Happy Holidays from us to you.

Happy Holidays.

As our year comes quickly to a close we are overwhelmed with the blessings and growth opportunities we’ve received daily.  We are so grateful for our blessings this year, including all of you.

Kevin: Loves his relationship with our boys as they are getting old enough to realize that Papa is the “fun” one, he also loves getting to know his first daughter. He is enjoying feeling more confident in is work as he started his 2^nd year in his work as a Petroleum Geologist.  Loves being active, as always, has enjoyed competing competitively in a couple of races and a triathlon this year.

Michelle:  Happy (and busy) to be a mother of three babies. (Our oldest turns 3 the end of April) Loves having an outlet to create and make art with the opening of an Etsy shop this year. Has fallen in love with running. Is completely loving having our baby GIRL join our family just in time for Thanksgiving this year.

Lee (32 months): Loves organizing everything and fixing things. (With his pretend tools.) He soaks up new information like a sponge and wants to learn about everything. He loves his experience attending an AMAZING preschool twice a week.

Drew (18 months): Talks constantly, and some of what he says is intelligible now. :) He is stubborn as an ox, with a heart of gold.  He shows love very openly, often randomly coming up and giving hugs around our legs and asking for kisses.  He has the greatest chuckle and has a naturally happy temperament.

Annalise (1 month): This sweet girl has changed our family dynamic drastically; she has brought a tangible and special feeling into our home. She is adored and gently loved by both her brothers. (quite a feat) She is calm and sweet in the midst of the loudness and busyness of a house with toddler brothers.

We are most especially grateful for our Savior and His incredible Atonement that makes our progress and our family’s eternal potential possible.

Love, The McGuire Family

nursery: accents to welcome a girl to our family.

Well, we officially have the nursery ready to welcome our baby girl any day now.
*We created a shared space for the boys: here.
(Seriously any day, my first two were both early so I never know when to expect a baby to join our family, it could be tomorrow it could be a couple weeks from now. Ah, it's enough to make anyone crazy, anticipating and waiting. I am so excited to meet her!)


Our nursery has been used for two boys so far.  I decided back when our first was born that I'd keep the room generally gender neutral so that no "big" pieces would need to be changed if we had a girl eventually.  (see our first nursery here)

Well, now we are having a girl (!) and I only made minimal changes/additions to make it feel a bit more feminine.

I focused on adding a few decorative pieces and keepsake items that brought a feminine emphasis to the room by either their color or style. The overall or base color scheme is primary/secondary colors so it gave tons of room to add basically whatever I wanted.

shelves: ikea

chair: ikea (strandmon wing)

dresser: ikea (kallax shelf unit)

knobs: home depot

pouf: target

pillow: h&m

quilt: made by michelle

piggy: ikea

original art: made by michelle

LDS SLC temple print: michelle's etsy shop

candle holder: target

hedgehog tealight candle holder: cb2

wooden stacker: marshalls

Carl Bloch Christ print: BYU MOA bookstore

crib/care bear: vintage

mirror: tj maxx

garland: made by michelle (tutorial)

pumpkins, costumes and treats galore.

We had so much fun this Halloween, mostly because our oldest is finally old enough to be excited by the activities involved. (and to actually say "trick or treat")

We "partied" more for Halloween this year than we ever have, which for some isn't say a whole lot... but we had so much fun. I think Halloween really was meant to be enjoyed with little kids.

We had a pumpkin party with a couple of our friends with pumpkin carving or decorating and pumpkin themed treats. Such a blast.  Lee LOVED his jack-o-lantern so much, if it was up to him we would have kept a candle going in it all day every day the entire week.

Lee had his own pumpkin decorating techniques...

Lee had an awesome Fall Festival at his preschool the week of Halloween. He had a parade and trick or treating, crafting and treats AND Papa took a little bit of time off work to be the one there with him, so Lee was in absolute heaven.
(That school, man, everyone that I've interacted with from their staff truly LOVES working with these sweet young kids and it makes all the difference.  I'm so glad that Lee gets to interact with all of them.)

when he spotted Papa.

That same night we had a Trunk or Treat and chili cook off with our church congregation, such a fun idea, I haven't been to one since I was a little kid and living in Texas.
We really lucked out and got to borrow some awesome costumes from my brother and SIL, again, Halloween was meant to be enjoyed with little kids, not much cuter than a baby or toddler all dressed up in something adorable or hilarious.

trunk or treat fun with their cute little friend Ryan

We took the boys trick or treating with some friends and cousins around our neighborhood, So much fun.  Most everyone in our neighborhood goes pretty all out in the Halloween decoration department so there are fun lights and decor everywhere.  Many are even dressed up and out enjoying the night in their driveways.  And goodness, this year the weather could not have been more perfect.  Just crisp enough to feel amazing. I can't say I miss the layers of sweats we always had to wear under our costumes growing up in Utah or the occasional snow...

Lee was hilariously intent on racing from house to house and when someone wasn't home he'd tell us "that house not working" and run to the next house.

Lee and his cousins the pirate fairies.

We finished off the holiday with an evening of Phase 10, too much food and lots of laughing with my brother and SIL once the kids were in bed. Happiest Halloween to date.

no more linoleum: second bath before and after.

upstairs renovation: part three// second full bath.

The second full bathroom in our house got new flooring and paint too. This bathroom had the original linoleum flooring in it still and we LOVE having tile instead. The space is small so it was very manageable to have the flooring removed and replaced and it is amazing how much that can update a space. 

