A day of teeth!

Yesterday Liam cut his first tooth, and today he cut his second.  Also today, Brodie lost his third tooth.  He's had about 6 teeth loose now for about a month, and finally one gave out. 

And now, for photos.  :)

First up, Liam.

Oh, and do you know how hard it is to actually get photos of a baby's nubby teeth?  LOL.. he kept trying to suck on my finger.   I finally succeeded though.

And now Brodie..

Good thing the Tooth Fairy hit up the ATM.  :)

-Courtney

Playroom - who is it for?

I've always wanted a great playroom for our kids.  When we were house shopping this time around, that was numero uno on my "must have" list.  

((That, and.. laundry ROOM (ya know, with a real door.. not a closet), fireplace... and so on.))

In fact, when we started dragging out the paint buckets, the playroom was the first room to get a new color on the walls.  I wanted the kids to have somewhere to go crazy while we were busy fixing up the kitchen prior to move in.

We took this room...

and turned it into this room.

Improvement, yeah... but it isn't really working for us the way I'd like it to.

These were taken on a semi-clean day, almost a year ago, haha.  I'll post some updated photos soon.

I've been thinking about what I want in a playroom.

Toy Storage.

Somewhere for the kids to watch movies.

Somewhere for the kids to camp out and have slumber parties on the weekend.

Book storage.

Somewhere to color/put together puzzles.

I also thought about adding a homework space, but we have a great area just outside of the playroom that would make a great homework station.

So, in normal DIYer fashion, I started browsing through playroom photos online, looking for some inspiration.

I came across two types of photos.  Those obviously designed with a parent's wants in mind, and those designed completely for the kids.  A kiddy wonderland of sorts.

These photos were taken from Restoration Hardware, and while they are beautiful rooms, I think they were designed for adults.  Does my 4 year old really want a chalkboard map?  Probably not, even though I think it is pretty cool.  Does he want chalkboards on the wall where he can't even reach them?  The trucks as bookends are pretty cool, until he actually goes to play with them.. and the books fall over.

This one is a bit better because who doesn't love a Teepee?  However, the room overall is kind of blah.  Plus, I'm not sure high storage is really all that practical for a kid based room.   I may not be there every time they want to access that lovely basket on the top shelf.

I want their play space to be efficient, but I also want it to be a room that THEY want to spend time in.

Over the next few weeks I'll be working on turning their space into something that is truly THEIRS.. not something mommy designed for her to look at.   I'm not going to worry about keeping it neutral, or that they might outgrow it.  After all, we have another boy who will grow into it before we know it.

I hope you join me and add your input along each step. 
:)  Courtney

And then there were five...

...Chairs at the table.  :)

Before making room for baby, our breakfast area looked a little something like this..

Now...

Whether it is joining Daddy for a mid-morning bagel...

or having a meal with the whole family..

This little guy is WAY excited to be included at the dinner table.

Too bad he doesn't actually get to eat, yet.  :p

:)  Courtney

Changes to the photo ledge.

Two weeks after Liam was born, we took some photos of our newly expanded family.

He's.... oh, almost 5 months old now, and I'm just now getting around to displaying them.  I am ON IT, let me tell ya!  haha.

I decided to swap the family photos out with the black and white prints currently on the photo ledge in our family room.

I still like my Texas themed photography (all photos I took when we lived in the Hill Country) and the one random one of me pregnant with Rylan, but I thought a change might be nice. 

I also haven't really personalized this house much, and that might be one of the reasons why it isn't as homey as I'd like it to be.

Hahah, this photo below STILL makes me laugh because of Brodie's eyes.

I had always planned on swapping out the photos to candid Black and Whites of the kids, but I think I like the added color this new arrangement brings to the room.

What do you think?

:)  Courtney

I'm linking this up to the gallery wall party at The Inspired Home.  Drop by to check out some absolutely beautiful examples of gallery walls.

 

Step one.

Silly title, I know.  I have the Special Agent Oso song in my head.  Step one.. find a desk.  haha.  If you have no clue what I'm talking about, lucky you.  :p   Step two.. buy the desk.

Well, step one complete.  We found THE desk.  

Unfortunately step two will have to wait until this whole budget thing is sorted out.  No, not our budget.  The one that pays my husband's paycheck.. wins the bread... brings home the bacon.  Yep, that one.  Argh!  

Anyhoo, it is just what my husband wants, and it's $399 full price.. I'm hoping it will go on sale, haha.  Oh, come on.. you know the cheapskate in me would say that, right?

Honestly, even full price is a pretty good deal for this full size, solid wood beauty.

Here it is:

Sorta kinda resembles this one from Office Depot for $1069.

I actually think it would look better and less frou frou with different hardware, and I might try and talk him into changing it.  That is.. when we buy it.  You know.. if the store still has it when we're guaranteed we can pay our mortgage.  LOL... ahh.. I think the stress is getting to me and I'm losing my mind a little. 

:)  Courtney



Our Field of Dreams

This isn't Iowa.

We're not corn farmers.  And, my husband isn't Kevin Costner.

But for some reason, he decided that we needed a mini baseball field in our backyard.  


Every chance he's gotten, over the past two days, he has been sneaking outside, turning this...

into this....

Our own little Field of Dreams.

He wanted me to stress that he still has a lot of work to do, in case any of my readers are baseball field connoisseurs.  haha.

We still need to patch up that grass where the fire pit *was*... I'm going to miss that little stack of bricks.  :(

He's also ordering some actual bases, has been researching how to "stripe" the field, and we might even make home and visitor benches.  :)

The tree hugger in me cried a little when he ran that yellow foul line up that tree.  ...If I had no input, he'd have already dug up most of the sod and laid down dirt.  However, I'd like to have our yard back, one day.  Until then, let's play ball!  :)

-Courtney

Linking to:  Thrifty Decor Chick

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