Nursery Completion

It took me several months post-babies to complete, but better late than never! Here are a few snapshots of the nursery. We went with a Noah's ark theme, which basically means I put animals everywhere.

I also picked a flexible color scheme with lots of green, blue, orange, yellow and brown. I love the variety. The boys seem to enjoy it as well. They can stare at the stuff on the walls for hours. It's amazing watching babies explore the world in front of them. It makes all the effort put into decorating this room worth it.

The giraffe was a baby shower present and I think it adds a playful
touch to the room.

The letters hung above the cribs were part of a custom order on Etsy.

I love the shelves above the gliding chair. They're great for showing off
a book collection.

It's not very tidy, but here is the changing station. The boys love the
 mirror, which is great for keeping them distracted during
diaper changes.

Celebrating Fall

I had the foresight to decorate our front porch for the fall season before the boys arrived. I'm so glad I did! For the sake of saving precious free time (which I have little of these days), I went with a theme that we can keep up over Halloween and Thanksgiving. Done and done.

It sort of seems silly to be excited about such a trivial thing as fall decorations, but I'm quickly discovering that any "me time" activities that I can squeeze in throughout the day help keep me sane. Oh, the joys of motherhood! :)

What Have I Been Up To?

Hi Friends! It's been a while hasn't it? Over the last few weeks, I kept telling myself to post, but life kept getting in the way (a good thing, if you ask me.) So what have I been up to lately? Are you sitting down? This is a long update!

In early June, we kicked off a plethora of home improvement projects (that "nesting" thing that happens during pregnancy is most certainly real), starting with a complete front porch remodel:

The front porch BEFORE the remodel. 

The front porch AFTER the remodel, taken on the day of my baby shower. (More on that later.) 

We also spent some time in Montana celebrating the marriage of our church friends:

Snapped this from my iPhone so it's a little blurry.

This was taken at the wedding. I was at my
20-week mark, halfway through the pregnancy. Yippy!

Later in the month, I held a Mad Men-themed party for Mike's 40th birthday. We even had our very own in-house bartender:

A little snippet of the bar that we set-up in our kitchen.

These are the custom cookies we had made especially for the event. 

Doesn't Mike look fantastic in that jacket? I threw
on anything that would fit over my belly. 

In mid-July, we bounced around barbeques. Our neighbors hosted an excellent one for Independence Day, though I forgot to snap photos. We also participated in a 4D ultrasound session. I'd share the photos from that adventure, but most people find them creepy. I thought it was an amazing process. 

Then just last week, we hosted Mike's parents for 10 days. We had a blast taking them around the Ballard Locks, Green Lake, The Museum of Flight, Alki Beach... we covered a lot of ground.

Oh, and to cap off their visit, my mom came over to our house and threw me a tea party-themed baby shower. It was fantastic! I didn't even have to travel anywhere!

The table was set for a lovely afternoon tea 

Beautiful tea cups covered the living room tables. 

Some of the colorful decorations hung just outside the dining room.

Custom tea cup cookies made for great party favors. 

Needless to say, the last month or so has been a bit of a blur with all of the activity. Until I get back on track with my regular posting schedule, things may be sporadic. That's what this time of year is all about though, right?  In the meantime, I hope you are all having a fabulous summer!

More Home Improvements

We've also added some new pieces to our living room and dining room recently and I'm in love with the changes. In the living room, we added some french-inspired artwork on the walls and added a beautiful oriental rug underneath the coffee table. In the dining room, we added new lighting fixtures that also sort of have some french flair. One year after moving in, we're finally putting our stamp on our house. It's been a lot of fun so far!

Home Improvements

So we finally bit the bullet and paid to start our front porch remodel. It'll take about 30 days to complete and if successful, it'll return our porch to its former glory. It went through a bad facelift about 10 years ago when the previous home owner decided it would be a good idea to replace the tongue and groove flooring with cold, modern slate. Since our house was built in 1903, the slate is a bit of a red herring so I'm happy to get rid of it. 

Keep your eyes open for an update on the porch (with photos!) sometime toward the end of June. I think it's going to look amazing.

Out with the old...