Family Photos Nov 2016

Every year we have one of my photographer friends take our huge family photos with my side of the family. This year it was a sweet friend from church Calee and these were taken on our road around from our house on a friends land. I think the turned out cute considering we had 8 kiddos and 1 main fella that def didnt want ANY pics after the 1st 2 where taken. lol. But my mom got her pics by a cotton field like she wanted. 

So here are our family photos from Nov 2016.

God Bless,

Heather 

The Whole Gang

 My wonderful Parents 

 Granny & Poppa with all their Great 8 !

 My brother and his family.

 My sweet Adlee Jean with Poppa in the background

 My hubby and Adlee Jean 

 My sweet little family 

 Us again

 Adlee exploring the cotton 

 My 3 blessings 

 My main Squeeze 

 Love him so much

 Me , Mom, and Josh

 me and Mom 

 love this pic of us. so glad to have my mom as a best friend.

 All the fellas

 My Annaliese Joy

 The Great 8

 Happy New year from the Cowart - Lewis Gang!

And so it begins.......

So we officially started working on our dream home!!!

I am beyond words. I am so excited and nervous all at the same time.

You know the feeling I'm talking about.

Like I can't wait to be in my big beautiful home I have been dreaming about for years, yet

I wanna throw up thinking about all that has to be done from here to then.

Tues.Sept 20,2016

Jake got home from work. Said he had talked to Mr.Greg and he could come tomorrow and do our land if we had our house staked off. So we got out there in the dark with Jakes phone flashlight and set up our post where the corners of the house and porch would be. We got eaten alive with misquitos but we got it done. 

Wed. Sept 21,2016

Mr.Greg( a nice man from church that Jake had already talked to )came out and started working around 9am on getting the land level and cleared out. We wanted to get some of the land where the trees had been knocked down cleaned up along with the leveling and dirt pad for the house. Of coarse I took pics like all day long. Nanna came by and visited us for a little while and that is always a blessing. Mom & Dad dropped by for a min to see some of the work. 

It started to look so so different and so good. I was squealing on the inside and maybe a little on the outside too. Its really happening... Its really happening yall! That's all I could think about!

Thurs. Sept 22,2016

Mr.Greg was back bright at early , and when I saw bright and early I mean 8am cause lets face it. I am not a morning person and before 8 is early for me. lol

He worked all day long. He took one little break and kept working. He is such a nice, hardworking man. I would recommened him to anyone. And I truly believe God set him into our path. We met him one night at VBS and he came up and talked to us (we were the kinda new people) and then Jake and him started talking about what work they did, And when he told Jake he had done this type of work and had been doing it 30 years. We Knew we wanted him to do our work for us.

But back to this day. We made to like every other day. Doing our house work, school work, and playing. I of coarse took more pics, and Jake wanted an updated photo every couple hours cause he was at work. But the time Mr.Greg left at 4:30 , he had the dirt pad ready, and so much of the land cleared off. It looks so much bigger now and we know exactly where and how big our house is going to look. Looks amazing! He just did such a great job.

My parents and jakes parents had road by and checked out the work. And all thought that he did a great job. 

I let the girls get in the slip n slide and Jake pulled up and said how good it looked too.

We need to pull something on it to move some of the little sticks and divits around so we can cut the grass but all in all it looks Great! We got a family pic infront of our "house" aka dirt pad and then went inside for dinner.

It is such a blessing that we are able to finally start our dream home. We have a tight budget but we will make it work!!! 

We have already gotten 2 double windows for a GREAT Price(Lowes), A jacuzzi tub for our master bathroom (friend), 2 barstools (Goodwill), a living room rug (Lowes), and 2 pillows to match (America Thrift)! All on sale or for an awesome Price! 

I am thrifty and I will try my best to make our budget work good for everything we need. And I know that God has us in his hands and My God will give us the desires of our Hearts! 

