Lauren's New Room

I picked out Lauren's bedding for her nursery the day before we found out she was, in fact, a girl. It was one of the first things I purchased for her and I still love it. Since we were only renting our last house I decided to use decals of a cherry tree to decorate her walls. Once we moved I wanted to find another decal, only bigger, for her new room and place the flowers on it myself. Unfortunately, every one I found that I thought might work was crazy expensive. I hated the idea of spending so much money on something I didn't think would look like I wanted.

Instead, after Tim explained that paint was easy to cover and that we'd be in this house for a long time, I decided to dive in and put paint on our brand new walls. I already had the brown and green paint and my friend Bre ended up providing the tissue paper for the flowers. (Thanks Bre!) I could not be happier with how it turned out. It's the first room in our house to feel finished.

Just to the left of the door. She loves hiding in her tent. :)

Tree is complete!

The extra girly, bow, purses and princess dress wall.

And, because I'm crazy, I did some close up shots of the things I love most in her room.

My favorite handle I found at Hobby Lobby.
Thanks for helping me make this work, Tim!

The little branch.

And the big branch.

Thank you Pinterest! You rock!

  

VII

"Mommy, whose is this?" he asked, plucking the anniversary card off of the counter.

"That's a card wishing mommy and daddy Happy Anniversary. An anniversary is when we celebrate the day something special happened. Mommy and daddy are celebrating getting married 7 years ago."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "When I get bigger, I can get married."

"Oh yes," I replied. "You can definitely get married if you want."

"Mommy, I wanna get married with you." The look on his face was both completely serious and totally excited.

"Oh honey, I'm already married. You'll find someone super special to marry when you're older."

The happy lines of his smile fell. "No! I wanna be married with you!"

"Okay buddy. But you'll have to check with daddy."

**********

Seven years ago, we signed papers that legally bound us together. Today, we're tied by much more important things than lines of ink. A home, two little faces that we can't imagine our life without, and a love that's stronger than ever.

I Love You, Tim! Happy Anniversary!

Brenden's New Room

From the moment we told Brenden we were building a house he was obsessed with the idea of a new bedroom. Any time we came to see the progress he focused on where his room would be, where his bed would be placed, and what would be on the walls.

He always liked his Cars themed bedroom, but his interests have expanded since then to include trains, especially Thomas (hello 3rd birthday party!), and most recently anything and everything to do with space. Rockets, planets, stars...you name it, he wants to know about it. So when I asked what he would like his room to be decorated with, he begged for spaceships and stars, anything to do with the big sky above.

My research started on Pinterest, of course. I've been all over the internet searching for different ideas and things that I thought he would like. I think we did okay for our little boy who loves blue and anything with his name on it.

(Disclaimer: I'm not an interior designer, so far from it, and I know this isn't the most amazing thing ever, but I'm proud of it nonetheless. Brenden is pretty happy and that's what matters, right?)

"Look mommy, it's Saturn by my door!"
(Dog booties courtesy of grandma Karen and Grandpa Rick. Oh, and Ikea.) :)

The wall tracks have survived...so far. 

Looking in from the door. I'm not the best photographer, either. :)

His awesome rocket decal and glow in the dark planets. He knows most of them, now!

He loves pictures of himself with his friends and family.

So there you have it! Someday I hope to have bedding that matches, but it's not something I'm concerned about right now. So far, so good. On to the next room!

The Chore Jar

The idea of an allowance is not something I'm completely knowledgeable about since my brother and I never received one. That's not to say we never got anything or never did any chores, just that we didn't have a set amount of money given to us every week. It wasn't something that bothered me, at least that I can remember. Tim and I have bounced ideas around about what we want to do with Brenden and Lauren and recently, after a trip to the store when Brenden asked us for money to buy something, we decided on a Chore Jar. It was inspired by something I read awhile ago on my friend Heather's blog where she rewarded her daughter for good behavior as well as chores, not on a weekly basis, but on a day to day basis.

