Show Us Your Life–Kids Bedrooms

This week Kelly is featuring  kid’s rooms. I remembered to take some pictures during nap time yesterday, so I only got pictures of the playroom. Then I had to go to work and by the time I got home it was too dark to take pictures of Aedan’s room. I’ll have to take some and post them soon, although I may just wait and do a before/after once we get his big boy furniture and room set up.

Our new house has a main hallway off the kitchen area that leads to three bedrooms and a bathroom (the master is off the living room). Aedan’s room is on the right, the room in the middle is the playroom and the room around the corner to the left is going to be the nursery. I didn’t take any pictures in there because it has just become a closet for us.

When we moved in, we decided to put all the baby stuff in the extra room since we knew it would eventually be a nursery. Since then it has kind of become a catch all. Right now it has one of Jon’s soccer goals, pictures I never hung up, and some random boxes in it. I will be sure to post some before/after pictures once we get that room set up for the baby. Can’t wait to get started on that!

Back to the playroom. When we first moved in we just put all of Aedan’s toys in this room. Then Christmas came and his second birthday and the room began to look more like a giant toy closet instead of a place to actually play. It was getting harder and harder to clean up and I found that Aedan wasn’t even playing in there very much anymore. I think it was too overwhelming.

So one evening Jon and I dumped out everything and divided the toys up. We left out a few of each item. A couple of puzzles, one set of small blocks, a few pretend things, etc. The rest we put in bins in the closet. I am going to try to rotate the toys out once a month or so.

Since we have done that, it is so much easier to keep the room picked up and Aedan plays in there a lot more (although he still prefers to drag his toys out into the kitchen and the living room too).

The view from the doorway…

Looking from the window…

Toy storage…I have been meaning to take some pictures of what is in each bin and hang it on the front but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Aedan actually knows exactly what is in each one so this works for now.

The extra toys in the closet…

No, we don’t have two train tables. I rearranged our living room last week…I think it is a pregnancy thing because I always seem to be rearrange things these days. I’ll have to post some new living room pictures soon because I love the way it looks now. Anyway, I decided to try the table out in the playroom for awhile. Aedan actually uses it more in here. It is the perfect place for driving cars, building towers and coloring.

I haven’t hung anything up on the walls yet, but I have some plans. I have an antique looking set of alphabet cards I want to hang from some ribbon and clothes pins on the long wall. Then I’d like to get a fun picture and cute curtains to fill up the wall with the window. I think I will leave the other wall blank for now and use to hang up Aedan’s artwork and such down the road (and the baby’s too of course, just further down the road). :)

I do try to pick up this room at least once a day so most mornings it looks like this (now that we cleaned out a lot of toys it only take me a couple of minutes). During the day it usually looks a little more like this…

Which is exactly how a playroom should look. :)

-Lauren-

Weekend Recap in Bullets

I’ve been meaning to post about our weekend all week but just haven’t gotten around to it.

• Last Friday my parents came by and picked Aedan up to take him to spend the night up in Round Rock with them. It was the first night that Aedan has been away from both of us ever (he has been away from one of us a bunch of times). I don’t even think he cared at all! He spent all day Saturday with my parents and got to help my dad fix the front porch…he was pretty much in heaven.

• While Aedan was with my parents, Jon and I enjoyed a quiet dinner out. We just hung around the house while Aedan was with my parents on Saturday. Jon got caught up on his recorded soccer games and I went to get a pedicure.
• Saturday night I headed up to Round Rock to get Aedan. I ended up spending the night up there since Jon had to work all night anyway. My mom asked if I wanted some ice cream after dinner and this is what she brought me…

• Yes, that would be chocolate ice cream with a side of potato chips. I literally thought she had lost her mind. She acted like it was totally normal and something she did all the time. My dad and I thought it was hilarious. I ate the ice cream and left the chips. I may be pregnant but chips and ice cream still sound gross.
• Sunday morning, my mom and I made a trip to Ikea. I found the perfect bedding for Aedan’s big boy room. I think we will probably get it set up in late August/September so we can start working on the nursery after that. I also picked up a rug for our dining area and a couple of cute pillows for our couches (um, yes that is a blower sitting on the couch, just keeping it real). :)

• Oh, they have started building a house in the lot next door. Actually they are building three houses all in a row. Aedan loves to watch everything. I’m just glad they are going to get these houses up before the baby comes so I don’t have to worry about a newborn trying to sleep through the construction noise!

-Lauren-

Around Here…

We have lots of tools,

Lots of cars…

And a lot of blocks…

But…

It looks like we are going to have to make some room for baby dolls, dollhouses, ribbons and bows, because Baby #2 is a GIRL!

She is looking great and measuring right on track for my November 7th due date (although I am crossing my fingers she decides to come a little early just like Aedan did).

We are pretty excited and can’t wait to meet her! I think we have a name picked out but it’s not for sure yet, so I’ll wait to post that later.

-Lauren-

Show Us Your Life–Dining Room

Kelly is featuring dining rooms this week so I thought I would continue our house tour.

