Extreme Nursery Makeover

I dream of being on one of those HGTV home decorating/makeover shows - one where we leave our house for the weekend and come back to a completely renovated home. Well, this is about as close as I'll ever come: a blog post about the kids' rooms. And while it will look like it was done over night, it's actually taken us over 6 months to finish Kate's room (which used to be Sam's). So here we go.

Sam's nursery, back when he was an only child:

I loved it, but it just seemed too baby-ish for the big boy he had become. So he moved into a new bedroom and we redecorated the nursery to be much more girly:

Sam's new "camping" room is maybe my favorite room in the house.

And of course, I couldn't have done any of this without my personal, live-in handyman!

I think we are ready for our own HGTV show!

3 Months

Kate turned 3 months old yesterday! The time just seems to be flying by. She already seems so big - able to hold up her head pretty well and she loves to babble and "talks" all the time. She is just as sweet as can be. Here's a look at how she has grown just over the last 3 months:

Sleeping Beauty

Before and After

Yesterday morning at 9am.

This morning at 9am.

Winter is not over yet.

In fact, for the first time in I don't know how long, today is a snow day for Northwestern. Apparently more due to the blowing/drifting snow. See how it's hanging over our roof:

Cool huh? I sort of feel like an old granny - talking about the weather all the time - but it's just so snowy this winter!

Even the little birdies in our backyard looked cold.

And once again, we were so thankful for neighbors who let us borrow their snowblower. It really is a wonderful invention. Here are my boys coming in from a morning in the snow, still pretty happy, and not too cold!

Check out that head control...

on Kate...not my Dad.

Kate's Shower

We are so thankful for Jerod's coworkers at NWC.

Before Kate was born, they arranged to have home cooked meals brought to us by many of the RDs and Student Development staff. I did not have to cook for almost 6 weeks! This was such a huge blessing, as it allowed us to just concentrate on getting sleep and enjoying our new baby.

THEN, they recently held a shower for us (and new Baby Owen - son of one of the RDs) and celebrated Kate's birth with us again. Not many people get a shower for their second born!

Baby Owen is not pictured above because he was too cute to not be constantly help by the guests at the party.

And, please excuse Sam's crabby face. He was not happy having to share his trucks (and especially car transporter) with the other kids. But we made him do it anyway....such mean parents he has.

Wisconsin Dells

I have been many places in my life: London, Venice, Paris, Kiev...but in my entire life, I had never been to Wisconsin Dells. In fact, in my whole life I had never been on a water slide. I had NO idea what I had been missing. Water slides are awesome!!!

We just returned from a weekend at the Dells with 4 of our very dear friends, and their kids.

The weekend began with the carrying out of a lost bet: a not-to-be named Bears fan lost a bet to a die-hard Vikings fan...and the aforementioned loser had to shave a "V" in his chest hair, at the start of a bare-chested weekend at the waterpark. At least he was a good sport about it.

Because it was hilarious.

We so enjoyed our 2 day vacation with these great friends - now with 6 kids among us. The kids loved playing together at the house we rented and at the water parks.

The little ladies were stylin'.

BUT, the older ladies were the most stylish of all, thanks to our thoughtful husbands who surprised us with these footie pajamas...

That's right. Feast your eyes on those - hot pink and black argyle pajamas. The guys said a surprise spa day was their other idea, but turned out to be way too expensive. And so the adult sized pj's were the most logical next idea...logically.

We are pretty lucky to have such thoughtful husbands.

Speaking of husbands, they got a few moments to play in the wave pool. It was quite funny watching them try to drown one another...

But the funniest bit of all was the white, glowing "V"...visible from clear across the wave pool.

Yup - overall, it was a wonderful weekend away from routine and freezing temperatures.

As we were backing away from our rented home this morning, Sam sighs from the back of the car, "Mom, that was a fun house."

Our daughter

I mean, how could you not be in love with this little one.

She's gorgeous,

smiles all the time,

and she laughs at all my jokes.

Kate's BFF

Here they are: Henry's sister, Claire (4 months) and Kate. Arranged best friendship.