Great-Grandparents

Want to hear something amazing?  My kids are fortunate enough to have eight great-grandparents in their lives!  Eight!  Can you believe it!  I sat down to write this post fully intending to talk about how they don't know how truly awesome and rare it is to have that many great-grandparents, then it dawned on me that I also take it for granted.  So often I just think of them as my grandparents and imagine them as they were when I was growing up.  Isn't that how you think of your grandparents?  But then it dawned on me (during a conversation with my husband), that my parents are now the grandparents like I remember and my grandparents are now the great-grandparents.  Wow, talk about a reality check.  I have many friends who have multiple grandparents and even parents who are already deceased (trust me, I'm very familiar with the fact that death has no age requirements), it's just easy to forget that it could happen to you and go on living your life as if they'll always be there. 

Last weekend I realized that we had the opportunity to see six of the eight great-grandparents in a matter of days, so I set out on a mission to visit them all.

Our first set of visits came during my nephew's birthday party.  I didn't think to take pictures of the kids with each set of great-grandparents at the party, so you'll have to settle for these pictures I already had.

First up, Grandma Margie and Papa Don (my dad's parents).  I was saddened to realize this picture is a year old, we need to fix that.

Also at Bryar's party were Grandma Jean and Grandpa Dennis (my mom's parents).  This picture is also almost a year old, we'll have to fix that too.

Then, Grandma Bennett and Grandpa Bennett (Sam's maternal grandparents) were down visiting from Oregon, so we definitely had to take advantage of the opportunity to see them. They came to Stillwater to see us Monday evening, then the kids and I drove up to Sam's parents house to see them again before they headed out.

Our visit with Grandma Marjorie (my step-dad's mom) was a surprise for her.  It was a fun little stop on our way to my in-laws.

We even got to eat lunch with Grandpa Parks (Sam's paternal grandpa) on St. Patrick's Day rounding out the Tour de Great-Grandparents.

As we were driving down the road during our cross-Oklahoma adventure, Joseph asked me something about why he had so many grandmas (the grandpas go by a variety of names).  I simply responded "Because you have a bunch of people in your life that love you very much."  He took this answer to heart and even relayed  it to his dad at dinner that night.  Of course we talked about how grandmas are related and all that jazz, but his favorite part was simply that they love him. 

I was talking to Sam about how much the kids and I enjoyed visiting with all of their grandparents and great-grandparents over the last few days and we decided that many more day trips (and longer, especially for the out of state relatives) need to happen.  So, grandparents and great-grandparents, you heard it here, go ahead and hold me accountable, we will be visiting more this year.  We're all very lucky to have you in our lives and I want our kids to actually know you, not just know of you. 

Joseph's Travel and Transportation Bedroom

Since Joseph will be 3 in May, the husband and I have been talking about finally converting his crib into a bed (although I'm not sure he wants that based on some comments he's made) and it's been brought to my attention that I never blogged about his room.  This is a little sad because it is probably my favorite room in the whole house (decor wise, at least), so I don't know how I've neglected to document it for so long.

When we were planning what to do with his room, Sam and I both agreed we didn't want to do a baby-ish nursery because we wanted it to be something he could use for a while.  Since we weren't willing to do ANY work on it before he has born, we spent many evenings and weekends gathering pieces and sanding and painting away.  We had some awesome neighbors at the time (they're still awesome, they just aren't neighbors anymore) that even watched him for a bit one weekend so we could paint the walls. 

So, without further ado, I present to you Joseph's bedroom.  Please ignore the fact that I had a crazy hard time getting my lighting to be consistent throughout the room as I was taking pictures.  Oh, and the fact that both kids were suddenly interested in being in pictures since I wasn't trying to take any of them.

We decided on a travel/transportation theme with orange, light blue, and light green as our colors.   

Here's the view as you walk in.

I always loved the design of this three drawer piece Sam had when I met him, so he painted it to put next to the chair for me as a table. 

On top is a globe from a long time ago (the base says the 1930s, but the map is more recent than that, so we're not sure when it was recovered) from my grandpa's days as a teacher.  The picture is the first one we took as a family, I had texted it to a friend who framed it and had it on the mantle when we came home with him. 

This chair holds a special place in my heart.  One time my sister and I were visiting our great-grandma in her assisted living home.  As we were sitting in her room talking to her, rocking in these chairs, she randomly commented that she didn't know what would happen to the rest of her stuff when she passed.  "Like those chairs" she said "who would want those chairs?"  Mindy and I looked at each other then told her we would lovingly give them a home.  Neither of us had babies on the radar at the time, but we both knew that every time we visited her and rocked in those chairs we almost fell asleep because they were that comfortable. 

