color advice needed

Okay folks, I need some color advice.  I painted our living room, foyer, and hallway about 5 years ago.  I do like the colors, but I'm not so in love with them anymore.  For those who really know me, you know I like to change paint colors like I change my underwear, so 5 years is a very long time for one color to stay on my wall in any room.  So, I'm itching to change it, but not sure what direction to go with it. 
Here is what it looks like now with the new floor we put down

and this is what our furniture looks like

I plan to keep the neutral couch and love seat in there, and would prefer to keep the same curtains.  Here is a link to the curtains I have.  We have the "rich red" color. Also, that yellow color will likely stay in the foyer and hallway for the time being so whatever color I use needs to go well with that yellow.  I feel like not only is it time for a change, but a more neutral color in there would probably be better when we decide to sell the house.  For reference, the kitchen is valspar cliveden pasture, and the yellow in the living room and hallway is Behr beachwalk.

I have a feeling when this room is done I may feel the need to repaint the kitchen a more neutral color since it is pretty bold color.  I really do like the color in my kitchen, but again, I'm very worried about potential buyers hating it.  Our house is not on the market yet, and I don't really know for sure when it will be, but I don't want to leave tons of projects to do right before we put it up for sale.

Anyway, please give me some ideas for this room.  My ideas are all over the place and I'm just not sure where to go with it. 

Hiatus

ok, wow!  I was on a blogging hiatus for quite a while huh?  Here's the thing; I have nothing to blog about.  Anything I feel like saying or sharing lately get posted in a two sentence status update on facebook, or as a picture on facebook.  I think it's kind of sad my whole life can be summed up in a facebook status, but it is what it is.
Anyway, a quick rundown on the past couple of months.

• Brooklyn started walking when she was 9 months old.  Quite ridiculous if you ask me.  She now basically runs around chasing her siblings and all the other neighborhood kids.

• Brooklyn still does not sleep through the night, and is still nursing a ton.  She does however eat a lot of real food now.  I just have to figure out how to get her to drink from a cup.
• I've been trying to potty train Jackson, but he's so lazy and resistant it's been awful.  I'm taking a break right now because I just can't handle cleaning up anymore "accidents" for a while.  I desperately want him to be potty trained soon, but obviously there is only so much I can do to make that happen.  The rest is up to him to be willing to do what he knows how to do.
• Emma, Megan,and I had our first dance recital together.  It was really fun, but totally crazy taking care of all 3 of our stuff and costume and shoe changes.
• Emma had her first communion

• Brooklyn turned one and loved her cake.

• Nathan turned 7!!!!  Holy crap, my two oldest are 7 and 8 now.  Craziness!
• Emma and Nathan are finally out of school for the summer
• I turned 28.  :(  EEK!  Now I'm only 2 years away from 30.  Seriously having a hard time with that.
• My sister-in-law, brother, Sean and I threw a surprise party for my mom.  It was awesome and she was totally shocked.  

• We took the kids to my mom's to swim for the first time this year, and Brooklyn loved the pool.  Yay for another water baby!

Maybe I'll get creative and come up with some fun things to blog about, and maybe not and you'll just get random posts here and there catching up on things.

Brooklyn is 9 months

Brooklyn is 9 months old today, well sort of.  I figure it must be today by default since there was no February 29th.  She is 17 pounds 2 ounces, and 27 inches long.  So the doctor says she a tiny little thing, but really I don't think she's that small, and I know she's not any smaller than the other kids were at this age.  Well, except for Nathan, but he was a moose until he turned one, and then started slowing down.  Anyway, she's doing great, even if she's on the smaller side.  She still doesn't sleep through the night, although we are down to 2 wake-ups only most nights, which isn't too bad.  Plus I know the extra nursing overnight is helping her gain enough, and helping maintain my supply.  Really, I don't even remember what it's like to go to bed and not have to get up once or twice in the middle of the night, so it's not like I know what I'm missing.
Brooklyn is always on the go, and just today she has started standing up totally on her own.  We are not talking pulling up on things, she's done that for a couple months.  We are talking sitting in the middle of the room with nothing around her, and pushing herself up to standing without holding onto anything.  Once she gets her feet under her in sort a squat-like position, she just stands up.  It's crazy!  I know she's going to be walking very soon.  Megan walked at 10 months, which I felt was so early, but I think Brooklyn might beat that at the rate she is going. 
Brooklyn's newest food discovery is crackers.  She loves crackers.  She still doesn't care for baby food, or really anything you can spoon feed her, but if she can feed it to herself, she loves it.
The biggest problem right now is Brooklyn hates the bath.  Really, I don't know if hate is strong enough to describe it.  She loves taking a shower, but hates the bath.  Her feet hit the water in the tub and she starts screaming until you take her back out.  It's the oddest thing, and I have no idea why she hates it.  The water temp is fine, so I know she's not freezing or getting burnt.  Any ideas about this?
All in all, I seriously can't believe Brooklyn is 9 months old.  Time has gone by so fast it's incredible.  In 3 months I won't have an infant anymore, or ever again.  I'm just really not sure how to feel about that.

Emma turns 8!!!!!!

