Childrens Rooms Tour

I haven't done Kelly's Korner Blog Tour of Homes in a while but this week it is a tour of baby rooms and childrens rooms. These rooms are my favorite so here are some pictures I took a while back of the girls rooms. So lets start the tour...

Here are some pictures of Sophies room. I like colorful baby things so this room has a lot of color to it.


My friend Lindsey made most of the canvases for both girls rooms including the SOPHIE letters that are shown here hanging in her room. She has a website at www.personalpizazz.blogspot.com Go check it out she has lots of cute stuff.

Here are some pictures of Ella's room. Yes my friend Lindsey and I painted spots all over her walls and stripes under the staircase where she has toy storage. We have some funny stories from that day. I love her room and think that it turned out really cute. Her bedding is from Target and Gram made all of the fun pillows for her bed to coordinate with the bedding.

Ella wanted a Princess bed with Princess bedding and sheets for her Birthday next week. So the compromise was to buy her a Princess sheet set that we put on her trundle bed. She sleeps on them every night now. She had started getting up to get in bed with us at night so we made her a deal that she could have her Princess sheets IF she stayed in her bed...It's worked for a week now!!

Here is a shot that shows the girls Jack and Jill bath. It's cute and colorful too but I didn't take any pictures.

Since I didn't do the Home Tour for several weeks here is a shot of our Dining room.

Here is a picture of the Dining Room looking into the foyer

Guest Room

Guest Bath

Thanks for Touring!

Baby Brilee

Baby Brilee arrived today at 4:29. She weighs 7 pounds 8 ounces and is 19 inches long. She is so pretty and perfect. Julie is doing well and made labor look too easy! I think she pushed maybe 3 times and had a good epidural that worked well. My labors seemed a lot more dramatic-imagine that!Here are some pictures from the day. I can't believe there are now 5 little girls in the family!! Wow!

Here is a picture of the fam waiting for Brilee's big arrival!



Look at that sweet face! So far she has been such a good baby and a good eater!

Proud Daddy Chad with his sweet little girl!

All 3 girls ! That's a lot of drama and hair bows in that house!

Look at all of that hair! Jet black like her Daddy's!

Rainy day Renovations

Well we had some furniture change rooms over the weekend. I still can't figure out how it was started but, I'm sure it was me!! We moved all of the furniture from the media room upstairs downstairs to the hearth room and the hearth room furniture up the stairs. To say it wasn't as easy as we thought it would be is a big understatement. After removing one arm of a couch with a saw and putting it back together, then several wall scratches and even a hole in the wall... It was all moved!! I like the changes a lot and it added lots of color downstairs. It was a pretty busy day when we never really planned on all of the changes but did it on impulse. Anyway, to document the excitement, I took before, during, and after pictures of the rooms and furniture!

BEFORE

DURING...One of the couch arms being removed with a saw!!

The couch finally in two pieces so it was able to fit up the narrow stairway!

BEFORE in the Media room

DURING.. a hole in the wall during the BIG furniture move
Tadd says that if we ever sale our house the upstairs furniture stays with it or...he cuts the couch in 3 pieces and tosses it out the upstairs window!

It was quite interesting trying to keep the girls out of the path of destruction-ha!

AFTER pictures of the downstairs hearth room with a little more color.

It came together pretty well so far...without a trip to the store or any money spent, yet!!

The area rug is a little small but it will have to do for now.


AFTER pictures of the Media/toy area upstairs


OK! So what do you think?? Was it worth all the trouble??

Oh, and my sister and her husband, Chad are having Baby Brilee in the morning (I mean later today-ha.) Say a prayer for them and the baby that everything goes well! I'll post pictures of the sweet baby girl when I can!

Park and Preschool

This week has been so nice outside that we have been to the park or playing outside everyday!! Today was also Ella's last day of Preschool and they had their last little party at the park today. I can't believe my baby is finished with 3 year old Preschool and will be 4 soon. Here are some pictures from the week including one that made the front page of the paper. They took Ella's picture while we were playing at the park with some friends on Monday and it was on the front page of the paper the next day. At church last night lots of people asked her about it and after a while she just looked at us and said "Why do they all know about me in the paper?" (So funny, she just didn't quite understand how everyone else saw her picture too.)

I went into Ella's room today after rocking Sophie to sleep and she had lined up all of her Barbie dolls and paired them with the matching little princess dolls. She will do anything to avoid rest time!

This is a picture of some of Ella's preschool class saying their prayer before their ice cream snack at the park today. It was too cute!

I was getting Sophie ready for MDO today and had Ella putting on her Preschool shirt. When I checked in on her I noticed that she had decided to accesorize today with some dress up earrings. She is ALL GIRL! I snapped a picture of her on the way to Preschool.

Sophie swinging at the park on Monday.

Ella with her good friends Presley and Brooks climbing the big rock at the park.

Sophie hanging out in the Kitchen.

My Mom

My Mother My Friend

My mother is my best friend and mentor in life. In moving away from home, I have realized how close we are and how much she really means to me. It has been hard to be apart from someone who has been such an important part of my life for so long.

