Too Many Ideas!!

The playroom is painted and ready to decorate!

Here's a few pictures of the finished paint job....y'all, please don't look too closely, mmmk? I'm definitely NOT a professional painter!

The lamps are going soon, and I'm going to see if there's any way I can use those wooden boards to build something.

Up to no good? Never! (try not to notice that streak of gray paint on the molding, k thanks....hopefully I can get it off!!)


Here's the color scheme I'm thinking for the room. I've seen a few pictures on Pinterest of red and light aqua together and loved the way it looked! 

These are just a few of the fabrics I like, but I'll probably just go with 1 or 2, for some pillows, bench, etc. I don't want anything to clash, I just like the colors in these. The red in this fabric is slightly darker than I want to go, but I love the pattern. I LOVE those curtains, but I don't know if I'll go with them since they're from Ikea and not available online. My plan is to go with red and light aqua accents, with a few small touches of yellow.

These Expedit shelves are from Ikea and they ARE available online so I'll probably go with these for storage and such. I'm not sure if I want to go with a big one.....

A medium one.....

Or a small one to turn over for seating AND storage...or a combination of sizes. 

I found this picture on Pinterest of a nursery in the colors and thought it was so cute. I'd love to do a fun wall but I think I'll stick with the gray and do some fun pictures, art, etc.

Other things I want to incorporate in the room:
~ Sofa bed/day bed for guests
~ Chalkboard, either on wall or table
~ Reading spot
~ Storage bins to go in shelves for toys, books, etc.
~ Small TV
~ Little table (getting the one I used as a child from my grandparents)
~ Alphabet wall


Obviously, I want the room to be Hudson friendly. I want to make sure things are easily within his reach, that things are age-appropriate for him right now, and he's got places to play, sit and read, and for learning/writing when he's a little older. I also want it to be easy to convert into a guest room if we need it, so I plan to get a little sofa bed or day bed later for that. It will probably take a few months to get everything completed, and that's ok. It's just nice to have a room dedicated to Hudson now, even if it's not 100% decorated yet.

I hope y'all have a great weekend, and RTR!!!!! I may be scarce tomorrow. :-)

Whew!

Y'all, I'm just gonna be honest.....I'm tired! Exhausted, actually. I haven't been this tired in a long time, but it just seems like I can't catch up on my sleep for some reason. I have a child who sleeps about 11 hours/night so there's really no excuse for that. I will admit, I do stay up until at least 11pm most nights, but then I sleep until about 7am so one would think that's enough sleep. Evidently, chasing a toddler around all day and taking care of things around the house just drains me. I dunno. I thought maybe my body needed a day or two to recover from the yard work I did Sunday, but....that was like 4 days ago so........

Oh yeah, and I DID paint the playroom today, so that could be a lot of the problem! ;-) 

All I have to say is thank goodness the room is smaller than our bedroom. There is no way I could've done a room that size by myself. I started the playroom at around 9 this morning, and was done with 3 of the 4 walls just a little after noon. I barely had enough paint to finish the 3rd wall, but was able to make it stretch. My sweet hubby stopped by Lowe's and got me a quart of paint so I could finish it up tonight. I am SO glad to have that project done! Now, the fun part....the decorating and pulling it all together. I can't wait!

Hudson was such a sweet boy while I was painting (for the most part, aside from the whole dropping my iPhone in the can of paint thing later in the day...luckily the can was basically empty and my cover was on my phone so some minimal cleanup was required) and entertained himself in the pack 'n play while I was working hard.

Thankfully, he only had to sit in there while I did the first wall, then I was able to get 2 others done while he was napping! I painted like a mad woman, I tell ya!! I caught him reading his book about "Bry Bry"...it's a book about Boxers we bought when we got Bryant years ago. It was so sweet. 

Speaking of "Bry Bry"...this is how our day ended.....

Typical. This child loves his Bry Bry. 

And I'd like to take a moment to say HAPPY RETIREMENT to my sweet dad!! He retired after 37 years at Goodyear and I am so proud of him! He is the hardest working person I know and I can't think of anyone who is more deserving than him. He has spent so much of his life providing for our family, working countless hours of overtime when it was needed, doing some tough physical labor day after day after day. I am so proud for him that he's finally able to start this new chapter in his life as a retired man who can do what HE wants, when HE wants, and how HE wants. Time to live life and love every minute of it! 

