Before and In Progress Part 3

Here are the long awaited before and in progress living room photos.  Ignore the part above the stairs that I still need to trim out.  Ryan brought home a bigger ladder yesterday. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that this weekend.

Before:

In progress:

Merry Christmas... A Little Late

I know it's a week late, but Merry Christmas.  I think I have had some pretty good excuses for being late, though.  I've been working (even if it was only two days), moving, painting, cleaning, unpacking, enjoying the help and company of my aunt and still trying to be a wife and mother.

We "officially" moved into our new house on Dec 23rd.  (By officially I mean- we moved our beds.)  I spent most of the day on the 24th painting our living room.  However, we still made time to celebrate Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we had lasagna, which Ryan made, and opened our gifts.  On Christmas day we cleaned a little and played together.  In the evening we made fajitas and queso and had our first guest over- one of Ryan's coworkers who has no family in the area.  In all, I can say we had a really nice Christmas, especially since I didn't have to work this year.

Before and In Progress, Part 2

We were back at the new house this weekend working on getting it ready for move in.  We started with the kitchen:

The peach was horrible and I think the previous owners must have fried everything.  I'm going to have to work hard to clean the years of grease and grime off of the top and fronts of the cabinets.  That will have to wait until after we get moved in.

Kitchen in progress:

I chose a very deep, vibrant olive green.  I said earlier I was embracing colors and I really meant it.  I'm tired of picking a color and then using the color that is two shades lighter.  It makes everything pastel and I am tired of living in a pastel house.

Master bedroom before:

Master bedroom in progress:

I'm not too sure how I feel about having our bathroom sink actually in our bedroom, but I can't complain.  It'll be nice to have our own, private bathroom.

And a look at last weeks projects:

We bought Aric a "big boy" bed yesterday.  He's tired of his toddler bed and we are hoping that a new, bigger bed will entice him to stay there all night long.  Eventually when Kellyn needs her own "big girl" bed we will separate the bunk bed and use them as two twin beds.

Kellyn's room:

The hall bathroom:

Coming next week:

The living room.  Those high ceilings will definitely be a challenge, especially over the stairs.

Before and In Progress

We spent the day yesterday painting and getting our new house ready for move-in.  We would like to paint the entire upstairs before we move in and then gradually work on the downstairs.  We have two more full weekends to complete our project and we're already making good progress towards our goal.

It is important to me to make our house OUR home.  I didn't want to leave the paint the way it was previously.  I also wanted to be a bit bolder in my choices and embrace color.

Aric's room before:

Aric's room in progress:

Kellyn's room before:

I'm not a huge fan of pink and while I don't hate Disney Princesses, this was just too much!

Kellyn's room in progress:

This was just a photo of it when primed.  It's a darker purple now.

The bathroom before:

The bathroom in progress:

And this is where the kids were during our painting:

They really seemed to enjoy their time downstairs.

Painting

We just spent a busy day painting our new house.  More to come on that later.  This is how Aric decided to "help":

I guess we'll be painting that wall sooner rather than later.

Little Ham

Last year when Kellyn was born Papa and Nana gave her a Christmas dress sized for this year.  Since it's Christmas time and Kellyn fits in the dress, I put her in it this morning for church.  I thought she looked adorable and wanted to take a photo to send to Papa and Nana to show them Kellyn in her dress.  This is the photo shoot, which was extremely difficult to take:

Deck the Halls

In keeping with our family tradition (not decorating until the first weekend of December), we decorated for Christmas today.  Taking into consideration that we are about to close on a house, pack up and move, and yet have two little ones who need to learn about Christmas and celebrate, we decorated on a smaller scale this year. 

