April's Last Friday!

We had so much fun celebrating Easter this past weekend!

It's hard to believe that he is already 16 weeks old!!

And here are a few things that we are enjoying lately:

The Easter Bunny brought Lucky this book.  I love the pictures and the story and it has interestingly become one of Charm's favorites.  Someday, I plan to pick up this similar title by the same author.

I think we've finally rounded the corner on the four month old sleep regression that we've dealt with for the past couple weeks with Clover.  (Even though this is our third baby rodeo, we've never experienced sleep regression before.  Our first two were such horrible sleepers that we wouldn't have noticed a regression had it occurred.)  We read this post which provided some ideas to aid Clover in getting back to his old sleep routine.  Having Bill put Clover to sleep was the answer for us!

I finally found a plastic food storage bag that I'm good with using for lunches.  I discovered this brand bag at Target (It was $1.40 for 25 quart sized bags), and there are no strong, plastic odors inside the bags like I smell in most plastic bags of this type.  Bill, our lunch man, is so excited to have another option besides the parchment paper bag and washi tape system we had been using:).

I am loving this sweet song from the show, Nashville, a favorite of mine.

Finally, we are deeply focused on purging our house of extras and organizing what remains in preparation for our annual garage sale, which is exciting and exhausting at the same time.  I'm constantly keeping my eyes open for pretty and practical storage pieces.  Isn't this one awesome? 

Here's hoping you have a lovely weekend!

All Things Are Good Friday

It was another fun week here.  Even though we got more snow on Wednesday, it melted quickly.  I think it's safe to say that spring has arrived!

Clover supervised some raking!

The kids played 'farm' in the backyard which was surprisingly their idea, not mine:).

We said 'Goodbye' to Grandma and Grandpa who have been in the cities since Clover was born.  They are off to Florida for some R & R!

And we did a little decorating for Easter:

My plan is to frame out this chalkboard eventually:).

Have a very blessed Easter weekend!

There's a Spring In My Step...It's Friday!

Last Friday, my little guy and I took an impromptu trip to Florida when the Badgers made it to the Final Four.  The game didn't go our way, but we sure had fun watching with Opa and Oma!  The warm weather was a nice change of pace as well, and we certainly enjoyed the nice and relaxing long weekend!  

And once we returned home, we had some serious playing to do.  The boys pretending to be pirates:

Clover pretending to be a stuffed animal:

We can finally walk to get Lucky from school again, now that the weather has warmed up!

Lucky really enjoys styling her own hair as of late.  This look was inspired by Frozen:)!

Here are a few things I've been reading/watching/enjoying/finding:

I have so been enjoying this show.  Nicole Curtis is my new hero, and she's local!  Think she would take me under her wings and teach me everything she knows?:)

I always struggle to find items online after seeing them in store at Target.  I just tried searching 'home decor collections' and came up with these results.  I've got my eye on you, urchins.  Hopefully, you will return to stock!

I finished reading this book on the plane ride home when I wasn't dealing with dirty diapers.  (Did you know there are changing tables in plane bathrooms?  Did you know the only time that I wished I had packed a back up outfit for me was during the plane ride home?  It was an explosive trip!)  The book helped me to realize that it's probably for the best that I don't work outside the home, as I wouldn't want to let go of everything I do now and there are only 24 hours in the day.  I feel very blessed to be a stay at home Mom, though I'm not sure I would shy away from a trial of part-time work outside the home either:).  Regardless, I'm looking forward to checking out the movie version of this book some night soon.

Charm has been requesting a super hero bedroom redo almost daily as of late.  This pillow has been ordered and will be part of his room's new look.  I love the modern version of the classic Avengers Crew.  Charm's current/old room is here, and there are small changes a coming.  Also, Etsy is the best.  I could spend all day searching that site.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  We'll be clearing out all the extras in our house as we prepare for our big, annual garage sale!  Wish us luck:).

