baby must haves

Here are my top three favorite baby things, that I cannot live without...

1. Puj tub. Amazing invention. SO much better than bathing your baby in one of those hard plastic tubs and then draining the water out. This fits right in your sink, is soft and cushy for baby to relax in, and then hangs flat to dry. LOVE it! I would definitely recommend it to any new mommys.

2. Tommee Tippee travel bottle warmer. Basically this is just a really fancy thermos, but its so convenient for heating bottles on the go. You fill it with boiling water and then when you're ready, pour the water into the container to heat the bottle. So simple, but genius. And its small enough to fit in the diaper bag.

3. Swaddle. I have a few of these...Brody doesn't sleep unless he is swaddled up! The velcro makes it a little harder for them to wiggle out.

Stationery card

Love Package Blue Birth Announcement

Shutterfly has custom baby invitations and birth announcements.

View the entire collection of cards.

projects

So, I know I'm being incredibly optimistic, but I reallyyyy hope to get a few projects accomplished during my 8 weeks of maternity leave! I'm SO looking forward to some time off work, even though I know I'll have my hands full with a newborn and a almost-4-year-old who will be home with me. Other than being home with Logan for his first 6 weeks, I've always worked a full time job, so this will be a little mini-experience of being a "stay at home mom" for a short while. And to be honest, 8 weeks will probably be all I can handle!

One thing I really hope to accomplish is a creating a photo wall somewhere in my house. With pretty pretty frames. I have tons of pictures that I don't have room to put anywhere, and I'll have a ton more after baby arrives. I've never committed because I'm scared I will put all those holes in the wall, and then change my mind! But, I'm hoping to finally get this done...maybe in the living room over our sofa? Nice frames are so expensive, so I'm thinking I'll just do an assortment of different sizes and styles that I find here and there. Maybe spray paint them all the same color? And I have a really cool wooden letter "K" that I want to incorporate into the mix! Here's some inspiration!

...wish me luck!

I have an (online) shopping problem...

Or more like online "window shopping" problem! I have a new "wish list" every week I think. Here's a few things I'm wanting this week...

1. This rug for our living room.

2. Coordinating throw pillows.

3. These sheers for our bedroom.

4. Used to HATE vera bradley, but the new patterns are starting to grow on me. Love this little bag to take on our cruise in November and hold all the essentials.

5. Cute little bird vase.

6. Wall art for the kiddies bathroom.

7. Sweet little baby hat for newborn pictures (already ordered...yay!)

Office...?

So, with the addition of baby king into our house... we will be losing our office-slash-guest room. For the time being I'm leaving the computer desk as is, since baby will most likely be snuggling with us for a few months anyways! But eventually it'll have to be relocated, and our house is feeling smaller and smaller!

Our options right now will be:

1. Move it into our master bedroom. Which also doubles as Logan's tv and playroom. Hmm.

2. Add a family room/den onto the back of the house. Love this idea... but it'll take time. And money. So it could be a lengthy process! orrr

3. We have about a 5'x3' closet space in our laundry room, that we could turn into a closet-office.
I'm leaning towards #3 at the moment! Here are some closet-turned-office spaces I found online that I'm in love with! Hoping to re-create one of these bad boys with some fun paint or wallpaper and shelving!

Birthday Party Ideas

Logan's 4th birthday is coming up... okay, really its still 4 months away, but I want to get a head start planning since I will also be taking care of a newborn when the occassion rolls around! I have a super, fantastic idea for a theme for his party... but he isn't buying it. He wants a Thomas the Train party even though thats what we had last year. *sigh* Hopefully I can convince him to change his mind! Here's my idea...

Theme: Cat in the Hat/ Dr. Suess (he actually really likes Cat in the Hat...justttt not as much as he likes Thomas).

I would do red, blue and white decorations. In addition to a regular bday cake, I would like red and blue cupcakes with little rhymes on top (similar to these):


As a keepsake, I wanted to get Dr. Suess' "Happy Birthday to You" book and have all the guests sign it and write a special birthday message.


For favors, instead of the usual annoying little "goody bags" (which I secretly hate, just a plastic bag full of expensive junk that no one really wants anyways)... I wanted to give each kid a Dr. Suess book to take home.

