February Flowers

These first signs of spring - they're always something I look forward to!

Kids' Bathroom Makeover!

Since we've decided to stay in our house for now, we wanted some updates! We started with the upstairs kids' bathroom and of course forgot to take any "before" pics until the painting was under way.

We picked out rubber flooring months ago, then a vanity and sink, tile and grout, and had contractors come to install it all. I watched quite a bit and would love to do our other two bathrooms myself. :) I'm not sure if it was the contractors or just that we chose an IKEA vanity/sink, but it was one crazy setback after another. They ended up having to cut into our wall TWICE, adding studs once and cutting pipes the other time. What was semi-cheap ended up not so cheap by the end. Oh well. And I still need to paint a bit more, install the mirror we chose (which might be too big for this space), and decide on new lights, a toilet paper dispenser, and blinds. But overall, we're happy with it!

It's so much brighter in here, the rubber floor is fantastic, and the three big kids can all brush their teeth at this sink at the same time, it's so wide. Haha!

Next up is the "master" bath (I say "master" bath, meaning it's about half this size, so we're hoping it'll be quicker), then the downstairs half bath, and....eventually the kitchen! If only tax season wouldn't get in the way...

Sickies, and Silver + Gold

We were home from Hawaii a week, then Travis went out of town for a week-long training up near Seattle. And conveniently, this little guy got super sick at the beginning of the week and just got worse and worse. Then shared it with little sis, and the other two followed suit as well, just not as bad. We went to M's basketball practice and he was fine, then woke up around midnight with a horribly croupy cough and SUPER high fever.

It stayed around 104 for a couple of days and just wasn't improving, so after taking him in to the doc, turns out he had a double ear infection, a throat infection (along with cold symptoms), and some kind of virus that he just had to keep fighting off with that fever. It's so hard to see an active little one so lethargic, sad, and cranky! To top that off, Cora had a big sore on her tongue that kept her up at night, so we didn't get much sleep with Daddy gone and only Mom on duty....

It was nice to slow down and cuddle this guy, though. He is so sweet. And growing curls in back again, just like my dad, who he's named after. :)

Alot of this went on that week: 

Reading, napping, and movie-watching, yup.

And medicine-taking.

But I didn't mind. What was great about staying home that week was that it allowed me to get projects done around the house, the laundry caught up from Hawaii, AND get ready to host our book club Christmas dinner. 

There ended up being 11 of us squeezing into our home - it was very cozy, but fun! When I'd offered to host, I'd chosen a silver and gold theme right away. As I was decorating one evening while sick Bowen was sleeping, (and while Grandma watched the older kids, thank you!!) I thought the table filled with silver and gold things looked like an I Spy book...so I decided to create my own I Spy table and added ten little things for everyone to find. It was really fun and the kids actually loved it too.

I took pics of them all. :)

A set of silver keys:

A 10 peso coin:

One safety pin:

One thumbtack:

One gold ring shaped like a bow:

Need a close-up? :)

One silver screw:

Another safety pin:

One silver star:

One dime:

(the dime and the thumbtack were the hardest to find!)

And one stone that looks like a gold nugget:

(from above, it blended in perfectly, ha!)

Ok, so I'm totally a nerd, but it was so fun! The only thing I purchased for decoration was the geometric ornaments (and the plates, napkins, and wrapping paper for the table). Other than that, I had everything else already - or spray paint to cover what I had. :) I guess I like white, silver, and gold...

Like I said, we were cozy, but it was great! Thanks for a fun night, ladies!

New

It was time for a new couch.

And since things from IKEA rarely come in one piece, everyone got in on putting it together! (And playing with the boxes.) It was a family affair. Thank heavens Travis likes the styles of furniture that I do. Or maybe he's just being super agreeable. :)

They made a TV (below):

And airplanes:

And there it is. We love it!

Since I'd been eyeing this couch for awhile, I had picked up a pillow on clearance at Target every once in awhile, in anticipation. They were ready to go. :)

Since we didn't buy the loveseat with it (yet), we're one couch less and loving the extra space! Right now, space for these kids is higher on our priorities than more seating. If friends come over, I'll sit on the floor and THEY can take the couch, I don't care!

There's more room for this boy to lounge and roll around.

But be careful, you might lose a baby under there...he's VERY good at scooting backwards on his hands and knees. The moment he figures out how to go FORWARD, we'll be in big trouble!