Homemade Princess and The Pea

This past Christmas, I decided that it was a good idea to start a tradition of making homemade presents for our kids.  In retrospect, starting a rather time consuming tradition while nearly nine months pregnant right before Christmas time probably wasn't the best idea, but that's okay.  I mostly finished the projects I planned:).  This present was for Lucky Girl.  I was inspired by this Princess and the Pea set:

Princess and the Pea

My Sweet Muffin

I love this set still.  The size is perfect for play and storage too.  (My version is bigger but the bed also fits Kit, Lucky's American Girl Doll, so it works for two purposes.)  The doll is hand knit, and the bed is cute and simple, but I couldn't justify the $104 cost for this one item.  Charm and I decided to make our own version with some left over fabric and batting, a doll bed from IKEA, a green felt ball (for the pea) and a muslin doll form from Joann's.

Here's the blank doll form:

18" Bendable Muslin Doll Form

Joann's

It's 18 inches tall and is $7.99 full price, but of course a coupon will bring it down to as low as $4!  A steal, I'm telling you!  Charm helped me pick out clothing for the doll using an old dress that almost went in our garage sale pile until I realized the fabric was worth more than the 50 cents I would have earned by selling it.  I used yarn I had on hand for the hair, and embroidery thread for the facial features.

Charm gave Lucky the doll for Christmas, and I gave her the bed set:

Since I had lots of materials on hand already, the total cost was about $25 for the bed, doll form and pea ball.  I also bought Lucky the book, The Princess and The Pea, which I read AFTER I made this set.  I discovered the book didn't give quite the right message I wanted to send to Lucky.  I actually changed a word in the story.  It no longer reads, 'Only a princess would be so delicate as to notice a pea in the layers of mattresses'.  Now it reads, 'Only a princess would be so perceptive to notice a pea in the layers of mattresses'.

Hope you have a great day, and that there are no peas in your mattress tonight!

Drum Roll for.....Friday!!

We had a couple big milestones this week:

Clover rolled over for the first time which surprised us all!  Note the drool bomb...he has a tooth coming soon:).

Our Lucky Lady also has a tooth coming soon.  She lost a front tooth last weekend and earned a glittered dollar from the tooth fairy!  She pulled it out before bedtime, likely in an effort to delay going to sleep.  She is my night owl.

More pictures from the week:

And here are a few things we have enjoyed recently:

I am loving the bright colors at Carter's right now.  I picked up these pants, this shirt, and this shirt for Charm.  He has just recently become okay with wearing button down shirts without complaint.  Hallelujah!  And the socks.  I love Carter's non-slip socks.  The patterns are so cute, and coordinating socks make me happy!

We made two batches of these paleo cookies this week.  Yummers!

I am obsessed with this large scale bird cage.  I can think of three places it would work in our house.

Why is your child crying?  All I know is after reading some of this blog, I don't feel so alone in the parenting game.

Finally, we have been watching lots of basketball thanks to the NCAA Tourney and the UW Badgers.  The last time the Badgers made it to the Final Four, I was in school there and won the lottery for student seats for the championship weekend in Indianapolis.  I took my Dad and brother.  The Badgers didn't win, but it was still an awesome weekend!  This year, we'll be cheering from afar.  Go Badgers!!

Have a fantastic weekend!

'O' Boy!

It's only been a little over three months since Clover was born and it's already hard to remember life without this guy:

I mentioned awhile back that we realized after giving Clover his official name that starts with an 'O', that if you take the official names of all of our family members and do some letter arranging, you end up with the word 'whole', which I find pretty special.  I decided I needed to make some art for Clover's room that made mention of this 'whole' business.

I was inspired by this simple project over at Jones Design Company.

The supplies were cheap: a stamp set from the dollar bin at Target and a wood slice from Michael's that I picked up with a coupon for about $5.

I did a trial run:

And here's the finished project to be placed in Clover's nursery:

Quick, easy and personalized!

Hope you had a fun April Fool's Day!  Bill tricked Lucky and Charm with mini lunches a la Oh Happy Day!  (We found our mini lunch bags in the dollar bin section at Target so we didn't have to hand make them.)