Enjoy Them Today... and Finally Catching Up

I read a book last year, "Hands Free Mama". It really spoke to me as a mother and wife. I learned so much and still think often about the things she talks about from her own experiences as a mother! I always knew it was important to focus on my children more, to look them in the eye when they walk in the room to talk to me, to put my phone (and any other distractions) down and BE with them, to create more fun and live in the moments with them. But even though I "know" those things, I lose sight of those important things all the time. I'm thankful that everyday gives new chances to try again.. and again and again... 

Lately there has been something from the book that keeps running through my mind. She brings up the importance of stopping and really taking in my children today. At this stage. This phase. The size of their little bodies right now. The size and feel of their little hands in mine as we walk into school. The sound of their feet running up the stairs to come find me. The way they pronounce their words. I hope to be able to remind myself often of how important it is to enjoy the way they are right now, today.

So with that in mind, I will sometimes pull out my Canon and enjoy capturing some of the moments of Logan and Grace just being themselves. Playing. Laughing.  Enjoying a normal afternoon together.

I sure love those kiddos. And I'm SO excited to add another soon!

Grace's primary teacher wanted to spend a little time one-on-one teaching Grace how to loom. She is making a hate for her baby brother, and enjoyed learning!

Logan and his buddy Audrey playing legos together.

Grace and Logan went in for their first real check-up with an ophthalmologist. They had to have their eyes dilated which totally weirded them out. But they made it through and their eyes are perfect! Just what a mama wants to hear. 

Ryan and I took the kids out to dinner in Chico and decided to try something totally new. We took them to a hawaiian BBQ place, where you put the things you want inside your bowl (meat, noodles, veggies, sauces, etc) and then they cook it in front of you. These kiddos haven't had a lot of experience with these types of flavors because I very rarely cook them at home. But they totally surprised us and LOVED their dinners. They even tried chopsticks and Logan was actually quite good at it. We were so impressed. Logan looks funny in this pic, but he was having a great time.

We are still having some crazy, wet weather this season. Last weekend we had HAIL multiple times that day. This week we have had 5 straight days of heavy, flooding rain, and still 2 more days of it to come. Just 4 months ago we were praying in our church congregation each week for rain and snow in the mountains. Now we have filled our reservoirs and rivers, and Lake Oroville (which has been the poster-child for the drought in California) is quickly filling back up. It was down over 200 FEET before the winter came. But it's made up a lot of that lack in the last few months of storms. In the last 5 days it has gone up 27 more feet. Such a huge blessing! Even though we are all getting tired of the rainy days, and the kids especially really want to get outside and play, we are grateful. I know the warm, dry days are coming still.

There were a few minutes where the sun came out the other day in between the rain, and suddenly a rainbow appeared in our very own backyard! I've never seen that happen in such a "small" space. It was neat!

Lastly, a huge shout out to my man. He is so good to me. I have been wanting a laptop for years ever since ours died at the end of medical school. We could never afford it, and we had our desktop of course. But there are a lot of issues with our desktop right now. It's dying and really frustrating to deal with each time I get on it. It loses connection to the internet every couple minutes and it moves super slow, even though we are good about taking things off of it and putting them on our external hard drive. The biggest issue lately is that I'm in my 3rd trimester and VERY uncomfortable. I can't sit at the computer chair for more than a few minutes at a time because it kills my back and ribs. Plus I'm trying to do more laying around to keep this baby in and keep my body from having too many contractions. It keeps me away from blogging/family history (something that's very important to me) and keeping up on projects. 

So... with all of that in mind Ryan surprised me with this beauty. He told me the other day that his board certificate was coming in the mail and it was very important that I was home to sign for it when it came. I thought it was a little silly but I said I'd be home... That day when the UPS man delivered a medium-sized, heavy box I was really confused. Ryan texted me to OPEN IT, OPEN IT! When i did I was totally blown away! I thought I was still many months away from convincing him we should get one. But he knew me, and knew this would really help me out and make me happy.

I sure love him!!

And because of him I have now officially caught up my blog for the first time since August. Woohoo!

House Projects

We have lived in our home almost 6 months now and we have slowly but surely gotten some of the projects done that we have wanted to.  I know I haven't posted many house pictures yet but here are some. I kept wanting to wait until it was all looking nice and put together, but it's just taking a lot longer than I imagined. Might as well post some now! :) 

The kids' bedrooms have been painted. Logan's room is about to get some Ikea furniture since he has no closet or dresser, so a wardrobe and drawers are coming next week. He has been using the nursery dresser but that of course is needed upstairs now.

