Every Monday...

I swear every Monday I come upstairs to clean this:

I dont know what it is about their room that they keep dumping everything out but its getting old and annoying. I know its Bear, he does this either when I think hes asleep at night or if he wakes up early in the morning before Button... Need to work on it with him apparently cause he makessuch a huge mess and I end up having to try and fix it... we really need to work on taking 1 toy out at a time then cleaning it up...

Closets pt. 2

I finally got around to working on organizing Lemon's closet. I have so much clothes already and not enough room so I decided to do like I did in the boys room and add a shower rod to create more hanging space for limited money ($9 for the rod!)

End result! I still need to work on the bottom of the closet organizing but the clothes are all hung up and organized at least... more to come...

Closets...

My current project is to get the closets organized in our house. Since we moved the boys in together Ive been trying to figure out something that works to get all their clothes organized. It's taken me a while but I think I have finally figured out something that works!

I purchased a plastic bathroom shower rod to make a second rod to hang clothes on & put a shelf (which we already owned) and three coloured baskets in for socks & underwear. (The baskets under the pants are shorts  since we're still at that awkward stage between summer & fall). Cost me $14 and I think it turned out great and so far, 2 weeks in, its going great! Bear's stuff is on the left in the photo (in green hangers), Button's on the right (in blue hangers)

 

 

Finishing Lemon's Room!

Now that shes here and has a name, I was finally able to add her name to the wall! I think it completes the room amazingly!

Name is custom order from TweetHeart Wall Art

Things I will miss, things I won't....

This is my final pregnancy so Im trying to really enjoy every minute of it. Here I am a day late for baby girl and while I'm feeling very done with my pregnancy and ready to meet my daughter (FINALLY!), I am also still trying to soak up every minute of this cause I will never experience it again. So I thought Id make myself a list of all the things I wont miss about being pregnant, as well as a list of the things I will miss!

Things I won't miss about being pregnant:

1. The Heartburn - Oh God the heartburn! Ive been downing tums for months now! I get up at least once a night to pop a couple more! Im so over it!
2. Getting up multiple times a night to pee - More than that, I hate getting up cause I need to pee and then I end up barely peeing anything. Feels like such a rip off lol. I never had this with the boys
3. Not being able to get comfortable in bed - I was good for a long time but man is my belly huge now! I use a body pillow just to get comfy in bed and now its getting harder and harder to roll from side to side in bed and get comfy again. We need a king size bed!
4. Being asked the same questions over and over - Yes Im glad people care and want to share in my pregnancy but man it gets old getting asked the same thing over and over. Especially people and their assumptions about how happy I must be to be having a girl. Yes Im thrilled to have a daughter, but thats not to say I wouldnt have been thrilled to have another son as well!
5. Head wedged in my vajayjay - Ya I dont think I need to explain this one ;) It's so uncomfortable! Hard to walk, hence the early waddle! The boys only turned head down late in my pregnancies, especially Button, so I didnt know pain like this ;)
6. The weight gain - My lord I have never been this big before. I havent put on as much weight this pregnancy, however I started this pregnancy a good amount of weight larger than the boys pregnancies... so ya Im feeling huge and Im sooooo ready to just loose all this weight and feel normal again!
7. Lack of bladder control - Lets face it, cause I sure have, this is my third pregnancy and I have lost a lot of my bladder control! I have peed myself a couple times this pregnancy! Mostly from laughing at Button or Bear, once really bad. Whatever, it happens... right ;)
8. Back Pain & Foot pain - Probably from all the weight gain ;) But ready to just not be heavy anymore so I dont feel this pain!
9. Restless Leg Syndrome - Omg what a pain the BUTT it is!! You really have to have had it to know how bad and annoying it is.  Thankfully it goes away as soon as I deliver, so come on baby! lol
10. Being late - Officially referring people to This Website

So more importantly, Things I will miss about being pregnant:

1. Movements - Feeling movements is one of the coolest things ever! Especially in the beginning. At this stage it's kinda weird but fun, I can feel where her butt and legs are and she moves all the time! Its awkward, but fun! Sometimes I just lay in bed and watch my belly dance. Its also fun at places like the movies, fireworks and places with loud music. She either loves it or hates it cause it makes her dance like crazy!
2. Ultrasounds - There's something just so fun about ultrasounds! Getting to see your baby at different stages and watching them grow. I was lucky to get 4 ultrasounds this time, so Ive been baby girl a few times now and loved it! I think she looks like Bear in her 3D Ultrasound, so can't wait to see what she looks like in person.
3. People being helpful - People love to help out a pregnant lady ;) From opening doors to offering to do things for me, sometimes its nice not to do everything for yourself!
4. Pregnancy parking - Who doesnt love having a spot close to the door ;) Especially with older children to drag along as well!
5. Having a belly - I just love having a cute belly! Feels good in tight or loose clothes.
6. Maternity jeans - Spin off from the belly, I love the new mat jeans! Theyre so comfy! So much better than other jeans, especially cause it means when you bend over your love handles are covered lol
7. Cravings -  I love having an excuse to give into my cravings and indulge in foods... I mean not that I dont give in when Im not pregnant, but hey at least I have an excuse.
8. Getting ready - From preparing her room to getting together her clothes, its fun! I love shopping for pink & purple, I love getting headbands and matching accessories... I can see how shoes are going to be a problem in the future for me lol
9. No Period - Oh how Ill miss this. Its so nice to go 9 months without a period! lol Really hoping with breastfeeding it wont come back for a while!
10. Not having to share her - Pretty soon Ill have to share her with everyone! Right now shes all mine ;) Although I am very much looking forward to seeing her brothers with her! They are so excited for her arrival!

Favorite Organizer!

Cube storage is quickly becoming my favourite storage organizer!! I now have 3 storage systems, one in the livingroom, one in the boys room and one in the nursery!

They're available in a few different colours, as are the baskets you can get to organize with. My first few baskets I got a Zellers, but have since discovered the Martha Steward ones at Home Depot, which I prefer for their sturdiness and they have a label on the front so you can label your baskets (especially helpful to help my husband find and organize the toys!)

Heres a shot from the boys room (old pic when I first set it up) each basket has something different in them (Animals in red, Blocks in green, Lego in Blue, etc...)

I decided since Little Lady's room is smaller than the boys room I would buy the 6 cube one for her room, these are the Martha Stewart baskets (I have them in the livingroom too). For her I was able to put shoes in one, socks & tights in another and hats & headbands in another, with the labels I labelled each one so when/if Jaime is going to get her dressed he knows where to find these things. She only has a couple toys so far so I'm going to put a couple in there for now, and use the top to display a couple photos once shes here!

Cool Website...

I've been looking online for some free art work I can put in Baby girls room and came across this neat site:

Feed You Soul: The Free Art Project

You can print off some for your home and a lot will look cute in baby girls room!

Hairclip Holder....

Still a work in progress... but here's the beginning...


Gonna add hooks to the bottom to hang headbands from and I think it needs something on the top as if its hanging from it or something... we'll see...

Hairclip Holder....

Still a work in progress... but here's the beginning...


Gonna add hooks to the bottom to hang headbands from and I think it needs something on the top as if its hanging from it or something... we'll see...

Baby girl hat!

Ive been looking and looking for a hat for baby girl to wear at the hospital and couldnt find quite what I wanted! Purple is my favorite colour so all I knew was I wanted a purple hat....

Then I came across this blog post 2 nights ago and I thought OMG Perfect! I can make that! So I luckily already had some stretch knit fabric from a past project, so I pulled it out and started on the hat following the instructions....

Pinning done....

Seam... not the best but hey it will do ;)

Folded over as per instructions....

Pinned inside

sewed another edge...

Not perfect, but turned out properly...

Edge folded up!

Then to make the flower....

Done!

Now to sew the flower on....

And Voila!! Baby girl now has a personalized hat for the hospital!!!

Laundry/Storage Room Clean out

So I sadly forgot to take a before picture of this, but then again I think Id be too embarrassed to post it! It was that bad! Our city has a Spring Clean up once a year where they take the big stuff you can/dont usually put out with your garbage. Problem with ours is that its the same week as Bear's birthday, so for the last three years we havent been able to do a big clean up/declutter & put anything out (Year 1. I was too pregnant/having him, Year 2 & 3 were same weekend as his party) so for 3 years we're been sticking these items in the laundry/storage room and its just gotten WAY over crowded in there!

This year the clean up was a week earlier so we were able to leave the boys with my mother in law for the day and get a full day of cleaning in! We managed to GUT OUT the laundry room! And I truely mean that! By the end of the day, between this room (mostly) and the rest of the house we had about 1/4 to 1/3 of our lawn full of stuff :S I was just praying no one we knew would drive by before it was taken away! We still have a few things to go through (*ahem* Jaime does) and I still have a couple baby items down there waiting to be washed and cleaned up for baby girl's arrival!

