Big Boy Room

Here is Louis' room finally finished.  "Finished" in our house means at least one thing isn't totally done.  In this case, it's the old wing back chair.  I want to paint the legs and make a new slip cover for it but that is pretty ambitious for me.  I'll keep putting it off for now.  

I'm also really bad at picking out paint when I'm pregnant.  It happened in my bedroom when I was pregnant with Louis (will post another day).  I didn't learn my lesson and picked his gray furniture paint while I was pregnant with Nola.  It should be about three shades darker than it is.  Joe painted it with his paint sprayer so with the cost of the paint and the time it took, whining will get me no where.  He is not changing it.  

I've always painted my ceilings and if you look closely you can see I painted it navy.  We painted the walls white because I liked it so much in the nursery.  I like it in person but not as much in these pics.  I'm blaming the lack of contrast with the furniture!  

Here is the other side of the room.  I'm thinking of adding pictures or a hot air balloon to this side of the room but will wait until something really catches my eye.  The globe was Joe's and his grandpa made the wooden stand for it.  Louis loves getting it down to see where we have traveled.  We also look at it or the map on his wall when Joe is on a trip.  Louis has a pretty good memory and can usually point out places we have been.  The piggy bank was my mom's and she gave it to Louis when he was born.  

I'm not into super themed rooms and prefer it to be more subtle.  I went with an airplane/travel theme.  I found the planes at Hobby Lobby and the prints below are from Etsy.  We found the barn wood frames at Hobby Lobby as well.  I also picked plain bedding so I can change the theme as he grows.  The duvet cover and sham are from Pottery Barn.  The rug is from Overstock.com.  

My mom had the map mounted on foam board for me but it kept falling off the wall.  Joe ended up making the barn wood frame to solve that issue.  He also made the barn wood shelves and bench. The orange bins are from Land of Nod.

We were able to do the room on a pretty tight budget since we had all of the furniture and just had to paint it.  My mom had the bed and chair but everything else was Joe's as a kid excluding the bench he made.  I like all of the things from the past.  It makes it feel special in a way.

July Update

I feel like I start every post by saying how behind I am on blogging.  Here I am again catching you up on July.  Good thing I'm only blogging for fun and not as a job.

I was a little behind on scheduling Nola's 3 month pictures.  My friend from college recently moved back and was able to shoot them.  Jen did a great job!  Her website is Olive My Love Photography if you want to schedule a shoot with her.

I also took a few of my own on Joe's old baby quilt.  I LOVE his old quilt but will be passing it down to Nola since it's a little girly.  His grandma made it for him and we aren't quite sure why she picked that color scheme.

Nola actually turned 4 months on July 15.  She started to get very interested in her toys as you can see below.  I also decided to sit her up one day and she was able to do it.  I guess I should have tried it sooner!  Louis is starting to like her more but he still doesn't like her stealing his attention.  She is really starting to laugh at him which is super cute!

It was like she was saying, "See mom, I can sit with my eyes closed."

July kicked off with a fun 4th of July!  Our neighborhood has a parade for the kids where they decorate their bikes and ride to one of our neighborhood parks.  They serve some food and have a dunk tank and some inflatable slides, etc.  Normally Joe and I are like wallflowers at these things.  Neither one of us is very outgoing but this time I was really proud that we made some friends.

Later that night we did some small fireworks in the back with my brother.  I didn't get many pics.

Louis wasn't crazy about the loud ones and either were we since we aren't supposed to do fireworks in town.

I left Nola for the first time for my friend Molly's bachelorette party.  The sign below is how I felt.

I had a really good time catching up with some of my best friends.  But man, I'm such a granny now.  I have been to Vegas the last four or five years in a row but most of it was for work.  Molly always has these connections and one of her friends got us into a club.  I'm talking, walk to the front/on the list/don't pay cover, kind of connection.  The club was SO Vegas.  There were hot tubs and swimming pools and dj's spinning.  I would have felt right at home here before kids, but having had a baby four months prior, my body was not "club ready".  Not that I'd ever wear a spandex mini dress but at least I would have felt cute.  And I'm not kidding, the strobe light would go off and I could not see ANYTHING.  Boring granny for sure.  The craziest part was I ran into a friend of a friend tending bar there.  She gave me a free beer (great deal since they were $9) and I totally forgot to tip her!  We left right after so I couldn't go back.  Granny and jerk all in one!!

Meanwhile, Joe was busy showing me up back home.  He BBQ'd ribs, took the kids to the redbox, zoo and for ice cream.  I secretly took some joy in the fact that Nola cried the first day I was gone.  I didn't want him to have it too easy since I'm alone with the kids all the time and mostly frazzled by the time he gets home!!

I'm trying to do more play dates again.  It's getting easier to do things as Nola is getting on a more predictable schedule and doesn't nurse as much as she used to.  We met the love of Louis' life, Parker, at the spray park one day.

