One Year Later...dining & living room

Next up on our house tour is the dining room and living room.

Dining room before: cheap laminate floors, celery green walls, a poorly painted built-in.

Dining Room After: new wood floors, new paint color (soft blue/green), fresh coat of paint on the built-in plus a navy background to show off my white dishes. This room still needs a proper dining table ;) and some artwork.

From the moment I saw this built in I knew I wanted to paint the back of it navy to showcase my white dishes. I love how it turned out! I know the lighting in these pictures is not great (there's no window in this room) so it's hard to get the full effect, but I love it. And just to let you in on a little secret I didn't actually paint the built-in. I painted foam board and cut it to size. That way if I ever want to change the color it's a quick fix!

Living Room Before: cheap laminate floors, a gigantic light on the wall, baby poo colored walls.

Living Room After: new wood floors, a fresh coat of gray paint, built-ins and wainscoting painted a bright white and the huge light removed. Still to do: new mantle, installing a few trim pieces, adding more lighting, getting rid of the old school tv, and perhaps painting the fireplace.

real life: the crash pad is almost always in here

1st Day of School {2017}

Walking in together...ready to conquer 1st grade and kindergarten 

The first day went great! We celebrated with sno-cones!

 During meet the teacher time Kolter and Cal decided to have tea time ;)

After a successful full day we went to get an icee then we went to Daddy's office to tell him all about it. I love how Kyle squatted to talk to Kolter and he decided to squat as well. Adorable!

So thankful for 3 kiddos who are excited about school!

Evy Kay {11 months}

11 months!!! I cannot believe my baby is almost 1!!!

No stats this month, but you are learning lots of new things.

You can now wave and clap.

You stand up unassisted.

You are officially our latest walker...but you are oh, so close.

While you can't walk you are a master climber! You climb on top of anything and everything. While your brothers loved to climb I think you are the youngest climber we've ever had. At least they could walk before they climbed.

When we tell you "no" you look at us and vigorously shake your head no.

You now have 3 teeth (2 bottom, 1 top) and you've been struggling with sleep so I think you have some more on the horizon.

Speaking of sleep you take 2 naps a day but the timing varies because it's summer and you have siblings ;) You also wake up at least once a night :(

You eat pretty much anything we give you (baby food or table food). Some of your favorites include sweet potatoes and strawberries. You also started drinking milk from a soppy cup!

You love the water and you love to go swimming (even if the water is cold).

Your just the cutest bundle of joy!

One Year Later...Entryway/Office

Returning to our house series lets take a look inside at the entry way and the office area.

There are no true before pictures of the entry way. The only one I have is a shot of the hideous green tile on raised floor of the entryway as it was being destroyed by Kyle ;) When we purchased the house it had green granite and marble tile flooring in the entryway. I knew it had to go, but that turned into a bigger job than we expected. Kyle had to basically jack hammer up the original, very sturdy, tile.

Once it was gone we had to pour concrete to level out the bricks that were beneath it (that was a surprise) then finally we could lay the wood flooring. We did consider removing the raised portion, but then we would have had to lower 3 doors and remove the concrete step out front...eeks. So we chose to keep the raised entryway and just lay the same flooring so it felt cohesive. All of this work was done before we moved in.

After:

While this is a very small space it's one of my favorites in the whole house because I think it really portrays my style. It has a modern feel (wood flooring, new doors, brass finishes, etc.) but it also incorporates some vintage (the "S" was found at a local antique store the light is original to the house) and some sentimental (I purchased that rug in Morocco when I was visiting in college). I love a modern, clean feel with a touch of vintage charm. Also, I painted the ceiling alcove above the light and I love that touch of whimsy!

Next up is the front room/living room/office...technically I think this is considered a living room, but as you will see we already have 2 living room spaces so we decided to dedicate this room to our office space.

Before: cheap laminate floors, mold (which we promptly removed) and celery green walls

After: we painted the walls SW Repose Gray, laid wood flooring and built a desk

This is the view looking from the front door. The couch and rug are temporary. The couch is a piece of our old sectional we are getting rid of on the next trash day. Eventually we will have another desk on that wall for Kyle. My desk is to the right and I love all the storage I have for craft supplies and such.

The view of the office and entryway from the dining room.

6

My big girl is 6! Where do I even begin? We are so blessed by Nora everyday! She is a bundle of joy! She will literally laugh until she pees her pants. She is a great friend. She enjoys serving others and being so helpful. She asks to make my bed almost everyday and she will often clean the bathrooms without being asked! She is creative! She loves to design and beautify. I often find the bookcase shelves rearranged to her liking ;) She is a little mommy to Evy. She will gladly play ninja with her brothers often in a princess dress with all the accessories. She is a hard worker who loves to learn and wants to read so badly. Mixed in with all her sweetness is certainly some sass...especially when she doesn't win. Which brings me to my next point, she is competitive.

Nora loves to create and can often be found in the "craft room" cutting, gluing, painting, coloring and even sewing!

Nora is a big helper and will gladly clean a room, do her chores or watch Evy for me. In fact, she is probably more protective of Evy than I am.

Nora loves school and she is a very hard worker. She is very insistent about her reading (even when Mom doesn't want to do it that day, she insists we sit down and read because she wants to get better)!

Nora loves all things girly including sparkles, long dresses and all the accessories (rings, headbands, necklaces, etc).

She just had her well child check-up and she is 45 inches tall (46%) and weighs 45 pounds (54%). Here heart rate and blood pressure were good. All in all she is one healthy little lady!

Nora is a the perfect blend of sweet and sassy, calm and wild, creative and restrained, clean and messy, outgoing and reserved, loud and quiet, energetic and peaceful, surprise and predicability.

We are so thankful for this precious gift the Lord gave us 6 years ago!

Below is Nora's 6 year interview. Let the record show that after she watched the video she requested a change to one question. What do you want to be when you grow up? Her edited response: a ballerina princess ninja master ;)

Sewing Surge

Since moving to OK my sewing has decreased drastically. I don't know if it's because my creative energy is going toward the house or because we added a 4th child or a combination of both. But I have pulled out the 'ol machine for a few baby related projects!

Football dresses for a few of my favorite, storm lovin' babies!

And a couple of bandana bibs for a nephew and a friend. I love these catching baby drool. Stylish and practical!

Babes Basking in the Sun

A few of my favorite shots from the pool this summer. We were frequent visitors! Sawyer and Nora improved so much they are pretty independent at this point and love going off the diving board and slides. Kolter loves the water and I think he will probably be independent next summer! And thankfully, Evy loves the water too!