Upstairs Playroom!

Now that Ella and the boys were settled into their rooms we got to work on the playroom. 

Here it is halfway taken apart. You know they say...it's gotta get worse before it gets better! So true!!!

In the midst of moving things around the play kitchen had to go somewhere. It used to be under the bunk bed, but now Owen was sleeping in the bed under the bunk bed so that wasn't going to work. It's funny how when you move a toy it suddenly becomes new. Zeke loved having the kitchen in our room. I think partially because when it was under the bunk bed it was so dark in there it was hard to play with.

Here was Ella's old closet...partially taken apart already.

I knew that the playroom couldn't be pink and brown. I wanted it to be a fresh and bright color that would work for boys and girls. This color is called Waterfall and I LOVE it. So refreshing!

And here is the playroom now when you first walk in. The kitchen has it's own special place. I brought the toy bins from downstairs up here so all the dishes, pots, pans and fake food would have a nice easy place to be stored. Off in the corner is the new use for my papasan cushion. I have since bought 5 small pillows from IKEA to give it a more cozy feel. I am eventually going to by fabric to recover it since I don't like the dull brown color for this room.

When you're over in the reading area you can see we have a bookshelf full of tons of books to take you to far off places. I have bought two IKEA shelves to put more books on and I'm going to make a big sign that says READ!

To the left of the kitchen is Ella's old closet that has now been reconfigured to better suit the needs of a playroom. Her big toy box fits in there nicely and it is now the home for all the guns! Oh how I have loathed those guns and now they can easily get tossed in and we can shut the lid!!! I love love the cute dress up clothes all hung up. These used to be shoved into one of those plastic drawer things and they were taking up 3 drawers of space. We also moved the all the kid games up here. Sheesh I didn't realize we had THAT many kids games! The shelf above the dress up clothes is still not really organized I haven't quite figured out what to do with that section yet.

The Christmas lights that are on top of the toy box will be getting used in this room soon. One of Owen's guns was too long to fit in the toy box so we just hammered in a nail and hung it up.

 Turning around from the closet you can see the other side of the room. Zeke was so happy to cheese for the camera!

This table is right across from the kitchen so it's the perfect place to have a tea party. I have had this old window for years...Michael's mom gave it to me. It used to have dried flowers in the window box, but they had seen better days! I yanked those all out and then stuck in some fake flowers that used to be in a vase in Ella's room.

And this is the LEGO corner! There are also bigger blocks in the bins next to the table. One is holding Duplos and the other is holding larger blocks like those big Mega Bloks, but an off brand. I'm super excited about this part. I searched Pinterest for LEGO storage ideas for days and finally decided this set up would work for our needs.

These are just bars and buckets that you can buy at IKEA. They hang up and come down so nicely for the kids. I had a blast...I know I'm weird....organizing all the LEGO's by color.

They weren't super cheap, but they weren't outrageous either. Each bin was 3.99. They are nice and sturdy and actually hold quite a bit of LEGO's. I did go ahead and buy the breakfast tray that's on the table so the kids have something they can dump out the buckets and look around for the piece they need. I has really helped keep them under control and not all over the floor. And so far....it's been about 2 weeks now...they have actually stayed organized!

As for the downstairs playroom it looks tons better too. Since I moved the multi-colored toy bins upstairs for the kitchen stuff I had a ton of little toys to go through. I really disliked having those bins down here because they just became a catch all. Everything got dumped in them when it was time to pick up. I love that they are not in this room anymore. Now everything is in a container in the cupboard or in one of those drawers. Each drawer has a specific purpose such as Star Wars, Tools or Cars. It's just so nice and easy for the kids to pick up now. And we have even had friends over 2 separate times and it's been so easy to pick up the mess. We also made the decision to use liquid nails and glue down the Cars track on the Cars table. It was always falling apart and and then the kids couldn't get it to go back together correctly. It's been so nice having it stay put! Since there was so much stuff moved out of this room we were able to push the Cars table deeper into the room so now the kids have all this carpeted area to pull stuff out and play with. I love making positive changes to our house that make such a big difference! 

Red Motorcycle!

The other day Zeke finally rode around on his red motorcycle. I was shocked! He had shown no interest in it at all and then his older brothers started pushing each other around in it and all of a sudden he needed to have a turn. 

Cute biker dude! 

Believe it or not his legs are actually too small for this teeny tiny bike. When he wants to push himself he has to lean a little bit to one side so his foot can touch and then the other one doesn't touch at all. He's such a shrimp!  

But a totally cute shrimp! 

Little photo ham! 

