A day in History!

That's right- We've had some progress on Mason's new room! :-D 

Oh yeah, besides the greatness of Obama's Inauguration. HAHA If you know me well, clearing out the room is an amazing FEAT! Thanks to my dad for helping me. We're hoping to have the painter come tomorrow or Thursday morning to get started on painting! and we even have a color picked out. Don't be surprised....it's pretty close to our Living room color, maybe a tad bit lighter. 

Just for you to get an idea of the progress. This is the room AFTER our garage sale. (That's kinda pathetic!) Good news on that is that i DO NOT have a picture before the garage sale! ha!

From January2009

This is the room after I got my hands on it with the help of my dad (he's easily motivated to organize things...well Gavin is too but he's had so many things on his plate, I don't want to ask him for additional projects right now!) on the back wall you can see the paint color we're going with :-) poopy gray is what we're calling it. I think it's beautiful!

From January2009

The big excitement for today! Yeah for Prezy Obama! It's really fascinating getting to see history in the making. Can't wait to see what he has in store for us and what God has in store for him leading our country! I won't ever forget where I was when Mason and his brother-what's-his-name ask us one day, "Mom, where were you when Obama was elected into office?" I can say, I was at the baby doctor 8 1/2 months pregnant trying to call your Daddy to DVR it on tv so I could see it! FINALLY 2 minutes before Obama's speech he FINALLY called me." Let's just say we had a little chat after that about keeping your CELL PHONE HANDY ALL THE TIME when you WIFE IS 8.5 months pregnant!!! :-D
So of course I had make Gavin pick me up a newspaper for today.
This was right before I accidently spilled some of Gavin's Dr Pepper on it. OOOPS. I guess tomorrow will really be the one to keep!

From January2009

ON to What's-his-name/Thing 2....So we're back at square 1 for some reason. We've been loving Maddox Lee for the past OH 6 months. My backup name is Kellan. Just yesterday Gavin says, "Well, I like Kellan too, so I'll let you decide." AHHHH! don't do that to me! So not sure if it'll be Maddox or Kellan yet.....I guess we're going to have to wait until we meet the little guy to really decide. PRESSURE!!!!!!

Here's a cute picture of Mace Face I just snapped w/my phone of him watching his FAVORITE show before bed- "Little Einsteins"- so intense. He's barely moved since I took the picture! Today his awesome teacher Ms.K (I say Awesome because I cannot sing enough praises of her- we absolutely adore HER!) said how sweet and affectionate Mason is. He loves giving all the other kids hugs, but he's been super affectionate with her constantly showering her with hugs and kisses. I think he feels the same way we do :-)

From January2009

The Decor

I've yet to find an 'inspiration' picture of a room...but that's okay I've got in my head. Gavin says I have too much in my head. funny haha. 

So here's a few things that I have that will help decorate Mason's room. Funny thing, I decorate like I dress. Plain basics, and accessorize! (plain shirt, jeans and cute necklace is how I'm known to dress.) So of course- plain bedding, simple furniture and cute wall decor and accessories! 

Auntie Sara found this for us a few months back. Okay, more like 6. Potterybarn Kids had one when Mason was a baby, and I waited for it to go on sale. Sale came....and went. I STILL kick myself for not buying it! But of course I love Sara even more for finding me one similar. 

From September 2008

Mason's wall Canvas I made for his room last year

From Artsy Fartsy Designs

We've got some old License plates (always looking for more if anyone wants to sell me some CHEAP) that we'll use as well. Gavin wants to put up some Black & White old Hot Rod photography as well.

I'm also looking for a large Red Tin- kind of like this picture, but larger (these are small) I want a Red one to use as Mason's hamper!

The Basics

So here's the basics we have for Mason's room- still not an empty room. BUT I have a deadline. That's right! a DEADLINE. agh. Kristin came up to my office today and before our meeting with a client she pulls out her massive filofax and says, 'Okay- what's our day? I know you need me to organize (she lives for this stuff!) and decorate.' SO that's supposed to happen on January 26th. WHICH means I need the room painted before then. So now let's see who I can sweet talk with cookies and brisket! 

After our shopping trip, this is what I've got so far for Mason's future big boy room!

The Dresser....this is the best dresser ever. (we just change out the knobs) it makes the best changing table, and holds just about everything we need. When both boys are in the same room- then we'll put 1 in our room, it'll make a great TV Stand too. Gotta love Ikea. 

Sheets for the bed. Nothing exciting. Gotta do red. 

Wall shelf. It's about 6' long. Matches the dresser. Will probably fill it with stuffed animals and a few frames. Thankfully we don't have too many stuffed animals. That's not an excuse to go out and buy him more people. If my cat keeps screaming at me like he's doing right now, he's going to join the other stuffed animals on the shelf. 

Bedding- chocolate brown bedspread. I'll accent it with red throw pillows and a colorful throw I think. 

