He is Risen Indeed....

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again." Luke 24:5b & 6.

Before the big egg hunt at our church two weekends ago.

Gabe wasn't all that in to the hunt.

Ethan on the other hand....how embarrassing.....I was so proud he ended up giving a lot away when he realized he had A TON more then the other kids.

Joel "stealing" baby food from Target.
I caught him red handed and insisted he pay.

The Easter Baskets!

Joel and Mommy....I think he looks
like a Leppert....what do you think?

The boys each got new Bibles for Easter.
They were VERY proud of them.

The boys with their crocs and their new Jibbitz from Gigi and Papa.
They love them. Thanks Gigi and Papa!
Thank you Granny and Grandpa for the
cashola....it's burning holes in their pockets!

Our "marbled eggs". The kit didn't work out quite the way I hoped.
Now I know why my Mom and Dad always got the plain ol' dye kit.

The Easter "duds".

I LOVE this picture. Isn't he a cutie!

Look at my studs! Do you know how hard it is
to get FIVE people to look ALL at once and all smile
and have their eyes open?!

MAN....what a looker!

Hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Easter. I know we did. Great hunt, great day, great food, great company (Nancy, Ryan, and Jillian) and a great reason to celebrate.

Have you ever wondered...

....what a child looks like right before he vomits?! Check out the Gabers...

...let's just say 10 minutes later we were cleaning up vomit from UNDERNEATH the sofa!! Obviously this was taken a couple of weeks ago. I'm so glad we are feeling much better AND this week is Spring Break WEEEE!!!!!!

Palm Sunday

Gabe waving his palm!

Gabe, Ethan, Sam and our new friend Cooper Bridges.

Palm Sunday - The Sunday before Easter, observed by Christians in commemoration of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, when palm fronds were strewn before him. (definition from answers.com)

I love Palm Sunday. Even as a child I've always imagined how magical the roads must have seemed as people waved their palms in honor of Jesus. Today in church the 2 and 3 years olds walked through the church waving their palms. It was super cute and I'm so glad I keep my camera with me at all times!!

Tom Thumb

The Joelster very proud of himself!

Is this a teething toy?

My first thumb baby. I'm sure I'll regret it later but it's awfully cute now!

"I Love You to the Moon and Back"

I just took these pictures and had to post them. I played around in iphoto a little but aren't they amazingly sweet. I would kill for those lashes....did I ever tell you I put mascara on them once?!

I just turned on itunes and "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins came on, which seemed perfectly appropriate for these pictures. Here are the lyrics:

She was starin' out the window of that SUV
Complainin' sayin' I can't wait to turn 18
She said I'll make my own money and I'll make my own roots
Mama put the car in park out there in front of the school
and she kissed her head and said I was just like you

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Before she knows it she's a brand new bride
In her one bedroom apartment and her daddy stops by
He tells her it's a nice place, she says it'll do for now
Starts talkin' about babies and buyin' a house
Daddy shakes his face and says Baby just slow down

Cuz you're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times so take a good look around
You may not know it now but you're gonna miss this

Five years later there's a plummer workin' on the water heater,
Dogs barkin' phones ringin' one kid's cryin' one kid's screamin',
And she keeps apologizing, he says they don't bother me I got 2 babies of my own one's 36 one's 23 it's hard to believe

But you're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times so take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this
You're gonna miss this
Yeah, you're gonna miss this


Ahhhh....what a great song....I love me some good ol' country, go buy it on itunes and go kiss your babies!

The Samers

This is what I woke up to on Valentine's Day!
How sweet, especially since Greg was out of town!

This is a diorama of sorts. He meticulously set the whole thing up the night before and I was instructed to not enter the toy room until Valentine's Day morning. I especially like the tank. I'm a sucker for tankers....(wink, wink, Greg).

Sam's Valentine's Mailbox. Didn't he (we) do a great job on it? I know it's hard core, laugh all you want, but I decoupaged tissue paper onto the box, then we cut out the letters and shapes on my Cricut Machine and then put a final layer of Decoupage medium over the whole thing. Trust me I tried easier method but they did not work and honestly Decoupaging is EASY, ask my girlfriend Connie how many "Days Until Daddy Comes Home" Blackboards I've made!!

