St Nick came to our house!

St Nick came to our house the night of December 5.  Did he come to your house?  You have to leave your shoe out! 

Anyway, St Nick left the kids a really cute toy and I thought I would show you.

Let me first say that our house is a huge fan of Playmobil.  Caroline just adores their toys and has tons of them…seriously, tons.  So, with that being said she was super excited to see this…

How cute is that?!?

And William has enjoyed playing with it too.  But he prefers that Santa rides in this…

The kid cracks me up!  I hope St Nick was good to you!

Caroline’s Room

Since it was so much fun to share Charlotte’s Room with all of you, I thought that you may also enjoy taking a peek at Sis’ room.

Caroline’s room was probably the first room in the house to actually be considered “done”.  When we started the process of decorating her room she had a few requests.

1. Blue walls

2. Birds and Owls

3. A tree

Umm, yeah.  A tree.  So this is what we did…

This is the view from the door.  Her walls are painted a light blue (as per her request).

Above her bed…

The wall opposite her bed…

The other wall in her room has double closet doors and the door to her room.

In order to give her as much floor space as possible, I wanted to keep her bed against the wall.  It just seemed logical to turn her twin bed into a daybed.  I searched craigslist and found someone selling two spindle style beds (really only 1.5 beds because they didn’t have the second headboard, only the footboard and railings).  It was perfect for what I had in mind and the price was right ($25).  I used both of the footboards to create her “daybed” and painted the bed white. 

The bedding is sort of a DIY too.  It is hard to find a bedskirt for daybeds (cute ones anyway).  So I bought a twin sized bedskirt, cut it up and sewed it back together to make the skirt on three sides.  And yes, it was a pain in the rear-end.  The polka dot sheets are from Target.  The duvet cover is two twin size flat sheets sewn together on three sides with button closures at the bottom.

The Barbie doll house was made for me when I was a child by my Grandpa Abell.  I really love that I have something that he made that I am able to pass down to my girls.

The tree…

Yep, I painted it.  I had no idea what I was doing but I think that it turned out okay. 

I “carved” her initials into her tree.  

Well, that is Caroline’s room.  It suits her personality well.  Now, if only I could get her to clean it every now and then!!

A Halloween Recap!

We had a fantastic Halloween!  In years past William has gone to a few houses on our street and was done with trick or treating.  We thought it would be the same this year, so Josh and I had our plan in place.  We would take all three kids to the houses on our street, then Josh would take William and Charlotte back home to hand out candy at our house.  Caroline and I would hit up the subdivision.

This year I wanted William to use his Ipad while trick or treating because it would be good practice…you ask for something (trick or treat), you get something in return (candy) and then you say thank you.  I had him all set up to go.

We went to the first house and I walked him through it.  He did great.  After that he was a man on a candy quest!  William went trick or treating the entire time and was so excited.  Josh took Charlotte home but William stayed with Caroline and I and hit up the subdivision.

I held the ipad for him at each door, but he did the rest.  He said “trick or treat” and “thank you” at each and every door that we went to!

It was so awesome.  Caroline kept saying “William, you are doing so good!”, which I thought was really cool.  Our neighbors were wonderful too.  Lots of them gave William a “good job”, some gave him an “awww”, some gave him a “wow, that is so cool” and some clapped for him (which he LOVED).

I am proud of my little Brobee!

Happy Halloween!!!

We are gearing up for Trick or Treating tonight, how about you??

This year we have a 50’s girl…

Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba…

And Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web…

Have fun everyone!  And don’t eat too much candy!

Charlotte is Growing

1 Month…

2 Months…

3 Months…

4 Months…

 

The girl is 4 months old.  It is hard to believe.  She is about 15 pounds.  The girl likes her food.  She loves bath time and likes to kick and splash (she must take after her brother).  She is sleeping through the night (Praise the Lord).  She loves to smile, though you can’t tell from her pictures.  She sees the camera and freezes up!  She likes to be held…a lot.   She likes her binky and that can usually calm her down when she is fussy.  And she likes to put everything in her mouth.

To The Bat Cave!

I couldn’t find William, which in never a good thing.  I could hear his Ipad playing Thomas, so I knew that he was close.  I looked in his room, yet I still couldn’t find him.  His closet door was open and all of his toys were on the floor.

I opened the lid to the toy box and there he was!

He has really started liking finding dark, close spaces to watch his movies.  I have found him in the dryer, in closets, under his bed, under blankets watching his movies.  Maybe he needs a bat cave!!

Charlotte’s Room

I thought that I would share with you Charlotte’s room.  I had so much fun decorating it and it turned out too cute to not share!

This is the view from the door.

The crib is the same one that the other two children used too.  I made the bed skirt using the tutorial from YHL found here.

There are also two floor pillows tucked into the corner so that big sis and bro can lounge on the floor while we are in there during the day.

I knew that I didn’t want to buy a mobile, so I decided to make my own.  I used Heather Bailey’s flower pinwheel template to make the pinwheels.  There are two different size pinwheels on the mobile, the original size and then I enlarged the pattern to 75% for the others.  I used double sided scrapbook paper that I got at Archiver’s and cut them all out by hand.  I used 2 embroidery hoops and fishing line to assemble the mobile.

This is Charlotte’s view from her bed…

I needed something for above the bed that would be safe that could not hurt her if she decided to try and pull them down.  I used the same pinwheel pattern and enlarged it to 150% and arranged them on the wall.

