Monday, November 25, 2013

Say What?!?

This is a completely random post. Of things that make me laugh or smile so hopefully you can too :-)

I occasionally watch the show The Sing Off. It's a singing competition where a capella groups compete against each other to get a singing contract, etc. I love it. All of the groups are good (you don't have to go through crappy try-outs) and they pick amazing songs with genius remixes. In 2011, the third season of the show, the group that won was Pentatonix. Let me tell you, they are EXTREMELY talented. Totally crazy. Here are a couple of their videos: Thrift Shop - Pentatonix (hilarious), Carol of the Bells - PentatonixSomebody That I Used to Know - Pentatonix. In my dreams I can sing like them...then I wake up and realize...not quite. Ah well. I least I can watch others who are super talented!

On the same note as that last song...Somebody That I Used to Know is actually one of Trey's favorite songs. This is the video where I first heard the song: Somebody That I Used to Know - Walk Off the Earth. Again, insanely talented people! My favorite is the guy in the stocking cap :-) Heehee. He has the hardest job.

Love the artwork done by the blogger of Dear Lillie. She has a lot of chalkboard art that is absolutely gorgeous. Here is her shop: Dear Lillie Shop.

If you're looking for some fun Christmas cards here are some really good websites to find really nice graphic cards with lots of options: Tiny PrintsMintedMoglea.

Check out this very festive Christmas Brunch done by Ashley at 7th House on the Left. So adorbs. My favorite is the little french toast sticks in the mini glasses. Yum!

I went to college with Laura, who is the blogger behind Oakland Avenue. She actually introduced Trey and I. So she has a special place in my heart :-) Anywho, I absolutely love her blog and her posts of "This is How I Feel" always crack me up. Here is the latest addition: This Is How I Feel, IV - Oakland Avenue.

My best friend, Sam, is a middle/high school band teacher. When I saw this post about Bizarre Composer Facts, it made me think of her and smile. Some of them are quite weird.

If you have never watched the show Psych, you are seriously missing out. It is the most hilarious show ever. The quite-wit between Shawn and Gus is soooo funny! Here is a video of a bunch of nick-names they create for each other when they're introducing themselves: Psych - Shawn and Gus Nicknames. I laugh really hard pretty much every single show.

Alrighty, back to non-randomness...maybe ;-)

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Tobias' Birthday Par-Tey!

Tobias' birthday party was a blast! We had family, friends and neighbors over for some fun and food. And our house was packed. We made some pulled pork with sides and my sister made some awesome monster cupcakes for dessert. They were epic. We also put up a balloon wall for people to take pictures with. And they could spice it up with some mustaches :-) Gotta love a good mustache.

Here's how the balloon wall looked before some funky faces entered the picture (minus the hand):


And here are the funky faces:



























Heehee, can you tell we had fun? It was such a blast. It was awesome to see all of the amazing family and friends that have blessed our lives so much!

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Summer with Tobes

That is Tobias' new nic-name: Tobes. Deemed by his Aunty Alex and Uncle Dan. I was finally transferring a bunch of pictures from over the summer and early fall and found some adorable picture of Tobes. So definitely had to share. And sorry for the not-so-great quality...they are not edited.

Tobias giving me a kiss. He has the sweetest kisses ever. And if you're lucky, he'll give you 5 in a row.

Cooling off in his swimming pool in the back yard.

"When can I get in Mom?!?"

It was super hot out (and in the car) and we drove down to my parents house, which takes about 25 mintues. He sweated so much in the car that his clothes were soaked. So we were taking them off to cool him down and he started crawling away mid shirt...needless to say, we were laughing pretty hard. It was adorable.

This is the gate to our kitchen. Tobias loves to shake the gate (it rattles a little).

A boy and his dog. It was a surprisingly cold day in early September and we had the windows open...they were people watching.

Swinging with Mimi at the park by her house. He was enjoying getting his toes tickled while in mid swing.

Tobias can climb stairs. And super fast too. He hasn't figured out how to go down yet but every time he tries (with our hands attached to his back or sides), he goes face first. So not so good. But he'll figure it out.

Tobias and Trey went on a walk one evening around the lake in our town. They had a blast (if you can't tell by Tobes expression). He loves to pull off his socks. And try to put them back on. Let's just say it again...A-dor-a-ble!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying the weather and beautiful fall colors!

