The ole switcheroo

So it was finally time to get Brady out of the old rickety, rusty crib and into his big boy bed! This week happened to be Keith's spring break and also the first week that our house has been occupied by only us in about 5 months. So since Erin found a new place and was not on the top bunk anymore we decided now was a perfect time to seperate the bunks and get organized! The kids were in the smaller room so in order to seperate the bunks we had to switch bedrooms completely. This was a pretty major undertaking, but we did it, and we are all happy with the results!

Here is the before of the smaller bedroom, which had all 3 kids in it! It was so packed that almost all the toys had to be in the closet and of course that meant that the kids never played with them. It got very annoying and I have been so anxious to get those toys out in the open!

Here is the after of the smaller room (we still need to switch the wall stuff). It is a little smooshy, but all of Keith and I's furniture fit in and it has become a nice cozy bedroom!
Here is the before of the larger room. It was just too big for all our stuff so we were constantly having to straighten up! I am so glad that we are out of there!
Here is the after! I am IN LOVE with the kids room now! They can actually play in there, and they do! Natalie loves to sit on her bed and look out the window, since in the other room the one window looks out on the stairwell and so we had it covered and closed up. This window has a view of the lake and nothing else! Wonderful!
Here is Brady's bed. It is the top bunk so it has that complete rail that is supposed to go by the wall, but we are trying it like this so we don't have to buy another guard rail since Brady rolls around so much. He really likes it! It has been a bit of a struggle (we got too lucky with Natalie), but he does go to sleep and stay in bed all night. We just have to make sure he is really tired when we put him to bed or he will try to sneak out of the bedroom. The second night in his bed we heard some noise coming from the room and when we checked on him he had a TON of toys in his bed! We figure as long as he doesn't come out of the room we will take it (but we did promptly remove the toy store from his bed and tuck him back in bed)!

And here is my favorite part: the wall of crap..er, toys. Everything has a place so even if it doesn't get in the proper place at the end of every day, I know that if I feel like deep cleaning I have a place to put it! And so far both kids have enjoyed having a spot to put away their toys, and so they are more likely to do it on their own. And another benefit of having all the toys in the room means that the kids closet is much more neat. We put the kitchen and the tiger in there and it has made a nice little place for her to have her "alone time."

"Family Activity" aka shopping

Yeah, so it was too cold to do anything outside today, and the only things we had thought of were the zoo, or the botanical gardens. Needless to say those were both out. So instead we made the long trek up the that big blue store in the sky: IKEA. We had marginal luck. The food was weird today (no peanut butter and jelly for Brady, and the mac & cheese was "mooshy" according to Natalie), the main item we were seeking was out of stock, and of course it was crowded.

This is what we went for, it is a little highchair for Natalie so she can get off her make-shift booster of phonebooks, and we can put Brady into the regular booster seat, and get rid of the highchair we have now. Of course, they won't have any for at least 2 weeks, so we will have to go up again. Better start another list!

But, we did pick up a few things that I am pleased with.

A cute play rug I have been wanting for a while now. I love it because it is soft colors instead of the ones you normally see that are primary colors with black roads. Plus an added bonus was that it was only $15!!Small cardboard storage boxes to help pretty up my craft room. I only bought one set, and now I NEED more. They are so pretty and handy!
And, last but not least a super cute, table top ironing board so I don't have to lug out my huge one into the limited space I have when I want to iron one teensy bit of material. That was getting old! And the best part about this one is that it was $3! you can't beat that!

A beautiful scene

I am learning that because of the fact that I moved around a lot as a child I have a tendency to get restless in the apartments that we rent. This apartment that we live in now has definitely had it's share of downers (roaches, lingering cat pee smell, fluctuating shower temperature, etc.), but when I walk outside to run to WalMart and I see this:
all those things seem to fade into the background. I dream of one day having a house on the water and for right now I will take my misty pond. The pictures don't do it justice, but when I saw the pond this morning it was just beautiful!

Window Seat

So, I may have mentioned before that we have a view of the river/lake... Well the kids absolutely love it and I often find them in the window gazing out there. I am not sure if this is just because I have made a little window seat for them, or if they, like me, LOVE the water. Whatever the reason, I have on numerous occasions found the kids looking so peaceful and innocent sitting on the trunk I have shoved in the corner actually being quiet and enjoying the scenery (whether they are actually looking at scenery or our weird neighbors I don't know). Here are a few of the candid (and some not so candid) pics I have gotten of my kids being peaceful (unless of course they are fighting over who gets to sit at the window!).

