Phase 3 of...

"Operation Organization"

As you can see, we painted the room the same shade of blue that's in Owen's room. We got this bookcase and desk from Ikea and the organization began!!

My favorite part of the renovation is the little "desk" that we set up for Hailey at the end of my desk. She's got crayons, coloring books, and all sorts of craft things at her disposal. She's spent the bulk of today at her new desk. ;)
The bookcase on the wall has enough little cubbies and boxes for all of our medical paperwork (that's been busting out of this little file holder for months now), our receipts, and personal paperwork. We've got the big office outside, but it's been hard to keep our business and personal paperwork all separate until now.

This closet is just dreamy...until now I've had NO non-bedroom closet space in my whole house! No linen closet, no hall closet...nada. This closet contains all of my gift wrap stuff (a hanging bar for my collection of ribbon is coming soon), Hailey's excess art supplies, our medicines (which have been stowed in various places throughout the house - up and away from the kids - so you can never find the right thing when you need it), my vacuum (previously in the corner in our bedroom) and several other things. We also have 3 white board calendars to hang on one of the walls so I can keep our life all figured out! We are so bad at forgetting dates and things, so that'll help a lot...

I'm really excited that this room will be so multi-functional. I can work from here while Hails colors and plays, I can keep everything organized, and even do my quiet time in here.

Loving it! :)

Phase 2 of...

"Operation Organization"

So, we painted over the purple and moved Owen into the basement. We chose this really nice calming blue because I didn't want it to feel like a cave and the green in his old room was pretty dark. I am in LOVE with this blue...so much so that you will be seeing it in the upcoming "Phase 3". ;)
This skinny bookcase used to be in our living room...when we first got married. I never put 2 and 2 together and noticed that it's the perfect color for the nursery furniture. It works so perfectly to store all of the little bins for extra changing table stuff, as well as a few decorative accents.

All of Owen's clothes are organized into "fits" and "not quite yet". ;)

...more to come...

Hailey Lynn

*Due to the 70 degree weather yesterday, we went Saltwater Sandal shopping...Hailey picked a really cute hot pink pair and mommy chose a nice sensible white pair to go with everything that can't quite mesh with the pink ones.

*We got some workbooks a while back that teach some pre-writing skills...stuff like tracing letters and such. She's doing so well with it! She even wrote her name the other day.

*Her imagination has kicked up yet another notch lately! She still has many "big woman" stories, "grocery shops" in the laundry room, and has not 1...but 2 imaginary friends!! Lola and Neggler. Don't ask me where she came up with the new friend's name...I have no idea. :)

*90% of the time she's really obedient and well behaved, but the other 10% of the time I have no clue what to do with her!! She has a really strong will and throws quite the fit when she doesn't get her way. This makes for a mommy and daddy who are prayerfully dependent on the Lord for wisdom in parenting, which is not a bad place to be, I'd say...

*Still her spunky self. Lots of "shenanigans" and tons of laughs from this girl.

Love her.

"When I was a Big Woman..."

Hailey is quite the story teller...mostly fiction. She has always loved telling stories that begin with, "When I was a little baby..." and end with something like, "...I was scared of Elmo." Well, we've moved on to this..."When I was a big woman, I didn't like black beans."

Or...

"When I was a big woman, I went to a princess party."

What???

You're a crack-up, Hailey Lynn... :)

Phase 1 of...

..."Operation Organization"!!

I know what you're thinking...here we just got finished with Hailey's downstairs room and now I'm moving her again!?!

Here's my logic - I need office space inside my house. I've got paperwork strewn about and all of our personal paperwork is in disarray and has been for a long time. I could have emptied out the spare room downstairs and put a desk and stuff in there, but my goal for both of the kids is to each have one of the basement rooms, so I'd be setting up an office only to change it soon anyways. Also, it's getting increasingly hard to get good naps out of Owen with his room right by the kitchen. So, I've moved Hailey into the far basement room, will move Owen into her old room (once the walls are NOT purple) and will put a desk and such into Owen's old room.

Here's Miss Hailey in her queen sized bed. She looks so tiny in there, but she loves it!The crib is in the corner...

