The kids rooms project/ my kind of nesting

I have been waiting in anticipation to decorate the kids' rooms. The past couple of houses we've been in were short term so I didn't want to invest time or money into them. Bella of course takes after me and has been talking about painting her room for several months! Here are a couple before pictures of Benjamin's room. All three kids' rooms were just blank canvases. And look for the refinished bird cage at the end!

Here's Benjamin's room! I made the rain gutter bookshelves that are all over pinterest. Very easy for me to do even at 9 months pregnant. The kids love them, and I think they look so cute with all the books displayed. The only thing is that the books lean forward very easily if you have too many in there. And the kids are of course always getting books out (the whole purpose) so they don't always look so put together.

I took some pictures of Benjamin playing football in Gigi and Papa's backyard. I think they turned out so cute! He's wearing a shirt with the #14 on it, which was Brandon's high school football number! It's the little details!

The awesome football wall I had envisioned! Thanks to Brenda Eslinger for the amazing talent, time, and care she put into this amazing wall! Benjamin talks about it nonstop and shows it off to everyone!

I painted some clipboards to display pictures and art. He loves them and I think they're the PERFECT thing for this sporty little boys room and so inexpensive to do! Also, the easiest thing to change out art or pictures! I also found this little accent table at Target for only $15! Not bad for a little block/work table! He also loves this and is always at it!

This was one of his newborn pictures! And a book from Gigi when he was a baby. I wonder how long I'll be able to display this picture in his room? So sweet!

Here is Bowen's room! Aunt Kate did most of the work on the stripes and they look amazing! We are reusing Benjamin's nursery stuff but I had to give the boy nursery a new twist with the chevron.

You can see his little hearbeat bear (puppy) made by Benjamin and Bellaand his lovie bear from Uncle Barry and Aunt Christie waiting for Bowen in his bed!

His reading corner with his barrel of monkeys!

The changing table and frames ready for some cute pictures!

The boys bathroom. I love the dark gray with the blue and orange.

Bella's room! The tree adhesive was one of the two big projects for her. This is the 3rd time I've stuck this thing up in a different house. I repainted some old picture frames and put corkboard in them to display her artwork. The corkboard wasn't thick enough to use push pins like I planned so I glued some little clothes pins on top of the corkboard to make is easy to change out art or pictures.

She also got some rain gutter bookshelves

The refinished birdcage! I painted in orange, finished it with a layer of glitter paint which is a little hard to see in the picture, made a no sew cord cover and hung her chandelier light inside! She loves this and uses it to house her animals and tea set! ;)

Her bathroom has the same colors but owls instead of birds. I made this hair clip frame with chicken wire. Super easy and cute. She loves having her own bathroom!

Our most recent home project was getting a Guier Fence! I love it and think it's the best looking fence! My sister helped me pick out the design of course and the kids were running wild after it was complete! Just in time to secure them back there before Bowen arrives this week!

Meet The Teacher Night

Tonight was meet the teacher night at Stepping Stones. Bella and Benjamin are really excited for school and so am I. :) They were both nervous meeting their teachers but loved exploring their classrooms. Benjamin's room has a blue Beta fish which he was so excited about and Bella loved all the centers. We made little apple themed goodies for their teachers. It kind of all just came together today. They painted the gift bags with the palms of their hands as apples and their thumb print was the leaf. We put in three apples they picked from the orchard, snack sized carmel dip inside a plastic apple saver they can pack in their lunch. I also found in the Target $1 section apple notebooks that we wrote their names on and glued a Poem titled "An Apple for Teachers". I included a picture of each of them at the apple orchard picking the apples too. They were so proud to give their sweet gifts! Afterward we ate at Steak N' Shake to celebrate! Yum!

Bella's teacher is Ms. Jaime

Benjamin's teacher is Ms. Anne

Heartbeat Bears

We started a tradition with Bella and have kept it up with Benjamin and now Bowen. I record their heartbeat while in my tummy and then we make a stuffed animal for them with the little recording inside that you can press and hear. The kids have really gotten attached to their own animals lately with all the talk about babies, and Bowen, and the doctors visits. I can't wait to have a picture with all three of them and their animals. The kids picked out a cute little puppy dog for Bowen and they helped stuff it, make a wish for him, fluff him up, and then picked out an Olympic T-shirt to remember that this was the year of the summer Olympics when he will be born.

Sleepover & Apple Picking with Sophie and Porter

Last night we had a fun sleepover at Aunt Val's, Sophie's, and Porterman's house. There is a lot of excitement whenever we get to see them but when it's a two day adventure the mom's better watch out! Bella packed her bag about a day early and included her lotion, leg warmers "just in case", and special shampoo. As soon as we got there she went up to Sophie's room, hung her bag up and unpacked her belongings in a drawer under the bed she picked out to sleep on. It was a nightmare getting them to go to bed, but in the end Bella ended up in my bed and Benjamin in the pack n play next to us. We had a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls and eggs and got to play some more. Then Auntie Kate, Gigi, and Jacky met us to go pick apples! The kids were so excited to go to the orchard! There was a lot of picking, eating, and throwing out the bad ones! They also had chickens to feed, pedal cars, a playhouse, and tractors to sit on. Poor Porter got stung by a wasp on the tractor. We discovered a wasp's next in it. A picnic lunch was enjoyed after all the playing and the kids were beginning to have a breakdown as we were leaving. I'll just say the rest of the day didn't go so well, but we loved every minute before we got home!

Zoo with Daddy

Brandon was home this past weekend so we had a blast doing some fun family stuff. We went to the zoo on Saturday and they had free breakfast for members and face painting (which we missed by about 2 minutes, bummer!). But we took daddy to the bird show, rode the train, sky safari, and boat! We got to see a ton of animals, have a picnic lunch, feed the birds, and ride the carousel. We were so excited to run into our friends Eric, Megan, and Kellen too! We visited the polar bear and rode the train with them. They are also expecting a baby any day now!