the kids' bathroom

I have been wanting to redecorate the kids' bathroom for some time.  We finally got the motivation to do it and I'm so excited about how it turned out.  I found this picture on pinterest of a bathroom with a similar layout as ours with board and batten. 

 

http://www.inspiringheartsandhomes.com/kids-bathroom-reveal-details/

Here is a before picture.  The walls were a hideous tanish/brown.  The curved shower curtain bar was hanging off the hinges, and none of the linens were matching. 

 

 

I love how much brighter the bathroom looks with the white board and batten, the gray paint, and the new can light Jason installed over the tub.  I'm in the process of finding towels that match and I'm going to make the kids new hooded towels.  I'm also going to put a canvas print of the kids in the tub over the towels. 

 

Another look at the old, boring bathroom!

 

This is so much better!!  We got a new vanity, mirror and light fixture.  I'm going to get a gray and yellow "you are my sunshine" print for above the toilet.

 

This area was just a hot mess. 

 

It's so much brighter, more organized, and more functional!

 

I found this helpful tutorial for the board and batten!

 

http://diohomeimprovements.com/blog/2013/05/04/how-to-board-and-batten/#_a5y_p=2607439
 

I really love how it turned out and I'm so thankful Jason is so handy and so willing to make projects a reality!!

Emmy's ABC's

 

 

Our kids are so different and I love everything about that!  But with differences, often comes comparisons.  I really don't compare the kids often and I know I shouldn't at all, but sometimes it's alarming to me when the second child doesn't do things as early/quickly as the first.  I know that kids learn in their own time, but as a parent, I worry sometimes.  With all that said, even though Bryce knew all his alphabet by 2, Emmy is starting to show interest in learning and she's picking up on letters very quickly now!  I took this video last week and since then she has added letters K, O, R, V, X.  I'm so proud of her! 

Bryce's 6 year old update (a little late)

 

Height: 43 inches (10th percentile)

Weight: 42 pounds (25th percentile)

His vision was 20/20 and his blood pressure was 98/50.

 

Bryce is such a fun kid!  He's smart, funny, mature, responsible, kind, and so many other things wrapped into that tiny little body! 

 

He currently loves baseball, crafts, and science.  He's a very hands on kid and loves making/building new things.  He's very inquisitive and asks lots of interesting questions.  Many of which I have to refer to Jason or the internet, ha!

 

He's a great big brother and a great friend. 

 

He has always been our early riser and there is no sign of that changing.  At least he's getting better about entertaining himself with the tv, ipad, or toys when he gets up instead of hopping in bed with us and squirming around until I can't take it anymore and get up with him!

 

He loves school and he's doing really well.  His reading is amazing and he's really starting to show some number sense with adding a subtracting numbers (especially with telling time).

 

He's such a shy and passive boy, but around us, he's full of personality and has such a great sense of humor.  He gets that from his Mama (the shyness, not the sense of humor).

 

I feel like he's worn the same size clothes for two years as well as the same shoe size.

 

I'm sure there are many more things I could say about him at age 6, but they are escaping me at the moment.  We're just so proud of the boy he is becoming and we're so glad God chose us to be his parents. 

 

We love you, Bryceman!

St. Patrick's Day

We started off the day with swimming lessons.  I'm happy to report that Emmy did much better this week than she did the first week.  She wasn't sure about going at first, but Nana came with us and I may have bribed her with a new bathing suit if she was a big girl and didn't cry any.

 

 

She had a sweet little class of all girls and she did fabulous.  We went to Marshall's next door to the swim school and got her a cute new bathing suit for next week!

 

After swimming lessons we headed to Bryce's school for a St. Patrick's Day snack and craft.  Parents brought in green foods for the kids to taste.

 

I enjoy getting to visit Bryce at school every now and then.  I sure do miss him during the day!

 

Emmy was an honorary classmate for their green picture!  Ironically enough, she wasn't wearing any green!

 

I snapped a picture of this little gem while I was at school!

 

While we're looking at cute work, this came home recently and it made me smile.  He was so proud of his magnifying glass!

 

 

Today was also Papa John's pizza fundraiser night.  Teachers from Bryce's school delivered pizza to students who ordered.  Unfortunately, Bryce's teacher didn't deliver our pizza (we didn't know the two teacher who did), but after our pizza came, two other kindergarten teachers and the Papa John's mascot stopped by!

 

What a day of fun!

jumpology

Jason was off today so we got Bryce out of school a little early and met Chase, Taylor, and Kelly at Jumpology.  They had this giant inflatable bubble that was new to us so we all took a turn in it!

 

 

Jason insisted that we needed to run full speed toward each other and see what happened.  He ran, I didn't!  On the second attempt, he ran and I fell down before we hit.  Enjoy!

 

 

Bryce took a turn and took out Emmy in the process.  Nobody was injured in the making of this video!

