You all have been so kind regarding our sweet little home – thank you! All of your comments have brightened my day, no doubt!
We’ll finish up today so we can move on to bucket calves tomorrow. The kids are showing at the county fair and – oh my word – are they cute!
So off of the kitchen is the great, big living room/den/family room – whatever you prefer to call it. This room has a LOT of wood going on but it’s quite pretty!
Living room before
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this room or not but it turns out, I do! It’s just a big, cozy space for the fam to hang out and play games and wrestle around… We’re dying to host our first pitch party/game night!
Living room afterLiving room before
We replaced the cowhide with something a little brighter against all the wood!
Living room afterLiving room before
And in these built ins, we put a pretty paper on the backside to give a little pop of fun…
Living room afterLiving room afterLiving room after
More pretty windows…
Across from the living room is the laundry room and a half bath/mudroom bathroom.
Wrexy built me a sliding barn door for the laundry room and I love it! I wasn’t sure I wanted because it seems EVERYONE has one these days, but it’s really functional and it fits the house well.
Laundry room
The previous laundry room door wanted to whack the washer. If we moved the washer to where it didn’t hit, then I had no room to fold clothes and with as much laundry as we do around here, I NEEEEEEDED a place to fold clothes!
Laundry room
The appearance of the mudroom bathroom was one of the biggest changes in the house. It was wall-papered, but yellowing and peeling. Would you believe I don’t have a single picture of it before?!
Alas, we painted it (and LOVED the texture the wall paper gave), put in a utility sink (so Wrex could make messes here as he mixed milk or whatever instead of the kitchen sink), and gave it an updated, clean look!
Mudroom bath afterMudroom bath afterMudroom bath after
This bathroom comes right off the garage door and is so nice for washing dirty little hands when they come in from outside. 😉
We didn’t do much work in the basement except for some touch up paint. We just used what we could to make it feel a little more homey for guests.
Basement before
And, yes, we took down that HUGE mirror!
Basement afterBasement afterBasement after
We turned the small room in the basement into the perfect sleeping galley for kid visitors! (This is the kids’ favorite room in the house – ha!)
Basement afterBasement after
There’s also a really good sized storage room that we chocked full of party supplies, winter coats and what not. I LOVE having a basement in case of severe weather – tornadoes and I are not friends – and this one is quite cozy should we ever have to hang out here for a while.
In case I haven’t said it before, we truly do love this home. We feel so grateful to live here and hope to use every square inch for His glory!
Thanks for humoring my little home tour – it’s been fun!
You guys sure know how to make a girl feel loved and appreciated! It was so fun to connect with so many of you yesterday…Facebook is good for something, yes?!
So today, let’s look around downstairs. The entry way of the house was painted a pumpkinish orange. It really just reminded me of the Texas Longhorns and I just. couldn’t. do. it.
Entry before
As you can see, we painted it a dark, dark grey and I like how it toned down all of the other wood in the kitchen and dining area.
Entry afterEntry afterEntry after
So the right is the kitchen, and right in front of you is the bar we installed.
Entry after
It’s the perfect little space for breakfast and such…and for the kids to sit at because the rest of the official dining room has carpet. When I swept after the first meal, I knew we had made the right choice with the bar!
Our previous home did not have a dining room and I’ve never grown up in a house with one, yet my heart looooonged for one. I love family dinners…I love the breaking of bread and feasting and raucous laughter that comes with sharing something yummy with people you love. This place has a great dining room…
Dining room before
and my sweet husband filled it with the perfect table…
Dining room after
Isn’t he amazing?! We kept our old chairs and used the same table base, but he built the table top and the benches! We can get a solid 12 people around this thing. My heart is racing just thinking about it!
It’s my favorite room in the house, truly, because I love all that it represents. My other favorite thing is the fireplace guard. Another gift from the brother-in-law. It was an old stock rack that you’d sit in the back of a pickup to haul livestock and it fit PERFECTLY in this space – it was made for us!
