Burgers

Not hamburgers, silly reader.

Luke and Tracy Burger! They were our only other married friends during college, but upon graduation, they headed to San Diego and have found it to suit them quite well. Their families still live around Indy, so when they came for a visit, we tracked them down and got together.

Lucky for us, they love kids. :) (doesn't the sky look really cool in this picture?)

Watching a soccer game (it was cold... oh, and Christian peed his pants while standing on that bench. eehh):

And they were so sweet to let us come along to their family cookout. (with reeeaaallly good food too)(do you like the way 3 of those words had double "o's"?)

We had a lovely time visiting!

We are now busy packing and preparing to move to Maryland.
Countdown: 12 days. 

Yummy Veggies

In the last post, I said that Selah was eating better and always finished her bottle first. I think they must've snuck out in the middle of the night and read my post, because the day after writing it, they completely switched roles. Now Jadah has been faster, and is also doing better with a spoon, while Selah just wants to eat her fingers the whole time. Oh girls.

The thing that made the difference for Jadah was starting real food instead of just rice cereal. For convenience, I started with store-bought stuff, but now I am making my own(starting with sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots). Anyway, while eating lunch, I glanced up at my stove, where I had set the containers until use, and saw a lovely little set:

 It was just so pretty and AUTUMN!... seems to be the thing everyone is talking about these days, might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Jadah really is so close to crawling. If you put a toy a few feet away from her, she'll get to it (slowly).

Lastly, every night before bed, Simon carries a little red flashlight and checks on all the kids sleeping (I see them enough during the day, so it's not so important for me to peek at them, even though they are oh-so-cute when sleeping!). He found Selah like this the other night:

Precious!

Silver Lake (?)

After spending a week with my parents, it was time to get Christian back. It was amazing how much I got done while he was away, almost got used to it! But not quite. I took the girls and met my parents and grandparents at a lake for a picnic lunch. It was so windy we had to hold our food down, Jadah wouldn't stop crying for who knows why, and Christian peed on the playground but wouldn't go again before it was time to get in the car and go home.

Mom took him in the lake for a bit. He made it his responsibility to clear the water of all leaves and debris. Way to go son.

Footsies in the water...

And then the inevitable happened, Christian face-planted in the water.

And I got pictures:

Is it so wrong that while he's screaming I'm taking a picture? I think he was a little traumatized and was being overdramatic.

I carried him away from the water, and within a few seconds, he was walking merrily to do this:

He had found a little paper, which he called his "ticket" which had to be inserted into the hole to make it work.  Brilliant child.
My grandparents got to see the girls and it was wonderful to see them as well!

Fun day.
(The lack of the exclamation point is due the fact that though it was fun, it was also a bit stressful.  That's just the way things role sometimes).

Give Me More!

Have you tried these?

Golden Orea Cakesters!!!!

Oh.So.Good.

Before and After Part Living/Dining Room

The main areas of the house are the living and dining rooms.  Not much to tell, they pretty much speak for themselves.

Living Room Before:

New paint, carpet, and trim...

After:

(note to self for next house, this looks cluttery)

Dining Room Before:

New paint, tore up carpet (yay original wood floor!), trim, and mouldings...

After:

And real quick, the final project I did was to tear up the carpet on the front porch and repaint it:

Before:

After:

Goodbye, little yellow house!

The Munchkins

I realize I have neglected to mention my sweet-three in the rush of all these creative posts.  They are still alive and well; thriving in fact.  Here's an update:

Christian

Talks all the time, is very independent, and is a major ham.  He is an awesome big brother.   He is working on potty training... still has accidents (why can't he tell me he has to pee before it starts coming out?!), but he is staying dry for naps and usually overnight.  Our favorite part is his little tushie without a great big diaper on it!

Selah

Still has more hair than Jadah(only slightly), has a mole on her right arm, and is a good eater.  She always finishes her bottle first (I start at the same time), and she is doing great eating with a spoon.  She seems to be the more serious of the two, but will still smile way too easily.  She gets up on all fours, but has yet to crawl.  Weighs 18 lb, 4oz.

Jadah

Jadah is a silly girl, extremely smiley, and a slow eater.  She has yet to get the hang of the spoon and pushes most bites out with her tongue.  She gets up on all fours and sometimes scoots to reach an object.  Weighs 17 lb. 15oz. (still the smaller one!).