And we just swapped the shelves around and added a hanging rod to her old cabinet to serve as a closet for now. It works perfectly!

So, basically for the price of a new set of sheets (that I found on clearance at Target) and a curtain rod, Hailey has a new and fairly completed bedroom!

More to come, people...more to come! :)

Full of shenanigans...

Here is what about 90% of our day is spent doing...drinking "tea". This girl is obsessed with setting up her tea party (just perfectly, of course) and entertaining a whole slew of her stuffed animal friends. And me. I drink lots of tea, too.

When we were at Nana's house recently with the Camps, Hailey brought the tea set and set it up on my parents' bed. I went to check on she and Case and Case was having the time of his life "eating" the plastic fruit and cupcakes. I noticed that the table setting was less than her usual picture of perfection. Hails looks at me (with a stressed look on her face) and says, "My tea party is a little crazy!!". Get used to it, Hails...Owen is expecting an invite soon and will undoubtedly be causing a ruckus, too! :)

We also always like to make time every day to practice our plie's. I mean, we do have a recital coming up in just a few months!! :)

This is one for the "show the boyfriend" file...ummm...just call her Nick Nolte...

The best surprise EVER!

My husband is the BEST!

For my 30th birthday and our 7th anniversary, he surprised me with an overnight in Seattle. It was so nice to be together...and without our kids! (I mean, I love our kids and missed them like crazy, but it was really nice to be away. :)

The first destination was the Camlin Hotel. It is beautiful! Worldmark (formerly Trendwest) bought it several years ago and remodeled it and it is beautiful!

We got settled into our room and then walked around the corner to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Now, I know that we were in the city where there are a billion awesome restaurants, but the Cheesecake Factory is our FAVE...we couldn't resist.

After dinner, we started walking and turned the corner onto 5th Avenue and there it was...the 5th Avenue Theatre...and Legally Blonde the Musical was playing. Todd played it off and kept looking at this map for where to turn...well, he tricked me and we ended up going to the show! It was so cute...love that Elle Woods. :)

All in all, a wonderful surprise. I appreciate all the thought he put into it AND that he sat through a musical with me without even one complaint! That was a gift in itself... ;)

bedding

Here it is...

...and it's about time! I've literally been looking for new bedding for nearly a year.

We loved our old bedding that we bought 3 years ago when we moved into our new house, however I washed my duvet cover in hot water a while back and it shrank SOOO bad! It bunched up really bad and barely hung over either side of the mattress. Let's just say that Todd and I are both cover-hogs and this did not a happy marriage make. :)

My dilemma was this - everything I liked was a comforter set, but I have a husband who REFUSES to use a top sheet on our bed (believe me, I tried putting it on several times in the early days of our marriage only to come to bed at night with the top sheet ripped off in a pile on the floor). This means that we do things "european style" with a bottom sheet and a washable duvet cover...never again in hot water, of course!

I searched and searched, only to find awesome duvets that were WAY out of our budget or awesome deals on comforter sets...oh, what to do??

The solution? This comforter set from Target (10 pieces for a hundred bucks!?!) and a coordinating duvet cover and sheet for a killer deal, too!

I love it and so far have only failed to make the bed once in a week. That'll maybe last another few days, but at least I can say I was motivated for a little while.

Thanks, Todd, for my early b-day gift! I love it. :)

my kidders...

These two are my favorite.

This isn't what you think. My daughter is not trying to lay the smackdown on my son. She's trying to pose for a picture and he's not cooperating...hence his mad face...

Owen had his 9 month check up today and he's perfectly healthy. He's 18.4 lbs (25%) and 28 1/2 inches long (75%). Basketball player, perhaps?? :)

I'm not sure where he gets it, but I think he's a little overly dramatic... ;) We had to get his iron level checked at the lab on our way out, and he threw a 4-alarm fit because I put the puffs away...however did not even flinch when they pricked his finger to take his blood. Hmmm...

All in all things are pretty status quo around here. I've got the song, "Pants on the Ground" stuck in my head thanks to Hailey who sang it this morning all the way to dance class. Thanks Hails... ;)