Playing Catch Up

So, hello, welcome back, its been a while.  I'm going to make a better effort to keep this blog up to date now that summer is over and the kids are in school one day a week.  I hope all my friends and family who read this are all doing well.

First things first.  Everyone here is healthy and happy and growing like crazy.  What more could we ask for right??!  I'll have a kid update soon.  They are all so stinking cute right now I can't even handle it.

Second, the basement project is sort of done now.  The big stuff anyway.  I was holding off writing a blog because there are little decor things that I'm not quite done with, but I suppose that just makes for more blog posts down the road.  This house is forever in transformation so I'm just going to get on with it.

So here we are: The main view from the stairs.  It's like a breath of fresh air.  At least when I can't smell the kids shoes in the new mudroom which is now behind me on the other side of the stairs here.

There is nothing about this that I miss.

And everything about this, I LOVE.

My new mudroom built from useless garage space. A photo of this room is too hard to capture, but you get the idea.

 Next would be the TV and fireplace area.  This corner is still weird for a TV, we've gone from having the furniture on and angle, then flush to the wall with the TV on an angle, and now back again.  I hate furniture on an angle, but it seems to work best that way.  One day maybe we'll mount it on the wall with one of those arm things, but its got to be a big one because now we can turn the TV out the back door and watch games from the back patio.  Pretty nice right?

The prints on the wall are Star Wars prints I purchased for John on Etsy.  They are pretty cool, even though I've never seen all 3 movies all the way through.  And I still need a fireplace screen...

 This is the same view really just out to the patio.  Its really nice when we can let the fall breezes blow though this door on a Saturday.

And my favorite transformation: The kitchenette.  We kept it simple, but moving the refrigerator and putting in some proper cabinets makes it a much more usable space that lacks spider dens and 7+ year old dried up cat foot nuggets.  I want to put some industrial looking open shelving over the sink and maybe some of my own art between the sconces, but it works for now.

The buffet wall works great for parties!

The bath was also a pretty big change but my photos are terrible.  The lighting is pretty bad in here, even if it is new.  Nothing really super special about it, but it fits with the 1960's feel of the house and it is neutral.

I cannot find a mirror for this weird skinny wall.  Any suggestions??!

The other side of the bath is the laundry, now with cabinets that are actually uniform in size and a folding counter.  My laundry chute drops into the far left cabinet and you would never even know it was there.

We painted the unfinished cabinets and my polyurethane coating turned the center panels yellow.  I will be correcting this somehow, someday...for a later post.

We decided to remove the storage closet under the stairs (seen on the right in the above photo of the old kitchen).  It was an odd shape and you could never get to the stuff in the way back.  Mainly it stored my extra dishes and vases and random kid stuff.  Since the dishes and vases were going into the new kitchenette cabinets, and the kid stuff into a garage sale, we decided to make the space an office.  Our desk and printer cabinet fit just perfectly.  This also prevents us from becoming hoarders because we have no place to store anything other than the attic.

Don't mind the mess on the desk, but really, we LIVE here. This is what it looks like most of the time.

So speaking of what this room looks like most of the time... It is mainly a kids' space after all, and we do not pick it up every day.  So as much as I'd like everyone to think that this is how I live,

this is actually how I LIVE.  And it's pretty great.

This photo is really a pretty tame toy explosion.  Good thing Santa is coming soon, we're running low on toys...

Hiatus

So its been 3 months since my last post.  I have plenty to be inspired about, so maybe its just the winter blahs, but this blog has just been this little after thought in the back of my mind.  And much like cleaning the bathrooms I think, "Oh I'll just do it later." (Did I just compare my blog to cleaning bathrooms? Has this turned into work???)

Look at my big guys!  22 months on the 25th!

Now that the boys are approaching the age that Lillian was when they were born, I am thinking I have to get some pics posted so family and friends that want to know can see how they are doing.  They are great.  They are more than great.

They really are sometimes lost without each other.

The boys are talking (finally!).  They are amazingly smart (just like their sister - to me, of course).  They love to point at the moon and say "mooooooooon".  And more importantly, they've learned how to say "mine".  I think they learned that one from someone exactly 23 months older than they.  The boys also know their numbers, most of their letters, about 8 shapes and they can say a lot of the words to indicate to us that they know these things - at least John and I can understand them.  I don't remember when Lillian started picking up on this stuff, but I think they are doing it because of their older sister.  They are working on colors, throwing and catching balls, climbing ladders (and furniture), walking up stairs, jumping and they run (especially away from me ) all the time.  They have very different personalities. 

