Little Brother

Exactly one week ago today we welcomed the fifth member of our household - a LITTLE BROTHER!!!!   I know this comes as no surprise to any of you as this baby has been the only thing I have been able to blog about over the past few weeks:)  I am happy to say that all is well and he is a healthy little boy.  The family is adjusting well and he is very loved by his parents and his big sisters!

This one loves her little brother!

It took this one a few days to warm up to the idea:)

I plan on taking a few weeks off from blogland but am sure I will still be checking in from time-to-time.

Bathrooms

I am sure that you have all heard me complain talk about our bathroom situation before.  It is not necessarily ideal but we are making it work for now.  Technically our house has one full and two half baths.  One of the half baths is in the basement and, frankly, I am afraid to walk into it let alone to anything else.  The second half bath is upstairs and as much as I love that guests get a full house tour every time they have to use the bathroom, a downstairs guest bath would be nice.  The full bath is actually a master bath which is really nice and works well for us while the kids are young but could get a little inconvenient when the kids get a little older - not to mention that we do not have a bath tub anywhere in The House which has pushed us to get a little creative for when we will be bathing the baby:)

So I am going to ask you to cut me some slack here and let me dream a little bit....because we do plan to put an addition on The House.

Our addition will be off of the first floor of our house and I would like it to include a Master Bedroom, an additional bedroom which will be for The Boy, and a den which will also serve as a guest room when necessary.  What this will also do is give The Girls' the full run of the upstairs.  So what do bathrooms have to do with this?  When the addition goes on I would love for The Boy's room to have its own bathroom, for there to be a beautiful Master Bathroom as well as a third full bathroom which will serve as our guest bathroom.  Upstairs, I would love to knock down the wall between the bathrooms and create one big fabulous bathroom for The Girls.  Yes you heard be correctly 4 FULL BATHROOMS!!  And I want them to all have their own personalities so I have been collecting ideas as I come across them

Here are two of my favorites:

Inspiration for out Guest Bath down stairs. I love everything about it, especially the horizontal boards on the wall and the wall-mounted faucet.





Inspiration for the Master Bathroom, I love that the shower and toilet are separate from the sinks.  I would also love the the entrance to be two big ol' sliding barn doors - how much fun would that be?


For The Girls' bathroom I using IKEA as my inspiration - very sleek and clean lines but with lots of color.

For the Boy's bathroom I almost want it too feel like a public bathroom (is the weird?) with a very simple wall mounted sink and lots of subway tile.

In four years I will let you all know how it turns out:)

One Month From Today!

It is hard to believe but one month from today we will get to meet the newest member of our family AKA The Baby.  I had a wonderful "sprinkle" this weekend to celebrate him and am totally digging all of this Blue!  I have been buying pink dresses for way too long:)

We also finally have his room ready for him.  Everything is cleaned, washed and ready for him to use.  Although, knowing me, I am sure I will wash everything one more time.

So, here are the last of the pictures in our Nursery Series.  I know it looks like I took pictures of the same part of the room three different times and you would be correct.  But, as I have said in my previous posts, it is hard to get a picture of a room that is only 6 feet x 9 feet.  We were plesently surprised to find that all of the furniture fit but I am a little sad that we were not able to get the rocker in there.  The good news is that there is a very comfy chair right outside his door in the hall.  I am sure I will be spending many a night falling asleep in that chair:)

Enjoy the pictures!

Wall Color:  Thin Ice by Valspar

Furniture: Babies R Us (6 years ago)

Drapes: Target

Lamps: Target (6 years ago)

Rods: Lowe's

Rug: IKEA

Pictures:  Illustrations from the book "The Night You Were Born"

Baskets:  Michael's (6 years ago)

Bedding: Carter's

Enlisting Some Help

Now that all of the demo and construction was finished it was time to do some painting.  I was pretty much banned from the entire nursery project and being eight months pregnant I was totally okay with it.  Plus, there was an unspoken agreement that even though I was not doing anything physical, I still had final say in anything decorative.

