Space Bag Amazing-ness and the playroom!

I have two little posts I put together for you, but since they are both from stuff around the house..I decided to just make it one big post!

First up..Space Bag Amazing-ness! 

Now that we are settled back in the house, I have been spending most of my free time during the days trying to get everything better organized!  We definitely have more stuff then we have room for.   I think I have been to Good Will to drop off like 5 times in the last couple weeks!  I am going through everything and trying to simplify as much as possible.  Still, there is so much stuff that we want to keep, too!  This is hard because we have such limited storage space.  The other day I was at the store grabbing more containers and I saw the little box of "space bags".  I have seen these so many times and been hesitant to grab some, but this time I bought a box.  They are the coolest thing ever!!! I'm silly and I seriously was way-too-excited about these bags! SO excited that I decided to take pictures and make it a blog post :) Ha!

So...beware....because I'm about to let you in to the chaos usually behind my closed closet doors...

This was the top of my linen closet pre-space bag amazing-ness.  There are several sets of sheets and some blankets as well.

 There was also a quilt being stored underneath the bottom shelf that we use under the comforter in our room when it's really cold.  During the warmer months, there is never a good place to put it..

 The box of bags I bought was a variety pack so it came with a couple really large bags and then several smaller sizes as well...

 You just stuff them full and vacuum all the air out..piece of cake!

 And VOILA!  You are left with a flat bag..

I decided to slide the quilt and another larger comforter I bagged under the bed in our room since that is where they are used most.  The rest of the sheets and blankets went back in the top of the closet.  I used some of the smaller bags to bag up full sets of sheets.  It worked perfect!  Last week I had company, so I just grabbed out a set of sheets to make up my fancy-shmancy air mattress ;) After she left I just washed the sheets, sealed them back up, and put the back in the closet.  

Here is the "after" shot of my closet.  Still a lot of stuff up there, but it at least looks more organized. 

And for the second part of this..my random post about the new playroom!!

I know I've mentioned it on here and some on facebook, but a couple of months ago I decided I needed to do something different with the kids bedrooms.  They each had their own room, but since the rooms were small it was just so crowded and it seemed like toys were everywhere..all the time!  So I decided to try something new.  For right now, while they are still young enough I can get away with it, I decided to have the kids share a bedroom.  I moved their beds and all of their clothes into the smaller room (noah's old room).  We used the bigger room (ella's room) to make a playroom.  I have wrestled the pros and cons of this over and over again.  Probably the biggest regret is not being able to have Ella's "girly" space anymore.  Since this is only a temporary fix, I just remind myself that we will have that again one day.  The bottom line is that this has been overall the best thing ever for our house!!  It has kept the toys more organized and way easier to clean up.  I also just love the playful environment it gave the kids. They play together so much more now.  

I realized I never shared any pics with you, so I thought I would do that today :)

I had one last project for this room once we got back in the house and that was organizing the closet.  I hadn't done it yet and it was sort of just a catch all.  The first thing I did was put her comforters in....can you guess....another space bag LOL!  After I sealed them, I stored them under our bed in the MB. 

Closet before..

 I also went through a bunch of the toys and organized the ones that I wanted up out of reach.

Things like Polly Pockets that have so many tiny pieces.  I babysit during the day and wanted these out of the "little babies" reach..

This box was for the randoms...hats, bags, and weather gear..

 Here is a little tour of the room...

 Also a view of the closet after I re-organized..

Now it's all ready to PLAY!

19 months...and 2 days!!

Soooo..I've always heard that you are more slack with the second child, but it hit me this week as my little Noey turned 19 months that I have barely blogged on any of his milestones, accomplishments, ect.  Poor guy!  We have definitely celebrated them all along the way, it's just very few have actually made it down i writing.  I'm going to try and be better about that agin for both of the kids.  Showing you their big moments again on here more often.

So Noah is 19 months and so wonderful to us! He is running around and climbing on everything.  His most favorite thing to do right now is pretend to play drums.  He has a little music set he got for his Birthday last Sumer and I can't tell you the number fo times during the day he comes running to me and says (like he's so old) "MOM! DRUM!" meaning that he would please like me to get it off the shelf ;).

