Another Finished Project!

After the former dining room was done, my eyes were set on the also terribly boring half bath on our first floor. This was seriously like going into a box with a toilet. No character and a huge opportunity for improvement...or as I like to call it: my next DIY victim!

With my new miter saw skills, I was determined to make this a bathroom that would last through the roughness of three children and that had a hint of character. I did a ton of research, yet again, to figure out the right type of wood, how to make it look a little more decorative with specialty moudling pieces, and what exactly I was getting myself into (which I should have known...this was about 10 times the caulking I had to do in the reading room!). Just Google wainscoating and you can get lost for hours!

We had so much leftover paint that I thought it may tie in nicely and I love the contrast of the dark color and white walls. I feel like the walls need some hangings, but I'm also a fan of a minimalist look, too. So, here you go!

PS...this is why I've made nearly NO cookies lately!

Dining Room Makeover

I no longer have a dining room. Goodbye. Adios! It was easy to breakup with the drab, cookie cutter, completely disfunctional, who-needs-a-dining-room-anyway room. Non-traditional, I know. But seriously...the table required dusting once a week or else my kids starting drawing it it. It collected stuff that didn't have a home. It was BORING. I was over it.

Plus, my hands were looking for ways to get dirty and my brain had a vision. Pinterest boards inspired me and I was off. The lumber yard probably thought I was crazy after the four trips I made there...my math may have been a little off! I'm happy to say that I am beyond happy with how it turned out. I used a nail gun for the first time, bought my first nail punch, caulked what seemed like miles of moulding, and had a blast making this room come to life. I officially have the DIY bug!

The curtains were so much fun and crazy easy. $25 IKEA plain curtains (for the pair!!) and a stencil from Royal Design Studios was all it took. I. LOVE. THEM.

The wall gallery were all things we had other than 6 frames from IKEA (also very cheap). I framed my favorite art from the kiddos, hung tickets from the Colts game where Tim and I met and our first date to a Pacers game, a page from one of my childhood books, Tim's Masters of the Universe Book, and some other odds and ends. It's special...it's us.

Rather than gathering in these 150 square feet twice a year for 30 minutes at a time, we're going to snuggle our babies on the comfy, apple-green chaise, and spend weekend mornings in our jammies together.

What do you think??

BEFORE

 

AFTER!!!!



He does the part I can't stand!

Caulking and I were friends for a long, long time in this room

Cookie Check-In

I swear I'm alive here and you know how I can prove it?? More cookies. Always coming up with more cookies. Cookies for a sweet gal in Texas, and one of Tim's awesome cousins, who enjoyed her last night out before tying the night last weekend. The UPS Store clerk blushed a little when he realized what I was about to ship!

More Cookies!

In between the craziness of the Kegley house I've managed to squeeze in a couple more batches of colorful sweetness! I was super excited to make some for the couple we're acting as a surrogate for. She's throwing a country chic wedding shower. So cute! I love her color scheme and was really happy with how they came out.

Lilly and I worked together (well sorta!) to make some little bees to thank her and Sam's teachers a "buzzilion" for taking such good care of then during day. She wasn't so excited to give them away!!

Have I Told You I'm Crazy?!

I was asked by a friend of a friend this week to make some cookies for her son's birthday party. I have a hard time saying no to the chance to make cookies so of course I immediately agreed!

Then, I found out that the friend of a friend is one of the top bakers for wedding cakes in Indianapolis. She needed a dozen cookies. Can't be that hard right? I was sure it would just be some basketballs, soccer balls, or something similar. Not so much...

She needed Catwoman, Batman, the Joker, and the Riddler. Holy crap! She sent me a copy of her son's party invitation and I about lost it. I even showed Tim the invitation and he said "babe, you can't do that!" The challenge was on!

I LOVE the way they came out. I'm not going to lie, it took me about six hours total over a four day span to do 24 cookies (had to make room for mess ups!). She loved the way they came out too and I'll be doing more orders for her in the future. Yay!

Watch Us Grow

In true form of never sitting still I have added (and checked off) another project on my to-do list. I've been extra excited about this one as it will hold long term nostalgia for our family.

Pinterest inspired me, although the post didn't come with a tutorial. No fear here as I don't shy away from a challenge when it comes to DIY anymore!

