Life lately.

Good morning, good morning!

Today is Jason's "Friday" and it makes me so, so happy! I feel like I've hit the stage of pregnancy where my mind is going a mile a minute and I am constantly reviewing the checklist over and over in my mind. It is exhausting! So, thankfully, we'll have some extra time this weekend to knock some things off my list and free up some brain space.

We made some excellent progress last weekend with the name signs and I made a bow/headband frame for Lorelai's room. I also washed a load of pink...a couple of blankets and a crib sheet and even though her room is pretty bare, putting the crib sheet on the mattress made a big impact! I still need to find a couple of cute things to hang on the walls, but I did find a super cute lamp at Target this week. It's funny that her room is what I've been focusing on because she probably won't sleep in there for several months...but whatever.

We had a super sweet, super simple Valentine's Day that I absolutely loved! The whole weekend was filled with lots of sweet family time. Jason and I made a nice dinner for just the two of us Saturday night after the kids were in bed and had some great conversation and peace and quiet. ;) On Sunday, we had a family breakfast and little gifts for the kids. These pictures crack me up.

Having a due date in late March made me super excited to experience the cold weather while super pregnant. The boys were born before it really got cold, so I didn't get to experience that with either of them. But, I should have known not to get my hopes up. Darn you, Texas weather! It has been so unseasonably warm this winter. Like highs in the 70's, warm. While I want to complain about how this affects me ... it has been awesome for the boys! They have loved all the extra time to play outside and it's something we definitely look forward to when the weather is nice.

We've had plenty of cold days, too, so we've been trying to make the most of our time inside. I moved their little table out of the kitchen and into the living room so they could see out the windows into the backyard. They love coloring in their new spot. 

Conner got some Blaze tattoos in his Valentine's from school, so one day while Hudson napped I put the Blaze one on him and the Crusher one on me. Even though I explained thoroughly about how a tattoo is different than a sticker, he was pretty disappointed that it wasn't a sticker and rubbed it off within 2 minutes. At least I got a picture of us looking cool and tough with our tattoos.

Even though Conner is done napping on a regular basis, he sometimes falls asleep during the day while Hudson is napping. I love watching him sleep - it reminds me of those sweet snuggly newborn days ... I just want to scoop him up in my arms and rock him.

And this little guy is such a ham! I love his sweet little cheeks!

Sometimes you just have to wear a bucket on your head and call it a day.

This kid's cuddles melt my heart. I love them so much and I'm really trying to soak up my last few weeks where he's my baby!

We've also been making progress with the boys sharing a room. Mostly we are working on getting a good nighttime routine in place so they can calm down a little more easily. It was so easy to put them to bed separately...and I'm sure with a little more time we'll have this process smoothed out, too. 

Although, there are plenty of nights like this, too... Jason had gone to bible study and we had put them in bed before he left... Honestly, it was funny to me then, and it's even funnier now.

Oh, the joys! ;)

Happy Thursday, friends!

Bumpdate! 33 weeks...

Yesterday marked 33 weeks and according to my email from Baby Center, baby girl weighs as much as a pineapple! Two weeks ago in my ultrasound they estimated her to be over 18 inches long ... and this week, my email said she should be around 17 inches. She's going to be a long baby! I'm not surprised, though. The boys were both over 22 inches long when they were born.

I mentioned in my last "life lately" post that we were going to move the boys into the same room. Well, we did it last weekend, and boy was that an experience I hope to never forget. It was hilarious, frustrating, surprising, and just a funny new transition for our family.

Friday afternoon we moved Hudson's bed into Conner's room and hung our decorations on the walls to make it a fun new room for them. We tried to keep our routine as close to normal as possible and ended up putting them to bed a little early because they were exhausted from a day of playing hard. We really wanted to put them to bed at the same time so that they can just get used to falling asleep with each other instead of one at a time. Plus, they both go to bed at the same time anyway, so it worked out well for us. We did baths, brushed teeth, read books, said a prayer and sang them "You Are My Sunshine."

