like a vacation in my own house...

I'm fully aware that almost nobody really cares about someone else's decorating and/or renovation projects. Almost nobody. This is for those four people who do care...and just for me because I worked hard (with help from Adam's mom!!) to make this room 'OURS' and start to really feel like I'm creating a HOME in this new house. There are TONS of projects to be done around here (fun things like a major kitchen remodel in several years and not-so-fun things like a new backyard fence, work on the driveway, and LOADS of painting...), but I started with a living room re-paint and decorate. Here are pictures from when we first viewed the house- so it's not our stuff in it here...


We moved in a month ago and the color on the walls was FINE. It was this nice soft green (and I love green on walls!), but once our stuff was in...it was so blah...boring...monotone...

Side note: We're not big TV people. But we LOVE abc's "Modern Family"...so, so, so, so funny! For months, I'd told Adam "I LOVE the color on the walls in Phil's house"...with the black and white accents and the super crisp blue color." That color is a stretch for me, but it's just a few cans of paint, right? I even off-handedly mentioned it to the ladies in my bible study at church. Several of them laughed and said, "oohh, that IS a great color." The next week I got an email from one of them, saying "get this!...there's an article in People magazine this week and it mentioned the wall color from that show. " Woo-hoo. That's all I needed to motivate me. Thanks for the email, Haley!

Adam's mom was here two weeks ago (yep, so far behind on blogs that I haven't even put up those pics yet...sorry, Muriel!) and we busted our butts to get holes fixed up, furniture moved, TOTALLY painted -2 coats even though the Benjamin Moore person said, "should only need 1 coat..." when does paint EVER just need one coat?! Really....

We still have to hang a few things and I need to finish my curtain project, but IIIIIIIII LLOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE IIIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!! The room is so calming and soothing. We have a strict "no kid stuff" rule for the room (b/c, THANKFULLY, we have a playroom that is floor to ceiling "kid") and it's sooooo lovely to come in here during naps or in the evening and feel like a totally normal person, not a crazy, frazzled mommy. It's heaven.
It looks a little 'smurf blue' in these pictures, but it's not that at all! It's a very cape-cod-ish blue that has serious grey undertones, especially in the evenings.
The curtain project was inspired by a blog I LOVE to follow and if you're a crafty, decorative, frugal type AT ALL, you need to check out "thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com". She's amzing. Anyway, the previous owner had left brand new white tab top curtains in the house, but they were 8 inches too short. No way was I going to buy new curtains when I had something that worked (relatively...) fine! So, although it took 3 trips to Joann fabrics, I found gorgeous material and a strip of grosgrain ribbon and 'customized' the curtains. I only have 2 of 4 done, but they're killer. =) I also despised the ceiling fan. It was this heinous 'faux marble' look of hunter green and white...gag. So, I bought some appliance paint in a matte black and just painted all the metal parts. It took about 20 minutes (2x) during naptimes and it's a whole 'new' light/fan! Yay for cheap fixes/recycling/elbow grease projects...=)
overall, I love the new room...it's exactly what I was hoping for! Now we just need to work on every.other.room.in.the.house. baby steps...

Re-living the old days...

So, Adam played tennis in high school. We've never really played together, but I think he was pretty good...just ask the flying insects in our yard!
When we moved into the new house (3 weeks ago), we quickly realized there's a HUGE problem with bees and wasps. The bees are gigantic, too. Not just little honey bees or whatever. They like to hover right around us and are DOZENS of them right outside our front and back doors...I guess they love the cedar siding of the house and the wooded areas around us (according to the neighbors!) and swarm this time of year. It makes it a little scary to try to eat out on the back deck or play with bubbles in the front yard.
Now back to the former tennis star...
Easter morning, Adam had a great idea to get out the old gear and show those bees who is in charge.
The first day he killed about 5, and we're killing about 1o each day!! It's getting easier...and fun!

I mean, look at that thing!
Now we're out with the racket EVERY DAY. Our new neighbors laughed at us a little the first day, but yesterday....FRANK next door had one, too. He yelled over "thanks for the great idea. This works better than any bee spray AND I'm working on my backhand!". Glad to see we're having a positive influence on our neighbors!!

Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend, enjoying an "Easter Party" at a local church with a neat puppet show, singing, egg hunt, face painting, etc...Elise had a GREAT time and Ainsley enjoyed it some, too. She was a bit whiny while we were there and I was getting a little frustrated with her attitude. I just wanted them to have fun, you know? When we got home and I discovered the 102 degree fever, I felt bad. She was mopey and clingy for the rest of the day (which I kind of enjoyed b/c she's NEVER a cuddler!), and was totally fine by mid-day Sunday. odd.
We had a few other things planned that night and Sunday, too. It was a fun weekend and we're super thankful for everything about Easter. Elise summed it up well on Sunday after church, "You know that it's really important when we wash our hands after we play? Well, it's MORE important that Jesus' blood washed our hearts. They were dirty, too, but Jesus makes them clean just like soap." Well said. I love it.