Luckily, this project was a cheap one and pretty quick too. All it took was a 1x8 board, some stain, polyurethane, a little pinstriping tape from the auto store, mailbox letters, and two screws. $15 total! That makes for a happy budget!

We hung it up this morning and quickly added birthday measurements for each of our three munchkins. I wanted to cry as time has just gone by so quickly and they have changed so much!

We have a few other projects going on in the house. Pretty excited especially about our former dining room! Before and after coming soon…

How Do You?

Tonight I vacuumed. My entire basement. Which is not finished. I vacuumed the concrete floor. It looks amazing. Ha!

Earlier this week I went through a couple dozen boxes in the basement and made a Goodwill run. Random crap that hadn't been used in forever. Bye bye!

Tomorrow I'll probably vacuum the rest of the house, wash down my bathroom cabinets, organize the pantry and fridge, go through each of the munchkins dressers, or re-organize the playroom for the 1,417th time.

What am I getting at, you ask?? These crazy activities, my friends, are my coping mechanisms...strange, but true.

When my house is overly organized and clean you can just about guarantee something's up. It's my way of feeling in control on out-of-control days. It's my way of clearing out junk that's clogging up my space and making unnecessary messes. And its my way of feeling productive when I feel like I can never get anything accomplished.

The last few weeks have been crazy. Work has been demanding. Tim is gone so much with football. Surrogacy stuff has been challenging. And I get lost in it all. Enough venting...this is life as a working mommy of three in my little section of the world. I wouldn't trade it, but it ain't easy either!

How do you cope?

Excuse me while I go clean the trashcans...

Happy Weekend!

My Little Blondie

I think with having three children, the milestones seem to creep up on me faster and faster. Preschool for Grant last week and now Sammy's first haircut. Eek!!!

I'm definitely thankful we have two boys because if I had more than one girl I think I would completely fail at trying to figure out their hair! The barbershop is just so much easier!!!

Can you believe how much older he looks!?

Off He Goes

Tuesday was Grant's first day at his new preschool! He's been to a preschool type of program for the last two years because of his speech delay, but this will be his first year in a "community" program. He seemed pretty pumped when I dropped him off and picked him up the first day. When I asked him about his day yesterday he mentioned he has a girlfriend in class. He couldn't seem to remember her name :) They grow up too fast!

Way Late

This is yet another sign of how completely behind I am on posts, but when I find the time (ha!) I'll get caught up. Happy (extremely belated) Father's Day to all the papas, papaws, daddys, and dadas I know :) This was our gift to the amazing Daddy in our house (thanks to Pinterest)! We LOVE you!

Down on the Farm

You all know I love any excuse to roll out and decorate some sugar cookies!! Look how cute these turned out for a 3 year old's farm-themed birthday party. His mom had the great idea of putting them on sticks to have them in cupcakes...green grass icing for the cows and chocolate (mud) icing for the pigs. Adorable! Pictures aren't the greatest as they were taken on my phone, but you get the idea :)

Moving Along!

In case you missed it the first time, check out my second blog, Faith Hope Surrogacy, for some exciting updates! Things are about to get rolling!!

Me Too, Me Too!

When I get up in the morning, look back at the bed, and see this I want to jump right back in! I can't comprehend what it would feel like to sleep in and haven't been able to do such a glorious thing on a regular basis for quite some time. Years, in fact. Tim and I do take turns every other day getting up with Sam the Man who lately thinks 4:30 is a great time to start hanging out. Let's hope Sam starts appreciating sleep soon!!

Pinterest

I'm not going to sit here and rave on the crazy world of Pinterest, however it does pull on the heartstrings of the ultra organized mother, interior decorator, and fashionista I want to be when I grow up. It pretty much is a glorified in Google image search, but it helps me keep things in their place!

Anyway, I've had a stack of old picture frames in my garage since we moved eight months ago and one was lucky enough to find a home inside last month. A little spray paint and chalkboard paint and voilà! I'm hoping I find some more creative juices to erase what I have and end up with something else fun :)

Happy Monday!

One of these days I'll get around to showing you all the fun we had in the Outer Banks. Until then, here's a quick one to wish you a happy Monday from Grant and mommy!

The Last Hoorah

Well, it finally happened… Sam nursed for the last time earlier this week. You all know I have a little attachment to nursing my babies and I'm still a little emotional over it all being done with for good. I loved every stinkin minute of nursing my babies even on the tough days because it's time with them that I will never forget.

