Preview

Lilyanah, "Tell them that it's Lilyanah, tell them that you guys are special, that my family is special in Oregon and everywhere else like in Idaho, Oklahoma,Texas & Massachuseeits!  Umm, I love you, I miss you, I hope you have a great day!  This is me, Mafias, this is me Craig, I'm not Craig, Lilyanah Mafias.  This is the Mafias's, just Mommy & me writing stuff for our bedroom.  Just know that I love you, know that you're special, know that you're kind, know that I love you and Happy Birthday everybody, everybody happy birthday because I love you, happy birthday!  (sung)
The wall is colorful, it's blue, it's bean backable with our bean backs.  And it's pretty.  I know, we lay on the floor on a matress and I don't like it, I would like the bunk, bunk, bunk, bunk, bunk, bunk zero, loft loft loft loft bed.  I love you dreally dreally much & say our bedroom is wonderful!  Now that's all, that's all."

There are still quite a few rooms that I haven't shown you yet, including the girls room.  I am completely in love with the color, it was exactly what I hoped it would be, which doesn't happen as often as I'd like!  If we'd have actually been in on the building process from the beginning I'd have had tray ceilings put in both the kids rooms since they have high beds but obviously such is not the case.  Because the ceilings are 9 ft. this ADORABLE flower petal canopy (a birthday gift from Meme), goes over their reading spot instead of the loft bed.  The dragonfly was also a gift from our TX/OK family for Ethne's birthday.  Our family is really helping get the girls room decorated!  So fun, and just a quick preview of one corner of their new bedroom.  Wait till you see the chandelier, it's perfect for the room!  If we can finally get their bed done this weekend, (please let this be the weekend), I can get the rest of their decor up & have their room completely done, which means pictures for you!

Happy Birthday Uncle Corey!

Today is Uncle Corey's birthday so we started out the day taking a picture for him.  The kids loved having the letters on their hands.  All on their own during our morning walk they made up songs about Uncle Corey & how much they love and miss him.  They were actually much more obliging when I asked them to hold up their hands and smile.  UsuallyI have to beg them to look at the camera and smile. 

Ethne was especially proud of her special letter "E" being on her hand.

  Such a sweet smile on such a sweet little girl!

All our love & the Happiest of Birthday's to our irreplaceable Uncle Corey!

Floor Sleepers

I'm seriously unimpressed with the quality of pics from my iphone, but I still love this one of our little man in his room when his bed was still on the floor.  On the upside, he had more room to ride around on his truck before the bed came on Tuesday.  So, as of Tuesday Westyn was the first one in our family to get to sleep off the floor in our new house, lucky kid!

So here's his new diggs.  I gave Lilyanah the opportunity to take her nap on the top bunk today but after getting all settled up there she decided it was too dangerous a place to be in case of a fire.  Seriously!?  We've tried to prepare the kids for what to do 'IN CASE' of a fire, apparently I was a little too informative for Lilyanah. 

Friday, Will & I ended our nights of floor sleeping, yea!!!  Our bed was finally delivered & it's SO beautiful!  Unfortunately I still can't find my camera so the only pics I have are from my iphone & just don't do the details justice.  The curtains are the ones that were in our living room in Twin, dining room in Kimberly & now they've graduated to the bedroom here in Malta.  I'd love to put them in the living room or dining room here but I have a design dilemma wherever I put it.  In the bedroom I have to get a comforter/duvet cover to go with the curtain design.

My baby found a beautiful HUGE mirror that's the same espresso finish.  I don't have a pic with it yet but when I will once I figure out where to put it.  I wanted it to the left of the window but our air vents are on either side and would be covered up so it's a no-go.   Any ideas on what I should do with this bed wall?  There's only about 4 feet above the headboard to where the vaulted ceiling starts.  . . .

 Here's the last pic of the bedroom looking out into the hall.  The closed door is our walk-in-closet.  Westyn is reading THE ABSOLUTE CUTEST book that my dear, sweet friend Michele Hammons sent us.  Thank you again much missed friend, the kids LOVE it, it's came as a 'Tickle Monster Laughter Kit' book by Josie Bissett.  There are gloves you put on to tickle the kiddos with, seriously cute! 

