Everyday We're Walkin'

One of the best, and I mean very best things about moving into our new house is that the neighborhood is warm and friendly; absolutely perfect for walking.  Our new motto and routine has become thinking of ways to make sure that the boys are completely tired, as I believe that it helps Arden to fall asleep, which has been an issue, since the transition to the big boy bed has been difficult... to say the least.  Every night after dinner, we high-tail it out of the house and go walkin' and searching for things to keep the boys occupied.

Who can see a dog first?  

Who hears the first bird?  

Are we going to see the chickens?  

So far cooperation with both walking and the on-the-spot competitions have been fair-to-partly-cloudy, but that's okay, because usually by the end of the walk, Jim and I are tired and the boys are happy to talk about all of the things that they saw- never mind the fact that there were half a dozen meltdowns, 'cause we can see our new house and none of that matters.

As I tend to do, I can't help myself when I get an opportunity to snap a few pictures, so our walks have been documented, but later in life, I'm sure I will be happy that I took these pictures; for now, I just look like a suburban paparazzi, minus the entourage.

Friday Short

How adorable is this?  Red cupcakes are his jam!  

Although, I'm sure you couldn't tell that just from looking at him...

The Boys' Room

Before and after we moved in, I made "finishing" the boys' room the first priority.  I say "finishing" because it's not finished.  But, I did say that I'd have pictures of their room up this week and this is a judgment free zone up in here, so I will post what I got, because what I've got is still pretty damn good for being in the house less than a week.

One of the things that I lovex10 is when people include the sources for pieces in their houses/rooms, etc.  So I will try and do that as much as possible and include links wherever possible too.

The look: Eclectic and easy.  I wanted to mix functional with cheap, with some Pottery Barn mixed in.  Originally, we had planned on painting the wall behind the headboards light green, but when we moved in and saw the light blue walls, Jim and I both agreed that we liked the color and that it'd work just as well.  (Jim was the most happy about this, since it meant no painting.)

Biggest success: Hanging the home-made names above the headboards.  I wanted a way to personalize each bed, but didn't know how I was going to do it.  Originally, the names were going to be hung on the walls on either side of the room, but at the last minute, I put them on top of the beds and loved them.

Biggest fail:  Not having everything functional when taking the pictures- hello green lamp.

Biggest bargain:  The night stand, the night stand, the night stand.  I'm obsessed with that thing.  We went poppin' tags at Goodwill and found this beautiful thing for $10... TEN BUCKS!

1.  Pottery Barn ABC Paper Mobile, on sale for $17.99.  Here is the link; however, it's no longer available.  Frowny face.
2.  Dog print, Marshalls Home Goods, about $15
3.  Arden sign was handmade by my Mother-in-law when he was born.
4.  FJELLSE Bed Frame from Ikea, $39.99
5.  Star Quilted Bedding, Pottery Barn, $129-159, here's the thing though, I would never pay that for bedding for a kid's room.  We went to the outlet closest to us and found it there for around $70.
6.  Dog print, Marshalls Home Goods, about $15
7.  Cullen sign was handmade by my Mother-in-law when he was born.
8.  Dump Truck Pillow, Target,  $16.14
9.  Two white curtain panels, Target, about $10 each
10.  Table lamp, Target, $15
11.  Dump Truck Night Light, Target, $14.24
12.  Night stand, Goodwill, $10
13.  Mustache wood hanging, Marshalls Home Goods, about $15
14.  I made the boys each a button letter on canvas about a year ago, I just need to dig Cullen's out of the box it's packed in and hang it up.
15.  Big Dill Art Print by Phil Jones, Urban Outfitters, about $19
16.  The I heart u artwork is from Target, I got it over 2 years ago and tried to find it on their website, but wasn't able to.  So maybe I should say something like, I heart u artwork, Target, vintage.

We Moved... And Here Are Some Cute Pictures

I already laid this out, but in case you forgot, we moved and so this blog is about to be somewhat taken over by new house stuff, or as Arden says, "new, NEW, house!" stuff.  Here's what we did well with our move: we packed up our cars with as much as we could the night before, we got all of our utilities straightened out at week or two ahead of time, we enlisted the help of family and friends, we rented a UHaul and drove it to Ikea... and that's about it.  Here's what we didn't do well: we were completely disorganized and didn't pack nearly as much as we should've, considering that we've known about this since March.  And that's about all I have to say, because moving is literally all about packing and being organized, there aren't any other steps besides those two.

As little boys tend to do, they wanted to help, which made me bust out my all time favorite saying from my mother, "you can be a big help by not helping."  That didn't work.  Our plans were thrown a little off schedule since both of the boys were sick and Arden couldn't go on a short vacation with the rest of my family to the beach, which is the reason that there's virtually no pictures of Cullen helping with the move.  All in all though, we didn't do too bad for ourselves.  I'm totally stoked to share some pictures of what we are going to do and what we've done.  Don't get too excited though, the only room that was a priority was the boys' bedroom, so we plan on finishing that tonight and I will post about it over the next few days... cause it's that f'ing cute, for reals.

Friday Short

First moments of officially owning our new house. 

A text from me to Jim.  

It was glorious.

He's Good

Cullen and I have never played the "what does that cloud look like" game, but I'm pretty sure if we did, he'd be the champion of the world.  This weekend, we were at a graduation party and I asked him if he wanted any cake.  He walked over and went, "no thanks, I don't want any Tick-Tock Crock cake."  At first I was like what?  But then I realized that when the cake was cut, there was a little smear of icing that looked exactly like the Tick-Tock Crock from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

One for Cullen and zero for me.

Friday Short

Buy this app, it's worth the $.99; trust me.