He has been having a little bit of a stubborn streak. Or maybe just an "I'm so cute that somehow I became completely spoiled rotten and now my mom is back tracking trying to fix it....." streak.  Either way, right now Noah is working on not running away when I ask him to come here and we're also trying to add a "yes mommy" to that.  He's doing better, but he thinks it's so funny to run away and laugh like it's a game.  So I think we'll be working on this one for awhile now.  Also, working on not hitting when he's mad. Yes people, he is a hitter.  Not always us, but he will try to go hit a wall or the table or whatever is closest when he gets mad.  He's a stinker!  But on the positive side, he always uses "peassssss" when asking for a drink which is exciting.  Still loves to eat anything and everything.  Recently found a love for "reading" and being read to which makes me so super happy! He's just a joy.  Using lots of new words just these last few weeks, but the most consistent are "momma, daddy, sissy or ella, school, car, train, truck, peassss, bye bye, eat, drink, help, no, stuck, up, hold me....wow now that I'm writing them, there are way more then I even realized.  Alot of them sound similar, but he's using them in the right time.  I change my mind, I'm not going to sit and list them all lol!

He LOVES to sing, so I thought in honor of his 19 month old post I would share a video of him singing, "Say Say" by Kristian Stanfill.

Here is the original in case you haven't heard the song:



And here is Noah James singing his own version.  And there is a huge disclaimer....he is eating while singing..and I know that's rude and gross...but it's hard to get him to do it for the camera...so I had to. Please forgive me.  The cuteness is totally worth it. Promise. Also, he only knows the chorus.

Brother and Sister Love

Now that Noah is getting older, we have entered the world of sibling rivalry!  It has reminded me so much of when my sister and I were little.  We would fight so much and be so angry with each other..and then turn around and be best friends two minutes later!  Even though Ella and Noah has their moments..and the word "mine" is a common word in our house right now..they also have sweet moments where they enjoy each other so much.  The good moments always outweigh the bad and I'm thankful that for the most part, they really are best buddies.

This afternoon I could hear some loud yelling coming from the room and went to investigate...this is what I found..

New Year and a "New" Home!

So, it's official!  The house is finally finished!!  Randy took me by last night to take a look and this morning we took the kiddos by to see!  It looks GREAT!  We are so ready to get home!  The movers are coming by early Monday morning and they will unload the pod and get our beds and everything back up.  Our contractor has truly gone above and beyond for us!  What a joy they have been to work with!

Here are some pics pre-furniture.  

Living Room floors and new trim..

Laundry Closet/Hallway (All of that stuff goes back on a shelf above the washer and dryer.  Everything is in random spots right now around the house)

Playroom. Found the Laundry Closet doors in there :)

 Some of the living room.  I am *so* extremely pleased with the floors I picked out.  The color looks so good with the green we already had..

*Disclaimer* Yes, the child on the right side of this picture is indeed my sweet Ella. No, I did not dress her this way.  Yes, she is wearing two different kinds of p.j.'s and her black dress shoes.  No, I did not make her change.  She wanted to wear this outfit to see the house because she's awesome like that, and that's just how she rolls...;)

Hallway/Front Door

 Some of the Master Bedroom.  Hard to find a good angle to show much!

 Closet in Master Bedroom

 Close up of the floor colors I chose.  Decided to go darker with the carpet so hopefully the wear and tear  wont show as badly.  The color seems to go great with the wall colors though!!

 Another view of Laundry Closet.

 When the plumber came in to move the hot water heater (so they could put the floors underneath) he said our water heater was super old and basically on it's last leg.  He didn't want to risk moving it so they were going to just put the floors around it.  Randy and I decided to just go ahead and have it replaced while they were in there and we are so thankful we did!  The plumber said it should have busted a long time ago.  He couldn't believe it was still working! Yikes!!! Good news is that now we have a larger, more energy efficient, new water heater.

 More of the living room..

 Coat Closet..the previous owners had just stopped the laminate at the door to this instead of taking it all the way in.  It looks WAY better now..

And that's all for now!  Sometime next week, we'll be sleeping in our own beds again!  Yipeee!