the benders

Friday, November 21, 2014

Philip's Thankful Leaves

Philip brought home these leaves listing what he is thankful for. My favorite is the top left - Philip's thankful for the backyard and his sister!

For the past 5 years, we have wanted to get new floors in our home. We always thought we would replace the carpet with more carpet so we were waiting until the kids outgrew the "spilling everything all over the floor" phase.

Since we realized that phase was not ending soon, we looked into laminate flooring. It would be more forgiving to the spills and accidents and would allow us to get new floors sooner. It was a great choice.

In addition to the new floors, we also decided to remove the half way that separated our Family room and kitchen. Who knew eliminating that small wall would change the entire look of our downstairs!

Half-Wall Removal
Before and After

It took a week to remove & replace the floors. It was well worth the wait:

Family Room
Before & After

Dining Room/Playroom
Before & After

View into the kitchen without the wall

In addition to the wood laminate downstairs, we replaced the linolime in the bathrooms and carpet in all the bedrooms. It truly feels like a brand new house!

While the men were working on our floors, they found a unique place to store the toilet!

As they worked in our Great Room

Here's a good before picture of the kitchen floors - they had so much water damage!

Our Home Away from Home

While our house was being transformed...or at least the floors were being replaced!...we decided to pack up and head to a local hotel for the week. The local Holiday Inn Express became our stomping grounds for four glorious nights.

It ended up being a lot of fun. The kids loved the "adventure" and I enjoyed finding creative ways to pack a lunch for Jackson and Philip out of what was offered at the free breakfast!

We spent a lot of time sitting in the bed watching TV!

Philip helped me get Elizabeth to sleep one night.

Breakfast!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Friendsgiving

Tonight was the 6th Annual Friendsgiving at Kate and Ben's. Our crowd was smaller this year but the fellowship was just as good as it has always been!

This week for Wesley and me has been extremely stressful with two different situations at church and being out of the house for the floor remodeling. It was such a blessing to spend a couple of hours with dear friends celebrating ALL that we have to be thankful for!

Someone loved sitting with the big kids this year!

Sam, Jack, Alayna, Elizabeth, Isabelle, Philip and Jackson

Benders, Hazlewoods, and Smiths
(Photo credit: Jackson)

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Pool Party!

Not every little girl born in November can say she had a Pool Party for her 2nd birthday!!

Once it was decided we would stay at the Holiday Inn the week we were having our floors installed, I decided to use the change of venue to our advantage. Elizabeth was having a Pool party!

She and her friends, Andy and JJ, thoroughly enjoyed celebrating her birthday from the comforts of the indoor swimming pool! It was a blast! After swimming, we all enjoyed lunch at Chick-fil-a.

Andy

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Elizabeth's first haircut

Twice, I have trimmed up Elizabeth's hair but she hasn't had a real haircut. Her hair was getting to where I didn't know what to do with it. Someone needed to tell me what to do with girl hair (this was so much easier with my boys!)

I took Elizabeth to "Sweet & Sassy" and asked them if they could clean it up or if it needed to just grow. They suggested a trim to help it grow out healthy.

I honestly can't tell a difference in the before and after pictures but I know they cut off some hair so here's hoping it will grow in healthy!