Catching Up - Family Pics and School Starting

I knew I wouldn't be posting as much over the summer...but I thought I might at least post a little.  Since Eric and the kids are home for the summer, it means a lot less free time to spend blogging, not to mention taking care of a not-so-new-newborn.  It's been a good summer with these four kiddos.

And because I'm a proud Mama (and because our family was lucky enough to win a photo session with the fabulous Jessica Greenfield at the same raffle I made this for), I'm going to show off a few more pictures of my adorable kiddos.

Busy, Busy...

I know...It seems like I've dropped off the face of the planet.  Life is good.  I probably won't get back to posting every day like I was...but I'm hoping to get back to posting a couple times a week...but not yet.  (And if you've emailed me or left a nice comment...I've been really slow at responding...sorry.)

We'd hoped to be moved into our new house the first week of April...but that didn't happen.  We DID move our FIRST few boxes of things over to the new house today though, and we'll be moving most of our stuff in this weekend.

We were too cheap to pay the building company to have nice shelving put in the closets, so Eric and I will be starting on closet shelves tomorrow.  Wish us luck...

I should have nice pictures of our finished house to show you...but I don't...so here are a few other pictures of what we've been up to...

Anson is his church outfit.  The onesie has a tie appliqued on with old T-shirt fabric.  The pants are made out of an old T-shirt too...and I'm hoping to get the pattern posted soon.

Seth reading to Rebecca...he is SOOO looking forward to kindergarten next year.

The weather is finally getting warm enough that the kids spend a lot of time outside.  Becca has learned to ride her tricycle...no small task since the pedals only work about half the time.  She also likes it when Seth gives her rides.  We got this tricycle years ago for Katie for $4 at a garage sale, and it has had some serious miles put on it over the years.  It's time to buy a new one...I just keep hoping that one will show up at a garage sale or something.  We may just have to spring for a new one soon.

All of the kids are still in love with Anson and always wanting to hold him.

Seth found his own way to keep Anson happy...pushing him around in his bed/cradle.  (By the way...we were given this for a shower gift.  It has been AWESOME.  It was the perfect height for when I was recovering from the c-section to not have to bed over too much...and not have to bend over the side of a crib.  It keeps the baby tipped up a bit to help with spit-up.)

We also get plenty of wind and tumbleweed in these parts...this was a particularly impressive one...

And a nice visit from Nana and Granddad...

And just another cute baby picture...because you just can't get enough of a cute baby...

Doings at our House...

I thought I might be checking in a little more often with my own posts and updates...but the truth is I've hardly been on the computer at all.  Of course I have less time to be on the computer with a new baby to take care of...but with Eric home during the day and still needing to do things for school to keep his sub going, I have a lot more competition for computer access.

Anyway, we've had a few things worth mentioning this week...biggest thing...we had a visit from Nick, Katie's birth-dad and his wife yesterday.

They took a last minute trip from Alaska to California and flew through Seattle and made the trip out to see us.  We didn't know they were coming until a couple days ago, and they were only able to stay for a few hours, but Katie was super happy to have them come.

This was a real treat because we don't get to see them often, and it was our first time getting to meet his sweet wife.

We usually think about Katie looking a lot like her birth-mom...because she does...but the older Katie gets it's obvious that she also takes after her birth-dad a lot too.

Our house is getting REALLY close to being done.  We thought we'd be able to move in next week...but then when the cabinets came in, the ones for the kitchen didn't fit right...so it will be another week or two before the new cabinets will come and that will delay things a bit.  The downside is we can't take advantage of spring break to move...the upside is we get to keep the extra cabinets that won't fit and use them in the garage or elsewhere in the house.

It's fun to see it really start coming together and should look even better by the end of the week.  It's been a while since I posted house pictures, so here are a few...

Our downstairs is pretty much one big "Great room" with the living room, dining room and kitchen all open to each other.  This is from the corner of our living room looking to our dining area and kitchen.

This is our kitchen...I'm so looking forward to not being so cramped.  You can barely fit two people in our current kitchen to work and even then you're always in each others way.  Our stove will be in that blank spot and you can see a bit where there is a gap where these cabinets are not quite the right size.

I also keep dreaming about this not so little corner of my bedroom that will soon be home to my sewing machine and craft stuff, complete with windows for lots of natural light...and to the right Anson's little crib room, so he can be nearby and still in his own little space.  It will have folding doors.