Well since I spent some time bragging on Ethan I thought today I would talk up Sam. My sweet Samers. I am so lucky to have such wonderful children. The Bible Study I spoke of yesterday had about a trillion charts to fill out that would help us understand our kiddos better. Here are some things I listed for Sam:

- Bright
- Good at math
- A thinker
- Obedient
- Great musical ear
- Good memory
- Creative
- Caregiver
- Neat
- Shares easily
- Loves learning about the Lord
- Saves his money
- Helper
- Leads the "play" around the house
- Intent on learning everything about a given subject

Sam is such a special kid. I will always treasure his little toothless grin in my heart. I can't wait to watch him grow and mature into an amazing man. I pray for all my boys daily and pray for the special woman they will one day marry.

My Poor Baby....

The other night I walked in to find Ethan sleeping like this. This picture is actually taken in the dark with the flash on. Poor kid he fell asleep on top of the covers and was freezing. He was as tight as a little ball, trying to stay warm.

Ethan is a special gift from the Lord. He lives out loud and you rarely have to ask what's on his mind. At the moment I'm doing an amazing Bible Study called "Raising Responsive Children" by Judy Rossi. It hasn't yet been published, but will be soon and Judy is leading us through the study. What an awesome opportunity. This week we focused on our children's personalities. I was very convicted that I didn't really know my children (which the more experienced Mom's assured me was very normal in the stage of life we are in). All though a little discouraging I did start to look for all of the wonderful unique parts of each of their personalities. Fast forward that to yesterday when I was doing dishes. Ethan has just discovered a new love for drying pots and I figured why not take that love a step further to putting them away. As I continued to do dishes I could hear his grunts of frustration finally ending in an ecstatic little cheer. That sweet little boy had rearranged the pots and turned and twisted them until he had them all in their perfectly. I was so proud.

Love ya Ethan!

Sweet Lovin'

My girlfriend Nancy suggested this as a blog post. It was a lot of fun to answer and made me remember just why we fell in love. Enjoy....

How long have you been together? We met on a triple date. He was on leave from Korea and went out with my Bible Study leader. I was out with one of his friends. That was ten years ago, but we didn't start dating until December 1999, so eight years, actually together.

How long did you date? We dated 7 months before we got married.

How old is he? Greg will be 35 on Friday, baby your are OLD!!

Who eats more? Greg can definitely out eat me, except at about 30-35 weeks pregnant, then I'm eating food off of his plate :0)

Who said "I love you" first? How embarrassing....I think it was me....Super Bowl Sunday 2000.

Who is taller? Well I'm 5' 2" and he's 6', you do the math!

Who sings better? I would say me, he would probably disagree because he was an All State Tenor, I think his voiced changed since then, sorry baby....

Who is smarter? School smart is for sure me, but "street smarts" it's definitely him, so I would say he is actually smarter.

Who does the laundry? No question, me and let me tell you I do probably 25 loads a week!

Who does the dishes? I do breakfast and lunch dishes and Greg makes the kitchen SPOTLESS after dinner, I'm a lucky girl. I get to wake up to a clean kitchen AND an empty dishwasher, now that's close to heaven.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I guess that depends on if you are sitting on the bed or standing at the foot :0)

Who pays the bills? I have always payed the bills do to the nature of Greg's job.

Who mows the lawn? When Greg's around, him, unless I'm kidded out. When Greg's away I do it, when he was in Iraq we had an awesome lawn guy named Brad Boland who mowed it for me for FREE, I could have kissed him for that!

Who cooks dinner? I always cook dinner (using www.savingdinner.com). If Greg does cook his specialties are pancakes, scrambled eggs (the best in the world) and frozen pizza.

Who is more stubborn? No comment, let's just say our kids get it honest!

Who kissed who first? He definitely kissed me first.

Who asked who out? He asked me out. Our first date was to see Sleepy Hollow the Legend of the Headless Horseman, the second was the next day to a formal Army Ball.

Who proposed? Greg proposed in my dorm room on February 18, 2000.

Who is more sensitive? We are both pretty sensitive, another trait my kids get honest.

Who has more friends? Hands down me. Greg is probably more likable, but I'm a pursuer and keep up with a lot of my old friends.

Who has more siblings? My parents had a full term still born, so I suppose me....two sisters one brother. Greg has two sisters.

