Crafty Measures

I've been trying to decorate the kids rooms with minimal budget effects, so I've turned to crafting... And here's what I made for their rooms:

I made the kids each a Martha Stewart style bulletin board to match their bedrooms. Sophie's is the lavendar one, Ben's room is Star Wars themed (of course :)) so he has the planets one and Nina's room is still Tinker Bell themed so hers is the pink and yellow butterfly one in the middle. It was actually super easy and I learned how to do it at a mother-daughter activity day. The green canvas with flowers is something I painted for Sophie to match her bed spread. I'm not sure I was ready for just how many coats of each color it was going to take to paint it, but after a few days of work on it it was finally done. The green "S" which is kind of camouflaged in front of the bulletin boards was the fastest project and probably only took me 45 minutes to paint.

Anywho, I guess the urge to decorate has driven me to take crafty measures. I am happy to say though that the kids have been pleased with my efforts and Ben is thankful for his Star Wars room every night in his bed-time prayers and that makes me feel happy.:)

Getting Settled

Okay, I have major guilt that I haven't been commenting on everyones' blogs, (so sorry) but I have been reading all the posts and I've been wanting to comment... Soon I'm going to have a real schedule, things are getting much more settled around here and with Sophie and Ben in school and preschool now I know life is going to start getting back to normal. But here's what I've been up to in the mean time:

House stuff:

We got our blinds up finally!! Oh, I can't even say how much of an improvement this has made! And slowly but surely we are unpacking all the rooms. We now just have our room to unpack. Yay for progress.

And here's some house pics:


This loft area upstairs is one of our favorite spaces in the house - it's pretty much a replica of our family room in Maryland, so it feels very comfy and homey to us.

School stuff:

Sophie has been back in school for over a week now and is doing well. Ben started preschool, but promptly got sick so wasn't able to go the rest of the week. The one day that he did go was a good day. His teachers said he had a small break down during snack time, but quickly recovered and honestly I call the first day with only one break down a success. Ben usually had a harder time adjusting to new situations. He couldn't stop talking about preschool and so wanted to go even when he was sick.

My bday:

I am now 31. How did this happen? As if it wasn't annoying enough to turn 30!;) I had a good birthday. Adrian got a babysitter and we found a lovely Japanese steakhouse (my favorite type of restaurant) like a Bennihana. It was SO yummy!! Tepanyaki is still #1 in my book, but this place was a close second. After dinner we went to a movie, House Bunny, which I wouldn't recommend, but had some very funny moments. Earlier in the day I went to the mall and got myself a couple sweater hoodies - happy birthday to me.:) I plan on stretching my birthday out a little though and I'll probably get myself more presents this week. Birthdays last at least a week right?!

Fun night out with Jenny:

Last night it was so fun to have a girls night with Jenny. We went to the Claim Jumper and had some seriously awesome food! I had to laugh and laugh when my dessert, a brownie sundae, came out and it was bigger than my head!!! It was yummy, but I barely made a dent in this beast of a dessert before I was completely stuffed. It was so fun to chat and laugh with Jenny and I can't tell you how grateful I am to have such a great friend here in Colorado!

You can't see Jenny's dessert very well in this picture, but it was also ginormous. The sheer size of our treats made us get out our cel phones to take pictures!:)

Boxes Boxes Everywhere

Wow, I've been missing in action for a while now! It's been a crazy busy time with unpacking and school and preschool starting so blogging has sort of taken a back-seat. It has been hectic, but finally we are starting to uncover our floor at home and in fact the whole main level is unpacked! Yay! We still have lots of unpacking of clothes and books etc. and we haven't even started to think about all the boxes in the basement. Unpacking is so not fun, but hopefully if we keep on plugging away it will be done soon.

Sophie started 4th grade yesterday. She had a good first day and said she made friends and likes her teacher. I got to meet her teacher earlier this week she seems like a wonderful energetic teacher.

Ben went to his preschool get-to-know-you open house yesterday and will start on Monday. He'll be going to preschool at the elementary school that Sophie goes to and he was overjoyed to get a school T-shirt that looks just like Sophie's. There are a couple boys from our ward in the same preschool so that's very happy too.

Nina has been running around like a crazy child going up and down our stairs constantly. My first project was to unpack and fix up the playroom and she loves spending time in there with her play kitchen and all the Barbies or "princesses". She's been much happier since we moved into the house - the extended stay place we were in before did not have a lot of room to play. I think she, Ben, and Sophie will be excited when they put our grass in. That is suppose to happen sometime in the next week or so. I can't wait for the landscaping to get done either actually, it will be so nice to look out and see grass instead of dirt.

I hope to take some pictures of the house soon and put them on here. I know my Mom really wanted to see how the porch and kitchen turned out so stay tuned for an update.:)