Our new backyard isn't huge and our two little dogs can make a lot of messes in a small amount of time. Tim wanted to clean it up and offered Brenden the chance to earn $1.00 if he helped. Brenden was beyond excited. In the middle of scooping up dog poo, he squealed, "I'm gonna get LOTS of dollars!" When we reminded him that it was only one dollar this time his face fell, his arms dropped, and he told us he was done. Poor, spoiled rotten kid. :) With a little encouragement he finished the job and was extremely happy to deposit his first dollar bill.

He's rich!

He hasn't completed any chores since then (*light bulb!* Guess who will be helping me clean tomorrow!) but he's still earning quarters every day when I notice that he's doing something without being reminded (throwing away trash, picking up dirty clothes, taking a nap without a fight, etc.) or being especially kind (including Lauren when he plays or making her laugh when she's upset). I try not to bribe him with it, although I've definitely resorted to that when it comes to getting him dressed. Instead, I try to catch him doing different things on his own and then using that quarter as a pat on the back for just being his awesome self.

I'm not sure how long we will keep this up or if he'll even care about it next week. For now, the joy on his face when he realizes that he did something well is absolutely worth every cent.

Ninja Fighting!

My new goal in life: To one day be in my eighties and still ninja fight with my great grandchildren. :)

Why yes, there IS video proof!

Wordless Wednesday

Our Beautiful Mess

Friday Family Fun

When Brenden was small, we started getting friends together to have Pizza and a Movie night. (I totally stole the idea from my friend, Amber.) We had a blast hanging out with our friends and laughing at some of the terrible movie choices. ("Balls Out" and the second "Crank" were both awful, no matter what Tim says.) Eventually, we stopped getting together for a number reasons. We moved, having two kids, getting busy with work, etc.

This past Friday I decided it was time to start our tradition back up, but just with our tiny family. (We hope to have some friends join us, too, sometime!) I thought it'd be fun to actually make our own pizzas, with the kids making "mini pizzas" on their own. It went even better than I had hoped. Brenden and Lauren loved "painting" their biscuits with sauce and the pizza dough mix I bought for Tim and I worked out well. 

Brenden and his mounds of cheese. 

Lauren decided to sample the sauce first.

Cook, pizza, cook!

Brenden received "Return to Neverland" for Christmas (Thanks great grandpa Ralph!) and it was the perfect movie to watch with both kids, especially since they decided to snuggle up to me, which is rare. It was, by far, my favorite family night to date. I hope to have many more very soon.

Oh Hi!

Between Christmas with a ton of family, which was amazing, Brenden having tubes put in his ears, trying to push things around the house to make it look like a home, Lauren's 2 year molars popping through (Lord help us...and I mean that literally), and a million other things, I've barely had time to think about what to write on here. Several things have happened that are awesome, a few that were terrible (So sorry Meredith, Whitney, and family for the loss of your grandma.) and even thinking about sitting down sounds like a terrible idea because I might fall asleep on my keyboard.

So, to start back up, I thought pictures of the house would be in order since that's the biggest thing going on for us right now. The kids' rooms are coming along well, we just got all the pictures hung in the hallway, and our bedroom looks like an actual bedroom. We've even managed to move stuff around enough to get the cars parked in the garage. It's kind of crazy to think that less than a month ago there was absolutely nothing here at all. To say we love it here would be an understatement, although we both wish our cell phones had better reception, or any reception at all sometimes. (We did find two tiles that get decent reception in the kitchen, which is not saying much.)

So, here you go, the house so far.

Lauren's room

I love her flowers. Thanks Karen and Rick!

Brenden's room.

His solar system is awesome. He already knows most of the planets!

The hallway 'o pictures. Tim did a great job!

Our room. 

Someday I'll show people our bathroom, but not yet! 

That's where we're at. Not a bad start. We have so many ideas and we're so ready to get started. But first, a fence for the backyard. Hopefully next month!

 

2011 in Review, In Pictures!

January

February

March

April

 May

 June

July

August

 September

 October

 November

 December

 Happy New Year!

May 2012 be filled with peace, joy, love and happiness.