Llewyn is 7 months!

This little bubba is 7 months old already! I'm not sure how the time has gone quite so fast, but he's just getting so big, and he's such a little chunk! Definitely the chubbiest baby out of the kids. He loves to eat food so much, sometimes I forget he's only 7 months old and doesn't even need food.

He wouldn't stop playing with the signs

Overall, he's such a good baby, you can pretty much always get him to smile, even when he's mad/crying. He loves to sit with Ellsworth and watch the big kids run around. Since this is the first post I have of him, here's the rest of his life so far:

 (this is 3 months, I somehow didn't take any pictures with the sign this month...)

Just such a cute, happy little chub. I love him so much!

Update on the family

Well, it seems the last time I posted, Elsie had just turned 4. She's had 2 birthdays since then, so I guess you could say a lot has changed! We were going to try homeschooling her for Kindergarten last year, but I didn't get off to a great start with that, so she will be starting Kindergarten this year. Here's her turning and 5 and 6!

Elsie's 5th birthday

She had eye surgery August 2016 to fix her lazy eye that the glasses wouldn't correct, we are now glasses free! 

6th birthday! We celebrated while camping with Grandpa and Grandma, then on her birthday we went to Maquoketa, IA and explored the caves and went to cloth diaper party!

She's a crazy kid!

But we love her!

Abbott is 4 now! Time just flies. He's a little sweatheart, but Elsie can get him to do anything, even if it's something he knows he shouldn't do. He's got the cutest little sad/scared face. Not too long ago, he came to me pouting and on the verge of tears because he was so scared because he accidentally swallowed a cherry pit and he didn't know if he would be ok. It was so cute. He's going to be heading to preschool this year, and I think it's going to be really good for him to make friends and interact with children other than Elsie.

He wanted a spaceship cake. I didn't have a lot of time to make this cake and it was falling apart while frosting it, so we made it work! (It's not the prettiest though)

Spiderman cake at Grandpa and Grandmas!

Some from last year: he's quite the little character!

We lost great grandma Marcia last year unexpectedly. She was a great lady and so active! I'm so sad she's gone, but really thankful we got to spend time with her on vacation in Minnesota before she died. I'm also very glad that she wasn't sick or in a nursing home for any amount of time. She would not have liked that at all! She loved fishing from the dock and walking. We didn't get to see her much recently as they moved to Texas I think when I was in middle school and ran an RV park, but the summer before she died, she was up visiting with everyone in the family for the whole summer. When I told the kids she died, Abbott said "I miss that grandma, I liked her." Awwww. 

 In other news, we had a baby! Llewyn Robert Fowler was born on January 8 at 11:33pm and weighed 8lb 8oz, and was 21.5 inches long. We got his name from the movie Inside Llewyn Davis. He's just been the best baby, and we love him so much. We are so blessed!

He's alomst 7 months old now and he's just got the best rolls. He's the chubbiest of the kids and he's just almost always happy! He loves watching Elsie and Abbott do just about anything and usually thinks it's hilarious!

Well, that's all for now!

Bedroom Remodel

This room has been in progress for quite a while, and I still need to do some things that are connected to the room so I haven't posted it because it doesn't feel finished yet. Like I want to get a bed made instead of mattresses on the floor. I also would like to refinish the doors in the house....there are only 6, so it's not a huge job, just haven't gotten around to it yet. but here it is! It was so ugly, complete with the ugliest and most outdated ceiling fan I could ever imagine. The walls could have been cool, but I had in my mind that this green was super ugly, so it had to go. It might have been everything else in the room making it ugly, like the ceiling. yuck.

The built in closet wall has so much space, but it looked a little ugly.

I wanted to keep the beam that is already there, and decided to add another faux beam to balance the room a little. Hopefully, I accomplished that.

The first thing I did when we got the house was rip down this ceiling. Pretty sure Tom thought I was crazy.

Here's a coat of Primer on the walls and trim.

Doors off of the closets.

Blue on the walls, not sure why I chose blue, but I still like it.

My dad helped me get some white beadboard on the ceiling and make the faux beam. (I initially thought I could do this job by myself, but I would have been SO wrong, I'm so grateful that he came to help/do everything for the most part)

We used a 1x6 nailed right to the stud beam board...? on the ceiling.

The actual beam needed a little extra width.

Both new beams stained and assembled and attached.

These top cupboards presented a problem so it's a little awkward, but I think it looks ok, and you can open the other doors.

We made the beams with a 1x6 on the bottom, then 2 1x4s for the sides. I wish I would have used normal stain and varnish, but I got stain and varnish in one and I had some difficulty with runs.....

New light fixture up. It looks very satin-y in this picture, but better in real life, I think. It was on sale for 29.99!

Update: I wrote this draft 2 years ago and figured I might as well post it. I'm going to try to get back into blogging, so I'll post some updates on life, as it's a good way for me to keep track of things.

SO, Here's the room now!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This dresser is an old oak one that my parents were going to throw away/burn. I covered the oak with brush on stain, then did a clear coat and changed the knobs. I love how it looks, but it is slightly falling apart in the back and the drawers are super big and heavy and clunky and don't work the best. But it's ok for now :)

We need to refinish this floor eventually, but haven't made time for that yet, but I did get the doors refinished, that might need to be another post though.  I do want to find other doors for the closet and this door with no knob leading to the bathroom; they are currently cheap, ugly hollow-core doors that I do not like. I thought I had found some doors so I took off the knobs like I would get them up right away, but then I ended up not getting those doors, so there's just no knobs for now. AND, we still never got a bed and I haven't decided what I really want, so it's just a mattress on the floor.

That's all for this room! More to come later of the rest of the house and kids (plus a new one!:) )