Nesting Nesting...123

Oh my HECK! You guys I am OBSESSED with my new toy!!!!! After conversing with my Mother In law about her steam mop, it deepened my already  groing desire to own one. But I have the MOST high maintence house ever where each room requires a vacuum, broom, AND mop. Thats right. Hard wood and tile all on the main level and each bedroom has hardwood around the perimeter with a square of carpet in the middle. Its a full on workout to clean upstairs and BOY was I sick of my man arms that were starting to develop. (Dont worry, I combatted this problem by living on cheese and mayonnaise 99% of the time...)

Anyway, a chance outing to Tuesday morning solved all my problems! I found this little beauty:

The Haan Steam Vac! (Which I have just now, lovingly named HANS. I know, Im so brilliant.)

It vacuums WHILST steaming....on not just hard wood and tile - BUT ON CARPET TOO!!!!! I just sanitized my entire downstairs in about 15 minutes. MIRACLE. Plus, it is going to be my go to trick for inducing my own labor. Win win you might say.

Even better than finding this blessed machine, was the fact that it had excellent reviews and WAS ON CLEARANCE!!!! Retail price tag: $250
What did I pay? $99! This was seriously a STEAL. I had previously flirted with the SHARK mop (which does NOT vacuum) and it was going to cost me around $80 on sale. I feel so good about myself - I cant even tell you.

The fact of the matter is, when you have a bunch of small germy sticky children running wild throughout your home, you NEED a chemical free way to sterilize the floors they crawl around on. When you are nesting, this is the main concern. How do I disinfect every inch of every surface in my home? Well, my friends, Hans. Thats how!

There are two more on the shelf....just say the word and Ill snag you one :)

In other rather essential nesting news, I bought new pillows and lamps for my drab man cave of a living room. Whatever possessed me to paint my entire downstairs in various shades of poo browns I will never know. But a little pop of yellow and silver has worked wonders to girly it up. Plus, with the addition of two lamps it means that I no longer have to have bat vision to sit there and read at night.

Lets take a moment to admire the handiwork of my amazing woodcutter husband, shall we? He salvaged this wood from a wreckage pile on a jobsite. Then he meticulously and painstakingly de-nailed, sanded, distressed and stained every inch of its mammoth girth. This process of sanding and staining took literally MONTHS. There was one minor setback with a polyurethane fiasco that nearly broke my carpenters spirit....but he powered on and this was our lovely result:

The little church pew benches are our answer to our ever growing brood of small squirmy children. I cant just line the table perimeter with a million high chairs, now can I? So now the kids just sit on their little bench scooted up nice and snug. It works like a charm and my kids LOVE sitting at the table like a big person. My mom and Grandma were major saints and came over and covered the padded seats with white vinyl for me. It required the purchase and usage of a nice little staple gun (which Gabe inherited for his birthday and couldnt be more pleased with!). I had tried unsuccessfully I might add, to sew a cover for the padded seats....which ended up in one broken sewing machine and a few colorful swear words. How great is it that I have crafty heritage to call upon in my hour of need!??? Thanks again ladies!

I figured for how important meal times and eating are in our house, a nice big gathering table can take us a LONG way in life. So far, it has proved to be MOST popular. We will someday buy a few grown up chairs to sit where the benches are now, and move the benches to the ends. Lets just say if we end up having 12 kids that are the size of GIANTS - we are all set. And to think - it only cost us 6 long months of marriage, and my sanity. I AM SO THANKFUL ITS DONE!!!!

But guess what...the fun hasnt ended. NO WAY. Here at the Beal house, it is not just the expectant mother who is a nesting fool. OH NO. The expectant father has his own obsessions to complete before baby's arrival. Hence....the addition of a new playroom in the garage! How might you ask, are we doing this? Well, when you are married to Bob Villa like I am, its just no big deal. All you do is frame up a few walls in the garage bay, add a little electrical, heating, lighting, and sheetrock... and VOILA! A room to contain the drama that is feral children cooped up indoors all winter long! He cut a doorway through the hall closet, so you can get in through the house. Its really quite Brilliant. My Father in law Seth was kind enough to come and do free manual slave labor over the weekend and somehow progress was made! Although, we werent sure when there was some argument over two- ba-twos and four-ba-fours. But somehow its coming along. Thanks again Seth for going an extra 2 days without sleep. I dont know how you do it, but boy do we appreciate it!

And just because they are so darn cute, here are a few pictures of my kids. Brigitte rolling around on the floorboard out of her mind while spencer was napping earlier today, and an old one of Spencer when he was a super chubby little 6 month old! I wish I could shrink him back down - he is getting SO BIG these days!