Happy Valentine's Day!

The boys and I had a busy day. We went to Owen's school and brought flowers for his teachers and Valentine's Day treats for his friends. We then went to gymnastics open gym so they could burn off some energy. They burned off so much energy that they both barely touched their lunches. I caught them staring off into the distance a few times, which is always a sign of exhaustion. I was determined to stay busy today, so we forged on. They both got haircuts and we ended our day with a big, ole delicious Valentine treat from here (special day means special treat despite the no lunch situation). It was a delight to spend the day with my boys and hearing Owen say, "Happy Balentine's Day" to everyone we encountered made it extra sweet.


Jack's Valentine's Day Treats

Super Hero Suckers.
Would you expect anything else? I found these on Pinterest and here is the free Super Hero printable. I prepped all the parts (uffda!) and Jack helped me put them together (and surprisingly was kinda into it).


Owen's Valentine's Day Treats

Sorry about this horrible picture..when I went to take it I realized my camera battery was dead, so I had to use my phone.

Thanks to Michelle's pin, I found these adorable fish bowls. I bought the printables through the Etsy seller, PBJ and J and the Swedish Fish from Target. I already had the baggies from a previous project..sweet. Owen thought the "fishie tweets" were pretty neat. And I must say they were super duper easy to make.

Hope your day was a little Valentine's Day special!!

I wonder if this is how Pat feels?

via

Ha!

Week 27.

We have hit the three month mark! To break it down, my official due date is May 9th, so this means I have 3 months or 90 days or 2160 hours (all with an ~ish) until I get to meet this little baby cook'n away in my belly!

Week 27

Mommy and Owen

Photo by: Jack

I'm still feeling really good despite a few random leg cramps, belly itches (which a nightly rub of tummy butter has improved), one small episode of dizziness, and moments of feeling breathless when climbing the stairs a few times or doing housework. Minor stuff. I have not had any constant cravings, however I could eat here every single night for dinner if it were up to me. I guess that's a craving. Because we don't know the sex of this baby, I have not begun decorating the nursery, but I have lots of ideas. Despite this, I have a raging, full-blown case of The Nesties or Nesting Syndrome. I am going through this house like a mini-tornado has been let loose inside with its goal set to purge, organize and decorate every corner possible. A third baby on the way and the idea of much less time on my hands, has really kicked my butt into full-speed checking house projects off the never-ending "to do" list. I am starting to feel breathless again just thinking about it! 

Thank goodness leggings are the rage these days, because I could wear these every.single.day. You see, my abnormally flat butt does not fare well with an expanding belly. It's very disproportionate. My maternity jeans are constantly falling down (uber annoying by the end of the day), hence the beauty of leggings. Oh and these long-sleeved T's (which I am wearing above) are amazing! I apologize in advance if you see me wearing them every encounter we have over the next three months as they are long enough to cover the bump while being super comfortable to boot! Love them.

I literally have 12+ bins of boy clothes, sizes ranging from newborn up to 5 years old. Plus with the 2 boys already, our house is boyified to the max. So, if we have a boy we are set! But, I have to admit, it is kinda fun to look at girl clothes and ponder the idea of having a daughter.
Only 2160 hours until we find out...sigh.

The End of Nukie and The Introduction to Wilson.

 Several weeks before Owen turned 3 years old, we were constantly talking with him about how the time was coming for him to be done with his Nukie (aka pacifier). We would tell him that when he turned 3 years old, he would officially be a big boy and big boys don't have Nukies. 

His birthday in January came and went, but the Nukie lingered. To be completely honest, it lingered only due to selfish reasons on our part. Even though we both knew taking away the Nukie was best for Owen, we were just nervous as to what this change would bring, for example, loss of naps. We got over that rather quickly because as I said, we needed to do what was/is best for the O-bubs. After hyping up the good-bye to Nukie all last week, we pulled it, pretty much cold turkey (is there any other way?!) on Saturday.

