Mod Podge fun

I am participating in Mod Pogse mania over at This is the Year. I posted this right before Grant was born. Sad to say we still need to hang the letters on the wall!!

I feel like we haven't gotten to do much for this baby that is just his. Caroline was our first and so that was exciting. Grayson was the first boy was everything was new. I feel like poor Grant is just getting all leftovers or something. I know babies don't know or care, it is just a different feeling with #3. He is inheriting Grayson's room. We did get a new crib but are using the same bedding. I decided to try getting those wooden letters with his name and covering them with scrapbook paper to match his room. I thought it would make it a little more personal. Unfortunately the day I decided to delve into it our internet was down and I couldn't look for instructions. Well, here is what I did:


Painted the letters white first so that if anything showed through it would be white.

Then I traced around the letters leaving about 1/2 inch around the outside and cut the letters out of the paper. I put the mod podge on the front of the letter and pressed the paper down, trying to keep from getting bubbles. Then I turned it over so the back was facing me. I didn't take a picture of the next part....but I cut little pieces all around the edges so that I could fold them up onto the letters. I used my finger to spread the Mod Podge onto the paper and back of the letters. I know I am so bad for not taking pictures but here is the back of 2 of the letters so you can kinda see how I did the back.


I had to let the back sides dry before turning over and putting the top coat on.I painted the front and sides with the mod podge and let it dry. Here is how it turned out: Now I just need to attach the ribbon to the back and hang them up. That will happen sometime...not sure when :) He will be here by Monday night after all! I will post pictures once we have it up on the wall.

More Cleaning!!

Well, I guess the nesting is continuing! Yesterday was my last full day at home with only 2 kiddos! I took advantage and cleaned out the kitchen cabinets that were a MESS! You know the tupperware overflowing and kids sippy cups falling out when you open the doors. Of course i didn't think to take before pics of the sippy cup caninet but lets just say it wasn't pretty :) Here it is in all it's glory now:

The "tupperware" cabinet was a big mess. It was all just thrown in there. The top shelf houses often used spices etc. I actually reorganized it some more after this picture and made room for the crockpot on the top shelf where the corelle bowls are. I use the crockpot all the time but don't like it sitting on the counter. I had housed it above the fridge, but figured I should move it where it is easier to put away!

BEFORE:

And After:

It is hard to tell in these pictures but everything is stacked by shape and I threw away a ton of lids with no bowls and bowls with no lids! Much easier to find things!!

If this baby doesn't come soon, who knows what I will organize next!

Where I've been...

New post coming soon, with pictures! I have been a little preoccupied and haven't been good at updating. I promise pictures soon....

Still Nesting....

Well, if you wondered what I meant when I said we had been doing stuff around the house....

Grayson moved into Caroline's room at the end of January to get ready for Baby Grant. That left us 2 rooms to re-do. First here is Grant's room. We left the paint the same and the bedding but moved a dresser for a changing table into the room. I organized his closet and had to go through all the baby things that were in the attic. Here it is...

Looks like we are ready for a new baby!! This made it very real!!

The cradle will be going in our room but we are keeping it in his room for now. Thanks Ma for the pretty bedding for the cradle. We got this cradle for $50 at Once Upon a Child. We love it!

Next, we had to get Caroline and Grayson's room done. Sorry no before's but it had flowers and her name. Really cute but too girly for Grayson! We painted and hit up IKEA for some new bedding. Here is the finished result!

With moving them into the same room, we had to put both of their things in the same closet. WHOA! Big Job, but I think we got it pretty organized. It seems to be working well so far.

We had to move more toys into the playroom because they no longer have their own rooms. WHOA again! Toy overload!! We got some more shelves and here is what it looks like now!

Lastly since I was organizing all the closet's I had to move on to the pantry. Again, sorry no before's I had good intentions but started tearing into it and forgot! Here it is all organized with room for baby stuff (bottles, binky's etc.).

Well, we had to show our house today and so the whole thing is clean and organized. It would be a great time to add a baby!! Hopefully soon, but not before Saturday...I am going to an all day crop and plan to finish Grayson's baby book.

Valentine's Day

We have been really busy trying to get things done around the house and haven't had time to do much of anything. Grayson has been sick since Wednesday and so that has limited our activities as well. Today I took Caroline with me to the grocery by herself for a little Mommy and daughter time. When we got home we made Valentine's Pizza. The kids had a lot of fun. We didn't get pictures of the mess they made with the leftover dough. I think that was their favorite part! Caroline was instructing Grayson on how to roll it out. Anyway here are some pictures of our pizza making!! Happy Valentine's Day!

