4 kids...one room

We did it. 

We put all 4 kids in the same room. 

I wrote this on Instagram (kristinsellars if you want to follow) their first night together...

"We are either absolutely genius or totally crazy". 

The room switch was prompted by some recent break ins in our neighborhood (we live in one of the safest cities in America...go figure!). 

The girls had been sharing a room downstairs and after everything happened it made me super nervous having them down there alone so we decided to move them all into the upstairs bedroom.

We sold both sets of our old bunk beds and got a new triple bunk (bunk beds with a trundle under). 

The kids were/are sooooooo excited to all be together. 

They pretty much think it is the greatest thing ever. 

And surprisingly it has been going great!

Actually it has been way easier then I could have imagined (thank you Jesus).

My kids have pretty much always shared rooms so they are used to being together.

I think when you have 2 kids sharing a room it's not much different having 3 or 4 or in there. 

So many of you were curious about our bedtime rules so I thought I'd share them with you...

-no one is allowed out of their bed (this is the biggest one!)

-when you get up in the morning you are not allowed to wake anyone else up! You need to walk as quietly out of your room as possible and go downstairs or come find Mommy and Daddy. 

-sometimes if they are having a hard time falling asleep or we can hear them being rowdy we don't let them talk either but lately this hasn't been a problem. 

-Also if anyone wakes up before 6:00 a.m. I always put them back in their bed and tell them it's still night time :) That's not a rule...just a Mommy secret. It totally works around here.  

Some other helpful sleeping tips...

-get a sound machine...this has been a life saver for our family! 

-blackout curtains are a must! Trust me.

-We put our kids to bed at 7:00 on school nights and by 8:00 on weekends. I think it's so important for Mommy and Daddy's to have some kid free time. Well at least it is for this Mommy and Daddy. 

 The plus side to having all the kids in the same room is that we get to turn the downstairs bedroom into a playroom/sewing room. 

I already scored this desk off Craigslist for $20. 

Thank you very much. 

My sewing machine is so happy to have a permanent home again. 

And we are all so excited to have a playroom. 

Our project this weekend is to get everything set up and organized.
Wish us luck!

House tour

Hi everyone! 

Welcome to our home!

I thought it might be fun to give you a little house tour. 

It's nothing super fancy, but it's us. 

And no my house is usually (almost always) not this clean. 

Unless it is on Thursday after our cleaning lady comes.

Then it's clean for about an hour. 

Oh that sweet sweet hour.

This is our entry way (the front door is on the right of the dresser). 

We found that dresser at Goodwill for under $20 and painted it French Pale Gold by Behr. 

I love the pop of color it brings to the downstairs and it is a great "catch all." 

The dresser is filled with kids coloring and crafting supplies.

I was worried that I would regret keeping them in a place where the kids have free access to them but so far it has worked out great.

Oh and the dreaded shoe bucket.
I hate it and love it all at the same time.
How is it that the matching shoe is always at the very bottom of the bucket?

If you turn around from the yellow dresser you will see our family room. 

One of my favorite parts of this house is the collage over our couch. 

Aaron totally gets credit for helping me lay it out and for nailing it up. 

And I know what you are thinking...

a white couch with kids. You are crazy! 

Yes..it gets filthy BUT the whole thing is washable so when it gets dirty you just take the covers off and throw it in the wash. 

Super easy. 

*In between the 2 couches we have a basket that holds all of our blankets and the end table and stool to the right of the white couch we painted with a coral color. 

When we moved into this house we ditched our giant entertainment center and mounted our TV on the wall.

I'm so glad we did!

It takes up so. much. less. space.

Most of the items on the mantle are from Target.

And that cute yellow bird is a piggy bank.

Across from the family room there is a small wall that was the perfect spot for our desk. 

When we moved to this place we realized that there was no room for our bookshelves (my hubby is a major book worm) so Aaron built some above the desk. 

I love how they turned out! 

Right next to the family room is the kitchen and dining room. 

Our family rules sign hangs in the center of the house for everyone to see

and we write the kids weekly memory verses for school on the white board (to the right) so we can go over it at meal times.

the kitchen...

nothing fancy 

the other half

One of my favorite things about the kitchen is that I have a great view into our backyard.
I love to watch the kids play while I cook or clean (or sneak chocolate).

Outside the kitchen is our dining room.

I'm still loving the chairs and bench we spray painted to match our table (although they are getting ready for a touch up coat).

Lately we have been keeping the leaf out of our table which has been giving us a little more space. 

Trader Joes has the best flowers! 

Every week I buy one of their $3.99 bunches and put some in the kitchen and some on the table. 

I love having fresh flowers around the house..they are so bright and cheery. 

Here's a peek at our stairs. 

We have another photo collage on the landing. 

We definitely have a picture problem. 

The giant cross is from Joanns. 

another view of the family room

Giant "S" is from Joanns and painted French Pale Gold by Behr

and the turquoise lamp is from Goodwill

Another favorite part of our house is our backyard!

The kids spend at least 50% of the day out here.

We scored this bad boy off Craigslist for $75.

And this week it just got an upgrade.
Duck Dynasty style.

The kids think it is the coolest clubhouse ever.

