Stencil vs Wallpaper

We live in a great big home, which has been split into a duplex.  It is an old home, and let's just say that the landlord has other things she would rather spend her money on, then to fix up this  old place. 

But God has blessed us here, and we are thankful that this home is both affordable, and large enough to fit our family of seven.  We love our crazy place, or, maybe love is too strong of a word, but at least we laugh regularly at our problems and dramas here.  Such as when mom was working on her work studio in the attic and fell through the floor.  Okay, so not all the way through, but the evidence of the fall, left a gloriously ugly bruise, which stretch the entire length of my lag. 

So, in the effort to make this place safely livable, and cheerful to be in, we are working on making improvements, such as paint, fixtures, new floor boards in the attic, yard work, which is really yard torture at this point.


As I was searching for some wall paper to accentuate our high ceilings.  Both with the hope of sprucing up the room, while detracting from the bad ceiling paint, I found some glamorous options.  But WOW!  Wall paper is, though beautiful, expensive.  Here is some great examples of what was looking for.  Or this one.  Love it!


However, I found this beautiful site for purchasing wall stencils.   I was not able to get a picture up, so pop over here to see. 
I would love to just buy some great wall paper to decorate our home in.  But at $85 a roll, I think I am out of luck at this point.

If I do this, I will be sure to post it. 

Enjoy your Monday!
Crystal

A Big Move

It is official!!

It has been in the works for almost a year. No, I am not talking swim wear.

Our family will be moving from Seattle Washington to Minneapolis Minnesota at the end of June.

Ahhhh!! I know! I can hardly believe it myself.

Yes, Minnersowta, as our family likes to call it. Not Fargo, but close enough. My husband and I are already regularly practicing our new language. Oh yeah surrre ya betch ya. Wherrre ready no doubt. Heavy on the r's and your pretty darn close. And just in case you are wondering what kind of activities they like to do in good old Minnersowta here is an example to temp you to visit us.

Ice Fishing.

But just in case this isn't your thing, there is always ice bathing.

That's right, you see it here. Ice bathing. That is what I am talkin about. Your beer stays cold and helps you forget your freezing on an ice burg. And if you are thinking it , it's okay, we all ready know it, we are a little crazy. : ) The comfort in it all is, so are those we going to move over to be with. Just a shout out to the Abins and the Evans.

We thought we where back in Seattle to stay. But it seems God was sweet enough to bring us back for just a few years this round in order to let us be apart of some really important times in our extended families lives, and we are so thankful He did. But now He is moving us on. My sweet hubby has received an Associate Pastoral position at Christ Church Twin Cities with Pastor Jeff Evans (a great friend) and we are quite ecstatic about the whole thing.

This crew of people from Christ Church have gone out of their way to find us housing and get us all we need for the move. We are absolutely positive that we are undeserving of this full love they are enthusiastically extending to us. But we are loving it!

So keep us in your prayers. You know how eventful moves can be, let alone moving to a different state.

To great adventures,

Crystal

In 2010 With the Comis Family ~ The Saga Continues

Our Little Heart Stopper

Tallis-Donna is filling her role as the sweetest little baby in the world very well. We are all simply in love.

And it is not hard to see why.


I Love This Family

Welcome To Our World Tallis-Donna

What a chunk! And at 10 pounds, we know why. This is so funny to me because she is so petite now.

Tallis-Donna on her second day of life.



With her brother Liev.



With her sister London. (Who knew it was a girl all along. )



With her big sister Payton.

With her brother Lucius (Who is no longer my baby.)

Tallis-Donna spends most of her day's with her big brother Lucius while all her other siblings are at school. They have become quite good friends.

Mmmm, what a sweet family. I am absolutely sure I neither deserve them or love them enough, but I am so thrilled they are mine.

And Then Came Our Girl

I do not know how my husband did this, but somehow he managed to get this picture at the moment I lifted the cord to find out that, though we knew we where having a boy, this sweet little wonder was always a perfect little girl.

This was such a wonderful surprise for our family. Both Chris and I confessed that we really wanted another girl. The children had already said that we had to have a girl so we could name her after Mor Mor (my mother).

We affectionately named our new sweetness after my mother Donna.

Tallis-Donna (Doe-Nay) Ekklesia

God is so good to us.

A VERY Pregnant Mama

Okay, so like I said, we are making it through 2010 and one of our funnest recaps is our bundle.

You might remember that a couple of years ago my Mama passed away, and just on the cusp of her death we found out we where pregnant. And if that was not enough of a thrilling surprise, it turned out that I was due on my late mother's birthday.


Well here I am in all my glowing glory, thanks to a husband who loves his wife pregnant, and believes that it must be documented.


Though I may look a little mad in this picture, I assure you I am not, I was in what my husband calls my work mode. While in the middle of a vigorous dish washing session, there was a pause for a little photo shoot. Hence the water on the belly.

And just a side note, Isn't that just always the way of it, water, food, flour, it all some how finds a comfortable home on the belly of the pregnant woman. I don't see men with this problem, no matter how big their belly is.

Where Has The Time Flown

Well goodness!! 

I can not believe how the time has flown by this year.  I had many intentions and creative ideas about all the fun posts I was going to share.  I even decided I would add some of our Comis Family adventures and moments to the site.  But can you believe it, I failed!

The Christmas season has come and gone. And I am looking forward to the newness of spring. But as long as the clouds, rain, and snow keep hovering over head, we must make our own sun. I see no other choice but to do a recap for 2010.   Pictures of smiling kids and crafty projects it just what is needed to keep the sun shining indoors.

I am going to take this next week to do a rewind on good old 2010.  

So excuse me while I reminisce.

January 26th is Lucius' Birthday.  So, just around the corner we will celebrate this little mans birthday, just as we did last year.   

We made a special ice cream cake to appease the adult attendants.  So yes, this 3 year old got 2 cakes.   And oh was it worth it!  Yes, that is caramel sauce dripping down.  This cake was amazing with layers of 2 kinds of ice cream, peanut butter, fudge, white chocolate, caramel, whip cream, and almond slices.  This is one amazing cake.  I recommend it highly.

Our favorite brown eyed boy, just like his daddy.  Smooch!