When we were looking at houses, I specifically did not want one with a separate dining room. I just knew we would never use it. Even when we have people over, we like to hang out in the kitchen and keep it pretty causal. Our house has a dining area between the kitchen and living room. Since it is all one big room everything feels really open and causal. I love it!

That being said, much like all the other rooms in the house, we basically just moved in the furniture we had in our old house and since this house is much bigger it all looks a little small.

Our kitchen table was the first piece of furniture we purchased after we got married. I love it, but it is just too small for this area.

We eventually want to replace it with something like this one. I think having a long bench would just be perfect for kids to eat at plus it would allow us to seat even more people.

We are also going to be getting a baker’s rack from my parents that will fit perfectly on the wall opposite the window. I think they are going to bring it down in August and I can’t wait to have another area to decorate/display pictures and such.

Just like our bedroom, we have a window seat in this area also. It is not as long or wide bit it is still a decent size. Eventually I want to get some curtains to frame the window box and some pillows for the window seat.

For now, it is one of Aedan’s favorite places to play. He is into pretending to cook and it is just the perfect place for him to play with playdoh and bowls of beans or water. His favorite thing to make right now is oatmeal and coffee. :)

Showing me how to pretend to eat playdoh. :)

Thanks for stopping by, to check out more dining rooms head over to Kelly’s Korner.

Oh, and our appointment on Tuesday went great! Baby #2 looks perfect and we found out what we are having. My parents are stopping by this weekend and I am going to convince my mom to let me tell her then instead of waiting until the 4th of July. So I’ll be posting our news sometime this weekend. :)

-Lauren-

Halfway–aka 20 weeks!

I cannot believe I am already half way through this pregnancy. With Aedan I remember the first half going by so slow and then I felt like things went really fast until about 35 weeks. I have a feeling this time around the second half will go by even faster!

We have our big ultrasound appointment tomorrow morning. I am excited to find out what we are having and to make sure everything is going well with the baby. Everyone keeps asking me what I want to have or what I think I am having and honestly I have no idea. I always thought I would want to have a girl, but after having Aedan I have to say I absolutely love having a boy. A big part of me wants another boy so that Aedan can have a brother, while the other part of me thinks that having a girl would be fun to even out our little family. Obviously we will be so excited either way! I probably won’t post what we are having for awhile because my mom wants to wait and find out in person when we go up there for the 4th of July. I don’t think she is going to be able to wait 3 more weeks, but we shall see. :)

Okay so here is the info for this week…

How Far Along: 20 weeks
Size of Baby: Pomegranate
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I don’t have my monthly appointment until next week so I am not sure, but I am guessing up at least 5-7 lbs..
Genders: We find out tomorrow!
Movement: Yes, still mostly when I am laying down in bed or on the couch but more and more throughout the day.
Sleep: Sleeping okay. I still get up once or twice to use the restroom and sometimes have trouble going back to sleep, but nothing horrible.
Maternity Clothes: Jon and I went out to the movies this weekend and I wore a pair of maternity jeans since I knew they would be more comfortable for sitting through the whole movie. They were a little big but fine. Other than that, I have been wearing one pair of maternity shorts and my maternity tanks and then my old shorts with a hair tie and a couple of maxi dresses. 
Symptoms: I was able to finally stop taking the Zofran last week. I still have to eat something every couple of hours or I start to feel pretty sick, but other than that I feel pretty good!
Aversions: There are a lot of things we made while I was really sick and I still can’t stand to even think about them right now.
Cravings: Nothing really.
What I miss: Nothing this week!
Worst Moment of the week: This has nothing to do with the pregnancy, but Jon was supposed to be off all weekend, but he ended up having to work all night both Friday and Saturday night. I was bummed because we had to rush home from our date night so he could get to work and then he didn’t really get to enjoy Father’s day since he had pretty much been awake for 24 hours.
Best Moment this week: I’m hoping it will be finding out everything is looking great at our appointment tomorrow!

-Lauren-

Show Us Your Life–Bedrooms

This week Kelly is featuring bedrooms so here is ours…

Much like our living room, there are things I want to add to this room eventually, but for now it is pretty much everything that was in our old bedroom, which you can check out here.

This is the view from the door way. I need to get some window treatments and I eventually want to get the shams that match our duvet cover, but I am waiting on another Pottery Barn gift card for those.

And the view from the opposite corner. Notice the unstained feet on our dresser. That was the only thing that we lost in the move. I am not sure how it happened but we have looked through everything and those are missing. So Jon made some new feet, but we haven’t stained them.

The top of the dresser.

My favorite perfume of the movement is the Forever Sunshine from Bath and Body Works.

Here is our night stand. I made the little monogram frame a few years ago. You can check out how here.

And then back near our closet door, I have this cute hooks. My mom got them for me for Christmas from Pier One and I love them.

I have this hanging on the wall near the bathroom door. My mom made this for us as a wedding gift. Jon likes that it makes our anniversary easy to remember. Ha!

