I know I know! I'm not even going to mention that I am hoping to keep the blog updated (even though I still truly am) because I think I said that last time, you know, back in July when I posted last. DOH! Anyway....

A little while ago I mentioned that we were cooking up a little DIY room renovation for our Emma Kathryn. Although I had grand ideas of surprising her on her 3rd Birthday with a brand new room that was completely done, it didn't exactly happen that way and we still aren't really finished (I know, you are totally surprised right?). But, in the spirit of hopefully keeping this blog alive, I decided to post about it now instead of waiting until its completely finished, with how fast we are moving, should be in the year 2018. :)

So let's take a quick look at what we started with. Here is Emma's room prior to us setting up her true big girl bed....

And here is her room today! I actually love the purple and white, although it's pretty tricky to photograph to show the exact color of the purple. I took these shots on a somewhat cloudy afternoon too so they are a bit darker then her room actually is. I'm also not quite sure I love where we have the furniture set up, but I think I'm just used to her little crib and still getting used to how much room her big girl bed actually takes up.

The color on her walls is Simplicity by BEHR® (640E-3), and her bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids (on sale of course).

I think this is one of my favorite parts of her room now. I saw a similar picture a long time ago and was struggling to figure out what you put on the walls of a "big girl room" but still keeping it fun for Emma. After I saw the picture, it took me a little while to figure out how to attach the vases to the wall too! After a quick stop at Michael's for some $2.00 vases, a couple of floral stems, two frames and some Velcro...voila! They probably aren't perfect but I love them and so does Emma Kathryn.

I have had my eye on a Pottery Barn Kids lamp for Emma's room for months now, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend $82 plus shipping on one lamp (that will most likely be broken within a year)! And of course, they make their lamp shades so that they only fit Pottery Barn lamp bases. So we headed to Target and purchased two $15 green lamps and a $5 glue gun. I took some of the green and white polka dot ribbon I had from Emma's first birthday and glued it around the top and bottom to make the lamps a bit more girly. Add in a fake flower from the clearance rack at Michael's (another whopping $1.50 purchase) and there you go! Not quite Pottery Barn, but it will do.

Here is what we started with on the other side of Emma's room....

This is where we still need a lot of work but here is a picture of what it looks like now....

This part of her room kind of happened on accident but next to her flowers on the wall, it's probably my next favorite spot because of how much Emma LOVES her new Princess dress up area. :) I had pulled this mirror out of our basement thinking we could hang it above her dresser, but after the kids were going crazy with it sitting in the Dining Room, we pulled it upstairs and sat it against the wall. Emma starting twirling and whirling in front of it so I brought over her princess dresses that she got for her Birthday from her Aunt Adrienne (which she still LOVES) and I think Emma and I played there for the next two hours. I'm half tempted to keep this and just get a bigger mirror but boy was this a great accident.

Another "before" view of Emma's windows....

And here is the "after". We swapped out the pink curtains for some white ones which I am still somewhat iffy on, but love the girly that it brings. See all those butterflies hanging from the ceiling? Those are paper towels! Emma made those at home during the week when she was home with the Nanny but we have actually taken then down since the pictures. They were super cute, but we just needed a change. They even "flew" when the air conditioner is running, or when Mommy or Daddy was in bed with here and blew on them.  ::: passes out :::

So that's where we have gotten to so far! I still have a couple of things in mind that I'd like to do like figure out what else would go on her walls, get her an actual nightstand, crown molding, maybe some board and batten under the chair rail, rug to bring in some color and maye a few other things. Like I said, my goal is the year 2018. :)

Emma's Third Birthday

So, I have only had this post typed out and in the draft form for over a month now but life has just been crazy lately! I know, I say that everytime I post now and have been for the past six months. We have been having a blast lately though with vacation and two amazing babies who are getting bigger by the day. Some days, I just sit back and watch Emma and Jackson run after each other, give each other kisses, and then push each other over, and I am truly amazed at how blessed we really are.

Even though Emma was still a few days shy of actually turning 3, we decided to celebrate her Birthday the weekend before (her actual Birthday was back on June 27th) because our schedule has just been crazy lately (good crazy though). We tried something a little different this year because the party was on a Sunday and we did a morning party and I think it went great! We kicked off the party at 10:00 and it was a beautiful day outside so we had Emma open up her presents first, before all the kids got changed into their bathing suits and headed outside for some sprinkler fun.

Emma had been asking if it was her Birthday pretty much every day for about two months before her actual Birthday. So by the time it was finally here, she was pretty excited. No matter how many times I asked her what kind of party she wanted this year, she never wavered and always told me that she wanted a Pooh-Bear party because red is her favorite color.

