Keeping it real: the family room

We recently re-decorated the family room by lightening the fireplace and rearranging furniture. Check out the favorite toys! As you can see, we're a little cluttered as it is. I started to rotate toys a few weeks ago, and I've weeded out their closets a couple of times already.

Chloe Mae Bell is 2 Weeks Old!

Sorry for the lack in pictures--we do have lots of new photos with Chloe, but lately our jump drive hasn't been compatible with my Toshiba.

Here's some fun facts about our little baby:

*Chloe eats every 3 hours, including twice a night. She's a pretty good sleeper during the day, but she sleeps best upstairs in her bassinet, where Katie's loud toddler squeals are drowned out.

*She is barely in size newborn diapers. When we took her to the doctor last week, she weighed 8 lbs, 8 oz (up from her original weight of 8'6. Speaking of diapers, she goes through about 10 per day.

*Chloe loves staring at her daddy; What Does Baby Do? is her favorite book.

*She enjoys tummy time on the floor. Katie also participates in tummy time.


And some thoughts from this mom of two:
*We might have to put out 2 garbage cans this week. In the past, we've only used one.

*Today we opened our 4th pack of wipes in 2 weeks. (Thanks to Pick N Save for putting these on sale today for 50 cents per pack!!).

*I need to expand my repetoire of dinners that can be made during the hours of 1pm-3pm, then refridgerated until 5 or 5:30pm.

*We have too much stuff (clothes, toys, etc). It's getting hard to maintain cleanliness in our family room. I've begun spring cleaning, and this is perfectly timed with the opening of Waukesha's new Goodwill Store. It's just down the street from us. Hopefully I'll visit it soon!

A Mop, a Broom and Me

We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Girl #2. Even though I've drastically cut back on my work hours (to about 3-4 hours per week), I'm tired all the time. It seems like there's a constant "to-do" list lurking around the kitchen or the computers.

At least I've taken care of food and snacks for the next week. In the past few days, I've made homemade granola, brownies, peanut-butter bars, spinich dip, and avacado dip.

Katie has become quite obsessed with fruit. One day at lunch last week, she had a banana, an apple and an orange! So yesterday, I made a quick pit stop at Aldi's to get 8 lbs of oranges, 3 lbs of bananas, and a pineapple. Between the three of us, this should last through the weekend.

Today I washed 3 loads of laundry and finished cleaning downstairs (which I started on Thursday). It seems that mopping the kitchen floor is the least motivating task! Hopefully when Bryan gets home, I can find about 20 minutes to quickly vacuum the upstairs and clean the upstairs bathroom. Then we'll be done until our maid gets here! (Can't wait to see you, mom!).

Projects still to do:
Clean upstairs
Pack hospital bag
Re-arrange furniture in Katie's new room
Chop carrots for lunches
Fold clothes

Oh my!

5 Misc. Around-the-House Pictures

1. Snuggie and Katie


2. Yummy yogurt


3. A cul-de-sac walk (and it was a warm day - about 40 degrees!)


4. Foot in the book box


5. Eating raspberries - courtsey of a patient who owns a grocery store

Early to bed, early rise makes a girl...what?

Healthy: check
Wealthy: definitely--by the rest of the world's standards
Wise: depends on who you ask!

Bryan and I stayed up until about 10 last night watching Lost. Actually, I listened to Lost as I painted the fireplace. Actually, I sponged the fireplace as a decorative attempt to lighten the room. After all that work, you'd like I'd sleep like a baby!

Which leads me to the fact that it's 4:43AM and I've been up for 2 hours.

There are a few more bricks that need painting, but I'm too lazy to stand on a chair. (Also, Bryan is asleep and wouldn't hear me if I fell).

So here we are...playing around with the blog and reading my RSS updates! (At least Baby #2 is back to sleep). Maybe in a couple of hours I'll make muffins for breakfast.

Make Your Brunch Look Pretty

Jeannie and Gianna came over for brunch today. We kept things easy with 2 dishes.

I love how Jeannie arranged her banana bread pieces between the fruits!


I made an egg and ham bake using this recipie. Honestly, I totally cheated; last week, I made 2 casserole dishes of the recepie. We ate one immediately, and I froze the 2nd dish to use for today. The heating-up process only took 20 minutes, and the dish was delicious!


