another week!

this past weekend wore.me.out. we spent saturday buying, transporting, and putting together the boys' new beds. doesn't sound like much, but when you are over 37 weeks pregnant it tends to wear you out pretty quickly!

and did you catch that?? 37 weeks pregnant! meaning this baby will be here any day, and at the very latest, in 2.5 weeks! i think i can finally say i am ready. the nursery is done (well, minus a few decorating details ;) and the boys' new beds are up and their toys/closets are organized. this week i'm just going to spend scrubbing the house and spending a lot of one-on-one time with harp (and carson when he is home from school). 

here are pictures of the boys' new beds....they were SO excited about them! 

okay....the nursery. i've only taken a few pictures but i wanted to share anyways...i just want to say a few things about the route we went...we didn't do a typical "infant nursery." why? because this is our third and although the cutesy themed nurseries are...cute, we wanted practical. we wanted color schemes that could work for longer than just his first year. we wanted things that he could grow with. we also wanted things that would "match" the boys' room because several things (like toddler bedding, curtains, rugs, etc.) have been moved from the boys' room to the nursery. 

anyways, i am pleased with how it turned out and we are SO excited about it all! oh, and by the way, my mom did SO MUCH to help me put it all together. when kane was at work and carson was at school, she came over and basically painted everything (walls, bookcase, nightstand, and shelf on wall) as well as helped organize and put together it all!

**i hate the lighting in this picture! it makes the walls/couch look SO off**

*picture frames are empty until baby's arrival ;)

thats all the pictures of the nursery for now! 

crazy to believe, but after i take our car and get it vacuumed/cleaned tomorrow, i'm going to go ahead and install the carseat base and load the stroller in the trunk! so surreal that this is going to be happening so soon!

all for now!

a little bit of everything

**get ready for some REALLY bad cell phone pictures!**

i've spent the past week preparing for baby. i'll be full term in a few days and i would really like everything to be done before i hit that 37 week mark...you know...just in case he decides to make an early appearance :) at 35 weeks i was 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced...and that was just after having a few days of lower back pressure and minor cramping. i've had a LOT more since and i have been so busy on my feet, too. its been gorgeous outside so almost everyday harp and i take long walks (harp-bike ride) around the cul-de-sac/surrounding cul-de-sacs. 

anyways, lets get to the cruddy cell pics. i spent the beginning of last week organizing all of my babyshower gifts! the closet is pretty packed and if you could look closely, we received around 10 boxes of diapers and 22 wipes/wipe refills!  

diapers for the changing table

extra baby supplies 

i've also done some minor rearranging to prepare...we have the swing set up and ready to go in our living room and a cabinet in the kitchen cleared out for bottles, etc.

last saturday we got quite a bit accomplished! we spent the morning just being with the boys-our time as a four-person family is quickly fleeting and we want to get as much time in with them as possible. we went to our little town park where kane taught carson some tricks on his skateboard while harp and i rode the town on his bicycle!

we also went to target to get new bedding for the boys room (oh yeah, have i mentioned i've also taken on the task of redecorating the boys' room?! they are getting new furniture/beds this coming weekend!). we also got them new thinner booster seats that will allow us to fit the infant carseat comfortably between them.

along with working on the boys' room, i'll also be finishing up the nursery. i have everything up and organized, but now i'll be working more on the "decorating" aspect of it all :)

one last thing: i'm taking harper to the doctor tomorrow-he's had a bad cough for quite a while now that he just cannot seem to shake. it's actually gotten worse. i'm thinking they are going to say he has asthma (i had allergy-related asthma when i was in elementary school), but hopefully we will get down the bottom of it! if you remember, please keep him in your prayers!

coming along

Our new home is finally starting to feel like "home."

We've been here for a week now and are starting to settle into a new routine.

Everything is going great except for one thing...

The boys have been absolute monsters since the move.

Especially a certain curly-haired little brother.

But I won't embarrass anyone by calling out names.

Moving on...

We have been without living room furniture this week and were able to purchase some new ones this past weekend. We did not want to spend too much money on couches (that the boys will inevitably ruin) so we chose a fairly inexpensive sectional.

Here is a "before" picture of the living room: (i know i always say this, but please excuse the quality of the pictures...my camera is t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e. i'm hoping to get a new one soon... :)

and after:

As you can see, I have yet to hang ANY pictures...I actually want to wait and get new frames, so it will probably be another week or so before those get put up!

I have lots of things churning around in my mind right now, so (maybe) I'll get those out in form of posts soon.