Nesting

Well, I guess I am in that nesting phase of late pregnancy. I have been cleaning out closets and cabinets and trying to get organized. Maybe it's just because I am not normally the most organized person nor do I enjoy housework. I am so tired of everything seeming overwhelming though that I guess i figure I better get some routine before Baby #3. I took some pictures of the closets etc. but my camera is taking fuzzy pictures :( Last night we added shelves to the toy room and organized it. Then I attacked under my bathroom cabinets. I am so bad lately about taking pictures and I didn't take any before pics. I can tell you that I threw a whole garbage bag away from under the sink of lotions and potions and makeup that was like 10 years old. Yes, I said 10 years!! It feels good to have it all out. Here are some pictures of the afters's. Labels will be making their way to the fronts of the baskets! I will re-take pictures of all the other organizational projects and post later!

Marriage

I just felt led to share this.... Marriage is hard!! Duh! We watched the movie Fireproof last night and if you haven't seen you need to whether you are married or not. God's idea of marriage is so different than what the world has turned it into! When we marry someone we make a covenant with God and our spouse that we are choosing that person for LIFE. It doesn't matter how hard it gets its for life! We are not in marriage for someone else to make US happy but to grow as much as we can and to help the other person grow as well. We all have times when we feel that our spouse doesn't deserve for us to be extra nice or even deserve our love! God loved all of us enough to die for us even while we were still sinners!! That means we don't deserve it but he does it anyway becuase he LOVES us! We don't always "feel" love but we choose it everyday! God just reaffirmed this to me as I was reading Sandy Mae of Like a Warm Cup of Coffee this AM.

Can we just soak a magnificent truth in awhile? The truth that we have a God who is so in love with us that He gave us a relationship (marriage) on earth to show just how faithful He is.Marriage is hard! Can I get an AMEN?! Guess what must be harder? Creating people in your own image and having them leave you for someone or something else. Having them completely rebel against you. Not only do they rebel, but they do horrible things to each other and all that you have created.Imagine loving someone and they left you heart broken.God's heart must have been broken when Adam and Eve trusted a snake over the goodness of God. His heart breaks now for those who still don't trust His goodness.I don't know what you would do if your spouse cheated on you, said horrible untruths about you, and/or did wicked things to your family, but I know what God did when all these things happened to Him.He came to earth to tell His beloved to come back to Him. Then, to show His beloved how faithful He was even though they weren't, He died on a cross naked and shamed to take their place...our place...He got what we deserved.Then...He showed His power - He came back to life. He wants you to join Him - whether that be a new life with Him, believing Him and giving your life to Him, or a renewed life.

He's waiting. Go.

“Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It’s mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love on display.” John Piper, The Momentary Marriage

I hope those of you who are married find some encouragement in the rough times in the way GOd loves us! If you aren't married keep in mind what God's picture of marriage is. Yes there are wonderful times and marriage is great but know you are choosing to make a COVENANT and not a CONTRACT that you can get out of when it gets hard!

DVD Organization

Here is my post for Pretty Organized Palace and Shabby Nest's Conquering Kid's Clutter Party.
Hope you all get some great ideas on how to organize all the "stuff" that comes with kids!

We had so many kids DVD's in our TV cabinet. There were too many to all fit in the cabinet and the kids were always getting into them and wanting to play with them. We have had several casualties to the kids stepping on them or scratching them etc. Well I decided to ditch the cases and store them in sleeves.....Here is the pile of empty cases....
These are the sleeves I found at The Container Store. They can go in any 3 ring binder and I had several empty ones around the house. $9.99 for 80 sleeves (Well 80 slots really). Here are all those DVD's in one binder.....so much less to store!!

I hated to get rid of all the cases but I knew we should. Half of them were broken anyway. I didn't want to get rid of all the covers though. I took the covers out and punched holes in them and put them in a seperate binder. They are in roughly the same order as the DVD's. I thought that way the kids can look at the covers and pick the movie and then we will get the DVD. It is hard for them to pick the movie without seeing the cover. All those DVD's, over 90 of them fit in the pink binder and all the covers in the blue one......Much better!!

Snow Day!

We were stuck at home for much of last week as it was snowing and we had freezing rain. We got stuck in the driveway on Friday trying to get out so we just stayed home. I didn't take the kids out because I was home by myself and didn't have the energy to tackle the first snow with the kids! Well, Mark was home Sat. so we promised them they could go outside. I am pretty sure this is the first time Grayson has been out in the snow to play and Caroline was out once right before Grayson was born. Not sure how last winter passed without us going out to play in it. Anyway, they had a lot of fun. Grayson kept taking his gloves off and crying because the snow was so cold. It was VERY cold yesterday (less than 20) so we didn't stay out long. It's almost 40 today....if Caroline ever takes a nap maybe will go out again. These days Caroline and naps are pretty much wishful thinking though :)