Ella's New Room!

Michael had the idea to move Ella from her old room and into Owen's old room. We figured if all the boys were in one room and Ella was in one room then we could use the other room as a playroom. We had an upstairs playroom when Logan was with us, but it was Owen's old room so it was the smallest room and not very functional as a playroom. Ella's old room is a bit bigger so it's perfect for a playroom. 

Ella's old room! 

Wall to wall stuff! That was one of the things that was driving me crazy. I want their rooms to be a clean and relaxing safe haven for them. Not stuffed full of toys. By having the playroom their toys are still close, but not jammed into their rooms. 

Ella's old closet and hutch. 

Owen's old room almost empty. 

All the stuff moved into the middle and getting ready to paint! 

Thankfully we had about 3/4 of a gallon of Ella's pink paint left and Michael was able to stretch it so we didn't have to buy anymore. 

We left the bottom the same brown since she loves pink and brown. The bed in her old room was on loan from Aunt Stephie until we figured out what kind of real big girl bed we wanted her to have. Ga-Ga had mentioned last year that she wanted to buy Ella a bed for her 5th birthday. Since we were doing the room changes we figured this was the right time to order the new bed and give the old bed back. We had to wait for the bed to be shipped so in the meantime Ella just slept with her mattress on the floor. 

This room has the smallest closet out of all the rooms. Silly for a girls room right! Those darn builders just had to have all the front windows equally spaced so her closet gets jipped because of it. Michael did had an extra bar so she does have quite a bit of space. This is the one part I think needs just a bit of adjusting. Both of the bars are quite high....the top so much so I have to stand on a stool to get Ella's clothes for her. I might be asking Michael to lower these a bit. I'm waiting for the opportune time though...I have worked this guy to the bone! 

We decided that their was enough room for her to have my old hope chest in her room and it because the best possible place for all those stuffed animals to go! We did have to give away about 2 garbage sacks full and that chest is still stuffed with them. She also has her Ariel salon in here, but I have a nice vanity in the basement that Peepaw made years and years ago. I need to have Michael bring it up and see if it needs a little TLC. I know the cushion for the chair will need to be recovered, but I think that would be fun for her to have that vanity. 

Her hutch from Papa Martin fit nicely in her room as well. Her room is definitely small and it looks funny without the bed. I can't wait to get that and see how it changes the look of the room. Plus I want to get things on the wall, but we don't want to go putting holes in the wall until we see how the bed fits into the room. Stay tuned for the big reveal! 

The Boys' Room!

Right at the start of Christmas break Jack and Owen decided that they wanted to sleep in the same bedroom. This got me thinking about moving their rooms around again. At first I was planning on putting Owen and Jack together and then Ella and Zeke together. Ella LOVES to sleep in the same room as the boys. After talking with Michael about it we decided to rearrange the rooms thinking about the kids growing up. Ella is not going to be sleeping with her baby brother when she's 13 years old. So we decided to put all 3 boys back into the same room. 

Here's Owen's old messy room! 

Here's Jack and Zeke's room prior to the remodel. 

What we did was move the bed Jack was sleeping on and put it under the bunk bed the way it was designed to go and then moved Owen's old bed next to the bunk bed. Jack is now sleeping on Owen's old bed because he does not like how dark it is under the bunk bed. 

All three of my handsome boys are together. 

Showing off his No-No....he's gonna go to college with that thing! 

Here's where the dresser went. Owen has the two top drawers, Jack as the two middle and Zeke gets the bottom ones. You can also see how totally ridiculous their closet was. Oh those stuffed animals all piled up! When we decided to do this move I knew the closet would need a major overhaul. 

Here's is the closet now! Michael is just awesome. It now has 3 bars to hang clothes. I can get the clothes from the top bar, but none of the kids can. So I just put things like fleece coats and sweatshirts that rarely get worn. The middle left is Jack's clothes and the middle right are Owen's. You can see the cream hook holding up the bar that's the dividing point. Jack has more clothes than Owen by far! Zeke's clothes are on the bottom. They are so cute! I have to kneel on the floor to get his clothes. On the top shelf is the fire ladder, their suitcases and their sleeping bags. I love a good organized closet! 

The ship wheel mirror that goes with the dresser moved into the room as well. It's such a gorgeous piece of furniture. I actually bought this set years before kids solely for that mirror! I also hung up all the boys cross-stitch pictures I made for them. 

Here's Jackson's name sign all hung up over his bed. There has been one change since I took this picture. I moved in Owen's old nightstand so he has an actual wooden one instead of plastic storage drawers. The nightstand is wider so unfortunately now Michael will have to adjust his name sign since it won't be centered anymore. He's is going to go on strike I tell you! 

