Projects I have been working on lately

So as I'm sure you have heard (read about) me saying that it is COLD here! I'm so over it already and it's still January! So I have been devoting my time to staying inside when it is snowing and 20 degrees and doing some crafting and decorating projects. I've been into reading all these craft blogs lately and I have found so many things that I saved under my list of favorites to do someday. I'm getting obsessed!!!

A couple of people have asked me to post pictures of our house and such so here are some pictures!

Here's our downstairs Bathroom/Laundry room. Kinda weird, I know. I don't totally love the color that the previous occupants chose, but it is OK. Since we are just renting, we didn't want to repaint so I made some black and cream decorations for it and it turned out really cute I think. Sorry the pictures aren't better. It's really hard to take pictures in a small space of the whole area!

I found my inspirations here and here

Here are a couple things that I have actually done in the last month.

I really don't like this weird little triangular shaped cubby hole above the fireplace. They painted the inside a dark brown so anyting you put up there has to be a lighter color. Plus, you can't put anything that far back into the cave because when you're sitting on the couch and looking up at it, it's high enough that you can only see the things right up by the edge anyway. There's also a plug and a cable jack (they left that white so it sticks out big time) up in there I guess in case you want your TV up there. Anyway, I have been struggling to figure out how to decorate it and what to put up there to match our family room. At Christmas, I had all kinds of things up there that looked really cool with lights and garland and all that. But once those came down it was an empty cave again. So I decided that it is going to be my little holiday decorations corner.

Valentine's Decorations

I made the topiaries, banner and printed out the print and framed it for my mantle. I added a couple other things and it is finished.

A bigger banner I made to go over the sliding glass doors in the kitchen.

I've been trying to figure out the reason I was so obsessed with everything Valentine's Day while looking at these craft blogs and figuring out what to make, and then making them. But I finally figured it out! I have too many BOYS and boy things in my house. Valentine's Day is the one holiday that I can decorate with lots of pink and red and everything GIRLY! So I can fight against all the sports played and watched, action figures, trucks/cars/trains/planes/boats, blue and green everything....you get the idea! So anyway, here's my girly holiday that I can make everything in one of my favorite colors-PINK!

Ok, so now back to blue and green......Brady's art display.

I made this cute little display for his room to hang his art work from school on. Took some board, painted, added his name and trim with some rope and clothespins and it's all done! It's matches his Buzz and Woody room pefectly!

This one I just finished today. A cute little table for my front entryway.

I found this little table at a thrift store for only $10! It is pretty old and it had like 50 coats of laquer on it! I had to sand it down quite a bit because it was so glossy from the multiple coats before I painted it antique white and then antiqued the edges again. I left the darker stain underneath and it kind of shows through around the corners and edges. It's much cuter now I think. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep those decorations on it or not but I just stuck them on there for now. I think I am going to put a basket or some kind of decoration in the bottom open area too.

I have another project I started on today so I'll post some pics when I'm done with that too. I have a giant blank wall in our family room that needs some attention. This project has been in the works pretty much since we have moved in but I just haven't gotten to do it yet.

My little brown eyed sweetness

My little man is getting big! He is 5 months old already and is just a little joy to have around in our family. He brings out the helpful and protective side in Brady. He always tells me when he hears Collin crying or fussing or brings me a diaper or hands me his pacifier. And for us, he just reminds us every day of the blessings that these sweet little ones bring into our lives.

We tried some rice cereal with him for the first time the other day. After a couple days and attempts, he is starting to actually swallow it and even starts to squeal at me for more.

Here's my cute little shark boy! Thanks Aunt Amanda for the cute robe!

He is still our Teeny Little Super Guy but growing more every day. He loves to just be in his diaper for a while at night before I put his pjs on.
The other night when I was changing his diaper and getting his pjs out, he started doing this and it was too cute not to record it.

He's going to be all over the place before we know it. He can already roll around pretty good but now he is starting to inch like a little inch worm. He can push up on his hands or on his knees but not at the same time. I'm sure it won't be long until we have a crawler!

SNOW!

Now that we live in Nebraska, snow here is getting to be a regular occurrence for us. But this is the first place that Brady can get bundled up, in the right clothes/boots, and get out there and play in it. He is totally loving it. Last week we had about 6 inches, it got up to 30 degrees (that's right, I said UP to), melted a bit and then this last weekend we had a whole bunch more. I'm not loving the really cold temps we've had but I took these pics when it was in the 20's when Brady could actually be outside instead of around 0 degrees like it had been.

While it is every little boys dream to roll around in the snow for hours, I will take sun and warm any day!!! I need to get myself back to Arizona!! But I will say this much about the cold weather-it is nice to be able to drink really yummy warm drinks or eating some nice comforting soup and not get hot after doing it! I made some really yummy raspberry hot chocolate the other day after the boys came in from playing and it was delicious! (I made that with the raspberry hugs that I also used for the chocolate raspberry cookies I made if you caught those on facebook a couple days ago)

Christmas

We were able to drive to visit our family this year for Christmas instead of flying. It definitely had it's pros and cons.

Pros: more room to haul things, we have our own car to go back and forth between family members, we didn't have to plan our exact days and times for traveling

Cons: 7 hour trip turns into a 9 hour trip because of bad winter weather on the roads.....enough said!!!!

We made it there safely but it got to be a little stressful at times. It's a good thing Aaron was driving!

So with these big holidays where there are lots of pictures taken, I find it hard to only pick a couple to include. So I have picked more than a couple but I only used ones that I actually took myself on my camera instead of trying to pick out and download from my mom, sister, sister in laws, brother in laws,etc... I was also taking video on our video camera too so not so many pictures on my camera I guess.

Collin sporting his new monkey hat (made by my mom's very talented friend)

our attempt to get a picture with all 4 grandkids for my mom
Collin chewing on his new best friend....Aunt Lauren did a great job at picking out that present!

Brady in his new bean bag chair

Christmas morning......Brady got his Stinky the garbage truck!!!!

If only the creators of this talking garbage truck could know how perfect this toy is for an almost 4 year old. This is what he has been wanting for a while and he is still so excited about this truck from Santa-even with the truckloads of other presents he got!

Brin and Collin playing on the floor together

Aunt Erica and Aunt Lauren "testing out" Brady's little earpiece walkie talkies!

Aaron modeling Chads new hat

This one cracks me up....Collin is checking out his pile of presents while Brinley makes her move on his binky!! I didn't notice it while I was taking pictures but I clearly see it now.

Nice family picture before we left. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We are sure lucky that we have such great family that spoil our kids for us!!! But we are even more lucky to just have great families that we love and that love us! :)