Monday Morning Weekend Round Up

Time to recap the weekend!

FridayTidy the house after G goes to bed
Watch a movie (we actually did this Saturday night)
Saturday
Going to Three Cedars Farm to pick pumpkins
Hair appt/play date with my stylist's sonUM/MSU Game! GO BLUE!!! - we lost :(  It was a sad day for me, Joe, on the other hand, as a MSU alum was happy.
Maybe run a few errands after G goes to bed - I didn't end up needing to go anywhere

Brother in law, sister in law, and my niece came over for dinner/drinks/movie.
Cleaned the house, changed the bedding, started laundry

Sunday
Going to my parent's house to celebrate my sister's 18th birthday!
Finished laundry and put it away

We had a great time at Three Cedars Farm, chose a pumpkin, took some pictures, bought some cider and donuts.  It was cold and super windy, but it meant Gabe got to wear his awesome new hat I bought on Etsy and he kept it on :)  I have to say, he looked pretty darn cute!

It's Friday, which means time to participate in the My Happy House Weekend Planning Blog Hop!  Much of this weekend will be spent laying low, but Joe also will be gone during the daylight hours campaigning.

Friday
Tidy the house after G goes to bed
Watch a movie

Saturday
Going to Three Cedars Farm to pick pumpkins
Hair appt/play date with my stylist's son
UM/MSU Game!  GO BLUE!!!
Maybe run a few errands after G goes to bed

Sunday
Going to my parent's house to celebrate my sister's 18th birthday!

Bathroom Cabinet Updated

Our house was built in 1997.  In 1997 Honey Oak was popular, as was polished brass.  Neither of those 2 are our style.  We replaced all polished brass a few years ago with brushed nickel, but the honey oak lived on.  About 2 years ago I painted the master bath cabinet white.  It worked really well with the blueish-gray tile and blueish countertop.  I did not really want to paint Joe's/Gabriel's bathroom cabinet white.  I really wanted to darken it, but painting it dark brown or black just looked eh to me.  Then, one fine morning, my friend sent me an email.  She told me about a product called Cabinet Transformations.  It sounded amazing.  It is a muli-layer system which includes an optional glaze step.  I read up on it, read reviews, agonized over colors, and finally decided on Espresso.  I decided to try my hand at the bathroom cabinet.  If it worked, awesome, then I would tackle the kitchen.  If I failed, no biggie, it was just the bathroom upstairs.  I followed each step carefully.  I took my time, I worked on it after work and during 1 weekend.  Then it was done.  What a huge difference and it looks amazing.  Next step, KITCHEN!  Success!!  What do you think??

Before:

After:

Close Up After:





Weekend Round Up!

This weekend was....interesting.  Saturday morning G came down with Pink Eye.  With normal parents this would not be such a big deal, however, I have an eye disease called Uveitis (Plars Planitis).  Due to steroid treatments I received, I ended up with Glaucoma (it was a fluke due to my apparent high steroid response).  In December 2005, 4 days before Christmas, I underwent Glaucoma Surgery.  I have an implant in my eye so my eye drains properly.  Because of all this, I have to be extremely careful with eye infections.  This meant I couldn't take care of G for 24hrs.  It was awful, he kept crying for me, it just broke my heart.  Aside from all of that, I did get to accomplish most of my weekend plans!  I even accomplished some a day early!

Friday:
Put second coat of bond coat on the bathroom cabinet, first coat on the front of the doors.
2 Loads of laundry

Saturday:
Glaze cabinet
Finish laundry and put away
Dust/vacuum master bedroom and guest room-actually did this Sunday
Take G to the park-due to the pink eye, we couldn't go :(

Sunday
Top coat cabinet-did this Saturday late afternoon/evening
Assembled cabinet (pics to come in a separate post!)
Grocery shop
Run to Kohl's, Nine West, and the Howell Outlets to exhange shoes for G.  Again, due to the pink eye, I wasn't able to take time to run to Howell.  Hopefully this weekend!

So did you accomplish everything on your weekend list??

Weekend Planning Blog Hop!

It's Friday, which means time to participate in the My Happy House Weekend Planning Blog Hop!  This weekend is pretty low key for us, for the first time in a while.  It seems that once you have kids your weekends get eaten up with various activities.

