Teach Me Time clock

I saw the brother of this clock... the OK To Wake Clock! On a website one time and thought it was genious!!! The clock turns green when it is "OK to wake" for your child. They seen the green light and they know its ok to get up! Bubba is an early riser... pretty much he sees the sun shining and thinks sweet! Its morning time I'm going to go wake Mommy up. Only problem with that is once day-light savings happens it can be bright at like 6:00 am! I am not a morning person.... so I really don't want to get out of bed any earlier than I see fit! So I got this American Innovative Teach Me Time! Talking Alarm Clock and Nightlight. I read reviews and most people said while the OK to Wake Clock was great.... this clock was a step up and did more than just turn green.

As you might be able to see from the picture above This clock shows digital and analog time simultaneously, or separately, whichever you prefer. You can push the button on the right and it will tell you what time it is! Bubba really enjoys this feature :) I have to turn the volume off at night otherwise I'm sure I'd hear it talking all night long! It glows yellow all the time, which some reviews really ripped on....... but I don't really see the problem. Bubba usually has a night-light on most of the time anyway. Or at least he did, brother Ceej has now inherited the monkey lamp for his night-light since this clock kind of doubles as one.

Here's the boys enjoying the new clock! Both Bubba and Ceej took turns pushing the button to see/hear what time it was.

NIGHT ONE with the clock didn't work out as well as I had hoped... it seemed like Bubba had forgotten about it and just strolled on out of his bedroom... found his water cup and started chugging it in the hallway... I rolled over and saw it was before the 7:00 am green light! It went a little like this....

Me: Bubba.... its too early. Is your clock green?

Bubba: Huh?

Me: Honey... remember your new clock? Is it green right now?

Bubba: No.....

Me: Ok its too early... now go back to your bed and wait for it to turn green please.

Which he did... so at least it kind of worked.... he didn't even put up a fight! Due to programming error I rolled back over a little while later and saw that it was after 7:00 am and he hadn't come back out. I went in and the clock wasnt' green! At first I thought great... it didn't work! But it was just me... I didn't have it on the right setting. I should have had JDub do it! But I got it to turn green anyway and then we were up!

NIGHT TWO was perfect! After figuring out how I needed to have it set it was all good! It worked perfect. Bubba came out of his room right at 7:00 am! I'm almost thinking I might have to change it to 8:00 am on the weekends... but I suppose that is asking a bit much.

I highly recommend this clock! It even has a teach me time game on it... I haven't messed around with it yet, but I'm sure Bubba will love that part too.

Brothers

I know I've heard it a million times.... how can two boys, brothers, who come from the same parents... be so different?! I guess it is different though.... Bubba had his first year all by himself... just him and me during the day.... while Ceej is rarely alone with me... its usually us 3 trekking along. Bubba and I still have our alone time when Ceej decides to take his morning nap.... but then there are days where he doesn't (like yesterday when he fell asleep while eating his lunch!) And we all have to play along... together.

I always preferred to play Luigi myself :)

Bubba:
His obsessions have changed over the passing months... he still enjoys water towers... and we even went on the other side of the street while on a walk last night with Daddy and he was able to touch it!!! But now he's more interested in bugs. There was a wasp that was trying to get into the house the other day. My parents happened to be over and my dad killed it. He tried to sneak it in a crack in our cement out back... but I knew that wouldn't work.. Bubba just went right over to it and started to dig his little fingers around in there trying to get it out. I of course had to dig it out with a stick and literally throw it in the trash just to keep him from examining it. We told him you can't touch his stinger... but you know how kids are... curiosity gets the best of them sometimes. We have an abundance of bugs in our yard it seems... from flies and bumblebees, to wasps and box elder bugs! Even while we were enjoying our Easter egg hunt for Ceej's birthday Bubba had to stop and look at the random bugs he would see along the way. I guess it could be worse... he could be scared of all bugs... but there are certain bugs you need to be scared of if you ask me!

