Our house has four bedrooms, but since we moved in as just a couple with no kids we’ve never really used all four effectively. We started with two guest rooms, our bedroom and a storage room on the 3rd floor. Eventually, we renovated the 3rd floor (it used to have shiny animal safari print wallpaper), moved our master bedroom up there, and then used two-second floor bedrooms as kid rooms and one as a guest room. The nursery room has been through several renovations (original first-kid nursery, monsters, Lincoln’s nursery) and the bunk room used to be a playroom/Caroline’s nursery.  If you want a whole house tour, my most recent was in 2012 (probably the last time my house was ever all clean at the same time!) but the video below is much more accurate of the “before” status of the kid rooms.

It’s really bad. And this wasn’t even peek-disaster. Just regular disaster. Also, I am still learning how to use my DSLR for video, so excuse my technical errors.

But now, we have three great kid rooms! The kids like them but I like them the most. It’s so much easier to keep clean and put away laundry and organize stuff. When I want to move a toy or category of toys upstairs, I have room for them. Everyone’s laundry baskets are easy to find and they are actually putting their dirty clothes into the baskets. I will probably lose my infatuation before too long and they’ll all end up a huge mess I shout at the children to clean every Saturday, but for now, it’s the best.

Let’s start with Evan’s room, which was previously the guest room.

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E bought some really deep, strong anchors for all the shelves, so they’re very secure.

Almost everything is from Ikea. The bedding is from Target. I offered to move the dollhouse somewhere else, since I wasn’t sure he wanted it in his Big Kid room but Evan asked to keep it, so he and Linc can play with it (and they have been! Which is a change, it hardly ever got played with before.) The Force Is Strong With This One decal is just a sticker I bought on Amazon and you can buy it here.

Now to Caroline’s room:

Again, almost everything is from Ikea and the bedding is from Target. The Unicorns are Real wall hanging is from Amazon and you can buy it here. She Persisted is amazing and you can buy your copy here.

The last room is the bunk room, which Linc and Finnegan officially share. We haven’t done too much in there yet, besides clean it and change out bedding. I need to touch up the paint and move some more toys up there. But right now Evan is letting Linc sleep with him in his new room most of the time so Finnegan has the whole huge room to himself and has no opinion on my lack of formal decorating.

Again, the bedding is from Target and everything else in this room was repurposed or moved from a previous room. It’s not going to win any design awards but the boys like it and it’s a HUGE improvement over that before video.

And that’s how our upstairs looks now! I don’t think we’ll have to redo any of these spaces again…maybe ever? We don’t plan to live here the rest of our lives. Hopefully, we move to somewhere with five bedrooms before Linc and Finn are teenagers and can’t stand to share anymore.

I hate everything.

I’m still pregnant. I haven’t managed to shake the baby even the littlest bit loose since before my due date, so we’re waiting it out a bit longer. The good news is E’s departure date keeps getting pushed back so he’s not going to miss the birth – he still might have to do a mad dash to the hospital to get there but he shouldn’t be At Sea.

The other good news is my house has never been so clean and well organized, since my poor mother has been trying to keep busy instead of just sitting on the couch staring, waiting for me to pop.

Sunday:

Mommy I’m a walrus! A turkey walrus!

Obsessed with the new bathmat

The kids are enjoying the clean, newly made-over bathroom too

Monday:

I want to buy everything too, buddy

Princess Grumpypants

Well, that explains the grumpy pants

Tuesday:

Ikea is fun for everyone

Making herself at home (more Ikea)

Bedtime stories

Wednesday:

Bounce house center smiles

I’M MAKING POOR CHOICES smiles

Thursday:

Finishing up errands I NEVER thought I would get done before the baby came

OK MY TOES LOOK NICE I CAN GIVE BIRTH

Evening aquarium visit

Friday:

3.5 hours in L&D for tests, NO BABY

To the pond for some fish-catching (we caught no fish)

I enjoy sunsets and long walks on the curb trying to get the baby to FALL OUT

Saturday:

Infant seats are useful, even without an infant

Trapped in my seat by bins of baby clothes that are ALL ORGANIZED now

We actually did even more stuff not pictured. As much as I want to just crawl into bed and sulk until I have a baby, doing stuff is better for me and the kids and my very patient mother. Although I’m starting to lose any semblance of motivation and the bed-crawling thing is looking better and better.

Since I’m NOT having a baby I’ve been editing photos and might actually have some non-iPhone posts up. UNLESS I AM IN LABOR RIGHT NOW IS THAT A CONTRACTION? (No.)

We had a BEAUTIFUL week of gorgeous weather and fun…right up until Friday. When I woke up at 5 am to snow – SNOW! – everywhere, I declared I was taking a day off from life. We stayed home. I wore my jammies all day. We had popcorn for dinner. It was lovely. I predict today will be very similar.

Sunday:

How adorable is this cupcake buffet at the tea party birthday we attended?

Sunshine

E secretly loves tea. Don't tell him I told you.

