I'm BBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

I haven't blogged in months, maybe even almost a year.  We started building our house and well....we started building our house! I have never been so busy these past 6 months and I'm so happy to say the house is built and we have been in it for a week now.  I'll post pics of the house soon. 

 

We owe so much to my family.  My mom and dad have been amazing in this whole process.  My dad can do ANYTHING! Read my words....ANYTHING! And not only that, he can work circles around men half his age.  My mom cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! I called my parents daily on advice and decisions.  We owe this house to them.  I told my mom last week that the only possible way that I can come close to repaying them is taking GOOD care of them when they are old!

She said she would take me up on that!!

 

My parents weren't the only ones in my family that we owe so much too.  I know our family is special.  Everyone around us knows we are special and NOT a "normal" family in our day and time (we know we are normal, everyone else is different!).  But for 4 siblings to ALL live in the same neighborhood in a small town of about 1,300 people....this ain't normal.  And we chose to live by each other.  We love and adore each other.  We are best friends.  Not only are the 4 of us close, but our spouses get along and love one another.  The 4 of us have our parents to thank for this.  Our parents wouldn't want it any other way. 

My brothers, along with my dad, drove that bulldozer for us over and over again.  The texts and phone calls that were exchanged over advice from these three men are too many to count.  Darin builds homes for a living so I probably spoke to him daily.  His wife, Chrissy, helped me so much in the beginning.  Which size front door to get, which colors of paint we should use, the type of textures on the walls, the size and colors of windows, etc.  The list goes on.  My SIL, Molly, spent one Friday night after we moved in decorating my shelves in my living room (major!) and helping unpack boxes.  My sister, Danin, helped me unload about 15 boxes one night (then we burned them all and I thought we were gonna set the neighborhood on fire!).  She helped me also with her opinions and decisions that needed to be made.  Also, the numerous times she let Tay and Tenlee come play while we worked. And her husband Eric, helped us move furniture! And borrow tools and whatever else when we needed it! Whew...again....long 6 months.  I will have to cook them all supper soon.

Leven and I are truly blessed.  We prayed for this house (me, probably more than Len) and now it's ours.  I told Leven I'm going to die in this house.  I will NOT move again.

 

I can't begin to tell you all that has happened these past few months but here are a few of my favorites pictures.      

 

 

My cousin Channing is getting married on October 3.
 We spent one weekend in Fredricksburg celebrating her! Love these girls

We take a picture every year for the Tatum football program.
 This is too cute. 

We all attended the ACM's this past April.
 It was the 50th year and worth every penny!

Love these 2! They celebrated their 42 anniversary by going to Dallas and watching the Rangers, the Hallsville Bobcats (high school) playoff game and then a college game.  I think the Longhorns.

I had a painting made of Tenlee to hang in her new room.  This is so beautiful.
  I teared up when I saw it!

Leven went and visited Trever in the spring one weekend.  Love this picture of the two of them. 
Trever is in his 2nd summer session right now and will start his JUNIOR year this fall.
 He has grown up so much! We love and miss him and are so proud of him.

And here are my girls.  They couldn't look more different!

I took this pic this past Monday, sitting in one of our new chairs.  In May, I became a Beachbody Coach and
started working out hard again and drinking Shakeology every morning.  My body changed so much. I worked
out for 6 weeks straight and felt better about myself than I have in a long time.  I stopped once we got
down to the last of the house stuff.  And I'm mad at myself for stopping, but I couldn't work out AND
do all the house stuff.  So I'm ready to jump back into it.  August 10th is my day that I have set. 
 

This was 4 weeks worth! I'm ready to jump back in!

www.beachbodycoach.com/devinbarker