Dining in Style

Oh yes, we got a new kitchen table, JD's brother purchased our old one and we got to go and pick out a new one at IKEA, it is wonderful and it only took about three hours to put it and four chairs together, which included dinner break and putting James to sleep break. Needless to say I love it, so here is a Before and After picture of new kitchen table.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We have a crawler!

Well crazy as it is, James is officially crawling, today was really the day he put two and two together and can move both legs and arms together. There is no stopping him now, seriously, anything he wants to get his hands on he goes for it, baby gates are going up and there is no more leaving him unattended to go around the corner to the kitchen. Like my mom said, no more sitting down!

So without further ado, I give you James crawling!

PSA: Public Service Annoucement

Do not vacuum a certain companies rugs (I won't name them, but it rhymes with Moles). Anyways I learned the hard way by trying to keep the house clean and learned that when vacuuming with a high powered Dyson, it will literally pull the fibers right out and make the rug look like it needs a good hair cut. Anyways with all this craziness with rugs, we did some switch-a-roo and with that I ended up with a new Ikea living room area rug! SA-WEET!

So to start here is the rug post vacuuming, blah!

So here is the rug that use to be in front of the couch in the living room, we put the "shag" rug by the back door, and put the living room rug by the front door, hence below picture:

So with all this Rug-Ring-Around and our recent trip to Ikea Centennial (JD's first time going) we found the awesomness that is our new living room rug! I give you James and his new soft rug :)

So even though it started as a blah rug fiasco! It ended with an awesome new rug that totally finishes the room!

IKEA Day!

Well today my mom and I are joining the masses its IKEA day! I have my list and am prepped with a tape measure and credit card (I also have a gift card from my step-brother Trent). I have to say I am excited and nervous, hopefully it won't be too crazy. Our list includes:

Drapes for the kitchen sliding glass door
A rod to go with those drapes
Shadow box frames- two projects from these a key shadow box like this, we have keys from a family friends house, will have this project blogged later on. Also going to do a butterfly box, thank you Young House Love.
Cabinets- just looking for when we redo the laundry room.
And of course looking for stuff for James, cause they have the best baby stuff!

Will let you know how the trip goes later on, till then if you don't hear from me, it probably means I am lost in IKEA and call for help!

Picture Post

Mischief here we come...

We have a crawler!

Well last night was it, James took his first few "crawls" towards being mobile. The thing that got him moving, my glasses, gggrrreattt.... It is pretty amazing though to think that only a few short months ago, almost 7 actually he was a little bean just laying where ever you put him, couldn't really move anything, now you can't get him to sit still anywhere, your lap your arms, it doesn't matter he wants to move!

Well now with the start of a little crawler we are going to do the fun purchase of baby gates this weekend! Look out Babies R Us, we are coming for white "pretty" baby gates. Will definably be posting pictures of the installation, should be pretty funny is my guess. I still can't get over it though, he is determined and if he can't do it he gets grumpy and frustrated. He is all boy and willed at that!

Before and After Addict

I have a confession, due to the awesome blog Young House Love I am officially addicted to doing easy inexpensive before and afters. The closet was the first, now onto the mailbox outside. It started as a basic flat white, slightly rusty old mailbox. Today I spray painted it Brushed Metallic- Champagne, its a Krylon product, tomorrow I plan on doing a simple liquid leafing on the lion design on the front, I forgot to take a before picture but will have an after picture tomorrow.

It was pretty simple, just sprayed outside on the front lawn, James hung out in the cooler garage in his exersaucer and watched mom probably wondering what the heck I was doing.

Seriously though I think I have a problem, the next big project is the laundry room redo, we went to Home Depot today and got a sample of the paint I want to have in there, I found the wall art decals that I want in there, here they are found them at Hobby Lobby. Next is onto Ikea to find the cabinetry as we couldn't find anything big enough for that space. Wish me luck, and pictures to come tomorrow!

James Now

Since it has been so long probably thought I should post a new picture and an update of the little guy. He can now roll over both directions, he is almost crawling, he wishes he could just walk everywhere. He is babbling like crazy and says "mama" when he is sad or upset. I can't believe he is 6 1/2 months already. He is so big and so lovable the best baby a momma could ask for.

