A Tale of the Toe and the Tongue

The foyer.

The long, lost, forgotten room in most homes.

Or is it a room? Can it be considered a "room" when there is no place to sit and contains no closet??? It's these type of questions that keep me up at night.

Anyway, my foyer has been pretty much vacant since we moved in 7 years ago. I threw down a rug, put up a beautiful hall tree (that has never actually been used) that Sylvia "loaned" me, and stuck a lamp on a table to use as a night light. Other than that... forgotten.

In fact, until I had children, there were days at a time, I never actually stepped foot in my foyer, because I had no need to go upstairs. Little did I know that 2 children later, they would become like stadium sprints I did a hundred times a day.

Sometimes I think... If I have to walk up those steps one more time today...

So, I decided to do a little decorating.

Enter, what has become affectionately known as "The Toe" and "The Tongue" pictures.

We had this picture taken of Trace when he was 6 months old.
Out of the little red bowl spills a little red... toe. But it looks like a little red... well, you know.
What's your guess as to how many more years I'll be allowed to keep that one up? But I smile every time I see it. :)

Then Keatyn turned 6 months and... yeah, well we missed it. Poor second child.

But this is her at 8 months. Now known as "the tongue." I could just bite that little tongue right off! I had the photographer change the green background to black so it would match Trace's "toe" pic and framed them together going up my stairs.

I have been collecting black and white pictures since Trace's first year at Hixson Pres.
They have an amazing photographer, Suzanne Lemery, come every year and take pictures of the kids in their "natural" setting without really posing them. I have his from every year at school and one of both of my little loves together this fall.
I've been adding to my "future" black and white gallery with pictures from Andy and Kadi's wedding, the 4 generations, and our trips to Destin, but never got the nerve to actually hang them. I'm way to anal and symmetrical for my own good.

I was mainly concerned about putting a million holes in my walls before I got it figured out and even took all my pictures out of their frames to tape them onto the wall first before actually getting a hammer and nails. Then my very talented and smart mother-in-law told me about using sewing needles to hang lightweight pictures and we spent the better part of a day doing just that. I love it!

(I'm now noticing from the picture a few are crooked and am fighting the urge to stop typing mid sentence and go fix them. :)
I found this plaque at Hobby Lobby, and it summed it up perfectly.
Now my foyer is no longer naked (unless you count "the toe" hee hee) and it represents all of which I adore most in this world!

Thank you Sylvia (yet again) for helping me complete my vision. Lord only knows what my house would look like without you!