SURPRISE!

 

Baby #6 is coming in May!!!

Friday Funnies

Rose:
"I wanna be fat so I can be a sumo wrestler when I'm older."
Uh...good luck with that one :)

 My sister Madeline French braided their hair together.  It didn't last very long!

Ava:
Ava got glasses a couple days after school started and she was so cute about them.
When she was getting ready for mass one Sunday, she didn't want to wear certain
dresses because she didn't think they went with her glasses :)

Madeline:
At school they were looking for a gingerbread man who was hiding and she said,
"We looked in the boss of the school's room (aka the principal's office)."

Ella:
"Dad's allergic to One Direction."
Well, that's one way to put it :)

Maximus:
A more fitting name for him is "Maximus the Destroyer."  He is into EVERYTHING
and he is a sly little guy, but luckily his cute little face gets him off the hook :)

HAPPY Friday!

Laundry Room Makeover

When Paul and I first bought this house, I told him I loved everything about the layout...except the laundry room.  Why builders decide to make laundry rooms SO small, I will never understand.  I knew that it had to be one of the first rooms we redid simply for the fact that it was NOT functional for our family.  And we all know what that means...lots of dirty clothes that were not getting cleaned.

After spending some time on Pinterest, I knew exactly what I wanted.  I drew up a rough sketch, showed it to my handy dandy husband, and he made it all happen!

Here is the laundry room before we moved in:

Here is the laundry room now:

First, I knew I wanted to change the color of the walls.  The dark neutral beige was just not working for me.  I knew it needed to be light and inviting to help motivate me to actually DO the laundry.  We decided on a mint wall color and I couldn't be happier.

Next for functionality.  I like to have a laundry basket for each kid so I can put pajamas and undies (and now even clothes that need hung up) in there and the kids can take the basket up and put everything away.  Paul was able to build me shelves big enough to fit six full-sized laundry baskets!  I knew the kids couldn't reach the baskets at the top, so I designated one laundry basket per room.  Paul and I share one, Rose and Ava, Madeline and Ella, and Max has his own.  That leaves me two baskets.  One I use for clean laundry that needs to be folded (towels, sheets, etc.) and the other I use for clothes that are stained and need extra attention.  So far the system is working great!

We were able to reuse the cabinets from the previous owners which saved us a little bit of cash.  Paul hung them above the washer and dryer and they give me enough storage for all my laundry and cleaning supplies.  The baskets on top are my sock baskets: one for kid socks and one for adult socks.  I have a small space to hang clothes that can't go in the dryer and Paul put up a shelf right over the washer and dryer so that nothing can fall behind (so helpful!).

I added a few pictures of the kiddos and a Laundry room decal just to make it a little more fun.

And I still have hooks to hang up my purse and a space for my chore charts on a 

bulletin board behind the door.

It may seem silly to get so excited about a laundry room, but there is just something about personalizing a room just the way you want it so that its fun and functional that deserves a little excitement....even it is just for cleaning dirty clothes.

And there you have it!  Our new and improved laundry room! More room makeovers to come!

Olivia's Bachelorette Party

For Olivia's bachelorette party, we knew we needed to find a place on the water.  There are very few places she loves to be more than on the lake.  After many failed searches, Alexandria came through with her family friends place about an hour away on Princes Lake.  It was an adorable little cabin with the perfect amount of space for our crew.

Outside it had space for anything we wanted to do: a space in the sun to lay out, space in the shade to hold babies, a fire pit with benches around it, a hot tub, a dock with rafts and a paddle board, etc.

Inside it had a cute little sunroom with a pull-out futon, a cute little retro kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and a family room with a cabin feel.

We started our day with mimosas...why not???  We had a very special person to celebrate!

We spent the rest of the day lounging in the sun and water, holding babies, eating delicious homemade food, playing games, chatting, laughing, and just having some good old girl time.

Bathing beauties

Babies!!!

Awesome lounging raft that fit tons of people!

Paddleboarding

Amanda, the fire whisperer

S'mores!

Pretty ladies...off to lunch at Abuelos

The bride to be and me

Lunching ladies

Sisters

And then beauty prep time...getting our nails done.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect, which was a huge blessing considering all the rain we've had!  It was a wonderful time with wonderful ladies!