Friday:
Put second coat of bond coat on the bathroom cabinet, first coat on the front of the doors.
2 Loads of laundry

Saturday:
Glaze cabinet
Finish laundry and put away
Dust/vacuum master bedroom and guest room
Take G to the park

Sunday
Top coat cabinet
Grocery shop
Run to Kohl's, Nine West, and the Howell Outlets to exhange shoes for G.

Weekend Round Up!

The weekend was crazy busy and flew by, so needless to say I didn't get done everything I wanted to.  Here's how it was broken down:
Friday

•Going to my parent's house for dinner

•Pick up some drinks and a movie for movie night with a friend

•Pick up some clutter around the house



Saturday
•Put together playroom storage and clean up the play area

•Clean basement

•Laundry: Partially done, I got Gabe's clothes washed and dried, but not ours.

•Birthday party/baptism party

•Mop the floor

•Clean upstairs: Again, partially done.  Cleaned Gabe's room, nothing else.



Sunday
•Clean 1st floor

•Visit friend and her new baby
 
Overall we did pretty good I think!  This week we will be focusing on doing the laundry, cleaning the rest of the house, and operation refinishing the bathroom cabinet.  Stay tuned!

Blog Hop: Weekend Plans

I am a follower of My Happy House and am participating in the Weekend Plans Blog Hop.  This weekend is going to be really packed.  Joe is finally back in town and our house looks like a tornado blew through it!

Friday

• Going to my parent's house for dinner
• Pick up some drinks and a movie for movie night with a friend
• Pick up some clutter around the house

Saturday

• Put together playroom storage and clean up the play area
• Clean basement
• Laundry
• Birthday party/baptism party
• Mop the floor
• Clean upstairs

Sunday

• Clean 1st floor
• Visit friend and her new baby

Hopefully I get everything done that I plan on doing!!

Happy 1st Birthday Gabriel!!!

Today, exactly 1 year ago, at 1:51am, my beautiful baby boy was born.  The first time he was placed in my arms I fell in love.  He was/is a perfect mix of both myself and Joe.  It's hard to believe a whole year has passed us, it seems like yesterday I was pregnant, getting admitted to the hospital, and giving birth.

This past year has changed us so much.  Both Joe and I have grown as a couple and as parents.  Today is not just a celebration for Gabriel, this is a celebration for our family. 

We have endured colic, breatfeeding troubles, illness, every milestone imaginable, teething, sleepless nights, and then sleeping through the night.  We have watched our son grow into an amazing little boy, filled with such love and happiness.  When he smiles at you it melts your heart.  He gives hugs and you just don't want to let go.  His vocabulary just keeps growing.  Soon he will be walking and talking even more.

This year has been one hell of a ride, and we cannot wait for many years to come.  We love you so much Gabriel!

Happy 11 months!

Wow. In 1 short month I will have a 1 year old. I have so many mixed emotions about this. As I sit here I remember this time last year I was working 1 day from home because I was so uncomfortable. I couldn't wait to meet Gabriel and was counting down the days. Now, I sit here, not wanting to count the days.

This month Gabriel got sick...again. This is the 3rd ear infection & cold and he also came down with a virus and got his first fever. Scared the hell out of me, as it was 102.3 at it's highest. Joe was out of town again, so it was a very stressful time for us.

Gabriel is eating a lot more table foods, but still taking in about 24oz of breastmilk in addition to the baby purees and table foods. He has a healthy appetite, but when he's not hungry anymore he knows to push away the bottle/spoon/fork. His new favorite food loves are strawberries, blueberries, grilled cheese, waffles, meatballs, rice.

He still isn't walking, but constantly pulls himself up. He tries to let go and stand without support, but quickly falls. He'll get the hang of it, we aren't pushing it. He's a bigger boy and has a lot more weight to hold up! He is a master at climbing the stairs (thanks Titi Alyssa!) and will go for them at every minute. Don't turn your back for a second!

This month Gabriel has started saying a few more words other than mama, dada, daddy. He says "Go" (says this while climbing the stairs), "yeah", "hey", "hi", "nana", and "gog" (dog). He always makes the same sound when he sees Lola the cat, but I don't think he really knows what he's saying.

Next month he will be 1. Wow.

1st Birthday Party Sneak Peeks!

Gabriel is turning 1. What? Yes, Gabriel is turning 1. I've been planning this party for ohhhhh 3 months now. I'm doing a ton of paper crafts and well, non paper crafts too. See, the thing is, I have a Cricut. I'm slightly obsessed with it. When I say slightly, those of you who know me know that I really mean it rules my world :)

Anyways, because I have the Cricut, it's super easy and quick for me to make paper crafts. That, coupled with my Xyron (a sticker maker), has made me into a paper craft super hero.