Here's the dining room part of the great room.  If I were to put the curtains down here I'd have to figure out something else that matches for the other set of windows & patio door since I don't even know if I could find this fabric again, one downfall to making your own curtains.  Thank you for all the advice thus far sweet friends!

  Just thought I'd throw in one more pic of the house from a different angle.  The tree is in front of the window to Will's office.  We're starting to see grass but at this point it just looks  like a messed up chia pet.  : )

 Just thought I'd throw in a pic of the kiddos on our morning walk with the dogs.  There are so many great trails all around us & in the morning the mosquitoes aren't out yet.  The kids love it as you can tell by their faces.  : ) 

The day got up into the 90's, so the kids played in their new little pool while Will worked on sanding their loft bed (CRAZY big project that I worked on most of the day today).  He took a break though to work with Lilyanah on riding her bike.   Our tender hearted princess doesn't like how the bike teeters when 'she's so far up' . . .  She does great on flat surfaces, there just aren't many of those in our cul-de-sac but we'll get there when she's ready.  : )  Our goal was to finish their bed today but Will hurt his back & I am just not as talented at sanding as he is.  I really wanted for all of us to be ex-floor sleepers by tonight but looks like it'll be another day or two before the girls join the club. 

And now to catch some zzzzzzzzz's in my comfy new bed OFF the floor.  On an off-subject, I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow, do any of you have a great healthy recipe that your kiddos love?  Tonight we had  'banana dogs' for dinner.  Yep, peanut butter spread on wheat bread wrapped around a banana.  It was a new, "I need to go shopping, busy mommy" meal but the kids LOVED it so you gotta know I'll be doing it again.  : )  Okay, now I really am going. . .  Love you all!

West to East

Here's our house in April, even then with all the bare trees we fell in love with the lot first & the house second.  We thought we were SO prepared having already been homeowners once and being so much wiser this time around.  WRONG.  It has been a rollercoaster ride but everything's worked out & we closed on June 24th.   I debated sharing this photo because Will isn't big on people seeing him without a shirt on, but we're all friends, right!?  : )  Anyway, it's the only semi-recent pic I have of the entire front of the house.  We installed the mailbox (& by 'we' I mean 'he') a week after we moved in and I have to say, my sweet perfectionist did a GREAT job!

This pic was taken on the steps outside the french door in the living room.  Our entire yard looks like this right now, covered with hydroseed.  It's such a great back yard with SO many possibilities!  We're pretty confident we will require a landscape designer to figure out the best way to incorporate everything we want. That'll be exciting when we're ready to take on that project!  : )

 One more pic of the house from the back left corner.  The kids love exploring out there with the numerous trails.  There's a 5 mile trail that use to go through our house!  We haven't been out on it yet, Will says it's for 'flat-landers'.  He prefers hikes with serious inclines but maybe we'll get to it this weekend.

  And now, for the more pressing dilemna. . . .  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Well, here are my pictures. . .

I think the word we're all hearing is a screeching "HELPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!"
Ideally Candace Olsen would show up at my door with a limitless budget and her design expertise at my disposal.  But since that's not going to happen I've got to figure something out on my own, or with your help. . . hint hint . . .   : )
My limitations are #1 that the piano has nowhere else to go but where it is & #2 that Will does not want a mirror or flatscreen above the fp.  I also don't think he would be too supportive of painting a different color somewhere but he may be open if it was brilliant.  I have no idea how to do window coverings that won't obstruct the view we love so much and what to do on the walls.  Since they're so high I'm a little lost with the appropriate scale of the decor. . .
The art is NOT staying on the mantel, that belongs in our bedroom & we have to figure some sort of built-in bookshelf on the right of the fp to put a flatscreen etc on. .  But how tall ?  And don't get me started on what to do on the wall up the staircase!!!  So, any ideas?   I know I have been blessed with some crazy creative & gifted friends so I look forward to hearing your thoughts!  Love & truly miss you all!