Latest Project

We made the switch from 1 bedroom housing 3 kids & a nursery, to 1 "boys" room, and 1 "girls" room.
And I would love to say that it was quick, and easy, and happened overnight....
...but I would be a liar.

We had a couple nights of 4 kids on the floor (which didn't work out for anyone) while the girls' room was being stripped bare of furniture and beds.  I literally sold everything old and they lived out of laundry hampers and slept on mattresses on the floor.  It was chaotic, and our house looked embarrassingly like a hoarders episode.  I dreaded a drop in visit from anyone.
 

As soon as we could get the beds for the girls room, I transferred all the kids to that room.  Each of the girls had a bed, Cannon slept on a camping mat on the floor, and Nolan slept in the pack n play.  And it worked out really nice. 

And then we all got the stomach flu....so that added a 2 week stall in my plans. 

But, the rooms are finally done.
I had a moment of sentimental sadness as we painted over the mural that we first painted on the wall when I found out I was pregnant with Brynn....9 years ago.  Each of our babies has used the same room, same crib bedding, and I've spent countless hours rocking, nursing, reading and holding babies while staring at that wall....but it's time to move on. (And I am fine with that.)





 The boys wanted (or should I say, Cannon wanted) a Lego room.  Which is all fine and good, but I didn't want to be re-doing this again in a few years when he's done with Lego, so I went minimal on theme, and just added some Lego stuff so that he can feel like he had a say. My poor dad had to help me load and unload sets (plural, because I couldn't decide on what I actually wanted) of bunk beds while Rich was gone, but I did end up with the set that I really liked for the boys.  And I had to make the bedding, which was a nightmare due to my terrible sewing skills, but it was tailor made to my sons and their love of snugly materials. 
 
 
 
I sewed my very first ever-so-popular fabric banners for the rooms too, and they turned out cute.  And the hubs put his handy skills to the test and made each of the kids their own bunk bed caddy to hold water, books, and a light for night time reading.  He also made some laundry basket hampers, which have totally helped streamline my laundry days!  I love the finished products and am so grateful that he took the time to build them for me!!!

And the Lego touches that Cannon picked out....


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The girls wanted rainbows and butterflies, but I talked/bribed/co-erced them into keeping the old bedding set they had, and re-painting, and adding some more girly stuff.  (Big sigh of relief here!!!)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thankfully they are all happy with their finished rooms, and our life has settled back into the routine of "normal". 

The Last Man Standing....

...took his fall soon after the rest of us. 

Norovirus - 6
Us - 0

We had one day of no barf, no crazy poop....then Cannon puked again this morning.

And then I burst into tears.  I'm soooooo done with all this.

I'm still waiting for the whole "in a couple weeks we will all look back and laugh at this" expression to actually come true.  Cause I'm not laughing yet....

The Great Stomach Flu of '13

I'm gonna go get some shirts printed with
"We survived the stomach flu" when this whole hideous episode is over. That is...we can leave our house with out the notorious green bucket, or changes of clothes for the inevitable diaper blowout....

Or maybe one of those cute fabric banners and hang it from our garage???

This has been utter madness.

Maeve must have picked something up at church, because she announced Tuesday night that her tummy hurt.  I saw the look in her eyes, and ran her to the trash can.  She spent the next 6 hours puking, and was slightly better the next day.  48 hours later, *BOOM* I'm heaving in the bathroom, and Nolan follows suit.  Just when I can see straight, and not get queasy at the thought of food, Brynn starts talking about her tummy ache....followed by the hubs moaning, groaning, and puking.  He got hit with a double whammy, pretty decent cold - topped with the stomach flu. 

Yay.

So at the point of me writing this, I have been up for 36 hours straight, because while she's the oldest, and does best with the bowl, she also is one of those kids that pukes every 5 min....for a really, really, really, really long time.  And moans and groans. 
And I get it. 
The belly ache hurts, I know.
I had it.
I hear ya kid.
But my sanity level is a little off right now, as I distinctly remember making faces at myself in the reflection of the kitchen window at 3:34am when I dumped the bowl out for the 72nd time.  No joke.  And that was just 3:34.  The face I made at myself at 4:50 was pretty funny too....

So the final standing member of the family at this point is Cannon.  Hopefully his fall (because we all know he is going to do it) will be over quickly!

In the meantime...the next couple hours that I hopefully am not cleaning up barf (even though as I write this, Brynn is sleeping with her head in the bowl), I will try to remember all the stuff I'm grateful about.  That I got it near the start so that I could help take care of the others without the extreme anxiety of catching it when I'm needed most. That Rich was home the day that I needed to recoup so he could make sure Nolan didn't burn the house down. That my food bill will be really low this month, cause even after its all gone, the appetite doesn't come back that quickly...

Always a bright side.

Lost in Chaos

My house is like a hoarders episode right now...There are piles of crap....EVERYWHERE!!!!

I'm attempting to move the boys to one room, and the girls to another. 
It's like a giant game of tetris though. 
The crib has to move out, so the beds can move in.
The beds have to move in so the clothes can go back in the room.
The clothes have to go back in the room so the kids can find them so they can stop running around naked....no joke.
The boys have to move out of the girls room, so the stuff for the girls room can move out of the living room.

It's been 1 week of utter, absolute chaos.
Not only do I have to keep track of the living creatures in the house, and the 4 kids, but also which pile has the clothing, and which pile has the bedding, and which pile has the diapers...oh my gosh, we're out of diapers...red alert - red alert.

I tried to be money smart about this project and sell off everything before I got the new stuff, but I think to save my sanity if I ever do this again (which I won't, by the way), I won't do it that way.  I don't think the kids appreciated me selling their dresser, then their toy box, then their beds right out from under them.
One night we had a pile of kids sleeping on the floor, and it didn't go smoothly.
We have settled them all in various places for these last couple of nights.  It's like a giant slumber party - except no one is really having that much fun.

So, after this project is done, I will get back to the computer.
And cooking dinner.
And washing clothing.
And cleaning the toilets.
In the mean time, excuse me while I step over this pile, and shoo a stray cat out of our living room.
Yes, it's really that bad......