We also had her and some other friends over for a BBQ.  He really loves all of his friends but I've always noticed he talks about Parker just a little more than the others.  I think he has a little crush.

We had an adult play date too when our friends invited us to the All Star soccer game.  We sat in the cauldron or cheering section.  It was really fun.  I don't think I'd want to sit anywhere else.

We had some family in town.  You might remember my post about Anna's wedding.  They stopped by for a night when they were doing some school shopping and World's of Fun.  Anna is a hair dresser so she cut Louis' hair.  It was his first professional cut and he did really well for her.  I hate to tell Joe, but the cut was SO much better.  It's really holding up as it grows.

My garden has been doing much better than last year.  I planted less variety and it hasn't been as hot.  Louis helps pick tomatoes but no matter what he always grabs some green ones off the vine.  I can get them to ripen near bananas but toward the end of the season I'll let him go crazy and we can fry up the green ones.

Joe took Louis fishing for the first time and brought him home with about 40 chigger bits all around his undies.  I'm not exaggerating, I counted them.  I felt so bad for him and he actually got really swollen.  We called Joe's sister (she's a nurse) and she reassured us that he and his parts would be fine.  She was right but YIKES!  Poor boy.  That was one of those times I kind of handed the parenting off to Joe since it was out of my department.  I'm sure he will have those moments with Nola too.

We were lucky with some really nice weather and took advantage of being outdoors.  One of my favorite things about where we live is our walkability.  We are about a mile out in three directions from some great areas in town.  We walked the kids up to the lawn at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and had a picnic.  Then we finished the night at the Kaufman Gardens.

I'm also getting better at fitting one-on-one time in with Louis during Nola's morning nap.  "Better" is the key word here.  This isn't all the time.  I'm still working on being that super mom that I see in my mind.

We do crafts.

Bake healthy muffins.

And sometimes make it outside.

This time is so important for him.  Otherwise I catch him in the corner with the camera shooting selfies.

Or putting on crazy outfits like the one below.  He is not wearing anything on the bottom but don't worry, he is a super hero.

We also went to his second dentist appointment.  Louis did great but the dentist still didn't clean his teeth.  He just counts them and takes a look at things.  Maybe next time he will clean them since Louis will be three.

I can't believe that his 3rd birthday is around the corner!!  The other night I got stuck watching old videos of him.  I might have shed a few tears!  Gosh, I really didn't know I could love someone so much.  It's one of those things you just don't understand until you become a parent.  I always look forward to his future and feel lucky that he is healthy and strong.  But I can't help but be sad that it happens so fast.  It goes by in a blink and I just want to bottle it all up so I don't forget a thing!  Hopefully I'll have an August update before the month is over.  You know me, I'm always late!

Wisconsin to Iowa

Where did July go?  I was so tired when we got back from our trip that I kept putting off this blog.  Then we did more things that made me tired and here I am.  A few days away from August and not one blog.  

Of course Louis' favorite part of staying in a hotel is the pool.  And my favorite part is how much it wears him out for nap and/or bedtime!

We stayed outside of the Wisconsin Dells and had several options of touristy things to do.  Joe's parent's offered to babysit the first day we were there so we decided to see The House on the Rock.  It was either this or Frank Lloyd Wrights property and the price of tickets made our decision easy.  If you haven't heard of this place here is a little background.  Starting in the late 1950's, this man built what started as a retreat on top of a chimney rock.  Then he kept expanding the place to hold tons of collections and creations of stuff.  It's hard to explain how crazy it is.  You really have to see it to understand.

Outside the house are beautiful Japanese Gardens.

Then you go inside to the original part of the house where he lived.  This guy was Joe's size (6'4") and Joe could only stand in a few parts of the house.  It was also SO dark.  There were windows that he covered with this blue glass so you can't see out.

Then there is the Infinity Room which extends an unsupported length of 218 feet and rises 156 feet above the valley floor.  By the way, this guy built all of this without a college degree.

Here is a view from the road.

There weren't many other people around and we lucked out being alone for the Infinity Room.  We were both a little scared to walk out to the middle.  The whole room was swaying and it felt a little like the Cosmos in South Dakota.  I was really dizzy walking out and took the tiniest baby steps to look down through the glass at the forest below.  We didn't spend much time in this room.

This is one of the views from the property.  My pictures don't do it justice.  It was really beautiful.

The last part of the tour gets REALLY weird.  I can't even begin to tell you how many things this guy collected.  Here are a few pictures we took.

This part of the house had real trees in it and looked like a little town.

This sea creature is longer than the Statue of Liberty is tall.

This room has the largest carousel in the world featuring 269 handcrafted animals, 20,000 lights and 182 chandeliers.  You can't ride it but it works so you can watch it.

Wisconsin is a beautiful state.  I loved driving through and seeing all the cool barns and dairy farms.

Joe's sister and family arrived Monday night and we enjoyed some Wisconsin brews back at the house.  Joe's mom didn't quite understand that we were taking a pic of our drinks and squatted down for the low shot!  Cheers!

