Blue for my bouncing baby boy.

Here’s Daniel’s room! I’m SO excited to have it painted! (Ok, it’s not ALL done I still have to touch up, clean up, move furniture and eventually decorate …)

We painted it Storm’s End by Valspar. Whatever that means. And I LOVE it. It’s perfect for a little boy’s room! And SO much better than the flowery wallpaper! Remember?

A few more pictures of the process – but I realized the pictures don’t tell you two things – 1) My sweet friend S helped SO much! 2) I did much of the edging myself.

I love the new blue room! Not just for Daniel, but also as a sign that the busy, flowered wallpaper that covers? envelopes? suffocates? this house will slowly go away to be replaced with wonderful colors that make us (me) happy! I am so blessed!

Oh! And one final note: I’ve spent the last 15 years telling anyone who would listen I couldn’t paint because the fumes made me sick. (That actually DID happen once in high school.) I’ve been worried ever since thinking about starting this project (and the rest of the house), but apparently I’ve either grown out of it. Or got less stinky paint. Or left more windows open (one day was a bit chilly).

But, it turns, Abbie CAN paint! And I really enjoyed it – both the process and the result!

(I’m linking to Kimba’s DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land – I love looking through everyone’s projects.)

Snow!!

Our first snow of the season (yesterday) was every kid’s dream!

Several inches deep, it was wet – perfect for snowmen and snowballs. And plenty warm to play outside!

(Oh, and afternoon preschool was canceled so we had lots of time and we’d just read a book called Snow Day the night before!)

Here are the pictures:

I’m linking this to Tuesday’s Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky because it was such a gift to the girls and I just to play outside. And I didn’t even mind the entire load of wet, muddy laundry (from TWO excursions out).

A wake-up call.

If you are tired, frustrated, scared, out of patience, out of ideas, lonely, annoyed, confused, unappreciated, sad or otherwise struggling, go read Running on E by Pete Wilson at WithoutWax.

I did.

And I saw way too much of myself in the past couple years.

But God will change that. If I let Him. And I’m sure gonna try!

The first Halloween

Ok, so it wasn’t my first Halloween, or even my first one with kids.

However, as Halloween isn’t my favorite holiday – or even in the top ten – I’d avoided doing anything for it for the last, umm, 15 years? Oh, wait, the year we were engaged, Josh and I dressed up and went to a party. And I suppose I dressed up a couple times in college. But three total times in 15 years (and none since kids!) doesn’t count for much.

Last year, Kate trick-or-treated to few classrooms at preschool and noticed other kids dressed up around town. But didn’t ask to do anything or seem to mind that we weren’t.

This year, however, Kate (now 4 1/2) asked a few days beforehand if we could dress up and go trick or treating. I’d been waiting for that question and readily said yes!

So about half an hour before the downtown Scare on the Square (not actually scary, just when the businesses hand out candy) I told the girls to find what they wanted to wear in the dress-up box in the playroom.

They both immediately put on their favorite “princess” or “ballerina” outfits, with extra skirts for more poofiness and were ready! I got a lion outfit out of the box for Daniel and we left.

Here are the pictures. (Please note that Kate didn’t want her picture taken!)

We had such a fun family time walking around the square – only a block from home – seeing friends and neighbors. And of course, the candy was a highlight for me, I mean, for the girls! And it just doesn’t get much cuter than a one-year-old lion!

And the wall(paper) came tumbling down.

Ever since I first looked at our house, the wallpaper was NOT one of my favorite features. But my dear hubby assured me that we could rip it all down and he would paint every room in the house if I wanted. And even change the color if I didn’t like it in a room. (Yes, just A room gets a change!)

Anyway, now that we’ve lived here three months (or so), I finally took some wallpaper down with the encouragement and help of a sweet, experienced-with-old-house-wallpaper friend.

Daniel’s room went from this:

To this:

And it only took 3 or 4 hours of work! The paper came off quite easily (nice for a first project!) as all the previous layers had been completely removed – except behind the radiator. And there we found evidence of probably five previous wallpapers.

And just look at the gorgeous woodwork! I am amazed – and very excited – at how much more the woodwork stands out when the busy-ness of the wallpaper is gone! Especially since the all-original woodwork is one of my favorite things about this house!

Now I just have to decide what color to paint …

(I’m linking to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land. Fun!)

Lights

A friend told me yesterday that he thinks I’m the only woman in the county who didn’t want a gazebo and got one with my house! It’s not that I don’t like the gazebo in our backyard, but it was never something I wished for – or even thought about, really.

But I like it. What’s not to like?

But THEN!

A friend of ours (same one as above) offered to loan us some of the LED lights he sells (go see at ImaginaryColours) to dress up our gazebo for the upcoming Christmas season. So we said, yes, please, thank you. (It took a little more discussion than that.)

And look at her now! (Ok, I never refer to inanimate objects as “her” but Miss Gazebo is too pretty to just say ‘it” now.)

If I didn’t think people would see me, I would sleep out there all winter! Oh, and if it wasn’t too cold. I should have done it last night since it only got down to 50 or so.

So what would you do with a beautifully lit gazebo? What should I do?

(I’m linking to Kimba’s DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land. Go see all the other beauties!)

The Birthday Boy

Here are a few pictures from the birthday celebration.

I am so thankful for a whole year with my sweet boy! And I pray God will teach me not to take a single smile, tear, giggle or diaper for granted.

(I am linking this to Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky.)

Sunshine

Sunshine.

Any sunshine, especially during this rainy week is a beautiful thing to celebrate.

The girls and I saw the sun rise (just minutes before it disappeared into the clouds for the day) on an early trip to the store Wednesday.

And I saw the morning sun shining on this fruit box in my kitchen.

I’m linking this to Beautiful Life Friday at The Inspired Room.

The new bench

We got an early Christmas present this month. Made by my dad to fit perfectly by our kitchen table. I could not be more excited! He had some great help carrying it inside and then the kids explored it in the entry way.

They seem to like it pretty well. The girls sit on it to eat almost every meal. Daniel will soon, I’m sure, as soon as I’m ready to have him out of the high chair which is wonderful restraint so he doesn’t hit the floor a hundred times a meal. Since he does that enough with his new walking anyway.

Solid, stable, painted and ready to be painted again when I pick a color for our kitchen. After I take down the wallpaper.

 

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

Siblings.

I took this picture early this morning as these two sat quietly together and played … until I interrupted to take a picture.

My sweet, bouncing baby boy is walking! Here he is trying it out yesterday at the park.

Then Kate started dancing.

And Megan started sliding … and collecting static for her hair!

I hope you get a smile from these like I did! I also hope we get a few more warm days this fall.