Obviously a tea party calls for pearls

Monday:

Monday was a holiday, so I worked twice as hard as I usually do organizing this room.

Multi-tasking!

I added fun colors to the tub! Evan disapproved.

Tuesday:

GOOD MORNING WORLD.

The girl loves hats

He thinks this is the best trick EVER

Wednesday:

Apparently those aren't camo pants, they're grumpy pants

If you look veeeery carefully, you can see one sad toddler in time-out during gymnastics

25 favor boxes for Evan's 3rd birthday, DONE.

Thursday:

My children refuse to wear clothes correctly.

No Mommy! No go inside! Stay outside!

Dear God, someday she will drive an ACTUAL car ::heart attack::

Friday:

NO.

He's obsessed with these shoes. He can actually walk in them better than I can.

Headband obsessed - obviously she's mine

Saturday:

See mommy, giraffes don't wear shirts so I shouldn't either!

Oh, what you got there? Trains? I like trains!

IKEA trains FTW! We trippled our track for less than $25.

Today I am working on an epic blog post – epic in my head, obviously, just long and rambling in real life – and finishing all the laundry. Why did I make Sunday laundry day?! It always ruins my sleeping-in day knowing I’ve got a mountain of dirty clothes to get through. The good news is 2 weeks from right now I’ll be getting on my CRUISE. If I mention it 300 times between now and then try to forgive me, OK?

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

The inspiration for Little Evan’s room makeover was this piece of art:

Evan the Nap Monster, by ModTots.

I ordered a monster – any monster, since they didn’t exist yet – as soon as I heard ModTots would be releasing them. So I actually bought half the stuff for the room before I knew what this piece would look like. But I knew it would be adorable so it wasn’t exactly a hardship.

I thought monsters would be a super easy theme for a kid’s room. I was wrong. Everything was Monsters, Inc the Pixar movie themed – and even that was hard to find. But I’m going to predict right now that monsters will be big by the end of 2011. Just watch.

Before pics. The nursery theme was “nautical” slash “tropical island” slash “Where the Wild Things Are”. And also very messy.

View from the door

Left hand wall

Right hand corner

Right hand wall

And after pics:

View from the door (I know it looks like a different wall color, but that's just because I rolled up the black-out shades...something I forgot to do for the before pics)

Left hand wall (extra lines added by one very excited 2 year old)

Right hand corner

Right hand wall

Adorable monster prints from Lulufroot on Etsy (I think I need the green monster one too!)

Bookcase

Best bed friends - he kisses them both good night

Snake from Taradara, Bear handknit by me.

Daydreaming in his big boy bed

The rest of the details:
Bed: Ikea
Monster sheets & duvet cover: Garnet Hill
Dresser: Ikea
Ceiling lamp: Ikea
Standing lamp: Target
Rug (moved from our family room): Target
Curtains: Ikea
Bookcase: Target
Rocker: Ikea
Book caddy: P’kolino from Amazon.com

Close up of the book caddy because it's so freaking cute. Oh and also, when I bought it it was like $10, not $30+. Don't buy one until they go back on sale.

I’m sort of ashamed that the curtains are 84 inch curtains that you’re supposed to hem (and by hem I mean use the iron-on adhesive tape they came with) and yet I did not hem them. The problem is the radiator is right below the window on the right hand wall, so I’d have to cut them REALLY short to be safe. But I don’t want to hem the other set that short and I still want them to match, so I just tied them up. And truthfully, I kind of like how they look.

Also, we have a bed rail for the side of the bed so Little Evan doesn’t roll out while he’s sleeping. Not that I think he would – he’s not a super rolly sleeper – but he likes pushing his feet against something while he’s trying to fall asleep and since we took the crib rails away I thought it would be a good substitute. I just took it down for the pictures.

Night night!

So far, we’re having about a 75% success rate with the big boy bed. Wednesday was the first day nap time didn’t happen AT ALL, but he’s been pushing them back later and later since we made the switch. He does get out and run around and pull things out of the drawers and read all his books and climb in the chair…but when he gets tired he puts himself back to bed. And it’s nice that he can get himself out of bed and play in his room in the mornings so I have time to brush my teeth and get dressed before he starts yelling for me. But sometimes he cries a little because he misses his crib. I think he’ll get over it pretty soon though.

Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored in any way. All items were paid for with my own cash money.

I’m MIA today because I spent the whole morning finishing knitting this thing together:

It’s not very stylish but it’s such a happy color and was so easy to make I think I love it.

Plus I wrote a post for my dear friend Hannah over on her blog, Peggy Ann Design. It’s about organizing my cookbook shelf. I know, really riveting stuff. Check her out!

Then this afternoon I’ve got my pre-op appointment with the urologist so HOPEFULLY this whole kidney thing will be over for good in the very near future.

And if I get my way we’ll finish the day with a trip to Ikea for dinner. Such a nice Friday!

See you tomorrow for my iPhone wrap up!