Life Happens!

So, it’s been a LONG time since I actually made a “for real” blog post.  But I have a good excuse…life happened.  I’ve been insanely busy.  Usually that would be a lie and it would need to read “insanely lazy” but that hasn’t been the case the last few months.  I never really thought having 3 kids would really make life that much busier, but I was wrong!  Especially 3 little kids!  So – here’s the update on all of us.

Caroline is such a big girl.  She is my all the time helper.  She starts 4K in August and I don’t know what I will do without her.  We spent many nights praying and talking trying to decide whether or not to do 4K…but we ultimately decided she would absolutely LOVE it.  This will make her the youngest in her class (which we originally said we wouldn’t do) but we figure she can always repeat it and never know the difference if she lags behind.  She does well with her glasses and at her check up a couple of months ago, she was told she had to wear a patch for 2hrs/day for the next 8 months.  We were a little bummed at first, but it could be MUCH worse.  After a month or so she really adapted to it – and sometimes even ASKS for it!  She wrote her own name and Amelia’s name the other night.  She did hers without any spelling assistance, but needed help spelling Amelia’s.  But after we helped her spell it, she wrote it!  I was so proud!  She’s doing so well.  She also starts gymnastics in a week and she is BEYOND excited.  She’ll be in a class with her friend, Addie Jane so she can’t wait!  She had her first sleepover a few weekends ago with Addie Jane and it was so fun!  We ate pizza, played outside, then popped popcorn in our pjs and watched Rapunzel.  Then they slept in the top bunk together.  So cute.  We got a puppy a couple of months ago, Minnie, a miniature dachshund and Caroline is totally in love.  That about sums up Caroline.

First sleepover!

Amelia changes mentally every day.  She knows things that I didn’t think she knew.  When we were working with Caroline on writing names, I started writing random letters on the board and Amelia was calling them out AND telling me what sound they each made.  She didn’t miss a single one!  I was truly impressed because I didn’t know she knew all of that!  She still has some social issues, but they do seem better than they were 6 months ago.  She’s a lot better around family and kids that she sees often.  She’ll occasionally talk to strangers and say “Hi!” to them which she certainly wouldn’t have done 6 months ago.  She really just seems painfully shy.  But I was told that many moons ago, I was shy too.  She’ll grow out of it eventually.  She is somewhat of a diva princess.  She wants things done for her.  She wants you to hand her the cup that’s 2 inches in front of her, you to drive her around in the power wheels gator, you to push her on the swing, etc. She is so funny!  I’ve never seen a child eat ketchup with a spoon until Amelia came along.  GROSS.  But she absolutely loves it.

 

Amelia was NOT happy about the sprinkler being underneath the trampoline.  Caroline, on the other hand, was thrilled. 

Walker is nearly 9 months old!!!!  How did that happen?  He’s pulling up and crawling EVERYWHERE.  He eats a massive amount of food.  He’s cutting his first two teeth on the bottom.  One is punching through and the other is trying.  He’s taking it fairly well and really doesn’t complain with it much.  He is literally the happiest baby you’ll ever meet.  Nothing upsets him.  He is so chill.  He smiles if you meet eyes with him.  He loves to bounce up and down to music, his wubanubs, sleeping, eating, and his MAMA.  He is SUCH  a mama’s boy…and I’m totally fine with that.  I love it, actually.    He still takes 2 naps a day and goes to bed around 7:30-8p and sleeps until about 6:30-7:30am usually.  That would seem like I get a lot of sleep, but I’m usually dumb and stay up until around 1am and then kick myself all day the next day.

 

Pulling up for the first time!

I am BUSY with sewing!  I took a dress order recently and I got SO many orders.  I’ve been working hard to get them all completed!  Between occasionally taking care of my house (ha!), my kids, my business, and sometimes sleeping, there’s not much time for anything else…like, blogging, for example.  But I’m trying to catch up because I do *love* to go back and read my old blog posts to remind myself of what my days were like back when…

My whole world sitting on that couch!!

Judd is busy planting!  We’ve had weird spurts of rain all Spring, and that has made planting stretch out a little longer than usual – but it’s going!  Just about every time it gets dry enough to plant, it rains again.  But they’ve gotten a lot done in the last week or so and that has made everyone breathe a big sigh of relief.  He’s been getting home after the kids go to bed (and he leaves long before they get up) so they are missing him a lot right now!  Just a few minutes ago, Caroline said, “Mommy…I miss Daddy,” and just kept on coloring.  I’m thinking they may need a trip to ride on a tractor with him. 

