Bunked Up...

So my boys are 5 1/2 years, 2 1/2 years, and 15 months. W have a three bedroom house...so Kohen and Brody (5 1/2 and 2 1/2) have been sharing a room for about 15 months :)
It doesn't always work so well, and sometimes none of us sleep but you do what you have to do. Ideally I want Brody and Cooper (2 1/2 and 15m) to began sharing a room. They are only 16 months apart in age and have WAY more in common than the older two.
I really looking forward to Kohen having his own space. He is never able to get away from the babies and they are always in his stuff (small toys and art supplies). However I am not looking forward to the lack of sleep this transition will bring. AHHHH....Should I do it? Of course I look forward to a little remodel!

Just some ideas ;)

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Thumb Chair times two...

Painting.....Little brother is feeling left out!
The second chair went WAY faster. I guess I need to get the third done while it is still fresh in my head...

Thumb Chair

I have been looking for a cute set of chairs for the kids for a couple years now. Everything I seem to find is too light weight (cheap and filmsy) or too expensive. We don't have an Ikea and many of our big box store don't even carry any.
I saw these mojo chairs in the Land of Nod catalog, but could never cough up $65 - a piece! I eventually want three!!!
I knew just where to look....http://www.ana-white.com/ - I'm sure you've heard of her...if not check her out..NOW! Anyway, she "hacks" building plans for popular furniture brands...FREE BUILDING PLANS!
I printed the plans and made a lunch date with my mom - really this means dragging all the kiddos over to her house putting the babies down for naps, after we raid her fridge, and then give Ko some sort of project, and then finally attempt to "build" something in her garage!
So after a couple hours broken into two different days....Naps are never long enough...we had this!

This is what it looked like after day one (about 2.5 hours)...

Oh...the best thing the cost was about $7 per chair! We used basic builders lumber and of course free building plans!

After day 2 - Painted and Finished!

I even let Kohen paint it himslf and he did an awesome job! We are currently working on Brody's chair, which he wants to be blue however he will NOT be painting his himself!

I will be linking up here...

Monday:Made with love monday

Making monday marvelous
Pink hippo party
The DIY showoff
Motivate me monday
Craftastic monday
Mad Skills
Making the World Cuter
Made by you mondays
Just something I whipped up mondays
Market yourself monday
Show it of Monday
A Round Tuit 
More the Merrier Monday 
Weekend Warrior
Meet Me Monday
Whats in the Gunny Sack
More the Merrier Monday
Do it ya Self
Creative Me Monday
Craft O Maniac

Tuesday:
Anti-Procrastination
Tuesday Tutorial Sew Cute Tuesday
Anything Related 
Anything goes
Crafty Lassie

Take a Look Tuesday

Baby B's First Day of Mini-Preschool

I have been nervous about this day for along time. We decided to start Brody (age 2.5) in a one day a week preschool program through our school district. He spends all of his time idolizing his older brother and we thought it would be good for him to socialize with kids his own age. We though this would help too for his speech. I think he may have a speech delay.

He had an open house a few week earlier and he loved it! He has never really been away from me, and the few time he has he was with family members.

When I dropped him off he seemed fine! I was thrilled! He has always been shy ( you know... the kid who clings to his mom's leg) I left feeling good.

When I came to pick him up 2 hours later, I could hear him screaming the minute I walked in the building! I rushed to his room where the teacher told me he had a really hard time transitioning and was pretty sad. She also had to hold him the entire time! YIKES...I felt really bad for him and her. His teacher assured me he'd be ok after a few times...so I guess we'll see this week...Poor Guy.

 He was so excited to wear his backpack!

Happy Groundhog Day

My oldest (Ko) has been talking about groundhog day all week. He has reminded me aleast 5 times we had to watch the "weather" on "news channel five" the see the "molehead" on "February two".....where he gets this I have no idea! I DVRed the today show just in case anyone wanted to sleep in -YEAH RIGHT- so we could catch the groundhog in action. Sadly no real action just a guy in a top hat holding up a chubby groundhog - who apparently did see his shadow. Buy hey I guess if this means six more weeks of winter similar to the winter we are having now (temps. way above average) I can't complain!