Though our changes in this space were even more minimal that in the master bath (see post here) I think it shows just how much a new paint color and updated flooring can do, like always we were looking to maximize the effect and minimize the cost. 

Like for the master, we purchased this tile wholesale through Home Depot, same style and model, just a slightly darker color. (link at bottom of post) We used the exact same paint color we did in the master in here, it is the perfect subtle shade of gray. (link at bottom of post)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

tile: home depot

tile baseboards: home depot

paint color: sherwin williams//first star

curtain: urban outfitters 

(They run a bit high but go on really good clearance sales, which is when I scored this one.)

towels: ikea

vases: cb2

eucalyptus: home goods

live thankfully.

As you all know I've been doing a lot of thinking and planning about the coming weeks, events and holidays as I try to prepare as much as possible now so that I have as little as possible to do after our baby girl comes in the coming days or weeks.  (yes, I am ridiculously excited and sometimes equal parts nervous, but that's normal, right?) 

Anyway as I was thinking about Thanksgiving I knew I wanted something more to remind me of gratitude throughout the month, at the very least, if not all year long. 

Last year I had some cards we could write daily "thankfuls" on each day of November but I never got a cute branch to stick them on like I'd seen on Pinterest, so they sat in a sad little pile on our mantle. Of course the most important part was the daily thanks but still...let down.  

I think I'll do the traditional Thankful Tom Turkey my Momma always did, as Lee is actually at a age where that kind of thing will be SO FUN for him.  

(Thankful Tom is a simple turkey body that you add a thankful feather to each day after everyone in the family writes something they are thankful for that day on it.)

Well as it happens my thankful ponderings coincided with preparing a lesson for the 14-15 year old girls in our church congregation about why gratitude is important. 

I was so grateful for all the beautiful reminders of what gratitude brings to our lives and what we have to be grateful for. 

Here are just a few that stood out to me from this talk from Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

"Our loving Heavenly Father knows that 

choosing to develop a spirit of gratitude 

will bring us true joy and great happiness."

"When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation. 

In grief, we can still lift up our hearts in praise.  

In pain, we can glory in Christ's Atonement. 

In the cold of bitter sorrow, 

we can experience the closeness of heaven's embrace."

"In any circumstance, 

our sense of gratitude is nourished by the many and sacred truths we do know; 

that our Father has given His children the great plan of happiness; that through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ, we can live forever with our loved ones; 

that in the end, we will have glorious, perfect, and immortal bodies, unburdened by sickness or disability; 

and that our tears of sadness and loss 

will be replaced 

with an abundance of happiness and joy, 

"good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over."

"Your testimony of Christ, born of the Holy Ghost, 

can help you look past the disappointing endings in mortality 

and see the bright future that the Redeemer of the world has prepared."

So with lots of thoughts of thankfulness bouncing around my head and being reminded of just how abundant my blessings are, I thought about how I just want to live thankfully; 

learn to see the good in hard moments, 

find the blessing in a situation, 

be grateful, 

be more quick to look to the things I know when something I don't understand happens, 

openly express gratitude better for all the incredible people I know, love, bump into and meet 

and especially show my gratitude for God who gave and gives me every thing and everyone in my life. 

I started this blog initially as part of my journey through infertility and as a way to record life, thoughts and experiences for myself and my family and along the way I've been bolstered, lifted up, cheered on, guided and celebrated by so many, so thank you for sharing your goodness with me.

a room for the boys: creating a shared space.

upstairs renovation: part two// shared boys room.

With the birth of their sister fast approaching, Kevin and I have been working on turning our 2 year old's bedroom into a room to share with his 16 month old (nearly) brother.  

This project has been all fun for me, other than moving everything out of the room for new carpet (see upstairs reno part one here) and anticipating the actual process of getting our now baby to sleep in a big boy bed and have both the boys adjust to sharing their sleeping space with someone else (a process we haven't actually tried to tackle yet, baby is a tricky sleeper). 

We knew that a room for 2 toddlers had to be sturdy, practical and tough so there is nothing fragile within reach of little fingers in this space. We also tried to leave as much open play space as possible and have easy access places for toys, blankets and clothes.

We (like most) are always trying to minimize costs as much as possible so much of what you see in this room is handmade, made-over or the cheapest (that is still very hardy) that money can buy.  It amazes me how much you can do yourself. 

Luckily we both love creating, in our own ways, so this would probably fit the bill even if we had a bigger budget. (links/sources at bottom of the post)

It also helps us to plan way ahead for two main reasons; 

First, we can build or buy over a period of time and budget accordingly.

Second, it gives us time to do lots of searching and research for the very best deals and options as well as allowing time to look for items or paint or whatever to go on sale.

I'm all about rooms growing with kids, so nothing in this room (or the nursery for that matter) is innately babyish. Along this same line we chose to have full twin size beds instead of toddler sized beds that would necessitate the purchase of bigger beds down the road.

I really hope that getting these boys used to sleeping in each other's space goes as smoothly as creating a space for them to share did...suggestions or success stories welcome. :)

dresser: ikea// tarva five drawer

dresser knobs: home depot// liberty model#P65015C-SN-C

dresser stain: home depot
bed frames: kevin

art work/quotes: me, kevin and lee

pom pom garland: me (tutorial here)

duvet covers: h&m (both sold out but this would be awesome for a little guy)

storage unit (between beds): ikea// besta tv unit

baskets in storage unit: home goods

legs: home depot

stuffed animals on beds: amazon

quilts: grandma :)

bike hooks: hobby lobby