New Baby

So I apologize once again for ditching my post here on the blog!  Things have been so crazy the past few weeks, my head is spinning.  I gave birth to an adorable little baby boy May 24th at 11:19am.

Swing over to http://landoncaleb.blogspot.com/ to read the full story and see pictures of our new addition to the family!

Birthday Changes

As I get older my birthdays have transformed from "Let's party and go out, meet up at like 10pm at PCL?!?!"  to "Let's maybe grab some food at Four Peaks with whoever" to THIS:

Yup, that was my birthday cake for the big 2-7 this year!   Don't get me wrong, I love it and those freaking shoes on top kill me... it just is very apparent that times are changing.  (Get it, a little diaper humor right there?!?!)  Thank you Jenny for your fantastic "Martha Stewart" skills on that cake, job well done!

Anyways, this was my first birthday without my mom which was weird and sad but I also have this really cool baby growing inside of me that I got to hang out with all day (well, everyday for that matter) so it kind of helped to make the day a little better.  Jason and I got to talk a lot about my mom and the past 11 months without her, the struggles of grief and "holding it together."  It was a really great birthday overall.  Plus, we went out to the most amazing restaurant for dinner and gorged ourselves on fantastic food. 

If you live in AZ, you must check out POSH.  It is for the more adventurous "foodie" which I am not normally, but the chef there is so fantastic I have never turned down a dish he has offered.  There is no menu, everything is made based on what is in season.  Anyways, phenomenal food, check out their website if you are more curious!

http://www.poshscottsdale.com/

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Easter!

Crib Time!

So with all of the wedding prep going on for a friends upcoming wedding, baby stuff has had to take a little bit of a backseat.  One of my closest friends is getting married at the end of May, giving everyone only 10 weeks to plan, organize, coordinate, etc.  It has been a fun whirlwind, but exhausting and crazy and hectic!   Anyways, I spent last night with Jenny and Becky finalizing some Bridal Shower/ Bachelorette decorations which I can't wait to share (but there is a bride who could be poking around here and I don't want to give anything away yet)  :)   Yes, we are throwing the Bridal Shower and Bachelorette on the same day, see how this is a little crazy!?!? 

ANYWAYS, Jason and I found a crib we both agreed on awhile ago but 1. didn't want to buy a crib too soon just in case something happened and 2. When we finally wanted to buy it, we had some other things to financially take care of first.  So after weeks or waiting, wanting, and continually looking at the beautiful baby bed online I finally got the "green light" to order that bad boy!!! 

I searched and searched for the best deals.  I originally found the crib on Babies-R-Us, hoping to use a lovely 20% off coupon.  No go, those can only be used in store (or at least the ones I found) and of course the crib I want can only be ordered online.  So, thanks to the magic of the Internet I searched around and found that Amazon not only had the crib, it was cheaper than Babies-R-Us by $10, had free shipping AND they don't charge tax!  SCORE.  So, without further ado... here she is in all of her glory!

It converts to a toddler bed and got great reviews from actual moms who research things and it has the clean, modern look Jason and I both really like.  Anyways, that is our big, exciting news.  It should be here late next week, hopefully in time for my wonderful birthday which happens to be next Friday.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Where to Start

So, its time to plan the baby room.  Well, lets be honest, I have been planning different set ups since the pregnancy test read "+"  

When we thought it was a girl I fell in love with a somewhat random color scheme.  My sister had two vases in her kitchen window that were sea glass green and a beautiful plum color.  Boom Done, that's the baby room theme... or so I thought.  So we bought a few paint samples and tried them out.  I was originally thinking of painting the room a light Sea Glass color:

 We started with the three on the left... added in the next two a few days later

Don't worry, I painted on multiple walls :)

Well, we decided we didn't love any of them.  The top left was too bright, the two bottom left were too muted.  The two right ones were "OK" but we didn't love, so off to Lowe's and Home Depot.

Where we found several more paint swatches

We only hung up the ones we liked, there are about 10 others on the floor.

Well, abort mission.  We are not "Teal Wall People"  So I decided grey was the way to go.  We will paint the walls grey, then I can add in the teal and plum and it will be wonderful.

We started with the biggest patch in the middle - Baby Seal.