Also Kohen announced at diner he can count to 109, and he did it...oddly though when he got to the fifties he said them all like "five-one" "five-two"...etc. Just the 50's everything else was right! Not too bad for a five year old!

Toddlers woes

If you have a toddler...read this article... it's hilarious!!!
http://www.babble.com/toddler/toddler-behavior-learning/real-reasons-toddlers-tantrums/
Maybe now when Brody leaves me feeling stressed, embarrassed, depressed, and exhausted I can try to see where he is coming from! Yeah Right! But it was worth a chance right?

Love ya, little B!

The cost of a stay at home parent

When opening the Internet explorer on my computer this morning this was an article posted on MSN...
http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/article.aspx?post=6e660b54-b9c7-470d-b650-68226582d6b9
How Much is a Homemaker Worth?

I love coming across information like this it always makes me smile! The "worth" in the article comes to around $96,000. salary a year....Oh how I wish I got paid!
Sadly the cost of being a "homemaker" or a stay at home mom is usually in the red. Living on one income in a world designed for two is tough!
Catering to these little faces all day long...priceless!

Is it really WINTER?

Yesterday Baby#1 (Kohen) built a snow man from left from Wednesday's snow fall (1.8"). Today I took the kids to the park. In January. To enjoy 65 degree weather. In January! JANUARY!

Musical beds...

That's what our house feel like right now. EVERYONE is sick. For the past 5 nights everyone is up at different times, the same time, and all the time with colds and coughs. Matt and I take turns rotating in and out kid to kid trying to get some sleep between...but no such luck! Anyone over the age of 5 can sleep through a cold and cough but the younger ones are up every time they cough or sniffle...which is every couple of minutes.
So nothing to great to post about today....just day dreaming about what a full night's sleep must be like!

P.s. I did re-paint the living room and kitchen recently...I just need to get around to cleaning before I snap a few photos!

A helpful tip for a crazy day...

Three kids didn't seem like too much of a change since having two....except the bigger car, not having a third arm, and not having enough bedrooms.... Anyway I am always looking for ways to make my day more organized. Now that Cooper (no.3) is so mobile my time to prepare meals and time in the kitchen in general, has been cut in half! HE IS ALWAYS UNDER MY FEET!

So let's get to the point here...I started my new "daily routine". This is really not that glamorous but I am amazed with the amount of time it saves!

About 7:30pm when the bedtime count (and anticipation) begins I grind the coffee and prep the coffee maker (need fuel for the next day of course!)...

Then I get the next day's outfits with socks, undies, and diapers ready - I put these in a basket in the living room.

 After that I "prep" breakfast even including plates, bowls, and sippy cups. I put all of this in a plastic bin (like shoe box size) in the fridge.

Then I do the same for myself - Sad...yes I know...I lay out my clothes too and gym clothes (more motivation to go to the gym!)

Come morning I basically do it all over again! While the kids are eating breakfast I "prep" lunch the same way and once they are dressed I grab the PJ's for later that night and put them in the same basket!

Seriously this 5-10 minute routine saves me hours of running around the house - half the time forgetting what I was supposed to be doing anyway!

Do you have a routine that you just can't live with out? Share it here!

We're Back!

Yep, we're back...back to the blog that is!

I can't believe it has been over 2 weeks since my last post! When people ask me "how do you do it all with three kids?" Well, I don't! I am constantly falling behind on something! Obviously my blog. So I am going to try to be better...this may mean my posts are not as "cre8tive" as I'd like and more about our daily life.

So here is an update on where we're at!

Kohen started school at the end of August which he loves. He goes four days a week - afternoons. This is his third year of preschool - he misses the cut off for kindergarten by a week!

