Our Playroom

Our Playroom

I am so happy to reveal one of my now favorite places in our house.  Of course, even as I type that I thought of about 3 more places in our home that I am falling more in love with each day.  We are truly blessed.  However,  this is by far Jay's favorite room in the house....the playroom.  

It's a wonderful blessing to have a room dedicated to toys, learning, and play.  This is our first ever "playroom" and it took some new bookshelves, some seating, some creative organizing, and some decorating but its turned out to be a place we all can enjoy hanging out.  

Our playroom is a room in our basement. Here is a picture of the room the way it was when we looked at the house.  

Now, obviously they were in the middle of packing so it was quiet a mess but I remember it feeling so dark down there.  We knew this would eventually be the playroom so I was already busy cooking up ideas.   

I began by unpacking and organizing the toys in the organizers we already had.  Once that was done it was obvious our one cubby shelf wasn't going to be enough.  (PS.  We have lived in 4 different houses since Jay was born and have not had all of his toys in one place until now and...it was way more toys than I realized).  So I went out and bought a couple more cheap bookshelves and a few more baskets. I finished organizing with those.  

Once the toys were all organized I thought about decor and seating. So off to Hobby Lobby we went and bought a lot of our decorations or supplies to make some decorations.  Then to Walmart and Target for some seating for adults. 

I made two of these. One in blue and one in green with supplies purchased at Hobby Lobby.

Jay actually made these with me. We just used canvas, mod podge, and tissue paper circles.
I'm so glad I included him in the decorating of his special play space. 

We were graciously gifted a children's table and chairs from my sister who no longer needed it.  I bought a can of blue spray paint and some chalkboard spray paint and painted it to match our decor.  I think it turned our pretty well and its fun to be able to draw on the tops. 

Before

After

Now, I still have a TON of teacher's supplies from teaching kindergarten and now that Jay is old enough to do preschool with me at home I wanted to have a place to store it in the playroom.  So we took an old cabinet from the kitchen, gave it a fresh coat of paint, and hung it in the playroom.  It has a lot of great stuff that I can use with Jay when we do our little preschool time at home. 

I also went ahead and hung up my calendar and weather charts and we do that most days as well. 

One of the last things I did was make and laminate labels to put on Jay's toy bins.  I wanted him to be able to know where everything belonged so that finding toys and cleaning up would both be easier.  This took me longer than I thought because our printer had been in storage for almost 2 years.  I had to order a new print-head and wait 3 weeks for it to come from China so that I could have a actual functioning printer.  But, once the printer worked the rest was easy.  

Oh, and I forgot about organizing our art supplies. Here's where Pinterest worked wonders for me.  We had a TON of art and craft supplies, I wanted them neat and organized so that we could find what we wanted when we were crafting.  So here's a couple of things I did. 

Used the wonderful "over the door shoe organizer" to hold a lot of our stuff. 

Put stuff Jay uses often in tins that he can easily reach.
I probably will hang these by there handles at some point but they worked well on shelf for now. 

Overall, I am very happy with this playroom. We are eventually going to change the carpet down there because.... well it's a little ugly!  But for now we are finished.  Here is the big reveal.

  Remember the before?

Here is the after!

Don't mind the mess on the table. Jay was creating!

Light switch extender to Jay can turn on the light by himself. 

One of my favorite finds. Target for $12.  

I'd say he's satisfied!

Hope you enjoy a look at our playroom.  Hopefully as things slow down for us I can get around to blogging more of our first home makeovers.  Have a wonderful day!

Gender Reveal

Boy or Girl?

          On the morning of June 20th I woke up feeling very excited for the days events. Today was the day I would find out if the little person kicking around inside me was a boy or a girl.  Either way I would be happy, but I knew our family dynamic somewhat rested on what gender we had.  I was excited to find out and start planning more for this little precious one.  

         Between traveling and finding a new doctor in Clarksville, I had to wait an extra couple of weeks than typical to find out the gender. By 22 weeks, I was very curious.  I also was just excited to get a glimpse at the baby inside me.  Ultrasounds are such a neat thing, I love them every single time.  

