Mess-free chalkboard!!!

Our backyard is pretty boring... especially if you are 1. We spend a lot of time out there hanging up clothes on the line, grilling, or working in the garden. Harrison tends to always want to help which usually doesn't help at all! Someday we will purchase a fancy swing set for him but it's not in the budget right now, so I've been looking for some cheapo ideas to keep him entertained.
My sister introduced me to Pinterest recently and I am hooked! Its amazing how many awesome ideas are out there! I found this and knew Harrison would love it!



Remember when we completed the stage with free wood from my step-dad? Well we still had a full sheet of plywood sitting in the shed. After a quick rummage through the paint pile in the garage, I found two cans of primer with enough to cover the plywood twice! Perfect. We were off to Walmart and Home Depot for paint and grout. Walmart was out of the paint we wanted but then we checked the clearance/messed-up paint rack, we found an un-tinted gallon of outdoor flat paint! $10! Yes please! Always remember to look there, sometimes you can find awesome deals! Next was charcoal grout at Home Depot for $8 and we were ready to go. It took two coats of  3 parts paint/1 part grout mix and sanding but it looks great. The best thing is Harrison WANTS to draw on it while I am outside working. Hurray!!!

I love how it looks from the distance. It really breaks up the monotony of the privacy fence.  I can totally imagine leaving messages there for birthdays and parties.

So far Harrison only makes straight lines up and down! Someday he'll advance to circles! 

14 more weeks!

That's right! I am 26 weeks pregnant which means only 14 more weeks to go. 99 days to be exact. Weird to think that in less than 100 days, we will parents to TWO children. Holy cow, we are totally grown-ups now.

Check out how big the belly is getting!

My baby has a baby!

Harrison is obsessed with babies. Anytime we see a baby in public or visit a baby, he attacks them. Expecially girl babies! He knows the difference! Here is an example:

He also gets extremely jealous when I am holding someone's baby or even our dogs. He normally is not clingy at all but when my lap is occupied he gets very angry. He climbs in my lap and tries to push the other baby/dog off! Not going to work with a newborn.

I was worried that he would smother his sister once she got here or would spend my entire maternity leave fighting over my lap space, so we bought him his own baby doll.  I wanted him to practice holding a baby and being gentle since he tends to make out with babies for abnormally long time or sometimes even hits them!

Adam was hesitant about buying our son a baby doll but K-Mart had their clearance toys for an extra 50% off so she was only $8. It was easy to talk him into a doll for $8. 

What I didn't expect was for Harrison to fall in love with his baby. He has never been attached to any toy. The first time he does, it's a doll! Oops. She goes everywhere with him! He even gets mad when we are buckling him into his carseat and we have to take her out of his arms for a sec to put his straps on. He's pretty sweet.

I am hoping that when our baby is born, he will be accepting of me holding and nursing a baby all day and he can be content with his baby. I know this is me dreaming but a girl can dream right?

Playroom makeover 2

The playroom is coming together.
I am still trying to stay as close to a $0 budget as possible but unfortunately we had one problem. Remember how we were using the extra gallon of paint from Harrison's nursery? Well, we underestimated how BIG that room is. Our house has weird walls and ceilings upstairs and we didn't realize how much wallspace there was in there. Our one gallon of paint was cheapo stuff from Wal-Mart which means it does not cover well. We (and by we, I mean Adam!) got two coats on and it wasn't looking good.

So off to the store we went. This time we splurged on the fancy paint with primer included. Spring Garden was our final color choice and it covered with one coat! Horray! It's a bit lighter that the original green which helps since there is no windows in the playroom. So much better.

We used the existing storage shelves from the workout/craft room. Hey Mommy still needs her storage too!

Reused rug from office plus leftover foam mats from the workout room...equals a perfect floor to play on!

The room was looking pretty plain and was screaming for some color. It tooks lots of days thinking and searching for ideas online then I ran across this idea. How to fabric wall mural
Perfect right?!?  So off I went to ransack my fabric collection. Luckily Jordan was visiting for the day so I put him to work.

Continuing our use-what-we-have theme, found brown craft paint in the paint box! Awesome.

I tried a few things to attach the leaves to the wall. I wanted something that wouldn't damage the walls but would hold up to little hands too. Elmers glue stick was the winner! Works great and so far no fallen leaves!

Finally some color! Poor Zee the bird still needs her eyes finished... someday, Zee. Someday.

Closeup of the leaves. Adorable, right?

We are almost finished. Give me a few more weeks and I'll be able to share the rest of the room!
Dollars spent so far, $28. Not bad! :)

Playroom makeover 1

Since the news of our new addition, we have been doing some major changes in our house. Our goal is to spend as few dollars as possible. Here is our list of projects and hopefully I will be able to share all of our progresses.

