The Boys' Rooms

I love my house as it is, but we are constantly doing something to make it a little better/more useful for us. I'd love to finally one day say…ahh, it's done. But in reality, I know that won't ever happen. We both are DIYers at heart. And besides, we save a whole lot of money by doing things ourselves. As much as we hate it sometimes while we are in the middle of something that feels like it will NEVER get done, in the long run, we are always happy with what we do. I use this blog to remember details about things that I normally would forget and I want to include some of the things we do in our "spare" time. 

When we moved in our house 6 years ago, we barely used any of it, but as our family grows we are starting to use every single inch and I love it! I could always use less house to clean and ours isn't anything fancy, but it's ours. Sometimes (A LOT OF TIMES) we consider selling it. To downsize. To move outside of town. To build something to fit us better. But, whatever the reason, we always have decided against it. This is our home. This is where all of our memories as a little family are. We know that a house doesn't make a home and that we would be happy with wherever we end up but for now, we will continue tweaking our little house and making it ours.

First I'll start with the boys' rooms. They are two of my favorite rooms and the two that are the closest to being "done". Bishop's (future both boys) room is huge. Like, way, way bigger than ours. I figure we just need to have a few more boys to fill it up ;)  It doesn't have a very big closet or it's own bathroom or honestly we probably would use it as ours because our room is half the size! We first had Leon's old bed from when he was little since Bishop decided not long after he was 2 (way before I was ready!) that he was done with the crib. The bed worked  for a while but literally was about to fall apart so we had  to look at other options. I knew I wanted the room to be a "shared space" eventually so I looked at built in bunk beds and twin beds. I adore the built in look but it didn't really make sense at the time so we went with twin beds. (We can always change anyway) After looking high and low for twin beds, I just couldn't find any that I liked that I could afford! So being the Pinterest queen that I am, I found some great DIY plans and Leon built them. He did a fantastic job! He also painted stripes on the wall. The blue pieces were mine when I was younger and we just painted them. I still have to have something over their beds but I'm not sure what. A big picture of them over each? Maybe a wall sconce? I got my bedding idea from Pinterest and I made the pillow. The other bed may not ever get a matching one, even when Ben moves in! I'm not trying to rush my baby, but I can't wait until they share this room together. Bishop can't wait either, he mentions it often. He's happy with sharing it with Abby for now though. 

Leon also made this bookshelf and I just love it. It really is a much better option for us than a regular bookshelf because you can see books so much better. It doesn't hold quite as many but we keep about half of them in another room and rotate them out. And, at Christmas we had  the entire shelf full of Christmas books! The kid loves to read!

The train table was my nephews that we cleaned up got a new train set for when he was 2 or 3. Sadly, he has never really been into trains much so it doesn't really get played with a lot. He had much rather build a train track himself than play with the one that Leon so tediously glued together for him.  Funny how kids are so different! I'm keeping it though, because it just may be Ben's favorite toy!

Maybe one day he will get some sort of window treatment, but with 7 windows in his room, I'd just assume not have any. In fact, the nursery is the only room in our house that even has curtains. I just prefer to not have them really. I'm sure it might look better but I love all of the light.  

I've moved all of the costumes to the closet since these were taken and I plan on doing some sort of storage for Legos and such in there. Leon also is eventually going to make a table like the one he made AK with some chairs and paint it white maybe. Oh, and it could use a rug or 2 but I don't even know what to get so I just haven't looked! So, we have a few things left to do but for the most part, it is done! 

And, here is the nursery. It probably is my favorite room (well, toss up with the kitchen). It is so cozy in there. I love rocking my babies and reading them stories in that chair. It's my happy spot. 

Leon did a super job on the board and batten. He followed a tutorial I found (Pinterest, of course) and made it happen exactly how I wanted it. I have been dying to paint some our rooms white but he isn't into it so this is the closest I may get. 

I found the dresser at a yard sale and Leon refinished the top and I painted it with chalk paint. I absolutely love how it turned out!

This is the same room 6 years ago…back when it was "JJ's room" not long after we moved in. 

I think it looks a LITTLE better now.

And, I don't have a picture of Bishop's room back then but it was a much bigger version of the same yellow with absolutely no furniture in it. Every single room in our house was YELLOW when we moved in! Well, take that back, 2 rooms were green. But, mostly yellow. I like yellow too, but it was a whole lot of it. 

Maybe next I can share our kitchen renovation!

