Friday Five

Whew, I almost didn't get this posted today, but it's still Friday for a couple more hours. Crisis averted. :)

1. The reason I'm just now posting is because we actually braved the heat and got out of the house today! I was going crazy trying to keep Avery entertained in the house all day. (Anybody else ready for fall??) Matt and Avery went to look at kittens and fish at the pet store while Landon and I picked out a couple of things at Kohl's. Then we made a little Target run and had lunch at (can you guess?) Chick-fil-a before spending some time at Joann so I could pick out some fabric for a couple of baby gifts. After Avery woke up from her nap we went and had fajitas at my parents', and now my sister-in-law Chelsea is hanging with us at our place while Aaron is on a ride-long with Nick. I know, we lead such an exciting life. :)

2. I'm toying around with the idea of switching over to Wordpress. There's not really a good reason to stay at Blogger except that I really don't feel like starting over and moving my virtual life to a new site. I'll add it to my project list, but don't hold your breath because that list is growing longer by the day.

3.  Matt and Avery got haircuts on Wednesday! Whew, they were both way overdue; Matt had a major poof going on, and Avery had the makings of a fantastic mullet. Thanks to Cindy for fitting them into her schedule at the last minute!

4. I still haven't written my campmeeting post, but Allison took some precious pictures of my parents while we were there. Check them out here. (I tried to post a teaser pic, but dang Allison disabled picture copying from her blog. Makes sense, but pffft.)

5. This officially marks the last weekend of summer since Matt starts in-service on Tuesday. I'll definitely miss having him around during the day, but I'm also looking forward to some routine. So see ya, lazy days of summer. And please take this wretched heat with you.

And we're back. And this is not really a post.

We made it back from campmeeting on Saturday night and then had a crazy busy (but somuchfun) day on Sunday. I just got back on the computer today.

I so enjoyed my internet break last week, and it's been hard to motivate myself to blog. I finally uploaded my campmeeting pictures to Facebook, and I'm slowly but surely catching up on reading blog posts I missed while I was gone (the ones I wanted to catch up on anyway). So maybe I'll post (a real) one of my own soon. (And honestly, I didn't even miss Facebook. Crazy, huh?)

Our laundry piles are slowly vanishing and there is again food in our house. However, my project list is getting out.of.control. Oh, and our floors are just screaming to be swept and vacuumed. If I wasn't so lazy tired, I'd post a picture of the status of our house. It ain't pretty.

I should be going to bed right now, but I'm going with my mom and sister to the midnight showing of The Help tonight and I cannot WAIT! I just read the book this week, and I'm kicking myself for not reading it sooner. I fell in love with the characters, and the story is just so beautifully written. 

Oh, and apparently I broke Nutmeg's toe before we left. I think she's getting better though. She should be getting better with what her pain meds are costing us!

UGH, it is SOOOOOO hot!!!!! And yes, this fact does deserve all of those exclamation points. And probably more. I don't remember the last time I was praying for the temperature to cool off to 99 degrees.  I mean, doesn't this heat wave know how hard it is to take an infant anywhere right now?!? I should really remember this in February when we're iced in, but for now, I'm over the heat. I'm over this rant now, too.

This is what we have to look forward to. Hey, at least there might be clouds soon!

I'll leave you with this sweet picture of my smiley little boy. Oh I just want to kiss his cheeks! Too bad he's sleeping.

I'm off to the movies. Later!

Landon: 2 Months

Landon, you are two months old! We all just love you to pieces, and it's been so much fun to watch you grow!

Here's what you're up to:

• You're still a big boy! At your 2 month well check up you were off the charts in every measurement! You weighed in at 16 lbs 12 oz (more than what Avery weighed at 4 months, haha), measured 25" long, and had a head circumference of 16.5". 

• You've officially outgrown your 0-3 month clothes, and you're already filling out the 3-6s. I've even gotten out the 6-9s ready for when you move to those, and some of them already fit you well. You're also wearing size 2 diapers. Stop growing so fast; we want you to stay little for longer!! 
• You've been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now. You typically go to bed between 10 or 11 and sleep until 6:30 (when Avery comes into the room a little too loudly). You've even had a couple of nights where you slept for 9 hours! You should keep this up. :) You're still sleeping in your Pack n Play in our room at night, but we're trying to get you to nap in your crib. You've taken one really good nap in there, but I had to swaddle you to get you to stay asleep, and then you woke up all sweaty. 

• It's been a HOT summer, so it takes a lot to keep you cool! You really don't like your car seat for long periods of time, and I don't really blame you because it's pretty warm in there! 

• You eat about every 2-3 hours, but we're having to teach you how to stop because when you eat too much you just projectile vomit all over whoever is holding you. It's really gross, so it's a good thing we love you so much. :) You're still exclusively breastfed, but when you take a bottle of pumped milk, you drink about 5 ounces. 
• You've become much more alert, and you hold your head up really well. You are a smiler! You just get the biggest grins whenever we talk to you; you're especially smiley with Avery. You just love your big sister!

You're our sweet and snuggly little boy and we love you SO MUCH!

