two years - mind blown

Today is my anniversary.  Two years.  I can't believe how fast it's flown.  I'm so thankful that I have found my person and have been lucky enough that I can spend the rest of my life with him.

It's been a bumpy road at times for the hubs and I and we have a long history full of suspense, mystery, sorrow and a happily ever after. So it's exactly the kind of story I like to tell. 

 

When we first met we were babies and in our 20's.  I was immediately smitten and he played it coy flirting shamelessly but never asking me out. We eventually found our way and dated for almost 2 years before i decided that I needed to see where my education could take me.  We broke up and parted ways never forgetting our love for each other and speaking on and off for 4 years.

Finally I came back to see him and neither of us could forget any longer the reasons why we decided to end things in the first place.  I left my job and moved back home and 8 months later we were engaged and then married 9 months after that! 

We got pregnant 2 weeks later and winded up with these adorable kids

I like to think that I'm one of the lucky ones.  Not just because I found someone but because I found the right someone.  The someone that challenges me and encourages me.  The one that loves me unconditionally and isn't afraid to tell me when I'm pushing a little too far.  I think what I love the most about our life is that we are able to find more reasons to love each other every day.  That we can be silly and serious, focused and mindless.  He knows me in and out - he can finish my thoughts before I can. 

He loves our kids.  Man that's sexy.  He loves to read them stories and hold their hands.  He teaches them things and encourages them. He cheers for them and he cries for them.  He is the best dad and husband a girl could ask for.

 So today I'm extra thankful because well it was the start of a beautiful life.

A Room for the Kiddies

I'm almost too embarrassed to show you the before because it's BAD...seems to be a running trend in the before category on this blog.  I feel like it's a little warranted though because I have twins so while it's probably not justified at all I'm totally going to play that card.

There is a LONG story that goes along with this room.  I'm going to tell you this in an effort to melt your hearts before I show you the pictures.  You see long before we found out we were having twins we decided that this room was going to be the nursery. I scoured the net looking for inspiration (gosh I think this was at the beginning of my Pinterest addiction) and found boat loads of beautiful grey nurseries with stripes as an accent wall.  So off I went, painting the most beautiful stripes on the wall only to pull of the tape the day we found out we were having TWO bundles of joys instead of one.  crap. this room definitely wouldn't hold two cribs. I was so sad because I truly did love the room - and now I had to come up with a different room for the girls - which ended up being a happy accident.

So what did I do with the room?  Well after a year and a half it became our junk room guest room.  Nope it was just a junk room!

This was what you saw when you opened the door - you can see my pretty stripes and an attempt at some decorating hiding behind the mass amounts of clothes and kids toys.

 

I promise, I'm not a hoarder - although you would never believe me with these photos - we just ran out of space and time and well I guess when you are doing renovations in one room all that stuff gets moved somewhere else.  And what better place than an empty room with a door that closes.

I even put up some shelves because I do honestly want to get this room together!  

Lucky for you and with the power of the internet I can quickly avert your eyes from this catastrophe to what looks like the beginning of a wonderful toy room!!

I'm only showing you half the room at the moment because the other side still has a few piles but I was so excited to share this small step with you guys!

We have a LOT of work left to do.  Here is the run down of what I'd like to accomplish before the summer is out.

Add some art to the wall above the tv. maybe something like this or this?  Or I could DIY something with the girls like this?  There are so many options!!


I need to get some better storage options for toys and books and movies.  I'm digging pretty much this entire room over at iheartorganizing but those benches are amazing!




I'd love to get a rug to cover up the carpet - it's not so bad but eventually we are running hard wood through the upstairs so no point replacing the carpet just to replace it again later.


I need to get some new curtains - I love the pattern but I hate that they don't go down to the floor. Maybe I can add some fabric to the top and bottom to make them longer and save some moolah?

That's pretty much the short list of what we want to do in this space.  I already feel a million times lighter now that the girls have a dedicated place to play and I don't have to worry about picking up their toys every night - I can just close the door! 

So far the girls love it - it took them a bit to get used to, I don't think they liked us moving things around so much, but once they caught on to what was happening they were happy to help drag their toys up the stairs and find perfect spot for every. single. one. 

Anyone else find a new purpose for an old space that just wasn't working?

I had a post all ready to go yesterday and for some reason blogger is acting up and I can't get it to edit properly.  I"m going to try and figure this out over the weekend!  Hopefully we can get back to some regular posting soon

thanks for checking in!

rebeckster

Sisters

I was flipping through some photos tonight while my kids were in the yard playing with grandma and it got me thinking about how FAST kids grow up. 

I know people say this all the time but its true!! Parenting time is completely different from normal people time. Sometimes it zips by without warning and sometimes it's slow as molasses   

 It takes me forever to go anywhere now where before I could just fly out the door in the morning. Sometimes I miss that. But then I look at my girls and think this is so worth it. 

I can vaguely remember being able to eat an entire meal. Hot meal. Sometimes I miss that too. 

Sleep, I don't even know what a full nights sleep is. I REALLY miss that. 

But then I look at my girls and I know that it is worth it. Because my life has purpose and meaning. They are my greatest and biggest accomplishment. And so the food on the floor is worth it and the pinching and hitting are worth it because at the end of the day what I remember the most (no matter how hard the day has been) is that feeling of my baby girls' arms around my neck and their kisses i my checks. When I see them trying to communicate and their little brains working overtime. 

I made that. Well hubs helped. But we made two of the most perfect little girls. I couldn't be happier. 

