Big room switches- and little projects

After Kate was born I thought the girls could share a room, but it just worked out better that they didn't. Emma ended up sleeping on the boys floor for about a year. Last summer I finally moved Landon to our small room (and crammed all the "stuff" in it into any other place I could find!) downstairs and made his room an "older" boy room. That put Emma in the top bunk of the boys room and Daniel on the bottom. All of Emma's stuff still remained in the "girls" room though. I think Daniel was ready for his own room and to not have a "girly" bed on top of his. So we moved the girls into the boys room and moved Daniel into Kate's room. Of course, this involved taking apart all the beds and putting them back together again. Major pain. Oh, and remember how I told you the dresser simply didn't fit? Our rooms are a little on the smaller side and there's really only one way to make furniture fit. Although the room switch still needs to remove one dresser and a play kitchen, we are almost there. Whew! So much work, but I love the process and the change. So here is what we have at this point and a few of the little projects I did along the way. I'm bad at doing "before" pictures, but I hope you enjoy the overall ideas!

Landon's room

On to Daniel's new room. This shelf is the same one that was in the girls room. It was white with flowers and butterflies handpainted on it. I sprayed it black and did the stripes with tape. I really like how it turned out!

We had these planets in a box that we had never successfully hung and I had this styrofoam ball in my craft stuff. Daniel painted it to be the sun! Pretty cool, and it ties in the little splashes of orange that he wanted.

His pillow pet is orange, hence the splashes of color. The polka dot and striped pillows are made from towels I found at Walmart. The striped towel became the inspiration for the shelf!

On to the girls room. I wish I had a before of this beauty. I was a rusty, red color and had the word "COWBOY" in a rustic, western font across it. It was in the boys room to hang hats and ties on. I repainted it, stamped it and added jewels and ribbon. It is the perfect necklace hanger and I love the way it turned out!

I covered a lampshade for the girls. This used to be purple gingham with a purple flower pull. I also spray painted the flower pot. It used to be pink with little butterflies all over it.

Here is the "before" dresser. I'm glad we just had this hanging out in the shed! I painted it and went to replace handles and learned that antiques have different size handles and they don't make them that size anymore. What do you think I should do?

I decided to distress it a little and I really like how it turned out!

Here are the original handles. One sprayed black and one sprayed silver. If I go with one of these I don't have to fill holes and re-paint drawers and drill new holes. But......

Look how pretty this looks! More money and more work, but so adorable!

This is the "after". The wall color is the same one I just painted my bathroom and I love it. Eventually, after we get bunkbeds, I will get yellow bedspreads and accent with red and black. I'm still needing to do curtains in this room. For now, the decor is mostly the same from their previous room.

The bed Emma is in now is one of the "boy" bunks. White will be so much prettier.

This is the "before" of the room at its worst. I can't believe I'm even sharing this picture!

Okay, now for my next bunch of projects!

* spray paint icky brass on our bedroom ceiling fan

* spray paint icky brass on outside light fixtures

* recover lampshades in family room- still searching for that "perfect" fabric

* paint kitchen table and chairs black

* beadboard kitchen backsplash and bar surround

* chalk board cabinet in kitchen

* paint vanities black (in 2 bathroom) and add handles

* paint cabinets in laundry room white

* re-do hope chest

* paint kitchen cabinets white (that's a major one that may never happen!)

I'll take more before pictures for these ones! It will amaze me if I get any of these things done before the end of summer!

A little catch up

Goodness! So much is going on and it's only going to get crazier until the end of the school year. Baseball games every night (in this freezing cold!). Choir. Band. Scouts. Dance. Piano. Homework. Laundry. Dinner is Del Taco tonight- no time! No wonder I haven't sat down to blog! But like I said to my kids, "Wouldn't you rather be busy than bored?" Yes, but sometimes I'd like things to just slow down a bit! I'm really looking forward to summer, not only for the more relaxed days, but for the warmer days! I'm tired of being cold! Anyhoo, here is what we have been up to this past week.

My pictures are all out of order! Sorry! Here are the Huff and McAllister kids all ready for the big egg hunt at the Huff "farm".

Landon went to Clear Creek for 2 days and a night with his 5th grade class. Richard was able to go with him and took many, many pictures. Instead of posting them all, I will just say that Landon had fun and he was so glad that Richard could go along- such a great Dad!

I love this picture of Daniel. Richard took the boys out of school one day last week to go to Spring City to shear sheep.

The boys were all tuckered out after a long day of shearing and this is one of the only times in their lives you will see them all cozy together like this!

The last day of spring break the 3 older kids got to go to Mt. Pleasant and have a sleepover with their cousins at Grandma and Grandpa McAllister's. They all had fun, and Richard and I enjoyed the break from the kids for a night. Our house was so quiet. Richard even forgot that we had kids at all and walked right into Kate's room while she was sleeping to get something and turned the light on. I stared incredulously at his and said, "What are you doing!?" And he turned the light off and quickly left the room and said, "I forgot we had kids!" We laughed really hard about that little moment!

