Right now...

I want to remember "right now".

Because this moment is perfectly "imperfect".

Coffee - to make up for the sleep lost last night...

Myself and 2 kiddos still in pjs... at 10am... the way it's going it may be noon before that changes...

Morning tv shows playing in the background - an indulgence I try to avoid...

Spending WAY to much time on facebook just now...

I'm SURROUNDED by... broken crayons, trains, train tracks, cars, foam alphabet letters (my little man's favorite new toy - he knows all but 3!! So proud of him:) )

Watching him play with 3 of his tractors - 2 of which his daddy played with as a little boy...

A sleeping baby with a full tummy on a boppy pillow in my lap...

A little boy who wants to hold his "baby 'ister"... if only for about 3 seconds at a time...

Dirty dishes on the end table in the living room from Sunday evening snacking...

Cleaning poopy diapers and baby spit up...

Did I mention TOYS EVERYWHERE????

Little boy snacking on a container of pretzels still left out from ^ "Sunday evening snacking"...

Empty sippy cups strewn about...

Kitchen full of dirty dishes and bottles that need to be washed...

Bathrooms that need to be cleaned...

Beds that need to be made...

Cookies, granola and dinner that need to be made, so I have something to pack for my hubs' lunch this week...

As imperfect as this all sounds to me, it is so perfect I want to record it here so I can look back years from now and remember the sweetness of little children and wish I could go back :)

Yes, I'm sooo happy...

Yes, I love being a mommy...

As ocd as I sometimes am about trying to keep up with the chaos that is, little kids, as yucky as I feel still being in my pjs 4 hours after getting out of bed...

I am so basking in the sweet coziness of it this morning...

I love this moment "right now"...

waiting...

Is it possible that I'm more impatiently waiting on this second baby to arrive than the first time around????

I'm pretty sure it is.

Cause I'm pretty sure I am.

I can't wait for this...

Yep that's right, I'm crazy enough to even be excited about labor (and that epidural) - because that means it's only a matter of hours!!!

But this is what I'm most excited for... That tired but oh so happy and proud looking daddy holding a tiny, fresh newborn :)

Oh such sweetness!!!

Can't stand it!! And this time it will be this tiny one, who is going to be a not so tiny 2 YEARS OLD! and a precious baby sister <3

 

The first bath!!

All that newborn sleepyness!

All cozy in the swing.

Ok, so maybe I'm making it worse by looking at all these newborn pictures of Evan for hours :). But really, I'm so ready.

Ready for her to come.

Ready for life to slow down.

Because a newborn will force that to happen :)

Ready because...

My energy is gone. Gone. Kaput.

Her clothes are all washed, folded and waiting to be worn.

The crib is ready.

Evan is pretty much adjusted to his "big boy" bed.

Ready to snuggle my baby and my big boy.

Ready even for the crazy sleep deprived feeling of exhaustion. (ok, maybe I'm ready for that part the least of all)

Bottom line.

I'm so ready for the next 6 1/2 weeks to be over.

Wow, that still seems so far away...

Nonny, Nonny!!!

So Evan has this major hangup with anything electronic with buttons - as any active 16 month old would I'm sure. Well he is constantly going in his room and adjusting his electric heater, humidifier and cd player. SO annoying. Well I have spent quite a LOT of time trying to teach him that that is a no no. So this included alot of telling him that is Naughty-Naughty!!

The other day James went into Evan's room to fill the humidifier and adjust the setting and Evan follows him in there, finger just a waggin' as hard as he could and declaring "Nonny-Nonny!!!!"

We had a pretty good laugh at that one:)

Merry Christmas!!

I know, I know... Christmas is over now, but I wanted to share our card with you all.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!

M.I.A.

Yeah, that's been me!!

But guess what?

I'm back!:)

Well, after about 3 crazy months we are finally in a place that we are calling "home". Sounds so weird because Rowan county NC has never been "home" ever before. But now. It is. (I will share pics, I promise:) )

After 2 moves in 2 months I am ready to just sit down, put my feet up, drink lemonade on my front porch, and watch life creep by. Ha. As if that's going to happen! And I really don't want it to:)

We bought a pretty little piece of land with a house on it that was built in 1907 but has been completely gutted down to the studs and brand new drywall, trim, etc. throughout in 1992, so not completely new, but new enough.