This year, we kept it pretty minimal with the decorations (and partly because I never realized how hard it would be to get things like balloons where you live in a place where nothing opens before noon on Sundays which doesn't go so well with 10:00AM parties). We picked up a couple of hanging lanterns (which will eventually be part of of The Squishy's room), some plastic table cloths and decorated with Emma's Pooh-Bear stuffed animals.

It helps when your child is a stuffed-animal-hoarder and you have pretty much every character from the show. Although as we were setting out her stuffed animals, Emma yelled out "Mommy! I don't have Christopher Robin!!" Luckily, I was able to convince her that the party could still go on even without Christopher Robin since we already had Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Owl, Roo and Rabbit. Reluctantly, she agreed. :)

Emma (and The Squishy for that matter) were pretty much bouncing off the walls that morning until the party started. I kept trying to get a good picture of her in her Birthday outfit but it was near impossible. I snapped a few on my phone and tried to get a couple when I broke out my camera but the only time I could get a semi-decent one was after we turned on The Fresh Beat Band.

Although I really wanted to keep my camera attached to my hip during the party so I could snap away, I put it down for a while because I just wanted to enjoy my big girl's special day. Of course I had to snap a few shots here and there though. She was like a whirlwind opening her presents so I don't have too many pictures of that, but she did stop for half of a second and posed with her new puppy "Ruff Ruff", which was an extra special present that her big cousin Dana gave to her. Ruff Ruff hasn't left Emma's side since then.

And of course, The Squishy was loving every minute of the chaos, as well as all of his big sister's presents.

For the past two years on Emma's Birthday, we have had A.W.F.U.L weather. It's always been sunny, but it has been over a hundred degrees randomly. Finally, we had a gorgeous, sunny, warm but not HOT day. Although I only took a few pictures while we were outside, I had to catch a few of The Squishy because he cracks me up whenever we break out the sprinkler. He does this every.single.time.

We just finished lunch and Squishy saw the sprinkler turn on. He sprinted (and yes, the kid can actually run already) over to it with a giant fist full of bread from his sandwich, got about three feet away from the sprinkler and just stood there. It was like he was frozen. His feet didn't move for probably ten minutes. He just stood there....

...and stood there...

...then he looked around a bit....

...and then went back to just standing there. All the while getting sprinkled on, coveting and snacking on his extra soggy piece of bread.

Meanwhile, my Emma Kathryn was still glued to Dana's side. I think Emma might have been this close to Dana all day. :)

Not the Squishy though. He was a little social butterfly.

Then it was time for cake. Emma went with me to the store a while back to order her cake. We picked out the most obnoxious cake we could find. She loved it. If you are ever around Emma at any birthday party, you know that the cake is pretty much all she cares about. Whether its her Birthday party or not, she usually spends about an hour begging for cake, and constantly asking "Is it cake time yet?" We couldn't hold her off much longer, so out came the Pooh-Bear cake. Emma made her wish and blew out the candles and dug in. Later in the day, she told me that she wished for Mommy. ::: dies :::

All in all it was an amazing day and both the babies were fast asleep as soon as everyone headed out. I had to wake both of them up later in the day so they must have played their little hearts out. Emma insisted on napping in her new sleeping bag from her Mimi and Pop.

I love you my Emma Kathryn.

Mommy and Daddy still had a few surprises for her on her actual Birthday, but this was an amazing start. We can't thank everyone that was there to help us celebrate, and those that were just wishing Emma an amazing Birthday but couldn't be there. I wish everyone could have seen the look on her face when she opened her presents, and dug into her cake, and go to put on her red Birthday tu-tu.

It's easy to get lost...

It's so easy to get lost in the shuffle of everyday life, that you find yourself using "life" as an excuse. You were late to a party because of "life", you don't get to spend alone time with your husband because of "life", etc. The list goes on and on. I found myself thinking the other day that "life" shouldn't be used as an excuse. It's hard, incredibly hard, but you make the sacrifices for those things that matter.

I recently found this short video that I made for Wes for Valentine's Day back in 2008. It's easy to forget our life before kids (and I wouldn't change it for the world), but sometimes, its just good to get a reminder that we did have a life before kids. Before the hustle and the bustle. Before the diapers. Before the temper tantrums. Before the craziness that is the work week.

Sometimes, you just need a reminder to stop, and breathe once and a while.



Some days...

Some days...life with The Squishy just makes you feel like this...

If he wasn't so darn cute, he would already have been grounded for life.