Bunk Buddies

Isabella has been successfully sleeping in the same room as Jacob for about 4 weeks! They've gotten used to each other, and they rarely wake each other up during the night. I didn't say morning. Isabella wakes Jacob most of the time. But I swear! I'm super lucky I have kids who adjust well. Isabella's also been waking up a lot less during the night. Yahoo! I'm getting much better sleep, but I still wake occasionally to check on them. One of my biggest fears has come true, however. A few weeks ago, I'd put Bella in her crib while her brother was sitting and watching Toy Story 3 for the millionth time. I was busy making our bed and putting stuff away, and I was listening/watching for them on the monitor. When, all of a sudden, I heard this weird noise on the monitor and I couldn't see Jacob on it. So I run to the room, and what do I see? Jacob jumping up and down. in the crib. right next to his sister! I almost had a heart attack. As soon as he saw me, he stopped, and I was mad. He was scolded, but I couldn't help but laugh. He would, and does, ask to sit in the crib with his sister. I can't get mad at him for wanting to be in there and "play" with her. Well, since then, on a few other occasions, Jacob has climbed into her crib, but fortunately for Isabella, she was not in there. I've found him playing with the mobile, and he still gets scolded.

He uses this chair to get in...

Christmas Weekend!

Our weekend was awesome! Kinda. My parents were out of town so we missed them, but we managed to still have a good time. Early Xmas eve, the kids made sugar cookies to decorate that night, and Jacob wasn't really into it. Later that night, last minute, we decided to celebrate Xmas eve at my bro's house. We had a delish dinner that included grilled rib eye, grilled chicken, scalloped potatoes, salad, some veggies, bread, cookies...Yum! My mouth is watering just thinking about it! It was so good! Oh, and lots of wine. Momma got a lil tipsy. Oh, and some hot tub time. By the end of the night, I was very relaxed. LOL! I needed it. Xmas day was low key. We all met at my sister's house for breakfast, and opened all of our presents. Jacob got tons of toys! So much so that I hit up Target the next day to buy an organizer for his toys. We're slowly opening up his presents. Isabella got some toys but lots of clothes. I love clothes! It was a really nice weekend. Very grateful and thankful to have spent it with family and friends.

And I have some big news! We've started potty training Jacob! I will update how that's going soon.

Xmas eve!

Xmas day!

Happy Holidays!!!

I hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday weekend!

Here's our Christmas card this year! I actually haven't made one since Jacob was born. But a frugal opportunity came up through Seehere.com, who had an awesome deal - 60 photo cards, with envelopes and free 1 day shipping for $4.90! Yes, that was an awesome deal, so I scooped some up. I also included some outtakes from our photo shoot. It was hard. Each child wanted to do their own thing...at the same time. The picture in the card was the only one that came out with both of them looking forward and was fairly clear. But I love it! Anywhooo, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend with their family and friends!

 

Isabella's 5 Months!


Ack! Almost half a year! We're rapidly coming up on Isabella's 6 month birthday, and I cannot believe it! I know I always say it, but time is flying. It makes me so sad. She's growing up so fast. I look forward to every milestone, but at the same time it makes me so sad to know that she'll be walking and talking in less than a year. But I'm so very happy and lucky to see her go through every milestone. And I'm grateful that she is healthily growing along.

This month Isabella likes to growl and scream. And last week she started doing raspberries. She loves her tongue! And feeding time has become a bit difficult because, when she's almost done, she decides to play with her bottle instead of drinking it. We've tried cereal again and it's still a no-go. That's fine with me. We'll try again in a few weeks. Isabella loves to clap. She slaps her hand on anything to see if it makes a noise. I also love seeing her cognitive skills developing. She found a toy on her activity center and she likes playing with it. She's also figured out how to turn and move in it. I can't wait to break out the jumper and say goodbye to her swing which she never used. Sleep is still great! She goes to bed around 8:30pm and wakes at around 7:30am. Naps are consistently about 30 mins to 1 hr after she's eaten. If it's quiet, and Jacob's not yelling or is sleeping, she can sleep for more than an hour. But her nap time average is about 30-45mins. She's a really good baby. Everyone who has spent a significant amount of time with her agrees, she's very easy. I've been very lucky and blessed to have very easy children. They make my job as a mom so much easier, and so much fun!

I got a Brazilian!