By "little" piece of land I mean 1.15 acres. Ok, not so little:) But again, we wanted room for our munchkin to RUN outside.

And what comes with all that house and land goodness? Why LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of projects!! Good for keeping me busy and also good for blogging:) Aren't y'all just so lucky??:)

Well, let's get started... Here is my first project. (Not the bed, the walls...:) But the bed did get put together, we are not sleeping on the floor...)

See all that stripy wallpapery goodness? *sarcastic snort* I know wallpaper is coming back in style but if I ever hop on the boat it will be a LONG time from now! And it really did look much worse in person than in these pictures. Very masculine and dark. Notice I'm using past tense when referring to it. Its gone. :) All gone. :) You know how when you buy a new house there is always the previous owner's "smell" left? (In our case greasy cooking smell stuck to all the wood in the house *gag*) Or else the house has been empty and there's just a weird smell? Well we have the privilege of both... The house had been empty for a few years except a few weekends here and there, kinda like a vacation house I guess, but when we put an offer on it and had the home inspection done there were a bunch of repairs that needed to be made so the guy moved in and fixed them all himself, he's a handy-man for a living so I guess it worked out for him. Anywho, so in hopes of getting rid of the weird smells I'm working on stripping all the wallpaper and repainting as quickly as possibly.

What? You didn't think the only room with wallpaper was the bedroom did you??? Oh. No. It's in lots of places, I will show you those rooms on a later post:) But I must say, this was BY FAR the easiest wallpaper removal I've ever had the privilege of taking on. And I've had wa-a-a-a-ayyyyy too many!

So that's a snippet of my real life right now! Stripping wallpaper. Cleaning. Deep cleaning. Oh. And of course can't forget the most important thing!

Taking care of this precious little stinker!:) When he's not following me around grabbing at my ankles and whining because of teething he's off finding SOMETHING to get into. After all, can't make mama's life too easy!:) But I love him to death, who couldn't love that huge smile, especially after he's been "caught" in the act!

And now it's time to go get him out of bed, he's in there practicing his favorite new word, "uh-oh". So cute I tell ya:)

And I'm so excited to be back blogging and showing you some of the changes being made in the house as we go. Toodles for now!

Real Life... Right now = trying to save money.

Since this blog has no real "theme" going here... Besides my Real Life of course... I don't know about you all but real life can be a real mish mash of things going on, at least it is for me! So therefore, I guess you'll just see a mish mash of things on here:)

Seriously, I have so many interests, I'm sometimes not sure where to start, what to do, or even feel like I'm able to keep my head on straight! So moving to another state has taught me a lesson. Take it one day at a time!:) So some days, I have time to work on projects, cook, bake, decorate, craft, all that fun kind of stuff. Other days... Well, other days all I seem to get done is drag myself out of bed and care for my little munchkin. That's real life.

Real life is also, dealing with the situation that God has put us in. Currently that situation is living in an apartment (it is a nice apartment, I wanted to at least feel safe in the place we moved to since it's so far away from everything I've known my whole life!), an apartment that is truly a blessing, but also has us a little strapped for cash, since we have not yet sold our house in Ohio and still have to pay the mortgage there in addition to the rent here. We are staying afloat for sure but it's just causing me to have to get creative in the household spending department! The saddest part for me is having to make do with the clothes that I have and not go shopping in my spare time (I have lots of that right now!), if I have a weakness it is for sure buying clothes... Hey I'm a girl!:)

Also, part of feeling the squeeze is me becoming a stay-at-home mom. Which is something I would not want to give up for the world! I am so blessed! Thank-you Husband dear for working so hard so that I can stay home!

