Challenge-UPDATE

Everyday this week I've been devoting some time to the newest challenge.  Frankly, finding the 50 things to donate, re-purpose or trash has been a little difficult because since about month 3 of this pregnancy I've been getting rid of stuff left and right. 

Here are some photos of a few things I've gathered to do away with...

Old make-up! Or as Bug said "pens".   

Not long after Bug was born we sort of made this commitment to be as chemical free as possible.  I sort of live by this website when it comes to buying anything from shampoo to body wash to make-up and so on.  I was shocked to learn that all of the make-up I had been wearing was rated a 9 out of 10 with 10 being the worse product you could be using.  It took some time to break the addiction but I only wear face powder and mascara now.  Of course it's still the "9" products because I haven't been able to find anything in town that's rated better so I'm sticking with the "less is more" motto. 

The photo below is of a few things I mustered up to part with.

It's not much but I'm still working at it.

I also managed to work on a few projects this week as well.

First up:  Bug and I spent some time in the kitchen.  We made some cornbread biscuits in an attempt to make our own corn dogs.  As it turns out the "dogs" are better without the "corn".  None-the-less we enjoyed a messy fun time together

 (Don't you just love those fat floured fingers?)

The 2nd Project was enjoying my son's first bubble bath with him.  I know you are probably saying something to the effect of " What!  He's almost 2 and he's never taken a bubble bath"!  Remember the website I mentioned above?  I've never wanted to be your average person and just buy the $2.00 bottle of Superman bubble bath because God only knows what and how many chemicals are in there.  I have fallen in love with a product called California Baby.  Yes, it's a bit expensive but it lasts a long time so tonight I made a special trip to Target to pick up a bottle of their bubble bath for Bug and I to enjoy.

Let me just say that most (if not all) of the California Baby products are rated a 1 and this bubble bath ROCKED!  The cheap bubbles don't hold up compared to this stuff.  We had bubbles for every minute of the 30 minutes we were playing away. 

The last project of the week (so far) was well....trimming my toe nails.

Yes, that is a project for me!  When I have a toddler running around like crazy and I'm 33 weeks pregnant my toes are the last thing to get in love or attention.  I should be good for another month now!

OOPS....I almost forgot the MOST important thing!

Daddy and I took Bug to the bank today to open up his very own savings account.

He was tired when we went so please excuse the not so cute facial expressions.  Because Bug had saved a certain amount of money he received a toy and a lunch bag as a gift.  If he saves a little more he'll get a $25 gift card to Toys R Us.  Hearing that news made his day so as soon as we arrived home he started flipping over the couch cushions looking for lost change :-) 

Lots of Love~SL 

Feeling Inspired

One of the blogs that I follow, Crunchy Girl , took part in a little challenge last year and she's going for it again this year.  I felt inspired by it but maybe it's early nesting--who knows.

So the challenge is to find 50 items in your house to either, donate, re-purpose or throw away (as a last resort).  The mission was supposed to be accomplished between Christmas and New Year but seen how I just read her blog I figured I would throw out that timeline and create my own and add a little extra challenge in there.

Here it goes....between today and lets say the first of February (because I'm very pregnant, slow and tired these days) I would find 50 things to either donate, re-purpose or trash AND I am also going to try and complete at least 10 projects.  I figured this was even more motivation for me to get things in order as we prepare for the birth of our new little man.

Stay tuned to see how things are moving along...

MicroMachine Mind

Do you remember the guy from the MicroMachine commercials?  The one that must have been an auctioneer at some point in his life.  Well lately I feel like my mind is going as fast as his mouth.

BUT...before I get into that all of that! 

How was your Christmas?

Ours was really wonderful. 
Although, I am still trying to figure out where all of the new toys are going to go. 

Back to MicroMachine guy and my mind...

Do you know that on this Friday the 31st I'll have only EIGHT weeks left of this pregnancy?
EIGHT weeks of only having one child.....
EIGHT weeks left of having things pretty easy despite the fact that this one sweet child o' mine has managed to push every button I have including the ones I didn't know existed. 
HOLY CRAP!  If I might say.  What happened between July 4th when I confirmed I was pregnant and now?

Do you also know that in 5 weeks my ONE sweet (button pushing) child will be turning TWO!
HOLY CRAP (again)!  Where did my BABY and the TIME go?

Okay, okay...back to our Christmas because I'm sure you'd rather see some cute photos and not reading the words HOLY CRAP over and over again.

Here is Christmas Part 1. 
On my side of the family because we are so spread out (Tucson, Marana & Queen Creek) and because we are always so busy running in opposite directions we decided three years ago now to celebrate Christmas early so come Christmas day we can spend it with our husbands, kids and in-laws.  The day is about visiting, eating and of course the presents for the kids.

One gift Bug received from his Aunt Kissy, Uncle Dan, Hailey and Chase was not as a Christmas present but rather as a hand-me-down and think this may be his favorite gift of all! 

 I am not sure why or how it happened but my son has come to LOVE horses even though I don't think he has ever seen one in real life.  He loves his new horse so much that one night he asked to sleep on it.

Where does he come up with this stuff!?!?!

The second Christmas comes in the form of Christmas Eve.  There is a long standing tradition that Daddy's whole family comes together on the EVE and exchanges gifts.  Just like with the first Christmas there is great food, great people and great times.

 Turns out Aunt L. and Uncle S. bought the gift that not only fascinated a toddler but all the adults and kids as well.  Good buy Aunt L and Uncle S. 

The Third Christmas would be at our house Christmas morning where Bug, Daddy and I all swapped gifts.

Every year I have Bug, with my help of course, write a letter to Santa and leave him a cookie that we made.