We've also started soccer the 5 and 6 year old team seems little more organised than the 3 and 4's!

Brody and Cooper are really getting big and missing their big bro when he is at school.

Although it took about 3 weeks we have finally gotten a good daily routine down....and it even involves me getting back to the gym!

Weekend Wrap up!

It's been a busy couple of days....
We went to my parents lake house this weekend, then Apple and Peach picking, then Kohen started soccer!
I need to charge up my camera - I know...posts without pictures...boring!
Be back soon!

SO Tired....

Anyone have any suggestions for sleeping arrangements for a SMALL 3 bedroom house with 2 parents, a five year old, a two year old, and a seven month old?

First we had 5 and 2 in bunk beds...worked but we were putting them to bed at 8 but they were "talking" and "fighting" until 10 or 11, but still waking up at 6am. This made for extremely crabby days.

As much as I didn't want to I moved the baby's crib in our room unbunked the beds and gave 5 and 2 their own rooms. 2 keeps waking up discovering he is alone and crying. The baby seems to wake up every time I roll over in my sleep!!!

So tired and out of ideas!

Oh but they are so cute!

Kid's Art - Finger painting

The kid's Birthday Party went great! We had a good time with family and friends!

One of the kid's gifts was a set a crayola finger paints (thanks Kaleb and Kinsley!) Since today we had GREAT weather I took Kohen and Brody outside to try out finger painting. Routing through my art stuff I found an old piece of foamcore and a 24"x24" thin-plywood panel.

Then they went at it! I had to throw them in the baby pool to clean them up! Brody even managed to get it in his hair!

Not bad huh?

After they smeared the entire surface with a muddy combination of blue, red, green, and yellow. Then we used an old baby food jar and made circle patterns removing the paint.  

Something I'll be proud to display in our home!

The monster doll tutorial is coming tomorrow!

Monsters for my monsters....

The Boys (#1&#2) are having their birthday party this Saturday and I am scrambling to get the "party favors" -that I almost forgot about-done. Lucky Kohen reminded me when I overheard him telling his friend about them. I got the idea months ago to have a "monster mash" for their party...but then we switched to a swim party due to the fact the "monster mash" was scheduled for our backyard and we've hit record highs (100+). Of course this week has been in the 80's but who knew that a month ago. So we did a quick switcheroo to a community center hosted swim party. It's great they provide EVERYTHING but a cake (and monsters). They even decorate! So I dug the half finished monsters from the heaping pile of stuff I call my "craft room" and went back at it...then my sewing machine started acting up. No fear monsters I am dragging you all over to my moms house to use her machine hoping she'll take pity and offer to help. Oh yeah I am also dragging all the cup cake stuff to bake those there too...sorry mom!

Wish me luck!

I'll post pictures and a tutorial Monday!!!

Happy Birthday Kohen!

Kohen (My first little boy!) Is FIVE today! I can't believe it!!! Where did five years go???

Kohen is so observant and intelligent! You can't sneak anything by this guy! His favorite thing right now is super heroes! My favorite thing about Kohen at this age is...he is really go company! Seriously being a stay at home mom can be tough not having a whole lot of adult conversation daily...but Kohen really keeps me entertained. He could talk ALL day - Seriously ALL day!

Happy Birthday KO!



Happy Birthday...Baby B!

I can't believe "Little B", my middle baby boy, is turning two today!

Brody's original due date was Kohen's Birthday (my oldest)! I was induced August 2nd but Brody put up quite a fight.....12+ hours.....and arrived 12:30am August 3rd. We were especially excited because that is also my dad's birthday! (HAPPY B-DAY DAD!!!)

B is by far my most ornery, LOUD, and somewhat devious child but the sweetest too! He keeps me busy...everyday! My favorite thing about Brody at this age is the excitement to see me..all the time! He smiles and runs towards me shouting "momma" only because he lost sight of me for about.....30 seconds!

Happy Birthday B!