Nicki, Jonah, and Micah Come to Visit

The week school started we got an unexpected surprise when Nicki and her boys traveled to see us...Well, not just us, but it's my blog, so I can pretend :) Sunday night after they got in we all gathered at the Welch's house for some yummy fried fish, french fries, and more desserts than you can imagine. It was so much fun getting to see Nicki and the boys again. Jonah loved getting to catch up with everyone, especially his buddy, Cliff. Would you believe this is the ONLY picture I took that night. I was busy chasing Eli around the house, talking to friends, and stuffing my face! Nicki might have taken more, but her computer is on the fritz right now :(  I still LOVE this picture I took of Cliff and Jonah though. They're BIG BUDS!

Nicki and the boys weren't in town for very long so we made the most of the short time we had with them. Monday after school we went swimming at Art and Vera's house with Diane and her girls, Marlie and Hannah. The kids had SO MUCH FUN splashing, swimming, diving, and playing in the pool. It felt just like old times!

Eli and his future wife, Hannah :)

Diane and Micah

Two of the sweetest boys I know!

After the kids got tired of swimming, they played in the yard for a little bit with a big beach ball.

Mrs. Vera got home from work early (A VERY RARE OCCURRENCE!) and she couldn't wait to get her hands on Mr. Micah. Diane and Hannah had fun squeezing those chubby baby legs, too. Micah just ate it all up!

We left Art and Vera's house and met Daddy at Zue-Zue's house for supper. She'd cooked Nicki's favorite (OURS TOO!)-fried chicken, Cane's sauce, and mashed potatoes. YUM-O! While the adults were finishing up our meal, Jonah and Eli were playing their little hearts out. Nicki got up at one point and found this...it was too sweet to not take a picture of it. I love that these little boys play so well together! I just hate that there are SO MANY MILES separating them from each other :( 

It was SO GOOD being able to see my sweet friend again! I can't wait until we can see them again! Hopefully, it won't be too long before we can see each other again :)

The Wilson's Build Their Dream House Update

This week the painters finished painting the inside and outside of the house. Our painters were great. They finished the job in only two weeks and did an amazing job. Plus, they were so patient with me and my indecisiveness! Picking paint colors is a tough job, but I have to say I'm very, very pleased with how every room turned out.

The only color I changed from the original set of colors I chose was the color I picked for Eli's room. This was the color I had originally picked, but then changed at the last minute to one that was a shade lighter. After seeing the color of the primer, which had the paint color mixed in with it, I knew I wanted it darker so we went back to the original color. I LOVE how it turned out! I wanted a blue that wasn't "baby" and this one is perfect. It's called Buxton Blue by Benjamin Moore.

Picking the stain color for the island, the stairs, and the doors was even harder than choosing paint colors. Josh and I liked completely different colors; I liked the ones with more brown in them and he liked the ones with more red in them. We finally met in the middle and chose colors that we both liked. For the stair treads, the banister, and the newel posts, we chose a stain color called Provincial.

I was a little worried about how my idea of painting the kitchen cabinets and then staining the island would work out, but it turned out better than I imagined. For the island stain color, we chose the color Early American. I can't wait to see it with the polyurethane on it!

The last thing they did was stain our front door. It's exactly how I imagined it would be. We went with a dark walnut gel stain, and I love the end result!

They also stained our cedar shutters. They'll hang these within the next couple of weeks and then the front of the house will be finished!

Our tile and floor guy has already started and he'll finish up in the next 2 weeks or so. It's so much fun and we're getting so close. I can't wait to post updates next week!

The Wilson's Build Their Dream House Update

Last weekend, Grammy and Pop came in for the day to visit and to see the new house. Since we've been in our teeny tiny rent house, we haven't been able to entertain any company, so we haven't been able to see Grammy and Pop that much. We were so excited about getting to show them the house! They've been following all the updates on the blog, but it's not the same as actually seeing it in person. Eli was super excited about getting to see them :) 

I was so glad they came because they were able to write their Bible verses they chose for our house on our floors. For those of you that don't know, a few months back I sent out this message to our family and  friends on Facebook telling them about this idea. Here's the original message I sent...

Dear Family and Friends,

As most of you know, we're in the middle of building our dream home. We are so excited and are very thankful that we are able to do this. God has blessed us so much and we are so grateful for everything. As I was cleaning the floors of our rent house today, I started praying. I started thinking about our new house and I just asked God that it would be a place where His name would be lifted up daily. I want God's presence to be felt in our home. I want it to be a place of love, happiness, joy, and hope. I want my children to grow up and know about God's goodness and grace and I want our home to be a place that harbors that for them. I want their friends and our friends to feel safe and loved when they are in our home. I prayed that God would be first in our home and that his presence would be in every room. As I was saying all this in my mind, a memory came to mind. A few years ago when our church was going through renovations we had all the church members come in and write scripture verses on the foundation. We wanted to dedicate that building to God from the very beginning, and we wanted to know that we were standing on the powerful words of God when we were in the building. As soon as that thought entered my mind, I knew that I wanted to do the same thing for my house. I want to cover my floors with words from the Bible. I want to write down the promises from the Bible and I want to cover my entire house. How powerful and encouraging it will be to know that God's word is literally going to be in every room of my home. They are going to lay our floors very soon, so we don't have much time, but this is what I would like to ask you. I would love for everyone to send in a verse, a scripture, a quote, anything that has touched your heart, so that we can write it on our floors. I don't know what day we'll be writing all the verses, but it will be soon. Since so many of you are not in town, we'll write the verse for you and write your name underneath it. It will be your prayer for our family in our new house. We love all of you and cherish you all as family. Please consider this and start sending me your verses. Here are some of the rooms, I want to cover-kitchen, living room, dining room, our bedroom, bathroom, Eli's bedroom, guest bedroom, future #2 (whenever that happens) child's bedroom, hallway, entry way. Thank you in advance for doing this for us. We will be so comforted knowing you are praying and sending your best to our family. We love you all!!

Josh, Amanda, and Eli 

Dad and Mom had each selected verses for Eli's room and for other rooms in our house. I have a book full of verses that I've written down for different rooms in the house and I can't wait to finish writing them. As my message said, I want to dedicate this house to God from the very beginning. He's the ONLY reason that we're able to build this dream home right now, and I want to give it back to him. I love that for years and years to come I'll know that we're standing on God's words in every single room in our house.

The verses Dad chose for Eli's room

One of my verses for Eli's room

My book of verses I wrote down

Another verse I wrote in Eli's room

The verse I wrote in our future second baby's room

I'm praying and hoping that we'll be able to fill this room soon :)

It was pretty hot in the house when we were writing scripture verses and Eli was getting a little cranky. We had a mini "let's-see-how-many-faces-we-can-make" session and by the end of it he was happy again :)

I can't wait to write more verses this week. I'm so glad I was able to share this special day with my parents. I can't wait until they come back and can actually stay with us in our new house :) I can't wait for all the family celebrations we'll be able to have!