Ok, the theme of his birthday party is....Football (what else, right?)! I custom designed his invites in Photoshop Elements (with the help of my friend) and did all the paper projects and had assembly help from my sister in law (Gabriel's Godmother). I did cupcake flags, a banner, gift bag tags. I will be cutting out cupcake wrappers and I have to do the centerpieces, both of which will be the subject of the next sneak peek post. I've also gotten a custom shirt made for Gabriel to wear on his big day and I am making a photo book as a guest book.

So, now that that's all been said, here's what you are looking for...the pictures :) If anyone has questions on what cartridges I used, what paper, etc. just let me know. You can leave a comment and I promise I'll get back to you.

The story of the falling apart house and the great purge....

The past few months have been hell here at the house. One thing after another has gone wrong. This is where our story begins...

2 months ago Joe and I decided to replace the rotting deck that started to collapse at Gabriel's baptism party last August with a stamped concrete patio. We began getting quotes and all was on track. One of the concrete companies was out one Saturday morning and when we went outside we discovered shingles littering our lawn and deck. We immediately knew our worst fear had come true. We needed a new roof. Now, let me just say we knew that within 5 years of moving into the house we would need to replace it, but we thought we had at least 1 more year left. Nope. So, instead of a beautiful patio we got a beautiful new roof.

Now, you would think that dropping that kind of money would ensure nothing else would go wrong, right? WRONG. The next thing that happened was our front load Kenmore washer (which came with the house) started staining our clothes with mold & mildew. Gross. Soooo, you guessed it! New washer. I found a Whirlpool Cabrio at the Sears Outlet with just a few scratches on it for a great price.

Oh, and I forgot, before the washer incident Joe put 2 new tires on my car. This is a yay and boo at the same time. More money spent, but it had to be done.

Now, in addition to those 3 things you would think that 3 bad lucks = a break for us. WRONG. Our water softener broke. Luckily it was just a seal that had to be replaced, but the service call was outrageous. Ugh. But at least my water isn't hard anymore!

Now, 4 things wrong. We are done, right? You guessed it, NOPE. About 5 months ago our bathtub spigot broke. It was an easy fix that my dad took care of for us. This bathtub is in Gabriel's bathroom, so it has to be in working order because the bathtub in our master bath is a jacuzzi tub. Not really easy to bathe a baby in there. Well, late last week it started dripping. The drip turned into a stream. The stream turned into scorching hot water pouring out of it. My brother was in town for Easter so him and my dad came over. We had no access panel. They had to cut a hole in my linen closet that butts up to the tub. There were no shutoff valves. They had to hacksaw my pipes and cap them off so I could have water in the rest of my house. My dad has to bust away 15 year old tile and I somehow have to find matching tile to fix that area after he puts a whole new faucet, spigot, shower head, and drain on. Now, I originally wanted all new to replace builder grade crap, but because of the lack of access panel that never happened. Now I have no choice. The tub isn't fixed yet. Hopefully within a week or 2.

Now, because of all that, and the accumulation of baby stuff in the basement, the great purge happened. I have no before pics of the basement because Joe started it while I was taking Gabriel to daycare, but the after's are pretty amazing. So, thank you for reading all of my bad luck, here's some pics for you!

This will be my sewing table/desk. I'm going to tackle sanding it, painting it, and adding new hardware.

I also added a few things to Gabriel's room. I've had the growth chart for a while (Land of Nod), and got 2 new prints. One is a vintage football program from the OSU v UM game and the second I stumbled on at Home Goods without even looking for it. Great find :)





And the shower/tub....I'll post pics when it's done. Hopefully within the next couple of weekends...

Happy 10 Months!