Williams Beach Trip

So since it's like 20 degrees out and I'm in my flannel pj's with my little heater going on my feet, I'll go ahead and attempt getting "caught up" to our current crazy world. Since Christmas is over, I'm officially ready for summer. But considering it is a LONG way away, I'll just go through pictures and dream of warmer weather! 

We spent our Williams family vacation at Orange Beach this year. It was jam packed with fun! Despite almost an emergency room visit for certain 4 year old sticking a popcorn kernel in his ear, a sunken bubble at lulu's,  a birthday lunch turned 2 hour wait to get the tickets straight, a 4 mile hike to the beach, and near lightning strike during our professional photo session we still managed to have a great time! And besides, who else would I rather get struck by lightening with :)

Despite the crazy weather, we managed some really good group pictures. I didn't buy any of them so I don't have any to publish. I really prefer photographers who allow you to use the digital format to post but, whatever, there were some really good ones. So just use your imagination :)

The boys all loved the bubble things at Lulu's. I normally don't give in to things like this, but considering we were asking them to wait 2 hours to eat, might as well have a little fun! And, um, Jonah's sank. Like deflated while he was in it! Notice he is soaking wet?!! Yeah, only would happen to him. Thank goodness it didn't happen to Bishop or his OCDness would have gotten the best of him. Absolutely NO WAY would he walk around in wet clothes all night. 

They also got free popcorn while we waited. Apparently Bishop was sticking a kernel in and out of his ear and it got stuck. He kept telling me he couldn't hear but being the good mother I am, I just ignored him. Well, after he said it again I dug a little deeper and asked WHY he couldn't hear and he replied "Because I THINK I have popcorn in my ear" Um, how do you THINK you have popcorn in your ear?! Anyway, after multiple attempts and ideas including superglue, chewed gum, a straw, and finally a bobby pin, the popcorn kernel was retrieved! And, this was all while waiting to eat!

Bishop and Fischer get along so well! I hate they live so far!

I absolutely LOVE the first picture of Fischer. He looks so thrilled to be celebrating his birthday! 

One of my favorite things about the beach is hanging out with my boys in the morning on the balcony and drinking my coffee. They play so well together in the mornings and I can not get enough of it. This was before Ben could run wild, so I'm sure it wouldn't be quite as relaxing!

Sweet AK and her sweet curls

My goofy boy

He and Fischer chased that thing for an hour!

Bishop learned to do a flip. He's a little fish after this summer!

And, nothing on this planet can compare to being watching the beautiful sun go down over the water while holding this sweetness! God is great!

So, that's the short  version of our trip! I wish I had time for more but, um, that was 6 months ago and we have done lots since!

And, now, I miss the summer even more!

A New Year! 2015

It's a new year and a new opportunity to start being a better me and I hope to take full advantage of it. I've never been a huge fan of resolutions, but I do feel like it's a good opportunity to start fresh every year. There are the obvious things like eating better, going to bed earlier, reading my bible more, getting up earlier, exercising, getting organized, yada yada yada. And, while I do want/NEED to do all of those things, I also want to do LESS. I want to learn to say no to things that really don't matter, I want to stop trying to be supermom (which clearly I was never achieving anyway), and I wan't to simply have less "stuff". I'm slowly learning that less really is more. Cheers to a new year and a new start!

Also, I'm going to give this whole blogging thing another go. I've had lots of ideas in my head yet I never get around to any of it. It's mostly because I choose to spend more time with my boys so I can't regret it completely. Hopefully, though, I can manage to do a little bit more between the laundry, dishes, cooking and meal planning, diaper changing, cleaning, and raising 2 monkeys. If I had a "real" blog, I should probably call it "cold coffee".  Because almost every day, I fix my coffee, get the boys breakfast, clean up the kitchen, let the dog out, clean up the boys, find backpack, find shoes, get Bishop out of the door for school, realize I haven't taken a sip of coffee, microwave it, and find it hours (or days!) later still in the microwave. Cold. Almost every day.  I laugh to myself every time because I can't seem to get it together enough just to sit and drink my coffee. Or even get it together enough to remember I put it in the microwave. One day all too soon I'll get to sit back and drink my coffee while it's still hot, but for now I'll enjoy the chaos. And, I guess until more than 3 people read my blog, I'll just keep the name"The Hays Family" :)

Hope to see you all soon! And perhaps my next post won't be so all over the place!  And, here is a picture because, really, what good is a post without a picture?! I forgot to take a picture of my kids by the Christmas tree (go figure) in their Christmas best,  so here is a picture after church today in their January best :)