The Cutest Room In The House

We finally finished the kids' room. Good thing too cuz I don't know how much longer Steph can hold out with this baby poking her in the ribs.

I made the cubbies because those we bought from Target were particle board and falling apart before I got them out of the box. These are solid wood with a custom paint job. They turned out great. With the projects now done, I'm up for hire for any of your custom furniture needs.




Steph ordered this more "gender neutral" valance. Does she have a great eye for design or what?!?

They're Done! They're Done! The Beds are Complete!

After three+ months and A LOT of hard work on Brian's part, along with countless trips to Lowe's (we kept them in business 4th QTR), we finally assembled the BEAUTIFUL furniture Brian made in Whitney and Taylor's new room. We painted the pretty purple walls 'toasted wheat' (after three coats of primer and two coats of color). I washed the bead board on the walls, Brian put up shelves, and we had the blinds cleaned. The room is coming together perfectly. (Just a few more things to complete.)

Here are some pics of the beds and dressers:


Tay got new 'dinosaur' bedding. This whole transition is especially big for him, since he has been in the crib to this point. One thing he still did that most three year-olds would not is stay in his crib (even though he has the ability and permission to climb out) until Mommy or Daddy got him out. We wondered how the 'big boy' bed would change that, if it would at all. It didn't. At least not yet. He still sits on his bed and yells for us, "Mommy, Daddy, I awake!"



Here are the kids enjoying their new beds:



Brian is amazing! He really had never built anything like this before, but this guy puts his mind to learning something, and it turns out like this! I'm very blessed with such an ambitious and talented husband.

Brian says "BIG thanks" to my dad, Vardell for lending his table saw for an extended period of time, as well as his truck a couple times, and to his brother, Steve for a few other tools, help, and countless hours of advice!

We are so excited that this BIG project is complete. This Saturday we'll put the nursery together. (Luckily, not much to do there.) Being this close to D-day, it helps to feel more organized. Yea!

Alive and Kickin

Sorry for the brief hiatus of our posting. I've been very busy and Steph has been very sick.

I have been working hard in the garage day and night on the bunk beds and dressers for the kids. The dressers have been a particular challenge since I had to come up with the plans myself but I'm finally getting close to having the large dresser done. I've started to do some staining as well, which is a lot of fun despite the high and headaches the fumes give me.

Here I am sporting one of the foot boards with the dresser behind.


Steph has been struggling a lot with this pregnancy, as is typical unfortunately. We were just at the doctor's office this week and he says the heartbeat is very strong and that everything seems to be progressing normally for baby so YEA! And talk about strong, this baby has some serious kicking skills. Watching Steph's belly move has become our favorite family activity.

The kids are also doing well, loving the Christmas season. They got to meet Santa today and tell him what they want for Christmas. We'll post the picture when we get it. Since we got pounded with wet, heavy snow today Whitney and I made a snowman. Good times.

Giving the needed features to our snowman.

Whit and her toothless grin with our snowman.

Build-a-Bed

Now that I am a seasoned blogger, let me fill you in on where Brian's been since mid-October: in the garage. He's a workhorse, I tell ya'. Day and night he's been slaving over the L-shaped bunk bed he's building for Whitney and Tay, since they'll share a room, so Baby gets its own.

We knew it would be a huge undertaking, especially since before we began we realized it wasn't going to save us any money over buying a similar one. But this way, Brian gets a project (which he enjoys), and we get the exact bed we had in mind. Here's what the bed will look like, in general:

(except, ours will be cooler). Last night we fully assembled the top bed rail. (I can't believe I am actually saying "we", because Bri does all the work and calls me out there to hold a piece for him!) It looks so cool to see these pieces all come together because of his handy work! I'm certain it will be beautiful when complete - so good job Babe! Unless I can figure out how to get the pictures from our camera onto the computer, you may not see any pictures of the work in progress... We'll see. The bed should be done by Christmas, because we've already told Whitney and Taylor that's what they're getting.