Happy 200th

This is my 200th post. So I thought it was fitting to share some really precious pictures Randy took today while I was at work.

Wyatt really loves his brother. And so does Ryder. It melts my heart to watch them interact. Ryder is so accommodating to his brother, too. He smiles and laughs so easily and encourages Wyatt to make him laugh more.

We talk a lot about making Ryder laugh instead of making him cry. "Ryder cry. No no!" Wyatt says. Wyatt also likes to do tummy time with Ryder on his play gym. We just have to remind him that we put Ryder on his tummy, not Wyatt. Believe me, he has tried. Speaking of trying, Ryder is trying to turn himself over! He started last week and keeps working hard at it.

I hear Wyatt was full of kisses today. Thank you, fever, for finally going away, so the kisses don't spread you!

A couple weeks ago, I picked up a bag of big, funky buttons at a junk shop. Now my button jars have turned into great (and educational) fun for Wyatt. We sit at the table and sort them, looking for matches and learning our colors. Ryder sits (carefully supervised) in his bumbo while Wyatt sorts buttons (also very very carefully supervised). Ryder learns to sit up straight and Wyatt teaches him, "Look, Ryder! Fower!" (Flower). "Look, Ryder! Boo button!" (Blue). Love, love, love it! Please pardon the laundry basket.

And last but not least, this extremely contagious grin is often gracing Ryder's chubby chubby cheeks.

Isn't that the best?!?

A New Beginning

Tomorrow is Monday, March 28th. A new week and almost a new month. We need new around here.

Two weeks ago on the 14th, Wyatt got pink eye and a cough. Trip #1 to the doctor on the 15th. The rest of the week the cough got worse and by Friday afternoon surrounded by a bit of chaos caused by 2 babies, 2 toddlers and three mommies who hadn't seen each other in a long while, Wyatt melted down and I could tell the fever had started. Monday was Trip #2 to the doctor - double ear infection and more fever. Both Randy and I also started colds that day. Wednesday Randy got pink eye, and I had a hacking cough. Trip #3 to the doctor. "Dr. poked" both of us. Still Wyatt had a fever. Finally, last night we clocked 24 hours without a fever, barely.

We're all ready for warm weather (as I watch it snow) and a new week! A new week we get...and 70 degrees by the end of it.

This has all been happening during my 30 day effort to be more grateful. I strongly suggest Nancy Leigh Demoss' book Choosing Gratitude. It's amazing how foundational gratitude for my spiritual life. I wish I could say I did better over the last two weeks. I think I woke up on Thursday and realized how ungrateful I had been. The last few days I've worked a lot harder on it. I'm thankful that my boys are generally extremely healthy. I'm thankful that the Lord gives me challenges to reveal my excessive selfishness (isn't that just supposed to disappear when you become a mommy?). I'm thankful for His faithful, ever-present grace and mercy. I'm thankful for my husband and that God saw fit to give him pink eye and make him stay home on the day when I felt the worst this week. I'm SO very thankful that Ryder has remained healthy throughout all of this nastiness! I'm thankful that Wyatt's cold has given me the opportunity to train him on how not to whine. I heard "Booooooooogers!" (in a very pathetic, whiny cry) many times a day. He has learned to choose a different tone and go get a kleenex for mommy. I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit helping breathe and learn patience through the 250,000 times I had to wipe his nose.

And I'm very thankful to have my happy, funny, helpful boy back!

He Talks

We Exist

Yep! We're here! We exist and all is well. But naps are not long enough nor do I have enough energy in the evening to blog. I can't get my laundry and paying work done let alone time to post pics. I thought I had a few minutes, but I hear Wyatt saying, "Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy! Daddy Mommy, out!" No, Daddy is not home. It's just part of his "get me out of my room" chant.

I have all these blog posts that run through my head...they just never make it out of my thoughts.

This week Ryder turns 3 months, so I wanted to get these out. It's a special day.

Last Tuesday at 12 weeks. Monday, the 7th was his 3 month birthday.

Ryder is a very happy boy who loves to smile and talk to his family. He sleeps 8 1/2 - 9 hours which makes his mommy happy. He's a better nurser than his brother. That makes mommy happy too. His brother has only drawn blood once...a scratch on his cheek. In Walmart. Fun. While he is a happy kid, he still is very good at letting us know when he's not happy.

