Transformation of Landon's Room

While getting ready to decorate the nursery for baby#3, we decided that Landon's room needed a bit of updating in order to transform it into a "big boy's room."

This was the room before...not too bad but pretty bland and definitely too much "white" going on...

I picked out the sports bedding online and then we picked paint and a border to match. We spent an entire Saturday getting the paint just right and then a few days later we added the matching border...

I really, really LOVE how it turned out though. Landon loves sleeping in his new sports room and feels like such a big boy on his new twin bed!

Besides a few finishing details, his room is now done! Now on to the nursery!!

Home Transformations #1

While we were in Texas, we hired some painters to paint our home. Jason and I are not scared of paint and we actually quite enjoy doing it ourselves, but the two-story foyer and living room were giving me the heebie-jeebies so we decided to pay someone to do it for us. And let me tell you, we couldn't be happier with the results.

Here are some "before" shots of our living room area...definitely in need to some color!!

Finding the right paint color was a a bit of a challenge. We had to be careful with finding something that would go well with our wood floors. The tan/beige colors we were initially thinking did not look good AT ALL with them, so instead we chose a soft green color with a darker accent color on the wall with the fireplace and windows.

We have a few more things we would like to get to help pull the room together (curtains, rug, wall hangings, etc.) We will probably look at covering or replacing the couches too since they sort of clash with the wall color (Jason really wants to finish the basement and put them down there and I would be fine with that too...but that will probably have to wait until next year though!!)

We LOVE the color and how much nicer the rooms all look now that they're not that awful builder-white color. The light sage color is carried throughout the house in both the downstairs and upstairs hallways as well. I love how "warm" the house feels now. It's amazing what a little paint can do to completely transform a space!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

After a three-year hiatus, we finally returned for a visit to good ol' Texas in February. We decided that would be the perfect time to visit since we could escape the cold of a Maryland winter for a bit and enjoy the mild temperatures of Houston before it starts to heat up. We also planned it so that we could be there to celebrate two very special birthdays...Grandma Call's (February 16) and little Miss Abby's (February 20).

We spent much of Grandma's birthday picking out paint for their living room (Jason and his mom ended up getting all the painting done while we were there too!)

Of course no birthday would be complete without a little cake (pineapple-upside-down was Grandma's choice this year...)

We spent the next day in Galveston visiting the beach which the kids LOVED. Jason and I found it a bit sad that we have yet to visit any of the beaches around here yet (only about 90 minutes away), but we somehow made a beach visit by flying all the way down to Houston and then driving another two hours to hit up the Gulf of Mexico. We hope to remedy that this summer!

Friday night was spent roasting hotdogs and s'mores on the firepit in the backyard. The temperatures while we were there were perfect...mid 70s with little humidity. Abby and Landon loved being able to go outside again and exploring all the different parks around the area!

The BIG event happened on Sunday, February 20th when Abby turned five years old. I still haven't figured out how she got so big so fast, but to say that she was excited about this birthday would be a complete understatement. After church we opened up presents and she was thrilled with this new outfit from her new friend Kyla (Jason's cousin's daughter)...

But she especially loved her new art kit and "MobiGo" from mom and dad...

Actually all the kids were pretty fascinated with her "MobiGo!"

Aunt Jennifer made this cute cake but combining two of Abby's favorite characters...Scooby Doo and Elmo. Abby LOVED it!!

A group shot of all the party-goers!!

We also managed a quick trip over to Katy to visit our old home and neighborhood (where we lived for about 5 months after Jason graduated with his MBA) and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, the exact same restaurant we went to in order to celebrate Abby's first birthday exactly four years before.

We had a great time in Texas and we hope it won't be another three years before we're able to visit again.

(We forgot our camera at home on this trip so I had to steal these pictures from Alona's and Jennifer's blogs. Thanks ladies!!)

St. Patty's Day

Last Thursday was filled with "green" as we celebrated St. Patrick's Day in style. The day before we made a "Leprechaun Trap" in hopes that one of those little green men would leave us some treats (and maybe even a few tricks) the next day. Sure enough, Abby and Landon woke up to their trap filled with gold coins and a few tricks throughout the day...

Like some green milk in their cereal bowls...

And even some green water in the toilet too!

They were also amazed to discover "green" filling in their Oreo cookies at lunch.

We finished off the day with a proper "green" dinner of pancakes, eggs and breakfast.

Thank you little leprechauns for making our St. Patrick's Day quite a treat this year!!

Fire Deparment Visit

A few weeks ago for preschool, we got to take a tour of the local volunteer fire department and all of their trucks. The kids all really enjoyed taking turns in the driver's seat while they pretended to drive those huge trucks down the streets of Hagerstown...

The firemen were so nice to take time out of their day to show these little munchkins around for a bit. We learned a bit about fire safety too and watched a fun little video talking about the dangers of playing with hot things. Landon even got to come along on this little preschool outing and he was quite a fan!

Diaper Cake

I made this diaper cake for one of my friends who is due with a baby boy just one month before me. It was my first attempt at such a thing and I was surprised that something so simple could turn out so cute!!

Superhero

After playing quietly upstairs with a few friends who were at our house one night, Landon came down in this ensemble...

I don't think that I've ever seen a cuter baseball-cap-wearing-high heel sporting-underwear-outside-the-pants-superhero in all my life!!

Preggo Progress--24 Weeks

So I never got around to taking 22 week pictures, but here's the latest of the belly progress...

16 weeks...

20 weeks...

24 weeks

I must be finally starting to show now because a few more people at church have started to notice. Most people are pretty surprised when I tell them I'm almost 6 months along and amazingly I'm still able to keep up with most of my workouts (including running!! I've had to give up running at about 5 months with the other two pregnancies, but I'm still able to SLOWLY run these days which is great!) I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is flying by though...it's both exciting and a bit scary to say the least!

Sunday Best

We were finally able to find a little suit for Landon to wear to church and he just looks so dashing and handsome in it!! Abby's church outfit was a birthday gift from Grandma Julie and Grandpa Don and she LOVES it.

Our sweet little munchkins!!