Don’t let him fool you.  He’s a softie at heart…

Everybody staring at one tiny phone screen…

I hope you all have a blessed week! 

Living Room Makeover (Again…)

Before pics of LR – Please excuse the mess – it’s always like this.  HA!

AFTER!

Seriously – BIG difference!  Yes, I need some new pillows and matching knick knacks – but the curtains themselves made a huge difference in the room.  I’m so happy with them!

The curtain rods are from Lowes (Allen Roth – Walnut Stain) and the fabric for the curtains is Wildwood Jubilee by Richloom.  I ordered mine from Maryjos.com.  She had the cheapest price I could find anywhere!

This picture is a good representation of the actual color of the fabric!

Love the fabric!

These curtains definitely have a lot of mistakes and I can’t sew a straight stitch to save my life.  But HEY – not that many people are gonna be checking out my stitches.  They were a labor of love – because I love them.  A lot.  I used THIS tutorial to make my curtains.  I used it more as a guide than anything.  Mine are lined and I wanted to make sure I did that right.  Two panels can be lined from 1 king size flat sheet.  My curtains needed to be 90” long and 54” wide, and it worked perfectly.  It took about 2hrs to make 1 panel.  It could just be that I’m slow, though.   

I think it made a huge difference in my living room.  Now I gotta talk Judd into a new couch (I’m thinking leather to break up the throw up of beige) and I’ll be pretty content with my living room.  The big cabinet from my MIL is coming along!  Pictures coming soon! 

I know you’re all tired of hearing about my living room so I’ll try to keep these posts to a minimum from here on out.   

Now, back to the regular programming…

Nakey baby!  (Washcloth for modesty.) 

Living Room Progress

So since my last post I’ve made quite a bit of living room progress.  I spent HOURS searching the internet for more fabric that I liked that wasn’t $17/yd.  I didn’t find any.  So I put it all in my shopping cart.  Enough to make 6 panels.  And I stared at the price.  And I stared some more.  Then I decided that was just WAY too much since I have to make so many panels and I went back to the drawing board.  I even had a friend send me a picture message of some she found while fabric shopping! (Thanks, Erin!) 

While I was looking for the 100th time, I stumbled across some that I hadn’t seen before.  It’s called Wildwood Jubilee by Richloom.  I loooooooooove it. 

It photographs a little more vibrantly than the colors actually are, but you get the gist.  It’s perfect.  And at Mary Jo’s Cloth Store, it’s $7.98/yd.  Talk about MUCH BETTER.  My total was HALF of what it would’ve been.  Shipping was also $7.99 no matter how much I ordered.  My order was 13lbs, and it still shipped (quickly, might I add!) for $7.99.  I’m very happy!

I also got my curtain rods from Lowes.  We checked our gift cards and had $100 on it so we went for it.  The rods are a little long so Judd is going to cut about 7 inches off of each one.  I love the way they look though.  We hung the rods but I’ve yet to start on the new curtains.  My fabric just came in on Friday night around 9pm…our UPS guy runs late out here!

Anyway – I’m very excited!  We’re also really coming along on the cabinet my mother-in-law gave me.  The front is pretty much sanded as much as we’re going to sand it.  It’s going to be painted white so we just needed all the chippy paint removed.  The top is sanded completely.  Now we just need to clean it thoroughly, let it dry out, and get to work.  I’m also ordering some bun feet for the bottom.  I’ve found them on several places online but NO WHERE in town.  Lowe’s had 1 foot.  Seriously – ya can’t do much with only 1 foot.  But I’m really excited about all of it.  I think my sister is really tired of hearing about my living room – but I listened to her when she re-did hers so this is payback and she has to listen to me.   

Pictures coming soon! 

And just for Deda…

Look at that big boy! (Walker, not Judd…LOL!)  He’s 13.5lbs at 8.5wks old!    Love you!

3 Kids and Living Room Makeover (in my dreams)

Well, it’s been 3 weeks since I last posted – or at least close to it, I think.  I went from posting at least once a week to not at all.  Thanks for sticking it out with me. 

I think I’m somewhat adjusted to a life with 3 kiddos.  (I mean, as adjusted as you can be in 7 1/2 weeks…)  It’s really not that bad. (All moms of 3 with older kids just said, “YET.”)  The hardest part is when we need to go somewhere.  Walker despises his car seat.  I’m talking, within 5 minutes of being in it, he is screaming like someone is stabbing him.  He hates it.  So going places is difficult.  It also takes forever to get 3 kids ready to go and loaded up and buckled into their car seats.  Caroline is in a big girl booster seat but she can’t do the seat belt by herself yet.  So I buckle her first, then Amelia, then buckle Walker into his seat and snap him in.  Whew.  I’m tired just thinking about it.