I swear I just wrote Gabriel's 9 month review, but here we are once again. Today my not so little guy turns 10 months. 10 MONTHS?!?! Hard to believe this time last year we were having our baby shower, anticipating his arrival. Each day that goes by he changes so much. We have learned that he is very scared of men, with the exception of daddy, our daycare provider's husband, and his grandpas. He crawls like a madman, never sits still, loves standing, cruising the furniture, playing with all of his toys, and most of all is now obsessed with Baby Einstein. He is so funny, he talks to the puppets and waves to them. The hippo puppet says "BAH" and Gabriel now associates "Baby Einstein" with "BAH". When we go to switch to the Blu Ray input on the tv he gets so excited and starts yelling "Bah! Bah!!" He's so smart :)

This month Gabriel has begun to wave all the time. He understands "Hi" and "Bye". He knows when we get to daycare to kiss mommy and wave to her. When we get home from daycare he helps close the door, waves hi to the house, and his room, and Lola. We have started on table foods with him in addition to his purees. He likes to throw the peas, but not eat them. He loves stuffed cabbage, meatballs, rice, greenbeans, ritz crackers, chicken, pot roast, potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes. He's still drinking about 20-24oz of breastmilk in addition to his solids.

We had another cold and caught an ear infection very early on. Daddy stayed home with him for a day and they had a lot of fun together. Daddy accidentally gave him prunes for lunch and that coupled with antibiotics made for an interesting day...haha :)

Gabriel loves his bath and if you aren't playing with him in the bath he will throw his wet bath toys at you. Because he loves his bath so much we are planning on signing him up for a parent/baby swim class when the next session begins.

In 2 months my baby will be a year. His birthday party planning has been on going. It's just so hard to believe that in 2 months I will be the mom to a 1yr old.

Happy 9 Months Gabriel!

Wow, it's been 9 months since my beautiful baby boy arrived. It's so hard to believe that 3/4 of the year has gone by. During those difficult first few weeks I never thought we would get here, but sure enough we did.

I've been so bad about documenting everything here, but no worries, Gabe's baby book and scrapbook are filled up with all the details of his first year (and more!).

My 8lb 9oz miracle is now roughly 23lbs (we'll get the offical number on Thursday). He has learned to roll over (2mo), sit unassisted (5mo), crawl (6.5mo), pop 6 teeth (starting at 7.5mo), and now pull himself up to stand (8.5mo). He just started saying "dada" and "dadeeeeee" and has been saying mama for a few months now. We have gone through sleepless nights, cluster feeding, to sleeping through the night, to sleep regressions due to teething.

Day 1 started our amazing journey of parenthood. Each and every day this sweet little boy teaches me something new about being a mommy and about myself. I have stopped caring about me and only caring about him and his happiness. I have learned so much about Joe in this time that I never knew, even after 9 years of being together. I never knew he was so patient. He can soothe a screaming baby like a pro. During those rough weeks when Gabriel had colic and I needed a break he was able to somehow calm him down when I couldn't.

So today, on the day Gabriel turned 9 months old, my sweet boy was a mess. The stupid time change screwed him up, and that along with teething just made for a crazy day. However, today my son reached for me and hugged me and wouldn't let go. Today, my son looked at his dad, recognized him, and said "Dada!". Today, we are one month closer to his 1st birthday. Parenthood is life's biggest and greatest experiment, and today I can say I think our experiment is working amazing.

Craft room updates

Our basement is my craft room. My husband was so thoughtful to suggest making it my craft room a few years back. Since having the baby I haven't been able to use it as much, but now that he's 9 months old (WHAT?!?!) and I've started planning his 1st Birthday Party (again WHAT?!?!?) I need the area to be very organized for all the crafting I'm doing. I had some storage stuff, but went to Michaels and picked up a few additional pieces. The storage system is great, you build it and you can stack them together and create a whole organization system. Plus, I really wanted to reorg the area because I got my brand new beautiful Cricut Expression to replace the Personal I have! Now, on to the pics!

Felt Rose Wreath

I was turned on to The Pretty Poppy recently and I absolutely LOVE her blog. In her tutorials she has how to make this amazing Rosie Wreath. It's super easy and it is a quick craft to do in about an hour total. Here's what you'll need:

• Felt-your choice of color. I bought a yard of cream only because I will be making a few of these as gifts, but I think you would be ok with a half a yard.
• CD as a stencil.
• Hot Glue Gun
• Twig wreath (I bought mine at Michaels, but they have them at JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby as well)

Just follow the directions on the tutorial that I've linked above, I promise it is super easy. A craft novice will have no problems making this! Here's my finished one!

Reflections on Breastfeeding

As I sit here in my usual spot on the couch, I am reminded of all the times over the past 8 months I have sat here to breastfeed or pump. It's hard to believe I've been at it for 8 months now. I am just 9 days shy of quitting the pump until the next baby. I'm a bundle of mixed emotions at this point, and I really didn't think I would be.

