Birthdays and Blizzards!

The flu bug and a case of "nesting" has hit our house lately- I'm sure you all have been wondering where I have been!  Everyday I kept telling myself "I need to sit down and blog," but the motivation just wasn't there.  We have spent the last two weeks with the nasty flu bug in our house, so between taking care of two sick boys, trying to take care of myself, and sanitizing everything in sight, I've been busy!

January 19th we celebrated two wonderful years of life for Wyatt!  I can't believe he is officially a "toddler" now and he is certainly letting us know that he is capable of doing "big boy" things.  I think I am getting a small glimpse of what some people call the "terrible twos"!  haha- but i love him dearly!

We had a joint birthday party for Wyatt and his friend Alivia (she was born 20 minutes earlier than Wy, right across the hall) on the evening of the 19th!  It was so much fun and he even had his own Thomas the Train cake!  That evening and the day after is evidence as to why we don't feed our child sugar!  Can anybody say WILD MAN!!

Wyatt's new Thomas Train stuff!  

We are expected to get a blizzard with 10-14" of snow today/tonight!  We are all stocked up on everything we could possibly need and are going to turn on the TV and cozy in!  I will be back tonight with pictures of the bassinet and baby stuff all set up!  I am READY- bring on another boy!!  

The New Year!

I am busting at the seams with excitement about this year!  I anticipate all the great things that will be taking place this year....our new baby boy in about 5 weeks, our move home this summer, Johnny's graduation in October and setting up our life back home in Washington!  God has really blessed us with a wonderful life and an extremely supportive family!

My momma and I

We got out the bassinet and Wyatt thought it was his playhouse

That wraps it up...I am quite possibly the world's worst at remembering to take pictures during any event, hence, the one good picture of Wyatt and my dad and sadly, no pictures of my mom and Wyatt.  We had a blast this Christmas and my parents visit went by really fast!  

Hope you all have made your New Years resolutions if you plan to....I have made mine, but I can't start tackling it for another 5 or 6 weeks!  Gotta lose that baby weight after our little man is born...hopefully the Iowa spring will cooperate and allow for many walks in the park with my kiddos!  

Snow Day!

Last night it snowed here in Iowa and it has continued a little today!  We are stir-crazy in the house, so we got outside for some winter fun!  Wyatt got some new snow boots and we had to test them out.  I think after an hour in the snow, some warm milk in his belly, and a graham cracker,  he is ready for a nap!  I hope anyway!

His daddy was shoveling snow at him!

Look at that little smirk!

One week from now my parents will be here for Christmas! We can't wait and are counting down the days!

Christmas Mantel!

I finally got out of my funk and got around to doing something with the mantel for Christmas!  Seeing that we don't have a lot of Christmas decor out here in Iowa, I tried to be creative with things that I already had.   I used lots of brown burlap, some berries and greenery I already owned and just cut out some white tissue paper snowflakes for the framed burlap.  Added some white lights nestled into the burlap (which my dad totally would not approve of- FIRE HAZARD!) I also made a little advent calendar out of scrapbooking paper, a black sharpie, and some old weathered clothespins from the line in the back yard!  I took these pictures in the middle of the day- so not a whole lot of ambience going on from the lights, but you get the idea!  Hope you like!  

We might get our tree today from the Christmas tree lot up the road (haha)...if I can get my hubby to stop watching all that football that's on TV!  

We got our first snow and couple days ago...it finally feels like winter!  Asked for some cute new snow boots for Christmas- gotta keep those tootsies warm!  Oh yeah- before I go I will show you the chalkboard I finished for above Wyatt's little activity table....

He has gotten pretty good at singing his ABCs!  Will be back to show you our Christmas Tree early this next week!

A Painful Reminder...

Well, I am happy to say that one of my best friends here in Iowa has had her lovely little baby girl.  She was born yesterday afternoon and as far as I know she is doing quite well- momma is doing well too!  I am soo excited to meet this little bundle of joy!  Makes me anticipate the arrival of our sweet baby boy in a few months!  Yesterday the boys in my life took a nap while I shopped- not sure if my hubby would approve of me posting this, but it was so adorable! So I came home to this...

Apparently my body decided that I was going to get a reminder of what it feels like to be in labor in the middle of the night last night.  Maybe it was a sympathy contraction for my dear friend Linsday or just a fluke, but BOY was I reminded!  My arm shot out of bed and grabbed my hubby next to me so fast!  We will see what the midwife has to say about it today- I"m sure it was Braxton Hicks because they obviously didn't continue and I am here typing this post, but it HURT!

We have a busy day here today with my appointment, some grocery shopping, and AWANAs tonight for Wy man!  Hoping to get to the thrift store down the street because on my drive by I spotted a delightful mini- Christmas tree!  I am getting the itch to decorate for Christmas.  Its going to be simple (not fancy)-as usual- but I can't wait for white lights and candles glowing!  Chow for now!

Our bedroom

I thought I would take a little time to show you what I've been doing in our bedroom.  Basically, I have neglected that room since we moved into this rental, because really nobody sees it.  Lately though, I have been wanting to make it cozy, wintery, and a peaceful place to lay our heads at night.  I would really like to make this my spot to read my Bible, devotional, and books- it was just blah before.  My favorite color is green, so what better color to use as my pop of color.  I like neutral colors, so most of the pillows, etc. are pretty subtle.  I combined a celery green (my fav.) with a forest/olive green (a color my husband likes), with touches of white, tan, oatmeal, and brown.

The drapes are made of canvas painting drop cloths!  Cost me $20 for the whole project and I love them!    The pillow is an old Hungarian grain sack made into a pillow and the sled in the corner is an junk store score from out here in Iowa (the antiques are SO much cheaper here)!

We refinished this dresser this summer- we got it on Craigslist for $45 and just stained in Walnut and painted/distressed the drawers.  

Adding a simple scarf to the sled dressed it up just enough for the winter season!

This is a frame I bought long ago and decided to paint.  I added the grain sack stripes and painted the "No. 4" in the bottom corner to give it that vintage feel!

We don't have nightstands so on one side I have an old chair with a basket, throw, and some antlers.  On the other side is a desk draped in a canvas painters drop cloth.  

To add some touches of winter we have a faux fur throw (ivory) on our bed, a wreath with little hand-stamped snowflake cards, and the tree branch on our dresser.  The tree will be a whole other blog as I will be decorating it with some fun mini pom-poms made of white/silver tissue paper!  Stay tuned for that!  Blessings to you all- hope you like what we've done on a pretty much non-existent budget!  

Foot Fun!

I get catalogs all the time from Garnet Hill and stumbled upon these slippers for kids...OH BOY!!  They are adorable and so fun!  The weather is getting colder and if I had $40 extra bucks laying around I would get Wy man the puppy slippers to keep his tootsies warm...or maybe the rockets....

Garnet Hill

If you're a momma in the market for slippers they have lots of cute ones!  My personal faves are these ballet slippers made by ACORN...

Garnet Hill

OR MAYBE.....the Ugg Moccassins! 

Garnet Hill

 

Good thing I can't be buying slippers right now or else I would have a hard time choosing!

Have a great day!