Here are the kids and their cousins having some good ole fun making a rope swing to swing across the ditch.

Lunch at the park.

A fun Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpas

All the cousins ready to go!

Dyeing our Easter eggs on a Halloween tablecloth....so festive!

Visiting at the Huff's and seeing all their animal life- Kate loved the goats!

Here she is hugging one of the new little babies...so cute!

The McAllister's are heavier than the Huff's!

We all had fun at our little egg hunt and the kids (okay the parents too) ate a whole lot of candy!

Hope your Easter was lovely! And I hope the weather warms up for tonights ball game!

Spring Break Day 3 & 4

Day 3 of Spring Break mostly happened because I started the painting project on day 2. I actually allowed all my children to help me prime the room. Chaos! After realizing this was a mistake and feeling frustrated about getting the project done without going crazy, my wonderful husband took all the kids (and the dog!) on a day trip to Mt. Pleasant so that I could paint in peace. What a guy! They had fun doing a little hiking, a little shooting of guns and playing at their Grandma and Grandpas house. I was able to paint the whole room! Without a single interruption! I love silence sometimes. I even got to play the piano for a while. Without a single interruption! Thank you, Richard, for being wonderful and caring enough to take the kids for a day. I know, you just wanted to help keep me sane! The room is a story for another post, but I will say this. We took apart the crib and the bunkbeds and did a major room switcheroo to realize that we had misjudged the space and the dresser will. not. fit. Fortunately, we have an old, extra dresser out in our shed. It's not "ideal", but it will do once I paint it and throw some new handles on it. That's why the room re-do will have to be a work in progress.

The kids and Rocky all loaded up ready to spend the day with Dad and get out of my hair! I love you, kids. :)

Today was day 4 and we had free tickets to the Discovery Gateway Museum. We were really looking forward to going and our friends, the Shepherd's joined us. Guess what? It was CLOSED! It's like the only day the whole year they close down to get ready for their annual fundraiser. We were so disappointed. But having friends with us helped the kids have fun anyway. We went to the Planetarium instead (it was free), which was way overcrowded because there were lots of field trip kids. But I think the kids all still had fun there. Then we walked over to the fountain and the kids had to get a little wet. It was there that we realized Erin's 5 year old was not with us. Long story short- we couldn't find him and had to call security and he was still in the Planetarium crying in a corner. Hey, don't judge us! We had 9 kids and he was with us when we were leaving the Planetarium, he just didn't make it out the door. We ended the adventure at Ben & Jerry's eating balicious (that's a Kate word) ice cream.

Jake, Daniel, Emma, Landon, Kalin, Kate, Nate, Ryan and Reagan

Me and my sweet friend Erin.

Spring Break Day 1 & 2

Ahhhh, glorious Spring Break. Still feels like winter to me and I'm sick of it! I was never ready for the cold in the first place this year and it is lingering WAY too long. Despite the cooler weather, I have tried to plan a fun activity for each day this week. Of course each day must begin with a chore or two and piano practicing. But I am enjoying a break from teaching piano this week. I really need it!

Yesterday we went to Monkey Island- a fun, jumphouse, slide place. The kids had fun and played and sweat hard. Kate mostly had fun but by the end was lying on the floor crying over the dumbest things. Then last night our good friends, the Huff's, surprised us with a visit and the kids loved playing with them. Of course we did too!

I'm not sure why all these pictures are a little blurry, but here are all the kids in the "Princess" bounce house, where Kate threw a fit when any other children tried to enter. Apparently it was OUR house!

Today the boys got a haircut and then we went to a movie with Grandpa Kevin. We saw the movie "HOP" and had a fun time!

Somehow I think that during this week I am going to find time to paint a bedroom and switch kids rooms around. Wish me luck on that one! More to come later.....if I get around to it!

Messes

Having children (and a dog) is messy. It just is. Sometimes I am amazed at the amount I can sweep off the kitchen floor in a day.l Sometimes I am baffled at the stains on their clothes. Sometimes I am repulsed by the smells they give off. This is all my children, not just my 2 year old. But she is in a very messy stage right now. These pants are from yesterday's putty adventure. We went to a family night at the school and there was a putty making station. Good idea.....in theory. But not reality. Kate was playing nicely with hers while I was making dinner and the next thing I know, well....you see the picture. Richard got it out with really hot water and dish soap, but it was not an easy task. I made all the other kids throw their putty away immediately.

This week Kate has also dumped half a box of baking soda on the floor. (That stuff is so fine, I could taste it in the air!) She also pulled off a poopy diaper (fortunately it was dry nuggets) which was flung all over the family room and exclaimed, "Look what came out of my body!" I found a few stray nuggets late that night that I had missed. I wondered why it still smelled downstairs. Today while I was teaching piano she found a permanent marker and colored all over our nice TV. I was freaking out. PERMANENT! Guess what? Windex and a paper towel and some gentle rubbing. Worked like a charm. You'll thank me someday.

That little girl is the best part of my day! My next post will be about all the reasons I love her. These are not those.