By this step, The Husband had done A LOT of work and was ready to ask for some help.  Enter two Big Sisters and we had ourselves a painting party.

My job was to make sure this little one did not fling paint all over the room.



This one is a natural, I mean look at those brush strokes!

For anybody interested we have used Valspar paint throughout the entire house.  All of the trim in this room is China White and the walls are Thin Ice.

Some More Holiday Decorating

Welcome to day 2 of my Christmas Decorating posts.  Today I am linking up with the Hooked on Holiday Houses party over at Hooded on Houses.

So we don't necessarily live in the biggest of houses which means when it comes to decorating Christmas we don't have a lot of options as to where to put everything.  I guess that is the reason why The Husband likes to say that it looks like Christmas threw-up in our front room:)

But I think that is usually the case.  I mean if you put your tree in the same room your stockings are hanging, then that will probably be the most Christmassy of all the rooms right?  Actually, I love this room and it is great that we spend so much time in it as a family because then I get to look around at all my lovely decoration.

Some detail shots of the Front Room:

We did decorate in some other areas too.  The buffet has a nice clean feel to it with a bowl of my favorite snowflake ornaments.  The only new items we bought this year were the Advent Calendar (which I love because I no longer have to answer the question "How many more days until Christmas?") and we bought some garland for our staircase which I hung some more snowflake ornaments from.

Next year we are going to focus on the outside of The House.  Before we moved we used to be those obnoxious neighbors that covered our house in lights - very Clark Groswold of us - but I don't really feel like that would fit the look of The Main Street House.  I am thinking lots of garland, wreaths, and hurricane lanterns would be more like it.  I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens next year.

The Latest Addition

So, although I don't have any updates for the inside of the house, we did make one very significant addition to the outside of the house.

A Playground!!!!!

We had a playground similar to this at the old house and the plan, for a while, was to take it apart and move it over to This House.  Well, we put it off and then we put it off a little more and when it finally came down to moving it -we said NO WAY!!!  There is a school right behind us and we spent the summer playing at that playground until The Youngest came up to me one day and asked if we could move back to the old house (insert the sound of my heart breaking).  When I asked her why she answered that it was because the playground was there.

Well, we knew something had to be done - enter The Grandparents.  In a great act of generousity, The Grandparents we in on a group birthday gift for The Youngest and got her this wonderful playground.  In addition to that The Papaw spent two full days putting it together.  For any of you out there who have a wooden playground and paid for the assembly, you can be sure that you got your money's worth!!!  Thankfully The Papaw is a handy guy and likes to do stuff like this because it was A LOT of work.  He had some help and The Youngest got out there with her Handy Manny tools to make sure all the screws were tight but he did most of it himself.

Let me tell you, it is great!  The Girls love it and play on it every evening.  It got some major use at the Birthday Party too.  There were kids climbing all over it!

So, it the eyes of a 6-year old and a 4-year old, everything is now right with the world.

Getting back into the Swing of Things

Okay, so I am slowly but surely climbing out of the pile of laundry and getting back to our normal routine. So what is our normal routine? Not working on the house, I can tell you that. So far, The Girls and I have just been out enjoying summer - spending a total of eight hours over the past two days at the pool. Next week is summer camp and the week after that is Vacation Bible School. So when are we going to get back to what this blog is really about - THE HOUSE?!?!

No worries, we will be painting this weekend - stay tuned for the big reveal!

I'm Leaving....

....on a Jet Plane.

Okay, so maybe not a Jet Plane but I am packing up my SUV and taking the girls to visit their Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. We will be leaving The Husband at home as he has a lacrosse game on Friday Night (is lacrosse season over yet?).

Anyways, what this means is that when I walk out the door, I will be sure to leave a nice long honey-do list for him.

What is on this list? Well, I am glad you asked.