Mommy and Daddy

Friday Five

1. Well I took a little bit of an unplanned blog break this week. Things were just crazy since Matt's been subbing for summer school this week, so I didn't have much down time. I'm thinking that might be an indication of how often I'll be blogging when school starts in a few weeks. But seeing as how actually creating memories with my family is more important than recording said memories in the blogosphere, I won't stress out about it but will keep updating when I have the time. Just in case you were wondering.

2. One of the things I've been meaning to post this week is the recap of last weekend when Candie, Ricky, and Jacob came to visit! We had a blast with them, and we're already looking forward to meeting up with them and Tiff, Ross, and Macyn for Labor Day!

Nutmeg tortured Somer pretty much the entire time.

Ricky with Landon (right before Landon projectile vomited all. over. me.)

Ricky and Jacob up to no good

 

Landon took an awesome nap in the shade while we all swam

And this girl took a nap in the pool. Seriously.

...so we moved her to the shade.

Love her!

Our little families after eating feasting at Babe's

Candie with Landon

They're gonna be best buds. Someday. :)

 3. I have a ton of projects that I'm "working" on (you know, if "working" means that they're on my To Do list and I keep thinking about them). One of them was creating a filing system for our everyday papers that seem to clutter our kitchen counters no matter how hard I try to keep them from piling up. When this post came across my Google Reader, I decided to take action. Here's the final result:

Excuse the seriously old pictures in the frames (I need to update all the frames in our house, come to think of it. Add it to the project list...) and the poor picture quality, but I'm so excited about how this seems to be working already! I couldn't find a good file holder that I liked, so I repurposed this mail holder that I got from Pottery Barn on clearance a very long time ago. I have ten folders in which to sort all the papers that enter our house: To File (in our main filing cabinet), Pay (bills), Pending (anything that needs action), Receipts, Coupons (before I organize them in my coupon notebook), Mailing Supplies (stamps and return address labels), Matt, Heather, Avery (all the art and worksheets that come home from MDO and church), and Landon. I highly recommend this system!

4. My living room is kinda blah. I mean, it's cozy and stuff, but it needs more color. I just don't want to totally redo it all, so we're just giving it a makeover (as decided in the wee hours of the morning while I was waiting for Matt to come home from hanging out with my brother)! It's already red and chocolate brown (with a fair share of neutrals thrown in there), so we're adding turquoise. LOVE. I'll start off by replacing the curtains and making some pillows since I'm crafty like that now. :) And then I'll just keep my eyes open for little turquoise accents to add in there as money allows. I'm excited to change up the decor a little. Here's my inspiration (thank you, Pinterest!):

5. I'll be taking another blog break this next week (although I might schedule a few to post while I'm gone if I can get around to writing them) because it's the week I look forward to ALL YEAR LONG: campmeeting! It's SO hard to explain this place to people, but I wrote a pretty thorough post about it last year (complete with pictures!), so you can check that out here if you're interested. Anyway, tonight we're going to hang out with my cousins who are in town with their two kids, but the rest of our weekend will be spent getting ready to leave on Monday morning (yes, it will take three days to pack and prepare). I wish we were there already because I'm definitely dreading the 8 (more like 10-12) hour drive with an infant and a toddler. Good thing we have the Swagger Wagon this year. :)

Have a great weekend!

The Ultimate Hospital Packing List

Okay, okay, so maybe "ultimate" is a little extreme, but I think this list comes pretty dang close to perfect. And it was requested, so here you have it.

I had a really hard time coming up with my packing list. How much do I need to bring? How early do I need to pack? Most the lists I found on random blogs and pregnancy sites were crazy. No, I will not take my own hospital gown. Waste. of. money.

Anyway, my point is that you don't really need to take that much stuff. Nor do you need to pack that early. You probably won't be at the hospital longer than two nights, and if you pack too early you'll just end up staring at that bag and getting all depressed that you haven't gone into labor yet. Or maybe that was just me.

{Bring This Stuff}

- Laptop (Yay for wifi at the hospital! Plus this came in handy for entertaining ourselves with The Big Bang Theory while I was in labor.)

- Camera

- Video camera

- iPod

- Cell phone

- Chargers

- Purse (with ID and insurance card)

- Glasses and contact case/solution (Unless you have perfect vision, in which case I envy you. A lot.)

- Shampoo/conditioner (The hospital stuff just doesn't cut it.)

- Body wash (Same as above)

- Toothbrush/toothpaste (Oh my gosh, the best feeling in the world was being able to finally brush my teeth after being in labor forever.)

- Hairbrush

- Makeup (Hello...visitors and pictures?!? Don't tell me that you don't care what you look like.)

- Chapstick

- Deodorant (After the mess of childbirth, you at least don't want to smell like b.o.)

- Ponytail holders

- Hair dryer (I'm so glad I took mine because the hospital didn't have one in the room.)

- Flip flops (Hospital floors...need I say more?)

- Snacks (Or better yet, just eat the ones that people bring you. Thanks, Mom!)

- Pajamas (You will get tired of that hospital gown. I learned my lesson with Avery. Just bring PJs that you don't mind getting, uh, dirty.)