In a way I have been spoiled by my mother. She has always done everything for me, from my laundry to making my lunch for school. She has been so involved in my life as a parent and as a friend. She has cared about every apect of my life from day one.

My mother gave me guidance and values to live my life. She raised me to ba a caring, objective individual. She allowed me to make my own decisions and my own mistakes in my life. She has supported me in everything I wanted to do, and I have always wanted to do and be everything.

My mother has been through many struggles in her life, yet never let us feel them. My sister and I never felt any less loved or any less fortunate while living with a single parent. She has always been there in every way possible for us. She has surrounded us with more love than anyone could ever need.

My mother is a very secial person in my life and always will be. She has given me the ability to grow into the person I am today. I will be a success in life because of her.

When you lose someone you always think back to the last Holiday or special day you had with them. Our last Mothers Day with my Mom was only 2 years ago but for a while I couldn't remember what we had done together. I finally remembered that Gabby and Ginger came down to be with us because Mom was too sick to travel. I also remembered that I had typed and framed this poem I had written for her during my freshman year in College. I framed the poem as part of her Mothers Day gift to go in her new house she bought just 5 houses down the street from us. It never made it to her house but was instead read at her funeral 3 months later. I am so glad that I found the poem and had given it to her to remind her of how important she was to me even as a young freshman in College. I will probably hang this up in my house after searching for it today to remind me of our last Mothers Day together. She has a new and perfect house now, only not 5 doors down. We will spend many more happy days together and I cannot wait for that day. I miss her more and more everyday and I have a feeling that will never ever change.
I am also blessed to be a Mother to 2 little girls that I want to feel that same way about me someday so I continue to move forward and breathe even if I don't want to at times. Sometimes I ramble, but I want my girls to remember her and what an important person that she was to me. I hope everyone was able to tell their Mom's how important they are and how glad they are to have them in their lives today!!

Kellys Korner

Well I decided to participate in the Tour of Homes again at Kellys Korner Blog. Since I don't really sleep much I am enjoying looking at other living rooms tonight and decided to post some pictures I took of our living areas. I love to look at other peoples houses and even go to open houses for fun or decorating ideas if I get a chance. Anyway this tour is fun because you can look in your pajamas in the middle of the night when you don't sleep-ha! If you like to look at other houses too, go take a look at her blog!

Here are some pictures BEFORE I took the time to actually pick up the toys that usually cover this area. This living area has actually become another toy area where Ella can watch a movie while she and Sophie play and we are near them in the Kitchen.

Here is an AFTER clean-up view from the stairs to our bonus room.

Here is a shot of the TV/toy cabinet. I had a hard time deciding how to fill up the space above it from the vaulted ceiling. I eventually took 2 large canvases and covered them with left over fabric from the curtains in this room and the Breakfast area.

Here is a darker shot of this room from the Kitchen.

Here is a picture of our other living room. We mostly watch TV or play the Wii in this room. This room was supposed to have a vaulted ceiling too but we changed the plans to a double tray ceiling and took out the fireplace because we only wanted to have one.

Here is another view where you can see the passthrough to the Kitchen and part of the Dining room in the back ground.

Here is a shot with the foyer in the background.

Here is a view from the Dining Room.

This is a picture of my favorite addition to this room. The new pictures of our girls we had made when Sophie turned 1. We just framed them and hung them up last week. We used Heather Owens Photography in Little Rock, AR. She did great and the best part is they were very affordable!

Thanks for looking around!

Lindsay's Luncheon

On Thursday we had a Luncheon for my good friend Lindsay who is expecting her 2nd little girl, Sally, this Summer. Several girls got together at Scallions in Little Rock and had a nice, quiet (kid free-ha) lunch. It was lots of fun and we need to try to get together more often. We can't wait to meet Sally soon. So many girls coming soon!

Kelly's Kitchens

Kelly at Kellys Korner is hosting a Kitchen Tour of Homes. I usually don't participate in these but I've had so much fun looking at all the kitchens on this rainy Saturday that I took some pictures and decided to put up a link. If you like to look at homes like I do, take a look it is hours of free naptime fun. You can find it at www.kellyskornerblog.com I've followed her cute blog since her sweet baby Harper was born and had a stay in the NICU.


Here is a shot of our Breakfast area, highchair included.

A view from the Breakfast area. We actually have dark stained councrete floors, if you can tell.

A shot with some of the toys included and the small table where the girls sometimes eat.

A view of the pass through to the TV living room. I love open floor plans.

One of my favorite parts of the Kitchen, the appliance cabinet. It hides almost all of our small appliances including our big coffee maker Tadd loves! I like the small beverage fridge that we keep stocked with Diet Dr. Peppers, water bottles and of course juice boxes!

If you look closely to the right is our slow cooker, that's right we are actually using it for Dinner. I saw an easy recipe while looking at the Kitchen tours so we are trying it out. I'll let you know if it turns out.

To the left of the pass through is the appliance cabinet and to the right is our pantry.

Here is where we keep our cookbooks, in the cabinet since they don't get used too much!