Conversations with Carson...

on Father's Day.

I mentioned to Carson that it was Father's Day and asked if he'd like to make a card for Daddy.

"Yeah!" *scampers off to get a multitude of crayons, colored pencils, paper, pens....

A few minutes later he comes back.

"I wrote I *heart* U. How do you spell Daddy?" 

"D-a-d-d-y."

"Ok."

In a minute he's back again.

"How do you spell I hope?"

"I h-o-p-e."

Scampers off again, repeating I h-o-p-e over and over to himself.

Then he's back again...

"How do you spell you give?"

"Y-o-u   G-i-  wait a minute. You GIVE? Just what are you going to write, Buddy?"

"Well, I was writing, I love you Daddy. And I hope you give me something really good for my Birthday. I want the Imaginext Fortress." 

That's where I gave him a little explanation on the meaning of Father's Day. And that it has nothing to do with Carson's Birthday, which is way off in December, by the way. Then he was thoroughly confused.

"But now what do I write?"

"Well, you've already written I love you, Daddy. I hope... so why not just say I hope you have a Happy Father's Day?"

Rolls his eyes dramatically as if that was a terribly boring idea, sighs loudly, and scampers off again, muttering..."Maybe I'll just draw a picture." 

Obviously, he still doesn't get it.
Later, I saw his card sitting on the table, waiting for Daddy.

Awww...it's a sweet picture of Daddy and Carson walking along hand in hand wearing great big smiles. Maybe he really does get it after all.

But wait...

what's that on the far left? Looks like big teeth.

Oh dear.

The happy father and child are about to be gobbled up by a really large shark. This does not look like a "happy" Father's Day...

So I ask Carson, "why is this big shark about to eat you and Daddy?!"

He says "No, Mommy...that's no REAL shark! That's a picture of the time at the beach when Daddy took me to the store that had the shark shaped door. I really liked that store." 

Oooooohhh. Big sigh of relief. He'd drawn a picture of what, to him, was a very happy memory.

So maybe he really DOES get it.

For a 5 year old boy, I think he's finally got it all figured out pretty well. 

Gotta love little boys!

A Nursery Fit For A.....Monkey.

The Nursery is officially finished. 

And I am officially READY! Did ya hear that little Weston? 

Mommy. Is. READY. 

First, let me just warn you...if you're hoping to see pics of a baby-ish, pastel-ish nursery, you're gonna be disappointed. This nursery is more for a little man. I did the whole babyfied nursery thing for both my other boys, and they outgrew them so fast, I said nuh-uh. No more. This baby is gonna have a nursery that can grow with him. I didn't go with a "theme" exactly... but you will see quite a few monkeys of the sock variety...

Still wanna see it?

Here it is!

We spackled the bejeebers out of the top part of the paneling, sanded, sanded, and sanded it some more, then painted it. Then my lil handy-man put up the big white trim to divide the two sections. Our version of fake-out board and batten. 

I ordered the wall monogram from Etsy, and the plaid crib bedding is from Bananafish. 

The baby's closet. 

Because his actual closet is full of MY clothes. One of the joys of a 100 year old house... our closets are all veeeery small. 

LOVE my rocking chair - I plan to order the matching ottoman soon. I love the idea of having a removable slipcover. This is the cheapskate's take on the "Pottery Barn $800 chair".  Can ya keep a lil secret? It's from Walmart.com. And it's WAY cheaper than good ole PB.  

The "changing table". 

(That empty frame on the wall is waiting for a photo of the new little man.)

So that's the room in general, now let's see some details...

 My handy-man installed a clothes rod in this armoire to make a closet - it's perfect!

The baskets hold all of the little baby hats and shoes. 

David's Grandpa made the little wooden car yeeeeears ago. It's precious. 

Both of my other boys wore these little crocheted booties. The old silver baby cup was David's. It looks WAY older than it really is. Cuz we just can't be that old. Surely.  

Each of the boys have used this little rocking chair. I needed something to sit in it, so I made this pillow using transfer paper. I love how it turned out! The best part? It didn't cost me a single penny - I had all the stuff on hand already. Gotta love that.

Here's another wooden car made by Grandpa. The set of suitcases (there's 3 of them in all) were Fa-Ree! Yep - I had enough Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks to order the whole set. I'm really digging the whole "free" idea...

