I hope everyone had an excellent Holiday! Ours had it's ups and downs but mostly ups!! Christmas started early for the girls since we were going to be in Montana for Christmas and Santa knew that some of the presents he was planning on bringing would not be easily transported back home! So the morning we left for Montana the girls woke up to find their stocking filled with things for the long car ride and and letter left from Santa himself!
They were so excited about the stocking stuffers I had to read the letter twice before they realized that the letter was telling them to go downstairs where they would find this....
Don't you LOVE it!!! Okay so imagine that it's not in an ugly unfinished basement and that the walls and table are painted super cute, and there are curtains on the window...these were all part of the original plan but this was a difficult project to work on without the girls finding out about it!
Jake really gets most of the credit, he is so good to put up with all my grand ideas that usually mean he works really hard and I reap the benefits. It all started when I saw a kitchen set in Pottery Barn magazine that I just fell in love with. Well of course it was all outrageously expensive and I could never imagine actually buying it...but making my husband make one was still an option! Jake agreed to do it and I think I LOVE it more than the girls. I honestly cried when I saw it all together for the first time thinking about not only our kids enjoying it but hopefully our grandkids!! This was certainly a labor of Love:)
It didn't take long for before the girls were cooking up a storm!
Jake built this entire stove from scratch and it's my very favorite piece!
This cabinet is one that was at Jake's house when he was growing up. It was a dark stained wood so we just painted it to match!
Jake also made the fridge from scratch...I LOVE how much storage he put in it!
I was so proud that we were able to do this whole thing on a budget. Like I said Jake built the stove and fridge so that was the only wood we bought. The handles on both of those pieces are made out of PVC pipe we had laying around and the sink was made with a bowl purchased for a dollar at DI. As I said we got the cabinet from Jake parents. The highchair is an old highchair Jake's dad actually ate in as a baby. Jake took it apart and put it back together nice and sturdy and cut the legs down. The table is an old table from Jake's Grandpa Smith that we also cut the legs down on. The 2 (soon to be 4) little folding chairs are old primary chairs Jake's parents picked up for us and they are covered in Wal-mart fabric. Even the rug under the table was half off at Target!! All in all with paint and everything we figure we spent $150-$170! Sure beats Pottery Barn $1000+ price tag!!
I love that each piece has a story! Thank you, Thank you a million times to Jake who worked so hard on this in his few precious moments of spare time, I Love You!!
Probably the best gift was that Jake didn't have church meetings Sunday morning. He's in the Bishopric of our ward, so that leaves me to get myself and the 3 girls ready for church by 8:30am. So, having him home before church made for a much less stressful morning! We even had a moment to snap a few pictures! Jake also made me breakfast complete with a cup full of dandelions freshly picked by the girls and on Saturday I got to go pick out some hanging flower baskets and flowers for pots. Our porch is now nice a springy!
I am so grateful that I can be a mother, especially to these 3 sweet girls. Some days can be long, but the years go quickly it seems. I look forward to many more years of hand print flowers and toilet paper tube crafts. Why is it that those things are so much more precious than diamonds or pearls? Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's! Especially to all the Mom's in my life!