The place we stayed had activities each day so Tuesday morning Louis got up with his cousins to go finger paint.  He had fun getting messy!

This day was pretty relaxed.  We all went to a cheese factory to see it made and shop for cheese.  This was my first time trying some cheese to test how Nola would do with dairy.  I'll come back to this later.

Joe read an article right before the trip about how men don't fully mature until the age of 42.  Here he is proving this point as he is dying laughing about the video narrator saying, "cut the cheese".

Say cheese!!!

After the cheese factory we were all going to meet at a little farm.  You can imagine how happy I was with Joe when I saw the dash below.  We had left before everyone else and were driving through the countryside.  He was SOOO lucky we made it to the gas station.  It was hot and we had two little kids in the car!

Finally we made it to the farm!  It was a cute place for kids and you could pick strawberries.  We had to leave for naps but Emily's family brought back lots of yummy strawberries.  I think these pictures speak for themselves.

That summed up our day and we went home for a nice family dinner and got some sleep for the next day.

Wednesday we decided to try out one of the Dells many water parks.  Joe's parent's scored us some free tickets so we had nothing to lose!  I didn't get many pics but Louis had a BLAST and both kids were exhausted by the end!

Thursday was our last full day in Wisconsin.  This was the day I had been looking forward to.  The Olson's decided to do a family float trip.  Joe's parents joined us for Devils Lake State Park.  It was SO gorgeous!  I could come back and camp for a week at this place.  Bill & Janelle watched the kids so Joe and I could do a little hike up the bluff.  I say "little" but I thought I was going to die on the hike up.  I am VERY out of shape and didn't love going up 500 feet in a half mile.

We got back to find Louis with some new toys from Nana to help Papa catch minnows.  They said Louis really inspected the fish and might have squeezed a few a little too hard.

I had to rest after the hike.

Our day ended a little early due to some storms but we found a winery on the way home.  It was built by Europeans in the 1850's and used until the turn of the century.  It lay dormant until 1972, when the grapes were replanted.

We picked up a few bottles to take home.

Our last night we went to a brewery/pizza place for dinner.  This was the second time I had cheese and I was getting really confident that Nola was OK with it.

The next day we split up from Joe's family and made our way back home.  We booked a B&B in Iowa to break up the trip.  We stopped at a railway museum before leaving Wisconsin.  The depot was built in 1894 and our ticket included a 55 minute round trip ride in a 1900-era train car pulled by a diesel locomotive.  It was pretty cool and Louis really enjoyed it.

Cool old snow plow train.

We had a picnic at the museum and then made our way to North East Iowa where our B&B awaited.  It was on a working diary farm and winery.  The little farm girl inside me was jumping for joy when we arrived!

The first night we went for pizza in town (3rd time having dairy) and then took a stroll on the property.  I might have also had a chocolate chip cookie or two or three.  They were in our room and the kitchen.

The first morning we got up and joined another family with three little kids for breakfast.  I don't know how I didn't get a picture of the food or wine at this place!  The breakfast both mornings was full of eggs, bacon, sausage, blueberry pancakes, ham, coffee cake and more.  It was so delicious!  As we were enjoying breakfast and conversing with the family and B&B owners, Nola decided to show us how she really felt about all the dairy I had consumed.  She started projectile puking while I was holding her at the table.  It was like The Exorcist and they were all SHOCKED!  I was so embarrassed.  The guy even yelled out a little bit and the owner brought me a bowl.  I should have known better.  I had to explain to dairy farmers that she pretty much hates dairy.   The next morning I put her on a blanket on the floor just in case.

You are welcome to help with farm chores if you want so we offered to get eggs from the hen house.  Louis and I LOVED it.   Did you know the eggs are still warm?  I of course went into a fantasy in my head of living on our own hobby farm and having chickens.

They used to roam around but are being retrained to eat their feed.  They liked the cat food too much.

We got about three dozen eggs and Louis only broke one.

That day we went to a nearby bison farm.  It is owned by a sweet old man who was born and raised on the property.  He has a little museum of sorts with Native American artifacts and you can purchase bison meat & jerky.  He is really proud of it but really is the cutest little old man I've ever talked to.  You can tell he really gets a kick out of taking people out to see the herd.  He is really knowledgeable about it all too.

The herd.

They walked up in their pecking order.  We tried to throw corn out to the less dominant but the big guys usually chased them off.

Momma and her baby.  So cute!

It was cold and windy!!!

We left with some jerky and took one more walk on the farm since we had to leave after breakfast the next morning.  We also did a tasting at the winery earlier that day but I didn't take pics.  The wine was really good and we took a few bottles home.  I should mention the winery and B&B are for sale.  It would have been tempting for us if it was a little closer to home!

It was a really fun family trip and I can't wait to do another!!  I love making memories like this with my little family of four.  Seems so weird to say that!