Our house and it's changes

We moved into this house about two and a half years ago.  When I look back at pictures I wonder what we were thinking, it was the cleanest place we saw so maybe that was the selling point for us.  Anyway we have done what feel like a lot of work on this house and still have a lot to do, but I thought that I would at least post pictures of the before and afters that we have so far.  We haven't got the carpet done yet but we are waiting for one more room to be done before we can do that, yah.

So one thing we did was take out all the doors and put in new ones.  Just doing that made the house feel years younger.  I thought you could see the doors here in this picture but you can really see them very good.  The railing also got a little spray job, but that is going to be replace since the kids can fit under it and Elly can fit between some of the bars.

 

This is the look at the doors after.  I love this fix.

In the kitchen we had this wall with built in shelves that went all the way to the ceiling, which is vaulted so there is no way I can reach them.  I had Jay take that out and just make it a normal wall.  He has also had to skim coat all the walls and put a new texture on them because the texture that we had was so rough it was almost impossible to paint.

So this is the kitchen.which isn't finished but is at a good stopping point for a while.  I have got the painting done in here. We replaced the sliding door with this one that has the blinds in it.  I love this door.  The wall that Jay replace is the tan wall to the left.  The next thing is the cabinets and floor but we are waiting for that.

The bathroom upstairs also got a little face lift from this to...

this.  I love having a husband that can help me with this stuff.  Jay tiled the bathroom for me and I love it.  He did a great job. 

My brothers made the towel hooks for me and I love them better than a rod because the kids can hang their towel on these easier than the rod. 

The down stairs bathroom was our first fix up because we had a surprise leek in it when we moved in.  Jay had to rip out the shower wall and ceiling to fix that so then we just did the whole bathroom except for the floor which will get replaced when the kitchen floor does.  Here is the before and...(brace yourself because it is a little bright)

the after.  I do love the color though.  It is also the laundry room and since doing the laundry isn't my favorite thing I wanted the room to at least be cheery.  Jay couldn't beleive that I did that to his man bathroom, but the color has grown on him too.

Our bedroom as been the last room to get done and Jay was very excited for this to be taken care of.  No he was not a fan of the butterflies all over the room.  The kids thought it was great and it did bring tears to their eyes when I told them I was going to paint it, but they got over it.

The built in shelve is the other side of the ones in the kitchen, so now it is a normal wall.

It is nice to sleep in an adults room again.  Jay did built me one shelve above the bed which I like way better than what we use to have.

Here is an up close look at the shelve and I also the blocks my sister made for me that I wanted her to see I was finally able to put up since our room is done.

This picture is kind of dark so sorry.  Jay didn't like the chocolate color I picked either but now he likes it.  One day we will have a bedroom set that matches.

I did the kids room but all we had to do in there was paint so I am not posting pictures of that. 

Now I am just waiting for him to get a weekend where he wants to help me do the family room.  Houses are just a never ending project, but I love to see the way you can change it.

Auto pilot

We have had sick kids at our house four almost two weeks and very little sleep.  I am starting to feel like I am in auto pilot mode, like something else is controling me. The bad news is the kid that is the easiest to have sick was only sick over night.  The good news is that the other two are on the end of it.  Hopefully we start getting sleep at our house again. 

It all started with a flu bug that then went to couching, sore throats and fevers. 

The only nice thing about sick kids is that most of the time they sleep alot the bad thing is that it is in the day and then at night they don't sleep.  Mason slept all day on saturday and most of sunday, by monday he was wanting to play again.

Elly in all of this decided to get teeth.  Two molers came in and she still has four more teeth that are so close to being through.  She has been misreable and pretty cranky.

Thank goodness it is coming to an end.  We really have been very lucky this year.  This is the first sickness the kids have had all winter.  I am very grateful for that and grateful the sleepless nights are over, this mom is ready for some sleep and ready to turn off the auto pilot.

Kids say the funniest things.