He is sooo smart. I know I've said it before! :) I still get comments on how clearly he speaks, and how well he understands things. This is good and bad of course. That's usually how strengths are right? While at first I enjoyed his inquisitions... I find them draining my energy and getting on my nerves very easily these days.... Why did my balloon fly away Mommy? Where did it go?....... Do you remember when my balloon flew away? Why do balloons float?... I suppose I should be happy he at least got away from his fear of balloons! The poor kid use to go into fits if one came too close.

His eating habits have gotten a little bit better... sometimes I wonder how he has so much energy when he barely ate anything! And he is more willing to try new things! (Thanks to Sam I am.... Green Eggs and Ham :) ) Candy is always a good motivator too... if you promise a piece as long as he finishes his plate that seems to work 9/10 times.

Ceej:
He seems to be steering away from morning naps more and more often :( Although as I mentioned earlier he literally fell asleep in the middle of eating lunch yesterday! Which was not cool b/c then he wouldn't take an afternoon nap so Mommy didn't get a break!!! He is still getting up at least twice a night... I try the lay him down, no talking to him, stick that paci in, and start up his musical sea-horse.... it lasts for oh about 20 minutes and then he's wailing again. I'm still breastfeeding... just mostly at night and in the middle of the night. It seems to be the only thing that will get him to go back to sleep! I know I shouldn't give in b/c he knows oh she'll try laying me back down first, but then she'll give in!! I just am so tired. He goes down anywhere from 7:30-8:30 at night but I swear he KNOWS the second I'm about to fall asleep and he cries and I have to nurse him again...... around like 10:30 or 11:00ish whenever it happens to be... SO ANNOYING!! This momma just needs some good sleep. Its been too long since I've had uninterrupted sleep... but then again maybe as a mom you NEVER get good sleep anymore....... who knows...

Ceej is a walking fool. He is all over and into everything. He is my destructor baby. He is constantly ripping things up and making me re-examine how child-proof our home really is.... Funny how I could tell Bubba "No!" and he would actually listen... at least for a few minutes... unlike Ceej who just looks at me and basically laughs... haha mommy... you think telling me NO is going to work? I don't think so!!


I know with brother's they're going to steal each other's toys... knock each other down... and "rough-house" But mommy doesn't play that... I leave the wrestling for JDub or any other relatives that want to go down that road.... I know it almost always ends in someone getting hurt!!

OTHER NEWS:

I am playing softball for my church league. We've won both our games so far!! I've even scored and made it on base a few times too :).

I have several unfinished projects going on right now... a pillow.... a dress.... and an attempt to make a little purse-like object with some left-over sleeves. It just seems I never have the time to finish.... or the will-power! Maybe if my boys would take naps (Bubba would not go down for me today......) I could finish them up!

I managed to finish listening to the 7th audio book for Pretty Little Liars and have now started the 8th (and final book!). The girl reading is less annoying :)

I'm contemplating chopping all of my hair off.... it just seems to be so blah these days... and that's about it!!! Hopefully I'll have some more fun posts to come. Thanks for reading :)

Sister-to-Sister series

I really get into book series... Well good book series anyway... If I get hooked by the first one then I have to keep reading the others! I came across this ebook called Stuck in the Middle. It's about a middle sister (of three) and her life being stuck in between 2 sisters who seem to be on the right track when it comes to their lives. This book is about Joan, who's older sister is married with a babe on the way... and her younger sister is very driven by her successful career in marketing. Joan's still living at home with her mother (her father left when they were younger) and grandmother who is a widower. Initially I opted for this book because it was FREE at the time... I didn't even know it was a christian-fiction author!

First of all I can relate to this book... b/c I'm a sister of 3 girls! Grant it I'm not the middle child... but I can still relate. I like the character of Joan, and the rest of the family as well. I really don't like spoiling anything... so I don't want to give too much away. But she meets a guy who is religious... and she starts re-thinking her life, and where its going... or rather where it isn't going! Sure she's grown up in a family that goes to church regularly... but she's never really been on fire for God! Or had that great of a relationship with Him. Which I can relate to myself. I've had my moments of being on fire... and then my moments of being weak as well. God says he'd rather us be on fire or cold... NOT lukewarm.

¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
-Revelation 3:15-16

This book really helped me to remember what's important in life... not the everyday stuff going on.. but actually living your life to fulfill what God wants for you! Grant it we can all get bogged down by the little things surrounding us... but try to remember the "big picture"... and don't forget to maintain a healthy relationship with family AND your Heavenly Father as well! It was a refreshing read... and I of course had to buy the rest of the "sister-to-sister series" to see how God influenced the rest of the Sanderson sisters too :) I highly recommend it if you are looking for an up-lifting, fun read!

Easter celebration

I love Easter... first off its not all about the bunnies and candy... Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!!! If that isn't something to celebrate about... I dunno what is!?

It was extra special this year b/c we were celebrating little Ceej's 1st birthday... can you believe it?! He is just a walking/talking/dancing/crazy lil man I tell you what. I decided to go with an Easter themed party b/c it fell later in the month this year. We were also having family in town anyway! I figured it would be nice weather too so we could have it outdoors!

It was crappy weather all week... but thank you Lord, it was decent on Easter. A little on the chilly side... but do-able for an outdoor party.

My sisters and brother-in-laws' all helped out for the party! We dyed eggs one night and the day of the party I arranged them in baskets with fake grass and bunnies for decor.

Thanks so much to my parents for letting me have the celebration at their house... no worrying about cleaning my house... haha! And they have a gorgeous backyard too :)

After chowing down on some yummy food! (Compliments to JG and his pulled pork sandwiches. They were DELICIOUS!!)........... It was time for the Easter Egg Hunt :)

Bubba was more interested in bugs in the yard than picking up his eggs... but after opening the eggs and eating some candy he got more excited about the eggs. Ceej needed some help finding them... but he did enjoy opening and closing them. My nephew and niece came to the party as well! It was lots of fun. And I think our Bunny Cupcakes were a hit :)

Easter Bunny Cupcakes
I found these cute little guys on the link above. I changed mine a little bit... but they turned out pretty cute! Note to self... DO NOT buy jellybeans from the Dollar Tree... yuck! They were old and icky... I warned everyone not to eat the bunnies' nose.

Old pair of jeans?.... turn it into a skirt!

Well for those of you who don't know...  I have two sisters... one lives here in Iowa with me... and the other is down in Tennessee... my oldest sister is the one down in TN. She is VERY good at sewing... infact she needs to give me some personal lessons b/c after seeing her sewing technique after mine.... I'm realizing I'm really terrible! (And I thought I was doing so well...). My middle sis is actually the owner of my sewing machine... she has just been kind enough to let me borrow it for an undetermined amount of time...

Anywho... for the purpose of this blog entry we will now call my oldest sis Frugal Fran... or FF.

FF has seen my attempts at recreations... and she asked me if I had any old jeans I didn't wear anymore... which of course I do! Who doesn't? They were/are stretch jeans and its like the stretchy part was getting too stressed... and it was kind of lumpy around the knees. I was constantly pulling them up and adjusting them b/c they were just soo worn out.

Here's the before photo!

I know you can't really tell how worn these are from this angle... but take my word...
I helped a little bit... but this was really FF's handywork... First she used the seam ripper to rip open the inside seams of each pant leg... After that I tried them back on.. and we figured out where to cut them off...

at first we did just under the knee.. but then I looked a bit like a sister-wife out on the compound so we ended up cutting it up further once we were finished!

Then FF took the seam-ripper and ripped up the crotch area so she could re-align the seam. It took her a couple tries to get it just right. She had done this project on a pair of her old jeans too... but with us being different sizes it took a little TLC to figure out just where the fabric needed to lay. Then she took it to the machine and stiched it up... After that was complete... she took the extra fabric from the lower half of the pant leg and cut a triangle shape to fill in the "V" gap that was created after the legs were opened up. Then she sewed that up too!

Here's the final product!

