Nursery Tour-2006 {Day 4}

I figured since I showed you a little bit of our oldest son's nursery yesterday, and I was searching picture files for that one shot with his name, I might as well copy the rest of the pictures I had of his room and share that with you too.

Please remember, this was 2006. I was using a point-and-shoot and it looks like it was night for some of the pictures. I've also chosen not to edit the pictures, so brace yourself!

We lived in a little raised ranch house in Iowa. This is before the house in the country. Before we knew we were going to have Jonathan, his room was first a guest room, then Gary's office. About as soon as we heard his heart beat, I started clearing out the room that would be his.

We ripped out the carpet and Gary refinished the floors. Gary installed a bench under the window, and I used a hand sander for the first time before painting the built-in bench.

We left the bottom of the bench open for storage. It was great until Jonathan was crawling around and would get into stuff! Still it wasn't that bad. I wish the bench had been a bit deeper--I intended to be able to sit and read while I nursed him, but it just wasn't quite wide enough. I remember being so uncomfortable while trying to feed him in the middle of the night, recovering from a c-section and exhausted. How I wished that bench was wide enough to lie down!

I made the lumpy bench cushion from pillows stuffed into a long tube of material I sewed. It worked ok, but that bench was never as comfortable as I had envisioned.

I got the curtains from Target from gift cards I got at my shower. The other Classic Pooh stuff came as hand-me-downs from two different friends. The crib had been my nephew's but had been given to my in-laws to use at their house when my nephew no longer needed it. They were happy to give it to us--it wasn't even set up at their house, so that worked great!

I used the space under the crib for more storage. We kept his bathtub in there, and a bouncer or something like that, when we weren't using it. I eventually made a crib skirt which hid the things underneath and that made me happy!

Of course I hung his name above the art work. Still like how that looks!

 I so so badly wanted a changing table. Because of the built-in bench we didn't have many options on where to put things in his room, so I measured and marked where an inexpensive (craigslist) changing table would go and it was just too crowded! We opted to spend the money on this toy bin organizer, and let me tell you, we still use this thing! It worked great for seeing shirts and onesies and for keeping diapers and everything handy. We changed Jonathan in the crib with the mattress on the highest setting.

I bought the little shelf at Michael's and finished it with the name letters. I still use it too. I also did a great job marking his calendar with little bitty milestones! I found that blank Classic Pooh calendar at a thrift store and loved it!!!

 I left the door of the tiny closet open for this picture so I could show Jonathan's neatly folded and organized clothes. We had so many clothes! Gary's brother has two sons just a little older than Jonathan and they were happy to give us all of their hand-me-downs. We also got a lot of stuff from our parents and church members, and a couple good sales at Old Navy and The Gap, like this Inspi(red) shirt that matched his Daddy's. Cuteness!

The ABC pocket chart was mine when I was a girl. My Grandma made it! Most of the books belonged to Gary. The POOH thing with the annoying flash glare is a picture frame, with cute pictures of me and Gary as babies. The shelf itself was built by my Dad and was in my room when I was little. It's been in each of the boys' nurseries.

Thanks for indulging me on walk down memory lane! This squishy little sweetheart is now 7 and looks like this:

 Yup! Still cute!

Insta-Friday!

Campfire at Morgan Creek Park

 Let's see, in the last week we spent another weekend camping, drove from Iowa to Ohio and had a week of being home puttering around, not doing much, but in a good way. I chose to caption the pictures here like I did when originally posted on Instagram. (I'm gibsongirl726-come find me!) It seems that I've been getting my cell phone out to take pictures a whole lot more than my fancy camera lately, so I owe you a picture dump. Like all the ones that didn't make it to Instagram. Ok, so maybe you don't need that, but I do. You've been warned!

Enough chatter; I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Mr. Scoots (Josiah)

My Little Monkey

Rooster Tail #boysandmud

Last weekend camping it was 90 and humid. This weekend it's 60 with another storm coming in. July in Iowa? #stillcamping

Josiah was napping on the bench at the table in the trailer. He woke up, sat up, looked around, and fell back asleep sitting up. #sillykid #sleepingbeauty

 

On the road again. #leavingiowa #tenhourdriveahead

Do green waves count? #illinois

 

Rest stops with playgrounds? Go Illinois!