Off of the dining room is the school room – a close second for favorites! We didn’t do much in here except paint the pumpkin the same dark grey as the entry way and replace the light fixture…
School room before
Are you ready? Seriously? It’s divine! We spend so much time in this room and school hasn’t even started yet!
School room afterSchool room afterSchool room after
We ordered our curriculum last week and got our approval letter in the mail and we are ready to REALLY use this room! Off of this room, is sweet little patio area with a good view of the neighboring cows…peaceful and sweet.
Ok, so back to the kitchen. We didn’t do anything to it besides paint. The walls were a light yellow and, again, we went with a grey just to tone everything down a bit.
Kitchen afterKitchen after
I love the brick, I love all the storage. It doesn’t look huge but it has far more room that our previous kitchen. The only thing I’m missing is my gas stove; electric just isn’t the same!
Off of the kitchen is our room and bathroom; two of the less “wow” rooms of the house. We didn’t do anything in our room except upgrade the ceiling fan that threatened to fall on us in the night.
Master bedroom
It’s sweet and simple and easy to keep clean. And? It has a nice sized closet – something else we’ve never had before!
The master bath is one of the more dated rooms, but we did our best at making it look at least nice enough.
Master bath beforeMaster bath before
We changed a lot in the room, starting with the color. We put in new lighting, new mirrors, new fixtures…a good head start without ripping the thing to shreds and starting over…
Master bath afterMaster bath afterMaster bath after
It’s better….
Off of the kitchen, is the stairway leading to the basement, the laundry room, a mudroom bathroom and the living room…but I’ll do those another day.
Today, we’re headed to Mullen to see the original WD Phipps and the kids are fired up! Wryder has his “cowboy clothes” on and Sawyer is dressed to the nines…their great-grands are pretty lucky!
Oh, sweet friends! Were you wondering if I’d ever return?! Life has been crazy and GOOD – crazy good!
To catch you up in one, simple run-on sentence, we had the opportunity to sell our house, rent an upgraded (read: bigger, newer, central air having, more-than-one-bathroom-and-an-actual-dining-room) home that answered all of our prayers…so we packed our things and cleaned out barns and buildings and took way longer than we ever imagined to move in because apparently we have a lot of stuff and like things just so…BUT we are in and feeling settled and LOVING. IT. HERE. The Lord blessed our socks off and we feel this is exactly where we are supposed to be for the here and now – not much better than that!
And? Apparently, I have some of the sweetest, most encouraging friends on the planet who want to see pictures of the place so what better day than today to get me back in the saddle of blogging. I’ve missed it so!
Moving had been on our minds for a while for lots of reasons, one being that we had bought our home on what we had called a five-year plan. It suited us well and we loved that sweet, little 100 year old farm house but with the addition of two other children, things started to feel a little tight. (And, I know, that is definitely a first world problem. We have never felt anything but blessed to live there – remember that awesome story!? – but we felt the Lord prompting us towards something different and we were ready to go!)
We had heard about the house from friends from church. They told us where it was so we drove by just to see if it was even something was an option for us. Whoa. Nelly. It was like dream-home material!
Yes. Just YES.
A month or so later, we took a tour, prayed our faces off, sold our home and moved in here! We LOVE IT. I’m afraid, no other home will ever compare – truly! Obviously, there are things we might change if we owned the place but for now? It’s perfect for us! The Lord answered all of our requests and desires and then some!
From the moment I walked in, I could SEE us making memories here. I could see myself in the kitchen, cooking with Sayble while looking out the window at the other 2 playing outside. I could see Bible studies and card parties in the big ole family room and loud family dinners in the dining room. I could see kids playing for hours in their big kid rooms and looking out over the pastures from their windows – I could just see us here!
Some people probably think we’re crazy for renting but for us, this was the best option for now, for several reasons. (And just so you know, I don’t feel the NEED to explain myself, but if you don’t know that I’m an open book by now…)
1) We had reached a point with our old home that we felt we had maxed out or profit potential without doing something drastic…and we weren’t up for drastic. 2) Moving is always on the table when you work for a company 3 states away. While we love this area and home we never have to, it’s always an option. 3) Building costs mega $$ these days! I don’t know if we built what we’d like and then had to move, if we’d ever get our money out of the place. 4) There aren’t very many farmsteads in the area that AREN’T either a modular or a 100 year old farmhouse and we’ve been there done that. 5) It was the Lord. All Him. I won’t argue.