When the time came for her to move to a nursing home, she made sure my sister and I received the chairs, this happened to be just in time for us to get Mindy's chair in shape for Bryar's arrival and store mine for a few months until Joseph came along.  Sam sanded and painted it for me and I recovered all the cushions. 

Behind the chair I made use of the crib bumper I had but was always too scared to use and created a reading knook.  I can't tell you the number of times I've been missing a kid and have found him or her in one of the reading knooks (there is one in Sarah's room, too).

 

On one wall above the chair are these prints a friend had made for Joseph.

On the other wall are these.  Remember the great-grandma that I mentioned the chairs came from?  Well, she loved to travel (in fact, love might be an understatement).  She traveled all over the US and beyond on bus trips and everywhere she went she bought a magnet.  The fridge at her house was COVERED in them.  When she was moving to the assisted living center and the decision was made to go ahead and sell her house, many of us asked what we were going to do with her magnets.  My great-uncle (her son-in-law) had the wonderful idea of creating shadow boxes with them.  These two shadow boxes hung in her room at the assisted living center (Shadow boxes were also made for each of her daughters as well as all of her grandkids and great-grandkids, she had a lot of magnets!  My original one is still in my hallway).  The fact that my great-uncle (who was very much like another grandpa to me taking us to the lake in the summer and stuff) made these makes them even more special as he passed away suddenly a few years ago. 

Under the window is the toy box that Sam designed and built for Joseph (Sarah has one, too) to help hide the mess a toddler can create.

On top are a cushion I made so it can be used as a bench (I've since added a Velcro closure to keep the fabric tight) as well as a few of Joseph's favorite animals. 

Next we have the wall with Joseph's bed.  This crib was actually purchased over two years before Joseph was born as it was supposed to be Aubrey's.  When we pulled it out to put it together, I was glad it was a design I still liked :).

For the name above his bed, I covered letters from Hobby Lobby with maps from various states.

I tried to place them so you could see large or important cities and interesting geographical features (like Colorado on the 'E').

Inside the bed is nothing too special; I found these sheets in the correct theme and color scheme at Target (I also made some using fabric in the correct colors), my grandma made Joseph that blanket (he has a couple of other similar ones he loves also), and the dino-light is a favorite thing right now.

Moving on, you see a another dresser that Sam sanded and painted.  We were having a hard time deciding on handle pulls when he came up with the great idea of cutting down a stairway railing and using that.  I think it looks great!

Above the dresser are a series of shelves and a dive bombing plane.  The shelves were supposed to be floating vintage suitcases, my grandma even gave me a matching set she received in high school as well as her father's briefcase, but we were a.) hesitant to cut them and b.) unsure how to hang them.  I'm still trying to think of something super awesome to do with them. 

The first shelf holds one of Joseph's newborn pictures, a cigar box I found at a thrift shop, and a little bus that is actually a perfume bottle Sam found when we were cleaning out my great-grandma's house.

The second shelf contains a couple of picture frames I love but have never put pictures in (oops!), Joseph's piggy bank, and a fuel tank that was on the mantle with Joseph's family picture and the truck from the third shelf when we came home from the hospital (my friend that decorated it for us knew that I like to decorate my mantle for various holidays and the theme we were planning for Joseph's room).

The final shelf simply contains the truck that was on the mantle and a gas tank perfume bottle also found at my great-grandma's house.  The funny thing about the perfume bottles is that I had them long, long before we ever thought about a transportation themed room.  I actually put them in a closet and forgot about them.  Then, when Joseph was almost a year old, I happened upon them and decided it was destiny they be placed in his room.  I have their boxes too, but I think they look better out of the box. 

For Joseph's bookshelf, we painted a white bookshelf with the same blue paint we used on other items in the room.  We also covered the back part of it with a piece of the fabric I used on his chair cushions.

On top of the bookshelf are a few more sentimental items as well as another old globe.  The little tractor is a Piggies and Paws print made using Joseph's footprint from when he was just a couple of months old.  The little white blob is a turtle thing Joseph made at Octoberfest and decided needed to live on top of the bookshelf.

The little frame contains a charm that was ordered for Joseph as soon as he was born by a friend.  In case you can't see it, it has a large A in the middle and says little brother around that.  To help it be a little more visually pleasing, I covered the back of the frame with a little piece of fabric.  Billy the Bison was purchased by Sam for Joseph while we were still in the hospital.  Sam wanted him to have something to symbolize where he was born and found this guy in the hospital gift shop (near Lawton is a large wildlife refuge that contains many animals including bison).