 We talked to them about how it's okay if they talk quietly, but they need to stay in their beds until their clock turns green every morning. Thankfully, Hudson is still in a crib, and Conner is pretty used to that rule, but it was definitely good to remind them since we were changing up their "normal." We turned off the light, and walked out of the room at 6:30p (I know, so early ... but that's our normal on days they are exhausted). At first they talked a lot - they were hyped up and so, so excited. After about 15 minutes, Conner got up, and came out of the room to tell us that Hudson wouldn't stop talking and he wanted to go to sleep. Ha! We told him to stop talking to Hudson and he would eventually stop. So Conner went back to his bed, laid down, and proceeded to tell Hudson, "It's dark outside, Hudson. When it's dark, that's when it's time to go to sleep." Sweet, Conner Bear! Finally after an hour of being in there with Hudson talking non-stop, Conner fell asleep at 7:30p. Hudson continued to talk ("Conner Bear? Conner Bear? Wake up, Conner Bear!") for another 45 minutes and then just fell asleep suddenly at 8:15p pretty much mid-sentence. It was hilarious! We were cracking up about it.

At 2am, when Hudson started screaming for us to come "carry" him, we were not cracking up. Ha! He did that for a while. We have learned to just leave him in his crib when he does this, otherwise it makes it so much worse and amps him up a lot each time we go in. He just needed to adjust. Boy, was that rough, though!

Then at 5am, Conner got up to pee, and woke Hudson up and they talked (read: yelled) to each other until their clock turned green at 7am. That, was a real joy on a Saturday morning, let me tell you.

Thankfully, my parents came over for breakfast and to hang out for the day and saw my post on Facebook about being tired so they brought us coffee. Amen.

After a week of them being in the same room, we are all adjusting to our new normal and they are falling asleep quicker. Really, the only reason this is remotely working out at all is that Conner can sleep through anything. That boy loves his nighttime sleep. Hudson will talk to anything that moves. Now that they are in the same room, we can get Lorelai's room ready. I went over to a friend's house earlier this week and she's due with her second, a girl, a few weeks before me, and the nursery is just adorable! It really got me thinking about what all I want to do in Lorelai's room - I may even paint it. Who knows?

A sweet moment from the past week was with this little love bug. I really can't wait for him to meet his baby sister. He loves giving my belly hugs and kisses and is always lifting up my shirt, asking to see her. He's 4 months older than the Bear was at this phase...and man does it make a difference!

Today was my 32 week appointment (even though I'm 33 weeks now) and it was easy peasy. I go back in 2 weeks and then it's every week after that. The time really is flying by.

This weekend we are going to work on finishing the name signs. The boys name signs are going in the playroom, and Lorelai's sign is going in her room until she's older. We'll also go ahead and put the crib together and get the swing out so the boys can get used to it and learn to not touch or climb in it. If we have time, we might also start looking at the closet to figure out how to best organize it. Knocking things off my list, left and right! Nesting for the WIN!

DIY Fun - Earring Organizer

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. I love the awesome ideas, but sometimes it leaves me feeling like I'm wasting my life away because I'm not making 87 freezer meals for $100 in 3 hours time, or building unique furniture, or have a magazine worthy house, or dress like a fashionista when I drop off my kids at school. That is the part I hate. But that doesn't stop my from having over 2,000 pins on Pinterest. Absurd, I know. Anyway, one of the things I've wanted to do for a while is figure out a better way to organize my jewelry, especially my dangly earrings. This weekend we headed to Home Depot for some supplies for the projects we are trying to get done for Lorelai's room, and while we were there I snagged the supplies for this project.

So here's my inspiration:

And here is what I did...

Supplies:

-Large empty frame (got this one at Hobby Lobby when it was 50% off)

-Poultry wire

-Tin Snips

-Staple gun

So first I measured the poultry wire to fit on the back of the frame and cut it with the tin snips.

Then I used the staple gun to secure the wire to the back of the frame.

After that I hung it on the wall in my bathroom and filled it with my earrings. Who knew I had so many? 

I just love that not only does this provide organization for my earrings, but it's pretty to look at, too! It was really easy and probably only took about 30 minutes total. Next on my list of fun DIY projects is a way to organize my stud earrings and necklaces. For now, my stud earrings are in my jewelry box because there's finally plenty of space for me to find them in there. I put my necklaces in individual snack ziplock baggies to help me find them because I've seen that done before, but I don't love it. I would really like to hang them from a rack much like the inspiration photo at the beginning of this post, so we will see how that goes. How do you organize your jewelry?

Happy Hump Day, friends!!