How we just did a stitch across the bottom... not a full hem or anything. I'm hoping after its washed a couple times it will fray and have some fringe on the bottom. Kudos to FF and her mad sewing skills!! If the weather would stay nice maybe I could show this bad-boy off :)

audiobook killer...

K so I just started that audiobook for the "Pretty Little Liars" series... its called "Killer" and let me tell you... IT IS KILLING ME... the girl they chose to read it is driving me crazy! I've barely listened to it for 20 minutes... I dunno if I can take it... also... I can't use the audiobook on my nook and that makes me really sad... I can listen to it on my computer but then I feel weird just sitting here with my laptop in my lap... listening.. so I start browsing and then before I know it I'm like wait... what did they just say!

Audiobooks seem to only work out for me if I'm riding in the car... not sure if I'll be able to make it through this one! I dont know why they have the other ones available as ebooks and these ones they don't... its kind of frustrating. I suppose I could break down and buy them... but I dunno... I'm pretty cheap and don't want to!

I have a project that I would love to post... but I messed it up so badly I have to go buy some new snaps or something from hancock fabrics.... also... my lil Ceej is turning 1 tomorrow!! Can you believe it?! I can't... craziness. The lil dude is walking all over the place now. We're having an Easter themed bday party for him... I'll do my best to take some photos of our decor and post on here :)

boys will be boys

I'm starting to realize how lucky I had it with Bubba.... he's a rare breed that one. He listens fairly well... he understands what I'm talking about... he knows when he's being naughty,and admits it... and then there's Ceej... since he is more mobile now he is into EVERYTHING. I have to "watch him like a hawk". I mean I always watched Bubba... but he never use to do the things Ceej is doing now. For example....... Here is a picture of the molding/trim around our door JDub put up a while ago.

As you will notice a big chunk fell off... that is b/c Ceej was banging the door against it repeatedly... and of course Bubba had to join in... and then here's my brand new curtain rods from IKEA... or lack there of... b/c while I was laying in bed with the boys watching Curious George Ceej had to use his super-anti human-strength and tear those down as well....

I will say it again....... he is freakishly strong... and that in combination with not always understanding... its reeking havoc on our house. He has also managed to rip up tiles on the kitchen floor. Yes, they are in terrible shape and need replacing anyway... but Bubba never picked at them... leave it to Ceej!! Maybe if I can convince JDub that he's continually doing it and trying to eat it that we can finally get the kitchen floor replaced... but I dont know how we would get it down with little ones around...

My neighbor has two raised boys of her own... and she informs me it only gets worse... oh joy!

Pretty Little Liars book review

So I've been reading this series by Sara Shepard called "The Pretty Little Liars".......... See I'm trying to get most of my ebooks from the library for free... b/c I'm cheap!!! I know they say never judge a book by its cover... but I totally do.

I mean that totally looks like an awesome book! A lil barbie-esq red hott mamma if I say so myself... So I started reading... and I was pretty hooked with the first one. I read it in about 3 days! (They're all under 350 pages... but still a feat for a stay at home mom constantly bombarded with children and other tasks along the way..) Here I am... a few weeks later... waiting for the 6th book of the series (there are 8!) and its starting to tick me off. They have soo many loose ends going on... and they usually only tie up one by the end of the book to leave 10 hanging for the next one... its like watching one of those "To be Continued" episodes on TV... but instead of having just one more episode before they wrap it up... there's 8 more!

The series involves a group of spoiled girls in private school... It starts off when them in their junior year of high school, but it goes back to when they were friends in grade school too... they were the best of friends... but then one went missing!? And as many friends grow apart... these did too. Years later they all started receiving weird texts and emails... from a mysterious A. This 'A' threatens to out all their dirty little secrets... OR ELSE. Its very dramatic!! LOL. I love all the drama b/c personally I like to be drama free in my home :)

I like ebooks alot. I just love my nook... but these last 3 are audiobooks. Sure I've listened to "books on tape" or whatever before, but its usually when I'm driving in the car on a long road trip. So I'll have to see how it goes on my nook...