Curl Up and Dye

My sister and I are trying to get out of the salon hair color business. It is so expensive and who has time to go to the salon every 6-8 weeks and sit for a couple of hours?? Together we have been exploring at home options. Every time I go to Target I make the boys peruse the hair color aisle with me, they actually consider this to be a lot of fun, as they love touching all the little hair samples! (I remember doing this as a kid.....ah passing down traditions....)

On 15 February, a mere 3 weeks ago, I had my hair colored "back" to it's "natural" color. I'm not sure if that's completely accurate as I'm sure no hair color manufacturer in their right mind would come out with "Ugly Mousy Brown". Anywho, I had it colored a really pretty brown, color 5N to be exact with just a few face framing highlights. Now the colorist did warn me that the color would fade "some" but assured me it would take at least 6-8 weeks. I think that girl had been inhaling to much hair color, because my hair is fading quickly!

Which brings me back to my Target story. After spending an excruciating 15 minutes in the hair color aisle the boys were restless, the paint brush hair samples had lost their appeal and I had given up, but as I turned the corner I found the clearance color on the end cap. Have you ever noticed that Target is a little misleading with those red tags?! I'm fairly certain that I only save 10-25 cents on clearance items but I sure do snatch them up! SO long story short I stumbled upon a color glaze by Clairol.



I was excited to "boost my color and shine" in just five minutes. Perfect I thought and all this for just $5!!! Now that's a price I can live with, that is until I noticed, when I got home no less, that the silly glaze only last through SIX washes. WHAT?!! So your telling me I'm going to have to do this at least once a week?!! UGHHH.....the beauty industry has me again. My search continues....

Still Alive

We are still alive, but still GROSS!!  I spent the day recleaning everything.  I bleached and lysoled pretty much everything I could get my hands on.

Greg is on round three of the pukies, last nights was by far the worst and landed him in the ER.  Sam threw up on Sunday night and is now running a fever.  Today was the first day Joel didn't have diarrhea after every meal (on a positive note, I finally figured out how to spell diarrhea, I'd say that's an accomplishment).  I went to school today to get Sam's homework and his teacher told me that almost half of the class is out, three vomited in class yesterday alone!! Ethan and Gabe are thankfully feeling much better.  

Pray for our little family, I'm weary of the yucks and today my van doors stopped opening and my odometer is gone, I'm not pulling my hair out yet, but I may be bald if this craziness continues.  Right now I'm just thankful the Lord has given me an extra dose of patience and a sense of humor these last two weeks.  I've managed to only have one minor melt down, which was actually this morning.

Hope to be posting new pictures soon, stay tuned!

STAY AWAY!!

If you come near our house you may want to be wearing one of these:


Greg threw up Friday night. Joel threw up A TON on Monday and has had no appetite but lingering diarrhea. Ethan threw up NINE TIMES last night, which my SO WONDERFUL husband stayed up and took care of. And Gabe threw up this morning, and being the oh so sweet boy that he is, managed to make it into our garbage can! So that leaves Sam and I to go. Hopefully we will dodge this one. Pray for us, I HATE THE PUKIES!

Another Good Kid Video

I have been shocked that a few of my girlfriends had not had the pleasure of enjoying the Wiggles with their kiddos. I remembered earlier that we even own Wiggle Underwear, I'm shocked that the rest of the nation is not quite so engrossed in Wigglemania!

In light of this recent enlightenment I thought I would share another little known fantastic childrens DVD series. First let me say, when my boys are little, before they can talk, I teach them to sign. It has been a very effective tool in our house and has "virtually elimanated tantrums". When Sam and Ethan were little we started to watch Signing Time. They are awesome videos, and by the time they were two they knew a plethora of a signs. Check them out, they are well worth the money:

Now go watch some Wiggles on YouTube! I've heard they are quite a hit at the Lodmell House!

I can't believe I'm saying this.....I miss the Wiggles!!

The Wiggles can be annoying, but they are actually kind of fun to watch. I've heard of desperate housewives having crushes on Greg or Jeff, while not one to have a crush I do kind of miss their sing songy voices in my house.