God Bless,

Heather 

  

Decluttering

Well if you know me I am kinda of a... I hoard sentimental things person. Like the shirt I wore when me and my husband met. Or the hat and outter covering he wore when our kids where born. Also I'm a "I'm totally going to be able to wear that again one day so I dont want to get rid of it" person too. Well recently clutter has just made my skin cringe! So I have bravely been getting rid of things. Like bag fulls of things , yall. I have been so proud of myself. Slowly my anxitey about getting rid of things is going away. Thank you Jesus! Now dont get me wrong I will still keep the very sentimental things that mean alot to me , but all those smaller clothes if  I dont absolutely LOVE them they are getting donated! And if something fits me right now and I have it just because it Fits and I dont Love it... BYE BYE! My cloths have been making me feel frumpy and old and that is not me. AT ALL!

Sunday I went through my closet in 5 mins and got rid of a whole Garbage bag full of cloths! 5 MINS and I got rid of that much stuff I have been holding on too. And it felt SOOOOO GOOD!

I've been selling some odds and ends things on a local resale sight and saving all that money in a coffee can so I can buy myself a MAC desktop , to edit photos and so my kids have a place to do some homeschool work on. So out with all the old junk that just sits in my back room and hello new computer and clean back room =] Plus when we build our home we dont want to bring extra useless clutter into it.

The less and less clutter I have I feel anxiety lifting and feeling so much better!

I have gotten rid of 2 more garbage bags full of stuff and have a box half full. Im going through the girls rooms with them so they can keep their most loved toys/ things and lets get rid of the other cause yall know birthday parties and christmas will be coming and MORE toys will enter our house. 

So this is a new me and Im have way less anxiety about getting rid of the old. Now dont get me wrong I am still sentimental and those EXTRA special things to me I will keep but for real yall I know I have gotten so much better!!

Anyone else like that?

Are you a sentimental hoarder or can you toss anything??

I challenge you to go into your closet and take 5 mins just 5 mins. And look around, If it doesnt make you happy when you look at it, if you dont love it, if it is something that you have been holding onto for 3 years and you still havent worn it... Toss it into a garbage bag and take it to your local donation center! I promise it will make you feel so much better and so much anxiety will be lifted and you will want to keep getting rid of things you dont use, need, or love! 

God bless,

Heather 

New Hair

So dec was almost over and I really wanted to make a change. A change in how our family was doing things and a change in me. We talked and prayed and made out a plan. Financials, kids, our outlooks, where we want to be by next year, etc.... 

Well I really have been wanting to change my look up some too. So Jake said to your hair like a brown or dark red color. So I went and got a box color (the old hairdresser in me was screaming NOOOO) but I was just ready to do it before I changed my mind. Went to my parents and my sis in law put the color on for me. Here is the after color of that...

Well it was ok but the color was kinda faded looking and I was talking to my friend Lindsey on the phone and she said lets go to Sallies and get your color you really wanted and I can get my cousin to come trim your hair and color it. I said ok lets do it. So she did my hair and Lindsey and Chelsea wanted to give me a makeover. So they fixed my hair and did my makeup. Here is my before and after of the 1st red to the 2nd red....

And here is the BEFORE and AFTER..

BLONDE VS RED

Sooooooo different. I have always been a blonde all but 1 time i put a red color and blonde highlights all over and the lady cut it WAY to short and I HATED it. And dyed it back blonde like 3 weeks later. And of coarse in cosmotology school I put some red low lights and black low lights in my hair... but I was still mainly Blonde. So this... this is a HUGE deal for me. 

Such a change.

I feel like I look like a different person.

I was so worried that Adlee wouldn't know who I was. 

But she looked at me and then my hair but still wanted me to hold her and love on her. 

So that made me feel so much better.

Here are me , Lindsey, and Chelsea after they did my makeover =] 

Been through alot with the girls. Friends since highschool =] 

Thats all for now. 

Hope you are having a Great New Year! 

<3 God Bless <3

Heather!