We also planted lots of goodies in our backyard. 

We added 2 square foot gardens with tons of cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, squash, zucchini, herbs, etc.

We also have a bunch of strawberries hanging in those planters on the wall (they work great and keep out snails and other critters).

The other half...check out our cute little watermelon and that corn!

*Right after we moved it we hung the cafe lights in the backyard. I love to see them all lite up at night! You can see some more pictures of them at night here from Aaron's birthday party.

We got this picnic table at Lowes and use it daily! 

We eat lunch out here just about every day (so much easier clean up outside) and now that it's summer we eat dinner out here most nights too. 

We (and by we I mean Aaron) drilled a hole in the middle of the table so we could add an umbrella to it.

What a lifesaver the umbrella has been. 

Shade=good. 

We also have grand plans to stain and seal it. 

Maybe that will happen...one day!

We finally moved our chickens outside a couple weeks ago and they are so happy out there. We fenced off a little area for them to hang out in during the day then we let them out in the yard to explore for an hour or so when Aaron gets home from work (which is their favorite). Then we put them in the coop at night to sleep. 

And that's about it :)

Well all the exciting stuff at least. 

Here's another view from the second story. 

And the other half.

And this is what it really looks like most days. 

Just keeping it real people. 

Hope you guys enjoyed a peek into our home.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Kids bedroom inspiration

I'm itching to redo the kids rooms. 

As soon as Madelyn is in a big girl bed we are going to put the girls together and give Wesley his own room. 

The boy needs his own room for a million different reasons (but the most important one being that we will all get more sleep).   

Recently Ashley at Lil Blue Boo put together 12 different boy and girl bedrooms for inspiration.  

There are so many cute ideas!

I'm definitely inspired

hopefully you will be too.

 Enjoy!

girl ideas 

boy ideas

A rainbow of...books!

Rainbows make me smile. 

But having a bookshelf filled with 

a rainbow of pretty colors 

makes me smile a lot.

A lot. a lot.  

I mean, how could you look at that and be anything but happy?

A big thanks to my crazy organized hubby for letting me mess everything up for the sake of prettiness. 

You are the best!

I love having the rainbow inside our house. 

So if you wrote a book what color would it be?

Chalk board picture frame

I've been wanting a cute chalk board for 

forever. 

It's just one of the projects I have on my super long to do list that will most likely never get done. 

You know how that goes.

But guess what I got for Christmas?

A super cute 

totally perfect for our house

chalkboard picture frame handmade by my cousin.

I'm in love!

It's just perfect for writing Mackenzie's weekly bible memory verses (for her preschool) on. 

And we hung it right by the dining table so we could go over the verse during meals.
So far it's been working out great!

Oh and apparently it was super easy to make.
Just take the glass out of a picture frame, paint some chalkboard paint on it and
ta da!
An adorable chalkboard.

Thanks Becky!
We love it!

An aqua desk

I love Craigslist.

It's pretty much my go to spot whenever we need to buy or sell something. 

I love the selection you can find on there and well...

 I'm definitely a sucker for a good deal. 

A couple months ago I scored a beautiful roll top desk for $20. 

Bam! 

Try finding that deal in a store. 

The moment I laid eyes on it I knew it was destined for greatness.

Aqua greatness that is. 

  

Isn't it pretty?

I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of it before we had taken it apart to be painted but as you can kind of see it started off a darker wood color.  

To get it ready for it's paint job 

I lightly sanded the entire desk and drawers with this sand sponge 

as well as some regular sand paper. 

It was super easy and didn't take long at all. 

Then, after I got all of the sawdust off the desk, 

came the fun part!

Painting!

And after 3 light coats of aqua goodness, 

and 6 or so cans of spray paint later 

our desk was finished! 

I love how it turned out!

The color is so bright and cheery.

When I see it I get happy. 

Oh and after I was finished painting I went back with the sandpaper and lightly sanded off a tad of the paint on the corners and edges to distress it a bit.

I figured it would be distressed soon enough whether I liked it or not so I might as well make it look intentional. 

Thanks for stopping by!

And come back next week to see another spray painting project I've been working on. 

Bible verses for the kiddos room

A while ago Aaron and I started a project for the kids room

and in true Sellars' style,

a month and a half later,

it is finally finished!

Together Aaron and I chose a Bible verse for each of our kids

and then painted them on giant pieces of wood to hang in our kids room.

And by we, I mean my awesome husband.

He did pretty much the entire project by himself.

At least all the hard stuff :)

We chose Matthew 5:16 for Mackenzie.

She is our little ray of sunshine.

She is always filled with joy

and knows how to put a smile on even the grumpiest of faces.

Our prayer is that she would shine the light of Jesus to everyone she meets.

Wesley is a very studious little boy.

From the time he was a tiny baby people always commented on how serious he looked.

Don't get me wrong, he is super loving and likes to be silly

but for the most part he likes to observe and study things.

Our prayer is that he would be a man who knows and loves the truth of God's word and lives in step with it.

Here are the verses in the kids room.

Mackenzie's is hanging on the wall next to her bed,

and Wesley's is right above his crib.

Want to make an awesome sign for yourself?

Check out the tutorial we used and whip up something special and unique of your own.