When Ethan was a toddler he could not get enough of the Wiggles. We personally own, a Wiggles Guitar, a Wiggles Microphone, a Wiggles video or two and MOST importantly the Wiggles Feathersword, great for tickling unsuspecting little boys! Earlier in the week Gabe dug out our Wiggles Guitar and was wiggling his "booty" to the music. He ever so sweetly asked if we could please, please, watch our Wiggles video in the car (he spends a fair amount of time in the car seat ferrying his brothers around). How could I resist those Paul Newman baby blues. For the last two days we have been watching this on repeat:



Oh and heavens forbid you don't sing, you must sing at the top of your lungs or you will incur the wrath of a three year old: "SING MOMMY". Today he was even a little put out that Joel was singing, hey you can't have it all kid!!

Wordless Wednesday

At Last.....

Drum Roll Please.......!!!!!! At last the pictures of our new room. First let me say how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our new room. Thank you Erika for giving us your time and your amazing talent. The only thing bad about having our bedroom redone is now the rest of my house looks so shabby, alas, I guess I will just now have to do other rooms! To think all of this started with me asking if I should paint me bed black!!

So here they are, my room BEFORE:

Our room AFTER:


BEFORE:

AFTER (I just noticed that the duvet got a little wonky on this side....oops):


Bedside Tables BEFORE:

AFTER (Greg took these pictures I guess he didn't notice the skirt was a little messed up):

Dresser BEFORE:


AFTER:

I still cannot believe how ugly my room was. It looked SO old lady. YUCK! In my defense I have had that stuff for almost seven years.

Now for what we did:

-First we painted our room, which actually made our old stuff look 1000x better but I wasn't stopping there (even though Greg had the nerve to suggest that).
-Erika actually advised us against painting the bed and helped us find fabulous bedding! Our sheets are Vera Wang from Kohl's. The coverlet is Target and the duvet is also from Kohl's both thanks to Erika. The bedskirt I made with fabric from Erika. The blueish green pillows and throw are from Target.
-We painted the dresser to match my beautiful desk and replaced all of the old hardware. Finding hardware was a royal pain, evidently hardware sizes have changed a lot in the last 50 years. We did finally find suitable hardware at Joe Ley's in Louisville. What an awesome place!
-The mirror above the dresser is the original mirror, painted a harmmered gold and hung sideways.
-The lamp is a Target/thrift store find, thanks to Erika. The shade is from Martha Stewart at Kmart.
-The little birdie on the dresser was $3.00 at Joe Ley's!!
-The hand for my jewelry is from ebay.
-The jewelry box is from ZGallery, what an incredible place.
-The bedside tables were made by my dad. The skirts were made by Erika's seamstress. The glass we had cut at a glass store here in town. They are so incredibly functional and I love them. Under the skirts are three shelves and they are full of all of our junk!
-The pictures above my bed are the old frames from before painted a hammered gold and the pictures are from IKEA.
-The curtains are Nate Burkus for Linen's and Things. The Roman Shade is from Target as is the curtain rod and rings.

I am so in love with this room. Isn't it beautiful. (Erika I know you mentioned taking pictures in natural light, but we don't have a lot of that in our bedroom so we did the best we could) Erika I cannot thank you enough. There is a small token of our appreciation in the mail!! You rock and I know you will be super successful and a household name one day!

100th Day of School

Today is the 100th day of School in Fairfax County. Evidently sometime between the time I left elementary and the time Sam started this has become a very big deal. This year, to celebrate this day, we had to start a collection, which would ultimately contain 100 items. The directions were very clear that these items could not all be the same. Thanks to Nancy, my faithful teacher friend, we came up with the idea of collecting lids. Big lids, small lids, white lids, black lids, you get the picture. All told we ended up with a TON of lids. The next step of the project was to sort them in to groups, display them creatively and write a word problem to show how your groups equal 100. This is what we came up with (click on it to get the full effect):

Sam painted the whole thing, glued on most of the lids with the hot glue gun and my help, and typed out his word equation all by himself. We took it in today and his teacher was very impressed. She also told me that he is doing really well in school this year and plans on putting his name in to the gifted and talented teacher to be evaluated for next year. Yeah! She says his math skills are impressive and his reading has taken off.

Sam and I are very proud of his "project". I have to say I dreamed all last night of what Ethan and I can do for his project when he's in 1st grade, YIKES, these projects could get a little overwhelming!!

Forget Wordless Wednesday!!!!

Okay, so I can't believe I'm saying this, we just had a DRIVE BY SHOOTING!!  I am totally not kidding.

