TWINS' MOSTLY COMPLETE NURSERY

Now that the babies are four months old, it is high time their nursery was finished.  Or, at least, mostly finished.  That day has come at last - though they are still sleeping in our room since Violet is not consistently sleeping through the night.  I do love doing nurseries.  Here's what the room looked like when it was Bella's nursery.  I posted a while back about some of the nursery progress here, and now, I am posting the pictures of it mostly complete!

It is loosely travel themed, though I probably went overboard a bit.  I just love maps and globes and the like.



I made a bunch of rainbow dots to hang from the ceiling.  The colors match the colors in the bedding fabric.  I cut the circles out using my Silhouette and sewed them together.  Then I hung them using push pins.  I am a bit in love with the result, as are all children in the home.  Both girls regularly tell me how pretty the dots are, which is really sweet, and I catch the babies staring at them.

I found an old suitcase at a flea market that John cut in half for me so I could put their painted names on each side.




Here's a close up of the bedding that I made.  My sister is making quilts to match it all, which are darling.






We hung globes, mostly found at flea markets, except two of the smaller ones purchased on Amazon,  above the changing table.  The gray paisley curtains were purchased from Target.

We've ended up keeping the chair in the room, even though it doesn't really fit perfectly well.  It's nice having a chair in there, and because of where the cribs needed to be, it works for us.  Above the chair, we hung another old suitcase that John turned into a shelf.  The two planes were both painted by John's grandfather, and the map of Little Rock hung in my dad's office when we lived here while I was growing up.  It's sort of amazing to have all that history.

On the wall with the closet and door, I hung another old map affixed to canvases, some small paintings with fabric behind them and Violet's bow holder.  Always a nursery necessity.

And that about sums it all up.  Doing a boy/girl nursery was definitely a challenge, but I like the way it came out, and I certainly look forward to the night when both babies are sleeping in it all night long!

COOKIES LATELY

I have sort of started selling cookies.  I say "sort of," because I am still working out details like pricing structure and sales tax and branding and packaging.  So, I've got the cart in front of the horse, but, sometimes, that's how things go.  I do have a legit business license and will make an official post when I have even more details worked out.  I will do a cookie post every couple of weeks or so with the cookies I've done recently.  Here are the ones from the past couple of weeks.  (If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen them all, but I've also included close ups of some.)

Superhero cookies.

Cookies for the ministry that I help with at church - Bloom.

Monogram/name cookies to help celebrate a new birth.  I used a stencil for the first time with these cookies and loved the way they turned out!

Cookies to help welcome home a man who had been serving abroad as a pilot in the Air Force.

Painted birthday cookies.  Painting cookies is truly so fun and easier than you might imagine.

I've realized what I love about doing cookies is it gives me that chance to make something pretty with new themes and events that come up.  You can do cookies for anything!  I'm looking forward to this new adventure, though I will only be able to take a few orders at a time, given that there are a few other things (like my children) that regularly demand and deserve my attention.

FIRST DAY BACK TO "SCHOOL"

Even though I am not exactly looking forward to Lily going off to Kindergarten next year, I do appreciate and enjoy the mornings that we all spend away from one another.  And this week, we are back at it.  I got to drop off all four of my precious ones this morning.  Rachel (my sis-in-law) came with me to help me carry in all of the swag that the first day entailed, which made it much easier.

The girls were excited to go to their new classes, and it was fun to see them both walk right in, ready to go.  They loved "helping" me shop for supplies yesterday and seemed quite ready for the fun and promise that a new year and fresh start holds.

I was not together enough to have a cute little sign for them to hold, but I can certainly tag text on in a picture later!  Thanks, internet.  They had a great morning and talked about the fun of the new classes, though Bella was quite put off by the fire drill that happened this morning, which I heard about no less than 10 times during lunch and on the way home.

This week, the twins have actually been sleeping through the night (praise King Jesus), and so we were all a bit more rested when it was time to go this morning.  I decided not to go to great lengths to get "cute, smiley" pictures and settled for them sitting in the bumbo.  This really does capture right where we are at, including the helping hand visible in William's picture.  I am sure they will be so very different at the end of the year - it is amazing how much change and growth the first year of life brings.