 Too Dark.  So we tried the two left ones... too light.  (I feel like Goldilocks) then I grabbed the grey from our Master Bathroom which is on the right.  I loved it but it was "too boring, too grey" for Jason.  I think he wanted something with a blue undertone or something.  Regardless, here are our walls:

 Seriously?!?!?

Well about this time we found out we were having a little boy.  After the initial shock, my thought was "oh, good thing we decided to switch to grey for the baby room."  I am a sick individual with planning problems.  Well, we started searching and found a bedding that is not TOO baby, too animal-y, too colorful and over the top, it is just right for us.  It is cute, fits the color scheme I was still hoping for (minus the plum), and both Jason and I agreed on it!

Freaking cute, right?!?!  So we have decided to paint the room a grey that's close to the grey in this pattern and accent with fun, bright pops of Teal and Green.  (This is not the best picture, the colors of the fabric are much brighter than they appear here)

So... this past Saturday we spent a few hours painting our new baby room:

A calming grey, or at least that's how I feel.  It is clean looking, adds some interest to the walls but isn't screaming a color at me, I love it.

We still need to remove the last remaining furniture as nothing currently in this room is going to stay except the Owl Sheet set and the green chair cushion we just bought for our future rocking chair.

Terrible lighting but SO cute... at least to me!

Thoughts so far?

Making Room

So over the past few weeks we have been attempting to make room in our home for the little baby that will be here before we know it.  I originally wanted to change the Guest Room to the baby room and keep the office as is.  We would get rid of all Guest Room furniture and buy a Futon (or Click-Clack as my husband calls them) to put in the office in case we have the random guest who wants to crash at our place.  We figured it could also double as a couch to read on, etc.

Well, after taking some meaurements and what not, I realized that could be a waste of money.  If I moved the office furniture into the Guest Room there would be enough space for both saving us $300 for the Futon/Click-Clack I wanted from World Market.  Decison made...  Well I made that decision at about 5pm on a Sunday night and begged my poor husband to humor me and "Lets just see what the furniture looks like in there."  After a few weird looks from him he realized that I was serious and I needed to move the furniture right then. 

Well, here is our new Guest Room/Office:

With the computer in the room it allows guests to stay over to watch movies if they want from the GIANT computer screen we have.  It also makes me happy that we have a place for people to comfortably stay (other than a futon) if they would like to.  I think this is the best of both worlds for us... we saved money and still have both an office and a guest room.

Check out our Guest Room before below:

Guest Room Reveal

Spring is here... and almost over

I love this time of year in Arizona, the weather is beautiful. It is just starting to warm up but still cool enough at night to leave your windows open.  A few months back I posted about getting our backyard "in shape" for this time of year, you can read about that here:

Gladiolus Time

Well, the Gladys and Freesia are close to sprouting beautiful flowers, we found a canopy top that fits (target online for the same price) and have planted some flowers to replace the few I killed over the winter.  Our grass is still going strong, although some patches are stronger than others, so we have a few more months before we switch to summer grass.

I just love having a pretty space to hang outside and enjoy the weather.  Also, being in my backyard reminds me of my mom.  She loved to have a patio full of flowers and would sit outside every night and read for hours.  (My mom could finish novels in a day, it was crazy how fast that woman read books)  Anyways, here are some shots of our current backyard before the triple digit heat kills everything in sight...

Oh canopy, you are much less skanky with your top on!

The Gladiolas are the tall guys, they will grow another foot or two as the blooms come in.

The little Freesia are sprouting flower buds, yeah!!!

Some other random flowers I have out there...

Of course, dog laying in the grass

Even our Orange Tree is getting into the spring thing!  (We bought this tree almost two years ago from Costco and it has yet to grow any taller.  I have no idea what kind of dwarf tree they sold us but it was not what I expected, that's for sure... and of course it hasn't produced any fruit)

Anyway, loving the backyard right now!  I will post pics of the Gladys when they bloom!

Enjoy!

Wow!!!

So I know that I have been ignoring my blog a little bit but until I saw "last post 5 weeks ago" I didn't realize how lazy I had gotten!  Oops...