I was the more direct one and told Owen that because he is now 3 years old, he can no longer have his Nukie while Pat took the more indirect (for lack of a better word) route and told him that the Nukie Fairy came while he was sleeping and took them away. The Nukie Fairy idea seemed to resonate with Owen and made him more comfortable with this change. He has been talking about that Nukie Fairy a lot (sounds better than "My Mommy threw my precious Nukies in the garbage"). that  Don't get me wrong, he also has been one sad puppy about this loss and has asked for it whenever his head hits his pillow, but after some consoling and cuddling he settles down. Kuddos to Patrick though, he is one great Daddy! 

Thankfully, Owen still has his other two lovies to comfort him during this transition, which he has truly done fabulous with in the past two days. He has still napped and slept at night like the a champ...as if nothing has even changed. One thing that helps is singing to him and he requests a lot of singing. In particular, Leaving On Jet Plane has been sung by 'Moi' one billion times....he loves it so! Also, he has clung on this little soccer ball, which Pat has named Wilson. He sleeps and cuddles with Wilson and carries him around as much as he possibly can.  Whatever works, right!?

This is what Owen's "smile" face currently looks like.

No, he's not in pain, he truly thinks he's smiling.

Cracks.me.up.

DIY Silhouettes

I have been wanting to make or buy silhouettes of my boys for quite some time. I think I even blogged about making DIY silhouettes once, but that probably involved Photoshop or Publisher or Picnik (BTW...what the heck am I going to do without Picnik?), which will totally work if you have that little thing called patience. I however, have very, very little patience, so I desperately needed an easy-peesy way of making silhouettes or I was going to have to turn to Etsy.

Then BAM, I came across this blog post, which led to this simple DIY silhouette tutorial and I have been thinking about making them ever since. On this Monday afternoon, after helping Jackers with a project, I had loads of motivation to work on some of my own projects. 

And silhouettes of my boys it was! 

Why finish the table and chairs I have been rambling about for the last year?

 

Disclaimer...they are not perfect, but I think kinda close. Technically, they should be the same size and so I may redo Owen to make his the same size as Jack. I also need to clean up the bottoms as I have to much body. Lastly, I know Jack's silhouette is crooked, but I was working quickly as both boys were needing my attention and the sun was going down so I was losing light for picture taking.

The how to is that I truly followed this tutorial, but I will give you a quick rundown being that it was so easy and probably took me only minutes to complete.

1. Take a silhouette photo of your child, spouse or pet.

 2. Print out the photo on card stock type of paper.

3. Using a sharp scissors, cut out the silhouette.

4. Paint the photo with black acrylic craft paint.

5. Let the photos dry.

6. Align the silhouette evenly on a piece of white card stock and tape or glue them down.

7. Pop them in a frame of your choice. 

My choice of frame for the silhouettes are these large Ikea frames. However, I'm not sure they will stay in these for long. You see, I have another project in the works (the home for these silhouettes) and it's a kids art wall.

This is my inspiration...

source: asoftplacetoland via Nicole on Pinterest

I have the chalkboard portion complete and now I'm just working on the top portion that I will fill with art and frames. I would love to put these silhouettes here and so in order to use the space to its greatest potential I just need to scale down the frame size.

More about this later though!

DIY silhouettes of my boys have been attempted and I think successfully completed!

Sigh.

Can you see my boys?

They picked themselves out right away, so that is a good sign!

Week 25

Week 23

Who Knew?

Who knew that new pillows could make a girl so very happy?!?

Blue and Natural Chevron from EstyByBetsey and Sunflower from Target.

It takes me awhile (a long while) to make decisions about decorating my house. I think too much and I'm always in search of that perfect thing (whatever that is?!) plus I have two little sticky fingered boys to consider (what's mine is theirs). To make a long pillow story very short, I found these and I couldn't be happier! I might add one possibly two more fabrics to the mix, but that decision could take me another six months.