This window is huge. From this angle the window seat looks pretty narrow, but its actually pretty wide. It makes a great place to sit and talk on the phone. Eventually I want to get some pillows and maybe a cushion for the seat.

You can go check out more great bedrooms here.

-Lauren-

Dear

Have I told you that our two year old son calls us "dear" from time to time?

No?

Well, he does. And honestly most of the time it cracks us up. Apparently Jon and I call each other dear more often than I though because a few months ago Aedan picked up on it and joined in.

He still calls us mommy (and even sometimes mom...seriously at two?!) and daddy most of the time, but if he is really excited about something and wants to show us, we hear "dear, Dear, DEAR!" and then a rambling of whatever he just saw like a big truck driving by, a jack rabbit jumping across the yard or a cool tower he built. It's pretty funny.

A few weeks ago we were at the park with a bunch of other moms and toddlers and my two year old climbs to the top of the playscape and calls me over to see something cool (I think it was a bug of some sort). Instead of calling over his mommy, he calls over his dear. All the other moms and I had a good laugh.

Someday he won't call me dear and he won't even call me mommy. He probably won't even feel the need to call me over to see everything that is super cool to him at every moment, so for now I will enjoy being call dear from my husband and my two year old. :)

-Lauren-



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Show Us Your Life–Our Kitchen

This week Kelly is having a link up for kitchens so what better time to share some pictures of our new kitchen.

I love a lot of things about our new house, but one of the top things has to be the amount of counter space we have in the kitchen now. You can check out our old kitchen here and here.

And here is our new kitchen.

The view from the living room…I want to get a big clock for above the pantry door eventually.

From the hallway…

And from the entry hallway…clearly we need some window treatments. If found some good options at Target this week so maybe I will get some sooner rather than later.

I love the cabinet space we have now. When we moved in and unpacked all the kitchen boxes, my mom and grandmother kept asking where we kept everything in the old house. Honestly, I have no idea. Everything fits perfectly in this kitchen so I am not sure how I fit it into a kitchen with 1/4 the space!

I also love our island. I think it is one of the first things that stood out to me when we walked in the house for the first time. It’s the perfect place for dropping off bags of groceries, setting out food for parties, and eating breakfast. Aedan loves to sit in the chairs and have a snack every afternoon. I was nervous he would get the chairs dirty, but they are microfiber and so far everything from yogurt to pink lemonade have come out with no problem.

The limestone backsplash is another favorite of mine. It fits the house and the area perfectly. We also just bought that little Bose portable speaker a couple of weeks ago. We love it! It is Bluetooth so we can just turn the music on our phones on and hear it throughout the living room and kitchen. We can also just unplug it and take it out to the back porch to listen out there.  Perfect for summer.

And of course I love the granite counter tops. They are easy to clean and never look dirty!

-Lauren-

18 Weeks

So I was going to try and be more on top of these weekly updates this time around, but since my last picture was around 10 weeks, I don’t think I am doing such a good job! Oh well, better late than never, right?

How Far Along: 18 weeks
Size of Baby: Sweet potato
Total Weight Gain/Loss: At my 16 week appointment, I was still down about 1 lb. That is exactly were I was with Aedan at that time and I had no problem putting on the pounds after 20 weeks, so this question may disappear around week 32 or so. :)
Genders: We find out in 2 weeks!
Movement: Yes! Especially when I am laying still in bed or on the couch. I don’t think I started to feel Aedan until closer to 20 weeks, I guess maybe I just know what I am looking for this time. Pretty fun all the same! 
Sleep: Sleeping okay. I usually get up once or twice to use the restroom and sometimes have trouble going back to sleep, but nothing horrible. I can fall asleep on my stomach which is nice, although I always wake up on my back.
Maternity Clothes: I told myself I would not wear maternity shorts/pants until 20 weeks. I just got so sick of them last time, so I am holding on to my regular shorts with a rubber band around the button – classy I know. Although I did pick up a pair of linen maternity shorts earlier this week and have worn them once; they were super comfortable. I have been living in some maternity tank tops from Old Navy. They are comfortable, long and have some bunching on the sides which makes me look more pregnant and less like I have been eating too many cheeseburgers.
Symptoms: The nausea/all day sickness is finally gone, I think! I still start to feel sick if I don’t eat a little something every few hours or so but I haven’t thrown up in about 3 weeks now. I am still taking zofran once a day, I tried to skip a day last week and it wasn’t good. Hopefully I will be done with it completely in the next couple of weeks.
Aversions: There are a lot of things we made while I was really sick and I can’t stand to even think about them right now.
Cravings: Nothing really.
What I miss: My mom makes beer-ritas every summer and everyone was drinking them when we went up to Plano to celebrate my sister’s graduation a few weeks ago. I love them and wanted one so badly!
Worst Moment of the week: I got pretty bad heartburn one night after eating some Mexican food. Lesson learned.
Best Moment this week: Finally feeling more like myself and getting back into normal routines like grocery shopping, actually cooking and eating dinner and cleaning the house!

-Lauren-