 

Emmy goes to the circus

Kelly asked me if Emmy and I wanted to join her and Taylor at the circus this year.  Emmy had never been so we decided to go.  She LOVED it!  I think Bryce was a little younger when we took him for the first time and he did NOT love it.  I reminded him of that and the fact that he had a boys day with Jason for monster jam when I told him Emmy and I were going.  He wasn't so happy about that and after seeing the show this year, I think he really would have loved it this year.  Now we know for next year!!

We had this little step in front of us instead of a regular seat and the girls enjoyed almost the entire show from there!

 

They later moved to Kelly's lap and Emmy eventually fell asleep there right before the end of the show.

 

We had lunch at Chick Fil A afterwards and then came home and Emmy got in the rest of her nap on the sofa with me!

 

We had such a fun girls day!

since saturday

Bryce asked for Build A Bear gift cards for his birthday and he was lucky to get enough for him and Emmy to make something.  Bryce made a camo fishing bear and Emmy made an Elsa bear!  What a great way to start a Saturday!

 

 

Later that day my mom, Rosabeth, Emmy and myself did a little flower girl dress shopping for a wedding later this summer.

 

I think she had so much fun and she looked so pretty in everything.

 

Emmy had her first dentist visit on Monday.  She did awesome and she didn't have any cavities!!

 

The hygienist was so good with her and did a great job introducing her to everything that was going to happen.  Here she is feeling how the toothbrush will tickle her teeth.

 

She got a few x-rays!

 

Such a big girl.

 

Today was another day of firsts.  Emmy started swimming lessons.  She was so excited to go and did great at the handoff and was smiling until all the other students came in crying then she started crying.  She completed the lesson, but not happily.  We'll see how they next three weeks go!

 

After swimming lessons, we went to Kelly's house to help her and Taylor babysit little Cheyenne.  Emmy's such a little mama!

 

Bryce had his first baseball practice of the season tonight but I didn't get a picture!  Check back soon for a 6 year update on him!

our wild weather week

This winter has been long and cold.  As you can see there is still snow on the ground, but the temperature soared to 53 on Monday (which is apparently normal for this time of year) so we got outside while we could!

I thought this picture was appropriate to save for later.  Might make a good one for her wedding slide show!

 

Bryce is still celebrating his birthday!  He got to spend a Target gift card from Nina and Pop the other night.  More Legos and monster trucks, imagine that!

 

Wednesday was even warmer and in the 60's so we spent even more time outside (WITHOUT jackets)!!

 

Nothing like warmer temps to get you excited about spring clothes.  I took Emmy on a little shoe shopping trip!

 

And here we are on Thursday (snow day #9).  This fun project kept Bryce (and Jason) entertained for hours! 

 

Hours I tell ya!

 

 

After crafts, it was onto digging.  It's a good thing Bryce got so many birthday gifts for inside entertaining!  Here they are digging for jewels and gems.

 

All the treasure!

 

And when he's not crafting and digging, he's building.  He got all of these fun Legos for his birthday!

 

We're home today for snow day #10!  I'm about out of ideas and patience (and the kids are out of built in snow days), but we'll make it!  I'm just looking forward to the time change on Sunday and a possible permanent warm up next week!

pizza party fun

Bryce chose a monster truck themed party this year.  MeMa made him a cake and he got to decorate it with his own trucks!

 

 

Proud of the masterpiece.

 

We have done larger parties in the past and typically invite all of our small group, but we have grown so much that the parties have become overwhelming with all the kids and adults.  We decided to scale back this year and let Bryce choose a few friends and eat pizza and play arcade games. 

 

There were lots of big ticket wins!

 

Can't hide the excitement.

 

This is what a jackpot of tickets looks like!

 

We had such a fun time celebrating our sweet boy!

 

Today we had all the family over to wrap up the week long celebration of our sweet six year old!

it's been fun, but I've had enough

We got round 2 of wintry weather Wednesday night and school was closed on Thursday.  Jason is much better at playing in the snow than I am so he stayed home long enough to build a snowman and sled with the kids. 

 

 

We had this Mike Wazowski kit for a pumpkin that we never used so we tried it out on our snow creation!

 

Our neighbor bought inner tubes in preparation for this snow and they were tons of fun.  You know it's fun if I can be convinced to participate!

 

We went in and warmed up and Jason went to work, but we went back out later and joined a bunch of our neighbors for more sledding fun.

 

The kids had fun rolling the snow around until they formed an enormous small ball.

 

When they were done, they rolled it down the hill.  It fell apart mid way down so the kids turned it into a snow fort!

 

I think this is my favorite picture of the day.  We had so much fun on those tubes!

 

 

Thanks Windsor for another fun snow day!  Now I'm ready for warm nights on the deck under the lights!