Merry Christmas, My Little Princesses

It has taken me a long time to get to this post, but the project I have been working on is finally complete. The end of August I decided I was going to turn our fourth bedroom that we were using for an office into a playroom for the girls, for Christmas. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so I attempted several DIY projects to complete the room. Some turned out, others were complete fails. 

The idea for the room evolved over time too, so some of my work didn’t even end up getting used.

I was surprised it took me all the way until Christmas to finish the job, but it did. I remember we really began the project Labor Day weekend by building shelves in our garage to move all the stuff from the office out there. I also had to clean out my closest, the closet under the stairs, some cupboards, and move a lot of furniture around in the whole house to make the room work. So I guess it was really more than a one-room makeover.

Woodworking is one of Drew’s new hobbies, so I had him build me several things for the room as well. My mom and Courtney spent some time helping me on random things too.

I took advantage of Drew going to all the late-night Boise State games and sewed and crafted while he was gone and the girls were in bed, along with working while the girls nap during the day.

Here are some pictures of how the room turned out. It isn’t anything too special, but it works well for us, and the girls love it, so it is a win in my book.

 

 Drew built the magnet board and board to hang art from. For a month before Christmas Sammy was obsessed with hanging her pictures on the fridge. So I was super excited for this to be done, so she could hang her pictures here instead.

I found a tutorial to sew a braided rug back in August, and went to work. Courtney and I spend hours braiding and sewing. The tutorial said not to worry if the rug wouldn't lay flat, to take an iron to it and it would fix the problem. Well this wasn't the case for us. I ironed and ironed, stretched and stretched, but it was a lost cause. I folded the thing up and threw it in the closet until a couple weeks ago. I didn't want it to be a complete waste so I decided to cut the rug in half to release the tension causing it to curl and finished the straight edge so I could tuck in under her kitchen. Drew built the little decorative shelves too.

Like I said before, this was a low budget project. I was determined to use what we already had, so we moved the bookshelf from Sammy's room and used the baskets we already had. I did buy the red ones from the Dollar Tree. You can't really tell from the picture, but the pink box is a little mailbox I made from a cracker box and put a little flag on it. In the other little box on the shelf are our writing supplies to write letters and put in the mailbox.

One of my main reasons for sewing the girls the little princess aprons for Halloween was so they could use them for dress up in their playroom. The left side of the closet is all their dress up stuff. I made a doctor coat, and a mask for the superhero cape I bought from the Dollar Tree. I also spent a lot of time organizing and labeling the different games and activities to store in the closet. I made it a point to put all the board books on the bottom shelf so Aubrey could get to them and I wouldn't have to worry about her destroying them.

This is probably my favorite part of the room. I was planning all along to make this little corner a reading nook, but it wasn't until the end of October we decided to make it a loft. I already had sewn the little banner and pillow covers, and made the fluff rug, but I think it turned out way better having the loft to put them in. Drew did all the building for this, along with the bookshelf on the wall. The little fluff rug looked really cute, but after having it out for half-a-day I had to put it away because it shed so much. I don't know enough about fabric to know why it happened, but the white fabric I cut shed really bad, but the other t-shirt material I used and the pink fabric didn't shed at all. I love having the storage space under the loft as well.

When we lived in Provo, we used to sing this song at the library that said, "Talk, sing, read, write, play, makes a reader everyday." So I decided to make the little sign with the talk, sing, read, write, play to help us remember what we should do everyday :). We wanted to add the mirror for Aubrey to be able to play in, and also to go along with the dress up clothes.

Well that is the story behind my business the last couple months. The weekend before Christmas we sent Sammy to a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpas so we could put everything together. We had all the nails and everything in place so on Christmas Eve all we had to do was snap everything back in place. Drew made a treasure hunt for Sammy to open Christmas morning that led to the playroom.

I am glad to have a place for the girls to play and hope that they won't drag toys all over the house anymore. I am debating about taking the door off the room and just putting the baby gate up, so the toys have to stay. Also so I can just put Aubrey in there and not have to worry about her falling down the stairs while I do laundry or whatever up stairs. (Sammy just opens the door and runs away, so I have to keep a close eye on her, the gate we have doesn't span the stairway).

The Fairy Princess at Play.

End of Summer Fun

The last couple months have flown by. We have been busy doing all sorts of things, like:

Harvesting peas, squash, and carrots from our garden.

Building a kid’s picnic table.

Building Lego towers.

Going to Boise Hawks baseball games.

Beating Mario Brothers 3.

Watching Daniel Tiger.

And Mom going to Oregon two weekends in a row.

My first trip to Oregon was for this pretty lady’s wedding.

My little sister went with me since we didn’t want to take the girls on that long of a car ride two weeks in a row. It was a quick trip, but fun catching up with a lot of my friends from “home.”  I am glad Courtney was willing to make the trip with me and help with the driving.

My parents got a beach house the next weekend on the Oregon Coast. We had a good time playing in the sand, exploring the beach, playing cards and eating yummy food with family while there.

Now we are back to working out, going to the library and whatever other random things we find to do. I found a new project to work on that has been consuming much of my “free” time, but I will share about that another time.

