*sigh* Last day....

Today was my last day of being a stay-at-home-mom. *sigh* This summer has flown by and Kaden and I have had so much fun together. We've traveled, visited familiy/friends, had many picnics, hung out in our jammies until noon, read countless books, gone to storytimes, the zoo, the children's museum, and many parks. I have loved it, but it had to come to an end....

Tomorrow Will comes for the day, and on Monday Elena and Matthew start, and later in the week Will and Emma. Starting on the 17th all 4 kids plus Kaden will be here. Our days will be busy and Kaden will love having friends, and I am excited to start doing daycare again, but nothing can replace just being a mom.

Here is a picture from today from our last today --



Painting outside in the middle of the afternoon. I have loved being able to do spur-of-the-moment crafts around the house, which is something that isn't as easy to do with 5 kids that are 2 and under.

Here are also a few from the past week--

Loving his desk (getting his crayons out of his drawer)



Water table fun







As for daycare... I do have 4 kids that will be starting in the next week or so. Matthew is a week older than Kaden and I'm super excited about this. They are going to love having one another and will form a great friendship (I hope) and will get to learn about sharing and taking turns together (hopefully in the nicest way possible). Elena is about an year and a half, Will just turned 4 months, and Emma is 3 months. Busy, busy!

Our house

Things are almost complete with the house and the basement now looks organized and set up, as opposed to a mess of drywall, mud, dust, paint, etc. It never would have been complete without the help of lots of family and Matt's amazing skills and determination. Here are some recent pictures:

Also, here are some before pics:

Basement (extra room)




Laundry area




Daycare/play room



Kitchen





The kitchen -- we painted the walls, changed the gold hardware to silver, and changed the faceplates/switches from yellowish to white.





The living room -- not much has been done, however the hallway in the back of the picture has been repainted and in the entryway (that you can't see) I removed all the wallpaper and painted it (with the help of Nicole and Sherri!). We have started hanging pictures, but still have several to do in the next couple weeks.



The middle bedroom upstairs -- nothing really done, but it has fewer boxes than before!



The front room -- it's no longer Kaden's primary playroom and has a few toys, the dining room, our desk, and Kaden's desk. The woman that lived here before us left the desk we gave to Kaden, and he loves it! We also gave him our old laptop so he enjoys being on his computer when we're on ours! He loves crawling up on his chair and coloring. He keeps paper, crayons, and pens in his drawer! My next painting job is painting this room.





The steps headed downstairs -- they are no longer 1970s style!



The playroom



In the back corner is a little baby section for Will (4/5 months) and Emma (3 months). That way they can safely play on the floor without the other three tripping over them! It's such an awesome, spacious room!



The area at the bottom of the steps -- Matt put down the flooring. This will be the painting/lunch/snack area.



Bathroom


Matt's work area -- the bonus of finishing the basement has been getting lots of new, manly tools!



Across from Matt's work area -- where the 2 younger babies sleep, plus the freezer.



My wonderful laundry area



Extra guest room -- and also where the two older kids will nap





The closet that Matt will work on in a few weeks



The pantry area --


And some random pictures --

Kaden only naps 2-3 days week now, and on the other days he reads, talks, and plays in his crib for 30-45 minutes. The other day I heard him talking and happened to look at the monitor to see he had pulled his laundry hamper up over the crib and set it up in his crib! He was quite proud of himself.



Kaden enjoying painting on his new easal in the playroom



Kaden and I ventured downtown to City Garden last week to play outside and have a picnic. I am quite proud I got downtown (thanks to Bri for directions!), parked, went to the park, and got out of the city all on my own and with Kaden! It was fun and quite the experience. Kaden really enjoyed the picnic.





This is how close we were to the arch!!



Matt was really tired last week and when Kaden and I came inside to read books and lay Kaden down for a nap, he stayed outside. After leaving Kaden's room, this is how I found him:



He said it was a great nap!!