I started out nursing my son. He was an awesome nurser, we were so lucky that we never had any latch problems. The only issue we had was he would fall asleep every time, so nursing would take on average 45 min. Those first couple of weeks I was operating on zero sleep. My son would cluster feed every night from 10pm-6am, waking every 90 min, and taking 45 min to nurse. We were all exhausted, so at that point I started pumping during the night while my husband would feed my son a bottle of breastmilk. When we started that, my son would sleep for 3hr stretches, which was wonderful.

About the 2.5 week mark I had to begin pumping my left side due to a crack and only nursed on my right. My right was the lazy side, so after nursing for 20 min on the right, we would have to give a bottle of pumped milk to finish off the feeding. Throughout all of this, my son decided he liked the bottle more, so I started exclusively pumping. I pumped every 2 hrs during the day, and every 3hrs at night. It was exhausting, but my supply took off...took way off. At 3 weeks old I developed mastitis on the left side, and in order to clear the clog and get better I was able to get my son back on to nurse. He did wonderful, and I thought maybe we were back on track. My long term plan was to nurse while at home, and pump while at work. This new found nursing lasted about 7 days. My son started screaming and pulling off everytime I would have a letdown. My biggest mistake was not calling my Lactation Consultant. Had I called her, I would have discovered that I had an overactive letdown and an oversupply. I, however, decided that exclusively pumping and bottle feeding breastmilk was the best way for us to go.

I have been exclusively pumping since my son was 4 weeks old. I have a love/hate relationship with my pump. For the longest time, I was pumping 55-65oz/day, with a record day of 73oz. We had to go out and buy a separate deep freezer and the day it got delivered I moved my milk from our regular freezer down to the deep freezer and it was immediately fully. I slowly began cutting out pumping sessions, but my supply never really decreased. I got down to 48oz/day and stayed there until about 6 months. At that point I cut back to only pumping 4x/day. I was still getting about 42oz/day, so by month 7 I cut back to 3x/day. Once I did that, my supply started to drastically change. I was down to about 28oz/day, and there were days where I was lucky to even produce what my son was eating (24oz/day).

So, that's what brings me to this post. At 8 months old, I now have 4 months (maybe more) frozen between my deep freezer, daycare's deep freezer, and my regular freezer. I am barely producting what my son eats. In 9 days I will put my pump away until the next baby. I thought I would be so happy about this. I remember thinking how I couldn't wait to stop pumping. It was such a pain, such an inconvienience. Well, the day is almost upon me and I am devistated. It makes me so sad that my son has grown so fast, right before my eyes. I feel as though he doesn't need me anymore. I know that's not the case, but it's how it feels. I know what I have done is amazing, and it's such a great accomplishment. I am so proud of myself for sticking it out, through the tough times. I just hope my story provides hope and encouragement for expecting moms or new moms out there.

Please Vote!!

Gabriel is in the running for Cutest Kid this week on parents.com. Please vote for him!

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/705096

You can vote once a day per computer until Feb. 20th! The prize is $250 and we would really appreciate your vote! Thanks a bunch!

Diaper Cake!

I had one of my best friend's baby shower this weekend, and I hate doing plain old shower gifts, so I decided to try my hand at a diaper cake. My coworkers made me one when I was pregnant and it was the best gift ever. I didn't get to take pictures as I was making it because, well, I have my own baby to take care of while making it :) Here's a step by step.

I used 60 size 2 Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive diapers. The great thing about the sensitive ones is they have a line that turns from yellow to blue/green when the baby pees so you know to change their diaper! It was a great tool for my husband (and me!) when our son was first born.

Step 1: Roll each diaper and secure with a rubber band.

Step 2: Cut out a cardboard cake platter and wrap it with wrapping paper and get a paper towel tube and tape to the center. NOTE: I did not do this because I didn't have a paper towel tube. I did cut out the base, but it's not pictured because I did it last minute.

Step 3: gather diapers and fill in and secure with a large rubber band. Do this for each tier. I made 3 tiers. Top tier was about 8-10 diapers, 2nd tier was about 20 diapers, and bottom tier was about 30 diapers.

Step 4: Wrap receiving blankets around each tier, then cut ribbon to tie around to secure.

Step 5: Fill in each tier with a variety of baby items. I used onsies, bibs, burp cloths, rattles, gowns, and I put a lovie on the top as the "topper"

Now, for the finished product! I will appologize for the quality, I took the picture on my phone.