Work in progress.. (Riley's room)

I have finally gotten Riley's closet organized! All of the clothes hanging are all new, new to her or Madison's clothes that have been passed down and will hopefully fit ;) On the top shelf are Bumbos, Boppy's, Madison's big diaper bag that will be passed down, along with some other bigger items.

 

In the closet awaiting a dresser and shoe organizer is a box full of shoes, hairbands, bibs and other accessories.

 

On the floor of the closet is a rocker, water mat, play mat and bathtub my niece gave us.

 

One of the pieces of artwork. I couldn't resist since our blog header has birds and my Instagram shop name is Four Birds :)

Another piece of art. I obviously love owls and birds as Madison has them in her room too :) You can see the wall color better here too.

Here's a better, brighter look at the curtains and cubby with the canvas bins in it. This thing has been a lifesaver for Madison's closet. I filled the bins up Tuesday with her pjs and pants for the first 3 months.

20 weeks pregnant with Riley!

 Halfway there!

Date: August 21

How far along - 20 weeks

Growing baby- She has working taste buds and is drinking several ounces of amniotic fluid each day.

How big is your baby? 

Symptoms- hips hurting, some round ligament pains and headaches on and off. Nothing major this week.

Weight-  113.8 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: gained 2 lbs since last week. Am .8 over my pre pregnancy weight and feel every ounce of it :)

Belly measures- 31"

Craving- staying really thirsty! 

Bought- 10 sleepers, 4 pair of pants, 2 shirts and an outfit in varying sizes(NB-6 months) pregnancy journal, 2 pieces of artwork for her room, canvas bins for her cubby

Done- hung curtains, got her cubby painted, bought the bins for it and filled them up with pants and pjs of varying sizes. Bought 2 pieces of art to hang on the walls. Updated my pregnancy journal complete with my weekly pictures.

Looking forward to- Our anatomy ultrasound on the 27th.

Other thoughts-  Riley seems to be on a 2 hour sleeping schedule. I felt her have the hiccups around midnight one night this week which brought back a lot of memories. Madison had the hiccups all the time when I was pregnant and they would last 30 minutes at least. I could count on every time I had a meal, she would get them. I loved feeling it.

Madison's 1st haircut!

After months of me trying to convince Alan that the mullet needed to go, he finally agreed! I booked an appointment at my salon and we took her last Friday, August 16 :) She sat stradling Alan and did really well! She was very curious about the scissors near her head and kept wanting to look.

Before

The first cut.. Alan's look is priceless.

It's now in a really cute bob with small layers. I love it :)

Sunday Social-August 18

1. What is something you've always wanted to do but are afraid of? Swim with dolphins.

2. Where do you see yourself in five years? Here with 2 kids! Madison will be 7 and Riley will be 4.5. Both will be in school. We will be married almost 12 years. Wow.

3. What are you looking forward to before the end of 2013? Possibly having Riley. The holidays. 

4. What are your hopes for your blog? That people aren't bored out of their mind and actually read it. I stress about what to blog about and how often I blog and if it's interesting enough. I just want people to enjoy it.

5. Do you always see yourself living in your current town/city?  Not always. We talk about moving to the mountains all.the.time. Only time will tell. Maybe when we retire and the girls are all grown up.

6. What is your morning routine? Get up when Madison wakes(sometimes I set my alarm earlier to get ready), make her breakfast and get her to eating, let Wilma out and feed her, make my breakfast, check all the social sites and email. Usually shower between 10-11 if we don't have to be anywhere by then.

So busy!

These past few weeks have been so crazy! Our to-do lists have been crazy long here lately!

Here's what we've been up to..

We went on a great date night Saturday. With our birthday's being this week, I figured it'd be a great time to go out and celebrate. We went to a fantastic new restaurant that Royal told us about and then went to Target afterward to look at cribs. A big thank you to Alan's mom for babysitting just about all day Saturday while Alan worked and I had a massage and mani/pedi appointment and then she watched Madison while we went out that night.

Alan got step bars for his birthday thanks to gift cards. He got them put on yesterday and they look great. He got black and they really look good. I haven't rode with him yet but I know both I and my friend Amanda will appreciate it when we do ride in it.

Finally got some hooks for the laundry room. I bought a shelf with hooks yesterday but failed to realize that it has to go behind a door and it wouldn't work without banging the door. I returned it and got an over the door holder. Since we only have 2 accessible walls in there and both are behind doors, hopefully this will help to keep everything in one spot!

Finally got our mulch spread! Between Alan being out of town and the rain, we finally finished it Sunday night. We have since planted a bleeding heart plant near the 2nd shutter from the left. We realized we didn't have enough mulch so we now need a bit more. The front and back got done which is what people see :)

We've decided to border the mulch around the right side of the house. The left side has the sidewalk to border and the right side needed something. We bought one brick the other day to test it. I think it will look great! Alan has started digging a place for them to lay.

Alan installed a new Delta kitchen faucet Monday night. Ours was leaking so it needed to be done!

Alan moved his flags to the only wall space in our closet and Alan's brother got the kayak that has been in Riley's room. All we need to do is move the chair(or decide to keep it in for the rocker), paper shredder and litterbox. We've also been looking for curtains and artwork for her room.

