Girls' Room: Before and After

Here are some pictures of the girls room. Above: when we bought the house. If you click on the pic and look closely at the floor, you'll see it was really rough. It had been painted dark brown and then whoever painted the walls/trim didn't put down a drop cloth, so there are paint spatters everywhere. Also, since our house is 70 years old, all the trim and windows need some serious caulking. This room (10x14) took 3 tubes of caulk!

 

 

Above and below: the original paint color (yellow?) right after we got the carpet in. Originally we refinished the floors in the whole house, but the upstairs was still too rough. The house has settled a lot and we would have had to completely replace the floors. So we carpeted which made the bedrooms seem so nice (which also made it warmer and quieter!) and covered the warped floors. 

 

 

Above and below: The room now. In the girls' room I really wanted it to be a little girl's room, without being pink. So the girls agreed on a light purple (to go with the Rapunzel poster) and then I painted all the trim bright white, added a few girly decals and put up girly frames.

 

I don't love to paint, but one thing I really love about painting a room is how it can transform the room in just a few hours. Painting the trim a bright white really made the room seem newer. The purple is really light because I didn't want a dark color in a small room, but it actually makes the room feel very calm and soft.

So far this has been the fastest room. It's small and after the carpet, it only needed some paint. It's so cute though! We all love it. Even Matt, who was worried it would be too girly, thinks it's great.

Sick of this

The week before we left for Utah Emily got sick. So sick in fact that she didn't eat for 4-5 days and we had to threaten her with Matt giving her an IV to get her to eat.she didn't have the stomach flu, just the regular flu with aches, chills and a high fever. Emily recovered the Sunday before we left.

The tuesday before we left, Charlotte got what Emily had. Hers didn't last as long though and she was better by the time we left (on a Friday).

We got to Provo really late on a Monday night. We pushed the kids really hard, driving through the night and seeing/staying at different people's houses in other parts of Utah before we went to Provo.

The morning after we drove into Provo, I woke up to the sound of Nathalie vomiting. She only did it once and seemed a little lethargic the rest of that day (Tuesday) but didn't have a fever. In the middle of Tuesday/Wednesday night, Emily came to my bedside telling me that Charlotte had thrown up. I got up cleaned everything up and Charlotte threw up again that night. She didn't have a fever or anything and was kind of lethargic the next day. Thursday morning Nan throws up again. No fever. She was under the weather most of the weekend, but still never had a fever and didn't throw up again. Charlotte had diarrhea the entire week and Nathalie had it the second half of the week.

We left Provo on  Sunday, got in late to a KOA in Nebraska and Monday Nathalie threw up AGAIN, this time in the van. (Throwing up in the car is NOT FUN FOR MOM.) No fever, lethargic.

We actually went a few days and I thought that returning home would solve this problem. We get home, Matt gets the bug and has been fighting it since Tuesday.

Last night in the middle of the night Nathalie threw up again twice. All over the carpet. This morning Emily threw up.

This is week four that at least one person has been sick and it looks like we'll have a fifth week of it too.

We are never traveling again. Ever.

(Note: I do not deal well with sickness. It's not that I can't stand vomit or anything, it's that I get so impatient that someone is sick that it seriously ticks me off. I really struggle with being sympathetic when someone is sick.)

Borte bra, hjemme beste.

"To be away is good, but home is best." (Norwegian proverb)

We just got back from our trip out west. Yes, we drove it. Yes, I am ridiculously pregnant.

It's good to be back. And it's really good to have my own bed again.

More to come.

Moments with these girlies

Matt got me a Google Nexus tablet for Christmas. It is mainly mine but it does have some games on it for the kids. They don't,t get to play it a lot and so they are always asking to ply. The girls call it an iPad.

The other morning Nathalie wanted to play it and I wouldn't let her. So she turned to me and said," Mom, I can hear the iPad calling my name. It says,'Nathalie, play me. Nathalie, play me!' "

***********************************************************

We have had some sickness running through our family. One night Charlotte was just starting to come down with the bug and so I was giving her some extra love at bedtime. I was singing a song to her and holding her hand. In the middle of the song she said," I love you Mama."

Sweetest moment ever.

He's one special guy

 

Despite the stresses, hard work and sleep deprivation, there have been bright moments. Last week was Matt's 29th birthday! He specifically requested a Kelly Kettle for his birthday. He and Emily plan on taking some short backpacking trips this summer and the Kelly Kettle figured into his plans.

 

So he got one for his birthday! And that morning he tried it out. Supposedly the Kelly Kettle can boil water amazingly fast. It's true too! The first time he boiled water for hot cocoa in 5 minutes. This morning it was 3:25. I think we've had hot cocoa every morning since he got it!

 

 

He also requested that we not do anything for his birthday. No cake, no decorations, just presents. (He really loves presents.)

 

 

So of course the girls and I completely ignored him. The night before, we raced out to the store right after he left for work and picked up balloons. Each girl got to pick a balloon for him-- and I think he loved them! Princesses, Hello Kitty, Finding Nemo...just Matt's style. The girls and I also made a "poster" for him and (you can barely see it) the pieces of paper on the walls beside the door frame are things we love about him-- each person came up with 5 things and wrote them down. Well, Charlotte's piece of paper just says "I love Daddy". We taped them up and placed the balloons so he would see them first thing when he walked in from work the next morning.

I also made a huge batch of Texas sheet cake for our family and for him to take to work, along with some ice cream for work. We had pizza (which he loves!) for dinner and made sure to sing Happy Birthday lots of times.

So ha! We celebrated his birthday anyway! He loved it though. He said it was one of his best birthdays ever. I really wanted to make it special because he's been working so hard and so much. I think we did it! Hopefully he felt loved and appreciated.

I don't mention Matt too much, since this blog is mainly about our girls, but Matt is my constant. He makes my day, even when it's silly things like tickling the girls (or me!) or writing little love notes. He sacrifices nearly everything for us. He is incredible.

Happy Birthday!!!

Unused Muscles

This winter has been a difficult one. Matt and I have had a lot of stressors in our lives and there were (are still) endless weeks of discouragement, grayness, uncertainty. I'm afraid I haven't been graceful in the face of these trials and many a day I've not coped well.

It's taken a toll on our family as well...mostly because we've been so stressed that the girls have reflected this in their behavior. Emily started contradicting and arguing with me a lot, Charlotte has started throwing lots of tantrums (she is turning 2 next month) and Nathalie...well...let's just say that there were some days where I have literally not seen Nathalie EVER be that wild and out of control.

But we're getting brief glimpses of hope. It's March. The sun is out this morning. The bathroom is almost done. Some of the other things are starting to wrap up. I could have this baby girl next month.

Two nights ago as I was saying personal prayer with Nathalie, there was a brief ray of sunshine. Nathalie doesn't like to say personal prayers because we ask her to think of things to say. She would rather say her standard two-sentence prayer which never varies. But on Wednesday night, after another long and difficult day, Nathalie said a beautiful prayer. And when she finished I smiled at her and praised her for saying such a beautiful prayer without being prompted by me.

In that moment I realized that Matt and I haven't been smiling much at all, especially at the girls. And so I smiled at her again. And she threw her arms around me, saying, "I love you so much, Mommy."

So yesterday I tried to smile at them more. I discovered that a little smile can go a long way to improving the hard days. And that my girls love smiles.

Here's to smiling more.