I'm almost to the point where I want to go online and read a spoiler... but I hate spoilers!! I guess I'll just have to wait! In a way it is helping me with my patience... which always needs a little help these days.

Holey Green Tank Top Batman!

I pretty much live in tank tops around the house! Especially in the summer... So when I realized one of my favorite green ones had aquired some holes, I was kinda bummed. But then I had a nifty idea! Why not just cover the holes up with something else and no one will know... well now I guess they'll know... but yea.

So here's a pic of the holes... they were really small, but its not like I could just sew them shut w/o looking weird, so that's why I decided to cover them up.

I took the extra fabric I cut off from my Guiness shirt from St. Patrick's day this year and tried my best at creating some fabric roses! I just cut the fabric into little strips, having a flat end on one end... and a pointy end on the other. And then I just kinda played around with it.

As you can see the more I played around... the better the roses began to look... you can see my 1st one was not so hot... I hand-stitched them to make the fabric stay in place. At first I was using a light colored green thread but realized you could see it and it didn't look too hot. So I changed to a darker green... It took a while to get all these done... but I had a ton of extra fabric to work with. Hand-stitching was very time consuming.. I can't imagine sewing w/o a machine sometimes!

Then I did my best to arrange the roses on the shirt in a pleasant pattern. I've been working on this for a while now.... And its kinda funny b/c on http://www.newdressaday.com/ she even wrote about having holes in stuff too! I swear I didn't copy her... lol. But yea so here's the finished product!! I still have a ton of green leftover fabric I could make some more roses out of... and I might even make some more from time to time... and add to the existing shirt... but for now I am done! It took me forever.....

Again... JDub's idea of a good after photo is as far away from the piece I worked on as possible... so I did my own little closeup while layin on my hardwood floor in front of a mirror... I didn't realize how pregnant I looked before having him take the photo... but trying to get him to take another would be impossible...



spring?

Well here we are... its spring... but once again everyone in my household is sick... I know I know... what? How could you all be sick AGAIN?! But alas.... we are... At least I took in little Ceej and he was able to start on some antibiotics. I'm not all about medicating kids... but when you're sick this much... and for this long.. I want him to get on something that will get him better faster!

Seriously.. I wish I would have written down all the times we've been sick so far this year... We were all sick over Christmas too... But we were sick around my sister's baby shower (January)... then I have record of taking Bubba to the Dr. on Feb 22.... When I went to Ikea I was still sick (March 5) and now once again... St Patrick's Day and still now we are sick... Keep in mind these sicknesses lasted well over a week each time...I wish the weather would warm up and stop raining so I could do some heavy duty Spring Cleaning! Its much needed around here! I just need the energy to do it too...

So enough of my complaining... along with that I thought I would drop some updates on the boys!!! Since there's really nothing new with me.

Bubba:
He now has an obsession with puzzles! We've had a few wooden puzzles for a while... but while I was at the dollar store I came across this spiderman/hulk/wolverine puzzle. He really likes spiderman and hulk so I thought it would be great for him. It's just one of those cardboard cut-out piece puzzle, it was only 25 pieces. He kinda bended the pieces at first.. so I had to teach him we don't do that if we want to keep doing the puzzle! But after a few times with help, he's able to do it all by himself now! I tell you what for a few days that was the best $1 I ever spent! He would sit quietly at the table focusing in on his puzzle until it was complete! And then he'd smile and wait for me to look at him after he was finished.. then with a big grin he would say "I did it!" He'd do it over and over like 5 times. Now since then we have aquired more puzzles... most of which he is able to do on his own. I figured I'd challenge him a little more and got him a 48 piece (Cars, which he can do on his own as well...) and a 60 piece state puzzle. All but one were $1!!! Great investments if I say so myself. After a meal its like his little ritual go to pick one out and do it at the table. Its nice b/c it gives me a chance to clean up and what not :) One of the funniest parts is he sings the Oompa loompa song while doing his puzzle... the whole "oompa loompa doompa dee doo, I've got another puzzle for you..." (Thanks to Grandma for taking him to Willy Wonka!)