We want to create a laundry station and I'd also like to create some sort of hanging storage for seasonal coats type of thing & a shoe rack for seasonal shoes we aren't using or for once Button has outgrown them but Bear doesn't need them yet kinda thing.... But here is what we have to work with now!

And to think, before we couldnt see the floor :S

New Rooms!

Been hard at work here lately! We moved the boys in together with their new bunk beds 2 weekends ago (see post below), and now finally got baby girls new room all cleaned out this weekend... We clearly have much more to do but its a good start! Certainly needs more pink!

Her crib & bedding!


Start of some of the clothes we've gotten thus far.... this is gonna be a work in progress ;)

Boys Room, step 1!

Currently this is still Button's room but by the end of this month the boys will be moving in together. We had an apparently cheap toy shelf in Button's room the last 2 years. I wanted to move it out and get them a new cleaner looking shelf but was going to wait another 2 weeks. Yesterday Button broke the shelf (it was dying a slow death ;)) so I decided today to move the new shelf in their room (was in our livingroom the last month, need to get another to replace this one ;)) I think it looks great and is going to keep their room looking nice and clean, hopefully anyways ;)

Purge Purge Purge!

Spent this afternoon purging upstairs... Im not done yet but this is a GREAT beginning! I went through our bedroom and some of Button;s room. Getting rid of a bunch of toys, books, picture frames, etc we dont need or use anymore! This entire tupperware container is FULL of stuff, as is the wicker basket... I need to drive them down to Salvation Army tonight, alone with a garbage bag full of clothes we dont need anymore (dropped another one off yesterday!).

Feeling great about all this clutter being gone! Please excuse the location of this picture lol I had to hide the items in the bathroom until bedtime so Button doesnt freak out about some of the toys (which he no longer plays with but you know the second he sees them leaving he will want ;))

Clutter Rehab - Tips so far...

I'm now about half way through Clutter Rehab book! She has awesome tips, heres a couple I really like and plan to implement right away:

1. Have a daily walkabout - With the kids, walk around and find things room to room that dont belong in that room and return them to their rightful place.

2. Never leave a room empty handed - Good way to put stuff away and avoid clutter, make sure you have something to put away everytime you leave a room!

3. Take Pictures of Sentimental things - To avoid saving things you're never going to use but are still attached to for sentimental reasons, take a picture of it to keep the memory of it. I think this will be a great idea for Kids art projects! Instead of keeping all the art the kids do, I think I will take pictures of them (save some ;)) and make a nice photobook for artwork they've done!

4. Create a backpack station - A problem in our home! We need a station for backpacks & coats so theyre not just throw on the floor making a mess! She says "Having defined areas for stuff in your home provides clear direction as to where things belong and need to be stored". I think this is especially important with children to teach them how to put things where they belong. I play on making a backpack/coat station this week!

5. Use Hook's for kids coats instead of hangers - To go with the backpack station. Makes sense! Kids can easily hang their coats on the hook!

6. Menu Plan and Make a list for the grocery store- Saves money & time! I already do this most weeks ;) Just need to get more consistent!

7. Have a central Calendar - Gonna get a new, bigger calendar to put by the front entrance so we can record all activities on it (as well as my Ipod touch ;)). This way everyone knows where everyone needs to be!

8. Colour Code the kids (and us too!) - Something I learned about a year ago that I thought was VERY interesting idea! I need to give it another go. Every family member has a colour, then has items in the home in those colours (ex. Tooth brush, towels, face cloths, etc...) so theres never any confusion as to what belongs to who. Makes cleaning up easier cause if you see a Yellow towel on the floor, you know that towel belongs to ___... I a crazy household with soon to be 5 people, I'm gonna try this out!!

So those are just some of the great tips Im learning from Laura! Cant wait to continue reading!

New Book!

Last night I went to Chapters and purchased a new book that's out. Im gonna start reading it tonight at work! It's written by one of my favorite blogs owner, Organized Junkie's Laura Wittmann and its called Clutter Rehab!



Looking forward to applying all the tips I learn from it to our home! Ill let you all know how its going!

Rainbow Cupcakes! (2)

Ive been taking a cake decorating class through Michaels the last 3 weeks. This week we decorated cupcakes! I had a lot of fun learning about flowers and different techniques!

I decided to do something fun for the boys and make rainbow cupcakes! To make them you need to purchase white cake mix, separate it into a couple bowls and mix food colouring. Then layer them a couple different colours!


Picture is sideways, sorry! I had fixed it but I guess it didn't save. A couple of my creations (the rest were already eaten up!)
Two of my willing taste testers ;)

Inside of one of the cupcakes! YUM!