Now don't let me fool you, I'm glad to have my boobs back to myself but they're not much to look at anymore!! Let's just say the girls are not nearly the girls they used to be. They've been through a lot over the last few years! I'm having flashbacks to my prepubescent years waiting for anything to show up on my chest!! Oh well, that's what Victoria's Secret is for, right? Still wouldn't trade the time my babies for anything :)

It seems like tradition in my house to make one last donation of breast milk after the three have each weaned. They don't care for my breast milk in a sippy cup for some reason and I always seem to have so much left over. So, off to the milk bank I go. Over 250 ounces to hopefully help other families and their preterm babies get healthy!!

If you, or any moms you know, have extra breastmilk hanging around in their freezer, make sure to let them know that they can donate to a local milk bank before pouring it down the drain!

Need a Smile?

I have so much to update! In the meantime, here's a little something from Sammy :)

My Boys!

LOVE LOVE LOVE them :)

Spilt Milk

Pumping has been my part time job for about the last 11 months and I'm about ready to say bye bye! I thought this was hilarious after I saw it on FB this morning. I'm so sad to see the quiet with Sammy in my arms changing, but happy to see him growing into a little guy too :)

Driveway Snack

Yep, pretty sure they're all gone, Sammy. Good thing Pringles are cheap at Aldi!

Big Girl Camera

After fighting with my cheap, does-the-job, Sony digital camera for about 6 years I gave into a good sale at Best Buy and took the plunge. I have my first big girl camera!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! If every one of my pictures turn out half as clear as this one did it will have been worth every penny. And this was only after playing with the camera (no manual reading yet) for about 10 minutes. Yay! Totally excited!

Mr. Mom

Ahhh, yes...it's that time of year again where I no longer have to get the kids ready by myself and load all three in the car every morning! Tim is done for the summer!!

He's a great, amazing, patient father and such an awesome playmate for our munchkins!

No more rushing around the house for me in the morning trying to maintain control :) Tim even brought breakfast into my office today! He's pretty great!

Cajun Cookin

We get to enjoy a little southern cooking tonight with great friends at their crawfish boil! I'm going to feel like I'm on NOLA again!

And what would a get together be without some sugar cookies to go along?

Have a great weekend!

Aldi Special

It's been a while since I've mentioned Aldi, but it's practically my favorite place to shop. Mostly because well - I hate shopping. So if I'm forced to fetch groceries to feed the hungry mouths in our little nest I would gladly go to Aldi first. It's no nonsense...no noisy advertising in your face, no fancy displays, no discount cards to dig out of my wallet, no temper tantrum producing toy aisles to avoid, no hype...just groceries. All at a killer price and for good quality. This is starting to sound like a paid advertisement!!!

Anyway, I was excited to find a new plastic contraption for the kids as if we didn't have enough already!? But, it was kinda fun to get something other than my usual staples of chocolate covered doughnuts, milk, and hummus. And as you can see, all three munchkins loved it. They're obsessed with water. Total score at Aldi today!! Hope you're all enjoying the amazing weather this week!

Young Athletes Round 2

Indiana Special Olympics has locally been putting on a special event, called Young Athletes, for preschool aged children for a handful of years and Grant was lucky enough to participate for the second time this past Friday with his class.

He seems to love running, jumping, spinning, or anything that involves being physical so this was right up his alley! Check out his form kicking balls...just be a natural! Nana drove all the way from Columbus to watch which also made his day!

During the opening ceremony they have each preschool class march in a parade with their class banner in front of the stadium's home stands. There were so many parents and family/friends there cheering the kids on. I teared up (good thing I had on sunglasses!) thinking of how lucky all of the kids were to have such supportive circles of people around them.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about that morning because it was a good reminder for me of how important it is build up your child. I'd like to think I do a decent amount of that, but I never want to lose focus of that. One of my love languages (from the 5 Love Languages book by Gary Chapman - GREAT read!) is words of affirmation. Grant and Lilly must be picking up on it - every now and then I'll hear them tell each other "good job" even for the simplest of tasks. At least one part of my parenting skills appears to be paying off :) At the end of the day, what I want for my children, is to feel like those preschoolers during the parade...knowing without a doubt in their minds that they always, always have their very own cheering section standing behind them every step of the way.

Proud of you buddy!