So, to recap…moving with 3 small children is hard. Moving with livestock is harder. Moving 112 chickens is hardest. We love our new home and can’t imagine life anywhere else!
Here are some pics of the new digs!
We’ll start upstairs. The stairs come up out of the dining room, up to the kids’ floor. All three of their bedrooms and their bathroom is up here, which is so nice! They’re all together and it’s REALLY quiet for them…which means good sleep for them, so good sleep for mom and dad!
Don’t knock the paneling – ha! We weren’t gonna mess with that!
Upstairs – emptyUpstairs – emptyUpstairs after; top of the stairs
Now, why did I start with that picture?! The bookshelf. Sigh. I have visions of it being artfully arranged…but then I remember that I have 3 small children who I want to LOVE to read so I’ve given up the fight on the perfect bookshelf and have gone with the “we use it all the dang time so it’s always disheveled look.” You should try it, too!
Upstairs after; truly a happy place!
My brother-in-law got me that dreamy pew last year and I was so happy to have a place for it in our new home! I started out like this:
Pew before
and after a good sanding and a fun color, it’s one of my favorite things in the house!
Pew after
The kids’ bathroom isn’t huge but I think it’s perfect for them! I’ve been so impressed with how clean they have kept it!
Since then, they’ve gotten a new faucet, as this one bit the dust about 2 weeks in, but it’s just a fun, sweet little bathroom – I love it! (It was the first room that was completely finished in the whole house! Gotta love small rooms that didn’t need paint – ha!)
Wryder’s room DEFINITELY needed paint. It’s hard to see in the pictures but the walls were in pretty bad shape as far as scratches and dings.
Wryder’s room beforeWryder’s room beforeWryder’s room before
We painted it a pretty, neutral grey and I love how it turned out!
Wryder’s room after paintWryder’s room after paintWryder’s room afterWryder’s room afterWryder’s room afterWryder’s big closet!
Sayble’s room is the smallest, but it suits her needs just fine for now! I love how it turned out…so sweet and cute – like her!
Sawyer got the biggest room. It was an easy choice for us as far as layout goes…and? The girl’s got a lot of stuff. There’s a hoarder gene on the Phipps side and by golly, the girl’s got it!
Part of why she needed the big room was for this:
LOVE LOVE LOVE
There’s just something about a cute farm house with two twin beds in a room! I bought those headboards at an auction one day for $5 each. They are vintage 20’s and just cute as a button and I’ve been storing them for this room!
Headboard beforeHeadboard after paint – Sweet Caroline, to be exact!Sawyer’s roomSawyer’s room
Her room is so sweet and so totally her. She loves her double beds; she loves the little table for tea parties and such and she loves using the toybox as her desk/office. And? She has a huge closet – a must for a girl with a penchant for cute things!
Sawyer’s room and a few of her fun things!Sawyer’s roomSawyer’s closet
And, yes…that is exactly what you think it is! She has a “secret room” behind the bookshelf in her closet! We turned it into a toy room for her and all of us love spending time in there.
I wish I had taken before and after pictures of it because we did the works in there! New carpet, new lighting, boarded the walls…
Sawyer’s toy room after
It is so fun and the perfect place to store all of her Barbies and babies and doll house things. And? Wryder has one, too. How did we luck out like that?!
Wryder’s playroom beforeWryder’s toy room after
We put in new carpet, painted everything and put in new lighting. I LOVE this space and he does, too! I love having the toys out of sight, too, I won’t lie!
Wryder’s toy room afterWryder’s toy room after
And? Sayble has a little crawl space in her room that we can turn into a playroom for her one day. But we’re tired. And she’s still a baby. So we’ll wait.
Thank you for humoring my little house tour with my awful iPhone pictures. 😉 We’ll hit downstairs tomorrow. Maybe, all of my pictures will have uploaded by then. Oh, how we miss our good internet service!
