New Rooms!

We've been working hard the past couple of months trying to get everything ready and make room for this new baby. The first item of business was to clean out the study which was a HUGE project. We finally got it cleared out and then were able to decorate it and make it Jake's new room. I was worried that giving Jake his own room would make him feel isolated or left out, but fortunately he was so excited about it. For the first few days he would just sit in there with his big bucket of animals and line them up on the dresser and shelves! Jon and I made the frame around the big animal map and I found the dresser and bed on Craig's List so the whole project was fairly inexpensive which is always a plus! We had the room wired for a ceiling fan so as soon as we get it installed we can lose the ugly floor lamp!

We then moved Max out of his room and into Nathan's room so they now share together. We didn't do much to this room except to add pictures of Max, his letters and some new sports pictures. Max is obsessed with sports so this is the perfect room for him!

We moved our big Ikea cube organizer out of the study and into the toy room. It's nice because it fits so many of their toys and so far everything has stayed organized- we'll see how long it lasts!

Jon and I collect fun frames from all of the places that we visit so I put those in the hallway and bought this mirror for the wall.

Across from the mirror and frames is this big desk/hutch system that we bought to organize all of the stuff that used to be in the study. I was amazed that we fit almost everything in it. I did buy a big four drawer metal filing cabinet off of Craig's List that we put in the garage for all of our paperwork.

Once all of that was finished, we were finally able to start on the nursery! It was another huge project, but I'm so excited about how it turned out!!!

This is what you see when you first walk in...

I ordered the circles and birds off of Etsy so that they coordinated with the bedding. I of course had to get a chandelier just in case the room wasn't girly enough already!

I found this headboard on Craig's List (can you tell yet that I love Craig's List?!) and painted it green to match the dresser.

I painted these frames that used to be brown and am going to frame Maggie's newborn pictures in them.

I love this Pottery Barn bedding and the coordinating pink polka dot curtains!

I painted the dresser green and splurged on these light pink knobs at Anthropology!

And now all that's left to do is wait for this little girl to get here!

Five more days and counting...

Random

Just a few random things from the last couple of months...

One of my goals before this baby gets here was to get Max potty trained. After months of screaming every time we even mentioned the word 'potty' he literally just woke up one day and started telling us that he needed to go to the bathroom. He's had a few accidents here and there since then, but overall he's doing awesome! It's going to be so nice to just have one in diapers now!

For Christmas I sewed this apron for Jon's sister, Emily. For those of you who know me, I am not a seamstress so I was excited about how well it turned out. A special thanks to Jon's mom who helped me out while we were in Delta!

The boys have spent the rest of their Christmas break playing with their new toys. Two of their favorites were Nathan's play school set and the mosaic legos that Grandma sent!

We made a trip to Chuck E Cheese's after Jake had a good week at school. He was loving this horse ride!

The day of our Valentine's party Jon had to go to Roadshow practice leaving me home with the boys for an hour and a half trying to get everything ready. This is what I walked down to that morning- look at those guilty faces! Needless to say after I sent this picture to Jon he came home early from his practice!

With a little over a month to go before this baby gets here, Nathan decided to make a pink countdown chain to count down the days to her arrival. It's hard to believe that there are only 6 chains left!

On President's day the boys and I were just home hanging out. Max and Jake were in the backyard so I left the sliding glass door open so I could hear them. I walked downstairs and heard way louder than I should inside the house the chirping of a bird. And then I saw it and freaked out! This is the second time we have had a bird in the house. I yelled for Nathan to come help me and after a while of it flying frantically around the house Nathan finally shooed the bird out the open door. Jake and Max were a little traumatized and didn't want to play outside anymore because there were birds out there! I had to explain to them that birds are only scary when they're inside the house, not outside!

Today was the 100th day of school! Nathan's class celebrated with a visit from 'Zero the Hero' himself and then they had a party where they made a 100 crown, 100 glasses, did 100 exercises, etc. I got to volunteer for it and I was impressed with how many 100 day activities and crafts they came up with!