Well, life has kind of been turned upside down the past few weeks/months.  Would you like to hear about?  (I thought so)  Well, I am pregnant!  I have a ton of projects lined up that I can't wait to share (such as the nursery decoration, painting, cooking, etc.) but I have completely lost my mind.   Baby stuff is scary and overwhelming and I am not the "typical" mom type so when the pregnancy tests, yes there were more than one, screamed positive at me my mind ran for hills.  (Along with my energy, appetite and any chance of having booze to calm my nerves)

Although my life has been a whirlwind it has been one of the coolest surprises my husband and I could have asked for.  We had an ultrasound at 11 1/2 weeks and they had guessed that our little nugget was going to be a girl.   We were pumped and I let my planning, first-born brain go CRAZY with ideas.  Well, this past Monday we got surprise #2 (thank the LORD it was not that we were pregnant with twins, that is one of my fears but we can talk about that weirdness later) our little girl was actually a little boy.  Apparently he was very excited to show off because he flashed his junk our way multiple times.  So once again, my little snow globe of life has been shaken up.

I am currently 18 weeks preggo and finally feeling less hijacked-by-baby and more like myself.  I can't wait to share all of the upcoming things as I feel like the next few months are going to be insanely busy and wonderful.  Now that I am back in the blogging world I will share with you how we found out, how to survive Buy Buy Baby (if I can figure that out myself) and all of our inspiration for the nursery.  There will be plenty to share and talk about so I guess I really have no more excuses for not blogging.  (PS - one of my best friends just got engaged and is planning her wedding in 10 weeks so I am sure there will be some great DIY wedding stuff to post about as well)

So, as I feel the little guy swimming around in my belly I figured I could at least leave you with a picture or two if you one of those "baby people" who care to look....  :)

 That is little nugget at 18 weeks, he likes to keep his hands up by his head, like he is covering his ears from my bad singing to Britney Spears or something!?!

A little close up of his face

And the whole she-bang.  That is what I am currently growing, weird right!?!?

Happy Valentines Day

So once again I have been MIA from the blogging world for a few days, sorry.  I have noticed that I jumped into this with two feet, used up all of my favorite recipes and now have very little to blog about.  We have started attempting to save money again, meaning home projects are on the back burner and I am not very adventurous in the kitchen so no new recipes for you... and that pretty much sums up why there is nothing to post about!  :)

BUT, I wanted to wish everyone a Wonderful Valentines Day and hope that you all get to spend the day with someone you love.  Below are a few pictures of my wonderful Valentine and I:

Our Wedding Kiss

The day was a wonderful whirlwind

First Dance at our Wedding

Enjoying two of our favorite things, cold beer and....

SEA WORLD!

(Yes, that is my hubby arm wrestling the Starfish Statue)

Watch out, those starfish will get you! :) Absolutely love it there!!!

New Years Eve

Cardinals Game

We have gotten to share so many fun times together and I feel truly blessed to be married to such a great guy.  This past year has been filled with ups and downs and he has faithfully stood by my side supporting me and loving me through all of it.  

I do promise to have more posts soon.  We have a project in the works, a room re-do if you will that I will share soon.  We are still trying to get our ideas together and the funds to complete the transformation.  Any guesses on what room we will be making over???

Happy Valentines Day

Sweet Fruit Salsa with Baked Cinnamon Chips

This is one of my favorite and most used recipes from Our Best Bites.  They give a great tutorial on all of the options, how-to's, etc.  Please swing by their website to check it out, I just wanted to share it with all of you as it is delicious and turns out wonderfully!

www.ourbestbites.com - Sweet Fruit Salsa and Baked Cinnamon Chips

I made this for my friends baby shower this past weekend and out of all the options available, I used:

• 1 pint Raspberries
• 2 Mangoes
• 1 Smaller Pineapple
• 6 Kiwis
• 1 Pint Blackberries
• Handful of Blueberries
• Brown Sugar
• Juice from 1 Lime

This made a HUGE portion and after feeding 20 people at a baby shower I still have plenty left.  All you do is chop up your fruit, add a sweetener (I chose brown sugar) and some extras (I chose lime juice and some mint as garnish.) 