At about 8:45ish I was sitting at the computer RIGHT BY MY BEDROOM WINDOW and I heard loud popping.  I immediately yelled down to Greg who was in the kitchen.  I was hopeful it was just fireworks and stupid kids, but I thought I would call 911.  By the time we got back downstairs a ton of neighbors were outside and the MP's were out front.

The "word on the street" is an Oldsmobile drove by and a kid hung out the window and shot in the air.  Once I heard that I immediately ran back in to check on all my babies (who thankfully are sleeping peacefully).  A couple of people witnessed the shooting and one guy followed them in his car.  At some point the MP's heard the car was on the main highway outside of post so a couple of them went after him.  A neighbor reported that their is a group of kids in the neighborhood across from ours that are trying to start a gang and so maybe it's related to tonight's incident, NICE!!!  Currently we have CSI out front complete with flashing lights and crime scene tape.  

I am still in total shock and pray this is an isolated event.  YIKES!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Two years ago today....

I cannot believe it has been TWO years since Greg came home from Iraq. Him coming home was a whirl wind of activity. Greg had been shoved on one of the last planes out of Iraq and that plane was not scheduled to leave until mid February. I was so sad. Most if not all of my friends' husbands were home and it is sickening and frustrating to watch everyone happy with their newly returned husband and know yours is still sitting in Iraq.

Well miracle of miracles I got a phone call on the 23rd that the guys had made it out of Iraq, were headed to Kuwait and would be home the following evening. Even just thinking about it now makes my head light with excitement and my arms prickle with nervousness. If I could have kissed CPT Akeroyd (Karen how do you spell that) through the phone I would have (he's kind of royal pain, so that's saying a lot!). The next morning (the 24th) I farmed my kids off so I could go get beautiful. Several hours later (and much poorer) I was, colored, waxed, trimmed and coiffed, what an exciting morning.

That afternoon the boys and I got to the hanger WAY to early. I wanted to make sure we got the best seat in the house. We waited FOREVER. It makes me sick to my stomach reliving the anticipation of that day. I will always treasure those two homecomings, 2004 and 2006, in my heart. It is such a special time to welcome your soldier home! Check out the pics from our day:

Our sign! Shower curtains make wonderful banners!!!

Ethan and I in the hanger, waiting for Daddy.

The soldiers!! At this point I'm thinking "General Hardy if you don't quit yapping I'm going to unplug that microphone myself!!"

Back together at last. Look at Gabe, he's not sure what to think of Greg, I think it is so cute.

As wonderful as homecomings are, I hope to never go through one again!

Wordless Wednesday

Chew, Chew, Chew, Chew....is that the little engine that could?!

Okay, I totally do not want to take away from Gabe's birthday, so make sure and read the post below, but I had some very fun, very cute success with Joel eating some solid foods. First he ate a little bit of sweet potatoes and then chased that down with some good ol' fashioned Cherrios. Check out the video below, man is he a cutie!!

The Gabers is 3!!!!

Yesterday Gabe celebrated his third birthday. We had a great time with friends, pizza and a fun Nemo theme, picked by the birthday boy.

Growing up my Mom always told us the story of our birth on our birthday. Some years it was kind of annoying, but these days I enjoy hearing how "...your dad and the doctor wheeled me into the delivery room and had to turn on the lights, it was so strange Heather, I always imagined it a different way...". So in true Leppert tradition I had to tell Gabe about his birthday (the version I told him this year was slightly truncated, he is only three):

When I got pregnant with Gabe we weren't 100% sure that 3rd Brigade would be going back to Iraq. They had been home 2 months and we felt pretty comfortable in getting pregnant, fairly certain that Greg would be home at least for the birth. By July we knew they were definitely going back. By August I had convinced myself that giving birth with out Greg would not be that big of a deal. I knew tons of other Mom's who had done it and if you've ever heard my husband in the delivery room you know he sounds a lot like a drill sergeant. (Baby, you were much better with Joel!!)

In December a friend of Greg's was killed on patrol in Iraq and as a couple we went to his memorial. There I was eight months pregnant watching a wife holding the hands of her two older children and carrying her six month old baby that her husband had never met. That was when I knew that Greg had to see Gabe be born, no matter what!

