A Sleepover Every Night

For just about a week now Caleb has been sleeping not in the nursery, but what was known as Elyse's room. We found Elyse an adorable sleigh twin bed and turned her old toddler bed into a little floor crib for Caleb. The transition has had a few earlier mornings than normal (still later than most children sleep), but for the most part it has been super great and successful. Elyse LOVES having him sleep in the same room as her. In fact, she does not talk or look at him because she knows if he does not sleep, then we will have to move him back (even though we really can't do that). Ironically, I think the hardest thing to do was add Caleb's blue stuff to a room of only pink and brown, and make it look good for little to no cost. I think we did a okay good job though. Plus we only have to deal with it for a year or so because we plan on rooming the boys together and redoing the nursery. Until now our two kiddos get to have a little sleepover every night.

Kiddos right after I opened the door to their room this morning

Caleb smiling in his new bed and room, such a big boy

Nite to Unite

Tonight was national "Nite to Unite" celebration. Meaning neighbors are suppose to get out of their houses and meet somewhere on their block for a get to know your neighbors and have great food and conversation. Our neighbors are wonderful and we look forward to participating every year in this event. Last year was a lot harder since Elyse wasn't fully walking yet, but this year she had a blast. Even though the weather was in the 90's plus humidity, we still enjoyed ourselves and had a good turn out. We feel very blessed to live in our neighborhood and have the neighbors we do!

The firemen and firetruck always make an appearance too. (Probably helps that we have the Fire Marshall as our neighbor.) Elyse bonded with this neighbor since she let Elyse eat her popcorn. Popular place for the kids to be, free snow cones all night. Of course, Elyse had to spend some time petting the neighbor's dog.

Night Light

Recently Nate and I have been reading this book called, In Case You Ever Wonder, by Max Lucado. It's a great book, especially if your child is adopted. Anyway, there is a section in the book that talks about the girl being afraid of the dark and the stuff in her closet. So now Elyse isn't a big fan of the dark and tends to cry when we put her into bed. The crying isn't long, but still it's hard to hear. Well today during her nap, she said, "Mama, no dark please". Therefore, I in turn clicked on her adorable purse night light my mom bought her and instantly she stopped crying and quickly feel asleep. I was glad to hear the crying stopped but guess I'm now packing a mini night light every where we go.

Any suggestions from moms who have dealt with night light situations, like stories, long term use, ways to get over it, did you find it to be a good thing, etc.??

Yes that is Elyse in her bed. The picture was taken about 10 minutes after she feel asleep. Have to LOVE the sight of a sleeping child!

Remodeling is Complete

After many days of hard work by my husband (and his friends), waiting on furniture and miscellaneous stuff to get completed, the home remodeling project is complete. There are minor things that still need to be done, but overall, it's finished and perfect! A special thanks to my amazing husband for doing such great work and making our nice house and beautiful home!

By the way, any suggestions on what color to paint the brown wall now that we have a great brown couch? Only other color for the couch was red, and didn't know how that would go in the future, paint is an easy fix.

BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

Mother-Daughter Weekend

This past Friday and Saturday, Elyse and I headed to my mom's to have a mother-daughter weekend. It was so relaxing and something I will remember always. Us girls have never had 30 straight hours just us together, in fact, Elyse and I have never slept away from Nate until Friday. Since the weather was perfect we were outside almost the entire time. We spent much of our time going to garage sales, talking, going on walks, going to the pond to feed the ducks,
going to the park,
and playing in water.
I had a wonderful time and look forward to doing it again real soon.

Now you may ask, why were we down there? Well that's because my wonderful husband and some of his really great friends (Kris, Seth and not pictured, Matt) came to help Nate install our wood floors. It looks beautiful, they did a GREAT job. You can see from the picture below just a small glimpse of the final result, but I'm not posting the entire thing until the carpet, furniture and railings are finished, sorry ;)

Belated Birthday Gift

Last night Nate finally received his birthday gift (December birthday) from Elyse and I. Since we have moved into this house that has only two garages, Nate has always wanted a shed for storage and getting things out of the garage that are dangerous for Elyse. Well it finally arrived and the joy, smiles and the look in Nate's eyes were worth every penny.

Demolition Weekend

This past weekend, turned out to be demolition weekend for Nate and I. Friday night we spent the night ripping out our wood railings which we will be replacing with iron. We then spent most of Saturday reaping out our wood and linoleum floors to soon be replaced with solid wood in two weeks. Why do it so soon? That's because we are heading to Iowa this weekend and so it was the only free day we had.


I will post a before and after when it's all done; but until then, we will be walking on our runways (random carpet pieces) through the kitchen and entry way.

Signs of Spring

I couldn't have asked for a nicer day yesterday! We spent almost the entire day outside, and I loved every minute of it. Below are a few reasons why my day was so delightful.
1. Nate and I spent over 1.5 hours putting away Christmas decorations, including taking down the lights that go on the entire pine tree to the right of the house, doesn't even fit in the picture I took.
2. Played in the grass because there was NO snow on the ground.
3. Cleaned out the garage. Okay, Elyse and I did nothing but watch Nate clean out the garage.
4. Saw constant smiles from this beauty all day, she LOVES being outside!!!
5. Spent the day hanging out with my two loves.

I know it's only half way through March and in Minnesota anything can happen, but I sure am hopeful that winter is gone and spring is here.

Dada's Little Helper

Since we hope to move Elyse into her new room soon, we have decided to get our act together and finish her closet. Elyse then grabbed her tools and wanted nothing more than to be "Dada's Little Helper". I just don't know if she's more of a help or hindrance?!?!

Princess's Domain

For the past two weekends Nate and I have been working on Elyse's new bedroom. The nursery as seen in other posts is general neutral since we don't have control with adoption. Therefore, I finally got to decorate a little girls room and loved doing it. Elyse LOVES her new room and big bed. We won't move her into it until she's about 18 months but we do want her to get used to it. The only addition is a valance and moving her name out of the nursery, painting it brown and hanging it above the window. So what do you think, perfect for a princess? I sure think so.

Little Too Close

Last night after Elyse fell asleep the warning sirens alerted Nate and I that a storm was heading our way. We generally aren't ones to take cover or get nervous. However, now with having Elyse our perspective has changed. We turned off all the lights(but the television to keep us posted), I held sleeping Elyse in my arms, Nate set up the basement, and then we waited till the news anchor said, "Take shelter if in Coon Rapids." Thankfully that never was said, but we sure still felt some impact from the storm. The lightning was crazy, the thunder was minimal, and the rain and wind were rough. We waited 45 minutes until the radar showed it was past Coon Rapids/Blaine. Once we felt safe, we tucked Elyse back into bed, turned the lights on and Nate grabbed the camera. The clouds and lightning to the east of us were incredible. These are just some of the amazing shots Nate took. I thank God for providing safety for us and pray no one was harmed during this powerful storm last night.