And finally the spot the kids head to first every time we go over to check progress on the house...their little play area under our stairs.  This was one of the things we had customized in the house.  The original plans had the space under the stairs completely closed off, but we had them add doors through the back of the coat closet and living room closet and added the window.  We thought they were going to just leave the walls and floor bare...but they did the complete dry wall and trim, and we're told they're putting carpet in it too.  I can't wait to fix it up into a little play house.  It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but that doorway is short and that is a little 2x2 window to give a little perspective.  Grown-ups can get inside bending over, but this will definitely be more comfy for the kiddos.

We've had a pretty relaxing lazy week at home.  We're starting to gradually get things packed and ready for the move.  I've actually been pretty spoiled having Eric home from school to help with the kids and feeling really blessed that I've had a pretty fast recovery.  I feel almost back to my old self.  I'm bouncing back a lot faster than I did after my c-section with Becca...I think it might have something to do with not being in labor for 3 days and total exhaustion prior to the c-section this time. 

The older kids are adjusting just fine.  The girls are especially in love with Anson and are always asking to hold him and trying to be motherly toward him.  Becca takes particular pleasure in knowing where his pacifier is, and on one occasion, brought it into our room when Anson was crying and got him to go back to sleep on her own.  And I can't hardly get posed pictures of him by himself without her slipping in too.

Seth asks to hold him sometimes, but is generally less interested than the girls...which is not surprising considering the kids' personalities.  I suspect Seth will be much more interested when Anson is more able to play.

He hasn't been read TO all that much...but there has been plenty of reading WITH him on our laps...but all family members.

I've done more reading in the past week or two than I've done in ages.  After watching Anne of Avonlea one time while nursing Anson, I decided to re-read some of the books after I couldn't remember which details they had kept the same and which were different between the books and movie.  I've now re-read all the books from Anne of Avonlea (#2) through Anne of Ingleside (#7) and am now part-way through Rilla of Ingleside...the last of them.  Now I'll need to find something else to read while nursing.  As much as I love the movies...it's a reminder that the books are even better and the movies (especially Anne of Avonlea) leave out SO much.  Anyone else out there Anne of Green Gables fans?

I'll admit that it does pass all that time nursing faster...but then it's hard to put the book down when Anson is done.  Any recommendations for a good book series to read next?  I've thought about re-reading the Harry Potter books, but I'm afraid those would be even harder to put down than Anne.

Well, I'm hoping to get at least one or two tutorials posted soon...but who knows...until then, I hope you're enjoying the Favorite Bloggers Tour.

My Craft Corner in Progress

As I was working on Christmas gifts this year, I kept thinking how nice it will be to have a craft space to work...somewhere other than the kitchen table.

Well...this is it...a corner of our bedroom with two windows and some extra lighting above (well it won't have open sky lighting like it does now...but some extra can lights).  The windows look out on the backyard, so I can watch kiddos walk home from school or play in the yard (when we have something in the yard other than dirt.)  There's a garage sale table living in my in-laws barn which should fit and be just big enough to fit my sewing machine and cutting mat.

Hubby wanted to take those stray boards and push them over under the windows, so he could joke that my craft corner is already a mess. ;)

Of course with a new baby, I probably won't get nearly as much crafting done next year as I did this Christmas...but I won't have to clear it off every time we need to eat a meal either. 

Have a good weekend!

Overwhelmed...and I Need Your Tips

So we're finalizing plans for building our own house.  I know...crazy exciting, right?!?  Seriously...I'm super excited.  Sometimes I tear up a bit just thinking about how totally blessed we are to be able to do this in this crazy economy.  We've been married 11 1/2 years and saved our pennies, and we're finally going to be home owners.  (This is pretty much what it will look like.

It's also a bit overwhelming.  There are so many decisions (big and small) to make about the house plans, and the bulk of the built-in ones (walls, windows, lights, electrical, etc) need to be made in the next week or so.  We're hoping we'll be in this house for the next 20-60 years, so we want to get it right, but of course...my husband is a high school teacher, so we have to keep things simple.