If you know me I am a very persistent person. In most cases I get what I want, and if I can't talk someone into something usually Greg can. At the time I was seeing a newbie midwife for my prenatal care. I had spoken to her several times on the phone about stripping my membranes at 37 weeks (which they did for Ethan), which would give us 11 days home with Greg before he left again for Iraq. She was adamant that she simply could not do this, the earliest it could be done was 39 weeks, which was after Greg deployed. I still vividly remember getting off the phone and just sitting on my stairs and bawling my eyes out. A couple of days later I had an appointment with the same midwife and she had had a change of heart. She agreed to strip my membranes at 36 weeks 6 days as long as I kept my mouth shut about it (I'm not mentioning her name now and she no longer works at Riley, so I figure we are safe.)

Greg and I went in to the hospital that night, I was supposed to say I was having contractions and I needed to be checked by my midwife, unfortunately, my midwife was no where to be found and the nurses on Labor and Delivery were on to me. I can remember laying in the triage room and crying and praying that they would find her, the stress in that room that day was intense. Finally the midwife showed up and stripped my membranes at around 5:30.

My parents and in laws were in town we decided to go get dinner. If you know anything about Junction City, KS there aren't a whole lot of sit down restaurants. We drove to one that was packed and then decided to go to Cracker Barrel. When we got to Cracker Barrel the contractions started and were fairly close. There was no way we were going to have time to wait for a table but I was bound and determined to get food before I had Gabe (at Riley, if you have a baby after the cafeteria is closed, your only option is peanut butter crackers or a Healthy Choice meal, how insulting!). I can still remember going through the drive through at KFC and trying to order threw contractions. I nearly through the mashed potatoes at Greg when he was irritated that I had forgotten the Chicken strips!

At about 8:00pm I finally decided that we should head back to the hospital. Once there they admitted me and got me all settled. I remember the nurse saying, "settle in honey, you aren't having this baby until the morning", boy was she surprised.

I decided to have Gabe all natural. I had had a terrible spinal headache with Ethan that had me in my bed for 10 days straight. With Greg leaving I knew I couldn't risk that, so it was no drugs for me. After all the craziness of being admitted I had stopped contracting, so Dr. Ochoa wanted to put me on pitocin. I had the wise idea of no pitocin, just break my water Doc, I think everything will happen from there. OH MY HEAVENS did things ever happen. I went from 5cm to delivered in one hour. I have never felt such intense pain and I'm fairly certain I've never yelled that loud in my entire life. Dr. Ochoa didn't even make it back in the room from his break, Gabe was delivered by a resident and a nurse (by that point I would have been just fine with my Mom and Greg delivering him, I just wanted him out!). Gabe was such a cute little baby. He had a dimple in his cheeks from day one! He was 6lbs 10oz and (I think) 19 1/2 inches. He's such a sweet boy. Check out these pics from his party yesterday! (I gave Gabe the two minute version of this yesterday, he listened patiently and looked at me quizzically and finally asked "Mommy was I crying in your tummy?", I thought it was cute!)

Opening transformers and a book from the Taylors!

A cool "Cars" pillow book from the Kules.

Gabe's new favorite toy Automoblox from Mommy, Daddy, Sam, Ethan and Joel.

More Automoblox from Gigi and Papa.

His very own computer like his brothers from Granny and Grandpa.

Mommy's version of a tropical fish cake. In case you are wondering
those scales are 1200 Necco Candy Buttons!!! Pretty cute huh?!

Gabe seeing the cake for the first time. He just had to touch it. I don't blame him, it was very tactile!

Blowing out the candles.

Enjoying some cake!

Extreme Toy Room Makeover

Okay, I know I have been saying I am going to post pictures of our new bedroom, but it's not quite ready, these things take time!! All I have left to do is get glass cut for our bedside tables so stay tuned!

In other decorating news we have been diligently working on our toy room. That stupid room actually brought me to tears this week, silly I know, but I couldn't handle the chaos any longer. Greg and I spent all day cleaning, organizing and throwing things out. Here are some pics of the finished results. I'm very proud!

I have always loved this IKEA piece but it was hard for the kids to keep organized. Now with our picture labels it should be a lot easier. Sam loves the new system. I hope it works!

The table area, complete with calender and alphabet chart.

The curtains from my house in KS work well in the toy room. I like them because they were cheap panels that I hot glued fabric on too. I think the plaid adds a kind of whimsy to the room. I stole the curtain rod/art display from another friend. I think it's a great way to show off the kids art work. I think I need another one though to make it look complete.

A close up of our labels, cute huh?!

So what do you guys think?