~Walking with momma~

 

~Hamming it up for the camera~

Coat Closet Clean Out

Well I finally got down and dirty and cleaned out our coat closet, or shall we say the catch all. I took out all one hundred jackets, which only about six of them still fit or were worth keeping. Goodwill is going to love us. As I started digging out from the bottom of the closet, I knew there had to be little spiders waiting for me, but only found one, I think he ate all the others, after screaming when he came crawling out, I finally killed him with a couple good blows from the broom. During all this James was having fun playing with the storage bins and watching mom freak out over a spider, he thought it was pretty funny. After finally getting all the jackets hung up again, and all the Rockband guitars and drums downstairs and cleared out, I hung up the storage hanger and started putting everything back in. I never realized how many board games we have.

Well no more waiting, I can't believe I am posting the before picture, seriously we really aren't slobs, just this closet got away from us. I am pretty proud of it!

Here are the links to the Target  storage bins and hanging organizer

 Okay so here is the before, YIKES!

And now the after, thank you Target for all your storage and organization products!

Back in the Habit

Okay shame shame on me, it has been forever since I posted, need to get in the habit of posting every night. So here we go, doing a little revamp on the site, not only will I be posting about my amazing little guy. But anything and everything else going on around this Momma.

Summer is in the air!

Can't believe it is almost summer, I have been looking forward to this time of year with James so much! I couldn't wait to put him in shorts, and a cute t-shirt! Today was our first official outing in this nice warm weather! We went to the first Paris Street Market for this season, and he did great, was awake pretty much the whole time and just hung out, while the shop owners oohhed and ahhed over him.

Now I am trying him in his crib to take a nap, as I sit down stairs with the baby monitor on, all I can hear is him screeching and talking away, hmmm good luck with that nap :)

We are coming up on that 4 month mark quickly and all I can say is how time has gone by so fast, he had his first holiday, Easter, and he did really great! And looking incredibly cute!

His new things that he has discovered at his age are: he has found his voice! He gibber-jabbers all the time now, no more quiet house, if he is awake he is either screeching, cooing, ahhing, or oohing. The funniest is when he tries to talk with his pacifier in his mouth.

He also has discovered he is not a big fan of being in his carseat, if it is either in the back and he is by himself or if he is in it and there is a free lap handy.

But all around he is a great little guy, who stills my heart every time I look at him.

3 Months Old

Can't believe my little man is now 3 months old, according to the baby books he is now considered just a baby, no more newborn. I haven't considered him a newborn since he could recognize and smile at us. It is truly amazing how much he is growing up and changing, from being able to hold his head up when on his belly, to not hating tummy time, and starting solids. I feel like it was just yesterday we were finishing up dinner and heading to the hospital getting ready to meet our little guy. Now he is so big, weighing in around 13 pounds! He is really starting to play and grab things, he loves certain toys and ignores others, and his little personality is really shining through. I can't for the months to come when he is growing bigger and his personality shines even brighter.

Does this mean he likes being naked!

Yesterday evening I was changing James into his bedtime clothes and as I was interacting with him, I asked if he liked being naked, he looked at me, smiled and giggled, full on "he-he". Obviously this is a bad sign, as I have heard of children who enjoy stripping down to nothing and running through the house.

It is just funny to see him totally undressed and enjoying it, since when he was new, he would scream as loud as possible when naked, its amazing how much a little one changes in three months.

Oh...The Bumbo

Today was a great day, found a used Bumbo on Craigslist, the greatest site for baby stuff. I have really been in the market for a Bumbo and we found a decent used one for cheap. Needless to say James looks too cute in it, and he loves it. I think his POV has totally changed now that he is in a upright position, instead of half laying in his Boppy. It makes him look so big and grown up. This will definitely be going on my must have as a momma list!