• MOW



• Refinish Craigslist Table



• Hang Pictures



• Fix Curtain Rods



• Fix Gutter



• Touch-up nail holes (I may try to do this before I leave)



• Clean the Screens and wash the windows



• Replace the outlet in the 1/2 bath



• Spray Paint White Wicker Furniture



• Download all files from the old computer



• Prime The Master Bedroom (can you believe we haven't painted this yet?!)

Poor guy, he thinks he is going to have this free time this weekend - NOT!

Friday Finds

Check out this awesome outdoor table I picked up from Craigslist for FREE!!! It's a great table but the fact that all I had to do was go and pick it up for FREE makes it even better. Sure it needs a little love but once I paired it with an old table cloth and some thrifted chairs, I think it works out just fine:)

P-Funk

Not much going on here at The Main Street House so I thought I would post a picture of our little gymnast.

Today was her first day and she had a blast!

Day 171: Ice Cream

This came home from school on Friday.

Okay, so this totally may be one of those "you needed to be there" kind of stories but I am going to tell it anyways. New Year's Day was a balmy 65 degrees here and what does one do when it is 65 degrees in winter? Go out for ice cream!!! And it just so happens we have some of that just down the street from us.

So we leashed up the dog, put our light-weight jackets on and headed down Main Street to get one of the many flavors of soft-serve available to us at our local walk-up ice cream parlor. And.......it is closed. Don't laugh, I know that we should have assumed that an ice cream parlor would be closed on New Year's Day but it seemed like such a great idea.

Back-up Plan: Walk back to the house, drop of the dog and cross a very busy intersection to get to the IGA and buy some ice cream there. May not sound all that exciting, but The Girls had a great time. And, we learned that you can buy Drumsticks without the nuts. Very exciting day for two girls who were planning to get vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles only to find that it was closed and they would have to walk four blocks home and then another two blocks to get to the IGA to buy plain old ice cream sandwiches. But NO....Drumsticks without the nuts! Even Better!!!

We then walked home and ate the ice cream on our porch. The Husband sitting with The Girls on the wicker love seat and me sitting across from them on the rocker.

Happiness to me is...

Eting (eating) is (ice) krem (cream) on the porch maks (makes) me happy.

Do you see how she re-created the whole scene? Every detail is covered, down to the peanut free chocolate-covered drumsticks. So flippin' cute!

Day 147: Snow Day

Today was another Snow Day for The Oldest. That makes one delayed start and two full snow days. It's not even winter yet!!! Wonder what January and February will be like?

And just so you know - it is 2pm, I am showered but both of my kids are still in their nightgowns and still have bead head (they have brushed their teeth, thank goodness). Gotta, love days like this!

Day 145: Meet...

First, I would like to apologize to any of you who tune in for actual home improvements. As you have probably figured out by now, we have not done any:) But don't worry, we will be back to making improvements after the Holidays.

But today I would like to you meet.....

well, we don't really have a name because we can't quite agree on the gender but check out the snowperson we built yesterday:)

Day 144: Snow

Yesterday evening was a very magical evening for me, although The Weather Man would end up calling in a winter storm, to me it was just a peaceful snowfall.

One that caused us to curl up on the couch at 4:30, turn off all the lights and watch Meet The Robinsons movie theater style. With all of us cuddled under blankets, even The Youngest Daughter sat through the entire movie.

We followed up Sunday Night Movie Night (usually know as Friday Night Movie Night) with a belly warming dinner of meatloaf and cheesy potatoes. And when all was cleaned up, The Husband took The Girls upstairs to get ready for bed while I took The Dog out for our nightly walk.

This is where I was taken by an overwhelming sense of calm. Our footprints were the first footprints in the freshly fallen snow and besides the one snowplow that shot salt at us - it felt like I was the only person in the world. Could be a scary thought if that was true but since I knew that there were a lot more people in the world and they were just snuggled up inside there homes, I was okay with the "only person in the world" thing.