1. Transition Harrison's room from nursery to big boy room.
2. Merge office into guest bedroom downstairs.
3. Sell all work out equipment (that we NEVER use) and transition room into a playroom.
4. Decorate old office and create new nursery!
5. Insulate the garage ceiling so the new playroom and nursery are not FREEZING in the winter.

The past two months I have been able to sell our elliptical and treadmill machines on craigslist. Craigslist and I have a love/hate relationship. I love that people come to your house, give me money and haul my stuff away! I hate how many people email and waste my time. Oh well.

On Sunday, Adam and I filled all the holes with joint compound and began sanding the walls. The putty was taking forever to dry so I suggested that we get started on building the stage. Jordan came over and the two of them took over the project. Using the free plywood and 2x4s that my step-dad Dave gave us, they created a 3x6 foot stage for our little guy. He loves to sing, dance and be the center of attention so I thought he would love a stage. I was right!!! We needed curtains so I hemmed the old curtains from the office and hung them on the shower curtain rod from Harrison's closet. It looks perfect!!!

Last night, Adam spent most of the evening sanding everything. Walls, ceilings, and the stage. He looked like John McCain when he was finished. I wish I would have taken a picture... he was covered from head to toe in white! We were expecting to be able to paint yesterday but are learning that everything always takes twice as long as planned!

Tonight was painting night one. When we originally painted Harrison's nursery, we bought two gallons of paint and only used one, so FREE paint was sitting in our garage just waiting to be used. So now our playroom is green. :) I used the rest of the navy paint from Harrison's dresser to paint the stage.


More progress to come!  See here

Long overdue update!!

Since it has been almost 6 months since I have posted on here, our family is growing!

Baby #2, a little girl, will be joining our family in August. We were very surprised to find out we were having another baby. . I have PCOS which means that I do not have regular cycles. Without medicines, I am lucky to have 4 periods a year which means trying to get pregnant is next to impossible. When we were trying to get pregnant with Harrison, we spent 6 months struggling with fertility drugs to get pregnant. It was a constant roller coaster every month and was very stressful for us.

After having Harrison we have never thought about using birth control since its impossible for us to become pregnant on our own. So this was a big surprise!!! I am due on the third day of school next year. Oops. Not the best due date ever, but we will make it work somehow. I am praying for the best sub ever who is a natural at teaching Kindergarten. My poor students will not even get to know me until I get back. I keep telling this little girl of mine that she has to stay in there a few extra days so I can at least teach for the first week of school. I guess we will have to wait and see if she is a good listener!

Happy Birthday Harrison!

Mommy and Daddy love you!

This free picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Wow! So I am the mother of a toddler...

I just discovered Smilebox so hopefully this will help me keep up with this little blog of mine.

Customize a free photo slideshow

Summertime!!!

Its officially summer! No work, no plans, just being a mommy! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that part of my job :)

Harrison is growing so fast, he's 8 months now and on the move. Crawling is his new favorite thing. He use to cry any time you left the room or when he couldn't reach a toy, and was frustrated all the time. Not anymore! He's all over the place. I can have him in the kitchen while I'm cooking or washing dishes and a few seconds later, he's on the other side of the house! There's blessings and challenges in everything I guess. :)

He is also pulling up on everything which unfortunately results in things falling on him and him falling over quite often. Poor baby is developing bruises all over. I guess that's just part of growing up and being a boy.

On my last day of school, June 1st, I decided that it was time for Harrison to begin sleeping through the night. Although I didn't mind him sleeping with us and nursing all night, it was time. We did the cry it out method. Our pediatrician had told us it would probably take a week with terrible nights but to stick it out, so we did. The first night, Harrison woke up around 2 and cried for over an hour. Not just crying, but screaming! It was awful. So awful that Adam went down stairs and slept on the couch! But the second night, he fussed for a few minutes and went back to sleep. Since then he's sleeping 11 hours each night. Pure bliss!

With him sleeping though the night, its kind of let me to begin weaning. It's a sad thought that I'm not making it to the one year mark like I planned. But I keep telling myself that he's super healthy from all my milk so far. He's never had a real fever or been sick. I'm trying to take it slow :)


My biggest task this month is trying to change Harrison's sleeping schedule. Right now he wakes up around 6 am (too early!!!), morning nap at 9, afternoon nap at 1, and bedtime at 7 (absolutely no later, he gets WAY to crabby). I'm pushing everything back in 10 minute increments to hopefully have him wake around 7 and stay up until 8. This will help us be able to actually do things together as a family in the evening. Stay tuned....

He's sitting up!

Harrison will be 6 months old next week! Craziness! About 2 weeks ago he started sitting up. Its the funniest thing because he is just so little!



I've decided that I would like to learn how to decorate cakes so I can make his 1/2 birthday cake and also a cake for his baptism next month. I made my first one last night so maybe the next one will be pretty enough to post!