Jude's Nursery Update

We are coming down to the wire on the arrival of baby Jude! I am almost 37 weeks pregnant and it is finally hitting me that the nursery that has been somewhat looked over the last month or so and will have a baby in it very, very, soon...

36 weeks and counting

Luckily, I have had my trusty decorating partner Brecklyn around again this week to help me put the final touches on the room and get it baby ready. We painted it a few months ago and had some projects in mind Jude's room part one.


Remember the records I bought for just 69 cents a piece at Goodwill...

Before

Well, after a quick coat of spray paint, they had a whole new look...

After

And what happened with those awesome flower pictures you may be asking yourself...

Before

They also got a face lift with more spray paint and my new favorite thing, chalkboard paint...

After

We also got busy on that 4.00 Goodwill table and an old lamp that my sister in law gave me before Isabelle was born...

Before

Once again, spray paint made a huge difference...

After

After

This project was a little harder to take a picture of but this Goodwill find also got some love with some fabric and ribbon to become a nice message board...

Before

After

Remember the girly DREAM wall hanging...

Before

After removing the girly flower and hitting it with some of that spray paint, it took its place along side the message board and one of the records...

After

More spray painting magic transformed a plain black parsons table...

So, after all those projects, I am ALMOST done. I have a few more little details I would like to add, but here is the results as of now...

Stay tuned!

Proud to be an "Over Achieving" Elf on the Shelf Mommy

As you know, we have been having a blast with our Elf on the Shelf, NoNo. This was our first year with NoNo and so far it has been so much fun. I know lots of other families who also take part in this tradition and it has been a blast reading about their elf ideas and sharing in the fun with them by using their ideas ourselves. However, there are people out there that seem to have a problem with the Elf. My friend Andrea wrote about this in her blog Ramblings From A Mother of a 5 Year Old I was appalled by all this and had to let it soak in for a day before I could bring myself to blog about it without sounding like a raging lunatic.

My main issue in all of this is not the Elf. Different families have different holiday traditions and if the Elf is not something you are into then that is just fine and dandy. My issue comes from 3 little words...Over Achieving Mom.

This infuriates me. The notion that Moms who go above and beyond in their Elf antics are over achievers who are acting for those who read about them on the internet is offensive to me. Shouldn't we all as mothers try to "over achieve" in the care of our children? Would under achieving be a better alternative? I wake up every morning and try to do whatever it takes to make my daughter have the best childhood possible. One thing I have learned in the 4 years I have been a mother is that time goes by way too fast and I want to try to make each day count, every memory special, and all holidays magical. If this means I have to move around a stuffed elf every night..done. If it means I have to play little pet shops 10 times a day...done. My child will only be a child for so long and I want to relish in every moment of it!

Now that I am finished with my 2 cents on all of us "over achievers" out there, let me share what our Christmas Elf has been up to lately....

NoNo TP'd the tree and living room

NoNo and Barbie taking a spin

Isabelle and her daddy set a trap to catch NoNo in the middle of the night

It worked

But NoNo got her revenge 

NoNo drew a mustache on Isabelle's face while she was sleeping

There were more marshmallows but we all got hungry though out the day

Sneaking into the gifts

My Baby Turned 4

Today is my daughter Isabelle Claire's 4th birthday {sniff sniff} I don't know where the time has gone but I wouldn't mind having a little of it back! We had a Fabulous Fourth Barbie Birthday Party for Isabelle while we were in Indiana over Thanksgiving but today is her actual birthday so we wanted it to be special too! We started off the day with a couple gifts...

Opening a card from Nan Nan

Brecklyn sent her a Leap Frog Tag reader! Such an awesome gift for both Isabelle and Mom! She gets to have stories read to her, play games, and sound out words while I get a serious 20 minutes of almost silence..ahhhh. We love it...

We gave her a small gift just so she would have something to open. A care bear pop up play tent. I underestimated how much she would love it! She played in it all day. Mostly with her Tag book...

Reading in her hide out

I left Isabelle in her tent to get started on her rainbow sprinkle birthday pancakes...

I just mix up regular pancake batter and separate it out into cups. Then add a couple drops of food coloring to get my mutli colors going...

I ended up with a helper

Then I like to pour the pancakes onto the griddle starting with a small one first and growing in size with each pancake...

This makes all the colors show when stacking...

Add a little whipped cream and sprinkles and you have super fun birthday pancakes...

The birthday girl

After the sugar rush we headed out for our funnest birthday adventure of the day. Isabelle got her ears pierced! She has been asking to wear earrings for a while now and I was not so sure about it. I told her all about it, making sure to give her all the details and told her if she still wanted to on her 4th birthday then we would go. Well, as soon as she knew it was her birthday she was still very sure she wanted to do it. So we hopped into the car and headed to the mall to Claires...

We had to bring the book of course

We walked in and Isabelle jumped right up in the chair! She had no hesitation at all and was chatting it up with the nice lady working...

Getting cleaned and ready

Spying some earrings she wants to buy already

It was time for the big moment...The ladies got on either side of her and I held her hand. She was not nervous and I thought I was going to throw up haha. They clicked them in and she did cry at first but only for a second or two before she wiped her eyes and was ready to walk around the store to shop and show off her new earrings...

She did such a good job that they gave her 2 suckers and a sticker...

She picked the pink rhinestone flowers

We stopped off at the wishing fountain before heading home to make Isabelle's birthday dinner...

Isabelle decided she wanted dinosaur nuggets for her bday dinner and that since she was 4 she could make them all by herself...

After dinner we sat down on the couch to complete her birthday survey. I will ask her these same questions every year on her birthday and see the answers change over the years. Here are her answers on her 4th birthday...



1. What is your favorite color?  pink
2. What is your favorite toy? Pet shops
3. What is your favorite fruit? Purple grapes and green grapes
4. What is your favorite tv show? Busytown
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Dino nuggets
6. What is your favorite outfit? My blue sparkle horse outfit
7. What is your favorite game? tag
8. What is your favorite snack? Ice cream
9. What is your favorite animal? Tiger 
10. What is your favorite song? ABC song
11. What is your favorite book? Snow White
12. Who is your best friend? Brecklyn
13. What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops aka The Parrot kind
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play soccer and draw with chalk
15. What is your favorite drink?  Chocolate milk
16. What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My snuggly bear and blankie and polka dots too! 
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes 
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Dino nuggets
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Sergeant Murphy, He is a crossing guard..