Here are the pictures Becky took for me of my Fruit Salsa:

Here are the pictures from Our Best Bites:

Pretty comparable, right?!?!?  For sure give this a try sometime, you will not be disappointed!  Oh, and here is a picture of "my girls."  We have been friends since middle school, some since elementary school!

(From Left to Right)

Ashley, Teresa, Becky (Host of the shower), Lindsey (Mommy to be), Jenny, and I

Gladioulas Update

So a few weeks ago I put up this post - Gladiolus time.

Well, I thought I would let you know that my little bulbs are starting to sprout and I am SO EXCITED!!!  I got home from work last night and after playing with the dog for a few minutes I noticed a few little guys poking their way through...

(Ignore the green extension cord in this picture)  :)

HA!  There are 11 little sprout-lings total which is perfect for now.  I planted about 45 Gladiolas and a dozen or so Freesias.  They hopefully will bloom at slightly different times so I will have beautiful cut flowers in our home for a while. 

I love this time of year when it is beautiful outside, flowers finally grow without being scorched by the sun and you can enjoy yourself in the wonderful AZ "Winters."  Any big plans for the coming weekend?  I will probably be working on the backyard a little more and attending a baby shower for a great friend of mine.  Happy Friday!

Laundry Room Makeover

So we were busy all weekend with a project I thought was going to be months and months down the road.   I was reading one of my daily blog visits, Young House Love, and saw they had a post about getting an AMAZING deal on a stack able front loading washer and dryer.  I have been going back and forth about wanting a front loading washer because I have read quite a few reviews about how they start to stink if you don't leave the door open.  Anyways, the fabulous deal they got really got me excited and so we set out to get the same great price. 

They found a great Whirlpool for $399 a piece at Lowe's PLUS an additional 20% off making the total for both $638!  What a steal!!!  They are normally priced at $599 a piece.  So Jason and I headed off to Lowe's trying to snag the same great deal... FAIL.  Lowe's must have smartened up because we went to three different Lowe's and called two others trying to finagle the additional 20%, which was a no go.  Well, $399 a piece is still a good deal.  But my Internet savvy husband then decided he liked a Samsung model better.  It was getting better overall reviews and after all of the research he did, I trusted his opinion that they were the better of the two.  The Samsung ones did qualify for the 20% off at Lowe's but still cost $479 a piece, we were getting WAY outside of the $638 I was originally planning on paying. 

Well, Jason found the Samsung washer and dryer set at Fry's Electronics for $454.  Not that much cheaper than Lowe's.  Well here is where things get good, Lowe's price matches AND my wonderful husband gets a military discount which brought the Samsung set down to $404!  We were definitely happy with that!  So, although we did not get the set for $638 we did get a $1200 set for $808.  They were delivered for free and we were SO happy!

Our old washer and dryer set is still in working order but we are running out of storage space in our house and have been wanting a stack-able for our laundry room since we moved in.  When we moved in there was no washer/dryer here so we found a set for $200 in great shape that worked perfectly.   (We did end up selling our old set for $100 so we really only paid $708 for the new set)

Before:

Old Washer with one shelf above it...

Old Dryer with two shelves above it which we tried to cram as much on as possible

So we thought if we could stack a new washer/dryer set it would free up more storage space which we always need.  So after we found our new little Samsung beauties we removed all of the crap from the laundry room... 

Tore out the old shelves....

Jason had to move the dryer vent to the other side but thankfully it was just some duct work in the attic.  We also patched all the holes from the old shelves and painted the laundry room a soft green color.  We used Edward Dunn - Green Tea but had it color matched to Lowe's Valspar paint.

(Not the best picture but it is a very subtle change.  Our kitchen is already a pretty bold color and we didn't want anything to compete with that.  We just wanted a light, clean color)

We then went back to Lowe's to find the least expensive shelving there was for the other side where the dryer used to be.  Let me tell you, it adds up QUICKLY!  We settled on wire shelving because it would be easiest to custom fit to our space.  The shelves themselves were very cheap but the brackets (at almost $9 each) added up quickly, even with Jason's military discount.  The total for the new shelving system was a little less than $200.00

We went from:

This                 to                 This

My shelves are now neatly organized with still plenty of room for other things and MUCH more room in our kitchen pantry:

So, here is the final look of our new laundry room and storage space:

Thoughts?!?!?