Blowout, that is! Hehe! What were you thinking?! Yup, I took the plunge. There are a lot of BB deals in our area, and after I found one, I decided to just do it. As the day grew closer, I started my relentless research. The actual Brazilian Blowout brand is the one causing all the problems, however there are other BB treatments out there. The one used on me was called GJarrah. It also contains formaldehyde, but much much less than BB. As I was getting the treatment done, I was speaking with my hairdresser and she was telling me of the horror stories that came about from the BB brand. She was starting to have respiratory problems and knew a hairdresser who developed throat cancer?! Eek. She also mentioned that when they used the BB brand the salon would be filled with the gas. Uh, no thanks. So, she uses GJarrah. It's supposed to be similar, and have similar results. We'll see how long it lasts. She said 3 months using a sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner (by the way, I loved that she was not pushy). And as some of you may know, I have curly hair, not a tight curl but a nice loose curl. And it's long. I actually just cut off 3 inches, and dyed it a nice mocha color. The color looks totally different in the pictures. Anywho, it takes forever to straighten, and with 2 kiddos that has become a rarity, so we'll see how this works. If it does, maybe I'll get it again. I'll keep you updated! And now for the before and after pics...

Before

After: Day 1

Repost: {DIY} Christmas Gifts

So now that Christmas has come and gone, I can now share some projects/gifts I made for everyone this year. We were on a tight budget so I got creative. I scoured through many blogs and found tons of ideas for gifts to make. I still have some in mind for next Xmas. However, this year I decided to make everyone a set of personalized coasters and a mini travel mug with the ingredients for snowman soup inside. When making the coasters, I followed this blog's directions, and everyone loved them. I did too. I got the idea for the travel mugs from this site, and did my own little variation on them.

Isabella's Birth Book

There have been tons of offers out there for free or low cost photo books. And with all these deals, I scooped one up for Isabella a few months ago. I'd also made one for Jacob a few months after he was born, you can see it here. For Isabella's book, I used almost the same story that I used for Jacob. Although, her book was from Picaboo and it was free, but I had to pay for shipping. The retail on this book is $29.99, so $8.99 was a good deal. The quality is awesome, a bit better than Jacob's book and it's much bigger. But I love them both. Everyone who's seen and read them have said it's neat. I think it's pretty neat too, and it takes me back to their birth days each time I read them.

 

{DIY} Painted Coffee Filter Wreath

I really wanted to hang something from our big mirror, but I wasn't sure what I wanted. Did I want to make a banner, and what would it say? Did I want another ornament wreath? Nah. Then it hit me, a coffee filter wreath! And I had everything on hand. I looked at a bunch of tutorials for this, and here's how I did mine.

For this project I used a wood wreath from the $ Store, 200 pack of coffee filters, acrylic paint, foam brush, crepe paper, white glue, glue gun. I didn't end up using glitter like I had planned.

1. The very first thing I did was use my foam brush to paint the edges of all my coffee filters with my acrylic paint, and let those dry for a few hours.

2. While the filters dried, I wrapped my wreath twice with crepe paper so I'd have a smoother surface to work with, and sealed it with some white glue. I also let this dry for a few hours.

3. Once my items were dry, I started to shuffle the edges of the coffee filters so they would loosen from the paint.

4. I then seperated each filter one by one, and started folding each filter in half, and then twice, in a fan/zig-zag motion.

5. I placed a drop of hot glue on the flat tip of the filter (where I'm pointing), and pressed it onto the wreath.

6. Repeat step 4 and 5 until you've filled your wreath to the fullness you desire.

For my wreath, I did about 4 rows of filters. Of course, the more rows and filters you use, the fluffier and fuller the wreath will look. This project took me about an hour and a half. The most time consuming part was separating the filters after I had painted them. If I had not painted them, I'm sure I would have finished much faster. But I love it, especially because I had everything on hand. I can't wait to make another one!

And I'm linking up!

The tree is up!

This past Thanksgiving weekend we put up our Christmas decor! I was dying to put it up. I actually wanted to put it up the weekend before but people would have thought I was a little too excited. Our decor is pretty much the same from last year, however we have added an extra stocking, and I made a coffee filter wreath. I have a tutorial coming soon for that! And our colors are mainly silver and blue, but next year I want to do a monochromatic theme, maybe all white or silver. But I still love my tree. I don't like the Santa stockings, the snowmen are okay, but I hope to one day get some really nice embroidered stockings that we will use forever. Jacob, surprisingly, is not too interested in the tree as far as touching it. Thank goodness. He has not touched any of the ornaments, but the bottom ornaments are all plastic and the nicer ornaments are at the top. This year we added an ornament for Isabella from her auntie, I love it! But I would love to get one that holds a picture. Maybe I'll make one?? Anywho, here's our decor!