This is the other side of the room.

I bought the dresser off of Craigslist for $15!!  Josh, I am sure, thought I was nuts when I showed him the color that I was planning to paint it.  But I think it turned out awesome!  I use it as a changing table too because the room is so small that a traditional changing table would not have fit.  The big white elephant on the floor is probably one of my favorite things in the room.  I found it at Homegoods for $50 and it makes me smile.

Above the dresser I (as in ‘I’, I really mean Josh) hung the two shelves and hooks.  The shelves hold various items…stuffed elephant, piggy bank, canisters with cotton balls and q-tips, snow globe and plant.  The hooks are nice to hang outfits on and headbands, etc.

Between the closet and the door is a bookshelf.

By the window is the rocking chair, table and lamp.  I made the curtains, the pillow and covered the lampshade with fabric.  The table is one of the really cheap ones that  you just screw three legs into the plywood top, I just covered it with leftover fabric from the bed skirt.

 

Next to the window I (aka Josh) hung some photo frames.  The “Love” print was a free download from the fabulous Brooklyn Limestone.  I simply changed the colors of the print to yellow using photoshop to match the room.  There is also a photo of me from my maternity photo shoot done by my wonderful friend Kacey at KC Photography.  One frame has some leftover scrapbook paper in it and the other is waiting for the perfect picture of Charlotte to go in it.

 

And that is it!!  Thank you LaKeitha, who blogs over at Home To Three Duncan Boys for letting me bounce ideas off of you, you’re the best!!

I love it and I hope that Charlotte enjoys it too!

Wordless Wednesday...never a dull moment around here!

and yes, I got him down right after I took the picture! He is a sneaky fox!

My Week in Phone Photos

So it seems that I take tons of pictures with my phone and not so much my camera as of lately. But I thought that you would like to see what pictures were taken with my phone this week.

William eating a blue cupcake (he only ate the icing and I'm not sure how much actually got in his mouth!)


I gave Charlotte her first pedicure!


William played Backyardigan's pirates A LOT!!


We took the kids to the church picnic and Caroline and Josh rode this ride (watching it made me want to vomit).


Caroline put one of her doll's headbands on Charlotte and it fit perfectly!


My boys caught a cat-nap.


And finally Charlotte turned 2 weeks old!!

Things I have learned...

during my first week as a Momma of 3.

• my kids are a true blessing.


• sometimes when you wake up thinking it is going to be a typical Thursday, it can turn into a wonderful birthday.


• Caroline is an awesome big sister and is a great helper.


• William is interested in his little sister and likes to give her kisses.


• a baby's head is the sweetest smelling thing in the world.


• babies poop a lot. a lot.


• trying to get 3 kids and myself ready to leave the house is like hearding cats...nearly impossible.


• my husband is the best husband and father in the world, hands down.


• William has taken a liking to climbing again, just like I showed you in this post about His Stunt Double.


• it is refreshing to feed your baby without stressing over mLs and calories. Charlotte is eating like a champ and gained 7 ounces in a week!


• William doesn't understand "gentle" as well as one would like. ;)


• Caroline doesn't want to learn to change diapers...I think I need to work on that one!


• it is amazing what you can do using only one arm or one hand.


• it was a strange but wonderful feeling to go to the doctor and her tell you that everything looks great and the baby doesn't need to be seen again until her one month well baby visit.

And finally...

• I have learned that being sleep deprived, pooped on, peed on, spit up on is okay because these little jewels call me Momma...

Introducing...

Charlotte Marie

born: June 30, 2011

at: 9:50pm

weighing: 7 pounds 1 ounce

length: 19 inches

William getting his first look at his little sister...

Caroline giving Charlotte her first bottle...

Our family of five...

Gone Fishing

 

William loves water, that is no secret.  So it is no surprise that he loves the fish pond that my Mom has at her house.  There are several goldfish in the pond and William thinks it is hilarious to try to catch them with his hands.  The fish are really tame (can you tame a fish?) so they come right up to your hand when you put it in the water and nibble on the ends of your fingers.  He loves it! 

He also likes to splash at the fish…which probably isn’t such a good idea, but he has fun nonetheless.  If you look closely in the picture you can see Uncle Aaron’s feet, we stay really close to William while he is near the pond because we know that one of these days he is going to try to swim with the fish!

*an interesting side note…at Josh and I’s wedding reception we had small fish bowls with a goldfish in them sitting on the tables.   By the end of the night, many fish were floating in their bowls and some guests did some bad things to the fish, but there were some survivors.   My Mom still has a goldfish from our wedding reception in her pond!  9 years later…the thing is still swimming!

Thomas Live on Stage

I took William to see Thomas Live on Stage, Thomas Saves the Day on Saturday.  Josh and I weren’t sure how he would do or if he would sit through the entire show but he surprised us.  He sat through the entire show (I’m not sure that he even blinked) and was so good.  William loves him some Thomas so it was a special treat that he got to go to the show.

Caroline had softball practice so her and Josh stayed home.  It was a day out with my Prince and we had a great time.

Percy and Thomas were there…

There was singing and dancing…

This is what William did the entire show…

After the show was over we went down to the stage and William was able to get a closer look at Thomas…

On the way home from the show he crashed…

 

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon with my Prince and I know that he had a great time.