mixin' it up.

There is one room in the house that has always remained spotless. Well, two rooms. The guest room, and the 'formal' living room. I hesitate to say formal, because I think formal means nice, high end, matching furniture. And this room is anything but that. It consisted of 3 book cases, a papazan chair and ottoman, a small table with two chairs, two big chairs and a coffee table, a floor lamp, and a piano. Everything in the room was bought either on sale, unfinished, not put together, or given to us for free. The reason this room has always been clean is because we never go in there. We have another living room with more seating, the TV, close to the kitchen, etc. We just naturally gravitate to the great room. Once in a while one of us will sit down and play the piano, or read, or talk on the phone in the formal living room, but I can only think of one time that a visitor came over and we spent more time in there than the other living room. And it was just a few days ago, the day before I un-formaled it and made it more kid friendly.

Here's the before pictures, how it's been, pretty much untouched for a year and a half.About half of the stuff is staying in the room, because there is no where to put it, and Garrett doesn't need THAT big of a play space. Although, now that I've finished the changes, he has enough stuff to easily fill the room. The other half of the stuff is spread throughout the house. We have a really wide hallway, so the big black shelf is in the hall. The table and two chairs fit nicely in the guest bedroom, and the papazan is in the odd space/'tiny room' at the end of the hall, where I originally thought I could get Garrett to play. But he's not a fan at being at the end of a long hallway, with bad lighting, all by himself. I don't blame him. This space also stores clothes that the kids have outgrown, blankets, more books and toys that we will rotate in and out to keep things interesting.His new playroom has been usable for a few days now, and so far he's enjoying it. And Paul and I are enjoying that we have a convenient, well organized space to keep all his stuff. He still brings things from the room and leaves toys/magnets/books all over the house, but it's easier to clean up now and everything has a place.

I had a lot of fun creating this space. It's not what I'd want in a 'normal home', but this apartment is temporary, and it works well for now. It's really Pinterest inspired and it was really inexpensive. I'll show you the fun things I made and bought, but I don't want to take time to link to every idea. So if you want to see, it's mostly on my 'fun for kids' board, and a little on my 'DIY craft ideas' board.

This view of the room is from the doorway. My dad and I built the room divider about 2 years ago. My mom sewed the fabric inserts. I painted it a few months ago, and Paul put the hinges on a few days ago. I never had a place for it so I never got around to finishing it! I don't love having it jet out like that next to the piano, but there's a shelf on the other side of it and this looks better than the back or the shelf...and it hides the mess.
Here is the reading corner. The big comfy bear, and both of their rocking chairs.The art area. Chalkboard/dry erase/paper roll easel from Ikea. We've had all the Ikea stuff for a while, just haven't really used it. The table and two chairs, also from Ikea.And this toy box is from Ikea, too. I think all three items totaled about $45.00. (Don't remember, we've had it all for a while, and they were gifts.) Really inexpensive stuff, though. And I also painted all the blocks in the green canvas bin on top of the toy box, then just used alphabet stickers I had in my scrapbook stuff. The magnet boards and toys.Now I'll tell you about the details, and all the good deals I found. The magnet board is an oil change pan. I got the idea from pinterest. The pinner said, $12.99 at Wal-mart, but I got mine for less than $10.00 at Auto Zone. That, and this road-rug were the only two things I bought for the room. Everything else was stuff I already had.The framed striped magnet boards were just unfinished ones I've had forever. I painted them white, then put blue painters tape on them to do the stripes. I love how they turned out. Garrett loves magnets. He's obsessed with these boards. All the magnets are from Micheal's and Hobby Lobby, between 10 and 50 cents each. The pop cycle stick ones I painted myself and just glued a magnet on the back of each one.

This hangs above the magnet boards.I had the board and the over-sized clothes pins. A little paint, stain and scrapbook paper and I think it turned out cute. The cute black shapes are chalkboard vinyl, so I can write names and dates of the artwork, etc. The vinyl was also in my stash. About 3 bucks for 6 of them at World Market. And the artwork are Garrett originals! String painting and ziploc bag painting, fun and almost mess free!

These are also Garrett originals...kind of...I took some of his crayon scribble work and punched it out with my 2 inch paper punch. I painted the boards and glued his scribbles on. The solid color dots are with my 1 inch punch and they are paint chips. I'm pretty happy with these, too.

These are Andrea originals. The circle art on the white board are also paint chips. I love all the color. And the 3 frames are from my Michael's frame sale where I got 40 really cool frames for less than 80 bucks! These were silver and black. A little spray paint, paper glued on the glass, and a metal clip, spray painted to match, and now I have 3 fun frames that will be easy to rotate pictures of the kids, or more art work. I love these frames, I kind of want more all over my house.Here are the toys and books on the other side of the room divider.The grow chart that I made forever ago and never had a place to hang it. (It still doesn't really fit, but it's still cute.)And here is Paul's project. I saw this on Pinterest, too. He really had fun making it. All the wood was less than $10.00, I spray painted it black, cut the vinyl on my cricut, and we were done. I thought when we decided what size to make it that I might wish it was bigger. I'm glad it's not any bigger! It's even a little big for the space, but it fits the animals perfectly. I made the pennant flags with leftover scraps of fabric from other projects. And this spot stayed the same so we can all comfortably hang out in the room.I love how it turned out. And Paul loved that it cost me less than $40.00 to makeover this room.