 

Ohio welcomes you!

Welcome home!

Fortune: If we are all worms, try to be a glow worm. #cantmakethisstuffup

 

Love this face! #jonathan

My little sweetheart. #josiah

 

Cute little cutie. #jared

Almond butter + eggs + spices = amazing breakfast bread! #grainfree

No training wheels! Go Jared!

My big and my little, helping Daddy.

 

This boy. Adore him! #josiah

Josiah saw me taking pictures of the other boys and said, "Take picture me, Mommy!" and posed himself. Doesn't he look proud?

Also, someone might need to stop putting her finger on the camera. Sorry for the smudges! We'll just pretend it's a fancy "glow" filter, mmmmkay?

Josiah loves his "lallowen"!

Blurry but yummy. #bunlessburger made with oats and nuts. #glutenfree

Ugh. Sorting the last few boxes from our move. #iwanttothrowup #didntmissit #whowantsmyweddingdress

Seriously. So awful. Dark, spidery basement. Finding random things you didn't know were lost from your move 6 months ago... Deciding what to do with your wedding dress, baby clothes you couldn't get rid of, your own baby blankets, stuff from college, stuff from your grandparents... It all has to go at some point because when we move to the UK in another year, it either has to go in our suitcases, on a super-expensive tiny pallet to get shipped over later, or in storage for 10-ish years. Did I mention it isn't fun?

Our introspective boy. #peoplewatching #fulltummy

So that's our week. Well, there's more, but I'm saving that for another time. I need to show you my dining room and living room, and there's a project I'm doing for a friend--a sign that was all her idea but I get the fun of making it come to life!

Hope you have a good weekend!

Five Little Monkeys

A friendly stranger took this picture with my cell phone. My aunt edited the color, and I just love how this picture turned out! Isn't technology amazing? Anyway, this tree is at the Morgan Creek Arboretum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It just so happens that Gary and I have a picture of the two of us in/by this tree from back when it was just the two of us! Aw...

I'm back eating grain-free, gluten-free. I've been really good about it for about a week and feel better already. I have to stick with it this time! Now I'm eliminating sugar as well, except for small amounts of maple syrup and honey. I have a serious sugar addiction, and no sugar means no coffee either. It's so hard! I'm on day two and it's a struggle. Harder than avoiding grains/gluten!

Gary's been home more this summer. We've fallen into a pattern of eating breakfast between 8-9, lunch around 1 and supper at 6. We've been trying to make suppers lighter, so tonight I made this. It's a peach-blueberry crisp and we topped it with blueberry-banana "ice cream". It was good but not very sweet, just so you know.

I've always wanted to be one of those cool moms who has special questions and topics to engage our kids in the conversation in positive ways at meal times. Not that they have any trouble talking, and we let them chatter for the most part. But tonight Jonathan asked me a question I thought was interesting, and I made sure to ask the other members of our family too. Here's a look at our conversation.

"Mommy, what's your favorite sound in the whole world?" Jonathan asked me.

"The sound of my little boys laughing. Especially when Daddy laughs too because he's tickling you."

"You know what my favorite sound is? The sound of airplanes and helicopters," and Jonathan motioned with his arms and made the appropriate sounds that only little boys know how to make.

"And me! You know what my favortist sound is? Awpwanes and hewicoptoes, no juss hewicoptoes," Jared piped up.

"What about you, Josiah?" I asked

"Ah-pane" he answered immediately.

"And you, Daddy?"

"My boys laughing."

We just adore our three little monkeys!

Insta-Friday: Iowa Edition

We've had a fun week in Iowa! We stayed at a campground in a friend's trailer. The first few days were super hot and we have been so thankful for air conditioning!

While we've been here we've been able to visit friends, eat at a couple of our favorite places and play tourist in our old hometown.

Here's our week according to Instagram!