I made the curtain panels from 2 flat twin sheets from Walmart. I simply made a rod pocket, then trimmed them in red rick rack. The total cost break down?

Sheet - $5.00

Rick Rack- $1.44

Total per panel - $6.44

I can deal with that. 

The chalkboard was an old frame I had in my stash, the little shoes were Jackson's, and nobody knows where the sweater came from. Seriously. It was in my tubs of baby things, but I don't recognize it, and my Mom doesn't either. It looks pretty old, but it must not have been mine... Who knows, maybe I picked it up at a Thrift store somewhere along the way. Wherever it came from, I think it's pretty sweet!

I was so thrilled to see THIS blog post from "Bless Our Nest" about these cute FREE printables from THIS website. I couldn't get over there fast enough - had to print off the vintage looking flashcards in Weston's initials! Are those cute, or what?! I love how they used the whole alphabet on a wall, but I didn't have room (or patience...) for that. 

LOVE love love these old baby scales. I found them at the Thrift Store before I even knew I was preggo - so glad I bought them! Won't it make a fun photo prop for the new baby?! 

And there's yet another little monkey friend keeping watch over the basket of diapers. 

Now all we need is the little man himself! 

And you can be sure we are counting down the days...

The Mantle. Refreshed.

Yep. I've been doing some nesting. 

And you just can't do any proper nesting without some birds, right?! And nests, of course...

 I changed up the master bedroom mantle just a bit. 

Because sometimes I just have to CHANGE SOMETHING! You know how it is...

And I'm sending a great big shout out to my sweetheart for asking the neighbors if his crazy wife could scalp their beautiful hydrangea bush. (And that's probably not the craziest thing he's done for me...)

Actually, I left the bush with plenty of blooms, you couldn't even tell I'd taken any. 

 I love love love hydrangeas. BLUE hydrangeas. They totally fill up my happy tank. 

The perfect dining room table centerpiece. Just Perfect. 

Maternity...modestly.

It's getting harder and harder to find cute clothes that offer enough coverage for the non-pregger lady. It's even harder to find modest maternity clothes! BUT...it CAN be done. You just have to get creative. And layer. Layering will be your best friend. 

Here's an example... (all pics are clickable if you need to see them larger)

Black top - Old Navy Maternity

Pink Top - Two Hearts Maternity from K-Mart

White Skirt - Old Navy Maternity

White Layering Tee - Christopher and Banks

Both pairs of flip flops - Yellow Box (I'm SOOO addicted to these...)

Let me just start off by saying that all those non stretchy button up blouses that are supposedly maternity, don't last me past the first 5 months. I finally packed those all away, and got smart. I bought only stretchy tops. Veeeeery stretchy ones, and once my belly got really big, I liked the kind with the elastic on the bottom. They're just not quite as tent-like. I mean, you already feel huge, why make it worse?! But it seems like today's maternity tops are made to be super form fitting, and I'm not comfortable with that, so I found that buying larger sizes was the solution. The black old navy top is a large! But it has plenty of room, is very comfortable and not binding, and doesn't feel so form fitting. 

I really like the feminine almost romantic touches on these tops. Maternity wear doesn't have to be ugly or frumpy. Make it fun! Find things with pretty details.

Turquoise Maternity Tank - Ebay

I only wore this black dress once - the length felt weird on me, but I thought the dress was really cute on the hanger. I added the black ruffled cardigan and the black "cami-secret" to make it more modest. The green top is not even a maternity piece! If you know what to look for, and buy a bigger size, you can find regular clothes that work just as well. But then, my sweet grandmother told me I looked like a huge green watermelon in it. Gotta love her...

Black and White Floral Dress - Motherhood

Black Cardigan - Ross

Black Flower Slides - Payless

Green Peasant Top - Cato (size large!)

White Maternity Skirt - Motherhood (I got it from Ebay)

White Flower Flip-flops - K-Mart

My lifesaver with this baby has been the maxi dress - where have they been all my life?! They are so comfortable and last the entire pregnancy. I'll just be honest with ya, if it isn't comfortable, I'll never even get it back out of the closet. Comfort is more important to me than whether or not it's trendy. I've never been one to sacrifice my comfort for style. The black dress was especially comfortable. I almost felt like I was wearing my jammies in public. And it was a super bargain at $17.