Congratulations on such an accomplishment and enjoy every minute of your retirement!!! I love you so much!!

How 'bout that college football?!?!?!!? It kicked off tonight! WOOOHOOOOO!!!! I've been waiting for this for like 8 months and I cannot wait for Saturday!!
RTR, baby!!

Wordless Wednesday

Tomorrow, we I paint!!

Perspective

Today was a day!! One of those days when nothing seems to go right and you just want to crawl back in bed. It wasn't quite a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day", but it was still "no good". It started off great! Hudson slept until almost 8am, which doesn't happen all that often, so it was a very nice way to start the day. It declined quickly from there, and not just because of Hudson, but because of me too. I've been dealing with a headache for 3 days now, have been just exhausted the past couple of days (I blame it on that darn yard work I did Sunday...shows nothing good comes of that! HA!), have mosquito bites on top of my mosquito bites (again...thanks, yard work!), and have been frantically trying to get things ready for Salvation Army to pick up tomorrow. Put that with a whiny, clingy toddler who didn't want to cooperate at mealtimes, do anything independently whatsoever, or take his afternoon nap, and that's definitely a recipe for a "no good" day. I tried so hard not to get frustrated and show that frustration to Hudson, but I'm afraid I may have failed. And what a horrible feeling that is....feeling like you've failed your child. I hate that feeling. You wish you can have a do-over on days like today, but there are no do-overs. That's why we have to always be mindful and do our best as parents every day. My friend, Tamara, shared this link on Facebook. It is exactly what I needed today, and it really put things in perspective for me. Sometimes we just need to step back, take a break, and start fresh. Sometimes we need things put into perspective for us to help open our eyes, and our hearts. I really like her list of things to do when she's frustrated. I find it kinda funny that I did one of them before even reading it...made some coffee! :) I also really like these two......

~ Practice giving thanks....the dirty diaper means a healthy child, the laundry pile means loved ones near, the dishes in the sink mean food enough for us

~ Remember the years of dreaming of having children....realize I am living my dream right now

This post really made me think about what's important. It's not that everything always goes perfectly, or just the way I plan. It's that my child and my family are happy, healthy, and cared for. As frustrated as I may get from time to time, because let's face it, we're all human and life's not perfect, I have to remind myself that this is the life I love, and I wouldn't trade it, or the people in it, for anything in the whole world. I am blessed beyond measure and so thankful for the beautiful little boy who calls me Mama, and the sweet, hard-working husband with whom I get to share this journey. It's all about perspective. 

And at the end of the day, moments like this far outweigh the frustrating ones.

A happy baby splashing in his bath, with a super awesome hairdo, might I add! ;-)

And even though today was trying and long, I am going to bed feeling blessed and thankful.
Now, where's the Tylenol PM? :)

Let The Playroom Transformation Commence

We have taken the first steps to getting the playroom under way. Those steps include moving the furniture against the walls to make room for all of Hudson's toys for now. :)

Seriously, though, we have Salvation Army coming on Wednesday to pick up the furniture and some other items we are donating. Once that happens, I will be painting the walls and starting for real! I'm hoping they come early Wednesday so I can get started right after they leave! There's not near as much wall space to be painted than there was in our bedroom so maybe if I have things taped up and ready, in one good nap's time I can be done! One can dream, right? :-) I hate to get rid of the furniture, because it did belong to my grandparents but we just don't need it and other family members don't want to take it so I'm glad it's able to go to someone who needs it more than we do. It's old and has definitely seen better days(notice wood missing on the footboard), but it's still in usable condition. I want to try to repurpose either that chest of drawers or the dresser (in the garage) as a storage compartment for bins of toys, etc. (take drawers out and just slide bins in to store things.) We'll see if that can work or not. I might just end up getting a shelving unit from Target or something. I don't want to overcommit to too many projects. ;-)

I've decided on a color scheme and a few definite elements of the room, and I'll share those another day, maybe tomorrow. I'm excited to get the room emptied, painted, and under way! It's already nice having my living room back (relatively) and all of Hudson's toys in their own space. It'll be even nicer when it's a cute, organized, fun space for him to play and learn!!