This sweet bear was given to Joseph by his birth mom at the hospital.  It had a balloon with it that is now tucked away safely in his closet. 

On the next wall, is a large map.  We went the cheap route with this one and bought a map from the back to school section one August.  We just adhered it to a thin board with mod podge and Sam made a frame for it.  Since I wanted a very large map and all the ones were very expensive online, I was psyched when a friend called with this suggestion. At $8 it was worth a try.

The short dresser was used as a changing table when Joseph was a baby, but we've since removed the changing pad.  You can't see it in this picture, but the guitar is actually his most recent Piggies and Paws print (I let him choose the design this time).  I also have a small globe and an old wooden car that he occasionally plays with up there.  I knew that both of the dressers we were painting for Joseph's room were given to us by family members over the years, but they were never in the same room and it didn't occur to me that they might be a matching set.  When Sam started sanding them, we realized they are a pair.  Pretty cool (although they still would have both been in there had they not been a matching set).     

The light switch plate is the first "craft" project I did for this room.  I wasn't sure if Sam would like it or not, but decided to go for it since light switch plates can be replaced inexpensively.  Sam liked it and it ended up being my inspiration for the letters above the bed.

Behind each kid's bedroom door I've placed two hooks at their level.  One is for his coat, the other for his back pack.  It's their responsibility to get their coats and backpacks when we leave the house and return them to their hooks when we get back.  I love that they have a spot and it's not something I have to look at all the time.  Yes, I know Joseph's name shouldn't be on his backpack, but it's not something he wears around, it really just stays in the car in case I need his extra clothes.

In case you're wondering if the reading knooks really get used, this is what I found when I turned around after finishing taking pictures.

And because I like to keep it real here, no matter how organized you are, by the time your child is a toddler, you will end up with unsightly plastic toys in at least a couple of spots in your house (and cushions will get thrown off of stools).

Well, there you have it, Joseph's bedroom.  I LOVE how it turned out and the fact that we used lots of old items in there (either in their previous state or after a little TLC), so it didn't cost a fortune.  So what if I'm posting it three years after a normal person would write a blog post about their child's nursery. 

The First Snowfall

It wasn't much, but we've had the first official snowfall of the year.  Joseph was one excited little boy!  He kept saying, " It really snowing! It really snowing!"  Of course, with that enthusiasm we couldn't say inside all day, so we all bundled up and headed outside.  The boys went out first, and by the time us girls made it out there most of the small amount of snow we did receive had been wiped away.  Joseph was also over the sled and instead wanted to try pulling Sarah.

Sarah loved the sled and was more than eager to be pulled around as long as we were all willing to pull her. 

Joseph preferred making (and throwing) snowballs

and catching snowflakes on his tongue.

The best part about the day was that both of the dogs wanted to join us outside and even felt well enough to play together.  Bella has pretty bad arthritis right now (she was even whimpering with pain as I tried to put her sweater on her), so this was a really big deal. 

Since the dogs were out and enjoying themselves, we decided to attempt a picture of me and all the kids.  That was a bit of a disaster.

So we ended up just taking a couple of me and the human kiddos.

Halloween 2014

Halloween has come and gone and now I'm sitting in our cozy living room while the kids and husband nap and snow falls outside and decided there is no time better than the present to write my Halloween blog post. 

A month or so before Halloween, Sam and I started talking about costume options for the kids.  We wanted something that allowed them to coordinate and they would be happy about.  After throwing around a few options, we settled on Cookie Monster and a cookie.  I knew I could make the costumes as long as I could find blue, scraggly fabric.  I went to both stores that carry fabric in Stillwater and, although they had scraggly material, nobody had blue.  I knew it was polyester, so it wouldn't dye very easily and decided to look online.  The blue scraggly fabric I found online was over $20 per yard plus shipping, so I decided to abandon my Cookie Monster dreams and move on to plan B (have I mentioned I'm sometimes a little cheap?).  My plan B was Charlie Brown and Linus since Sarah is very attached to her crocheted blankets right now, but Sam didn't like that idea since they don't watch Peanuts, so we brainstormed a little more and came up with Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat.  This was going to be perfect since Sarah could wear Joseph's monkey costume from last year and I thought I could make a Man in the Yellow Hat costume pretty easily.  The only problem was that Joseph was adamant that he would be Curious George and Sarah would be "Yellow Hat."  Hopefully this video uploads correctly so you can see what I was up against.