At the Easter party...look at Elise and Adam on this one:


Ok, this is 'better' of Ainsley, but not great of Elise...just pretend they were all happy at once!
Easter morning with new game "Hungry, Hungry Hippo". She loves it.


On our way to Church on Sunday. Ainsley stayed home sick with Nana, but these two looked adorable, so we got one cute picture.

Backyard fun...

The weather is almost perfect here in VA right now and we're LOVING the ability to be outside ALL THE TIME and get adjusted to the new house, neighborhood, etc... last Friday (yep, I'm behind on blogging again...), I threw play clothes on the girls after nap time and we headed out to the backyard to do some fingerpainting! It was fun, GORGEOUS, and very messy. They loved it, though, and were just hosed off at the end.
One thing that we especially love about the new house is our mountain view! You can see it a little in these pictures, just ignore the chain link fence, ok? We know it's hideous and tacky and we'll get rid of it soon...after we finish unpacking boxes, get fully settled, paint some rooms, replace some lighting, etc...it's on the list! just look past it to the beautiful mountains and greenery. Thanks.

Even Ainsley, who hates 'disorder', enjoyed the painting!

We all know that Elise LOVES to be dirty, messy, painty, whatever..

Much better....

Things improved drastically after I had my little pity-party the other day concerning the lost items, crummy weather, etc... and all is good now.
During naptime, I found the card reader (in the master bedroom closet!) and later that night, we found all the everyday dishes (in a box marked "everyday dishes"...not sure how it eluded me for 6 days!). I'd say about 95% of the boxes that are going to be unpacked are done at this point, so that's good. We still need to do all the decorating of walls, fix some little stuff, organize garage and basement, but I'm feeling pretty good about it all. =)
So, thanks for listening to me whine...here are some of the cute pics that I knew were on that memory card:

The day before the movers came, I asked Elise during her rest time to "pack up her stuff from her room and put it in some bags/boxes"...this is what I found 10 minutes later: I LOVE IT!

Ainsley was helping us decorate once we got in the new house. She kept saying "HEBBY", translated: "heavy"...she thought she was so cool to help out! And that second picture...ahhh ....we LOVE that smile!



Adam and Elise heading off to school one day last week. My favorite thing about this school is STILL the fact that Adam can take her in the mornings...=)

Last but not least...cutie pie Mitchell. He LOVES this little toy (Thanks, Kristina and Jean!!!) and will do his little inchbug-crawl to get all the way across the room to get to it.

Grrr...

For several reasons, I'm a little grouchy today. First of all, the BE-AU-TI-FUL weather we had last weekend and most of this week is going to be trumped by storms and 20 degree-cooler weather this weekend. We've been cooped up with hundreds of boxes to unpack and now we can't even enjoy the outside. I guess we did get outside most afternoons this week, but I love the sun and want more and more and more!
Secondly (and thirdly, maybe?), we're missing just a few things from the move and it's driving me NUTS to find them. The card-reader thingy that connects the memory card from our camera to the computer? missing...So, you get no pictures today. AND I have some REALLY cute ones on there- even of Ainsley- and those are hard to come by! Also, our 'everyday' dishes.... how did I lose those? I packed the whole house by myself and i know those were in one of the last boxes packed. They're my favorite square dishes from Japan and I miss them each time we sit down for dinner. Bummer. Elise's school sweater was missing, too, but I just found that in the drawer of a bedside table that we use in the laundry room. Makes perfect sense, right?!
So...naptime today is dedicated to 1.organizing the Master Bedroom closet and 2.Finding the dishes and card reader. Let's hope all three nap/rest well so I can also cook dinner! We'll see...

Big couple weeks...

About two weeks ago, we had Mitchell's 6 month appointment and he's doing great! He's right on-track for all the important little milestones, but needs to put on a little weight. Adam REALLY doesn't want a puny baby boy, so we're starting some solid foods. (For those of you w/o kiddos or have just blocked out those early months, babies usually start "solids"-which is really rice cereal, single grain oatmeal, bananas, etc... at between 4-6 months). With my hands totally full and being somewhat overwhelmed 24/7, I just kept putting it off. He's very content with JUST being breastfed, but I guess he has to eat food at some point. Anyway, we tried it last week...it was a huge mess, VERY FUNNY, and not so productive. The girls, of course, were a gigantic "help" and I managed to snap a few quick pics in the process...







Mitchell is also right on the verge of crawling. He's doing the cool little "commando crawl" and crossing the living room in just minutes...I think it's adorable (but NOT going to make my life any easier!). At least we never really 'baby-proofed' the rental house that we're in now. He seems to enjoy the freedom and Elise and Ainsley like to track his progress, give him little pushes on the behind-which also usually end with a face plant on the carpet, and clap for him as he makes it to a toy they've placed out in front of him. It's a fun stage, but I'm a little concerned about being able to keep up with this boy. =)
On that note, he's waking up (I'm not complaining, it's after 8am), so I should go and feed him and get on with our day...