As I was finishing giving Elly a bath today and getting her dressed she was crying and mad.  She is getting six teeth right now so she has been so fun the last few days.  Mason was sitting there watching me get her ready.  He has this good idea so he tells me, "Mom you should feed her your garments then she will be happy."
I asked him why he wanted me to feed my garments to her and he simply told me then she wouldn't be hungry and sad anymore.
I thought that was interesting that he thought the whole time I was nursing Elly I was feeding her my garments.  It was funny to hear what he had been thinking all this time.  Kids are pretty funny.

Our Favorite toy

This train set has been one of our favorite toys and worth the money.  All the peices were bought through out the years when they would go on sale.  It is great because it is a wood toy and it makes the kids use their brain to set it up.  I love this toy and when people have asked me if I hate having to put it together for the kids I have to say no.  They put it together and if it needs some fixing then I help.  The boys have spent many hours playing with this train set.

Our Christmas presents

This year my brother had our family so he made us these neat shelves and hooks.  My sister has been wanting to see them and this seems to be the easiest way to show them to her.  I really love this one.  I had Jay hang it up as soon as we got home and now it is covered with our coats and jackets.

On one end of each shelve is Jay's grandpa's brand...

and on the other end is my dad's brand.  So they are kind of special to us.

These two I haven't put up yet because I am still deciding between two spots.

My brother also made each child their own hooks with their names on them.

The boys love them.  Thanks McKay for the presents.

Jay

I know that Jay will love that I posted this but I am so excited that he finally got this taken care of.  He had a cist in his check that we have had taken out before so this is the second time and hopefully the last time.  The doctor let me stand right there and watch them cut it out.  It was pretty neat to watch.  I wish we would have video it though so that Jay could have seen how much stuff was in it.  It was pretty big.  The stiches are out and hopefully he doesn't have to do that again.

The perfect snow

When you are picking out a peice of snow to eat it has to be just the perfect one.  So Mason stares at it for a minute until he finds the peice that is perfect.

Then show mom that this is the one.

Then there is nothing left to do but to eat it.

Cram it in and enjoy.  Oh the good old days of eating the snow and not caring about it.

Random pictures

We really haven't had much happen over the last few weeks so these are just random pictures that I have taken of the kids.  Tyler has such pretty blue eyes and it seems like them have seem more blue lately to me.

Tyler is always willing to smile for me when I want him to.  I love that about him.

Look at the size of the tougne on that kid.  He thought that he was being funny because I wanted him to smile and these were what he gave me.

Mason makes me laugh when he plays with things because if they are suppose to be rotating he makes them rotate, like a ball, in this case it was cows that were rolling through the air.   

He has such a mischevious smile, but it is so cute.

Elly just loves the bottom step.  She loves to just sit there and watch what is going on.  She stands up then sits down and just does it over and over.

She is still just loving her thumb way to much.  One of these days the blankets she loves will just have to go and then hopefully the thumb sucking will stop.  She most of the time only sucks her thumb if she has her blanket.   She looked so cute just hanging out on our bed.

She really know how to make you feel bad for her.  She can get the tears running down her face so fast, it really is impressive. 

She looked so cute though I had to get a picture of her.

Elly's One year old

Elly has turned one year old.  I think that she is a beautiful little girl.  We all have so much fun with her.  She is a funny goofy little thing.  She figured out how to walk a few weeks before her birthday and is now pretty much running all around the house like her brothers.  She has learned to put up with getting tackled and loves to give hugs.  We have found out that she is a flirt.  She will smile at the boys until they start looking at her and then she hides her head, as soon as the coast is clear she is smiling at them again.  We have loved having a girl.  She has finally got enough hair to do a ponytail on the top of her head, so the hair is finally coming. 

I decided to try and get a picture of her little feet just for fun and I think that it turned out pretty cute.  She wasn't very good for me so this was the best I could do.

The boys were so good when I wanted to get a picture of them and Elly is a different story.  She doesn't like to sit still so I can do it.  I hope when I take her to get her pictures done that they can get me some good pictures of her.

This pictures was after she was having a crying episode, because I wanted her to sit and be good, she layed down and just looked at me so cute.  I was surprised that I got it before she moved.

Just for my information Elly is 19 lbs. 4 oz. and 28 1/4 inch tall.