Have a magnificent Halloween

Baby names

One of my favorite blogs posted THIS about baby names! I could spend hours on these lists! And probably should.

"Frank" shows up on the 'Hipster Names' list as well as 'Clunky But Cool Names For Boys'. So, there.

But both "Charlie" and "Jack" show up on 'Yupster Names for Boys' so maybe I should stick to that list.

Ready or not here he comes.

I think that I'm almost ready for kid #3.

I've gotten my I'm-not-buying-any-more-clothes-until-I'm-skinny-again-so-I'm-chopping-off-my-hair-haircut. Less hair = less weight I'll have to lose. (Nice cheesy head shot, right? And my photographer is only 5.)

I'm still going ballistic on all things clutter. No mercy but it's a continual process. I keep finding more closets, more drawers, more BOXES. Oh the boxes!!! And the ironic thing about de-cluttering I've found is that it actually creates quite a huge mess.

I had an awesome baby shower brunch with some of my most favorite people. It should be done more often.

As for the actual baby part of getting ready for the baby. Greg decided yesterday that we should start getting serious about picking a name. Really? He claims that he told me his most favorite name yesterday, but then forgot it just hours later. Ummmm... I don't think he said it out loud, but whatevs. We'll figure it out. Or do a contest or raffle and let someone else pick.

In an effort to keep things simple and to be a bit more earth-friendly I'm not buying lots of new stuff. Just a few bare necessities. Sometimes this greatly conflicts with my obsessive compulsive perfectionism. Example - the crib set is 5 years old and has been in constant use. If we were having a girl - an easy justification for a new crib set. BUT - I didn't want to buy a new one just for the heck of it. So, I cleaned everything really well, and the only thing that bothered by was the piling on the crib bumper. INSPIRATION~ piling can be shaved off. So, I gave it a go. Worse case, I tore it and had to buy new crib bedding (justification) but it worked out and the whole thing looks like new. With a couple of new crib sheets we're good to go and I feel great about not purchasing a new set. Saving the earth one crib bumper at a time.

And just for the heck of it - here is a belly shot at 37 1/2 weeks. He hasn't dropped and doesn't seem to have any intention of doing so. 10 days and counting until my c-section!

For all my pregnant friends read this bare bones baby buying guide and this getting ready for baby list.

Feedback requested because I have severe issues with decorating my own house...

So, for awhile I've been planning on putting bookshelves on the wall behind my couch.

I figured that 2 would work proportionately too the couch BUT now I'm thinking that 2 feels weird. There should be 3, right?

BEFORE:

AFTER - Ignore the stuff I've thrown on the shelves for now. I'm thinking~ get rid of the tall lamp and push 3 books cases closer together:

Random things that we do

We've been playing a lot of slap-jack lately.. you know, the card game. Although, admittedly there has been some playful slapping of the Jack during these games as well.


Also, playing restaraunt has been very popular.



Charlie is featuring one of his sandwich creations - The Fesky Wesky.

More soccer videos

I am proud to be a soccer mom and proud of my little soccer player.
We had a blast this season! So much so that we're going to do a little indoor soccer this winter too.

This video is called "I can stop to tie my shoe and still make the goal".
He's found several ways this season to baffle all the kids on the field. This was just one of them.

This clip shows the fancy footwork he's been working on this season. Next season - sharing the ball with his team.

Smells So Good Chocolate Play Clay

I made this for a nursery activity last month and it's still in my pantry with our play dough in an air tight container. It smells really good and is super soft and smooth and very quick and easy to make. We only had one kid try to eat it (but is was seriously worth it for his reaction).

Smells So Good Chocolate Play Clay
Found on this website.

1 1/4 C Flour
1/2 C Unsweetened Cocoa
1/2 C Salt
1/2 Tbsp. Cream of Tartar
1 1/2 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 C Boiling Water


Mix dry ingredients in a large cooking pot.
Add the oil and boiling water.
Stir quickly to mix.
Cook over low heat (keep stirring) until dough forms a ball.
When the dough is cool enough, knead it with your hands.
Store the dough in airtight container.

Lightweight over the bed decor?

I stumbled across this post on, well, now I can't find the blog I was looking at.

I'm always keeping an eye out for light weight over the bed decor (you know, in case of a middle of the night earth quake, of course). This could work. Painted lightweight urethane ceiling medallions.

Book storage solutions continued...

Another great post on keeping things simple for kids. I'm working on the boys' room and the baby's room... I've lived here for 2 1/2 years and now trying to get as much as I can done in the next 4 weeks. I'm trying to remember that I will be somewhat functional post-baby.

She uses a rain gutter to store books! Which got me thinking about other things that might work and excited to visit the hardware store to see what I can find... planter boxes... plate racks & shelves...

Jack and his big boy bed

We bought bunk beds earlier this summer excited for Jack to transition into his new big boy bed in plenty of time before the baby arrived. However, we discovered Jack had ZERO interest in leaving his crib. He tried his bunk bed out for about 5 minutes the first night and was done. Since then he's been gracious enough to offer to let the baby sleep with him in the crib when he arrives.

Then, inspiration hit. I told Jack that if he wanted he could take his crib apart with Daddy's drill. Then, in it's place we'd put the extra twin bed that we have. Well, mention power tools to the boy and he's all for it! The first night he only slipped out of his bed 4 times. The second night 2 times. Then last night - he slept perfectly all night! This photo was taken after his 3 hour Sunday-nap. He's was feeling extremely well rested.

Now if I can only figure out how to incorporate power tools into potty training...

Charlie's 5th birthday

For Charlie's birthday he wanted a bike-riding party. We kept it simple with pizza and cake with his friends, riding around a big empty parking lot with whistles (parents can thank me later), cake and ice cream! A total blast. For the treat bags that we sent home with the kids we included a miniature Gatorade, a granola bar, & yogurt covered raisins. Because, after all, you need to refuel after a long ride.

For dinner Charlie picked Red Lobster - he'd been drooling over commercials and billboards for the all you can eat shrimp fest - his favorite. We didn't mind! Grandma and Grandpa were able to join us for dinner too!

Autumn has arrived

Every year we take a drive through the mountains to see the changing leaves. This year our drive corresponded with our local dive shop's annual crawdad fry AND the kokanee run at Strawberry Reservoir.

◄Baby belly shot!

Jack's 3rd birthday

I'm usually not one to back-blog. But seriously, I found the cutest pictures from Jack's birthday. How could I resist?

All Jack wanted for his 3rd birthday was Mike and Ike cupcakes and a pet baby alligator. While our current living situation (and my SANITY) doesn't allow for a pet alligator we opted for a surprise trip to the zoo instead where Jack had a photo opp with an admittedly adorable baby alligator. Jack pointed out that the alligator is even smiling!

After the zoo we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for swimming, dinner, and cupcakes with cousins.

Here are pictures of Jack and his new sock monkey that my mom made him for his birthday. He loves it so much, we had to do some repair on Frank's tail already. That monkey loves flying through the air and being dragged through the house by his tail.