Outside Makeover

Working on Alice's room kind of put me into project mode.  There's tons of stuff I've wanted to do for years that suddenly got on the "must do" list.  Somehow smack in the middle of working on her room, I decided I needed to paint the garage door . . . which lead to new sconces . . . which led to painting the front door and . . . you get the idea.

I found some tutorial for doing a faux wood treatment to your metal door using gel stain.  It took just one coat, then 2 layers of urethane to protect it.  Poor Alice had to keep herself entertained as Dan and I worked as quickly as we could before the sun hit the door.  It wasn't a hard process (except for keeping the kids happy while we worked) and we loved how it turned out.

We also replaced the outdoor lights.  I wanted something darker and a little bigger.  I found some inexpensive ones we liked, but when we went to install them, we learned they were zebra purple?!?  So weird!  So we had to quickly spray paint them oil rubbed bronze.  No zebra here, thank you.

Striped purple? Really?

The box said bronze. Um, that's not bronze.

The ones that came with the house on the left, and the new ones after painting.

The new are a few inches bigger than the old ones.

We also added some carriage door handles and hinges.  

Easy, inexpensive update.

 Apparently that wasn't enough for me.  I felt like the white front door wasn't very cool with the brown garage door.  Dan and I wanted blue but took forever to come to a consensus on a color.  We had paint chip samples taped to the front door so we could see the colors at different times of day.  They were there for so many weeks that I started getting asked frequently from neighbors, "So, have you picked a color yet???"

Finally, a color was chosen and after a little painting disaster involving water-based paint on top of oil, things got worked out and the door was painted.   I also redid the front and back door white trim to make it look fresh again.

 I feel like changing it up has been good for the kids.  Some of them (like their momma) don't take to change super well, so it's good to do little things like this to help them get more comfortable with it.  

(5 years ago)

(Now)

And if you're curious how a 3-year-old keeps herself entertained while Mom spray paints fixtures, 

the answer would be cardboard packaging material and a soft place to lay.

Ogden Temple Open House

I would love to say this was a wonderful experience for our family . . . but truthfully it was hot, full of long lines, our kids were hungry and thirsty, 2 had bad colds, Lacey and Alice both wanted carried the whole time, and the whining was near constant.

But we made it through. And hopefully they just remember something positive.  That was our sole goal.

The Post I've Been Waiting For!!!

So after 15 or so months in my room, Alice finally moved out!!  If that wasn't exciting enough, we had to play musical bedrooms with her after deciding that the original plan to have her and Matty share just wasn't going to work.  It was just too much furniture for one room with all the baby stuff plus big kid stuff.  So I finally pulled the trigger on our playroom upstairs.  We have 4 bedrooms upstairs and the playroom was taking up the smallest.  So it got shifted to the living room in the basement so that Alice could have that small room.

(The playroom when we moved in . . . before years of toys took over every inch of space.)

I stuck the crib in there for a couple days and realized how much I really disliked the yellow walls in there.  They were fine for a playroom, but not so awesome for a nursery.  Since the big kids were back in school, I figured I had more time to paint and redo a whole room  . . . forgetting that them being in school meant no babysitters for my little ones.   :/

I decided to go with gray for the walls, got a few sample colors, picked one, and painted the room all in one day. I'm not a very quick decision maker so this was a big deal, especially since choosing a gray is like choosing a white . . . near impossible!

 I was going to do polka dots on one wall, but somehow forgot all about it when I saw stripes on Pinterest.  The stripes are my favorite thing in her room.  The room really is tiny and the stripes help it feel much bigger.

I wanted her name on the wall and found a 3D floral idea I loved, but it was going to be way too expensive so I made this ribbon letter instead.  It still sticks out from the wall.  I love it.

After 9+ years of babies and toddlers, our crib bedding was thrashed.  So Alice got a new bumper, sheets, and I sewed a skirt to go with her quilt I made her before she was a born.  That quilt is where I took the colors for her room.  

 I made some little birdies for above her changing table out of mostly leftover fabric from her quilt and some canvas.  

 I saw this "oh-so-easy to copy" painting on Pinterest.  It was meant for Jossy and Lacey's room, but it ended up really clashing with their turquoise wall color so it was put up in Alice's room instead.  

 Lastly, I got curtains which took me FOREVER to choose.  I really thought, "Oh good!  All I have left is curtains to pick out!"  Little did I know how hard that can be.  

I went back and forth on making them or just buying them.  In the end I bought a shower curtain from Target, cut it in half, sewed a rod pocket on them, and added a little ribbon embellishment to the bottom.  They go really well in her room.

I thought for a while about painting the fabric on her rocking chair but in the end decided against it for now.  The blue doesn't bother me as much as it did.

I love her room now.  It's such a peaceful, pretty place to sit and rock my baby to sleep.  :)  I worked on it for most of September, and it's nice to finally be able to share it!

Lacey at 3

When I went to take Alice's 1-year pictures I had an epiphany where I realized I never did 3-year pics for Lacey.  Oops!  So 4 months late, here's Lacey at 3. We didn't even brush her hair.  She wanted them done and I said, "Great!  Here, put this dress on."  I knew we'd be doing family pictures soon anyway so it didn't matter too much to me.  

And this is really what a photo shoot in your home with no other parent to watch other kids is like. Full of photo-bombing fun.  Alice would NOT STOP getting in the picture!  She thought it was hilarious to have me dragging her out of there over and over.  

Curly Sue

Oh how I love curly hair on my girls!  This was Lacey's first time sleeping in our Curlformers. Sooooo cute!

1st and 4th

Seeing as how my kids have been in school nearly 2 months now, perhaps I should finally post a picture of the first day.

Matty's in 4th this year, Jossy's in 1st.

I cried after dropping them off.  Not because I was super sad to see them go off to school, but I felt like I was mourning the end of our fun summer.  We spent a lot of days going to museums and splash pads, just me and the kids.  This was the first year that I didn't feel totally overwhelmed all the time when out with them on my own. With these 2 getting older, they help out a lot and require less supervision.  I just wanted our Summer fun to keep going.

And I really, passionately hate homework.  It's way worse as a parent than as a kid.

1 Year . . . and Some Weeks

I didn't get around to taking Alice's one year pictures until almost 2 months later.  But I made sure I did it before she turned 14 months (by a few days) because taking them at 13 months sounded so much closer to 12 than 14 did.

She wasn't very interested in sitting nicely that day, but we got a few cute ones.

 And how you know your child is done . . .

Stinkers

These 4 drive me absolutely insane on a daily basis.  When people tell me how cute my kids are I tell them, "It saves their lives."  I'm convinced God gave me super cute ones just for that reason.  They are beautiful and amazing and touch my heart . . . which helps make up for all the gray hairs they've given me. Motherhood is so different from what I believed it to be.  It's so much harder. 

Good thing I love my stinkers so much.