Ceej:
Oh my little man Ceej... he is sooo cute. I remember thinking Bubba was the cutest thing when he was little... but I dunno Ceej just might be even cuter! He loves to shake his booty! It all started with Ellen of course. We pretty much watch her every morning and I make a point to turn up the music and dance along with her. I encourage the boys to dance along too! Ceej did  it on his own! He just likes to groove. We put a radio in the pantry and he'll go over to it, start banging on the door and then shake his little butt. Basically saying "Come on Mommy! Its time for a dance party?!" He has finally got some teeth!!! Just 3.. but still. He is working on walking too. He can't stand on his own for long periods of time, and he's taken a couple of steps but he just basically goes from standing to squatting to crawling. I can't believe he's going to be 1 next month!

Ok I was thinking nothing was new with me... but then I remembered something. I'm working on writing some kids books... mainly I was doing it b/c JDub said he was thinking about it and I was thinking about it too. So I thought hmmm if we're both thinking about the same thing... maybe I should! I've almost finished one... and I've kind of started another.

Anywho, that's about it... I have a new sewing project I really want to try but need to go garage saleing or goodwill shopping before I can!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

In honor of the day I have taken another shirt I found at Goodwill and decided to alter it! Here is the before... I can never get JDub around to take my pic.... or I start on these projects when he's not around anyway... I should teach Bubba how to take my pic... Anywho.. Here she is!

It was an extra large so I figured I would have enough material to play around with! First I took the sleeves off. Usually I would just cut them off... but I wanted them to remain fairly large for the change. So I took out my handy seam-ripper and got going.

Once the sleeves were off... I trimmed the neck off. I planned on hemming it like I did the last one... but I got lazy, and well the raw edge didn't look too bad to me either! I also took alot of material off the sides to bring it in for a close fit.

Then I took the sleeves and started gathering toward the top and pinning in place. I took each sleeve to the sewing maching and  stitched over the folds to keep them in place. Once that was complete, I pinned them to the shirt, and then took it to the machine to re-attach the sleeves. I wanted kind of a poof on the sleeves, to make it more girly.

I wanted it to be like a t-shirt dress.... something I could wear with my leggings I love so much! I really need to start measuring though... this was a bit tight across the chest.... I took a little too much off I guess! (my other gray 100% irish shirt I didn't take enough in!) Maybe eye-balling it just isn't my thing....

And here she is!

close-up of the sleeves...

So all in all not bad... but a lil tight too...Dont even ask what I'm doing in this pose JDub took forever to take the photo...

I wanted to head downtown for the parade today but little Ceej woke up with a 101.7 fever..... his nose is runny again, and well being outside is probably not the best thing for him... What am I doing wrong to have sick kids all the time?!

Well I hope you enjoy your green day. I made sure to sleep in green so I wouldn't get pinched this morning!

Dye Job

Ok so I've been following http://www.newdressaday.com/ for a while. She just has such talent! I've seen where she just dyes things all the time too... I guess I never thought of dying anything really... but since curtains are expensive... And I got my new duvet and pillow shams... I felt I needed a change! Oh yes and of course because I got my new curtain rods at IKEA as well :)

The curtains before are on the left... just a khaki color... and the finished product is on the right.

I used Rit Dye in Pearl Gray. Two of the dry packets. I had a hard time finding it initially........ for some reason I was thinking Hy-Vee carried dye... but could not find it for the life of me. Then Wal-Mart didn't even have gray! (They had every other color imaginable though...) Thank goodness for Hancock Fabrics!!

I ended up dyeing all 4 panels of curtains in my washing machine... that thing is ancient anyway so I really wasn't concerned about it breaking or dyeing the inside of the machine. We are actually just waiting for it to break down b/c it sounds like its going to take off if the load is too full..... It didn't damage the machine whatsoever.

