Room Swap

We decided it was time to give up our bedroom to the boys. They needed more space to play, and wrestle, and have long conversations with each other.

So we switched.

We are now in their old room and they are in ours. Our room is smaller, but surprisingly I love it so much more than our other room. We repainted their room because it was baby blue, had a giant brown tree on the wall, and didn't match our comforter. :) (We used the paint color Latte from Sherwin Willams). Also on a side note, never paint a brown tree on a wall. It was such a pain to cover. We left our old room/their new room the same color because it was blue and just worked perfectly. I also wasn't about to paint two whole rooms in two days. No thank you!

Piles of all the boys' belongings in the living room. 

I had no idea how much stuff they had!

I promised the husband that we could have a cabiny room if he let me decorate the rest of the house however I choose. I actually really like our cabin room. We already had the furniture, bedspread, and everything else when we moved over to our new room. The only thing new I bought was curtains. I love them. They are from World Market (just the best store on the planet).

Since we moved into a smaller room. It feels so much more cozy. It's almost like we are actually sleeping in a cute little cabin :)

The best part about our new room is the closet. It isn't huge, but the way that it is configured we have so much more space. It's no longer claustrophobic. Also, my super handy husband was able to make custom shelves for it. He truly is amazing!

He used pine, so it smells like a forest every time I open the closet :)

The other side.

One full closet.

I made this necklace holder awhile ago and I finally had a place to hang it up. So happy about that.

The boys' new room pretty much just stayed the same, except they have a lot more space to spread toys all over the floor. I did however convince Brian to make book shelves from a picture I saw on Pinterest.

He built them and I stained them. I'm so happy with how they turned out. I'm so blessed to have a husband that is so willing to make any project I send his way. Yep, I'm pretty spoiled. :)

Shelves with books. Looks like we already have an avid reader. 

Or maybe, he is just trying to figure out how he can climb up the wall?

How to Catch a Llama

Meet Mike, our beloved Llama...

or should I say our beloved, wild llama?

His wool is very long and he is way overdue for a haircut (shearing). The summer is hot and we needed to help a llama out. In order to shear him though, we had to catch him first. Now, Mike is a super nice llama. He has never spit at us or been mean to us, but he definitely likes his space. He doesn't want us to get too close. He doesn't want us to pet him. He definitely doesn't want us to catch him. 

I've never had to catch a llama before. Well, let me tell you, it was the most exhilarating and terrifying experience. After a long time of offering him buckets of food and trying to get him to follow us into the catch pen, he did. That's when it got tricky. It was just Mike and Brian and I all hanging out in a little pen. He was walking back and forth trying to find a way of escape, and I was just staring at his ginormous claws, praying that we would make it out alive. 

Brian started to pet him, until he could get him in the corner of the fence and held him down while I slipped the halter and lead over his head. Phew! We did it, and without even a scratch. It took a whole lot of patience. 

After we caught him, he followed us around like a puppy dog, so we took him for a little walk outside the animal pen. 

He even let us touch him.

The closest I have ever been to this guy.

We even let him eat out of the feed bin in the garage...spoiled!

Then came time for shearing...

Look at that huge pile of wool! Look how tiny Mike looks now. 

I can't believe I ever thought he was intimidating. 

4th of July Fun

We had plans to go to a big 4th party, but the boys got sick a couple days before, and I didn't want them passing on any sick germs to the other kids. Instead we had a nice relaxing evening in Marion, Kansas with Brian's mom (aka Oma- German for Grandma). We decided to take the boys out for a little ride on the side by sides.

All ready to go!

Don't they look so big sitting up in their seats? They are growing up on me.

Oma and Eli on the loose!

I took pictures as we were cruising around:

Just us and the open road

We stumbled across picker's paradise. 

There were piles of antiques all over the place. 

This isn't even half of it all.

Me and my boy. He loved the ride. 

He loved it so much, he had his cute little feet crossed. :)

Down on the Farm

Since we just recently had a baby goat join the family, I wanted the boys to get to hold him. I decided it would be a good time to take them into the animal pen for the first time to meet all the animals. They have seen the animals and love them, but have only gotten to look at them through the fence.
I got out our little wagon and in we went. :)

The boys were beyond thrilled, so were the animals.

We took the baby goat for a ride in the wagon.

They were all about reaching over and petting all the big goats.

Bella, the pony, was in love with the boys. She followed them everywhere.

She was even giving out kisses.

Seeing the boys interact with the animals was the most adorable thing EVER!

On a side note... I planted some flowers a few weeks ago and they are just too pretty not to share. :)

If you live in the country, you have to plant something in cowboy boots. 

DIY: Bathroom Jar Storage

Aren't these cute?

These are super easy to make and lots of fun. All you need to do is start saving jars. :)

What you will need for this project:

-Jars (I used and jam jar and a pickle jar)

-Goo Gone (or something else if you have a better method for getting labels off jars)

-Paint

-Cute knobs

To get the labels off the jars I put them under water until they got good and soaked. Then I proceeded to pull off as much of the label as I could. This is how they looked when I finished that:

 I put some Goo Gone on a paper towel and scrubbed away until the label and markings completely came off. It took a bit of scrubbing power, but lo and behold I got that stubborn label off. 

For the lids I chose to spray paint those. You could probably hand paint them as well. 

Then I enlisted my hubby to drill hole in the lid for me. :) 

All you have to do after that is screw on the knob and you have really cute jars for all those cotton balls and cotton swabs. Easy as pie.

I'm sure you could do this same project for jars all over your house. You don't have to choose the bathroom. Loving my new jars though. They help spruce up our bathroom that needs a total makeover. Can't wait for them to look even better when we remodel. 

Picnic Tables and Baby Goats

We got this old picnic table that was in pretty rough shape. 

It definitely needed a whole lot of TLC

We pulled the boards off and sanded the frame. 

Then the husband spray painted it. This is what he used:

Look at the difference it's already making! :)

We got 2x12x8" boards to replace the old nasty ones. 

We measure and drilled holes and bolted down the boards.

Wah-lah...a new picnic table. I think it's actually 

more like a huge outdoor dining table. 

We are ready for lots of fun summer parties. 

Picnic table/huge outdoor dining table = $85.

That's pretty good if you ask me ;) 

I'm so thankful we have such good little boys who let us work on this project while they took a long nap and who sat in the wagon and watched us work for the last part of it. We are so blessed.

SERIOUSLY!!

I can't believe I got a picture of them both looking

at the camera and smiling. It's hard to capture that these days.

The best part of the whole day was that while we were hard at work

our very pregnant goat decided to have a baby. We heard her yelping 

and went running for the animal pen. We unlocked the gate as fast as we

could and ran to her side, and right before us was a slimly little baby goat. 

I had hoped she would wait a min. so I could be there for the actual birth. 

It's a boy! 

Welcome to the family sweet baby goat!