Monday, September 26, 2011

Weekend Activities

I was 21 weeks on Thursday.  Everything is going really great with the babies so far!  I went in for my weekly hearts check and so far there is no sign of heart block.  The babies sure are getting huge and their movements are getting harder and harder :)  With Daci, she was always stuck up under my right rib.  This time is no different.  The right rib is the favorite place to be, the only difference is that there are TWO babies that like to be under my right rib!  Little boy flipped breech this week and now his head is under my right rib and his body curves around and his feet are at the bottom and then baby girls feet are right under my right rib.  The last few days has been quite interesting because they are CONSTANTLY moving in that spot!  I keep thinking the girl kicks the boy in the face and the boy head butts her back in retaliation :)  I have had really bad lower back pain the last two weeks as well, I can't sit or stand for very long. It feels much better to lay down.  The most comfortable position is on my back, but I'm not supposed to sleep on my back so it makes for a very sleepless night.  I will sleep for about 30 minutes at a time, then I have to flip to the other side, and then I lay awake for 30 minutes while they have a boxing match in my stomach, then I fall back asleep for 30 minutes, and the cycle continues. I really shouldn't complain though because I am just so grateful all three of us are healthy and progressing nicely, plus, I'm pretty sure its going to get a lot worse with the weeks to come :)  Thats all to report with the pregnancy.  Here are some photos:





Baby Girl.

Baby Boy from straight on, head is the left circle, stomach is the right :)

We had a very exciting weekend.  Rick's dad, Fred, or more affectionately known as "Papou" came into town for a Milwaukee Bucks golf tournament.  Daci couldn't have been a happier camper!  She loves her Papou so much.  We went to the Wheaton French Market on Saturday morning and it was so much fun.  The weather was perfect crisp, cool Fall weather and the girls had a blast running around with Papou!


Rick's favorite thing at the market....the donuts!

Daci and Leni running and dancing around 
Daci picked out a pumpkin

Daci begging Papou to hold her and Leni giving Daci hugs :)

She was either in his arms or hanging on his leg all weekend!

Happy Girl with her cheese curd!

Trisha the Twister.  We sure got a kick out of her and her balloon animals!




Later that day Rick took Fred down to the Prairie where we love to go ride bikes and go for walks.  Ricks favorite part of the prairie is that there is an RC airplane airstrip there.  I took a nap while the boys took Daci down to play.  Daci had a blast!











Sunday after church we celebrated Carly's birthday.  Carly and Micah made a delicious Greek meal and I made Carly's birthday cake.  She requested a coconut milk cake.



I made her this frame with the poem that I love to match the banner I made for Eleni's room for her birthday.



Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Projects, Projects, and More Projects!


I have been inspired to decorate my house! I don't know if this is part of my "nesting" phase or what but I have been working like a mad woman to get some things done on my house.  I'm excited to share what I've been up to!

While Rick and Daci were gone I got really in the mood and did some fun craft projects and also went to town on Daci's closet.  She has a really big closet, luckily since there will be THREE kiddos sharing it :)  We only have one dresser for her room and we can't afford another one so I decided to be thrifty!  I found $11 bookcases at Menards, built them all by myself, and organized the closet.  I wish so badly I had taken a before picture.  Imagine stuff everywhere, and thats what it looked like :)  I had about 8 big boxes of baby clothes in the bottom of the closet, Daci's toys thrown in there, and a bunch of other junk.  I spent three whole days going through the baby boxes, taking everything 0-6 months out and putting it on shelves and hanging it up, boxing up stuff for Goodwill, and not to mention painting the whole closet.  Yes, I am 20 weeks pregnant with twins, huge, uncomfortable, and VERY proud of myself :)

Here is the finished product.  Well, sorta.  As you can tell, everything in there is girl stuff :)  We don't have any boy stuff yet.  I did a bookshelf for baby girl on the left and a bookshelf for baby boy on the right.  The "drawers" will be the plastic containers I got at the dollar store.  There are onesies for each size up to 6 months, socks, shoes, hats, etc in each of the bins.  Hanging up to the left is baby girl clothes 0-6 months and Daci's clothes are on the far right.  The middle is empty but will hopefully be filled with baby boy clothes soon :) The top shelf is lined with blankets, burp cloths, diapers and wipes. The bottom right of the closet has plastic drawers full of toys and a laundry basket of Daci's big stuffed animals.  I know I have so much more "stuff" to get and I just hope it all fits in there somehow! PS- That star won't be there once I get all the clothes in there, its just there til I decide where to hang it :)


I have also been working on nursery decor.  The room is already shabby chic pink, green and white.  Since we have to squeeze a little guy in there and I don't want him to have an identity crisis, I have decided to add blue in there too :)  So we will have light pink, light green, light blue, and white be the colors of the room.  I finished painting their room about three weeks ago.  I'm so glad I didn't go with the girly pink I was thinking of doing when we first moved in :)  Its just the pretty neutral that I have through most of the house and I'm really happy with it.