The teacher that has the twins also had Lily and Bella and decided to stay on this year partially so she could also have the twins, which is such a blessing.  She loves my children well, and I am so thankful for the all of the staff at our mother's day out program.  We've been going there since Lily was a baby and always have been so pleased.

I had a relaxing morning that involved no screaming, crying or fussing.  I went grocery shopping and got no comments or strange, sympathetic looks, and I never once heard the phrase, "You've got your hands full."  But, I was ready to pick them up when the time came.  I love the way the girls run up to me with big hugs and full of chatter about their new day.  Bring it on, fall.  We are ready for you!

(Last year's first day - 2012-2013)

RECENT HIGHS & LOWS

Welp, I'm just not great at coming up for creative titles for these posts.  Guess that would be a low.  Here's what's been up with us.

High:  Discovering that Lily has the same need of her tongue that I do when she is concentrating.  Thankfully I have this recent picture of myself with my tongue out while decorating cookies for comparison.  John was so kind to text it to me while we were both sitting at the same table.  Thanks for that, sweetheart.

High:  Having some dear friends swing through and see us on their way home from a beach trip.  They texted the night before around 9 to see if they could come by around 8 a.m.  As I told her, there are not many people I would be super excited to get that text from - but I was so excited to see them!  The kids had a blast together, while we all ate breakfast and had a quick catch up.  I spared them the indignity of having to have their picture made after driving through the night (though they looked just fine), so we will just be sticking to a cute pic of our girls with their sweet boy.



Low:  I ran out of Baba Ganoush.  Enough said.

High:  I went to a leadership training at our church that was encouraging and exciting.  I am looking forward to the new ministry year.  The babies went to childcare at church while the girls got to hang with John, which they loved.  They went exploring, as Lily was quick to inform me upon my arrival at the house.  So thankful for a husband that loves our children well and takes time to be with them.

High:  Bella's potty training is going much better than anticipated.  She is basically asking to go whenever she needs to.  In fact, I feel like I have a bathroom tourist on my hands, because she wants to go every time we are out somewhere.

Low:  She still hasn't tried going poop in the potty, but I think we are getting close.  I keep upping the ante on the bribe front, and today she said, "I will go in the potty and get a baby doll and be happy!"  So, I am looking forward to that.  The other low about potty training is all the inevitable potty talk it brings up, though it is pretty funny.  As we had just finished up our trip to the bathroom in Wal-Mart this morning, Lily was saying - LOUDLY - "What if we both go poop at the same time?  What would we get then?"  I got lots of knowing, amused looks as we careened around the store, screaming about poop, trying to get out since William was crying his little lungs out.  All in all, not my favorite recent  moment.

High:  Having Lily point out this gorgeous rainbow as we were driving on Saturday night.  So thankful for God's promises.



High:  We enjoyed a friend's surprise 30th birthday party this weekend.  It's with a family I grew up with that is now my own extended family, so it is always fun to be there.  The number of children is a bit astounding - here's a glimpse of some of them as they played with one amazing adult.



Low:  That picture was taken right before Lily peed on the bed.  Poor girl.  Thankfully, I had the necessaries to change her (miracle), and it didn't phase her one bit.

Low:  We were running quite late to church, and while I was dropping off the babies, one of the childcare workers kindly fastened my bra for me.  I think it was mostly done, but I am not sure.  She could see it peeking out of the back of my dress and fixed it.  When I shared this juicy, mortifying piece of info with my friend once in church she said, "At least you have one on."  Well said, friend.  So true.

High:  Sunday night we headed out to watch John play soccer.  He's on a CFA team from our store.  It was a gorgeous night to be outside, and we all had a great time.

The girls devised a lovely game of jumping off/over their little chairs which yielded these hilarious pictures.

They lost the game, but there's always next time!  Go team!



Low:  My keys are currently MIA.  We did just get a spare made this weekend, so I can drive the car, but I cannot use any of my magic door opening buttons.  I have major first world problems.

High:  Listening to the girls talk is simply hilarious.  After church yesterday, Bella was telling us that she had fun "wor-shopping."  Upon questioning, we realized that she was talking about going with her class to worship.  Even after telling her the proper name, she keeps insisting that she likes wor-shopping, and she wants to go back to it.

I hope that your weekend was filled with things that helped you see God's grace.  Happy Monday!