New year, new state, new home

November and December 2016 found our family scrambling to excute a PCS (permanent change of station) cross country move. I flew to find our new home, we purged, had a moving sale, packed, cleaned, and so much more in a very short period of time. 
It was an interesting time of year to move for us. Traveling around Christmas time was simultaneously fun and very Stressful! We were blessed to be with family and friends the entire way across the country. 
We received our HHG (household goods) on the 29th, 30th, and then January 10th. The exhausting process of unpacking and making a home has been in full swing. I had a goal of 2 weeks in my head but I am not sure if we're going to make it!


Here are the before pictures of some of the rooms my parents came down and helped out with.....

The dining room 

The downstairs bath

Stay tuned for the after pictures! 

California home:part 2

I am doing my best to get the house finished. I am sure that it is some kind of record for not being completely unpacked or decorated but I am doing the best in our current circumstances! Anyway, here are a few snapshots inside the house....

This is one wall that is pretty much finished. And yes if you are in our FBC family that is you in the lower right frame!

This is the awkward cut out in our dining/living area. I am excited to fill it with our new curio that shipped yesterday!!

The front sitting room. AKA the Ben room!

view from the front door

looking from our front door towards the hallway/kitchen/living space

The view towards our front door

The front porch makes the house....

Enjoying our Christmas lights on our front porch tonight.
It strikes me that this may be our last with this beautiful wraparound porch & that makes me sad.
This is the porch that sold me on the house before I even saw the inside. It's where I have rocked my babies, drank coffee with wonderful friends, visited with family, had my beloved dogs lay on my feet.....yeah the front porch definitely make the house.

House improvements

We have been steadily completing projects to improve the flow of daily life & of course also add value to the house.
This week Ben got our storm door up. Energy improvement yes. Home improvement yes. More importantly safety improvement! I like the extra layer of protection and the extra lock!
Now we are thinking about painting the front door....anyone have any suggestions based on our brick, siding, and shutter colors?

Fun from the last 2 weeks

Excited to show Grammy & Pappy her soccer skills



Crazy Man on the play ground

She has mad skills....must be her daddy's coaching on the field and off!

The Spring Camp Lejeune Craft fair
Loved having the family visit....fun way to break up the day~

She is always in motion!

Sometimes he is so cute I can't even stand it!

Lovin' her new hat!

Spring has sprung

For our family who have not been able to visit...our home for now

Isaac's big boy seat
Poor little man has another 5 months before he can use it!

But he loves it so!

Ben's first mountain bike race

Ben's second mountain bike race

Yum chocolate

Playing with pappy

Fun with Grammy
You must strike a pose for any picture!

Saying goodbye is VERY hard to do!

Week 2 (Days 8-14) The 365 project

http://thebowyers.blogspot.com/

http://workofheartandsoul.wordpress.com/365-project-2/

Day #8 (Sunday) We went to our "last" Sunday service since next week we will start our Saturday nights. We started our household projects today by going shopping at Lowe's to stock up on supplies.

We are planting blueberry and strawberry plants this year as well as tomatoes and jalapenos.

Day #9 (Monday) Ben took time off of work to complete some projects at the house before he leaves on his detachment. We did ALOT of transplanting and also new planting to spruce up the house. There was also weeding, spreading lime and weed & feed on the lawn, mowing the lawn, power washing the house, and making the garden bed ready.

The kids had a good time being outside and "helping" us out.
Day #10 (Tuesday) More work on the house. The kids wanted to be like daddy and wear their hats. We stopped to take this quick pose!

Kendall was a big helper with my pansy planting!

Day #11 (Wednesday) The kids had school today. We forgot about St. Patty's day but fortunately the kids had a small amount of green on their clothes. We spent the day working on the house (inside and out) again. We also got our gutter quote done.

Here is Kendall's project.

Day #12 (Thursday) This has been my favorite day (also my most exhausting) of the week. We are at the tail end of our Beth Moore study for the ladies ministry at church. I am so excited that our ladies ministry has seemed to explode just like the general population at church!

Day #13 (Friday) Isaac had his 18 month well check today which also turned into his double ear infection appointment! My poor little boy. We decided to put all house stuff on hold and enjoy our last few days together. We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. (It was my first trip there ever!!) We had such a fun time until it started to get crowded. We had small group after that with some of our very close friends.

Day #14 (Saturday) Ben started out the day with some yummy chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes. He is definitely the breakfast cook in our house!

We continued our fun by going to a small local zoo. The kids had a lot of fun especially when they got to feed the pygmy goats.

We wrapped up the day by going to our first Saturday night service at church. It was awesome! After that, we shared a frosty with some friends before coming home to get Ben packed for his deployment! Writing it all down it seems so low key but it felt like we were CRAZY busy all week!

Remodeling

We have several projects going at our house right now. We are upgrading several things being that we might have to rent or sell this year.

We decided to start our flooring project in the kids bathroom. After watching a HGTV show, we decided to go with corkwood flooring for it. We are going to look at this bathroom for a bit then decide if we are going to do the masterbath in it as well.

We have a "jungle" theme in there but Kendall loves dolphins so we had to add the rug for her!
Isaac has been very curious about the potty so I caught him in action here. (Right before I put him up on the potty!

There is no corkwood threshhold so we are not super happy with this transition piece but it was the closest that we could find for the color.

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The kitchen is still a work in progress right now......

We decided to add hardware to the cabinetry. WOW what a difference it made! It was like a whole new kitchen when I walked in there.

Neither Ben or I was fond of the big flourescent light that we had in the kitchen. We decided due to wiring issues, time constraints, and funding that we would buy a trendier looking light fixture. Here is the new one.

This is the final wall color for the kitchen. When we have it completely painted, I will post more pics!