Our Boys Tonka Bedroom

With the exception of some curtains and a bookshelf our boys new room is complete.  It was a fun project and I am very pleased with how it turned out.  The boys LOVE it and that's the best part of all.  It's just a happy room and it makes me smile every time I pass by and peek inside.  I love it.  We all do. 

So, with that being said, come on in and take a look inside-

This is the view as you walk in the door.

Their bunkbeds with their new blankets.

A beanbag that they already had goes great in there so I put it in the corner and made them a reading nook.  We had a small bookshelf already but it only holds about 1/3 of their books.  I only put the board/Ben friendly books on it for now.  The other books will go on the new shelf.  Both of my boys love books and have already spent a lot of time sitting and "reading" in this new space.

I purchased some art frames a few years ago while in the States and have loved having them in the boys room.  Not only do they display their art but they can store around 50 drawings inside.  I also purchased a letter "B" and letter "C" a few years ago to hang with them.  I wanted to incorporate them all back into their new bedroom. 

I went online and printed off some Tonka coloring sheets for the boys to color.  I hung each one with their letter.  I'll change them out from time to time but I thought they looked cute.  Although I had forgotten when I gave Cruz his to color that he colors EVERYTHING these days like a rainbow.  Hence the reason for his brightly colored Tonka machine, ha.  

Here is their closet/ storage space.  I will put a large bookshelf in that open space to hold their puzzles, books, and some toys.   The middle will be toy storage as well.  I haven't moved any thing back in there yet until we get the shelf.  I'm not ready for it to look cluttered.  The right side is for their clothes. 

A closer view of their clothes area.  The door swings back and covers most of this area during the day while they play

And here they are on the first night they slept in there.  We heard a lot of giggles coming from there that night.  What a fun room for my sweet boys!

The Boys New Bunkbeds

Bunk beds and little boys are a disastrous mix- I know.  But we bought them anyway.  Their room is not very big and two twin beds would have eaten up a lot of their play space so bunk beds were a great option.  We went with a twin on the top and full on the bottom.  Ben is transitioning to a regular bed so a full will give him more space and also provide us extra room to sleep with one of them if necessary. 

We planned to buy the bed frames in town once the painting was finished but then explored the option of having someone make us some.  We ended up buying them in town mostly because we got impatient. 

David took Cruz into town with him to pick them up.  Cruz didn't know where they were going and was quite surprised when he figured it out.  He was a big helper loading them in the car, unloading them at home, and putting them together.

helping his daddy with his new bed

this is the look I got from David when I asked him to stop for a picture, ha

Ben kept calling the bottom part his boat.  He had the best time playing on it while Cruz and David worked.

almost done...

they are loving it!!!

We already had a twin mattress from Cruz's bed.  We planned to buy a full mattress from a young girl we know who works in a local store in neighboring Jocotan.  David stopped by and  bought it early one morning after he dropped Cruz off at school.  We put in on the bed and then mid-morning the store called and needed it back.  They sold us a light blue one and needed to exchange it for a dark blue one (supposedly the same mattress).  They only had a light blue base and needed it back to complete the set.  We waited all afternoon for them to come and swap it out and they never came.  We finally got a text late in the day pretty much saying never mind- just keep the light blue one.  ugh.  Some day's the littlest of things can send  you over the edge, ha. 

So, they have beds now and I'll post a photo of them with the bedding along with a few other things I've done in their room next.  I still lack finding a book shelf and some curtains and I'll be completely done. Yeah!

Painting Our Boys Bedroom- Tonka Theme

One of the things I had planned to do when we returned from the States was redecorate the boys bedroom. I knew Ben would be transitioning into a "big boy bed" so I started gathering ideas of what I might could do in their room. We could have put two twin beds in there but it would not have given them much play space so we knew early on that we wanted bunk beds. We looked at a few options that were available in our area before we left for the States last year just to give us an idea of what to expect. David wanted a twin on top and full on bottom and the only one we could find around here was a black metal one. I made a mental note of that as I searched decoration ideas.

I didn't have anything in mind when I began looking and of course the internet ideas are endless. I didn't want a heavy comforter set because it is so hot where we live. Most of the quilts I found were terribly expensive. So one day in my searching I ran across this cute Tonka blanket  at walmart.com and I fell in love.

What I loved about it most was that it was thin, super soft, and not too pricy.  So I ordered one for each of the boys and brought them back to Guatemala with us.  I love, love, love them! 

I pretty much used the blankets as my inspiration for the rest of the room.  I wanted a highway theme with trucks, sky, grass, a tree... just like the blanket.  I knew David thought I was crazy but I knew in my mind how I envisioned it looking.   Instead of us painting it ourselves (which is what we would normally do) we hired a few local guys from our town who we knew would do a better job.  They did great! 

my boys "helping" the painters  

It was an exciting time for them

At one point I ended up filling a bucket with water and giving them brooms as brushes and they spent some time "painting" the outside of our house.  These days it's all about distracting them and keeping them busy.

It only took them two days to finish the job.  This was after the end of day one.

The gray area is their "closet".  All the rooms in our house have open spaces like this. 

Lunch break of day 2- it's starting to look really cute.

I had them paint a tree and a few Tonka trucks.  They turned out very cute.

The Tonka trucks on the boys walls

Painting project finished!

my boys LOVE it!

Their finished closet space.  One side will hold their clothes and the other side I will put a large bookshelf for their books, puzzles, and toys. 

Stay tuned... I'll show you more in a few days.