I think Natalie looks so pretty here.

Yes, Brady does have Nat's pink flip flops on here, but don't tell Keith I put a picture of it up! Brady was walking around in them all morning and every time they fell off his feet (read every time he got off or on to the trunk) he would hold them out to me and grunt at me which I learned was Brady speak for, "put these shoes back on my dainty toes Mama!" I would post an actual pic of Brady standing in the shoes, but then Keith might kill me!

Jackpot!

A few days ago when Keith took out the garbage he discovered a gate that leads back to the water (which we learned is a river) behind our house. Then yesterday we saw some guys drive back there and they went fishing. So we now have fishing access behind our apartment! Keith is very excited about this. This morning we actually saw some fish jumping and a crane flying around. It will be interesting to see if he is able to catch anything back there. I think this may boost his opinion of our new place, but he still hates the roaches!

Here is a better picture. You can tell we are really excited about this pond/river. It was really the huge selling point of this apartment for us. We realized we could never have something like this if we rented a house. Hopefully it will pay off and we will be able to get rid of the bugs.

Nothing to say...

So, the "big kids" are gone home, Keith is back in school, and life has really slowed down quickly for me and the kids. I am hoping now that all has settled down we will be able to begin some sort of routine (yeah, right) for our daily lives that will help me to do more things with the little kids rather than just playing at home all the time. We are slowly but surely getting the new apartment all unpacked. I think it is coming along pretty well. I am really begining to love this apartment, now if only we could get rid of the roaches (the roach sitings have greatly diminished, but we still live in fear of them) I would be perfectly happy here. Keith has issues with the apartment, like lack of storage, no silverware drawer, and the contstantly fluxuating temperature of our shower (never the same temp for more than say...30 seconds). I can live with these though and I like the lack of storage because that means I have an excuse to buy organizational things, and I love any reason to buy bins and boxes and baskets and whatever else to make an area all neat and organized. My next big project is the craft room/office/sunroom, when that is all fixed up I will take pictures of it all and post them here for all to see.

Here is a crappy picture of the view from the best seat in the house, the rocking chair by the window.

BUGS!

Aargh! I just took my break and I had to kill 2 roaches! One of which was in my bathroom! This makes me SO mad. I hate bugs and in our old place we never had a problem with them. First thing tomorrow I am going to complain and try to get some sort of solution going. I do not want to live in fear that every time I walk into a dark room and turn on the light I will see skittering! I just can't do it! GROSS!!!

The Big Game!!

So, tonight we are finally going to the game. With all the commotion of moving and unpacking the last few days have flown by and it was Thursday before we knew it!! The apartment is really coming along. Kelli came over last night and forced me to unpack the kitchen. She was right, it was nice to wake up to an unpacked kitchen! (thank you Kelli!!) Now I just have to unpack everything else. This apartment is significantly bigger, but there is less storage area, so I may end up having to unpack everything.

So, I am having a moral dilemma. Keith and I told Natalie forever ago that she was coming to the game with us. Keith and I thought nothing of it and were totally prepared to take her and have a great family activity (minus Brady). But, on Sunday someone put a little seed of doubt in my head about how hard it will be to keep her occupied and content during the whole 6 hours that will be the game experience. So now I do not know what to do. Do I take her and risk not being able to actually watch the game that I have been looking forward to for months or do I leave her at home and risk hurting her feelings and in turn end up lying to her about it? These are the questions that haunt me!! Any advice would be appreciated!

moving...aargh!!!

I just wanted to do a quick post to update everyone and let you all know that we are still alive! We were supposed to move in to our new apartment on Saturday, but Friday night when we did a quick walk through of our new abode we realized that the carpet was too gross for words. So needless to say we had to get the carpet cleaned or changed. This wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that all of our stuff was boxed and ready for a Saturday move. Our phone and Internet was also disconnected and set up at the new place (this is why I haven't been able to post until now) and now we couldn't move in until Wednesday. So here it is Monday afternoon and Keith, Jason, and I are here cleaning up and trying to see if we can't rid our new apartment of all traces of its previous inhabitants. As we look around the apartment we are seeing more and more things wrong with it. (For example, the kitchen has NO drawers for the silverware. There is not one single drawer that is bigger than 6 inches wide!! How am I supposed to deal with this?!)

Any who, I need to keep cleaning, but I wanted to touch bases and let everyone know that I will be sending out a mass email with our new home phone and address, until then if you need us use my cell phone. Please wish us luck in turning this new place into our new home!!