New Room!!!

Here is the progression of this bedroom through the years. When we first moved in we, of course, didn't have any children. In preparation for having this as a kids' room, I left it empty and didn't put anything in it except for a few plastic totes. I didn't want to have to clean it out once a baby came. So for nearly two years it was empty. Then in May of 2007 our first baby, Chelsea, arrived. We prepped her room with a crib and a place to put toys over on this side of the room. 

The pictures are actually cross stitched on fabric, which used to be sweatshirts, which I used to wear as a child. What a creative use for them, don't you think? My mother not only made the sweatshirts all those years ago, but she came up with the idea of framing them all on her own. She thinks she's not creative. Ha. Joke's on her, hehe.

 

Them on this side of the room we have the chest of drawers and changing table, complete with storage drawers as well. The picture frame on the wall was filled later, with pictures of, who else? Chelsea!

 By January of 2008 we added a rocking chair. The bouncer moved around the house, but usually it was in the living room. (Look at little Chelsea! She always was a cutie pie!)

 Before Sept of 2009, when this photo was taken, we moved Chelsea from the crib into a toddler bed. Why didn't we remove the crib? Well, I think that is obvious. Baby number 2, Brienna, would arrive in early October of that year. She occupied the couch for the first seven months of her life instead of the crib, but oh well. She HAD a crib and a bedroom, even if she didn't sleep there for the longest time.

And here we are in March of 2011. Chelsea has outgrown the toddler bed. She's been asking for a bigger bed for a few months already. Now we have finally gotten it for her! The crib has finally been removed, as well as the other furniture. It is distributed around the house. (You'll notice I don't have picture of the rest of the house here, hehe.) We bought two twin beds, a night stand, a dresser and mirror, and a chest of drawers. Here is Chelsea's bed. 

Notice the extreme height of this setup. We didn't realize that if you get the footboard (which we did) there is only one setting--high. With both the mattress AND box spring, this is how high it was. Chelsea had no problems with it whatsoever, except it took a little effort for her to get up there. She loved it. LOVED it!

We took the box spring off and put just the mattress in and this is the new height. Chelsea liked it better this way, as do the rest of us. It is so much easier to get on the bed and I'm not afraid of her injuring herself if she should fall off. 

But anyway, here is the fancy shmancy night stand. We bought and painted the lamp, since there were no lamps even close to a matching color.

Here is the other side of the room where the old chest of drawers and changing table were. The toddler bed is now Brie's. But. She doesn't stay in it. At. All. So we might end up putting the crib BACK in the room for awhile till she gets a little better at 1) staying in the bed and 2) sleeping all night again. But for now, we are giving it a shot. (As I speak, she is asleep in the crib that is now set up downstairs because she cried and cried and came out and came out and wouldn't sleep in the bed. Sigh.)

I'm also a little sad that the mirror is cracked in the bottom right corner, but they are replacing it with no problems. There is also a paint scratch right in the middle on the top of the dresser. Darn. I'm not having it replaced just for that though. Mom filled it in with some white paint as best she could. It looks better. I'm not really worried about it.  I think it bothers her more than it bothers me, hehe.

White sheers to go along with the white furniture and white walls. I just painted the walls of this room in prep for this new furniture (and hopefully a MOVE soon). I would have gone with a light blue, but like I said, we are hoping to sell this place and buy a new house soon. So I went with white walls, despite all the other white in the room. I think it looks ok though. :)

Here is the cute valance that goes with the bedding set.

There is absolutely nowhere else to put this chest of drawers except for in the closet. The room is just not big enough to accommodate everything. But, we were aware of this when ordering the furniture. We got everything anyway, in anticipation of moving into a place with a bigger room, room enough for both beds to be set up as well as for the dresser, night stand, and chest of drawers.

Here is the step stool we got for Chelsea to get up on her big high bed. We painted it the same color as the lamp. Then we took out the box spring and she no longer needs it. But. Brie will still need to use it when she eventually gets hers set up. And who can't use a step stool when there are shorties in the house? hee hee!

Brie loves the big bed. Not to sleep on, or even to sit on for long periods of time, bu hey. She'll get there. Someday. She loves the stool, too.

Do you think she likes it? The camera caught Brie at a funny time. She was in the midst of copying Chelsea in putting her arms up/out. She is quite the copycat. Luckily she's starting to copy more word-type sounds as well. She says bubbo for bubble, which is pretty cute. She says it whenever she gets a bath now.

Check it out, Brie got AIR! I had to actually hide the stool after this because she kept trying to jump onto the bed from it. (copying Chelsea who was jumping onto the bed from the floor) She's not quite so graceful yet, as if I would describe Chelsea as "graceful" at this point. 

Here is just this evening. Chelsea invited me into her bed to read her bedtime story. I gladly obliged. Brie was happy to join us, though she didn't sit very still and wanted to hold the book and flip through the pages. 

Eventually she stopped wiggling so much and let others turn the pages, at the appropriate times. Ah, what a wonderful life. Really, does it get better than this? I know I get frazzled by my kids sometimes, especially when they are creepy (like Brie is when she's teething-now-again-STILL). But I can't imagine living without them. It seems like I have so much to do and so little time to do it. But without these little girls (and not forgetting my wonderful husband), I would have so much time and so little to do. 

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!