Home Sweet Home

Finally I'm posting some pictures of our home for all of you out-of-towners. We have LOVED being in our new house! Decorating has been more of a challenge then I thought. I was confident with my ability to decorate until we bought our first home and I began actually spending money on furniture and decor vs just making due with things that had been given to us. We honestly had never bought furniture before because of school and moving across the country and back. Also this house was completely beige. Every single room. It's been fun and challenging to have such a blank slate! I am feeling more and more confident and I love what I have done. It's still a work in progress but here's what we have so far.

For Ehlana's Room I chose lavender with black and white toile. Her dresser I found on Craig's list at a boutique and her lamp was a house warming gift from my mother-in-law. Ehlana loves her pretty purple room.

Jaxson's room is one of my favorite rooms in the house. My Aunt Kathy helped me pick the paint colors (and helped paint most of the rooms in my house.) I chose a "road trip" theme complete with maps and old licence plates.




Kids bathroom.

I am completely obsessed with the TV show Sarah's House on HGTV. The designer, Sarah Richardson, always chooses a fabric and designs a room around it. I have loved that idea and have found myself doing the same thing. Here's the chair fabric that inspired our Family Room.



Our formal living room/dining room has been the most challenging for me. I have gone through three different curtains and I have countless decorative pillows now living in a closet because I have changed my mind so much. I still have more to do (especially with the fireplace mantel.) I found this pillow fabric in the Ballard Designs catalog. I love their style! (But it's pretty pricey.) I found them for much less on Etsy and have designed this room around them. I have finally settled on curtains and I'm excited to keep adding to this room.

Getting Ready for Baby Jakob

I am 34 weeks pregnant. I have less then 5 weeks to go! I have leg cramps, heartburn, muscle aches, and I still throw up a couple times a week. I can't wait for this to be over! We have the baby room finished (I just need to get a little red side table) and his clothes are washed and in his closet. I need some diapers and things but I feel ready for this little guy to get here. The kids are really really excited. When we finished the baby's room Ehlana came in and said, "Where's baby, Jakob?" Steve is ready for me to feel better and see what his little boy will look like. We are all excited to hold him.

Here's his room.

My friends threw me a baby shower. Since it's my third baby I wanted it to just be with my close girlfriends. It was a lot of fun. I got some clothes and diapers. My mom made me this beautiful quilt. I will have to get more pictures from my friend, Heidi.

I went shopping with my mom to get some more preemie sized clothing. Judging from my other babies he will need them for the first month or so. When I was showing Steve the clothes I got he said, "I don't think he's going to be that big." I said, "These are preemie size for 0-5lbs. They don't make them any smaller then this!" We would both love a healthy, chubby baby but Jaxson was 5lbs 13 oz and Ehlana was only 6lbs 3oz. Steve and I both agree I look smaller then I did at the end of my other pregnancies so this one might be our smallest baby. (Although I think the bigger the better because that means less weight I have to loose!)
Here's a cute little outfit I got for him to come home from the hospital in.

We can't wait to meet you, Jakob!

Valentine's Day 2011

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite Holidays. Steve and I don't usually get each other gifts aside from candy and flowers. (Flowers for me, candy for him.) Instead we always enjoy going on a special date. This year Steve had some Huskies Basketball tickets from a patient of his and the game happened to be the week before Valentine's Day. My parents watched the kids and we went up to Seattle and visited my brother Dean who is a student at the University of Washington. We toured the institute building and visited his house. We then went to dinner and to the game. I'm not generally interested in sports but I do enjoy going to sporting events (especially if they are good) the game was really fun the Huskies crushed the other team. We came home to sleeping kids and a quiet house. What a wonderful night with my wonderful husband!
Valentines Day morning I invited some friends over for pancakes in their pajamas. My kids loved waking up to balloons and their friends coming over. That evening I made a delicious steak dinner complete with homemade onion rings, roasted veggies, and garlic mashed potatoes. I bribed the kids to watch a movie in Jaxson's room so Steve came home to a quiet house and a romantic dinner. It was a great day and a good excuse to do something special for the people I love most.

Christmas and New Years

This year was our first Christmas in our own home. Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house for our traditional Jesus Supper. It was complete with homemade beef jerky, fish, sparkling cider, and Ehlana throwing up halfway through dinner. Classic.

Christmas morning was wonderful. The kids came downstairs to find all their toys and we had the whole family over to our house for Christmas breakfast. It was really fun to host our first family holiday!

We had dinner at my Parent's house and spent the day with our family cooking, chatting, playing games, and watching my dad try to get new toy helicopter out of a tree. Classic.

Here's the kids in their morning glory!

The week before New Year's Eve my sister and her family came into town. The whole family was together for the week and it was great! My kids love spending time with their cousins, aunts, and Uncles. New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful. My brother Neil and his wife spent the night with her family, my brothers Dean and Carl went to a single adult dance, and my sister and her husband went to bed at about 10:00. We stayed and played games and we actually missed the ball dropping because we were watching someone get arrested outside of my parents house. Oh, the wonderful memories we made this Holiday Season! The best part was being together as a family and watching our kids enjoy the magic of the Christmas Season.