He started playing with toys last week. The lion on his carseat is fun. He's also doing a good job of holding his head up during tummy time. But he definitely does not like tummy time. His brother likes to make him do tummy time though. He has almost gotten rolled off the ottoman a couple times. Can you say heart attack for Mom and Dad?

Dressed up in his Sunday best. Just look at those sweet, lovable cheeks. LOVE them! He's almost the spitting image of his daddy at 3 months. His cheeks are just a bit chubbier.

With big brother.

As for Wyatt, he's in his toddler bed. And he is getting better at not getting out of bed. There has been some serious training though!! I'm very thankful for the baby gate we keep on his door during naptimes. And nighttimes. He'd be at our bed at 3:30 am if he could sometimes.

Okay, he's still saying "OUT!" So until next month....

Milestones

On Tuesday Ryder-Roo turned 8 weeks old. This week his brother started calling him Ryder-Roo after he heard me use the nickname. It's really adorable when he says it, but his daddy thinks it's a silly name.

Sweet little Ryder-Roo is growing super duper fast! He's getting really close to growing out of his 3 month clothes already. Wyatt didn't do that till he was about 4 months, so he's definitely more of a chunk. We keep telling Wyatt to watch out because his brother will take him on soon!

He started smiling and talking to us last week. LOVE that! And he also started sleeping 6 1/2 hours at night this week. Love that too! He's such a good, content little guy. He's on a schedule (flexible but a schedule) and I feel like we're ready to settle in and enjoy this time, busy as it is.

I went back to work a couple weeks ago, and adding a couple hours of work from home has been a little harder than I thought. Our day goes something like this: feed a child, change a diaper, feed a child, change a diaper, somehow get us all dressed for the day, maybe get something done around the house, feed a child, change a diaper, repeat, nap time (hallelujah!), feed a child, change a diaper, repeat, make dinner, feed a child, change a diaper, repeat, baths, bedtime, crash! Oh yeah, and do laundry and work.

Here's Ryder hanging out on his new quilt from Grammie. So soft and cute.

Wyatt also had a milestone last week. He turned 1 3/4 years old - 21 months already.

He's talking talking talking. I stopped to think about what he talks about, and it made me wonder what it says about him.

"People" is a new favorite word. He loves to go to "church" and he repeats his friends names a lot. He's also concerned with the locations of his loved ones. For a long time he stuck to grandparents and daddy. It sounded something like this:

Wyatt: "Daddy? Work?"

Me: "yep, Daddy's at work today."

Wyatt: "Mimi? House? Papa house? Mimi's house?"

Me: "yes, Papa and Mimi are at their house today."

Wyatt: "Mama? house? Papa work?"

Me: "yes, Papa is at work and Grandma is at her house today."

We went through that multiple times a day. Now he's added cousins to that conversation - "Emmy? Tyler? Tock (Scott)? Macie? KK?" and then all his church friends. But it always has to do with their location. I think the real goal is that maybe just maybe I might say that one of his loved ones is coming to our house today or that he might see them. One thing I know, Wyatt loooovvvesss people!

And a pic of the whole family for the church directory that we took a couple weeks ago. Wyatt only had a half cheese and Ryder's eyes were open. Two victories!

A Journey in Fabric

It's Wednesday and naptime. I should be cleaning bathrooms. I'll make this quick.

So way back in May or June I decided I needed to have my living room curtains completed and hung by August. And I went on a hunt for fabric that was finally concluded last week. Here's my trip...

Our living room walls are orange and khaki, so at first I thought about something like this. The orange matches perfectly, but when I brought this 1/4 yard home and held it up, it just looked too bland.

Then I brought home these two from the same line. I was pretty sure it was a no-go, but wanted to check. Randy confirmed it was definitely a no-go.

Then I decided that blue would be the accent color. I have a robin's egg blue teapot from a garage sale, and a smoky blue suitcase (part of a stacked suitcase end table) also from a garage sale. But it's really hard to find the right orange and blue fabric. Most of it is far too modern or retro. I want something classic enough that it will work with our funky vintage finds (as in the large trunk I want for a coffee table but haven't found in my budget).

For awhile I was convinced Kate Spain's new Moda line would be perfect. But this was the closest thing in her line I could find in both blue and orange, and it was all wrong. That was in late August.

By then I thought that maybe it would be best just to have blue curtains and make the room less monochromatic.