It’s FRIDAY! Do I really need to say anything else?!
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I love to see the gifts in my children become glaringly obvious. Sweet Sawyer is such a little administrator. It takes one to know one, perhaps.
Wryder has a crush on a cute little high school girl and the minute he saw her last fall, he’s been telling her (and everyone else) that he was gonna marry her. He and Sawyer have made plans for him to live in the playhouse with his new wife, with a sled for a bed. Sawyer has been busy planning his wedding for months and this week, she got their wedding clothes done.
She made notes and designs in her notebook and would check off each piece as she completed it.
Her designs…
Her main construction materials were paper towels and washi tape and they look surprisingly good!
The dress and “gail”Wryder’s tuxedo shirt. Note the red rose and the bow tie…
I feel like we’ve fought their obsession with this project for quite some time. I do love that they love the concept of marriage and how joyful it truly is. We must be doing a little something right…
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Sawyer has her first 4-H meeting this weekend. We are so excited for her and she is so excited for herself! Wrex and I’ve done a lot of talking this week about the joys and advantages of a slower pace of life.
Everything that he is today – from follower of Christ, to husband, to father, to cattle buyer – all of the things and people that influenced him most, took place before he was 15 years old. It wasn’t high school…it wasn’t college…it was the things he got to try and experience during his most formative years that shaped his being.
I am so grateful that I get to be a stay-at-home mom…that I get the opportunity to spend more time with them than anyone else…that we get to encourage them and teach them and train them and provide them with opportunities and experiences that will translate into their futures.
We were watching Duck Dynasty the other night and one of the older kids was pursuing his dreams as a musician and just watching his mom’s reaction made me sappy, of course. There are times when it feels like those days are so far down the road, but we all know they’re not; they’ll be here in the blink of an eye, just like everything else.
It made us wonder what our kids would be doing and pursuing…and we pray with all of our might that at the heart of whatever it is, that it’s Jesus.
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The neighbors didn’t have school on Monday so we loaded up for a midday play date. Sawyer got to ride in the go-cart and thought that was pretty fun stuff!
Bye, mom!
Wryder went over, looked at it, tried the helmet on and then settled for the porch.
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This cute little booger is just joy in every way!
🙂
She was a little fussy for the babysitter on Tuesday night and has had a few bouts of that with us lately so we assumed she must be getting a tooth. Yesterday, Wrex was playing with her and saw the monster coming in on the top.
Lately, she’s really been pursing her mouth and that must be why. Not sure what explains all the nose crinkling but I LOVE it.
Cute toot!
Seriously, she’s the cutest thing E.V.E.R.
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We’re hoping hoping HOPING that the guys get our barn and shop finished this weekend. They’ve been working weekends and the wind hasn’t helped their cause much….or the fact that they don’t ever get here until 10 am. *ahem*
They have the shop all done but are still working on the barn. I promise to post pics when they are done. I know it’s going to look so nice but there’s something I’ll miss about the chippy old barn…
A few winters ago…
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Wrex is still sporting the mutton chops.
Yeeeeaaaahhh…
Extroverts are so funny. I spend most of my days not wanting to be seen and he’s putting himself out there front and center, with radical facial hair no less. Cracks me up. Here’s to hoping they’re gone by Monday…sure hope that razor doesn’t zip up his face in the night! 😉
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It’s Fun Friday around here and today is errand day. We’re gonna run to town and take some checks to the bank for daddy and get some cash for our Dave Ramsey envelopes and take a cupcake to a special birthday lady and get some birthday cards to send to some other special people (PaPa and RaRa!) and if the wind stops howling, we may stop at the park to burn a little energy (them) and calories (me).
Whatever you find yourself doing today, I pray that you choose and find joy in all of it.
The snow is finally starting to melt a bit around here. There’s no telling how long I’ll be dealing with mud instead. I’m not sure which is worse when it comes to keeping kids and shoes and floors and cars clean…
It’s everywhere!