A Place To Call Their Own

It has been almost a month now since we transitioned the boys into their own shared room.  For the most part it was a very easy transition.  It is pretty hot where we live and we only have one air conditioner.  It is in our bedroom.  We run it at night and just use ceiling fans during the day in the other rooms.  It is not a perfect situation, but we manage.  Because of that the boys had been sleeping in our room because it is cooler.  They each had their own pack 'n play.  It was a little crowded, but we were only in there just to sleep so it worked okay.  Since moving them out we took Cruz's pack 'n play down, but left Ben's up.  I still bring him in our room some in the early mornings and he naps in there some during the day.  We use a baby monitor so I still hear their every move during the night, but I am learning to sleep through some of it. 

Cruz loves having his own bed and was over the moon the first night he got to sleep in it.   He has slept in there every night since.  He goes to bed relatively easy which is nice.  If you follow us much you know he wakes up very early.  To offset that we started setting an alarm for him.  My cell phone has a talking alarm clock.  When it goes off it says "It's time to get up.  The time is..."  It keeps repeating until we turn it off.  He took right to the idea of waiting for the clock to tell him to get up.  We set it for 6:30.  It's not to wake him up but to keep him in bed until then.  A few days when he has woke up before 5:30 we had to slip in and adjust it to 6:00 because we know that is just too long to make him wait there.  When he falls asleep we put several books by his bed and when he gets up in the morning he stays in bed and "reads" until the clock goes off.  It is a pretty simple idea, and it is working well for now.  The only problem is he "reads" out loud and can be a little noisy with it.  We are trying to teach him to not be so loud so he will not wake his brother up.

Here are a few photos-

This was our bedroom when the boys slept in there.  Ben's bed is beside ours and Cruz's was at the foot.  He loved crawling into our bed when he woke up in the mornings.  I miss that.  My next home improvement project is to paint our room.  I am not crazy about the green.  I wanted it painted before we moved in but David convinced me to wait.  Well, 8 months later I am still waiting!  I have not hung anything on the walls or bought curtains either because I want to paint the room first.  We'll get around to it... one day.

This is the boys room as you enter from the door.  

Ben is using Cruz's crib bedding.  We moved Cruz in a twin bed from our guest room.  I still need to buy him some new sheets and a bed cover.  It is just so hot here though a bed cover would only be for decoration.  When trying to decide how to decorate Cruz really wanted to hang the quilt over his bed.  He loves looking at the animals.  I also need to get him a table to go beside the bed.  Right now we are using a cardboard box.

Ben's corner

The back of the room from Cruz's bed

another view

Each bedroom here has this storage space in it.  I love having a place to hang clothes.  Overall it is a little messy looking but it works.

We often find Cruz sitting here playing or looking at books.  When I stop nursing Ben we will move the glider out to give them some more play room.

I like the way their room is coming together.  They both seem to like it as well.  We look forward to watching them grow and playing in there together.

Our Apartment in Camotan- The Kitchen

One of my favorite rooms in our new house is the kitchen.  I find myself spending a lot of time in there these days even when I am not cooking.  I just like to hang out in there because it is so cheery.  Speaking of cooking I have been doing a lot of that lately too and really enjoying it.  In addition to meals I have made several desserts just in the last week.  I have baked a chocolate chess pie, a peach cobbler, brownies, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  I will be interested to see what the scales tell me next week at my doctor's appointment, haha. 

When we first visited this place back in November I took a few photos of the way it looked to remind us afterwards.  I am glad I did because a few rooms looked a little different when we returned.  Here are a few before photos-

a view of the kitchen from the door (a little blurry)

There were a few overhead cabinets but none below.

And a few after photos-

Looking in from the door.  I love the double sink and having a real faucet.

Our landlord installed cabinets and drawers on the bottom for us without us even asking.  What a surprise to return and see these!  She has been such a blessing to work with.  It is a much different situation than our house in Sayaxche.  She really put a lot of effort to have the place ready and comfortable for us.

I really, really love our kitchen!

Our Apartment in Camotan- The Outside

I will try to get pictures posted of our new place little by little, but thought I would start with the outside first.  We are renting an apartment.  It is a two story building.  We are renting the bottom floor and another single missionary lady is renting the top floor.  We feel like we brought the circus to town with our loud crew when we moved in, but so far she does not seem to mind (or at least it does not show, haha). 

We live behind the grey concrete wall and the green gate on the left is our entrance.  I love those flowers and mountain views.  We are happy to be back living in the mountains.  It was flat in the Peten so the mountain views remind us of being in and around Coban (which we love and miss).

a view from the gate entrance

Our apartment is shaped in a "U".  There is a sidewalk that goes all the way around and each room has a separate door that leads out to the sidewalk.  That was really the only thing I did not like about this place, but it has turned out not to be so bad.  We actually like the natural light and breeze of living with the doors and windows open.  We are on the bottom level.

sidewalk views

This area is usually filled with toys most of the time.

This is the courtyard area that is in the center of the property.  We do not have any grass but still plenty of area for Cruz to run and play.

view of our gate and security wall

It is a little strange living behind a wall again.  Before moving to Sayaxche we had only lived in gated, walled places with razor wire.  One of my main concerns about moving to Sayaxche was that most of the properties there do not have this.  It is more open living there.  It took me a little while to get comfortable with people just walking through our yard and walking right up to our screen door and looking into our house.  Over time we began to like it.  We enjoyed watching people walk up and down the road.   It forced us to open ourselves up to the locals.  We really got to know our neighbors because we were so visible to them everyday.  We never had to worry about our property while we were gone because our neighbors were so good to look after our place for us.  That does not happen often and we feel blessed to have been where we were.   Living behind walls has its advantages, but there are also advantages to living like the locals do.

more views of our wall and razor wire

We really like our new place.  It is clean and cozy.

And one last photo of a little boy who loves having his photo taken.  His new thing is to have me take his picture so he can look at it on my camera.  He always says "Cruz" when he sees himself.  This is him giving me a BIG "cheeeeze".  He's a hoot!