One day I was sorting through my growing fabric stash and found two fat quarters of this.

Perfect! The darker blue matches the suitcase and the background matches the teapot, perfectly blending everything. It's modern enough to be interesting, but funky enough to work with vintage garage sale finds. Only one problem. Hancock Fabrics didn't have yardage of it, just fat quarters. And there was absolutely no selvage with information on it. A search of Hancock's website revealed nothing.

I tried these two to see if they could work.

Neither did. Both were far too aqua. Although the picture doesn't show much difference from the other fabric there really is a big one.

A couple months later I was working on a Christmas gift and saw this piece I had sewn into a bag last year.

Love it! It was the same blue as the background of the Hancock Fabric. The swirl made it a little more formal to fit a living room but not too stuffy. And it was at Hobby Lobby, so I could get it pretty cheap. That was a few weeks before Ryder was born, so even though the thought ran through my mind that I should really go get it before they discontinued it or something, I was more focused on the pending large change in our household.

After Christmas I stopped by the fabric department to check it out only to find ONE yard remaining on the bolt. Discontinued. I bought the yard because I loved the fabric. But I need 5 1/2 yards. Calls to two other Hobby Lobbys only found me 3 more yards, so I gave up that one.

Two weeks ago I was again wandering through the fabric department at Hobby Lobby (sanity, please?) when I found this one.

I liked the blue background. The orange dot was perfect, and the other colors would allow for changing my accent colors. But polka dots? In my living room? No thanks.

The coordinating fabric in the line, on the other hand, was just right.

The paisley pattern makes it formal enough for a living room, but the colors are bright, so it's definitely not stuffy or formal. The blues and oranges were right, AND there was plenty of fabric on the bolt. I snatched it up. FINALLY.

I've decided on the following combo. The swirl fabric will be the rod pocket. It just needed a little something to offset all the paisley.

And that, folks, is my next Friday project. The fabric is washed, ironed, and waiting for naptime on Friday....if I ever get my bathrooms cleaned, that is.

Home Tour: Before and After

We have lived in this house for 9 months, and I'm still working on getting things up on the walls. A chalkboard and two canvases finally went up in the dining room last weekend. Our laundry room/pantry is complete with doors on the cabinets now, and I finally, finally chose fabric for our living room curtains. So here's a little before and after of the main living areas...minus the laundry room, which is currently covered in clean laundry. You'll have to wait on that one and the bedrooms. They're still in process.

Welcome to our house!

I actually decorated for Valentine's Day this year and had a lot of fun wrapping ribbon yesterday. Wyatt rewarded me this morning when we left the house for church. "Pretty!" he said. He's a boy and he noticed!

This is what the house looked like before. Well, sort of before. I forgot to take one before we started scraping and priming, but you get the idea.

And after. Although I can't say the winter-brown grass is all that flattering to the color. It was really hard to choose a color because the roof is such a light gray. We're so glad we painted the brick, and removed the 1950's wrought iron post. I'm hoping to replace it next summer.

Entry buffet. There was really nothing here when we first looked at the house.

The dining room looking from the front door - before.

And after. By the way, the door next to the table in the before picture used to open as a second entrance to Wyatt's room. Randy converted it to a utility closet, and it's one of my favorite, simple changes we've made!

The front living room before...as Randy pulled down all of the window treatments.

And after. This is the room I've been trying to choose curtain fabric for over the past 9 months...that post coming soon.

The family room is an addition on the back of the house. We love this room except for the fact that it's really cold in here in the winter. We have plans for that useless wood fireplace!

After we painted, replaced carpet and tile, and pulled down rickety shelves. Those shelves will be replaced with a storage/desk unit eventually. And the steps need to be replaced one day.

Kitchen pantry before, complete with small appliances for all to see.

And after. We really haven't done much to the kitchen. We have major plans for it down the road, so we haven't felt like sinking any money or work into it now. Let's just say that those plans include Randy's first kitchen cabinet building job, moving doors and plumbing and completely refiguring the room.

Until then, it's still in all its gold glory, minus the awful curtains and the ridiculously small sink. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to make it presentable for a picture today.)

We really are so thankful for this house! There are definitely days I wish we had a basement (can you say nerf guns?) and Randy wishes we had a two-car garage for his shop (he's building me a sewing cabinet right now). But this house is home and we're truly thankful for the way God has provided for us!