And if I wanted to be really cliche, I suppose I could serve some form of green eggs and ham.

Oh! And of course, Logan would get to wear a red and white top striped top hat. Now I just have a whole lot of convincin' to do. If not, my second child is definitely getting a Dr. Suess party next year. He/She will be too young to object!

Having a serious case of nesting...

Nesting Instinct
-noun
Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the "nesting" instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects, and to organize your world.


Until yesterday, I didn't realize there was an actual "term" for my madness! I just thought I was going off the deep end. My "to do" list grows every day and I have an uncontrollable need to redecorate every room in my house all of a sudden. Which isn't good when I'm trying to save money for baby! One day I spent 5 hours cleaning/organizing my bathroom, my makeup, and linen closet. Insane. My husband thinks I've lost it...

Here's a few things I'm drooling over to get for the house:

1. New bedroom set. I was leaning towards white but the hubby thinks white furniture looks cheap, so I guess maybe a darker wood

2. I'm in love with these beautiful benches.

3. Our mudroom desperately needs some organization for all the shoes, backpacks, coats, etc. that wind up in there. Plus Logan needs a nice comfy place to sit down to put his shoes on in the mornings. I'm thinking this storage bench would do the trick.

4. I love birds. End of story.

5. Even though we have carpet in our living room, I think I want to get an area rug to add some color.

6. I love these chalkboards...think they would be so fun either in the kitchen (for grocery lists, recipes) or Logan's room.

....Bye bye tax return!

These are a few of my favorite (baby!) things...

I love anything baby/kid related that helps me stay organized or is convienent!

Two of my favorite websites/catalogs for baby and kids stuff is Land of Nod and One Step Ahead. I love all the unique kid and baby items they have. So here are a few of my favorites!

This hand-dandy little spoon holds one jar of baby food. Umm...can you say awesome? No mess, I love it! Plus, how convienent is that to fill up in advance and stick in the diaper bag for the restraunt?

I love these bookcases and cubbys! I have one in Logans room and its so great for teaching him how to keep all his toys organized. He knows that cars go in the blue basket, books go in the brown basket, etc. Plus, no matter how many times he sits/falls on them, they pop right back into shape without breaking! One of my favorite purchases, I hope to get another set for baby king's room!

Ok, so not really that big of a deal... but whoever invented these was a genius! You can pretty much find a version of these anywhere, but still one of my favorites. Helps to keep Logan from squeezing juice boxes when he's holding them! I bought one of these kid-sized aerobeds the first time we took Logan on vacation as a toddler. It blows up in about 30 seconds and the sides are slightly raised so little ones won't roll off. It has a travel bag, and is so convenient for traveling!

I love this baby food caddy... it holds a ton of baby food jars in the pantry, and when you don't need it for baby food anymore... you can use it for a spice rack!

I have to have this car organizer once baby comes! It fits right in between two car seats and holds pretty much anything. My car is already a mess now with just Logan, so I can't imagine how bad it'll be here in a few months! The cool thing about this is that the top folds down and doubles as a food tray!

Saturday with Logan

So this Saturday, Logan and I had a "Mommy and me" day. I had registered us for a little siblings class at St. Francis. They gave a 3-year olds perspective of what to expect when a new baby comes home, why they cry, what they do (basically eat, sleep and poop!), and how to be a good "big sibling". It was fun and interactive, we got to sing alot of songs and put a diaper on a teddy bear. Logan was very much into participating...when the lovely british instructor says "Do we know what makes babies cry?" Logan raised his hand and said "When you hit them!" Wow, hopefully the rest of the class participants don't think thats standard practice at our house! But other than that, it was a fun little class. He is so excited to be a big brother!

Logan was a successful graduate!

Afterwards, we went to visit Daddy at the firehouse, do a little shopping, get a (much needed!) haircut, and reward ourselves with ice cream at Coldstone.

Logan chose the cotton candy flavor, and thoroughly enjoyed it! Yum!

Blog Attempt #2!

I've recently been inspired to try my hand at blogging yet again! Its been (holy moly!) a little over two years since I posted. Wonder if I can keep up this time?