Baby Mason is here!

It's been a week already but, that's no excuse for slacking on a post about it. So, without further adieu....Mason Gregory is here!

Born 3-8-11

at 7:49pm

10 lbs

22 inches

And for those of you who care about labor and delivery details, keep reading. If not, stop here and we'll see you next time!

In the last month of this pregnancy I scheduled to be induced for fear of a big baby (again). Kensie weighed 9lbs 7oz and she was three days early. When I found out we were having a boy, I just knew he would be even bigger. No one believed me. Not my doctor. Not family. Not friends. But, I could feel the weight of this baby the whole pregnancy. Even the ultrasound I had at 38 weeks predicted a smaller kiddo....so needless to say, mother knows best.

We checked into the hospital at 7am (4 days before the due date). Thankfully with just a little help (and no petocin), things progressed well and by 2:45pm I had my epidural in. Man I love those things!

By 7:30pm I was ready to push and after a quick 15 minutes, Mason was born. You should have seen the look on my doc's face when they weighed him! I think he will definitely keep an eye on me with the next baby (which will not be anytime soon mind you). Between joyful tears, Greg and I couldn't believe how big and beautiful he was. Such a blessing!

So where was Kensie during all this? My sweet sister Lauren stayed for nearly a week (during her only week of vacation) and took care of Kensie while we were at the hospital. The nice part of being induced is knowing exactly when things will happen. We are so so SO thankful that Lauren was willing to come. And let's just say that "Aunt Lolo" was Kensie's new favorite person. Period. She clung to her when they came to visit the hospital. And when we came home from the hospital Kensie would run down the hallway yelling, "Lolo, Lolo, Lolo!!" So cute. And honestly I was fine with it. I would rather have Kensie attached to someone like Lauren instead of constantly crawling in my lap while holding the baby.

Fast forward to today >>>>>

Greg is back at work. I have survived the last 2 days with both kids at home. Kensie has moments of jealousy but, is playing very independently and (somewhat) obeying still. We are incredibly blessed, but incredibly tired. Mason sleeps ALL day. The kid can barely finish a feeding without being unconscious. And then as soon as we lay down for bed, he starts waking up every 2 hours at night. ALL night. I know there will be a time when he will figure it out and as we stretch feedings and try keeping him awake more during the day.....the time WILL come when we will wake up and realize that more than 5 hours have passed. But, SOON I hope. SOON.

So, if I slack off a bit on the blog you'll know why.

Here's to the little sleep I am about to get right now...

Two nurseries and a first ever wall collage!

When I found out we were having a boy for baby #2, one of the first things I thought was, "How am I going to decorate the nursery!!" I guess you can say I have a love for decorating :).

But, really.....I wasn't thrilled with the idea of decorating a room for a BOY. Don't misunderstand. I was THRILLED to hear my hubby would now have a son he can wrestle and play football with. But, it was just so easy to decorate Kensie's room--pink and green paisley prints with touches of flowers and fairies for accents. It came to me without hardly trying. I absolutely loved every minute of planning out her room.

But, a boy? All I could picture were tonka trucks and choo choo trains all over the walls.....not exactly my style, though I'm sure those will be some favorite toys in our future.

So, being on a tight budget and not a lot of ideas, I knew I had to get creative. I headed to Babe's R Us and told myself I could only by a crib set from the clearance section. I didn't really like anything I saw, but after MUCH debating I settled on one and forced my way out of there. Crib sheet, bumper pads, dust ruffle, comforter, lamp and a banner (the banner was pretty much why I chose the pattern.....something I would totally want to make but, someone already did the work for me!) The print was a variety of polka-dots in light colors of blue, green, brown, and orange with a few green crickets hopping on the edge of the fabric. Not ideal, but I could work with it.

I got it home and realized the colors all matched perfectly to the rest of our house! We only have 3 paint colors throughout the whole place {summer sorbet blue, garden fairy green, vanilla cookie yellow}. I was feeling a bit more inspired and got to work.....

Here's the {almost} finished room!

The curtains and rods we already had...and the {fake wood} coffee colored blinds were only $18 a piece from Target! The nightstand was moved from the living room, and the crib and changing table was moved from Kensie's room. Thanks to some church friends, we are borrowing a second crib to use for Kensie until she's ready for a big girl bed (borrowed crib is pictured above--it fits her room perfectly and is much more girly).

With only 3 bedrooms, we decided to keep the futon in the nursery to double as a guest room (and for all those midnight feedings too!). If we have visitors we can just bunk up the kids together in Kensie's room with a pack n' play and let this be a private room with little effort.