But they are getting big fast. I can almost see them becoming teenagers before my eyes. I'm in for trouble that's for sure. So I keep telling them to slow down because I need my baby girls to stay cuddly and cute for as long as possible. 

A Quick Update

I've had a VERY busy couple of days between work and the kids so I'm stopping in quickly to show up little update to the nursery!

I will do a post soon on where the girls sleep spend absolutely NO time but for now I'll leave you with this cuteness:

We got super lucky because we found the artwork at Winners.  Normally I get a lot of Emma and SophiAs which doesn't work so well for us. But this time Winners paid off and we finally got some MUCH needed artwork for the nursery!

Happy Tuesday

I dream of houses pt.1

I spent the whole weekend trying to figure out what my next post would be about and with so many ideas rattling around in my head it’s so hard to pick just one.  So I thought what better way to give you guys a glimpse into what hopefully will be happening around here then to start showing you where my head is in terms of projects!

I started making lists of all the things I want to do to our place - ahh I love lists! - big and small, and you know what? There is way too much for one post.  So I’m going to break this up into manageable bites – that way I also might not feel completely overwhelmed with everything I want to do!  I’m warning you this could be a long post because I have a LOT of ideas (cue me jumping up and down in excitement)

Let’s start with the before…..its bad guys like REALLY bad.

This is how our house has pretty much sat for a few years – I warned you. 

 I couldn’t take it anymore it made me sad every time I drove up to my house so last summer I convinced the hubs to build a deck.  I will do a detailed post another time to best explain how we put it all together because man it was a LOT of work!  We also did some important preventative modifications which included new shingles on the roof and new soffit, facia and eavestrough.  These are the things that hubs said we had to do and he was right – I was more excited to get rid of all the brown!  Great for some people but definitely not our jam.

So that’s what we have done.  Now on to what I we WANT to do. 

**Front of the House** 10% done

• Build up gardens - now that our deck is in place the garden is looking pretty dinky.  Not sure how high we want to raise the beds but we now they  need a little lift.  Big question is do we use wood  like this or stone like this?  Hubs really wants stone because he wants to bring more grey tones to the front of the house but I love the organic feel of wood.
• finish railings on porch This is more of an aesthetic than a need.  Since our deck construction is below standard size we don't need to have a railing but with the kiddos running around it's definitely a must. 
  
  Currently our railings look like this so we need to finish those up and put hand railings down the steps

• stain porch
• we are trying to figure out what to do in that blank space on the front of the roof.  Maybe cedar shingles like this?
• we also have to finish in under the roof on the deck. I'm super excited about this project!
• house numbers  - I love this diy from 4 men 1 lady
• Add pathway to driveway - right now it's just grass and it gets muddy and gross so we definitely need something.  Maybe pavers?
  
  

**Side of the House** 0% done

• Re-side the back half of house - we already have the siding picked out we just have to purchase it.  I can tell you that we are going grey.  I know you can't see it in this photo but right now it's an aging yellowy colour and I'm sooo over it!
• rip side deck off and replace with a pergola or car port
• grade land on side of house so that we can get more function out of it
  
  

**Back of House**  0% done

• extend backyard - our property has a death drop down to a creek and so we don't have a lot of backyard.  we think we can add fill and extend it out closer to the water and then add a retaining wall.  I've also been toying around with the idea of building a deck that is supported on some kind of stilt system but I haven't told that to the hubs yet :)
• create outdoor living space in back
• build proper shed for tools
• play space for kids
  
  so there you have it!  Things are always changing and projects are being added or taken away depending on time and available funds but I'm hoping that in the next few months of summer we can at least get SOME of these things off our list.  I'm rooting for the pergola/car port  and finishing off the deck and I can't wait to share every moment of it!

My Little Big Family

I'm putting together a bunch of posts on all the things I would LOVE to do around the house both inside and out - and boy are they getting me excited to sink my teeth in each and every project.  But as you may or may not know my life is super hectic with my full time career and the hubs and me chasing the girls around....

But wait, some of you may not know who the hubs and the girls are!!  So let me take a minute to tell you all about this little big family I call mine.

First up:

The Hubs AKA Haze or Hazer

This man is my rock.  He challenges me and encourages me and drives me up and down the wall we never ever fight……you know I’m lying right!  We are about to celebrate our SECOND anniversary in a couple of weeks and I find myself falling more and more in love with his unique rhythm every day.  On top of all those reasons, he is a big part of this blog behind the scenes.  I wouldn’t be able to do even a fraction of these projects without him!  


The Girlies AKA Emma/Emster and Sophie/Sophster

These girls are my LIFE.  They are 14 months old and while life has been more than challenging at times managing twins I honestly wouldn’t change anything – except maybe the fact that they STILL don’t sleep through the night.  They make me laugh and teach me new things about myself every day.  They have inspired me to be more patient and selfless.  I have to figure out ways to be more organized and efficient and that’s always a challenge no matter how many kids you have.

I couldn’t be happier to be a part of this wonderful family and I think that’s why it’s so important for me to make the place we live in so special and reflective of who we are.  I’ve spent so long trying to have my house look a certain way that I completely forgot to put a bit of me in it.  Now our house is at a place where we can start fresh.  Every one of our rooms (except for the nursery) will be painted and tweaked in some way to make the whole thing very us. 

So that is my mission to spend the next however many years making this place the best version of us it can be and have a little fun along the way as well.  Hopefully you will stick around and see how it all turns out!