I'd always assumed we'd buy an older house and fix it up...because you know that's what I do with everything else...buy used and make hand-me-downs work.  Well it turns out, this totally awesome tiny town where Hubby got a job last year is gradually growing and once people buy a house here, they don't move out.  There was no housing boom and bust here, so there's actually a shortage of housing.  There have been very few houses (as in only 2 or 3) even on the market during our time here, and those just didn't fit our needs.  We lucked out and some friends are putting in a small housing development right next to Firecracker's school...and since Firecracker's school is also right next to the high school where Hubby teaches, it's the perfect location for our family.  So we're building a house (or rather having it built for us...remember our front-facing bookshelves...that's the most building experience we have) just a couple blocks from where we live now.

We've been trying to think through things carefully...but we're up against the weather now.  The concrete for the foundation needs to get poured before it gets too cold, but there are still a few steps in the process before we can get the permits and everything going...rather importantly changes to the floor plan, so the modified floor plan can be drawn up.

The trickiest thing about this for me is figuring how we're going to use the space in a house that's not built yet...and trying to figure out how we'll use this space in 2, 5, 10, and 15 years as our family ages and our needs change.  I have an awesome friend who designed her own house and is helping us think through all of it, so that has helped a lot.  Figuring out where we want windows and how it will work with our furniture...made even more difficult because our living room furniture is nothing to write home about and will probably be replaced in a couple years.  (You know...we've got the free hand-me-down sofa sleeper with a rip in the seat and one in the side curtesy of our last move...if it says long term, I'm going to have to learn how to re-upholster.)  How do I figure out how the windows will work with furniture we don't have yet?  And of course even though we don't have to decide about window treatments yet, they do have to play into consideration a little at this point because I've been warned my several friends that the cost for the treatments after construction blew them away.


Then there is figuring out the electrical...they told us we can have another week or two while the engineer is looking at our floor plan changes.  The lighting, I think we'll leave mostly alone...although we are going to add overhead lights in the living room because I NEVER understood the craze to only use lamps to light your living room.  And I'm still trying to figure out who we know if we want extra electrical outlets if they're not shown in the diagram anywhere.

And of course every change comes with a little price tag, that while not huge individually, they add up.

I won't even start on picking paint colors...because that thankfully...doesn't have to be decided for months...and we'll probably do that ourselves after moving in.
 
Ugh...I know...there are a lot of people who would be thrilled to have my problems right now, so I feel a little bratty even mentioning them.  If I'd read this post 3 years ago when Hubby was in grad school with no immediate end in sight, I would not have been very sympathetic and probably wouldn't have read this far.

By the time you read this, though, the bulk of the changes in floor plans and window placement will most likely have been emailed off to be sent on to the engineer, so you can't be much help there...but I'd still love your ideas and feedback on lighting and decorating end.
If you're still reading this, though...and are interested in this sort of thing, I'd love to hear your comments (the good the bad and the ugly) and input on some of the ideas I've been pinning on Pinterest.  Feel free to send me more pins (@Polly Carlson) if you come across fun ideas.  I'll probably post about each topic separately later. (because honestly right now I should be looking at the floor plans instead of writing about them.)

You can see some window treatment inspiration here.  Overall, I'm looking for cute/classy but simple/inexpensive.  I'm thinking of cafe curtains in the dining area off the kitchen and most of the bedrooms, although I'm open to suggestions.  I'm still totally lost as to what to do with the windows in the living room. 

Some lighting inspiration is here.  I haven't found anything that really calls out to me yet.  I'd especially love to hear from you if you have some living room or kitchen lighting in your home that you just LOVE...and didn't break the bank.

Or if you're more into color, you can see my color pins here.  I'm warning you though...I've been pinning things I like AND things I hate because I was pinning these with a post in mind that I haven't had time to write.  Right now, for the downstairs, I'm thinking of going for grey.  I really like this room.  I already have some red accents in my kitchen.  I think grey is versatile enough that I can use different accents in the living room and still have it work.  I also like that this grey is light, but still contrasts nicely with the white trim.  You can see the source here at Live Your Life where Brittany shows you she made that awesome table.  (Maybe this picture will give you an idea of which of those pins are on my "good" list and which are on my "cool...but not in my house" list.

I have no idea yet, about the upstairs except that I want to have fun with some color in the kids' rooms.

I also have a For the House board, which has some fun ideas, but nothing I'm currently planning on.