Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A Place for Everything

i told toby that after we got the floors installed and the house back together that i wanted to create an area near the front door where we could hang jackets and bookbags and such. we have lots of these things and they end up all over, mostly on the back of our kitchen chairs. then, i knock them off while i'm walking past them and i get all annoyed. it just wasn't working for me. so, i researched for a while and figured out that to best utilize the space we had {not much}, i wanted two rows of hooks. high ones for me and toby, low ones for the kiddos. so, the best {looking} and most practical solution was board and batten with two sections.

 

toby installed the boards and battens and i might have started to drool a little. organization might make me a little too happy.

and here is the final product. glorious organization. can i get an amen?

this is the view from the stairs. we really didn't want to see our mess of coats and bags when we first walked in the front door, so this is kind of hidden, a u-turn once you walk in. but, near the door and ready for when we walk out or in. love it.

you know i couldn't wait to load it up. i might add a basket for shoes later on, but right now, i'm liking it just like this. the kids can sit right on the step and put their shoes on. i don't want to clutter it up with a bench.

...and, drumroll please...

 

our new playroom!

 

{please excuse the dark, shadowy picture}

same shelves, new baskets to hide the crazy and contain the toys better.

new rug, new chairs, new art, lots of toys gone {yard sale this saturday!!}

funny thing about this picture. toby and i can't agree on anything. the rug was a miracle. the art, miracle #2! we both saw it and said we liked it. it is a canvas of a tree in charleston. right colors, right size, right price. order it! so, he put it up on saturday and heather came over with the girls on saturday night to watch the kids while we went out. roman was sitting in the playroom and just randomly pointed at the picture and said "my dad picked out that weird picture". haha

this may looked cluttered to you, but this is WAY less cluttered than before.

toby wanted to have something for us to sit on in this room so we could hang out and watch the kids play. i thought it would block the room off. we ended up with these two chairs {and they actually recline} and i think they work well. you can still walk around on either side and there is a whole rug to play on in front of it.

we put roman's desk/table in the corner and this is where he does his homework every day now. it is away from the hectic kitchen/dining room when we get home. and toby found a couple of things to hang on the walls so he can see his spelling words for the week or his art or whatever.

i'm loving all the changes. i think it is going to be really good for our family to have less clutter, more organization. we will play more with what we already have and be able to spend less time cleaning up.

 

Friday, February 21, 2014

A Love-ly Day

ahhh, Valentine's Day. a day for love. telling your loved ones how much they mean to you and how much love you have for them. it used to be a little more romantic before we had kids, but now that we have these two little humans, it means so much more. i love showing them how much i love them. how better to do this than with sugar and toys? i love setting up their little mailboxes with some special treats and a handwritten valentine love note for each.

roman was so cute, he kept telling gianna "when we get downstairs, there will be a special surprise for you at your seat!" he knows the drill after a few years of this now.

inpecting the goodies

oh yeah, sugar!

my main man sent me this beautiful arrangement at work. i've never seen the stems bent to make a heart before.

when gianna and i got home, we were treated to a candlelight dinner with the cutest waiter in town! {apparently, this was ALL roman's idea...sweetie}

roman gave me a dozen red roses too. and gianna got a pink and yellow rose from the boys too. do our boys treat us right or what?

i'm feeling the love, are you?

 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Randoms

here's a few randoms from the past couple of weeks.

 

i mean...just look at these handsome fellas. does it get much cuter than this?

the kids love standing on the top bleacher at the gym. it was roman's idea to pose like this.

roman's school had donuts with dad and muffins with mom a few weeks ago. here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Pope. she is due in April with her 2nd baby. i don't know how she deals with 26 kindergartners all day and then goes home to a toddler while pregnant. kudos to Mrs. Pope!

yes, gianna is stuffing a cheeseburger down her throat

 

we visited our friends {roman's girlfriend, Mady} at their new house site. it is really close to our house and i'm excited that when they get to move in, we will be able to ride there on our golf cart. here's the two lovebirds driving off into the sunset.

 

baseball is about to start, so it's time to practice!

 

 

 

while the boys were hitting the ball, gianna was all about the slide

 

and this picture cracks me up.

snowman window cling, but it's 60 degrees out.

and check out his teeth. his front tooth is so loose, it has moved over and the gap between the front two is closed and there is a gap next to them that looks like he already lost a tooth. he really wants it to fall out, but he won't wiggle it. it might take a while!

 

 

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly {not necessarily in that order}

i mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we are getting new floors downstairs and that it has spurred a couple of other changes as well. one thing we did in addition to the floors was update the bathroom. new vanity and toilet, and a whole wall of tile. plus, we repainted the front and back doors and the playroom. it has been a big deal. a really big deal for me. if you know me, you know i don't deal well with chaos. so, i've been about to crawl out of my skin, so ready to have everything put back together. and to be honest, we aren't done quite yet. but, we are close. very close. so here goes...
 
somebody liked hiding behind the toilets in lowes.

we were testing paint samples for the playroom. but, of course, we didn't go with any of those! haha

a little fancy lowes shopping. we get dressed up to diy. jk, it was after church!

i call this "Property Brothers {in-law}"

mac came over to help toby move the big furniture to the garage

nasty carpet all gone!

gianna hated the loud banging toby had to do when he was removing the tack strips, so we headed outside to have a snack and escape the noise.

my best little helper

we bought this little wiggle car for the kids because we knew that they would be bored with no toys, no tv and nowhere to sit. needless to say, it was a hit with EVERYONE.

 

 

my favorite part of this video is gianna saying "mommy, you ok?" hilarious. she knows that something is wrong with me...i'm a crazy lady.

so, this was what the house looked like for a few days before the floors got installed.

the floors are halfway in!

almost there! and sick of eating out, so we had a picnic on the floor in the kitchen.

we have a whole wall of mosaic glass tile in the bathroom, a new vanity that has {glorious} storage underneath and a dual flush toilet. let's all say it together now...fancy!

i know this is a dark picture...i promise i'll take better ones later...but we had the front door painted black inside. i love love love it!

 

our playroom is slowly getting put back together. we decided that we needed to get rid of LOTS of toys. i think the more toys they have, the less likely they are to play with them. they can't even find anything! so, we are having a yard sale in a couple of weeks and roman is going to give all his proceeds to the poor, he says. what a sweetie. we are waiting on some matching bins that we ordered to organize the shelves. i can't wait!!!

this hallway totally feels so much wider! i know that it is probably because the play kitchen is out of it and the chair isn't blocking the way to the back door, but even still, the floors make it seem so much wider. love it!

we didn't want to cover up too much of the new floors because we love them so much, so our rug isn't huge. but it IS cushy. WAY cushy.

i'll share nicer, prettier pictures once we have all our furniture back and we get the playroom all put back together, but for now, it is feeling a lot more like home. for a few weeks there, i thought i might have to live with concrete forever! haha

 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Snow Day at SGGCS

for these little southern kiddos that haven't been blasted by snow like our northern families, we have to "buy" the snow. roman's school puts on a snow day each year and the kids look forward to it each year. it is so cute to see them get excited over such a small amount of "snow".

 

he kept pelting me over and over...no mercy for his momma!

 

 

and he made a tiny little snowbaby

i'm not really sure you could call this a snow angel, but he tried.

 

his teacher had a fun little craft for them to do after playing in the snow and they got to wear their pajamas and robes. what a fun day!

 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Basketball Overload

basketball season has been lots of fun this year. roman is playing with a lot of his friends from school and his cousin, chase. our friend sherri, got some good shots of the kids this weekend, so here's a few of roman...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we got a couple videos too!