cloud room part two

here are a variety of perspectives of the pretty cloud room
the momma wanted the room to have the look of a night sky,
so of course we added glow-in-the-dark stars to the ceiling!

one day we hope that this will be our girl's bedroom
for now, Leannora shares the room with Able

Leannora loves to look out the window from her bed

she really loves to see the moon!

we had fun taking pictures of the cloud room
Leannora, Nikao, and Able were my helpers

July 29, 2008 cloud room done
August 6 - Leannora gets to sleep in her new room!

so the silly story goes . . . the momma spent 6 months trying to complete what started as a simple idea. imagine that!?! she didn't actually work for those 6 months. (you may want to review the cloud room - part one post in august 2008.) we began this adventure at the end of february. the first attempt of painting was not the picture hoped for, so the papa gave the momma permission to pick out the night sky blue color she had dreamed up. the momma chalked out the cloud positions and excitedly painted the sky and then had no idea how to continue. we invited some artistic friends over for a meal and to ask for their advice and help. they kindly taught the momma how to blend the clouds just right. the technique turned out to be beautiful, but not so simple and very time consuming - lots of twisting and blending the white and blue. the momma got pretty tired of twisting.
then we were expecting company - a big family. the momma thought it would be good to clean up the painting room so our friends could use the open space. well, we got a vacation from the project. for a few months or so the room just waited for us to prep it for more painting. (the momma procrastinated for a while.) we finally returned to the twisting. even the papa pitched in in. and then, with dilligence, it only took a few weeks to finish off! yahoo!

the best part of all was giving the gift of a fun bedroom to our little lady
sweet dreams!

and the story continues . . .

cousin Daniel celebrated his 4th birthday with a big boy bed
Leannora gladly shared her bed
she was so excited to see what his new bed looked like
upon seeing her old bed in his room she said,
"it doesn't look like a girl bed anymore"

so once again Leannora is waiting to return to her room
we will be moving a set of bunk beds to the cloud room
in the waiting time Leannora gets to sleep on the top bunk
in the boy's room
Able is alone in the cloud room
and this has worked out well because he has been a grumpy teether

then once the new baby arrives
things might get switched around again
wow! we could have cloud room parts 3, 4, 5 . . .

crazy face milligans

here's a hogan picture taken by himself. hogan actually took most of these pictures with the camera we gave him last Christmas (it was our old digital camera that still works well and is pretty kid friendly.) anyways, we love his perspectives as they are a pretty true picture of our family.

owen has some great expressions that's for sure!
an able funny face
legoland living room
leannora must be dreaming up some dollhouse family adventure here or maybe she's about to roll her eyes over the idea of sharing her favorite pink car with nikao?
sorry - i haven't figured out how to turn these pictures the right way. but this one's too fun to pass up. cowboy hogan is taped up to his bedroom wall.
able's a bit silly with his disheveled hairdo
leannora looks
nikao is under his favorite purple blanket in the background of the above picture. and below you can see owen's tongue sticking out of the corner of the photo.


hair cut night in the milligan house. owen's done and looks like he's about to knock out his dad here.
daisy milligan - grandpa bill and grandma sara's dog
able's 2 teeth smile
grape flavored chipmunk cheeks. oh, or maybe those are olives?

okay, so not all of these are crazy face photos. some are quite handsome!
a bunch of cute kiddos waiting for some pictures to print out.

Some fall milligans

leafy fun. the children couldn't wait to go leaf jumping, so they raked all these leaves over to our yard from the neighbors! we gave our sweet librarian lady the giggles as she was walking on her way home (because of all their delightful enthusiasm and especially because they were not even our leaves.)



a classic look of owen our climbing boy.



these next pictures are from an apple picking trip with Grandpa and Grandma Strub. it is a beautiful orchard that overlooks sheep grazing on the hills completed by a pond and weeping willow tree! one of our favorite fall places and a spot that's become a tradition to visit since we moved to the madison area.


we did manage to take a couple of pictures from our insulation adventure.


here's Able helping daddy with our big project. notice the sandpaper pad, extension cord, dirty face, one bare foot, and sock in the background. his shoe was found in the dirt spot directly behind him. a happy helper!



here's a windy day fall adventure with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sara at a park near their home in Iowa.

leannora got a turn at fishing. she caught a great one on her first try! she LOVES fishing!!



and we added some pictures to our nachusa frolic.

A man, his boy, and a piece of land (with evidence of nuclear reactors in the background.)

nikao views.







We're spotted!


Ahh. Nachusa.