Stinkified

Sam is quite laid back, but when upset, you need to leave the room because he is loud and incessant.  He is extremely ornery (you can tell by looking at him) but also very sweet and cuddly.  Sam is a believer in all things belonging to the world.  Meaning: what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine until I decide to make it yours.  Really he is quite generous most of the time.  He has the best smile in the world.

This charming Will.

Will is very sensitive.  He is extremely sweet, but wirey, fast and spunky.  He is very smart and charismatic and you can see the gears turning behind his eyes.  He fights his battles with tears instead of force.  He has the best laugh in the world.

Ready for dance class!

 Lillian is just about done with 2 day a week Preschool and we are enrolled for Pre-K in the fall.  I cannot believe it.  One more year and my little girl might be going to Kindergarten!  We aren't sure yet since all our kids are summer babies, we have to either decide to send them very young or very old for their class.  Lilli is also in dance class and absolutely loves it.  She seems to have a bit more of a performance bone in her than I did at her age.  She will twirl and prance around for just about anybody.  She loves to play dress up, color, and especially paint.  I keep trying to snag some of her paintings to put up somewhere in the house, but somehow all of the really good ones get smeared with a glue stick or cut up into tiny little shreds.  She also asks me continually to play with my jewelry or my sewing box.  She is about as girly as they come.  However, she was killing her brothers tonight at the basketball goal...

Her favorite thing about the snow.

John and I are approaching our 5 year anniversary, which is completely flabbergasting that 5 years can fly as fast as the last have.  Our wedding and honeymoon seem like a dream because our life is so completely and utterly different from that time.  Our thought 5 years ago was that we would celebrate someplace amazing, like Ireland or Italy.  Huh.  I think the closest we might get is a nice dinner at Carmen's!  Maybe in another 5... The kids will be almost 9 and 7, much more manageable for family or a babysitter.  I do hope in the next couple of months that we will manage to get a picture taken together when dressed up.  I go through pictures for this blog and there are absolutely none of me or me with my husband.  I know we don't get out much, but this just doesn't seem right...

The big think going on in the house is the basement remodel, but I don't have much of an update there.  We knew it would take a while, but we did not anticipate going 6 weeks (or maybe more) without a single thing happening.  Its a long story, but we weren't exactly smiling about it.  About a month ago things started happening and all is well now. We have dry wall going up this week.  I will take some pics at that point to show a little transformation.  We have our tile and carpet on order, cabinets and lighting on the way and some paint colors to pick out.  I think things should start to take shape here pretty quickly.  I hope to have the space finished for the boys' 2nd birthday, Lillian's 4th birthday and John has a VERY LARGE birthday this year.  You can bet we're having a big shin-dig to celebrate that one!  Hopefully you will hear from me before then!

Decorating with Toddlers, A How To

First of all, I want to dedicate this post to the innocence lost in this country last Friday morning.  Such a painful loss reminds those of us that are lucky enough today to hold the warm little hands and kiss the soft sweet skin of our most precious gifts that we need to do it more often.  

In honor of the innocence and joy our children bring, I'm going to move on to the point of my post today, which is decorating with several toddlers scurrying about your home.  It's a tough yet creative job, which they truly love to help out with most of the time.

This is our hearth room.  We purchased two very inexpensive leather chairs for the sole purpose of having enough seats for all of us to watch tv.  The leather was intentional as it is fairly easy to clean, and obviously, the inexpensive part speaks for itself.  This is how we choose to arrange our chairs these days because we feel they function so much better this way.  When they face the television, no one even sits in them anyway.  They are only used as a jungle gym and an apparatus to propel oneself to the brick hearth without touching the floor.

Because it is Christmas time, I will also provide a few shots on how to decorate your house appropriately for the season.  This is our tree.  First of all, don't even bother to decorate the lower 4 feet of your tree.  It looks SO much better with about 3 or 4 ornaments on the top half, and maybe a tree topper.  As long as the topper is crystal, like ours, and has about an 85% chance of falling off the tree and poking someone's eye out as they slither under the tree to hide and tear pages out of books.