Our days at home really aren’t bad.  Walker sleeps in his swing in the living room during the day.  He is a super quick nurser so within 10 minutes he’s usually finished eating.  He DOES still eat about every 2 hours.  Every now and then he’ll stretch it to 3 hours.  I never know what to do with that extra hour when he stretches it out.  It’s so exciting.  Ha! 

In non-kiddo news:  I’m desperate to redo my living room.  Why?  I have no idea.  Because I am just like my mother and I like change...in my décor at least.  That being said, my décor has basically been the same since we moved in.  I have always gravitated toward warm colors in my living areas.  Beige, deep reds, olive green, goldy yellows, burnt orange – maybe that’s why I like Fall décor so much.  Anyway, all of a sudden, I want some blue in my living room.  I think I just want to brighten the room up a bit and adding blue seems like a good way to do that.  However, how do you mix a cool blue color with all of those warm colors?  Well I’ll tell you -  you change all of your decor, that’s how.  Obviously, I cannot afford to change everything I’ve done in my living room over the last 2 years so I’m trying to find another solution.  I need something with warm colors that also has a touch of blue.  So I’m looking at this fabric to make curtains:

It’s Santa Maria Adobe by Waverly

The problem?  It’s like $17.00/yd and I have 3 windows that need curtains and one door that would need a new roman shade.  Two panels on each window + a roman shade?  We’re talking like, 18 yards of fabric.  You do the math.  My husband would K-I-L-L me if I spent that much money on curtains for my living room. 

But look how pretty it is!  That’s what I’m going to say to him when he argues with me. 

I also want some new curtain rods.  Of course I do.  The ones we got when we moved in were from Walmart and are too short for our windows – so the rod is caving in the middle from the weight of the curtains. 

Have you all seen this illustration? 

I’m sure you have.  Well my curtains are the exact same as the “DON’T” illustration.  I’ve wanted to do the “DO” for a long time, but my curtains are too short to move my rod up and my rod is too short to move it out any further.  *sigh*  Supposedly it lets in a lot more sunlight – which I adore.

I really want those big chunky wooden curtain rods – but again, I’d need three.  They’re about $50/ea at Home Depot & Lowes.  Luckily, we have saved some Lowes and HD gift cards that we got over a year ago and now seems like the perfect time to use them!   

Then of course, I’d need some pillows that have that pop of blue in them.  Then some little accents around the room.  And lest we forget, I’ve asked for new couches for Christmas.  I really want a couch or sectional that is deeper than the standard couch.  When I lie down on the couch, I don’t want half my body hanging off because it isn’t deep enough.  When I was pregnant, it was twice as bad…but it definitely still does it in my non-pregnant state.  It would also be nice to have one that hasn't been pooped, peed, spit-up, and had food rubbed on it.  Even if that wouldn’t last 5 minutes.   

So you see I have a lot of $$ saving to do.  I’m having a garage sale soon – maybe that will help go to curtain money.  The couches will have to be Christmas/Anniversary…if at all. 

My amazing mother-in-law has given me the most beautiful piece of furniture.  Judd said, “Really?  You think so?”  because to him it looks like it’s falling apart.  To me, it looks like it needs a little TLC and it’ll be looking brand new!

It’s been sitting outside her house (under a patio) for about 10 years.  I want to add some big detailed feet to the bottom and stain the top and the feet a dark wood.  The bottom half I want painted white.  It’s going to go where my china cabinet is now.  We never use my china, so I’m going to store it for now. (Sidenote:  Does ANYONE actually use their china?)  We sanded the top last weekend and did a little sanding on the bottom half.  It’s looking great so far!

I can’t wait to get finished.  My goal is to finish it by Thanksgiving.  I’m sure if I had more time to devote to it, we could finish it sooner – but I don’t.  So Thanksgiving is my goal!  I want to be able to decorate it for Christmas.  I think it’s a great place to hang our stockings since we don’t have a mantle.  It’s as tall (without the feet added) as our bar – so it’s a tall piece of furniture! 

ANYWAY – I’ve made up for 3 weeks of not posting all in one post.  This was quite a menagerie of topics in one post.  Gotta keep ya on your toes.  

You now know all of my hopes and dreams for my living room.  Next post, I’ll tell you about how I wish I hadn’t put carpet in the girls playroom because it’s now a sticky-cereal-bar-jello-gummy-snack-goldfish-crayon-infested-mess.  Do all people make lists of things they “someday” want to do to their houses?  Or is that just me? 

Next time!