Yellowpine or Yellow Pine?

So I was reminded again last week about one of the many reasons why Drew and I were meant to be. :)

 

As many of you probably know, the house I grew up in was located on Yellowpine Road. 

What you may not know is … the town in Idaho where Drew’s family cabin is … Yellow Pine. 

Growing up, each year for Christmas Drew’s grandparents would give all their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren a Yellow Pine t-shirt for Christmas. Yellow Pine is a big deal to the Morgan Family. Many honeymoons, winter vacations, summer vacations, and holidays have been spent in Yellow Pine by someone in the Morgan family. There is a lot to love about Yellow Pine.

So obviously, when I met Teralin and Drew in college and saw them running around in their Yellow Pine t-shirts all the time, I knew it was only a matter of time until I would have my own — after all, I did grow up on Yellowpine Road. 

Maybe it was the Yellow Pine connection that brought Drew and I to start dating, maybe not. But …

The first time I took Drew home to meet my family, we came into Prineville by Ochoco reservoir and instead of go through town to get home, I said let’s just turn on Johnson Creek Road and go home the back way. 

Turns out, Johnson Creek Road is the road that leads you to Yellow Pine, Idaho as well.  

See what I mean … it was meant to be.

Anyway, this brings me to the real reason for this post and that is our trip to Yellow Pine last week. We spent the weekend in the mountains riding 4-wheelers, eating lots and lots of food, listening to Marty Robbins, playing genealogy (ask me later if you want an explanation of what this is) and just enjoying the cabin.

This was Aubrey’s first trip to Yellow Pine, Sammy’s second, my third, and Drew’s hundredth :).

Just for fun, this is the view from my backyard growing up on Yellowpine Road. I have a picture of our street sign somewhere, but cannot find it.

A Little Update

So I have a little catching up to do. It turns out I haven’t posted since January. Let’s just say a lot has happened since then, and the Lord has blessed us so much — probably the most prominent thing being the birth of our little Aubrey girl. Funny story … I always say “Sammy girl” and “Aubrey girl” when I am talking to or about the girls. The other day Sammy was talking and referred to me as “Mommy girl.”  :) Oh, how I love my life, the cute little things I get to witness daily from these two little girls.

I haven’t really determined a topic for this post yet, so I will probably just ramble for a while about what has been happening.

It seems like these last three months since Aubrey was born have flown by. We have been busy with a lot of random stuff, but nothing too noteworthy.  We spend a lot of time hanging out with family and doing random church stuff. I also started attending an exercise class twice a week with some of the gals from church, and have been walking one morning a week with the cousins. Between that, having Drew home for lunch and Sammy taking a 2-3 hour nap each afternoon, our days fly by.

Drew coming home for lunch every day is coming to an end this week though. He got a new job and will now be driving into Meridian for work.  We have been really lucky to get to spend that extra hour with him every day but are excited for this new job opportunity.

Drew is going to be working for a company based in Salt Lake City that just opened an office here in Idaho. It seems like it will be a good change for him. He will be working on projects that better fit his interests and will keep him busy.

Pause … shift … As I sit here and write this post, Sammy is sitting at the table eating her dinner singing about Jesus, and Aubrey is sitting on the couch with Drew, smiling from ear to ear. (See what I mean? I have the most amazing girls and husband.)

Anyway, it has been so fun to see Sammy adjust to having a sister. She loves her so much, and is always concerned about her. Sammy hasn’t been jealous at all. She loves to talk to Aubrey, read her stories, and her favorite, do tummy time with her. :)

Aubrey has been such a good baby. She eats well, sleeps well and smiles from ear to ear. What more can a mom ask for? She is lifting her head well and is close to rolling over.

So as some of you might know, Sammy loves letters, numbers, books, etc. She is obsessed with the Letter Factory and knows all her letters and the sounds they make. She can write several of her letters and even knows how to spell a few words, like mom, dad, Sammy, Aubrey, cat, stop,  etc. We were sitting at the table eating lunch the other day and she says, "Y-M-M-A-S that spells Sammy backwards." I was pretty impressed, I had never taught her how to spell backwards, she came up with it all on her own. Later I was telling this story to Drew and his parents, so grandma asks her how to spell mom and then dad backwards, which she does easily (those three letter palindromes, not too tough, right? BTW, does anyone remember my t-shirt I found that said backup you palindrome? I wish I still had that). So next grandma asks her how to spell Aubrey backwards. We watched her as she visualized it, and did it perfectly! She is so smart. I don't know where she learns these things, I don't teach her half the stuff she knows. One smart cookie that Sammy.

I am going to call this good for an update for now, and will hopefully be a little better about posting. Here are some pictures of what has been going on:

Not a great one, but this is the only picture I took of Aubrey on her blessing day. My great grandma made this dress for my mom for her girls to be blessed in. My two sisters, three nieces, two daughters and myself have all be blessed in it.

So I decided to take pictures of this cutie during church today :) Aubrey 3 months.

Sammy got to ride a pony all by herself at the Morgan family reunion.

Drew teaching Sammy how to build things with Lego's.

Sammy turns three. My first cake. The Letter Factory.