This photo is a must do.  This is how you must display the ornaments that you did not hang on the bottom half of the tree.  Though, we also had a few displayed at the bottom of the stairs, between the baby gate and the first stair and this is also a fun option.  As long as no one is trying to walk up and down the stairs, because those ornaments could become a safety hazard.

This is our lovely fireplace this time of year.  The fireplace does not function due to some chimney damage, so the previous owner painted it.  We followed suit.  So thankfully, in a way, we cannot have live fires in the hearth, and this cuts down on at least one safety issue.  Though, I think even if you don't have toddlers that climb into the fireplace and play tug of war on the gas pipe that you should always put up a giant plastic baby gate into the space to add some dimension and interest.  Then you should pile as many mismatched pillows as possible along the edge of the hearth to protect the paint job.  Because that is after all what I am trying to protect here (any logical person might buy one of those foamy hearth covers that sticks on, but not this lady - I don't want to jack up my paint job that took many a nap hour to complete).

Now we will move on to the kitchen and dining space and talk seating.  This is how we've decided to use my daughter's ladder, I mean chair, during particularly feisty days.  Its one thing to turn around from doing the dishes and see a 19 month old standing on the table, and its completely another to turn around and see this lovely chair displayed like a work of art.

This one should completely speak for itself.  Dining chairs are so much prettier when blocking a closet and bedroom door.  And the function?  Well who cares when it looks this good!

I am sad to say this is my last photo in the series.  I know what you're thinking: "Do these people really live like this...?  Because its absolutely WONDERFUL?!!"  Right??!  While, I do love having trash spilled all over the floor, (especially when containing my husband's Dr. Shasta can which clearly should be dripping all over the recycling bin instead of my hallway floor), I actually love more what they've done with the highchairs. They moved them around for quite a while finally deciding to place them directly in front of the stove and the sink.  Now all they need to do is learn how to climb the chairs and turn on the burners and the hot water!  Genius!

Now, I hope I'm not flattering myself too much here, but I think this post could be very helpful to a lot of people looking to redecorate, and I will try to have some follow up posts on decorating with toddlers.  Maybe I will concentrate on bedrooms, bathrooms and basements, as ours becomes more complete.  In the meantime, please take my advice for what it's worth and enjoy!

Deconstruction

Our house plans for the winter are to remodel the finished basement.  Winter probably isn't the best time to tear up a completely useful part of your house where kids can play and blow off steam, but the timing was good in many other ways, so we're giving it a go.  Hopefully it will only take a couple of months... 

Before the sad funeral of 1000 cedar trees.  You can't even see them all in this photo, it was BAD.

Basically all I have at this time are "before" pictures and "after the walls came down pictures".  Many people would consider what we had as a very "serviceable" space (to use one of my architect brother's terms).  That's all fine and good, but there is a reason I like hardwood, or hard surface, floors in a house (can you say cat pee?) and the old carpet is going.  I also don't want people to think we are responsible for the massacre of a bunch of cedar trees purely for decorative purposes.  So we decided to strip it down to the studs, have the walls and floors checked out, make some foundation repairs while we can (nothing big thankfully!) and build it all back up just as simply as we possibly can.  We'll see in the coming months how really "simple" its going to be...

One of several built-ins.  Built-ins are great to most people.  I find them annoying most of the time.  In particular, a corner cabinet, made of rough cedar no less.  Can you say WASTEFUL?  With the exception of that beautifully clever girl that has found herself a place to snuggle up.  I love her.

The kitchen/bar area with bath/laundry behind.  All I see is a lot of construction materials used without a lot of thought.  And some very interesting 90's era paint choices.

 

 Bath, with my boy and his purple flower.  The purple goes so well with the pink tile that someone clearly purchased at bargain basement prices because it is found in more than one place in the house.

 

Laundry, just opposite the toilet and sink.  I don't mind having laundry in the lower level (stairs are good for you!), but when the kids occupy the upper level, the laundry chute on the left will be nice to have.  

The fireplace and walk-out.  I cannot wait for next summer when this door will be the most used door in the house.  Look at that tricked-out fireplace with another incredibly useless cabinet next to it.  This is why built-ins bug me...that is the best corner for a tv, but you put a tv there and you can't get to the cabinet.  I know this was finished in a different era, but wouldn't you rather just have a piece of your own furniture to store stuff in and move around wherever you see fit?