Friday, October 18, 2013

Catching Up

Sorry for the absent-ness. A lot has been going on and I've been having a hard time organizing my brain. I'll give you some short little updates now and some more detailed ones later. Here are the top 6:

1. Tobias turned One. I can't believe it. It seriously seems like yesterday he was a couple weeks old. Interestingly enough, the labor feels like forever ago. I think God does that on purpose. We had a great time celebrating with family and friends. Tobias got lots of wonderful gifts from very amazing and generous people. I will have another post later with pictures from his party. For now, I'll just tell you Tobias is a rockstar :-)


2. Trey got a new job. He no longer works from home (sad face). But his office is only 5 blocks from our house. And he comes home almost every day for lunch. So still extremely blessed. Most of the time he walks to work and it takes him about 6 minutes. I think it has been the hardest on Jasmine. She's used to sticking to Trey's side all day long and now he's gone. But he is immensely enjoying his job and is excited to learn a lot of new things. And this new company is amazing, he loves it.

3. I started playing volleyball again with some girlfriends through our city league. Let's just say I should have exercised more over the summer. My first game of the season was this week and it was a blast! We won 5 out of the 6 games we played. But now I am extremely sore. Guess that means I worked hard, right?

4. We got a new rug for our living room. And I am in love. It is so beautiful. I keep walking into the living room and just starring at it. It's huge and cushy. And gorgeous. Our whole house is wood floors so it has been nice to step onto some softness. Below is a picture from the website. It's the Ellison rug from Pottery Barn. They are discontinuing it and I was deathly afraid I was never going to be able to get it. Luckily, the store in our area had one left in stock. And I got it on sale, 40% off! Thank you Lord! It was meant to be.


5. Tobias is striking naps. He's decided he doesn't want to fall asleep on his own. It's much nicer being around people. And long naps are just silly when you can take a bunch of little short naps. So we're working on things. Right now we're transitioning from 2 naps to 1 nap a day. Wish us luck! And patience! Thankfully, he's still sleeping really well at night. Normally about 10ish hours.

6. Hunting season has begun. Officially on October 1st for bow hunting deer. Which means Trey is most likely in a tree stand when not at work. He's seen some promising deer on some private land and not so much on public land. He said he's waiting for them to fatten up a little bit. I never thought I would be ok with hunting or enjoy it (I don't hunt myself), but I definitely have enjoyed the benefits of Trey's hunting. I really enjoy the taste of venison. The one downside to hunting season is that now we're more likely to hit a deer or run into one, or get hit by a deer while driving. So watch out everyone! They are sneaky little boogers! And they really aren't so little. Some are actually quite massive. If you see any massive ones, tell them to walk by Trey's tree stand. Thanks bunches :-)


Saturday, August 17, 2013

Ramblings about Tobias

I haven't really shared how life is with Tobias...I've shared lots of pictures. But nothing super duper personal. So here it goes!

1. Tobias has never been a good napper. It took him about 8 months to discover the concept of a long nap (meaning more then 45 minutes). We tried about every single technique you could think of the get him to take a nap. Finally, I guess, one day it just clicked. We now rock him for about 5 minutes and then lay him down. The only reason we rock him is to let him know we're there for him. If you just lay him down, he tends to freak out. Believe me. We spent 2 months letting him "cry-it-out" for every single nap. There were lots of days with no nap and more then an hour of solid crying...by both baby and mommy. But now he takes 2 naps a day. An hour to hour and a half nap in the morning and an hour and a half to two hour nap in the afternoon. 



2. He has pretty much always been a good eater. I breastfeed him and then starting at 4 months, we started giving him baby cereal then slowly introduced solids. When he was really young, he liked to flail around while breastfeeding. Now he just gets distracted and tries to talk to me. But he's so adorable I can hardly get frustrated with him. He's always done an excellent job at eating solids. Has only refused two things: some mixed veggies combo and blueberries mixed with his oatmeal. But we are very thankful he's made the transition so well. And that he likes so many different things!



3. We cloth diaper and do disposables. We have 14 bumGenius diapers that we use and then wash in one cycle. While they are getting washed, we use the disposables, Target brand. And then we use disposables while we're out and about. I like using both. The cloth diapers are good for the environment and they are adorable. And the disposables are easy and flexible. Plus when we have people baby-sit, we don't have to worry about showing them how to use the sprayer with the cloth diapers. 

4. At night, we put a much larger size of diaper on Tobias. We had a friend suggest this, that it would help him sleep through the night better and they were so right! He can pee to his hearts content and it pretty much will never fully fill up...at least right now. It is awesome. Definitely recommend this to other mommies!

5. Tobias is a pacifier guy. It helps him fall asleep and calm down. He's also not super dependent on them. We can take them away and he won't freak out. I totally chalk that up to his personality...not something we've done. At least on purpose. I know a lot of people don't like pacifiers...I figure they're easier to take away then a thumb :-) 



6. He was born with a mole/freckle on his ankle. He now has three total. One under his armpit and another...somewhere else, I can't remember (and I'm typing this while he's napping...so not going to go check now). I love them. I have lots of moles/freckles and I think they are unique. Plus, I had a teacher when I was younger that called them "angel kisses". I like that.