I have thought of and searched for different ways to teach Aric and Kellyn about the true meaning of Christmas.  I thought a Jesse Tree was a neat idea and attempted to borrow the idea from a friend, however, I soon realized this was a bit advanced for my kids.  (I still haven't eliminated the idea of a Jesse Tree for future Christmas celebrations when the kids are older.)  While getting my haircut earlier this week I saw the neatest Nativity set at my hairdresser's house.  I went to Target and found one in stock.  I was excited, only to discover later when talking with my parents that the same Nativity set was wrapped up in the other room for Kellyn.  Oops, apparently the unspoken rule of not buying anything for yourself right before Christmas extends to your own children.  I returned it to Target and we opened Kellyn's Christmas gift early. 

The kids have loved it and we've already had several talks about Baby Jesus.  We I also had a moment of panic when Baby Jesus was missing for awhile, don't worry, he's back safe and sound with Mary and Joseph.

We had considered getting rid of our old three foot tree this year.  Thankfully, we didn't.  It's a perfect size and able to be displayed out of the way.  Aric helped me decorate the tree with the kid's ornaments while Kellyn was napping.  This is the year we have instituted the One Finger Rule.  The kids may touch the tree and any ornament on the tree, however, they may only use one finger to do so.  Aric seems to have grasped the concept, Kellyn has not.  I keep finding her wandering the house holding an ornament.  It's been less than a day, though, and I have hope she'll figure out the rule.

Since Aric was born, I have made it a point to get an ornament every Christmas to represent the past year.  I was excited to find this fantastic representation of his year:

This year has been all about Cars and Tractor Tippin'.  He has reenacted scenes from this movie ad nauseum and we've loved every minute of it.

When it came to picking out an ornament for Kellyn, I had more difficulty.  Since she is so young, I had no idea what really represented her year.  On first sight, Aric picked this out:

While Kellyn has never seen Cinderella, she is definitely "all girl".  She loves baby dolls and leans towards girl-orientated play.  When I think about it, it's not surprising Aric picked out this ornament for Kellyn.  Not long ago I had taken Aric grocery shopping by himself.  While roaming the baby food aisle, Aric became quite insistent that we get Kellyn a Cinderella sippy cup.  I couldn't resist his generous spirit and we brought it home for her.  It's amazing how kids so young seem to instinctively know about gender roles and differences.

Our last area decorated for Christmas are the stockings hung by the chimney with care:

This year I ordered stocking from the Pottery Barn Kids store with Aric and Kellyn's names embroidered on them.  I had wanted to make stockings for the kids and even started one when I was pregnant with Aric.  Ryan gives me grief about it since I haven't come close to finishing it, but it's not turning out as I had hoped.  This year I decided to free myself from the pressure and get them nice personalized stockings.  Stockings that they'll be able to treasure for years and take with them someday, just like the stocking I took with me when I moved out.

The Kitchen Part 3

 The kitchen is finally complete.  We're keeping it locked up in a storage room right now.  The kids have seen it and asked tried to play with it.  I think it turned out well, but no matter what it looks like they will have hours of enjoyment with it.

Kellyn

Kellyn has many names around our house.  K (how Ryan and I refer to her in text messages and e-mails), Baby K, and "Kennan" as Aric likes to call her.  Kellyn is such a delight and adds so much to our family. 

She has a different demeanor than Aric.  Kellyn is more dramatic, definitely a girl through and through, and adores her older brother and daddy.  She likes to sing and dance, breaking out in both randomly when the mood strikes.  She can often be found wearing things on her head; Daddy's hats, blankets, towels, clothes, bowls and Tupperware from the kitchen, or anything else deemed worthy to go on her head.

 

She enjoys playing with baby dolls.  At daycare she will wait until the "real" baby is moved out of a bouncy chair or swing and use the vacated space for her baby doll.  At home she has claimed an infant seat I'm trying to get rid of as a suitable place for her baby doll.  Kellyn plays with it so much I am half thinking we should probably keep it.

We are grateful to have her in our family.  I am thankful that despite all of the complications I had with her during pregnancy, God blessed us with such a beautiful, healthy little girl.