Black Maxi Dress - Walmart.com

Black Flip Flops - Yellow Box

Turquoise Maxi Dress - Old Navy Maternity

White ruffled wedges - The Shoe Dept. (look for them in the kiddie section...)

Blue Maxi Dress - Liz Lange for Target (I got it on Ebay)

I'm thinking these will work well post-partum, too. 

I've already told you how much I LOVE the GAP denim maternity skirt. It has definitely been the most worn item in my maternity wardrobe! I love the big wide under belly band - it's almost like wearing a support belt. And I love that it has kept it's dark color through many washings. I'm starting to sound like an advertisement for GAP... Trust me, they haven't paid me a thing to say that. But it wouldn't be a bad idea...

Here's one outfit two different ways...

Cream Vest - JC Penny

Coral Maternity Top - Motherhood

Denim Skirt - GAP

Flip flops - Yellow Box

Denim Jacket - Christopher and Banks

 Here are 2 of my favorite tops with the same denim skirt (of course..)

Pink Striped Top - Old Navy Maternity (from Ebay for $3) 

Pink Plaid Peasant Top - Walmart 

The Walmart top is a regular size (another large), and has been well worth the 10 bucks I paid for it. I still have plenty of room in it, when I've already outgrown most of my "maternity" clothes. Now that I'm almost to the end, I've learned what kinds of things to look for. If only I'd been so smart from the very beginning... 

Here's hoping that the next clothing post will be about BABY clothes!! I'm Soooooo ready to meet this little guy. We're counting down the days.

Oh and the nursery? It's *almost* done! Pics coming soon!

Homemade suds!

I finally tried my hand at the homemade laundry soap.
(I used the recipe posted here, by Chari.)

And to reward myself for being so industrious and frugal... I had to get me some pretty glass jars to show off my hard work.  And I just couldn't stop there. Oh no. I went on and got some cutesy vinyl decal labels too.

I was really tired of having a pile of lonely single socks in the laundry room. Now they have a home. 

Hey, anything to make doing laundry a little more fun. 

*Edited to add....since some have asked where I got the decals for the jars, I thought I'd just add it to the post here. I got them from Etsy.com. The lady I ordered them from does not have them listed anymore, but there are LOTS of others on there. Many , many choices! And most are around 8-10 bucks per set of 3. 

Retail Therapy...

...it's good for what ails ya. 

Isn't it cute?! Ruffles, rosettes, turquoise, on SALE.... it's like taking a happy pill. 

And it's on CLEARANCE at a Cracker Barrel near you! =)

33 weeks down...

About 6 more to go! It's getting closer all the time - WooHoo!

Soooo...here's the latest belly update.

And I'll throw in this sideways shot so you can get the "real" picture...

 Sometimes I wonder just how big this lil guy is gonna get!

And here is the maternity staple I could. not . live. without. The gap maternity jean skirt. I find myself reaching for it every day. (I've thought about doing a post on maternity fashion -my favorites, finding modest maternity stuff, etc... Would that interest anybody out there??  Give me a holla if that sounds like something you'd like to see here!)

So far I'm feeling pretty good. I've gained 24 pounds - ouch! (With my last 2, I gained 18 and 19 pounds. And I still have 6 more weeks left on this one!) I've actually been sleeping well for the most part, thank goodness! I've started having minor issues with feet and ankles swelling, on days when I sit a lot, so I'm working with that. Overall, things are going great, I'm just feeling my age with this one - tired tired tired. And I'm getting tired of people telling me things like, "You still haven't had that baby?!" or "I just don't think you can MAKE it for another 6 weeks..." Ummm...thanks for the encouragement...

Progress on the nursery has been slow - it takes me twice as long to do anything these days, and now that school is out, I have 2 littles at home to chase after, so my time is not my own. 

But I simply MUST knock it into high gear and "git 'r done"!! It's actually on my to do list for today.... Wish me luck.

Beach Boys!

We thoroughly enjoyed our little mini vacation to the Gulf! I took a gazillion pics, but I won't bore you with all of them. I chose a few favorites to share...

Love all my guys! 

Let me just tell you, 3 days is not long enough to soak up sun, sand, waves, all that good gulf food,

 the awesome shopping....

But I gave it my best shot ;)