Have a great week everyone!

refrigerator redo

**To catch up on our Kitchen Renovation, click here!**

So...ya'll remember this ugly thing?!



well, take a look at it now:

not bad for $10 worth of appliance paint! it seriously looks brand-new in person!

ps- I  realize the cabinet pull above the fridge is crooked-I actually left it that way because I was having trouble screwing it back in (with the intention of having Kane do it) but I completely forgot until now! :)

Same goes for the cabinet without any pull beside the drawers on the right! :)

This week is going to be crazy, but hopefully I'll have a proper "after" picture up of the kitchen without all of the tape and newspapers everywhere!

Kitchen Renovation-Part 2

To get caught up on our Kitchen Renovation, click here.

So we are still working on the kitchen.

Little by little, it is coming together.

We are done with painting the cabinets and pulls (although we will go back and touch up a few areas) and are about 75% done with painting the walls!

This leaves us with appliance-painting the refrigerator, dishwasher and range hood (thanks for the tip, Bethany! ;)

Oh...and that pesky fan...I'm still deciding whether I want to paint it or replace it...Honestly, because of time-constraints, I'm thinking about just buying a new one...We shall see!

One more thing-let me just note that due to varying screen-resolutions, the color of the walls will probably not look like they do in "real life." I know my screen makes them look bluish...the actual color is Green Tea Leaf by Olympic.

So one more time...here is the "before"

And the "during" (remember, we aren't done yet!) just try not to let the ugly refrigerator throw you off! :) :

Let me clarify something...when I said the kitchen was "75% done" I actually meant to say the kitchen and dining room are 75% done...I don't think I've mentioned this on here but what we will use as the dining room (aka the breakfast nook) is attached to the kitchen. Here's a picture of our dining area that we have painted:

We HOPE to have the rest of the walls painted tomorrow and the appliances painted on Saturday.

So stay tuned for an "after" picture!

Here's a peek at what we will be painting ths weekend:

The living room:

As well as the entryway and hallway:

Happy painting! 

Cousins

We spent the weekend with Kane's brother Chris and his three little girls, who were in for a few days.

Oh.My.Goodness. The kids had sooo much fun together.

They always do.

The oldest of the group is "Bear" who is soon to be six. Next is Carson who is four. Then "Peanut" who is three. Followed by Harper who will be three soon. Next is "Azzy" who is soon to be two. And for course we cannot forget baby Annlyn who is four months old.

So we had this great idea for all of us to go to Chili's for lunch on Sunday...

Honestly...considering we had 6 kids under the age of 6, I would say things went relatively well. Except for the fact that Harp has a nasty cold and was pretty miserable (read:SCREAMING) most of the day.

Heres the best picture I could get of the group (minus baby Annlyn):

Not too bad! ;)

It was definitely better than this picture:

or this one...

The last is my personal favorite!

Kitchen Renovation pictures will be up sometime this week!

Kitchen Renovation-Part 1

We officially started renovating our new house this past weekend!

I am soo excited about all of this...It really is starting to sink in that this is really happening!

The most important part of the house that we wanted to do first is the kitchen. The kitchen in the new house in by far my favorite room. BUT it is also the room that needs the most work done!

We are by no means done with it yet, but we have started the grueling task of painting all of the cabinets.

Here is the before picture of the kitchen (with my working task list):

1. The cabinets. This picture really doesn't do justice to the ugliness of them! ;) We are painting them from the current color (what I call "smokers white") to Country White. Anyways, after pouring over paint color samples for hours, I finally decided on Country White. I am just so excited about this color! The island is also getting a fresh coat of paint and new hardware as well.

Before starting this task, we decided we would just purchase all new hardware for the cabinets. However, the other day I came across a  DIY blog that gave me the genius idea of simply removing the cabinet pulls and spray painting them. Soo...we decided to give it a try. I figured that if they didn't turn out good, then we would just buy new ones! Anyways, Kane gave them one coat of black paint and they look soo good!!! We still have to give them another coat, but for $10, not too bad!

2. The second thing we want to do the kitchen is get a new refrigerator. As you can see, the current one is (a) ugly and (b) way too big for the space. We aren't looking for anything expensive, just a simple (white?) refrigerator.

3. The walls in the kitchen all need to be painted. I'm still in the process of picking a wall color but I think I'll probably end up going with either "Stonehenge" or "Dried Grass." We'll see! ;) (note: the picture below is of Dune Grass-its a bit lighter than the ones previously mentioned!)

4. The fourth (obvious) thing we need to do is get rid of that ugly fan! I like the idea of having a fan in the kitchen, so we'll probably end up replacing the existing one with a larger one. (Does anyone want the one shown? :)

So thats my working task list for the kitchen! The flooring and countertops are all new (my camera is really bad and it makes the floor look odd in the picture!). But I promise you it looks so good!

Heres a sneak peek of what we've done so far:

Any tips on what we should do with the hinges on the cabinets?? Because of time constraints, we are really trying to avoid having to take them all off to paint/or replace! My mom suggested (she) just take a small paint brush and paint each and every one...Meticulous task, right?!