Here we are minus paneled walls, carpet, 2 layers of vinyl floor tile, brick around the support beam, a layer of ceiling tile, and a layer of gypsum board from the ceiling.  Yes, when the basement was finished they hung gypsum board on the ceiling, finished it, and then added ceiling tiles glued to the top of it.  BUT, the walls were wood paneling. And the floor tiles were laid in a pattern.  It is clear the people had some money, but their sense is now up for debate.

How amazing will this simple hearth be when not surrounded by needless pieces of wood and cabinetry?

 What used to be the kitchen/bar.  The wall between will go back up with door in the same place as before.  The fridge will move to this position under the stairs with a sink to the left of it.  The wall on the left we hope will house upper and lower cabinets and possibly an oven.  The bath will get all new fixtures.  The door frame seen is a shower that I personally would like to turn into a pantry but I have much opposition telling me its not good to turn a full bath into a half bath (even if its weird).

The view back up the stairs - which are clearly a child safety hazard.  The exposed ceiling and duct work looks so clean that we are likely going to leave it open and possibly just paint it.  The floor also looks good with only 2 minor cracks.  We considered buffing and sealing the concrete, but with 3 small kids and this a future play room/living room we are leaning towards carpet with tile (not pink) in the kitchen and bath.

Overall, the demo went cleanly and once the foundation work is done we can get the electrician in to rough in the lighting and we can start painting the ceiling and hanging walls.  I have anticipated this project since about the day we moved in.  The space is really, really great, especially in the mornings when the sun bursts through the sliding door.  I can't wait for my kids to have a clean, cat pee-less environment with immediate access to a kitchen, bath, and the backyard.  I hope this is where a lot of family memories are yet to be made.

Where did I leave off...

Well, clearly, it's been a while.  We have so much going on, and I have some other creative outlets lately, I haven't found the need or frankly the inspiration to write.  But since we've started getting excited for Christmas, and the boys recently turned 18 months (What the what??!! I know!!) I have to get an update going.

I think I will concentrate on one thing at a time, meaning there will be other posts after this one.  First on the list of updates is Halloween.  Lilli is to the age where she wants to pick her costume. And the princess obsession has begun (I personally can't relate because I was never into it as a kid), so she wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

 I found the need to make her costume, as well as the boys.  Will and Sam wanted to be the Yip Yips, from Sesame Street days of old (note mommy and daddy both agreed that this is what they "wanted" to be).  I think the costumes came out ok, however, only one child would wear theirs - this I should have guessed in advance.

Will kept his on at a party for about a minute and a half, until he tried to wander up the stairs in it.  And Sam didn't even really get his on.  This photo is mid attempt at dressing him. At which point he started to get mad and we said 'maybe next year'.  For trick or treating they ended up huddled up in the wagon as 'a house divided' - one wearing a KU sweatshirt and the other a K-State sweatshirt.  People actually guessed this costume quicker than the Yip Yips.  Seriously, did no one watch Sesame Street in the late 70's, early 80's??

So this brings me to an update on the little guys.  The really are not so little anymore.  I LOVE 18 months.  It is the BEST age.  They are little budding personalities full of giggles, spit, and orneriness.  Granted, it is hard still because they don't talk much, they are a little behind (not enough for me to worry too much just yet), so it's not always easy to figure out what they need.  They grunt a lot and cry a lot, but the rest of it totally makes up for this.

Their tiny little bodies walking around just crack me up.  They try to dance and run and do anything their sister does.  And then they try to climb the furniture and pull food off the counter tops and I start to sweat.  But you have to take the bad with the good right?  And there is soooo much good!

Then there is the little girl...She is so sweet.  At almost 3 1/2, I feel most days she is going on 16.  The things she says and does are very mature, maybe that's the nature of the oldest child.  She dresses herself, insisting on picking out her own outfits.  The potty training situation is resolved (other than she still won't go at school all day).  And everyday she seems to grow just a little bit more into a young lady.  I can't even believe she was my baby just three short years ago. 

Next on the agenda: the basement demolition and Christmas excitement.

Little Guy Chairs

So last time I mentioned that I was working on another painting project.  This one was kind of small, in more ways than one.  However, it took me a while to get it done... there is just always so much to get done at nap time, and this took about a month of naps to complete.

Easily one of the greatest pictures we have on file.  Are these not two of the cutest babies you've ever seen?