I collected unused frames we already had laying around the house (all previously black) and used 2 different cans of spray paint (from Hobby Lobby) to spruce them up and match the fabric colors. **Not sure why the green frame on the right looks crooked. It's straight in real life I promise! Blaming the camera lens.**

This metal "M" was given to me by my sister in reference to our last name (also previously black), but I decided after a quick coat of green paint it would suit Mason's room perfectly.

The matting inside each frame is from the cardboard box that held the crib set. The box was supposed to be "reusable", but was half torn when I bought it. So, I just cut it up and used for a sturdy backing for the pictures.

The banner came with cricket covered close pins to aid in hanging pictures on the actual banner.But, I decided to glue them straight to the cardboard matting in order to swap pictures in and out of frames easily. All the current picture are of dear my Grandpa Woody during his service in WWII. My Aunt mailed them to me a few months ago and I have been dying to get them up in a collage of some sort. So, here you go Aunt Gwen! Thank you so much for getting these to me!

It's a little intimidating standing at the end of the hallway. To my left is a nursery. To my right (right across the hall) is another nursery. I feel like I'm having twins! Life will be crazy for a little while, but we are SO excited! Can't wait to meet Mr. Mason soon...

All-year mantel

It's always fun to change things up. I love switching decorations around to give a space, a shelf, a spot on the wall a fresh look. Since the holidays ended a few months ago, I usually end up rearranging things and never quite put everything back the way it was. The mantel is a perfect example. I have a couple different "all-year" mantel arrangements.

Here's the one I like the most these days:

I couldn't bear to put those darling trees away with the Christmas stuff. But, I think they blend in enough to get away with it.

I love this willow tree collectible....a gift from my love a few years ago.

The vase filled with dried silver dollar branches has outlived it's life for sure. I bought them at farmer's market probably 4 years ago. They are tattered and falling apart but, I love them.

My favorite picture of sweet Kensie next to an apothecary jar filled with a neutral set of decorations from Target.

The awesome mirror in the center was a Christmas gift from my mother this past year. She knows me well.

And for those of you wondering about the new nursery, don't worry. Baby Mason's room is coming tomorrow! Stay tuned...

morethanwordsphotography {~4 GIVEAWAYS~}

My incredibly talented friend {tammi} is celebrating 2 years of professional photography!!

Do you like my header pic at the top of the page? She took it.

Do you like my family picture on the side bar when Kensie was just a teeny tiny baby? She took that too.

She's creative. She's inspiring. She's unique.

Her love for everything vintage shines throughout her work.

And once you check out her website...you will see what I mean.

morethanwordsphotographybytammi.net

So, go HERE and check out her 2nd birthday giveaways!

Valentine's Day: True love and Time-outs

How was your Valentine's Day? We had an interesting day at our house.

As far as Greg and I, it was great. We both got what we wanted. I woke up to discover thoughtful gifts from the hubby displayed on the kitchen table (including my favorite chocolates, a sweet hand-written letter, and a DVD). Later, Kensie and I made homemade cards, picked up Taco Bell and surprised Greg at work for a lunch visit.

Grandma Mulder even stopped by and gave Kensie a sweet Valentine doggie to add to her stuffed animal collection.

And that night we hung out with our college friends and their kids, all while laughing and taking pics of our growing families.....

The day finished after Kensie was put to bed, while sitting on the couch together, Greg pulled out a black box with a beautiful bracelet inside. This guy doesn't buy jewelry very often, so it was definitely a sweet surprise! We reminisced about past Valentine days and celebrated how far we've come. We were in love.



Kensie's day was a bit different.

Between all the "fun" activities and surprises, she just didn't seem like herself. Clingy. Fussy. Deliberately disobeying. Running after me as soon as I left the room, and grabbing both knees as she wedged her head between them. I couldn't even do my make-up without her throwing herself on the ground crying. At first I blamed her cold, her teeth, coming off a weekend away from "mama and dada". But, frankly....she just threw fits for no reason. There was no reasoning, or distractions, or ANYTHING I could do to make it stop. So frustrating.

I finally decided it was time to implement our first "time-out". At first, I picked her up from the bathroom floor where she was currently throwing a fit, and plopped her in the hallway on her bottom. I thought a firm, "Kensie, that is ENOUGH!" would do it.

NOPE.

So, I picked her up and plopped her in her bedroom on the middle of the rug and said, "Kensie, that is ENOUGH!" I shut the door until it clicked and stood outside listening to what she would do.

