Home.

We made it. It may have been a little over a week ago and it may be that I have been too tired to even think about posting on our blog...

But we made it. By the grace of God, we traveled over 9,000 miles, 23 hours, and 3 viewings of Frozen on the airplane to arrive back in Minnesota and into the arms of the people we love.

We have so much to be thankful for. We are figuring out this new life one step at a time, but praising God for His unending mercies, faithfulness, and grace.

Learning each day how to live and breath into our new role as parents.

There is a lot to write about, a lot to discover, and a lot of really hilarious things that (as parents) we probably shouldn't be laughing at. (We will be reporting all these missteps and adventures as soon as we have one solid night of uninterrupted sleep).

For now, here is a little glimpse into one of the most precious moments of our lives.

Thank you to all who have been praying, supporting, journeying through this adventure with us. We know that the hard part is just now starting, but are so thankful for the love we have been shown.

It is good to be home.

Some Call It Nesting

If you have lived or do live in a small space, you understand.

You literally have a 1000% chance of losing your mind.

Or killing your spouse.

Or both.

And then when you add ministry into the mix, you are confronted with this life-long question...

"How do you set up a small living room to be conversational for the 10 high school girls that will be here for small groups and also have a space to write a paper on Barthonian Missiological Viewpoints on Evangelicalism ?"

Oh. You don't ask those questions? Weird.

We love where we live, with it's old charm and "city" living location. But we HATE that on any given day, the one big room in our apartment is our living, dining, office, library, conference room.

That is just straight stressful.

Especially for an "A-type" personality.

And if you are blessed with an incredible and amazing "B-type" husband whose passions and brainstorming sessions run much faster than his ability to clean up after himself...

Have you ever seen that movie called "The Perfect Storm"? Ya'll feel me?

With a Seminary-going husband, a home-based photography business, a High School Ministry and a second bedroom that will someday be for our sweet child, we started wondering if we could make our 700 square foot apartment work.

Insert IKEA...
and the small little genius rooms that they make in their showrooms to make you believe you could turn a hole in the backyard into luxury living. (That is our next project.)

So, with a few purchases and a lot of re-purposings...
We decided to stay put and see if we could make this ity-bity living space functional.

And so, without further adieu, I would like to share with you what some have called "nesting".
We like to call it "living wisely into your space".

And, Lord-willing, a few extra years added on to Erik's life.

Christmas Time is Here...

Part 1...

of potentially a few.

Thought I'd throw a few snapshots of what Christmas in St. Louis is looking like these days...

And yes, it is as incredible as it seems.

One Man's Trash...

I saw a picture of a nursery on Pinterest a while back and became quickly obsessed with...oh...I don't know...EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!
Usually the one downside to finding these pictures of amazing rooms is that they are comprised of items bought at places like Anthroplogie and Pottery Barn. This limits my ability to swoon for too long before I get super frustrated with my internet searches to remake the room exactly as pictured in relationship to my bank account balances.
But I guess that is when the creativity kicks in, making way to many "close calls" in the car as I check out garage sales while driving. (Highly Recommended with Caution!)
I have, for the last couple of months, been on the hunt for a chair similar to the one that is in this dream room. Please refer to picture below.

Everything I found was just too expensive or just too...horrible. Nothing seemed to meet the happy medium of workable. Until today. 

On the way home from a worship meeting at church this morning, I drove past a garage sale sporting eye catching orange arm chairs in the front yard. I quickly drove home and recruited Erik to go back with me (I use him for his muscles and money...ow ow!) to see what kind of wheelin' and dealin' we could do.

I don't know if it was our dashing good looks, winning personalities, or just their wanting to be rid of this incredible orange rocking arm chair, but we walked away with this gem for $15. 

15 bucks, people! 

So, I realize that this may require some creativity...but isn't that the fun in turning someone's trash into your own little treasure? A treasure that is sure to be used many times for rocking, reading, sleeping, and loving.  

Oh. Hello Summer.

A Bald Guy and Some Elbow Grease

Our Home Study Home Visit is tomorrow. 

Nuff said. 

Home Sweet Home

How fast the holidays have come and gone. We had an amazing Christmas, spending time with the Heyse family in St. Louis, MO. The whole family was there...Dad, Mom, Stephen, Keresa, and Taft and Weston and Beth!

The time was packed full of good family fun, cookie making, going to downtown St. Charles to see the lights, a visit to the Tap Room, and many nights around the fire with glasses of wine! We also got to spend some much needed hang out time with the cousins and had a few great days of catching up with old and dear friends.  

I finally got a chance to put together a few of the MILLION pictures that I took over the 10 days that we were home. All of the kids even got a chance to go out on Christmas Eve to take a mini photo shoot as a present to my parents. (Those pictures will come later)

It was heart-filling, refreshing, restful, and unforgettable. I LOVE being home. There really is something so true about saying "Home Sweet Home."

All Work and ALWAYS Play!

The Anderson's had an HGTV moment today.
Yup.
Calendars marked.
Time cleared.
Cell phones thrown in the trash...
Come on people! Not really! We had to use them for instructions!

All that to be said. WE GOT STUFF DONE!!
There were a few things around our apartment that most renters would call upon their landlord to fix. But we, being the people that don't like to do things the easy way, decided to take on the challenge of fixin' her up instead!
And so...our list looked something like this...
1. Replace back garage door.
2. Paint front door.
3. Replace handles on windows that had fallen off and/or needed Stone Cold Steve Austin to open.
4. Fix back screen door.
5. Rearrange living room for fall season (since we can only have our couch in one place during the summer due to the awesome window AC that we have pumpin' the cool air to keep us alive in this crazy place they call the Central Valley).

Check. Check. Check. Not so much check (but saved for another day). AND CHECK!!

Here are some pics from our "DIY Kinda Saturday"!

Naturally....as any sane DIY couple should...we started the day at the Farmers Market for a nice cup of coffee and...

Bacon on a stick. Yes folks...it is disgusting and life-alteringly amazing all at the same time!

From there...we got to business.

This was our old back garage door....please note the gapping empty whole in between the front and the back of the door. That is because it was hollow and basically made from construction paper. 

 Erik workin' real hard on our new beautiful door from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore!

Project 1...COMPLETE! Lookin' good!!

On to the window handles...what a hard workin' guy!

I was in charge of the "Red Door" project! 

 SOOOOO GREAT!!!

 Um seriously...how hot is that red door?! (and the guy behind it!)

 On to the living room "rearrange"! Here are some before and afters!

Before:

 After:

 Overall...I'd say one crazy awesome, super productive, and wonderful DIY Saturday! I think we are ALL a little tired.