Holy Crap!  Emma is 8 years old!  :thud:  It's hard to believe this

was 8 years ago.  It seems like much, much less.  Emma is such a grown up little woman.  I called her girl kid (something silly I do with all the kids) the other night, and she argues she was not a kid, she's a young adult.  In numbers of years, I feel I have to disagree, but in maturity, she is so right.  Being the oldest of 5 has caused her to grow up fast, but I think even if we had stopped at two kids, she'd still be mature for her age.  Even when she and Nathan were little she was always motherly and acted much older than she was.  She is so patient and loving with the younger kids, and I love watching her interact with Jackson and Brooklyn.  Jackson will even run to Emma, instead of me, sometimes when he is hurt or upset.  It's awfully cute seeing Emma be the mother hen to the other kids.
Emma is LOVING dance and the tumbling class she started this year.  She has definitely caught up to the other girls in her dance class, and she is doing great!  Of course I think she gets her natural ability from me, lol!  I really love watching her enjoy something I have always loved.  She went to one of my dance classes and marvelled at how good I was.  I told her someday she would for sure be better than me if she stuck with dance and keeps practicing, so that definitely motivates her.
In addition to adding a tumbling class, Emma also started girl scouts this year.  She loves going to her meetings and events, and it seems like she is making friends with a nice group of girls.  If Emma had her way, she would join every activity out there.  She sure has come a long way from the introverted kid who didn't want to participate in anything that didn't include mom or dad.  I never would have expected her to be such a social kid.

First Birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

Fourth Birthday

Fifth Birthday

Sixth Birthday


Seventh birthday

 Eighth Birthday

catch-all

Does everyone have a catch-all room or space?  Admittedly, we have a LOT of stuff.  We try to sort through and get rid of stuff we don't need anymore, but it's been a while since I've done that, so things are kind of piling up on me.  We have part of the basement still unfinished for storage, but sadly, that is full, and all the excess stuff is spilling out and ending up in the office that is really supposed to be a dining room.  I don't mind that room ending up as a storage are since it's not a room I have to be in much, but I do hate it because of the room's location.  It is right inside the front door.  So, when people come over, or someone comes to the door, the first thing they see is a room that looks like we are hoarders.  For real, it's bad right now.  It's not stacked up to the ceiling, but it's pretty full, and there really is just a path around the table in the room.  The rest of the floor is full of stuff, and there is stuff piled on top of that stuff.  It's so bad, but I don't know what else to do with it all right now.  I want to have a garage sale this spring to get rid of most of it, but in the mean time, it's just sitting in the office taking up space.
If you don't have a catch-all room, how do you keep stuff from piling up?  Do you not have extra stuff?  I do not consider myself a "stuff" person.  When I sort through the excess, if it hasn't been used since the last sort, or 6 months, then it goes in the 'get rid of' pile, but somehow over the years, we've still amassed a ton.  I'm sure part of it is having 5 kids and all the gear, toys, and clothing that they need, but even without them, I bet this would still be an issue, though maybe on a smaller scale.  Please tell me we are not the only house/family with this problem.

bathroom pictures

Haha, oops!  Just realized I forgot to add pictures of the bathroom to the last post.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the room with the carpet, but it was the same as the living room carpet, so just use your imagination.  :)

color before

color after

and a picture of the tile. (yes the transition strip is missing between the tile and wood, but it's there now)

I haven't put the mirror back up yet either because I'm going to get it cut down.  It was so big before (as wide as the vanity), and I feel like it would look better if it was a smaller size.

Next up for renovations at the house;  putting a bathroom in the basement.  I think we'll be hiring professionals to do the plumbing and electrical down there, and then Sean and I will do the rest.  I don't need a flood or a fire in the house because we tried to do it ourselves, lol!

New floors

In the past few weeks we put in new flooring in the living room, foyer, and main floor bathroom.  The living room and bathroom had carpet, and the foyer had linoleum, and all of that was the stuff put in when we built the house 5 1/2 years ago.  It was all decent flooring originally, but with all the kids, the carpet was pretty awful, and the linoleum had been marked up some, and I figured if we were replacing the living room floor, we may as well do the foyer since they run together.  What I didn't know was there was an extra piece of underlayment under the linoleum that would be a royal pain to remove, but by the time we realized how hard it was going to be, it was too late to change our minds.  Even though it was a much bigger job than we thought it would be, I'm so glad we got it all done with the exception of the extra trim that I need to paint and install.  We put a wood laminate floor in the living room and foyer, and tile in the bathroom.  Originally I wanted hardwood, but we just couldn't justify spending that kind of money right now, especially if we end up moving in the next year.
I also painted the bathroom a neutral tan.  I loved the color in the powder room, but it was definitely not something everyone would love.  So, since we were tearing everything else out to do the floor, it just made sense to repaint now.
Now, the pictures.

good-bye carpet

hello new floor!

and of course a picture of the cutest helper ever.  She was helping put down the underlayment.  :)

See that mark on Jackson's right cheek?  He found a magic marker...  OOPS!

This was where all the kids gathered to watch the carpet start to come out.  It was such an exciting/interesting process for the kids to watch.