I’d say we had about a foot of snow but some of the craziest drifts we’ve ever had. In our almost five years here, we’ve never had to have the neighbors rescue us but we had to call in the big dogs this time.
Thankful for such wonderful neighbors!
The high winds have blown even more snow around and our road has blown shut at least four times. Needless to say, we finally got out today to buy groceries and run a few errands.
The kids have sure had a ball playing on the big mounds daddy made, though!
King and queen of the mountain!
We also took time to make some snow ice cream! We made a picture scavenger hunt for the kids using our cell phones. We’d text them a picture of something in the house like this:
??
and they’d have to figure out where exactly it was. There, they’d find an ingredient needed to make snow ice cream!
YUM!Making memoriesShe LOVED it!
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You know those friends who don’t feel like friends at all? The ones that feel like you’re long lost sisters or, at the very least, sisters of the heart? Yeah. Those. I’m quite fortunate to have a few of those in my life and it saddens me that none of them live close to me. My head and heart have yet to reconcile how the Lord can so lovingly plop someone in your life and then makes you live so far from each other…..
My friend Emily is one of those friends. I met her at a trade show when we were in Denver and there was just that instant connection. She is so kind and spunky, a marketing maven and an event planner extraordinaire…and she has red hair! (Just a wee bit jealous, I am!) She has the sweetest husband and parents and kids! Oh, and if you wanna build a house and have it decorated to the hilt, call this girl!
We had the privilege to attend a Super Bowl party in their new digs – SO. MUCH. FUN. Their house is BEAUTIFUL and so warm and inviting and she IS the hostess with the mostest.
She had a photo booth and games for the kids…
CUTIES!Wryder giving it a try…Sawyer’s turn!
We had food out the wazoo and everything was sooooo goooood! I made a few of these guys…
Be still my sweet tooth
The kids LOVED Emily and her family!
Two of the sweetest girls I know!
Wryder took a special liking to Papa. They shared bowls and bowls and bowls of caramel corn and stories on the couch.
SO sweet!
The night only got better with that Bronco win! These guys had a ball and looked cute doing it!
Not sure she REALLY knew what was going on…But this guy did!As did this little fan!
THANK YOU, Justin and Emily for such a wonderful night! I’m voting with the kids that we just move on down to Wild Horse, too…
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Someone has joined the thumb-sucker ranks around here.
EEP!
We fought the battle hard with Wryder and thankfully he just sucks his thumb as he goes to sleep; not ideal, but at least it’s not all day, every day.
Sayble has surprised us. She’s a closet thumb sucker……but it’s so. darn. cute.
Tell me that’s not cute?!
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Sawyer was looking so cute in a little outfit the other night and I wanted to snap a quick pic of her. Of course, she pulled out all of her poses…. Good grief, I love this girl!
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Wrex and I have been teaching a Financial Peace University class at the local community college on Tuesday nights and it has been SO cool! Dave Ramsey’s directives helped us get out debt and we wanted to share the wealth of knowledge we’ve amassed and give others some HOPE for their financial situations, too!
I firmly believe the Lord had us teach this so that we could further our journey to even more financial freedom, wealth building and extravagant giving. We feel so renewed and reinvigorated regarding our finances. Bring it on, 2016!
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For my “midnight” snack last night, I had some almonds and a fruit and veggie smoothie. I’ll be the first to admit that it didn’t LOOK very appetizing.
Hmmmmm
I used spinach, kale, blackberries, chia seeds and a little unsweetened almond milk. Even though it didn’t look very tasty, it really was!
Wrex humored me and took a little taste. He choked it down but swore it wasn’t as good as the frosty he had at lunch. Oh, to be able to eat 8,000 calories a day and still be at my fighting weight….
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Sawyer’s been wanting to sew lately, so we got out her little sewing machine yesterday and she went to town! She made these shorts for Wryder.
🙂
They ended up a little small but her decorative elements made up for it, don’t ya think?!
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This family of mine is just the bees knees. Days with them are the best days……
Dusk is when I fell in love with our little place on the prairie and dusk here still takes my breath away. My flowers this year have been troopers and have over-performed despite the sub-par care they’ve received.
