Life in the Heald house: The girls move-in together!

***Just found this in my drafts file – ooops! Should have posted this months ago. I’ll move back to 2012 in a week or two.

When we found out there was another baby on the way we started talking about what to do with the rooms upstairs. We had our bedroom, one guest room and Matney and Halle Kate had their own rooms. After talking to the girls we decided to keep a guest room and put the girls in together. Several people had strong opinions about not putting them together but in the end we decided to give it a try….and they LOVE it!

Both girls had begged to share a room and the only concern we had was how well they would sleep. We waited until we got back from Disney and they were out of their routine and used to being in the same room at night. Jared and I were nervous but it has gone so well!!! Listening to them talk to one another over the monitor is the sweetest, cutest thing in the world. They tell each other stories and sing songs. At least once a week we hear them running around, and most of the time we ignore them, and it is SO DANG FUNNY to go check them when they finally fall asleep. We have found out them in totally different clothes than what they were wearing when we tucked them in and random toys everywhere. So dang funny!

Going to bed at night hasn’t been an issue but some mornings have been a struggle. They are both supposed to stay quietly in bed until their Mr. Sun light comes on. Then, the first person awake is supposed to tip toe out of the room…which almost never happens. The first girl awake has been known to come flying out of the room like a stampede of elephants while shouting the other girls’ name. Nothing like hearing “Halle Kate? Halle Kate? HALLE KATE!!!! are you awake?” before the sun comes up!

All together it has been a great change. The girls love being together and both have said some version of “I know I don’t have to be scared at night because (my sister) is with me”. So sweet. And, hallelujah! Ever since HK was a baby I have been in her room at least once a night, just to pat her back when she was crying. Now that she is in a room with Matney she almost always sleeps all night long. Whoo hooo! They may fight like cats and dogs a lot of the time but they do love each other a whole lot.

Here are some pictures of the room. Jared cut the headboards out of plywood and I covered them with fabric. And then I made Mom work in my sweatshop and make the curtains. I have some things to go on the walls but all of that will have to wait until after Christmas and after the dust settles on the built-ins downstairs.

What our bedroom looked like the morning of the big move. HK went to M’s room, the guest room went to HK’s old room and M’s old furniture went to the nursery which was the guest room. IE – pretty much every single thing upstairs except our room had to be cleaned out – closets, drawers, everything. It took FOREVER to dig through it all!

Moving the guest room into HK’s old room.

The girls occupied themselves for most of the day and let us work. They were excited by the mess.

The start of the girls’ room. I’d hoped the painter would be here before the move but he couldn’t come until after Thanksgiving. We promised HK if she went to M’s room that we’d repaint the walls. HK and a pink room was not going to work!

Had to have a picture of J smiling. He worked solid for 2 days moving stuff around and (most of the time) stayed in a really good mood. I love this picture of Jared – I married well, he’s a stud!