But then I went inside and was greeted by two little girls -out went the peaceful calm feeling, but that is okay because I was starting to get a little lonely out there:)

Hope you area all staying warm in this snowy weather!

Day 139: Christmas Tree

Okay, so I am totally going to brag here, but I just had to share with you all how beautiful our Christmas Tree is. First of all, we totally had a fresh blanket of snow on the ground the morning we were planning go get our tree. That and the big fat flakes that were still falling made it a perfect day to head out to The Big Tree Plantation for our yearly tradition of cutting down our Christmas Tree.

The Girls, The Husband, The Dog, and I all piled into our SUV and drove over the river and through the wood. We tromped through the snow, rode on a tractor pulled wagon and tromped through the snow some more until we found it - the perfect tree.

The Girls and our Chosen Tree

Trying to pull the Chosen Tree on the sled

The Oldest placing the star on top
And, The Youngest placing the star on top

Lights On

Lights Off

It is so beautiful, not a bare spot on it and is smells soooo.... good!

Day 135: Meet Little

I would like to introduce everyone to our friend Little. Little is our Elf on the Shelf and he flies to us every December 1st. For those of you not familiar with Elf on the Shelf, Little (named by The Oldest Daughter) is a scout elf sent to our home by Santa Claus himself.



Little sits quietly by and watches over the girls each day - then every night he flies back to the North Pole and lets Santa know if The Girls have been naughty or nice. Now we added a little spin to our tradition and if the girls are good then Little will bring two small gifts back with him from The North Pole.

The Girls love Little and sometimes I find them standing there, just looking at him. I like Little too because he seems to bring with him a whole lot of Christmas magic. Plus, look how cute he is!


His only downfall, I find that The Girls are getting up even earlier to be the first one to fine Little's new resting spot (he picks a new place to sit every day) and to see if they have a gift in their stocking.

Day 134: Too Pink?

So the Christmas Decorations are out and in case some of you were worried that there was not enough pink in The Girls' room.

We added this for good measure:


"What is it?" you say - why it is a Barbie Christmas Tree, doesn't everybody have one? The Girls Love it and it serves as a little extra night light. My favorite part - the pink glitter shoe tree topper:)

Day 122: Festival

What a great weekend it has been! The Christmas Festival is in full swing and we have been out enjoying every minute of it - except the people parking in our yard and the strangers sitting on our front steps (that will take some getting used to).

Our Friday Night was filled with Carolers, Horse Drawn Carriage Rides and a Tree Lighting Ceremony - complete with Abe Lincoln delivering The Gettysburg Address.

Today we took to the streets again to grab all sorts of yummy food, watch a parade, The Girls got their faces painted and got to slid down the biggest inflatable slide I have ever seen.

Here are some pictures of the craziness outside our window.

The Calm Before the Storm

30,000 of our closest friends.

Holy lots of People

Those Cinnamon Roasted Nuts Smelled soo... Good

This was parked right across the street from us and we totally ran out for a late night Gyro on Friday.

Day Ninety-Nine: Promises

So, I broke (yet another) promise today and will not be bringing you final pictures of our new and improved downstairs. Why? Because I have been carrying my camera around in my purse all week and today was the Halloween Parade at The Oldest's School. So this is the last shot I got before my battery died.

Sorry, maybe tomorrow:( But isn't she the cutest black cat you have ever seen?

Day Ninety-One: Leaves

Oh the leaves that have fallen over at The House. This is definitely not a chore we had to worry about in The House we Currently Live In. Fortunately for us, this is the first year our town had offered a leaf collection service-so really all I had to do is rake them across the small yard onto our curb.

It was a beautiful Fall day, so I didn't mind the chore plus...

...the girls loved it!!!

Oh the joys of laying in a dirty, itchy pile of leaves.

While they had a great time, they were working against me the entire afternoon. Here is a picture of The Girls taking armloads of leaves from my nice neat little pile and throwing them all over the yard:)