 Buying Madison's school supplies, clothes and shoes! We got her list last week of tissues, sanitizer, glue sticks, and cardstock. She's also gone up a shoe size(5!) and she needs some Fall/Winter clothes so I've gotten her some shirts and pants along with 3 of the cutest shoes ever! A pair of Keens, Garanimals that look like Keens and pink Converse!

Getting ready for Madison's birthday party! We've made a long to-do list to get ready and have mailed her invitations, glued ribbon on the cupcake tower, ordered her cupcakes and cookies and made the menu. I've confirmed our photographer is coming(I booked her in May!) ordered balloons. I bought all of the supplies months ago and all we really need to buy is the food for that day! Last year I feel like we crammed everything into the last week so it feels nice to have a month to stretch it out over.

Our first week in September is just as busy with Labor Day, our surprise trip for our anniversary, Madison's birthday, her party, our anniversary and we start our joining classes on the 8th at church. We need a vacation! :)

19 weeks pregnant with Riley

Date: August 14

How far along - 19 weeks

Growing baby- Developing a protective coating over her skin, called vernix caseosa. It's greasy and white and you may see some of it at her birth. Working on her five senses. Nerve cells for her sense of taste, hearing, sight and smell are developing in her brain.

How big is your baby? size of a Mango

Symptoms- Nesting one day and exhausted the next. Some round ligament and side pains.

Weight-  111.4 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: Gained 1.4 pounds since last week.  1.6 lbs to go to get to pre-pregnancy weight of 113.

Belly measures- 31"

Craving- nothing really specific this week. Still loving salty foods like peanuts or chips. Staying really thirtsy.

Bought- a piece of canvas art and curtains for Riley's room. 3 maternity shirts with my birthday gift card. I got Riley 4 shirts, 2 pair of pants and Madison 2 pair of jeans and some rain boots.

 Done- Sanded her cubby to get ready to paint. We have been looking at and cribs.

 Looking forward to- Getting Riley's curtains and artwork hung and hopefully a crib this weekend.

Me...nominated? Okay!

When you’re nominated for a Liebster, here’s what you do:
1.    Thank the Liebster Blog presenter who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2.    Nominate 11 blogs who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen.
3.    Answer the 11 questions you were asked and create 11 questions for your nominees.
4.    Display the Liebster Award logo.
5.    No tag backs, meaning you can’t just re-nominate the person who nominated you.

 What is a Liebster Blog Award?

"The Liebster Award is for blogs with under 200 followers and the rules of the award is that the nominee must link back to whoever nominated them, write 11 random facts about themselves, answer 11 questions from the award giver, and then nominate another 11 bloggers and make up 11 questions for them to answer. It's a great way for new and undiscovered bloggers to meet new people, get more followers and find some blogs that they want to follow."

Thanks to Holly at When Two Became Four for first nominating me! I then got nominated by Royal from Royal Proclaims but I had yet to post this so I'm including her in the nominations below for that reasons.

1.  What made you decide to start an online blog as opposed to a private journal? Most of our families and friends live out of town. I thought it'd be a fun way to show them what we were doing in our spare time and then when we had Madison, I thought it'd be a great way to show what she's doing and learning.






2. Since everyone on my list is a mother, or about to be a mother, what has been an a-ha moment about motherhood? That it's exhausting but it's something I would never trade. It's a love you can't describe and only a parent can understand that love and relationship.



3. What is your guilty pleasure food? Junk food. Chips mainly.
 
4. Tell me about your childhood pet. A white toy poodle named Susie that I feel like we had forever. I'm not sure how long we had her but she was always around.

5. In honor of back to school time, what school supply could you absolutely hoard? Paper. Thought I don't craft, I like making lists and notes.
 
6. My favorite paint color is... I like all of the colors in our house-golden, grays, blues and greens. I think the gray rooms are my favorite though.


7. What is something you did as a teenager that your parents still don't know about? I drove my friend's car before I got my license
 
8. How did your parents come about your name? I'm named after Crystal Gayle, the country singer with the floor length hair. My dad wanted my middle name to be Gayle but my mom refused. Thank goodness.


9. How did you come about your firstborn's (or firstborn to be's) name? It's a name we always threw around before we even started trying to get pregnant. We had 2 girl names- Madison and Riley. We couldn't decide which and the day we found out she was a girl, we decided she 'looked' like Madison on the ultrasound. When I got pregnant this time, we decided to just use Riley if it was a girl since we both already liked it.

10. My favorite trend of the 80s/90s was...is music a trend? I love music from the 90s(not so much the 80s)
 
11. What was one extracurricular activity you were involved in in high school (and bonus points for including a picture!) none really. I attended FCA(Fellowship of Christian Athletes) pretty regular. I am not athletic so I didn't do sport.


and here are my questions for the bloggers I nominated:

1. What's something no one would expect you to do?
2. What's your favorite vacation spot?
3.  Describe yourself in 5 words
4. How would your friends describe you?
5. Where do you see yourself in 3 years?
6. What has surprised you the most about blogging?
7.What is your guilty pleasure?
8. What is your favorite holiday?
9. What is your dream vacation?
10. Describe your fashion style
11. What is your favorite tv show?

My nominations are:
(I don't have 11 to nominate. I follow mainly Saving sites or blogs with more than 200 followers)
- Royal Proclaims
- Better Together 
-Half of VAMH
-XO Gingersnapps