January Happenings...

I was very much looking forward to January. Our Fall/November/December were out of control busy so I was ready for some quiet weeks at home. Plus, the weather here is perfect this time of year so it doesn't get much better than that. After we got home and settled back in from the Christmas holiday, the kids and I opened put up their Playhouse from Elfie (our family's Elf on a Shelf. And yes, Kenedee gave him that awesome name. Lincoln wanted 'shelf' so that left us with Kenedee's 'Elfie'.) Elfie gave them a cardboard playhouse that you can color...perfect for our kids since they could color for hours. They both thought it was pretty sweet. Kenedee mostly played inside of it with her dolls while Lincoln went to town coloring the outside.




The playhouse only lasted about three weeks, which worked out since Lincoln finally got some new beds in his room that take up the whole space. I knew it wouldn't last forever so I was happy with how long it did last, it served it's purpose.

After a few weeks into January, Adam and I both decided our home needed some new happenings going on. It may be my nesting in full-force... cause it's been crazy around here. We've been in the house just over a year now. When we moved in, we got things put away, organized, and so forth but we haven't really been able to get some new furniture pieces or decorate until now. So we've both been excited to see some change in the house. Adam just kept saying 'I feel like we live in a warehouse. It's so sterile in here.' Nice huh. But his point was that there were no pictures (other than my tree canvas I painted and some mirrors) on the walls that made it feel like 'home'.

Living Room makeover - New computer (plus bringing the office stuff out of our bedroom and downstairs where it belongs), pictures, & new entertainment center. We've been looking for a new one for about five months now. Trying to find the 'perfect' entertainment center wasn't happening and we were both getting frusturated. We wanted a 'modern' piece that filled the entire wall in our living room. We were then to the point where Adam was going to build it for us; I had it all designed on the computer of what I wanted it to look like. But then we came across this new series at IKEA - the Besta series. Our old piece was from IKEA so we were wanting something more unique this time since everyone can afford their awesome prices. But we also couldn't fork out $4,000 for whole new wall unit made of real wood. So we got excited when we saw this new series...you can basically custom design what you want your wall unit to look like. Which pretty much means that when you walk into our house, you won't find this entertainment center anywhere else! (not really since someone could design it exactly like we did but you get the point.) So after we saw all of our options we headed home to design it on the computer (I'm a visual person if you haven't noticed). You can choose different heights, widths, colors, door options, drawers, shelving...so we designed our wall unit, bought the million boxes of furniture, and went to town. I'm quite happy with how it turned out and it has exactly what I've been looking for - full cabinet shelving on bottom with bookshelves around the outside.
Front Room makeover - We finally hung these three awesome lights we've had sitting in our entryway for about 7 months. An electrician installed them last night and they look awesome! New pictures in there as well as some wall art decor that is on its way.
Kenedee's room. I created some artwork for her walls (based off her bedding) so those three frames need to be hung as well as some new pictures of herself.
Lincoln's room. He finally got new beds. He's been sleeping in Kenedee's toddler bed since we moved it so he finally upgraded to a twin bed. We put two twin beds in his room (to make room for baby boy) and I was finally able to put out his bedding that has been sitting in his closet for a year. I bought it when we moved in so I was sooo excited to finally have it on a bed.
I've also had to pretty much go through every closet and room in our house de-junking what we don't need. It's no joke, with each pregnancy I get in serious nesting mode towards the end. Once our projects are complete, I will post some pictures. Until then, here's what we've been living in, it has felt like total chaos for a few weeks. But it's cleaned up and getting it's final touches...