A Room to Love

That's cover model Liliana!

Ella and Liliana {and their bedroom} were recently featured in Lawrence Kids magazine's "Room to Love" spread.

Ella and Liliana in our unfinished home while our humble abode was being built.
*The top photo is a photo of a photos so the quality of the image is poor.

They had lots of fun posing for the magazine.

Julietta got in on the action too.

When we built our house I loved choosing the paint color and arranging their things. Thinking about it brings a flood of memories. I found banged up matching head and foot boards at the Salvation Army a couple of days after we moved back to Lawrence from Missoula. My parents had the girls in Russell for a few days while we got settled into our new {sight unseen} rental. I was eight months pregnant, in the garage, in Kansas' summer heat sanding those beds and repainting them for my soon to be "big girls." My nesting insticts were on high. We moved only one crib for our new baby boy to use and I was so worried the girls wouldn't have a bed when we brought them home. It was such a relief to have a place for them to lay their curly little heads. After sanding and painting and doing it some more, I began to think bedding. While the paint dried I went shopping and found one set of bedding in Lawrence. I called all over the metro area and drove to Kansas City late the night before heading to Russell to buy a matching set. When I brought the girls home to Lawrence they had the perfect big girl beds waiting for them. A year later we moved into our new house with those old beds.

Now Julietta sleeps in their old crib. And the girls still sleep in their first "big girl beds."

Their room started tidy and sweet - pink walls, a few pieces of girly art, two shelves of books, and a trinket here and there. I displayed their first dance leotards and framed their tiny ballet shoes, worn from a year of dance lessons. Homeade decorations hung in their first nursery found a place next to decorations first displayed in my nursery when I was a baby. Now, their room is overflowing with dolls, hundreds of favorite books, a Valentine collection started five years ago, crayons shoved under their beds, a treasure chest filled with jewels found on beach with Grandpa, photos of happy days, Taylor Swift cds, sheet music, Barbie shoes, American girl doll accessories, and ballet clothes.

Their room isn't just a "room to love," it's a room that is loved.

Ella and Liliana have a room where they can host tea parties, play Barbies, dress their American Girl dolls, have board game tournaments, dunk the nerf basketball, and jam on the keyboard Grandpa TX sent them.

I don't know how much longer we will have little girls who play in their perfectly pink room together, so I savor it now.

And keep the photos so I can savor the memories of it always.