Mirror- I've had this mirror since we lived in Hong Kong...Gavin hates it. I LOVE it. It's going up. I don't care what he says, I did all the work growing the munchkin for 9 months. And I pushed him out. I think that entitles me to final decisions on room decorations. That and maybe Gavin has just learned to not argue with a pregnant woman. A pregnant woman on a deadline can be a dangerous thing if you get in her way. :-D 

New Recipe to try! Chicken Balsamico

Great Recipe! 

Tried this tonight and all 3.5 of us loved it! We just barely tweaked it- i didn't use the cornstarch to thicken the sauce, instead I made a rue from butter & rice flour & it worked just fine. Also, I was out of chicken broth, so we used some salted water instead...hey gotta use what you have right? Gavin isn't a big fan of Balsamic vinegar- and it was too vinegary for him, so of course he added much more honey than the recipe called for, but it turned out AWESOME! 

this recipe is a keeper for us! 

it's supposed to be healthy, it came from the Prevention website- honestly, it was too good to be healthy! LOL 

We served it with a small side salad and some scalloped potatoes (that was our unhealthy thing!) DELISH!

HTTP://RECIPES.PREVENTION.COM/RECIPE/CHICKENBALSAMICOWITHPEARS.ASPX

some progress....but not much!

So I got the bug the other day to organize/nest. So I attempted to get a dent in the guest room- I did organize quite a bit and threw out somethings. I finally went through all the newborn clothes and things we have, as well as cleaned out the nursery (Mason's current room) and the dresser too. I'm *hoping* since we don't use his closet for alot of clothes (shirts only) I can manage to get all the boxes from the guest room into the nursery closet for the time being until Gavin is done with his office (where the boxes belong!) So I was somewhat productive on Sunday! 

Today Gavin and I headed up to Ikea, picked up another dresser (just like in the nursery) but for Mason's big boy room, some bedding and sheets, and a few other things. It feels like my list to get his room ready has barely been touched! 

Things we STILL gotta do:

- Paint the bedroom (will not be done by me!)

- clear out the closet and put in the Elfa shelves

- Find a rug

- Buy a twin mattress

- Gavin to build a low platform for the 'big boy' bed

- assemble the dresser

- accessorize! (this might require another trip to ikea- there's a few more things I'd love to put in Mason's room- but I really want to get the basics done first to see how it all comes together) 

Still a LOT to do, not sure when we'll attempt to get Mason in there...I'm thinking it might be easier on him before Maddox gets here- so we'll see! 

Night Night, Night Light

So seems to be the past few weeks while we were on our Christmas break, Mason was going to bed later than usual, once he was asleep he was fine, but it was getting to sleep was the issue. We'd do our usual routine, nothing out of the ordinary, he'd gladly walk into his room, give kisses, turn out the light and "WAHHHHHHHHH!" For the past year almost, he's been going to sleep on his own just fine, and RARELY (we're talking blue moon) that he'd have to cry it out, never for very long thankfully. We thought it was just some phase he was going through of fighting sleep/not wanting to go to bed, etc- so we fought on this for about 2 weeks thinking he'd just outgrow it. I even started dreading bedtime and thinking we've got to get thru this before we even introduce a big boy bed! Two nights he cried so hard, we'd go in there to calm him down and he'd say "up peeeeez" (sob sob) if we'd pick him up he'd say, "Out....rock rock" so twice I had to rock him to sleep, which we haven't done in over 10 months!! YIKES! after that, I decided something had to change...so one night i decided i'd let him play with the flashlight to see if that would keep him entertained long enough before falling asleep and it worked, he was asleep within 5 minutes with the flashlight. so after draining our stock of batteries (apparently the one small flashlight we have drains batteries FAST....or could it be the constant on/off..on/off..it just can't take it!) 

We do have a night light in his room that is pretty dim and we've been using that since, after he falls asleep we'll turn it off, but it gets pretty hot, so of course I worry about it being a fire hazard. 

So NOW on to the search for a night light that is safe to keep on, or even find one that has a built in timer! The last few nights have been so easy at bedtime, tonight Mason was even blowing us kisses as we walked out of his room- so clearly our 2 year old has adopted a fear of the dark! (isn't he too young for that??)

Thoughts on Thing 2

Gavin likes to call Maddox "Thing 2" (think Dr. Suess) its wierd to call him Maddox yet, since he's not here yet, so generally he just goes by #2 or Thing 2....or McNosky 2.0 version 2009. I remember feeling the same way about calling Mason by his name before he was born. Maddox has been pretty active in the past couple of days... (that could result in my eating Mexican and Thai food...) we made breakfast this morning, okay not really we just made bacon. its the good thick cut bacon from Costco- so its the GOOD stuff. i think Mason ate 4 pieces alone. Not the healthiest I know, but I've been feeling the need for more protein in the mornings. We made a discovery about Maddox this morning. He went NUTS we're talking bouncing around & you could see the undercuts he was taking on my insides! So we figured either he loved the bacon too, or not. So either he's a total carnivore like Daddy and brother Mason......or a complete vegetarian like Cousin Rilee!

