lives. They have let me come over with all my kiddos and do my laundry, which is a pretty big deal with a family the size we are. We don't just do a couple loads of laundry. We have been getting by on the bare necessities, so if you've seen my kids at church lately, let's just say they have been looking pretty colorful these days:) On top of a misbehaving washing machine and a laundry pile the size of Mount Everest Ash has been building the three little girls beds from scratch!

Four of the girls were sleeping head to toe, two to a bed in a twin size for far too long. About a year and a half ago I found this blog called Knock off wood , this lady takes catalogs like Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel and makes up plans for you to build them yourself at a third of the cost. It's an awesome sight and I have been wanting to build something ever since I found her. The beds Ash has made are from the PB teen catalog from the Store-it collection and look like this minus the corner unit.

Baskets go all the way around which is perfect for storage in a room with limited space and the beds are really versatile in that you can put the beds against the wall like a daybed or straight out from the wall. I will finish painting the last one today and will post the pics this week. Ash has done a great job and saved us a lot of money. It cost the same to make three beds and buy three mattresses vs. buying one bed and a mattress from PB teen. I think I love that part the most! I'm still deciding on some cute bedding and colors, but that stuff will come later, oh how I wish we had a Home Goods here. Definitely love me some polka dots like in the picture above but I don't want it to be all matchy. I want to have each girls personality represented in the room, so needless to say I'm on the hunt and will let you know when I find something. And since Mr. Boo Face has told me that I haven't posted enough pics of the kids lately, and I agree, here are some random pics of our week.

I apologize for my preshower pic but I had to show off the beautiful necklace Avery made for me. It is a self portrait, so just in case you missed my face the first time you could look down and there I am again. She was really proud of it as well as her paper glasses.

Oh look cereal for dinner, don't judge me:) I will post more pics later gotta put the little one down for nap, yay!

With God nothing is impossible!

HE HAS A FAMILY!!!! God is good all the time, I can't tell you how much this boy has been on my heart. I've been praying that he would be rescued by a family but with only 20 days to do it I must admit in the back of my mind I was thinking it was impossible. Thank you Lord for proving me wrong:) You can read the rest of the story here .