Even poor Nitto was forced to get into the action

Bug's big tiger from Aunt N.

Santa and Daddy where both very kind to Mommy this year.  Of course it helps when Daddy buys a really nice rifle for himself just after Thanksgiving.  I wish I could show you the most awesome gift in the world but you can't really take a picture of it when you need the gift to take the picture. 

Daddy scored off of craigslist a Canon Rebel XSI.  I am in LOVE!  Of course all my other gifts were just as great including the velour pants I wore for two days straight or the jammie pants & sweater I'm wearing now or the really cool cast iron corn bread skillets...just to name a few. 

The fourth Christmas takes place at Grandma and Grandpa's house just as soon as we finished breakfast at our house.

Well it seems I wasn't on the ball and I didn't take any photos of the gift opening. 

Here is one Bug took.

And here are two I took just because Bug was being cute.

The last Christmas of the day only took place because my Mom and Dad bought Bug a gift to keep at their house when he comes over.  I figured it would be best for him to open it there figuring he would be more okay leaving their house without it as opposed to my parents leaving our house with his toy they just gave but took back.

Here is Granddad and Bug playing with Stinky.

Of course there can't be a new toy without Daddy getting to play with it as well.

And here I am seizing the opportunity to try out my new LOVE!

So there you go Christmas 2010!  Next year we'll have two babes to celebrate it with!-HOLY CRAP!

Lots of Love-SL

Holy Fork!

This may not be verbatim but here is a general idea on how a conversation went between Daddy and I a few months back.

Me: "Hey Daddy.  I would really like a pot rack so we can free up a cupboard."

Daddy: "Where would it go?"

Me: "Oh, I don't know.  That's your job to figure out."

Daddy: "Okay.  What should it be?"

Me:  Oh, I don't know.  A fork would be kind of cool."

Now fast forward to the present.....

I suppose this is the net result when you are married to a metal fabricator extraordinaire. 

Lots of Love~SL

Catching Up

My blogging duties have fallen way behind and I have some (fairly) good reasons why!  First, the computer I blog from is pretty old and it has more issues than I do if you can believe that so it's kind of a task to download pictures from the camera onto this computer and then upload them here.  Second, this computer darn near crashed about two weeks ago so as a precaution I removed every file off of here so now it's a little more of a hassle to get to my photos.  Third, CHRISTMAS is a coming!  I've been working very diligently on a gift for an ever so sweet child in my life.  As soon as Bug falls asleep at night sometime around 8:30ish I'll stay up until 1am most nights working away.  I'm starting to understand the life of a Santa's elf.

I would really like to take the time tonight to share some pictures from what we've done over the last month or so but I recently went back through all of Bug's photos and I thought it would be neat to share pictures from a year ago and sometimes more to now.  It's amazing what a year does to a child at this age.  Heck, it's amazing what a year does to my waist line!

Let's start with Thanksgiving 2008...

Moving forward to Thanksgiving 2009...

And now to 2010...

It seems I have a pattern going....Pregnant one year, take a year off, pregnant again.

Now onto Bug!

Thanksgiving 2009...

 

Now Thanksgiving 2010...

Now how about setting up the Christmas tree!

2009...

Now this year...

It's a little short and sweet cause Daddy is hollering for me.

Lots of Love-SL



If cute-ness came wrapped in a blanket....

this is what it would look like....

The blanket is my newest creation made for LB's little brother.  Of course LB is making sure it gets broken in properly!

This is how I see things....

If you've had the blessing (or misfortune) to walk around my house lately then you might have noticed the new decorations that have popped up over the last few months....

 Stickers on the back of the cabinets....

 Stickers on the fridge....

 Pencil on the wall...

 Crayon on the wall...

 Crayon and a sticker on the door....

 Stickers on the hamper...

 Stickers on the ground outside...

More stickers on the wall with sticker placing in action....

YOU might see that I have a whole lot of cleaning ahead!  Each marking that has been placed on the wall by a crayon accidentally left out, or a pencil swiped off my desk or for the oodles of stickers I've collected recently--I leave them all there.  Some of you may walk into my house and never notice the pencil marking or crayon drawings and some of you may walk in and never take your eyes off of them.  Some of you might think my house has been overtaken by a busy toddler but do you know what I see? 

Each marking and each sticker is a reminder to me.  A reminder that I am eternally blessed. 

I am blessed because I was finally given the ability to get pregnant after a long struggle. 

I am blessed because I carried my first pregnancy full term. 

I am blessed because I gave birth to a perfectly healthy boy. 

I am blessed because my dream of having a boy was answered.

I am blessed because my son is so amazing.

I am blessed because my son has his daddy's brains and my goofiness.

I am blessed because my son continues to be happy and healthy.

I am blessed because I have a little boy who loves me more than what words can describe.

I am blessed because I've been given the chance to do it all over again with Carsen.

I am blessed because I have a husband who firmly held onto my hand and walked through life with me.

I am blessed because I know my husband will never let go of my hand.

I am blessed because I have such amazing parents.

AND did I mention that come February I'll be blessed all over again!!! 

I know you are getting tired of hearing about how blessed I am and how blessed I feel but this is how I feel. 

I am a on-the-go kind of person so I don't always take the time to sit down and "smell the roses" and truthfully who really has the time too!  The "smell the roses" time comes for me when I glance at the wall and see what LB has drawn this time or when I find a sticker has popped up somewhere else new or when I sit down at this computer late at night looking through photos to get my inspiration for the next blog posting. 

I am blessed because I am oh-so-thankful for what I have now.  I no longer sit and dwell on the things that have yet to come into my life to make me happy.  The future no longer holds my happiness....the present does! 

Have a good night! 

Love~SL