I began researching how to dye polyester fabric online and decided to give it a try.  I called JoAnn's to ask if they carried any polyester dye, and the guy that answered told me no, so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a yard of the white scraggly fabric (because I didn't want to buy a lot of fabric if this wasn't going to work out) as well as some dye that the lady thought was my best bet.  An entire day spent stirring fabric in a dye bath later, I still had white fabric.  At this point, I was pretty much over the whole Cookie Monster thing, so I went to JoAnn's to buy material to make a yellow hat.  As I walked down the aisle to get my yellow dye (for the pants and shirt), I happened to see a selection of DyePoly (the stuff I read online was the best polyester dye) and low and behold they had one package of blue!  I snatched it up and headed home to try it out.  I had hoped to get two packages, but the label said it would dye two large shirts, so I thought it would be enough for 1 yard of fabric.  It was, kind of.  I spent another day stirring fabric in a dye bath with the end result being a lavender color.  Joseph was so excited about his soft cookie monster fabric that I had no choice but to persevere and finish this project.  We went back to JoAnn's to get a pattern only to find they didn't have the one I had planned on buying, so I decided to go with a dinosaur pattern and just omit the spikes, horns, and tail.  I also checked to see if they had received any more dye since I didn't think a yard of fabric would be enough, but they didn't.  Luckily, Joseph is a little on the short side, so I was able to tweak the pattern and have enough fabric.  All in all, I was happy with how my little lavender, curly cookie monster turned out.  And, better yet, Joseph loved it!

Sarah's costume was much easier.  It was pretty much two light brown circle pillows with dark brown "chocolate chip" appliques on it and straps to attach them in four places.  One of my favorite parts is the cookie bow.

The Tuesday before Halloween, we took the kids to the downtown trick or treat.  I had heard they had a costume contest, so of course we had to enter.  We weren't sure where they belonged since they should have been in different age divisions, so we decided Sarah was Joseph's accessory.  I wish I would have known they had a group division, but it's ok.  Joseph ended up winning "funniest costume" in the 2-3 year old class.  He proudly wore his medal around for the rest of the night.

This walking back to the car after a night of trick or treating picture might be one of my all time favorites even though it's blurry.

The next day, it was brought to my attention that the kids were on the front page of the O'Colly (OSU's newspaper).  I didn't realize they were THE front page.

Thursday night, after a short, random on the floor nap,

we decided to carve some pumpkins.  Since it was a little windy and chilly outside, we decided to do this in the garage.  The kids weren't too sure at first,

but Joseph quickly warmed up to it

and was eager to dig in and help

Sarah was more the I'll watch you guys do it type.

I attempted a long exposure picture since it was dark outside and I thought it would be cool with "pumpkin head" as Joseph named him (it was originally "fire head" but got changed), but Joseph did not understand the whole sit completely still part (this pic would be really, really dark under normal circumstances).

After we came back inside, I made the kids stand together so I could get a picture of the Halloween shirts we made this year.  I kind of like them a lot.

After Joseph walked away, Sarah went back and made noise until I took a picture of her by herself.  Isn't she getting big!

Halloween night, Sam went to Dallas to a friend's costume party (we had planned to go together, but due to a lack of sitter ended up doing things this way) while the kids and I went to our church's Harvest Carnival and hit up a couple of friends' houses.

After we put Sarah to bed (sister likes her sleep :), Joseph and I watched the Curious George Halloween movie.

At the party Sam went to, all the guys dressed as Will Ferrell characters.  Sam was Elf.  I'm pretty proud of myself for making this entire costume in a little over 6 hours (not counting the time spent gathering materials the day before)!  Wasn't the whole crew awesome!  I told Sam that if I spent the time and energy making this costume, he had to pose like this all night.

I failed and didn't get any good pictures of the kids before Halloween, I decided to dress them up the following Monday, and try to get some.  This is what it's like taking a picture of a 2 and 1 year old by yourself.

This was the best both of them together picture I could get... and neither of them are smiling.

The best way to get Joseph to sit still for a couple of seconds was to ask him what Cookie Monster does, to which he makes the appropriate sounds and actions,

then laughs.

I finally gave up and decided to just let them play and maybe get a few candid pictures.

Sarah was ok with this.

Joseph promptly told me, "No, I already did that." when I tried to take his picture.

So there you have it, Halloween 2014.  I'm sure Joseph will get a good laugh out of this costume someday.