Both girls drool excessively (why did I say I'd never have babies that drooled!?).  They are definitely bigger babies than Christian was!  When buying clothes I was counting on them fitting for at least 3 months after the age on the tag... but instead, they are wearing clothes 3 months ahead of their age.  I still keep them on the same schedule for eating and sleeping.  They are sleeping about 11 hours each night and take 2 long + 1 short nap each day.  I'm about to start giving them vegetables.  Feedings will start taking a while again... but much messier!

Gotta love 'em!

Before and After Part Bedrooms

Before I continue with our before and afters, I want to fill in a bit more information. This house was a rental, one of those things that God worked out so perfectly. The owner came into possession of the house as an inheritance and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. We were able to rent it and do our own renovations. We did all the work, but we were able to take the cost off of our rent. Sweet deal.

Also, I was largely pregnant during a lot of the work! I got most of the house painted before I got too big, but the entire kitchen/dining area were finished just 2-3 weeks before the girls were born. Unfortunately, my camera was broken during that time, or else you'd get to see pictures of my HUGE belly, enormous swollen feet and legs, standing on stools and chairs to get those kitchen cabinets painted. Not fun folks! But I wasn't alone, I have others to thank!...my Mom, Rachel Bowman, Wendy Puffer, and April Barcalow: you were all wonderful help when it came to painting!

Now onto the pictures. This is a 3 bedroom house. We kept it simple, just painting the walls, making the ceilings white, and adding new ceiling fans/lights.  I think the thing that makes the biggest difference is painting the trim white.
Please understand, these rooms are NOT perfection, or even close to it!  They are lived in, unorganized, and unfinished, but we are moving now, so any effort to hang more things on walls or put away clutter just isn't going to happen at this point.

Christian's Room, before(it was a lot more blue than it looks!):

 After:

Nursery before:

After:

 (this room was a lot cuter before we had to stuff a second crib in it!)

Master Bedroom, before:

After:

(I really dislike those pillows on the bed... planning on making new covers someday)

Next: living and dining rooms!

Puffer II: "Carpet Bag"

I had a few wonderful days of creative output, and I have to admit, it was worth every minute!

This messenger bag is for a friend here at IWU. She is an English major and chose this classic upholstery fabric; it's soft and thick and totally fits her. I knew what I wanted for a strap, but couldn't find anything that would work at the store, so I asked Simon if I could have the belt he was wearing. PERFECT!

She also chose some feaux leather for accent pieces. I used them here and for the bottom of the bag:

The interior is a bit more playful and bright than the outside. I like surprises.

I actually used the same pattern I have used before for diaper bags, so I was very familiar with it and made a lot of fun little changes along the way.  The thick fabric didn't always get along with my sewing machine, but I'd rather not think about those times right now.

All in all, it was time well spent, and there's a handsome little bag to show for it!

Before and After Kitchen and Bath

We have lived in our current house since December, and have made quite a few changes along the way.  This week, I'd like to show you what went down.

First, the kitchen and bathroom.

Before:

After:

We added an island with a bar, painted the cabinets, got a new(used) stove, new sink and faucet.  One thing I didn't get to was painting that green stripe at the top (was going to make it white).

We put in new track lighting...

And added cute shelving above the stove.  I was planning on painting it white also, but just didn't get to it.

Bathroom, before:

(unfortunately you can't see the lovely blue toilet with seashell seat, or the fake gold gilded mirror mounted so high I could only see down to my chin!  Also, the vanity is blue, the walls are blue, the floor is blue laminate, even the trim is blue!)

After:

Things were were only accomplished thanks to my Father-in-Law.  He does a truly amazing job with all the little, ehh, BIG projects we give him to do!

Next time: bedrooms!

Sport's Stool

This stool was a birthday present from Simon's parents, painted by his Mom.

Christian uses it in the bathroom to stand up at the sink. He can say all the balls' names (it is so cute when he makes motions to go with each sport), the star, and "thunder, storm" for the lightning bolt. He also knows that it says Christian in the middle.

Yay for practical items that also have learning and conversational value!

Blanket Beautiful

Each child in our home has been blessed by the gift of a quilted blanket and name wall-hanging made by my Mother-in-Law.  They have definitely been getting use for "baby laying" on our living room floor, and they just look so pretty folded and piled in their bedroom.

I've also gotten a few of my own along the way (yippee!)

I little table runner...

This is probably my favorite!...

Isn't this detail amazing?