The fit increased for about a minute, and then she (finally!) started to calm down. I could hear her sucking her fingers and mumbling. After about 1 more minute, I opened the door to conclude the time-out. She was standing next to her crib--one hand in her mouth, and the other hand reaching through the slats of her crib stroking her stuffed animals on the other side. It seemed to work!

While we still battled a few more fits throughout the day, they got progressively better. And honestly, she has been an angel ever since. All week. Seriously. I don't know if it was the time-out...but it appears that way.

Do you give time-outs?

Current house projects...

{1} Tile the entryway and mudroom

We've had this lovely flooring in our entryway for the last...uh...2 years? Usually covered with rugs, but still. Yuck-o.

I'm really going to miss that lovely arrangement of quilt-like layers of the "L" word {linoleum} in those beautiful shades of  poop and puke gold and brown .

NOT.



We found some super cheap tile a few weeks ago from Home Depot (they are closing here in town...all sales final!), and now we are finally going to lay those bad boys! Yay! (babies-on-the-way make great deadlines for these kinds of projects, don't they?)

Thankfully we are hiring a friend from church to make sure the job is done right. We have zero experience with this stuff, and frankly...I don't have much patience for these kinds of things.

So, hopefully some after pics coming soon!!

{2} Finish the "new" nursery

It's painted (minus the window trim), it's empty (minus the futon), and ready to be moved in. Hoping those nesting instincts kick in here reeeeeal soon.

But, for your viewing pleasure....here's what Kensie thinks of baby Mason's room (sorry kinda long, but family and friends will enjoy seeing her in action):

{3} Organize closets (saving the best for last!)

I've said it once and I'll say it again. "I love organizing closets!" However, I'm also a procrastinator. Bad combo right? If you saw the video above...Greg's entire wardrobe currently takes up the "new" nursery closet. And MY entire wardrobe takes up the master bedroom closet (which is even smaller than Greg's). So we need to do some purging, rearranging, and organizing to make room for one more.

I just need to get started, and then I'll be off!

Weekly meals

One of my NY resolutions is to be better at meal planning and grocery shopping. I've always enjoyed cooking, but it sounds less fun these days being 34 weeks preggo with a teething, 17 month old hanging on your legs between 4-6pm every night.

Ultimately, I would be happy with two home-cooked meals a week. It makes cooking every single day seem less daunting. But, still leaves enough leftovers for the days in between.

This is one meal that didn't take much prep, but I'm still counting it as "one of the two meals a week".
Broccoli Cheese soup {fresh steamed broccoli mixed with a can of soup} paired with grilled Ham and Cheese sandwiches {extra sharp cheddar and honey ham lunch meat grilled on bakery fresh Cibatta bread}:

It's not every day that Greg makes it home by dinner time, so it's nice to have something for him on those nights when I just don't feel like cooking.

Below is a new recipe I made yesterday. It was a bit of preparation, but SO WORTH IT. It was one of those freebie recipe cards you get in the mail. You know, the ones where they want to mail you the rest of the card set for "FREE" and then say you can "cancel" at any time. Yeah. Not falling for it. But, the ones they DID send looked like they were worth a try.

Hearty Chicken Pot Pie (with cheater crust):

Ingredients:
(serves 6)
1  can (10 oz.) chicken broth
1 1/3  cups water
4  medium carrots thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
3  medium red potatoes, scrubbed and diced (1 1/2 cups)
2  T. olive oil
2  cups quartered medium mushrooms--left them out
1  medium onion, coarsely chopped--didn't have any, left out
1  cup frozen peas--we also added 1 cup frozen corn
1/3  cups all-purpose flour
1  (15 oz.) package refrigerated pie crusts
2 1/2  cups chopped cooked chicken--used rotisserie chicken from store...such good flavor!

{1} Combine broth, 1 cup water, carrots and potatoes in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.


{2} Preheat oven to 425*. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened. Stir in the broth mixture and peas (and corn if you added them). Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Whisk the remaining water into the flour until smooth. Whisk flour mixture into vegetable mixture. Boil, stirring frequently, until thickened. Remove from heat.


{3} Unroll 1 piecrust onto floured surface. Measure and roll, if necessary, to fit 1 inch larger than top of a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Line the baking dish with crust.


{4} Stir the cut-up chicken into the vegetable mixture and pour into the baking dish. Place the remaining crust over the filling; trim and flute the edge. Use favorite cookie cutter shape for decorations. Bake until filling is bubbly and crust is browned, about 20 minutes.

ENJOY!