- Nursing bras/tanks (Do NOT forget these if you're nursing!)

- Lounge clothes

- Boppy (This is SO helpful, especially when you're just starting breastfeeding.)

- Going home outfit (It doesn't have to be maternity like the books say, but keep in mind that you won't fit into your 6s right away. And if you do, I hate you.)

- Going home outfit/blanket for baby (We didn't do anything fancy, just cute onesies and matching socks/blankets.)

- Onesies/socks for baby at hospital (I didn't bring this for Avery, and I still regret not having cute outfits for all the pictures we took of her at the hospital.)

- Carseat (Install it before you leave the house.)

- Gift for sibling "from" baby (We kept it pretty simple. We gave Avery a drawing pad and some Tinkerbell art supplies.)

{Don't Bring This Stuff}

- Pillow (Save your packing space. Maybe bring your own pillowcase. It's not like you can really sleep with all the nurses bothering you checking on you every couple of hours.)

- Socks (I'm a flip flop girl though.)

- Books (I did read one chapter in a Kindle book, but there just wasn't much quiet reading time.)

- Breast pads/nipple cream (Your milk hasn't come in enough to need the pads at the hospital, and they can give you nipple cream samples if you need it.)

- Diaper bag (My hospital gives you a huge diaper bag [with an awesome fleece blanket inside!], so that was plenty big enough to take home all of those supplies that you're paying out the butt for and definitely need to take with you.)

- Extra underwear (Yeah, don't bother. Embrace the mesh panties; they are a blessing from God.)

Whew! I think that about covers it. And don't forget that (unless you live like an hour from your hospital) you can always send your mama or your man home to pick up anything you might need. It's the least they can do after you spend 11 hours in labor and push out a 10+ pound baby ;)

Happy packing!

Friday Five

1. We ditched our satellite TV subscription when we made the shift to one income, and one of the perks (besides the money we've saved) is that we just don't watch that much TV anymore. When we had satellite the TV was kinda just on. All the time. Don't get me wrong, we still watch TV. I have an unnatural obsession with The Bachelor/ette, and Avery loves her puppets in the 'hood Sesame Street. Matt and I do also enjoy just vegging out on the couch on occasion once Avery's gone to sleep, so we've recently started watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix. If they take it off Watch Instantly before we finish the series, I will be very angry because we're already hooked. I've heard so many great things about this show, and it's so hard to find stuff we both like, so I'm glad we're finally getting around to watching it.

2. I've been compiling resources to revamp our home management binder, and I'm anxious to get it all in order! I put one together about a year ago, but it just wasn't very functional. I'm loving this site for ideas and printables.

3. My sister-in-law posted a link to this article about the calling of motherhood and it was such a reminder/encouragement to me that I wanted to pass it along. Check it out when you get a chance; it's a quick read and definitely worth your time.


4. I've been keeping a running list of blog topics I need to cover. I'm posting my hospital packing recommendations (by request) tomorrow, but I've got some other posts in the works: baby products I love, Avery-isms, hooded towel tutorial, Landon's 2 month update, a few recipes. Any suggestions as to what you'd like to see soon?

5. Some of our best friends, Candie and Ricky, are coming in town today! We just love hanging out with them and their sweet little boy. I should have lots of pictures to post and fun to report on Monday! Oh, and I'm getting together with our class valedictorian to start brainstorming reunion ideas and hopefully get this thing rolling. Class of 2001, feel free to pitch in your ideas :)

Y'all have a great weekend!

The Easiest Bow Holder Tutorial Ever

Avery has a lot of bows.

I thought I had a decent organizational strategy for them, but the baskets-in-drawers system just wasn't cutting it anymore.

I've seen tons of cute bow holders all over the internet, but I couldn't bring myself to fork over the money when I could make one myself. The problem was, I wouldn't actually take the time to do it.

I got my inspired idea while enjoying the quiet of my shower (aka the only time of day I can hear myself think). I decided to take a few things I already had and put them together to make a customized bow holder for Avery's room. So here you have it, the easiest bow holder tutorial ever.

Supplies

• Picture frame (I used 4x6)
• Ribbon (length varies depending on how many bows you'd like the holder to fit)
• Scrapbook paper
• Chipboard for initial (optional; I used a colored self-adhesive letter "a")
• Coordinating embellishments (not pictured)
• Glue gun

Process

1.  Attach two strips of ribbon to the bottom of your picture frame using hot glue. Don't burn yourself because it hurts like crap. I might know that from experience.

2.  Cut your scrapbook paper to fit the frame. Adhere the chipboard initial to the paper wherever you see fit. Insert your new work of art into the frame.

3.  I thought the frame was still a little blah at this point, so I hot glued some flower embellishments to the top of the frame. Perfect!

4.  Hang your super awesome bow holder on the wall. Admire your hard work.

5.  Start clipping those bows and say, "Now why didn't I do this sooner?"

Total cost: $0. Okay, so it cost me something somewhere along the line, but by using the stuff I already had just sitting around the house, I felt like it was free.  And you just can't get any better than free.

Now go make a bow holder for all the cute little girls you know. (And for the not-so-cute ones because they can use some bow love, too.)