Fall

Some fall fun on a warm day!

Grade 1!

About a month ago Owen got a letter from his Grade 1 teacher. She had a cute letter she'd written to her future students and with it came this picture! She must have taken it at the end of last year. 

So cute right?! I think she is going to be a great teacher, its her first year having her own classroom and you can tell she has great enthusiasm!

On his last day of Kindergarten Owen came home from school. He thought he got to start Grade 1 the next day. So its been kind of a long summer. I didn't realize he would have no idea what summer vacation was.... Every night he has to pray for 3 things and every night one of the things was that he could go to school tomorrow. 

So I think he was pretty excited the day finally came!!

My little man is off every day all day! 

I think it will hit me tomorrow when I have to go to the bus stop two days in a row.

They just grow up so fast! I miss him but I look forward to him coming home and hearing his stories and getting all the info packs. 

Another year has begun!

Last Day

9 and a half months ago I put my little man on the bus for his first day of Kindergarten!

Today I did the same but its his last day! 

Wow time flies. Its been a great year and we are so thankful for our Christian school.

He has loved every minute of it and looks forward to Grade 1!

I didn't realize how much he has grown! he is standing on the same step and you can see with the panel in the door how much he has grown in that time! 

He said he wanted a picture with Emma too. Love these two! 

Wow she has changed a lot in that time too!

Happy Summer Holidays!

Emma is 3!

Emma is 3 today! 

For her birthday I made her this kitchen!

I think once I had her I started pinning things on Pinterest that I could make my little girl. 

Finally she was old enough for this!

I had a lot of pins about kitchens and different things you could do. I searched for the perfect cabinet to remake and ended up just using an old IKEA table that I had.

I looked at what other people did and just went with what worked for this cabinet.

It didn't cost me a lot of money, I used a lot of things I had already.

The peg board and tap were the big purchases and otherwise some things I got at the Restore. 

It was a fair bit of work but I did most of it myself. John did jigsaw the hole for the sink and cut the pegboard to size.

Top shelf with the black painted is the oven, it pulls down. Below that is the fridge. Then a little curtain area to store some stuff. A ledge shelf at the top to display. 

She had seen me working on it but hadn't seen the finishing touches. So she was pretty excited this morning and kept exclaiming "I have my own kitchen now!"

This is the before. 

Minus the two pieces of wood I had already added, I forgot to take a picture before I really started. 

I hope she gets lots of use out of it. I think she will as she loves to play with her dishes and food.

Happy Birthday to my sweet sunshine!

;;

Sunroom is complete!

Remember this ugly room? 

Green shag, grey paneled walls, huge old unsealed windows...

We started the transformation last October. 

Saturday John put up the last piece of trim!

It is complete!

We've been using the room for awhile but of course then we lost the motivation to fully finish it. 

Now its fully finished! Except for some decorating but that will take me some time. 

I decided to go with white walls in the room. Its a sunroom so it gets a lot of light and I wanted to keep that light. Right now its a sitting area, but in the future if we needed the space we could use it as a bedroom so I wanted to keep it neutral.

We stained the trim dark walnut to stay with the old trim we have in the rest of the upstairs.

I think it makes the room look clean and fresh.

 

And under that paneling we found that brick wall, I cleaned it up and now its our accent wall.

The table is an old trunk/table we got for free from my mother in law. She cleans house for a lady who was getting rid of it so she said she'd take it for us! Its also a great storage spot and holds lots of blankets, its a nice pine inside.

On the opposite wall I wanted a bookshelf to hold some of our books for a little reading area.

I couldn't seem to find a shelf that fit our needs so I ended up making my own and staining it to match. Its nothing spectacular but it serves its purpose and I'm proud of it. 

It has adult books and also kids books on the bottom shelf, a basket of Kate's books and a basket of toys for her to play with while she is up there.

Our large window. I contemplated putting up curtains... my mother in law thinks I should. But it might make it bulky and I don't really need the privacy from it since we are so high up... I'm still thinking about that one.... for now we are growing plants for our garden in the windowsill.

I haven't hung anything on the walls yet, I am enjoying the perfect walls. But I would like to find some things to hang and actually I have an artwork in mind that I just need a frame for. 

As for the t.v. stand its outdated and I may consider painting it... but that is a future project.

We love this space and hang out in it often. Its upstairs and at the back of the house so its kind of a place to hide and hang out!

A year ago... Kate is 1!

April 5th

A year ago my baby girl was born. I find this so hard to believe, where has this year gone?

My poor baby girl has been fighting a bit of a flu/cold so she had some struggles today but still managed to have a good birthday party. 

Photoshoot #1:

for the past 12 months, I've been taking pictures of Kate in her crib each month. 

So this morning we decided to do the same. Last time. 

I had visions of a cute birthday picture with Kate wearing her crown that I made her, her tutu (made for Emma for her 1st birthday), and a crib of balloons. 

Kind of cute right?

Kate had other plans. No matter what I did she would not keep that crown on her head. 

Most of the pictures I took she is crying.

I got this one good shot: yup no crown

Photoshoot #2:

after her morning nap, let's try this again....

still did not want that crown on...

did get another good shot, (see the first picture) but no crown...

I had to give up.

Onto her birthday party:

my new baby dolls!

Time for cake!
Everyone thought it was funny she would not wear that crown.
They were determined to get her to wear it....

We even had Owen standing there throwing it on her head. but no she'd snatch it right back off... smart girl

What a lady she is eating her cake with her fork. 

That fork may look scary to some but her mom knows how she does and she can eat good with it.

11 months!

Here she is! 11 months. My baby is almost a year. We won't think of that. 

I love this stage with her. She is cuddly, makes lots of noise and loves to laugh. 

We all adore her!

We had a bit of a challenging month. She took awhile to wean but she finally took the bottle. Then she was sick for 2 weeks and barely slept. Thankfully we are better now. 

 

practicing walking last night, she took one tiny step!