Full view of the south side of the room. 

View of the west side of the room. 

Their picture wall. Owen's picture is now hanging up there and I also used office clips to hang up the boys school class pictures from last year. 

Each of the boys have two pretties on their dresser. This is more for mommy than them. Owen has the firetruck....Pa had flowers sent to the hospital when he was born and they were in that firetruck and his picture in the rocking horse frame. Jack has the cute moon and star frame with this picture and this little baby boy statue holding a blanket....fitting really! Those were both from Aunt Michelle. Zeke has his wagon picture frame and his cute little pull wagon. Those were used as decorations at his 1st birthday. 

I love how it all turned out and for having 3 boys in one room it doesn't really feel all that small.

The boys have really taken ownership of their room so they decided they needed to decorate their door. 

I love the sign with the tank! 

New Years Eve!

I was so happy earlier in December because I was sure that once I did my monthly shopping at Costco for December that I wouldn't have to set foot in Costco for the rest of the year. I love Costco I do, but when you have to go shopping with kiddos it's nice to have a break. But it didn't work out that way. I had to do our monthly shopping for January and the only day it worked was New Years Eve. Plus I had to take all 4 kiddos with me since Michael was on-call. I decided to head out in the morning so my body would be running on a full tank of gas! Our first stop was the ATM to fill up our money envelopes, then we were off to Winco for the little things you can't get at Costco. Then we hit the big store. Thankfully since it was a holiday they had lots of samples. We loves us some samples! 

One thing I've come to realize that makes shopping so much better is after we are done we eat there! I used to rush us home unload the groceries and then fix the kids lunch all the while dreaming I was just plopped down on the couch. This is so much better! 

For $6 all 5 of us can eat lunch! 

Jack and Zeke split a hot dog...Jack gets 2/3 and Zeke gets 1/3.

Owen gets a whole piece of pizza to himself! 

Ella and I split a piece together. She was a little more hungry and thankfully Owen didn't eat the entire piece so she got some of his leftovers. The highlight of eating at Costco has got to the be the soda. We never buy soda! Even at sit down restaurants so this is a big deal for the kiddos. I love the Costco has Pepsi products so I always get regular ol' Pepsi and we refill it about 3 times!

When we got home and I unloaded the cold food it was time to put Zeke and Ella to nap. Ella was so worried that we were going to drink all the soda before she woke up. When I came back down to finish putting away everything else this is what I found...she built a cereal wall around the soda hoping no one would see it. Sadly that wasn't the case! And just for my record that box of Cookie Crisp cereal lasted us less than 24 hours! Heaven help me when all of these boys are teenagers! 

We had plans to go to a New Years Eve party with friends, but our sitter got strep throat so that wasn't happening. It was just fine though. We had already had plans to have Kim and her kiddos over for dinner so they just ended up getting to stay later! The kids hadn't seen each other in quite a while so they had lots of fun playing. 

This year Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie got the kids a cookie decorating kit so we broke that out for the kids to have some fun! 

There were snowman sugar cookies for gingerbread men to choose from. 

Kim and I helped with the frosting and the kids added all the candies. 

It's fun seeing them use their creativity.

Oh...my arm!!! 

Zeke put on more sprinkles than he had icing so when he picked his up lots of sprinkles went all over the place! 

After Kim and the kids went home it was just a normal night. The kids played and then went to bed around 8:30. Michael and I watched some TV together and then did our annual 'lets plan our the next year' meeting. It's so nice to be on the same page right at the beginning of the year in regards to home projects, what we want to save money for and also our own personal goals for the year. I know we are real party animals....sometimes I feel so old! 

Another Tooth Gone!

A few days ago I asked Jack if I could check out his loose tooth. He had been having a hard time eating so I knew it was bugging him. He's so brave! He just laid over my lap and let me wiggle it. I told him I was going to give it a tug and I did, but nothing really changed. He said owww so I stopped then I asked if I could try again and he said okay. This time I got movement and it started bleeding so I just told him it had to come out and out it came. It really wasn't stuck in there that bad at all. 

Now he's missing both his bottom teeth and there is no new teeth in sight yet. This one didn't bleed as bad as his first tooth did, but we still used a teabag to help stop the bleeding quicker! 

I think it's so cute that when he smiles normal you can't even tell he's missing any! No other teeth are loose yet so it might be a while before he's got anymore holes in his mouth. Of course his tooth is growing money in the window sill just like his first one did!