Today when I hung the last frame I was kinda sad to be done. Don't really know what to work on next... Maybe Addie's birthday?? I only have 6 months to plan!! ;)

Family Fun Day #2 (plus a little)

Paul had today off work because he's working Saturday. We had a fun day planned at Crystal Cove. But it was too cloudy and cool for that today. So we had a last minute, and much more simple change of plans.

We went to lunch at the world's oldest operating McDonald's! Don't be jealous. It's in Downey, California, pretty close to our house. It's super old school. No pictures of the food, a walk up window to order, and a separate pick-up window. Outdoor seating, and a little McDonald's museum.Garrett, of course, didn't sit still long because we were outside and there were pigeons to chase.Why yes, that is a cockroach behind Garrett's foot, that Paul had kicked over there earlier because it was alive and right by our table. I lost my appetite, Garrett was feeding his meal to the pigeons, which is just fine because I probably would have made him stop eating so I didn't have to picture roch-burgers going in his mouth. In McDonald's defense, we were outside, but still.Paul also had to ask a man who sat down at the next table to leave because he was smoking. Fortunately, the man apologized and left.

(Museum sign, NOT the prices we paid today.)After our eventful lunch, we went to Paul's parent's house so Paul could work on a Pinterest project for me that he's thrilled about doing. (He's actually kind of enjoying it.) Me and the kids hung out on the deck while he cut wood. (Garrett was eating the bench while I was taking this picture of Addie, I didn't notice until later when I was looking at it.)*****************************
Some other little family fun.

Last Sunday evening we barbecued at the park, Garrett ran around, and then we walked to the pond and G fed the ducks. There was a sign that said don't feed the ducks, but Garrett can't read...so it was fine. (oops)****************************
And in case you forgot that my kids are the friggin' cutest, here you go:

The white trash toddler- hand in his pants, no shirt, watching a little tv.Garrett doing the Tarzan. He pounds his chest and does the jungle, "ooohhh ooohhh oohh oh ooohh!"And little Lulu. (we call her Lulu) I love this smile.What a little doll! Grandma White said she needed some retail therapy after they had to put one of their dogs down. My kids always strike gold when Grandma is in the mood to shop.

Utah Trip (with 2 kids and no husband)

Two things- I've been putting this off for several days, and just need to do it and keep it short. And, I took about 80 pictures in Utah with my phone and about 10 with my camera. That's so annoying to email, upload, save, etc. I need to get out of the habit of using my phone for pictures more than I use my camera.

My mom flew to California and then she and I drove back to Utah with the kids. Everyone did fine. (I already blogged about the bad drive home.)It was a good trip. A little long to be husbandless with both kids, and a few times I was ready for a vacation from the vacation. But after the first couple nights my mom 'worked the night shift' and that helped a ton. Garrett kept with his Utah tradition and got a cold, and he's also getting too big to sleep in a pack n play, so he had a couple middle of the night play sessions with Grammy. Addie did pretty well at night.

In no particular order, here are a few things that we did.

I got to go to my cousin/former roommate/former co-worker's baby shower. (We lived in my grandparents apartment together a few years ago, and we both worked at IDFL.) Sadly, I forgot to take pictures. I got to see several cousins that I never get to see. That's one thing that I love about my huge extended family. We can go years (literally) without seeing each other, but when we do we can laugh and talk for hours. I love cousins.

Played at the new City Creek shopping center. Garrett froze but would not stop playing in the water.I did a lot of shopping at my favorite craft stores, and visited my old job, The Wood Connection, a couple times.Went to my cousin's fiance's birthday party at his grandpa's farm. My cousin is adopted from Ukraine and she's marrying my grandpa's brother's grandson...so they are second cousins, but not blood related...I guess it's not weird. But at the party everyone was celebrating their recent engagement, but everyone there was related to everyone...I guess it's not weird...Garrett LOVED the farm. Played with horses and dogs. Ate dirt. Threw rocks. Played by the fire. Played on the swing set. He was in heaven. (My cousin and her fiance are holding the quilt in the bottom right.)

We got to play with Jordon and Katie and Baby B a couple of times.Spent as much time as we could with my Grandma and Grandpa Garrett. My grandpa is so flippin' cute with Garrett.Addie learned to sit up right on her 5 month mark. Garrett didn't like her sitting up.Uncle Scott and Aunt Laura took us to Thanksgiving Point to the petting zoo. Laura brought her nephew too, so Garrett would have a friend. It's really fun and inexpensive, and a horse and carriage ride was included in the admission. Garrett had a great time, though you can't tell it from the pictures.We had dinner and played at my Auntie and Uncle Jon's house in Ogden. On the way there I stopped to see my childhood best friends, Brandi and Mandi (twins). Mandi does hair at a salon in Slaterville and Brandi owns a tanning salon right next to it. It was fun to catch up with them. (Sad I forgot to take pictures at both of these visits.)

Uncle Dave took us all to Chuck E. Cheese's. I haven't been there in years! (it was better when I was a kid) But Uncle Dave had a great time spoiling Garrett and helping him play all the games. He's a good uncle.We celebrated my dad's birthday. We had a picnic at the park. I hate the phrase, "He's all boy." But wow, Garrett is. You can't see the detail in the picture of him. But he had a scraped knee, two scraped elbows, a few scraped knuckles, dirt in his hair, on his face and under his fingernails, and a stick in his mouth. That kid loves being outside.Paul was with us for the picnic. He flew in that afternoon and we were on the road home the next morning.