And finally--our family room after 2 toddlers tore through it.

Toddler Fun

It's cold outside--so we're trying to keep as entertained as possible in our cozy house.

Katie loves playing with her animals. She stacks them in her new sled and in rows.


Diapers were on sale last weekend at Babies R Us for $3.50 per jumbo pack AND 1 pack of free wipes for every 3 packs bought!! We stocked up for the post-natal "survival" period.


She loves building and tipping piles!

It's a little cold--even for Shadow

Ah! Nothing to do!

The anticipated lull is here...all errands and shopping are through. Katie is napping, Peyton didn't come over today. My work is complete for the week. I'm waiting for the butter to soften to make these cookies--my favorites!

Just a few updates

1. Katie is congested and has a cough--sleeping has been difficult for her the past 24 hours.
2. Bryan is traveling to Madison tomorrow for a CE class. We'll miss him!
3. We took both our cars to M&D Auto this week for general check-ups (and they needed a few things fixed on them). We went each night after Katie went to bed, and our neighbor, Max, came over to our house. He's 15; he watched TV while Katie slept, and I think he preferred this to staying home, where he would have to compete with 5 other people for the TV!
4. Our digital camera is broken (again). This time, it won't turn on. We mailed it back to cannon yesterday. Props to cannon for providing pre-stamped packages!
5. On Veteran's day, Applebee's is providing free meals to veterans and active duty miltary. Yay for Applebee's!

Cold Snap

We woke up to a frosty 28 degrees this morning! Yesterday, I wondered how much longer our impatiens would last. This is no longer a question! Oh, and as I was putting Katie down for a nap yesterday, I looked out the window and saw...snowflakes.

Project Master Bedroom--Completed!

We've been in our house for 2 years, and we finally finished our bedroom! We are deliberate when it comes to decorating because we like to incorporate family heirlooms into our design, and we are willing to wait to find the "right" accents. Special thanks to Ashley's mom for the birthday money--the lamps and accents (pictures, pillows, etc) are from you!

For those who care: upper walls are vanilla and the lower walls are coral. Our accents are light blue.

Ashley's granddaddy bought this bookself with glass cabinets from a preacher in Dyersburg. He paid $100 for it, and I think he bought it in the 1980s. I think the cabinet is from the 1940s.

Jimmy brought the rug back from Turkey when he was stationed there in 2002. We built the rest of the room off the rug. The chair is an antique, and there is a tiny "baby" chair to match it. The cedar chest is also old--from Memommie's house.

Below is our cherry Amish bed and antique cherry lamp stands. Bryan especially likes the center pillow!

And finally, here is the cherry antique dresser and the "baby" chair. I can't wait until Katie sits in it! Together we can rock and read stories. Bryan's mom and dad used to refinish antiques, and the dresser (along with the nightstands) were projects.

It's alive...

Over Memorial day weekend my mother helped me plant some grass seed in our front lawn. This was a patch of dirt that has not had any grass growing on it since we moved in, and probably longer then that. Well now we have a nice area of green grass growing.

A few things we learned over Memorial Day weekend

1. We're not very good at growing things except weeds and beans
2. Katie's knees get really dirty really fast
3. Oreo cookie custard can taste so-so
4. We'd rather spend 5 hours doing something besides yard work
5. No matter how much work we do, our neighbor's yard will ALWAYS look better (but they use their kids as slave labor)

Admiring china

First BBQ of the Season

Smorgashboard tonight at Jim and Jeannie's! Bryan is in charge of the grill!

(Not our grill. Definitely not our grill.)

Germination

Water Softener is OUT

We have a broken water softener...repairman is coming on Thursday. Thank goodness for the "emergency" water stored in the basement!

Heading Out- Again!

Today, all 4 of us went on the walk!

Three Things That Make Ashley Smile in the Morning

These 3 mugs are made by Sonoma Home, and they are my favorite mugs for hot drinks! They definitely do their part in making my 8 O'Clock Coffee more enjoyable. I need one more in winter decor to make a set! So if you see one this summer at a rummage sale, please pick it up for me!