My neighbor gave us these little Adirondack rockers because her kids had outgrown them.  As you can see they were not in the best of shape.  The red one especially, with peeling paint and loose screws.  I didn't know if it was even going to be saved.  But with a little sanding, priming, and a trip to the local Ace hardware store for a can of $5 "mess up" paint, both chairs look almost brand new.

Not bad, huh?!

I wanted to make the chairs a little more interesting than simply painting them the "Pinstripe Grey" color I found in the mess up bin at the store.  (I used outdoor paint because these chairs will be outdoors most of the year.)  The chevron trend is so prominent in home decor right now that I almost feel it is overused.  However, it makes such a graphic impact for such a very simple application.  I printed off a template on the computer, measured off where I wanted to place them, traced in pencil, and then hand painted.  The blue color is just a mixture of a couple of indoor paint colors we have sitting around.  And there you go, new perfect little seats for my perfect little boys.

Yes, they are always this adorable.  And yes, Will's hair is always this awesome.

Fashion Week

Wow, so I had not noticed that I haven't made a post in over a month.  I know its been a while... I think about the blog all the time, I've just been very uninspired lately.  The kids are slowing down developmentally.  That sounds bad.  I'm not saying my kids are slow, they just get to an age when the new stuff starts to be few and far between.

And we've been doing some projects around the house that aren't that exciting...finishing up some hallway painting, trying to get the main bath a little more our speed (wall sconces with lamp shades are not really our thing), and trying to clean out the basement for a full demo job in the coming months.  I have one furniture paint project I am almost finished with and will post that soon.

So in the meantime, I've just been flat out lazy.  I've been promising an update on the potty training with Lillian.  I don't think I posted about it since she's started wearing pants.  Yes, after a full month of completely commando, we kind of forced the issue a little - but pretty much on her terms.  We did something we really didn't want to do, but it was the only way to get her to cover herself so we were not on house arrest anymore.

Oh, the dreaded pull-up.  I still believe they are glorified diapers.  And a lot of kids treat them as such.  However, I started to get the feeling that my little girl is filled to the brim with integrity and is very intent on not making a mistake.  She resisted even the pull-ups at first, so we had to hold her on our laps in order to get her to wear one for half an hour.  After about 2 days of this, she finally trusted herself and how the process works.  Since then she's been in them with only 2 accidents, one in which she stopped herself, told me about it, and ran to the potty to finish.  The other was today, and a full blown accident as we were playing in the basement.  But three months of training and two accidents??  I'll take it.

But like with every process, it is just that - a process.  One we have not neared the end of yet.  She displays a fear of the regular toilet, and she does not go all day at school.  I kind of have myself to blame here.  When I think back on my early school memories, I am pretty sure I held it all day and was scared of the big toilets.  And about two months ago, in the midst of the early situation and Lilli's fear of messing up in her pretty new Dora panties, I was venting to my high school friends.  They all know me all too well and one said "I have to say, I see a little bit of you in this."  I never wore Dora panties and was potty trained when she met me, so I'm pretty sure what she was telling me was that I am a crazy perfectionist and my own very, very worst critic.  And like a lot of us, I don't want to fail at anything.  The sad thing for me is, my three year old daughter has clearly inherited this from me and learned even more by example.  I don't want my kids to ever be afraid to try anything, muchless be scared of it from the get go for fear of failure.  I can only hope I also pass along a good trait, such as my dry, biting humor.

So to pay homage to my daughter, her perfect little self, and her emerging fashion sense since the onset of the pull-up wearing, I have 6 wonderful photos of the outfits she puts together all on her own.  Enjoy!

Jeggings, favorite T, comfy shoes and just a touch of "pop" color under the animal print shoe.

Quite a well pulled together look.  Getting the hang of matching colors.

Or maybe not...Can't blame a girl for trying something risky and having it not quite work.

Risking two patterns here, but I think it kind of works, especially with the purple striped socks and purple sandals.

A girl after my own heart, putting two things together that were not actually purchased together. And the glasses are genius. As is the favorite accessory.  If only we could all have a Ducky to carry with us.

First day of school and spot on.  My only fear: Are all my school pictures of her going to have the Chandler Bing smile??!

A lot of people might think I am harsh for making an example of my little one here.  But I love her dearly and this is all purely out of my absolute amazement regarding who she is and who she is becoming.  I am enthralled, tickled, and infuriated by her every single day.  I love you Little Girl!