I'm a little indifferent about the final result... I mean I do like the new curtain rods! The silver is much better than the gold and it looks alot cleaner in there. I ended up turning the curtains upside down b/c these rods had little hooks instead of lifting off to add the curtains to. I just feel like they should have been darker... Perhaps I should have used 3 dry packets instead of just 2? There was alot of fabric there... It dyed evenly though!

What do you think?

P.S. Mango just loves the new duvet :)

IKEA

A girls weekend without the kiddos was just what I needed! It was soo much fun. There was a lot of driving involved... but it was ok b/c we had Ke$ha and Lady Gaga to get us through! I dont know if I've mentioned but we are all sick in this household AGAIN. It is really getting ridiculous how sick we have been this winter... that is why I am more than ready for Spring. Even though I have no voice I was still rocking out/singing to them all the way!

I had a few ideas of what I wanted before we left for IKEA... which is really what I suggest you do... otherwise you will be running around like a chicken with your head cut off... it is VERY overwhelming being in there! I like the fact they have little measuring tapes for you to take and pencils and a list sheet. I ended up using all of them! I measured a few things at home before going (I knew I wanted some curtain rods for our bedroom and a stool for the bathroom). But then when I was there I found a few things I had to call JDub to measure b/c I didn't think about them before hand!

I got these cute little storage bins for Bubba's room. They have wheels and they fit perfectly under his bunkbed!

I knew I wanted some new bathroom mats... and ended up going with these. I really like how they look... but I am a little worried about them being white! Hopefully they won't get too dirty... And there's my new stool underneath in the little nook, so I can sit and do my make up too!

They have an insane variety of picture frames too. I wasn't planning on getting any.. but they were such a good price I couldn't help myself! I also got a duvet and 2 pillow shames for our bedroom! I've been wanting one... its been on my wish list for a while... but sometimes a girl's just got to give herself some stuff too right? I'm waiting to take a final pic once my new curtain rods are up in the bedroom too :) Let's see if I can get JDub to do that sometime this week.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend getaway! If anyone ever wants to roadtrip it to IKEA just let me know! I love that place. Next time I might have to go to the one in Chicago though... that way we can hit up a Container Store too!

Oh Happy Day!

How does that saying go?.... Absense makes the heart grow fonder? Oh yea baby. That's right....

This mama is getting the heck out of dogde today :) I dont know what got into JDub... but he offered to watch BOTH boys for the weekend while I have some much needed girl time with my old college roomies. So I said YES before he could even take it back. I am beyond excited! I know.... its sad that I am so excited, but I really haven't had a night away since before Carter... so I think I deserve it. We are headed to IKEA to spend money too!

Oh this is going to be so much fun!! Be praying for JDub though.... he'll probably need it

Too much light!

So we first did the nursery almost three years ago before Bubba was born. We wanted (or I wanted... I think JDub could have cared less...) a jungle theme! We found these bamboo window shades at Menards or something. They were cheap and I thought they'd look ok in the room. I mean they do look fine... but they let waaay too much light in for my taste. Especially in the morning! We use to have the changing table on a different wall, but now whenever I'm chaging a diaper in the morning I'm being blinded by the sun! I finally had enough of it... so I decided to try something....

Here you can see all the light coming in through the shades. Its a little hard to see b/c I had to turn the light off... but yea take my word for it... its ALOT.

Here's what they looked like before from the back and top...

I ended up hot-glueing some extra fabric I had leftover from my pet bags I did for christmas a couple years back. Here's a couple of the bags I did...

 

And here's what the shades looked like after I glued the leftover fabric on....

And finally here is the finished product! It basically looks like they did before...

I didnt have enough fabric to go all the way down the shade... You can still see a little bit of light streaming in along with bottom there.... I don't have the same fabric for each shade either. But you really can't see the material from inside so I don't care. At first I didn't realize I needed to have the string on the outside... but once I got that figured it turned out pretty well! I'd say not too bad on my part. :)

I've only had a chance to do one shade... seeing how it took be about half an hour just to find my glue gun last night!? So hopefully I'll have a chance to do the other one tonight and Ceej's little eyes won't have the sun shining in too early!!