Logan's room, while it was being painted.

Below is the best picture I have right now of his room (it's considered a "bonus room" rather than an actual bedroom. It will look different soon with different furniture and one day I'll change his "theme"/bedspread and add decor. It may be a few months until we get to that though. He doesn't mind anyway! 

(the tape was to help me visualize where the wardrobe will be)

This is Grace's room, which is mostly complete. I really love what we decided to do with hers. It just fits her personality! We love the blue that matches her polkadot bedspread, and then I made the ribbon curtain piece last week. I think it's cute and simple!

Ever since we moved into this house, we knew that re-carpetting the downstairs was way up there on our priority list. The carpet was a very old berber with lots of stains and zero padding. It was at least 10 or more years old, plus this house had cats for all those years and... it just had to go. We had it cleaned before moving in at least, but once we had the money available we went ahead and ordered some new carpet. 

The kids got to have a few nights of sleepovers together in the future-nursery upstairs while the downstairs was ripped up. Ryan moved almost all our downstairs stuff upstairs by himself, with a friend coming over to help move the biggest things, and the kids and I helped move the toys up. 

This is what the main family room (downstairs) looked like before...

And when it was all empty.

And looking back the other way, with the built-in kitchenette which we hated. Ryan actually ripped it all out himself since we knew we wanted it gone. We'll figure out something to do with that area but probably won't put a kitchenette back in there unless we're still living here when the kids are teenagers. Until then, it seems totally pointless to put back in.

Stairs with the old carpet:

The family room all torn up.

And the stairs.

And after 2 days, the workers finished and here was the final product! 

I admit that when I first walked down there I was having some buyers' remorse, and worried about it all looking the exact same color! Ahhh, it's all grey-beige! And our couch is a dark grey too. I was freaked at first. But then I realize we just need some color and things on the walls. The more we add to it the more I love it down there. 

This carpet is soooo wonderful! It's so soft and padded, it makes me so happy. And the kids love playing on it and rolling around on it. It was worth every penny!

This is how it looks right now without anything on the walls quite yet. In a few months we will buy some new shelves for the wall where the TV is and we'll organize the toys better.

 I also need new shades (those are from the old owners we haven't taken down). But I love the colors we have picked (pink, blue, green). The ottoman we got on amazon was supposed to be darker but... ya know? I don't mind it! It's just a fun bunch of colors for a fun family room. :) Also please don't notice the garbage STILL piled up outside the sliding glass door. We have had so many rainy saturdays that Ryan hasn't been able to take them to the dump yet.

Ryan also spent lots of time sanding, patching, "stippling" (re-texturing), and painting the wall where the cabinets had been. It looks great now! I'm so proud of my man. We still need to get a plumber in to seal up the pipes there, and add the trim where it's missing.

The nursery is the other room we have spent some time on lately since we are getting down the wire. This baby could easily come in as little as 5 more weeks, or as many as 9. This is pretty much what it looked like before... Pinkish sandy walls and brown blinds. And actually each of the walls was a different shade too.

BEFORE:

DURING the painting process. We found a beautiful light grey-blue called "Heavenly Blue".

The nursery window has yet another beautiful view, even on a rainy day. 

...AND AFTER!!

This is after we painted and installed a new fan (the old one rattled and was a gross white and black). Isn't it so sweet and peaceful and bright? We will be getting a new glider soon, because this one is seriously uncomfortable for nursing in and is falling apart. We will also put some curtains up and things on the walls. It's coming together and I really love that room!

The kitchen. I posted some picture of the progress we made on the backsplash, but here are some others. It used to be yellow... we tried probably 12 different colors in there but nothing was right. The floors and backsplash were warm tones, and the granite countertop has areas with warmer browns in it and areas of cooler blues and grays in it. Confusing! 

We finally picked "Revere Pewter" and I think it looks great.

I haven't taken any nicer pictures of it yet because I still want to put things on the walls, put the chair rails back on, and put our kitchen table back in there where it's supposed to go (currently it's our dining room table). But here is an idea.

And lastly, here is our living room right now. When you walk in the front door and look left, this is the view you have. We want to eventually buy a big dining room table. We also want to paint the mantel white and probably the built-in over in the corner. The makeshift gallery wall by the fireplace is not going to stay like that. It's just temporary and things we already had from the old house.  

I actually have some very special art pieces being made right now that are coming hopefully in a monthto put in this room. I'm so excited to get them and I'll definitely post when I do! :) They'll be a perfect addition to this room.