       After dropping Jay off at childcare,  James and I headed over to the doctors office.  We were brought into the room and then within a minute or two there was our baby up on the screen.  Baby was all curled up with his/her feet up by his/her head.  The ultrasound technician had to work at it to get photo's of all the part she needed but she was successful.  About halfway through she asked us,  "So what do you have at home already a boy or girl?"  We told her we had a boy already.  She adjusted the ultrasound probe just so and the screen changed.  "Now you have 2!" She said.  

      We went and picked Jay back up from childcare and had a fun little way to tell him whether he was going to have a brother or sister. The day before we had bought pink and blue balloons.  He knew he was going to get a present and if he unwrapped a blue balloon he'd have a brother. If he unwrapped a pink he'd have a sister.  So once we got home we got down to present time.

      Jay was very excited to be having a brother.  He even went around the house chanting, "Another boy! Another boy!".   Although, he did tell me that he wanted a girl for the next baby so we'll have to work on that in a couple more years. :)  

     One of my favorite memories of ultrasound day was when Jay asked how they saw the baby.  He said, "So the doctor cut you open and daddy peeked inside?"   James and I about died laughing.  I am SO very glad that that's not what it takes to get a glimpse of a baby before birth!  I love hearing how kid's think. 

     We are beyond excited to be having another boy and can't wait to share the birth announcement with you all in a few months.  Have a blessed day!

Bethany and Joshua Tie the Knot

Wedding Bells in May!

        One of the highlights of this summer, besides our Italy trip and moving into our first home, was my younger sisters wedding day.   James and I returned from Italy and two days later it was wedding day for Bethany and Joshua!  They were kind enough to consider our crazy schedule of trips, moving, and the Instructor Pilot Course for James when they planned their big day. We were so glad they did and that our entire family could make it to celebrate their big day!

         They got married at the Quail Ridge Lodge in Wentzville, MO.  It was nestled in the beautiful Quail Ridge Park and had amazing windows that let in natural light and a beautiful wood interior.  Joshua and Bethany did most of the work for the wedding themselves (with the help of family of course).  They worked hard for weeks before the wedding to make it beautiful and to save money.  It turned out wonderfully. 

          I had the privilege of making and decorating their wedding cake for them.  This was my first wedding cake and I was pretty nervous about it.  They were pretty straightforward with what they wanted and didn't want, however, so that made it much easier.  They even were there when I dyed the frosting to make sure it was the shade they were wanting.  They said they loved the cake and I got many compliments on how it tasted. So, well it was far from perfect, I feel like it was successful. 

      One of the fun things about Bethany's wedding day was that I was able to reconnect with a college friend I hadn't seen for a bit.  Bethany hired Erica Peery of Lilylove Photography to take her wedding photos.  Erica and her husband, Adam, were good friends with James and I back in college.  I also was super spoiled back in 2009 when Adam and Erica lived in Columbia at the same time I did.  We actually had our first babies just 2 days apart in 2009 and were pregnancy buddies and brand new mommy pals.  So we loved getting to see them for a bit on Bethany's wedding day.  Erica , of course, did a wonderful and beautiful job with the wedding pictures.  She is one of my absolute favorite photographers. If you have an event in or around St. Louis that you'd like photographed I would definitely recommend looking her up. 

      Another thing I loved about being part of Bethany and Joshua's big day was seeing my boys all dressed up.  I know I am very biased but my boys clean up very nicely.  I have never seen a cuter best man (Jay) or a more handsome groomsman (James).   

       I know Bethany and Joshua were very happy with their day and I think they should be very proud of what they pulled off.  Everything turned out beautifully and was a great expression of their love for each other.   The last Lanseigne girl has married off and I wish both of them a lifetime of married bliss. 

      

Wordless Wednesday: Italy Photos taken with hubby's phone :)

So I stole the "Wordless Wednesday" from a friend's blog because I think it's cute and....its Wednesday and I only wanted to share photos.  :) Worked out. So with no other words than this intro....here are the the Italy photos James took with his phone.