As we were out doing chores tonight, I just couldn’t help but make sure and snap a few pictures so I can look back come winter and remind myself that spring will come…
My hubby has toiled and toiled and whipped our grass into shape. When we first moved in, there was just a bunch of dirt and a LOT of weeds. We sodded the front yard last year and my hardworking hubby re-seeded the property this spring and has watered and sprayed and babied our poor yard. It’s been worth it.
Yesterday was just one of those really, really good days.
I woke up to find that Sawyer had snuck downstairs with daddy and cleaned up the kitchen, living room and mudroom so that I could have an “easy morning.” Seriously, this girl’s heart is so precious. It was TRULY a blessing! We worked so hard this weekend (and I might have overdone it a bit) and an easy morning was just what the doctor ordered. I was so blessed!
Then, the kids got to stay with Miss Gillian, our sweet friend and neighbor, while I had an ultrasound and baby checkup. Both went incredibly well!
Sayble has turned into a wild woman! For a while, she was soooooo mellow in the womb. *ahem* That’s changed. She moves almost all the time. The other night, we were laying in bed and I had my tummy to Wrex’s back and he was almost bothered by how much she was moving – ha! Trust me, honey, I feel it too. 😉
Sucker punching me on the right, showing her knees on the left…
Our kids LOVE Miss Gillian (as do we)! She brought games and puzzles AND crocheted them each a pair of slippers! Seriously, who does that?
Slippers
She helped Sawyer feed the goats and let her have juice and marshmallows after lunch – ha! No wonder they love her! 😉 She even stuck around an extra hour and a half so I could make a quick trip to Denver.
The bestie had her baby yesterday and I got to meet him when he was less than 12 hours old!
Sweet Oliver
Isn’t he presh?! He was so mellow and snuggly and pink and warm…made me even more ready to hold sweet Sayble!
Sawyer got a little room upgrade, too. We moved in a piece of the kitchen and she’s been dying to have her own little table and chairs upstairs WITH a tablecloth. Done and done!
And the best part of her room?? The girl that sleeps there.
So today we worked in the toy room, which is now going to be Sayble’s room when she comes along (hopefully not anytime soon). We left the toy box and the bookshelves but added a few touches to make it a little more girly. I still have a little more work to do on the curtains (if my nesting energy prevails) but until then, here’s the {somewhat} finished product.
This changing pad cover was my inspiration for the room.
Cute, yes?
Wrex said it was a little gypsy…that made me like it even more!
Looking in from the door…
These hold all the good stuff…BOWS!SHOES!
I’m so excited about all of this pink that is returning to our home! Wryder hasn’t seemed to mind too much either…
I posted this picture last night because, well, it was funny but also because he just looked so darn cute sitting there with his feet up and his BUCKET of ice cream.
Adorbs, yes?
I had gotten up to get some water and I came back and took in the full view and I just couldn’t help myself…
Wrexy bought this chair for me (us) after Christmas. We got it on sale at Menards and it is really comfy. The later weeks and months of pregnancy can be a little uncomfortable and he thought it would be nice for me to a have nice place to sit when I get the chance. Trust me, I know; I’ve got a good one.
The first week or so, we were both so careful not to sit in it all the time; we always wanted the other one to have the option to have it first. Now, it’s a mad dash into the living room after the kids go to bed and chores are done – ha! I told him we should’ve bought two…
The kids have loved it and I have too. The chair has already brought lots of snuggle time and lots of rocking…lots of praying together and over each other…a place to read lots of books and watch a lot of football. It’s been a little refuge when someone got hurt or just needed a little bit of a time out with mom or dad. The chair has been where the kids have felt Sayble kick for the first time and where I’ve taken refuge after a day of taking care of my family. It’s been a place where Sawyer has cuddled with Wryder while she helped him learn the words in his picture books and where he has rocked it as far back as he could without knocking it over. Ahem.
It took us weeks to agree to make the purchase but we’re really quite glad that we did. It’s become more than a place to sit; it’s a little haven of memories and closeness and time together…and you know I love that.
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