12 weeks

I can't believe I have a 12 week old. Looking a pictures from the day he was born he has changed so much! He is snoozing next to me and takes up the whole middle area of the couch, when he was tiny he only seemed to be right in the middle area of the couch. Its truly amazing how fast they fast grow, I always just smiled when someone would tell me how fast they grow up, but it is so true. He seems like such a beast compared to when we brought him home. I can remember him eating 25 ml of milk every three hours, now he is up to 6 oz every four. He use to get up every three hours at night to eat, now he sleeps through the night. Where did my little newborn go.

 James 4 days old

James 12 weeks old

Busy Week!

What a busy week, I swear, sometimes it seems like I do nothing but then the next thing I notice it is Friday night, at 10:41 pm, James is getting his bedtime bottle and it is already the weekend.

Little man, has been such a big boy lately, he has been pretty much sleeping through the night, last night it was about 10:45 pm to 7:00 am, which is great, but also freaky cause I wake up around 4:00 checking on him.Along with sleeping through the night he is getting much better control of his head, he can now lift his head up from a laying position when you lift him up. He is also using his Baby Einstein Activity Gym, its funny cause it says on the box 4-16 months, well my 3 month old loves it! He gets so excited about it, but really frustrated when he can't reach everything. Today I was sitting watching him play and looked away next thing I hear is the music from one of the buttons that you push, obviously he realized to hit it, he squealed in glee from it. I can't help but to watch him and smile as he learns and takes it all in.

I am loving every minute of him growing, and can't wait as to what new and wonderful thing he is going to do the next day. Until next time, here is a cute picture of James in his gym!

Gibber-Jabber!

As I sit here tonight James is talking away to me, telling me a very exciting, important story. I can't help but see the joy in his face and wonder what he is telling me. Its amazing in just a matter of a few weeks how much he has grown. I swear it was not that long ago that he was bundled up like a little burrito sleeping all the time. Now I can't even hardly finish this post, because he is either kicking my arm or gibber jabbering on and on.

It is such an amazing feeling though to have this little person so interested in what you are doing and how you are doing it. The curiosity level has already doubled or tripled with him, he watches TV and looks at everything on the walls. I can just see his little brain taking it all in. I started turning on the "On Demand" baby videos, he watched all eleven minutes of the animals video, talking to the TV the whole time. it is so fun watching them learn.

SAHM- Stay-at-Home Mom

Well after much thought and consideration, JD and I have decided that I am going to stay home with James. It's funny cause I type this it still hasn't sunk in. I feel like I need to go back to work, but there is no way that I could leave James. I applaud all those moms that go back to work and are able to leave their little ones, I obvisouly don't have that strength. I am still trying to find something that I can do from home to bring in a little extra money, but something will come.

I have to say that I seriously can't believe that I get to stay with my amazing little man. I can't wait to teach him to walk, talk and do all those great things and be there to document it all.

So expect all those great things to be documented on here as well, below is the start of it all. James gibber-jabbering and also running his little legs!

So far a great weekend

What a beautiful day, 80 degrees (as Stef put it, hottest day of James life). We had a great time hanging out today, enjoying the wonderful weather, and great family and friends. Spent the morning with hubby and in-laws at Village Inn for breakfast, and then my parents came over for grandson time and then dinner at Hickory House, the boys got to ride their motorcycles, which was great for them.

Can't wait for more of these warm summer days with James, he loves the nice weather, as we speak he is laying next to me kicking his little bare legs in his "I Love Mommy" onesie.

I think about days like today were James really felt so good and comfortable with me, and it makes me so happy to be a mother. As we sat and ate dinner at Hickory House, all he wanted was to lay against my heart. It moments like those that melt your heart away.

Talking to Old Willie

Tonight JD and I decided to go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, after last weeks disaster dinner at Outback (James freaked out), this was a much better night! James did great, he actually loved the place. We sat at the Willie Nelson table, and needless to say James loved him. He talked to his picture for about ten minutes. It was a great evening with my great family!

The Beginning

Well after my great friend started a blog, and my aunt-in law suggested I start one, I thought it would be a good idea to join the crowd of bloggers and start one of these. This blog will detail all the great things and not so great things of parenthood and raising our son.