So as I lay here on the couch enjoying my time while Mason zones out into his hour of bliss..."Little Einsteins" on our wonderful wednesdays (our one day at home a week) I was actually wondering what Mr. Maddox might be up to. So i googled it and this is what i found in case you might even be remotely interested in what he's doing too :-)

Your Baby
Although your baby will still remain active, his days of trying out for Cirque du Soleil are nearly over. About this time your baby will settle into the head-down position in preparation for birth. Other fascinating facts:

Both you and baby are putting on some serious weight at this point. You'll probably gain about a pound a week for the next few weeks, with half of that poundage bulking up baby. He'll likely double his weight in the next eight weeks.

Ever wonder what your baby is doing in there these days? He's busy blinking, looking around, grabbing things, making faces, practicing his breathing, peeing and listening to everything around him—pretty much exactly what he'll be doing for the first three months of his life, sans the adoring audience and the flashing camera.

Your baby may (or may not) have a full head of hair now. If she's a baldy, don't worry. You can always buy a Baby Toupee or some adhesive barrettes.

By the end of this week, your baby will weigh about 4 pounds and be between 17 and 18 inches long—about the length of a hot pair of above-the-knee boots. Christian Louboutin? Manolo Blahnik? We're thinking Isaac Mizrahi for Target—you've got a nursery to furnish!

Times a-tickin'!

I'm 8 months pregnant today! (GULP!) Wednesday i'll be 32 weeks- another 4 weeks and I'll be full term, and 8 weeks Maddox will be here! I'm feeling pretty good, just the usual little aches and pains here and there when I've done too much- not overly uncomfortable yet, but I think Maddox is smaller than Mason ever was! I think the ONE picture I let Gavin take of me when pregnant with Mason was right around 32 weeks, so it looks like I'll have to take another one this week :-) Stay tuned to when we get around to it!

We have an ever growing to do list that we've barely touched with little time left! We haven't even touched the guest room (except when we cleared out the furniture for the garage sale a while back) which will be Mason's big boy room. We don't have a big boy bed or dresser, let alone haven't even PAINTED the room, or have bedding picked out. We'll need a rug too! So as you can imagine, we've got alot to do, and not even sure when we'll get to it. BEFORE we can even start on it, Gavin's been building cabinets in his office to get it set the way he wants, we have boxes of office things sitting in the guest room along with photography equipment, so when he's done with it, we can fully clear out the room. When we do set up Mason's room, we're going to go ahead and set it up for both boys so when Maddox is big enough- both boys can share the room! On a side note: Good NEWS is we don't have to change a thing in the nursery!
Mason shows no interest in climbing out of the crib, and still loves his bed, so i think for the short term plan we'll put the pack n play in our room for Maddox when he's here for the first 6-8 weeks before moving him into the crib. I'm hoping that by April or May Mason will be ready for his big boy bed! In the mean time, we MIGHT put together a big boy bed in his room and give him the option of 'trying' his bed and see how he does. Guess I've got to take some before and after pictures of our progress on Mason's new bedroom AND Gavin's office too!

Birthday Pictures!

JUST less than a month for me to get these pictures up! Granted I had to get gavin upload them, but hey we've been busy!

From December2008

We had Mason's 2nd Birthday at one of our favorite parks (no clean up for Mommy, easy entertainment for the kiddos, and it was Free!)

From December2008

Mason and Lucas enjoying the mini allergen free cupcakes- Mason REALLY enjoyed them, i think he ate 3...or 4....

From December2008

Enjoying the beautiful day at the park AND a muffin.

Restored Faith

Dear Old Navy,
I lost faith in you last year. 3 seasons in a row and not a single thing I like in the women's clothing OR toddler boys sections. Although I do have to give you credit for your length in shirts, that is much appreciated. I vowed to not shop from you anymore after last year. Sadly, a friend told me about your 60% off, so I thought I'd give you one more chance since this belly is only growing outward and I'm in need of maternity tops. But again, you let me down....or there is just too many pregnant women in Southlake who heard about your sale before me.
HOWEVER, you completely MADE my day, so I do have some restored faith in you! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for bringing out your BOATNECK 3/4 length sleeved shirts for $5! EACH! Thats RIGHT FIVE DOLLARS EACH. Sadly, I only bought 3, but I cannot tell you how much I love you for bringing them out. THat's my favorite STYLE and PRICE! I am disappointed however that I don't get to wear them until I'm done baking this bun in the oven. After that, i CANNOT wait to wear my most favoritest style in the whole world- i LOVE Boatneck 3/4 length t shirts. So after all the disappointments, THANK YOU.

-Rejoicing Old Navy Shopper April