So anyways, all that to say... I'm trying to save money!! And one way I've found to be a wonderful way to do that is... Coupons!! I know, me and the rest of the blog-world out there:) But I have found too that it is work!! Searching for those coupons online, buying a Sunday paper every week, and clipping clipping clipping. And then... matching those coupons with sales to get the maximum possible savings. Multiple shopping trips to make use of all those coupons since grocery stores limit the number of coupons you can use each day. And let me just say, that moving to a larger city where they have larger major grocery stores has been helping me immensly! LOVE love double coupons (up to .99), Super Double coupons (Even better! Up to 1.98), triple coupons (awesome! up to .99). Do the math, that adds up the savings in a big way! Literally when I go into these grocery stores I have a coupon for everything I buy. If I don't have a coupon, I don't buy it, unless of course it's a staple item like milk, eggs, flour, etc. but I try to find coupons for those things too. This is great too because it gives me a large variety of food from month to month, and we like variety!:)

This weeks grocery trips:
1st trip, grocery's valued at: $84.30
Total spent after sales & coupons: $34.10
Savings: $50.20

2nd trip, grocery's valued at: $96.05
Total spent after sales & coupons: $41.70
Savings: $54.35

Total Saving after both trips: $104.55

WOW!!

It's worth the work, at least for me, at this stage of my life.

And there you have it. Another tidbit from my mish mash real life:)

Next up? Who knows, maybe a craft project... Isn't life exciting? Haha:)

Summer...

Wow do I love summer!!! The heat, the SUN, the pool, the SUN, a little color on my skin, the SUN. Ok, so maybe you get the idea? I love sunshine!!!! It makes everything so much better, and it just boosts my mood:) I think maybe have a vitamin D deficiency or something because I just crave sunshine! Even if I have to be inside all day, just looking out the window to see lots of sunshine cheers me up:)

And watermelon! Watermelon just screams summertime. My little munchkin getting his first taste, he loved it:) He likes popsicles too...:) I pitied him because his teeth are causing him so much agony right now that yesterday I helped him eat a popsicle and he thought it was super great, he gnawed on it with his lower gums like crazy. Poor kid, still nothing to show for all his pain, how long can it take to pop a tooth through? And how many grouchy days will there be? Oh well. Guess we'll just have to keep lots of popsicles on hand:)\

My sister helping Evan down the slide. LOVE his look of sheer delight!!:)

My dad, other little sister and my hubby. Just relaxing in the shade on a warm SUMMER day:)

Sweet picture of my love and I. Oh. And my crazy sis:)

Evan and my mom, he's thrilled about something, I think he likes summer as much as me:)

Whew, it's a scorcher here today, supposed to hit 96 and feel like 100. Think it may have to be a pool day!!

9 Months...

How can that be???? It was just yesterday that he came home from the hospital wasn't it? But at the same time if I look at all that has happened in our lives since he was born it seems almost a lifetime ago! I can't imagine life without him anymore:)

*Warning: Major picture overload!!:)*

Getting a ride on Daddy's shoulders.

The little munchkin:)

Being outdoors is his favorite thing in the world, so thankfully he was super happy, distracted, but happy for these pictures:)

Pat-a-cake!!:)

Kisses from Mama

So big!!

Happy smiles!

"Da-da!"  :):)

My favorite. How can you not fall in love with that little grin??:)

Play time with Daddy

Love this picture! It is such a priceless typical Evan expression:)

The 2 handsome men in my life. {love}

So funny:)

Such a big boy!

{love}

My daddy, my hero.

Wheeee!

So happy:)

Love my little man:)

Is mine the cutest baby ever????

Why yes.

I think so:)

6 month pics. Ok ok so he's 8 months old now, but, ya know, moving has a way of interrupting things:)

Hi mom!

His current reaction to the word "no". Hmmm.

Tub time! Oh wait. That's the sink.

Fun things happen during the craziness of moving...

Precious fingers

Silly boy, the evening of moving he was sooo tired and silly.

A lemon. It's kinda squishy.

Might as well taste it!

Um, it's sour!!

Eeeewww.

Please! Make it stop!

Funny boy, he knew it was sour and just kept going back for more:)

VERY intently watching daddy shave:) He just stared and stared and stared so I had to grab a picture:) *Excuse the boxes, ahem...*

Daddy makes the BEST jungle gym!!

So we're moved. To another state. Whew.:) What an adventure! And it's only beginning, there is still at least one more move in the next couple months to a year, to a more permanent place. Hopefully a house with a yard, this girl just isn't made for apartment dwelling :)