First thing I decided to do was make a fun bow board.  I originally had the bows just hanging from some ribbon in Daci's closet on the rack, but I needed to create more space so I decided to make a cute wall hanging for them. I saw this online and loved it.  I bought a cork board from Goodwill for $1.99, spray painted it white and mod podged the front of it with a cute green and white damask print.  I then got some fabric on sale at Joanns and covered the board (I mod podged it on), got some pink ribbon from Joanns and strung it across the front, and made some blue paper roses for the corner.  Voila!  A bow board.  



Then, I decided to make some frames for the kids room.  I bought a pack of three wooden frames from Goodwill for $.99, spray painted them white, modpodged some fun pink, green and blue scrapbook papers and then made paper roses in the alternating colors and glue gunned them on.  They will be hanging vertically on a narrow wall in their room with Daci's pic in the pink, Baby Girl in the green, and Baby Boy in the blue. Pretty good for about a dollar a frame, right?





My friend posted this poem on her blog a few weeks ago and I fell in love with it.  I seriously get tears in my eyes every time I read it.  It explains perfectly how I feel about being a mom.  It talks about both the craziness and joys of being a parent.  I had to have it in their room so I got another frame from Goodwill (I'm telling ya, I am learning to bargain shop!), spray painted it white, and mod podged this pink and white damask print.  Finished it off with more paper roses.  Love it.


I've also been working on my main floor.  We have soft turquoise couches with a brown, tan and turquoise accent chair.  Almost everything in my house is blue and brown so I wanted to try to bring in some more color.  I have big plans :)  Here are a few projects I have done:

A wreath I saw online and was so excited about!  I found this wreath at Savers for $4.99. I was all proud of myself, thinking it was a steal, but then saw them at the craft store the next day for the same price.  Lame!  Anyway, got the wreath at savers, the nest, bird, eggs and felt at Joanns, and I already had the scrapbook paper.  I searched and searched for the perfect ribbon and couldn't find any and then lo and behold in the bargain bin up front they had my perfect color for only $1. Score!

I made the felt into roses just like I do my paper roses. The leaves are a combo of scrapbook paper and pages from a dollar store book that I ripped out.  You cut them in the shape of leaves, fold them in half, and then I edged them in brown ink to give them a vintage feel.


I am bringing some of this corally/pinky/red color into my main area.  I mod podged this R. I had this cute stitching that my old boss gave me for my wedding and I just love it.  Only problem was that the frame was a red that didn't go with my house at all.  I spray painted it brown and mod podged the paper on the front.


 They are currently displayed on my hutch



Sidenote:  The top left and bottom right pots in the hutch were made by Rick in high school.  He is AMAZING at pottery and I am so proud to have his beautiful artwork in our home!

I found this tray at Goodwill for $1.99.  It was originally black with a french bistro picture in the bottom.  I spray painted it brown and mod podged the bottom with scrapbook paper in the turqouise and corally color.  I also love flowers, but hate that they die so quickly and are so expensive so I decided fake flowers would be perfect for me :)  I LOVE hydrangeas, and I also love this chartreuse green color.  I found the flowers and the perfect coral pink sprigs at Joanns, paired them with a dollar store vase and clear marbles, and put them on the tray.






The tray sits on our kitchen table and we put our salt and pepper, our butter dish and usually our keys and Rick's wallet get thrown in there too :)


 Last project for today, I promise!  I made this wreath that I found on the internet.  I bought a styrofoam wreath at Joanns and two dollar store books.  I painted the edges of the books, let them dry, and ripped out all the pages.  Then I rolled each page and started attaching.  It took forever!  I'm kind of a perfectionist and I had to have every roll just right, mine looks nothing like the one I found on the internet, but I'm still really happy with it!  It is hanging in my downstairs bathroom.  Do you love my blue wall!?  Its actually got more green in it than this picture shows.  Its like a robin egg blue.  I just love the cream wreath against the wall.  There was also no ribbon on the wreath I found on the internet, but I wanted to add a feminine touch :)


There are FIVE rows of rolled up pages.


 And, just cuz I can't do a post without my cute Daci......

How cute is she anyway!?  I was taking pictures of all my projects and she was like, "Mommy!  Take a picture of me!"  What!?  She usually hates getting her picture taken, shes too busy to stop and look at the camera and smile for two seconds.  I couldn't pass the chance up, and I'm so glad I didn't.  I am in love with these pictures.



She has been really sick the last few days.  Poor thing has been coughing up a lung.  My heart breaks when I hear her coughing for hours on end at night, knowing she can't be getting any sleep.  She is the happiest little girl when she is sick though!  She makes my life easy.  She is so sweet and cuddly and not whiny in the least.  Today she was doing a little bit better and I knew she was sick of being cooped up in the the house the last few days so I took her for a walk to the CVS to get a treat.  I know, bad mom.  Shouldn't get her treats when she is sick, but I couldn't help it. She was so happy when we got back!  She picked the marshmallow creme pumpkins, which I was ecstatic about because they might just be my favorite thing about this time of year :)





Hopefully you are still here!  Sorry it was such a long post.  I hope everyone is having a great week!