I thought I should properly introduce the 5th and 6th members of our family, since you all have probably seen them around in photos and in person.

Meet Pug….

And Blankie…

They are two very important pieces to our happiness over here. Do your kids have lovies or items they hold onto ALL DAY LONG. Well, mine do.

Blankie came into our life when Evy was one month old. Our good friend Monica made it for Evy and she literally took to it above all other blankets right away. I have never seen anything like it…a tiny baby preferring a blanket. But that’s exactly what happened. She would cry unless that blanket was wrapped around her, and it has gone everywhere with her ever since. Now, it is pretty tattered and one side of it is opened up. I keep saying I’m going to sew it closed again, but she prefers it open, she shoves her arm in there and makes the corner of the blankie like a glove, rubbing her face and whatever else needs comfort. It’s pretty cute.

And Pug…

Pug came into our lives when Jake was about 15 or 18 months. It was a gift from my dad’s cousin Shelby and his wife Jo. They had stopped by Stockton one day on their way to my parents {they live in Southern California} and had brought this little dog with them as a gift for Jake. He loved that little guy. Since then it has been slept with, carried around, thrown up on and washed a dozen and a half times {ahem, throw up. ha}. Jake lovingly calls Pug, “Puggie” and has a hard time sleeping without him. Oftentimes Pug becomes a pillow and his expensive down pillow gets tossed to the ground.

Both Puggie and Blankie are not allowed outside the house unless we are on long trips. We have had a couple of scares where they almost disappeared so the kids understand that they must stay home if they want them to stick around for much longer. Sometimes we have a fight over it, but usually they are understanding and will give in to our rule. I’m terrified of these two items disappearing…we’d have some LONG nights, that’s for sure!

So I’m curious, do your kids have a special lovey? A blanket or stuffed animal? How do your kids deal with taking them places??

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I wanted to show you guys a quick sneak peek of the dining room redecorating. Remember my house goals? Well, I am well on my way to finishing two of them, YAY!! Just have a couple more things to finish and then I’ll show you some pictures. Here in the dining room, I need to finish slipcovering the other parson’s chair and order a seat cushion for the pink bench by the windows. I also have two more chairs that need to be painted.

Remember the room before??

Well, we have had some improvement, that’s for sure!

This room is really, really hard to photograph, and I took these this morning really quickly while kids were screaming all around me, so these aren’t the best, but I think it gives you some idea. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE {can I make that any clearer?} the white. LOVE IT!!!

I also love my roses from the garden.

My crop hasn’t been great this year. They need to planted so desperately, so in August we plan on doing that when Brandon has a couple days in a row home. Hopefully that will help them for next year.

Well, friends, that’s it for now! Big hugs to you all!

xoxo