I realized I never shared a picture of our master bedroom in just natural light, so you've never really been able to tell what the wall color looks like for reals. 

Not that I think anybody really cares, but ya know......

I hope y'all had a great Monday. 

Sunday Funday

Hudson's grandparents got him a little play set a while back and we finally put it together today. We started it a while ago, then couldn't get it finished so just put it off. We finally got it done and Hudson was eager to test it out.

 He absolutely loved the swing! (excuse the dirty shirt....mac & cheese for dinner makes for a messy Hudson.)

 I seriously think he'd sit there all day......hmmm, there's an idea..........I kid!

Just a-swingin'. Yes, he's holding an iPhone. He thinks it's his.  

This was the point when he noticed birds flying around. Obsessed! 

"There comes another bird!"

 And he follows it.....

 And follows it......

 Kid loves him some birds!

Sweetness. 

Big sister Marley enjoying her people being outside with her. 

Bryant loves when we're outside. He goes crazy! 

Checking things out. 

 Time to test out the slide.

 Loves it!

He had a blast on his new play set! Such a big boy!

I see a lot of fun afternoons like this one in our future! :-)

Roasted Red Potatoes

I love potatoes. It's a vice, really. Carbs, starches. Yum! I could eat some kind of potato with every meal, but I don't. I try not to have potatoes more than a couple times a week. Yesterday, I made my Crock-Pot Ribs for dinner, along with some corn on the cob. (*Side-note: Those frozen cobs you can pop in the microwave are so convenient!*) I wanted another side to go along with it, and I had some red potatoes leftover in the pantry. I decided roasted potatoes it would be! They were quick, easy, and very tasty. Just what the dinner needed. 

These are so easy, it's ridiculous.

I just washed the potatoes real quick, diced them up into bite-size pieces and tossed them in a little olive oil, garlic salt, parsley, and a little s&p.(I didn't measure a thing, I just know how much of certain flavors I prefer and shook until I was satisfied.) Bake them at 425 for 30 minutes, and...perfection! They were crispy on the outside, but perfectly tender on the inside, with tons of flavor. They would be really good with a little parmesan sprinkled on top, but I didn't think that'd go too well with BBQ ribs. ;-) You could flavor these potatoes however you wanted to. Rosemary, parmesan, paprika, garlic, ranch seasoning, cheddar and bacon, etc. Whatever your little heart desires! Hudson loved them so much and I was afraid between him and me, there wouldn't be any left for Joseph. We did manage to leave him some, I promise. ;) I'll be making these babies on those nights when I need a quick, easy, and relatively healthy side dish. I hope you get a chance to try them, however you decide to flavor them up!

New Domain!

I decided to break down and get my own domain for my blog! I've been wanting to do it for a while now, and I've never really liked my Blogspot address anyway. 

So, the new address for the blog is laurenslatestblog.com. It could be shorter, but it's still easier to me than laurenlatest.blogspot.com. Laurenslatest.blogspot.com was taken when I started the blog so I just omitted the "S" and I've never liked it. 

Anyway, not an important or interesting post, but just wanted to let everyone know about the new domain and address you can start typing in! :-)

I thought I'd leave you with a few pictures from the last few days.

We are ready for college football around here! Even Hudson is ready to start playing. He looks like he's ready to make a 70 yard return for a touchdown! Has his mouthguard and everything, put him in, coach!! ;-)

He's got the Heisman pose down..ish! Maybe he'll win one for Bama someday.  

Bath/bedtime is silly around here. We always practice the parts of the body with Hudson.....head, nose, ears, eyes, mouth, belly, not ALL the parts yet. ;-) He loves to "honk" his nose and our noses now. It's a pretty new thing, but he does it every night when we're getting his PJs on and stuff. Joseph and I say honk when he squeezes our nose and his. He and Daddy were playing in this pic and Hudson was honking his own nose. Did I say the word "honk" enough? I don't feel like I did. ;-)

I hope you guys have a great weekend. I plan to have the wall collage in the bedroom done, as well as more done on the wall with the chalkboard in the kitchen, by the end of the weekend. It's also grocery store weekend, so I'm going to be a busy bee!