Toy room

I tackled a big "little" project this past week or so.  I made the girls a toy room.  I was really trying to decide where to put it and our office is where I decided.  We have a basement but we are not really down there much so I wasn't sure it would get used and our office is really just a storage room (lets be honest).  I also know the girls are a just a bit young, but our living room was getting takin over with toys and our living room isn't very big to begin with.  I also figure the girls will only get more and BIGGER toys that don't need to be in our living room.

 

 

 

The office before..

Here is the desk that was just a really big storage unit.  We NEVER sat at the desk, even when Joey was getting his masters.  The desk is gone.  I decided we didn't need a desk.  And our changing table we put in there so we didn't have to go upstairs everytime to change a diaper.  That right there is what we used the office for, a diaper changing room.  :)  And I am glad we had it.

Please note the wall paper border.  That was a pain to take off!!  Thank goodness it was just a border and not the whole wall.

And after..

Yes, the changing table is staying at the moment, but hopefully not too much longer! ;)

I'm out of room with the changing table in there, but again, it's temporary.

The kids table and shelving unit.  The shelving unit will eventually be moved where the changing table is.

And my personal favorite, the magnet wall!  That blue wall is magnetic!!!!  It's a paint/primer you put on and then put the color paint you want over it!  It's awesome!

Enjoying coloring at the kids table....

and on the stool...

 

I would also like to say that I did this on a small budget.  I used left over paint we had and the stools are from the basement.  I figure those will be something they can climb/sit on and offer any adults a place to sit.  Those covers come off and can be washed which is AWESOME!!!  Really the only money I have in the toy room is the magnetic paint, the shelving unit and that rug.  I am pretty stoked about it.  Although, I had put quite a bit of time into it, but worth it. 

 

I think this will be good and hope the girls like it.  I am not naïve enough to think the toys will stay in there, but it will be nice to have a place to put them away! 

 

And a few more changes/re-arrangements to come...

Just a swinging

We have been playing outside a lot this summer and Josie has gotten a bit faster at running as well.  As she is running I happened to notice that she is swinging her left arm away.  :-)  It is ridiculously cute and I had to catch some videos of it!  Here is Josie running and just a swinging (her arm).

 

 



 

 

 

And I can't leave Ella out.  She took off with her walker this day and up the road she went.  I really think she was walking to see her friends Grant and Micah Herschleb!   She walked quite far, I was surprised, but let her do it.

 

 

 

Mind games

This is what I feel like I am playing with my children when it time to eat.  I don't know if it is worse with twins, but they definitely play off each other.  Why won't you eat the banana today?  You love banana and asked for it yesterday.  It is a day to day battle it seems.  Ella wouldn't eat her grapes, but the minute I put them in the snack cup, she eats them up. 

I usually try to feed them their veggies first and then anything else after they eat their veggies.  Josie gets done first and is screaming for more food.  Ella is playing with her veggies and eating a bite every 2 minutes.  If I give Josie the rest of food, Ella stops eating veggies and cries because she wants what Josie has.  If I wait for Ella to get done, Josie screams the whole time. 

 

Sometimes they don't eat any veggies.  Here is Ella not wanting to eat her peas so I try to mix it in with her manwich and she pick around them.

 

 

 

They do not want to be fed either, so anything like yogurt or oatmeal is a HUGE mess to clean.  And when are they going to stop throwing their cup on the floor?  I just can't take it anymore!  I swear they know it bothers too.  Sometimes it gets so frustrating I have to leave the room. The food throwing on the floor, the not eating things they normally do, won't eat in the high chair but eat the exact same thing on dads lap, the little quirks about you two and the HUGE mess on the floor, make me feel like I am playing mind games with toddlers.  No worries, it's only breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.....

 

 

Creativity

Me and creativity DO NOT go in the same sentence.  But I just bought some fun sensory arts and crafts things, the typical kids things like finger paint and play dough!  I am hoping their inner 18mo creativity comes out with these, or at least kills some time for mom!   

Finger painting didn't kill too much time. Ella was more of a dainty one finger painter and Josie was an all hand, I want more paint kinda painter.

As I'm typing this I realize I shoulda had wine, like the paint and wine you can sign up for, except it's the stay at home mom version!  Next time....

I did get their hand prints which wasn't planned at all. I'll put them in their baby books I guess. 

Play dough was another activity we did. They played with the dough for a while. And I didn't have to fix lunch after since they ate a lot of it! Jk!  

Just a few of the regular ole kid actives we have done here. Exciting for them, but nobody else! Woo.  Before I know it I'll be back to work and wishing I had more time to do these regular ole activities with them. 

The Classics

Joey was able to get tickets to the John Deere Classic in Moline thru work, so we off we went.  I have never been to a professional golf tournament before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I liked it!!  We had beautiful weather with sunshine and not too hot, as well as skybox tickets for some free food and drinks.  I liked that you could just walk around the course and do what you please while watching golf.  I don't normally enjoy watching golf, but it was pretty neat to see them drill the ball and just how accurate their shots are.  I wish I was half as good them.  

 

 



 

We did get to see Iowa boy, Zach Johnson golf.  Last hole and he is -8.

Joey and I both agreed it was pretty neat and we would like to go again. 

 

The "Herschleb/Shultz" classic was the following day.  It was our turn to do a themed couples golf outing at our local golf course and we came up with a summer pool party theme.  This is just straight fun golf.  Some of the things we did was for a mulligan you had to get a water balloon thrown on you.  "Use your noodle" was you got to use a pool noodle on one hole in any way you want.  We used it as a back board.  We had also arranged for the sprinklers to come on at random.  You were warned that you would get wet!

water balloons ready

playing thru the sprinklers

some people were driving their carts thru the sprinklers to get their partners soaked

I had fun and was soaking wet by the time we were done.  I hope that everyone else had a good time too!

 

 

 

John and Ashley engagement

My dear friend Ashley, is getting hitched!  Not only am I in the wedding, but she asked me if I would do their engagement photos!  I couldn't believe it; their wedding photographer includes an engagement session and she takes AMAZING photos.  I asked several times if she was sure she wanted me to do it and the answer was always YES!  John HATES getting his picture taken and I think this was a good way for him to not hate it so much because he would feel more comfortable with me doing them.  I hope they like them and hope it wasn't pure torture for John.  Here are few of my favorites....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!  We celebrated it over 2 days.  On Thursday our local library had a day of crafts, popcicle and a parade.  We went to it, but I did all the crafts like this hat that I couldn't get them to keep on.  They also had a necklace and bracelets and magnets.  After this we went to lunch with some friends all decked out in our red/white and blue.

 

 

Then on Friday the 4th, we went out our friends boat.  It was a beautiful day, not super hot, sun out and was very busy on the water.  The girls ended up taking a very late nap that day, which worked out because it made it so we could go to the fireworks.

 

 

                              Josie trying to fill some big shoes

 

 

We headed down to the fireworks that were supposed to start at dusk.  We had our popcorn snack, our blanket and most importantly all of us.  We tried to meet up with some friends to watch them together, but never hooked up, but we had very nice enjoyable family time waiting for the fireworks.  We waited and waited.  Ugh, dusk doesn't mean 1015 to me.  The girls made it, though, and they seemed to like them.  They watched intently and had a couple oo's and ahh's. 

enjoying some popcorn

 

Arghhhhh! popcorn (haha)

 

For some reason, Josie kept her figure in her nose almost the whole fireworks show.  She would pull it out to point and then replace it back in her nose.  Im not really sure why, HAHA!

 

 

 

 

And here is Miss Ella July 4th, 2013.

 

 

And this year.  Where did my cute little baby go!  What a difference a year makes....