Jake has been struggling behaviorly at school lately and so each week we set up an incentive for him to work towards if he gets his 20 stickers. Last week he had his first good week in a long time and so his reward was to go to Sea World on Friday since they were off of school. We were all going to go, but then my doctor told me that I need to take it easy and not walk around a lot because they are worried about my water breaking. So Jon decided that he would take all 3 boys down there by himself! I was very impressed seeing as though that he won't even take them all to the store by himself. I put the kids all in red shirts hoping this would help him keep track of them and I think it worked since he didn't lose anyone!

They actually had a great time! They stayed for a few hours and saw 3 shows which the boys loved. The nice thing is that now we have passes for the whole year so we can go back as a family after the baby is born.

I love this picture of Jake up on Jon's shoulders!

Notice Jake up in the background? Apparently he didn't want to sit as close as Nathan and Max did so he just sat up there the whole time during the show. What a funny kid!

I think that's all of the random updates I can think of for now! Only a couple more posts and I'm all caught up!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The day before Valentine's Day we all donned our pink and red for church so we tried hard to get a family picture when we got home. I guess we'll keep trying!

Max was having nothing to do with this picture!

Another belly shot- are you starting to understand how uncomfortable I am? The baby was measuring 8 lbs. 4 oz. with 2 weeks to go. I swear she is going to be 10 lbs. Thank goodness I have c-sections!

Whose gut is bigger?!!!

Valentine's Day was on Monday and so I set up a treasure hunt for each of the boys to find their Valentine presents when they got home from school. They thought it was so fun! I did make the mistake of having them go up and down the stairs a lot and I was seriously out of breath trying to follow them around with the video camera!

Classic Max face...

The boys and I heart attacked Jon so that when he got home from work there were over 50 hearts with nice messages written on them hidden around the house. The boys also set up a treasure hunt for him using the clues from each of their hunts. They really love their dad!

Grandma Juli stopped by with a bag full of kettle korn and chocolate for all of us!

Grandma Lorelei made these pillow cases for the boys. She's making them for each holiday and they love them!

We did our Valentine mailboxes again this year where we left little notes and surprises for each other throughout the month. It's a fun way to get us in the Valentine spirit!

The boys each came home from school with big bags full of Valentine's from all of their classmates (which I forgot to take pictures of), but by the end of the day I think we were all sugared out with all of the treats.

I've always loved Valentine's Day and it's all the more fun to share it with the people in my life who I love more than anything!

Happy 33rd Birthday, Jon!

It's really hard to believe that Jon and I are well into our thirties now. We are an established family with a job, almost four kids, callings, etc. We are busy all day long and even when we finally sit down to watch a show or two at night we are usually working on something that needs to be done. We have wrinkles, we worry about how to help our children be the best that they can be and we have to pay a lot of taxes! We are official and sometimes its weird that time is going by so quickly. Before we know it we are going to be sending kids to college and on missions and planning weddings. It's weird. But we are loving every step of the way!

That being said, we were all excited to celebrate Jon turning another year older on February 13th. His parents even made a trip down for the occassion! His birthday was on a Sunday and we have 9:00 church so needless to say there was no breakfast in bed, but he did get his traditional balloons and song when he woke up.

He then went downstairs to see all of the decorations that the boys put up and the signs that they made for him.

A quick after church picture with all of the balloons!

After church we actually had breakfast for dinner which was Jon's request. I was loving him because it was such an easy meal to make! We then just hung out with his parents that afternoon. Jon and his dad decided to have a wrestling match in our family room! I'm not sure who won, but it wasn't pretty to watch!

Finally we opened presents and Jon got $100 worth of $2 bills from his parents and lots of clothes from me and the boys which he desperately needed!

Jon requested homemade cinnamon cake for dessert and I'm pretty sure we devoured the whole thing in one sitting! It's one of our favorites!

Nathan being silly with the birthday hats!

Happy Birthday, Jon!

Thanks for being the best husband, dad and son that anyone could ask for. We love you!!!