7. Tobias didn't have a name for the first 2 days of his life. Going into the hospital, we had narrowed it down to three names. Once he was born, one got eliminated immediately. We knew it just didn't fit. We then spent the next two days alternating between the two names to see which one fit the best...and ended with Tobias James. We still absolutely love it and definitely think it was the best choice for him. We're saving the other two options for future kiddos which is why I'm not sharing them :-) 

8. When Tobias was 10 days old, he slept seven hours consecutively at night...the next day was my birthday. Second best birthday present a new mommy could ask for. The first one was him.

9. He loves animals. He loves to pull their hair, pet them, follow them around, throw things at them...in a playful way. I'm so glad. Now we just need to work on him not pulling out Jasmine's hair and trying to eat it. Thankfully our dog doesn't mind. But that really isn't tasty. 



10. I think Tobias has the largest hands of any baby I have ever met his age. When he was born, that was one of the first things our birthing nurse noticed. I like his big baby hands. Maybe he'll work with his hands. Or play sports. We'll see. He can do anything he wants when he grows up...well, almost anything :-)

11. Tobias now has five teeth. Three on the bottom and two on the top. His top two front teeth have a large gap between them and it is A-dorable! I love it. When he smiles or laughs, the gap in his teeth make it ten times better. 

12. He loves taking baths. Loves to splash around and move his toys everywhere. And he loves to have water poured in front of him and try to move his hand through it. He does not like getting dried afterwards. Don't believe the picture below. It's deceiving.



13. We have had lots friends say that he looks like my dad. Or Trey mixed with my dad. Very interesting combination. I haven't decided who he looks likes yet. To me, he looks like Tobias, a cute combination of everybody. Except he definitely has Trey's eyes. I'm very thankful he has his daddy's eyes. I like them.



There's some fun facts about Tobias. And how we raise Tobias, the views we have, are just that. Our views. They are what work for us but we understand they might not work for everybody. We totally get that. And we're thankful that not everybody is the same or does the same thing. How boring would that be?

Friday, August 9, 2013

Updated Pages

Hey everyone! I've been trying to update the different pages I have on the blog. So far the "About Us" and "Project To-Do's" have gotten updated. Nothing super exciting but it definitely needed to get done. My next goal is to get better pictures of what our house looks like currently. And get some pictures up of Tobias' nursery! Because it is awesome, if I do say so myself :-) Tobias is 10 months old and I still love it every time I walk into his room. 

Have a wonderful weekend! I'm so excited it's here :-)

Saturday, August 3, 2013

My IKEA Wish List

***This post is not sponsored by IKEA. I just really like their stuff :-)

The new 2014 IKEA catalog just came out and they have some awesome new products! Along with their awesome old products. So I decided to make an imaginary wish list and just had to share. I knew you wanted to see it! Haha, see, I can read your mind...scary, huh?

Bispgarden framed picture: at $19.99 ($14.99 if you have an IKEA family card), that's not a bad deal for a piece of artwork and a frame. I'm normally not a floral person, but I really like this one. And it's decently large, 15" x 19". 


Hjalmaren Wall shelf: I really like the look of ladder shelves. This shelf costs $89.99, not extremely cheap but also not expensive either. It only comes in white but looks really nice and could go in any room. 


Hjalmaren Towel rack: I REALLY like this towel rack. I think it's the over-sized hooks. And it seems pretty sturdy too. Definitely actually might buy this one. Costs $17.99.


Bekvam Spice rack: you don't only have to use this as a spice rack. I've seem others use it as a bookshelf. And the nice thing about it is you can paint/stain it any color you want! And it's super cheap. Only $3.99. Cannot go wrong with that.


Sigurd Bench: I like this bench with it's clean lines and simpleness. It comes in red or white. It's price is a little on the higher side for IKEA at $79.99 but hopefully it would be worth it. The seat is 43" x 17", so a good size. 


Hyllis Shelving unit: super cheap and super functional (costs $14.99). It's made out of galvanized steel and is 23" wide, 10" deep and 55" tall. Would be great for a garage or storage room...or you could even spice it up as a bookshelf. 


Strandmon Wing chair: ahhhhh, I love this chair. It's so pretty. And I've sat in it before at the store and it's really comfortable. If only I needed another chair...sadly, I don't. But someday I will and this will be the chair. I guarantee it. And for a wing-back type chair, it's not a bad price...$279.


Ensidig vases: there are 3 different sizes ranging in price from $1.99 to $3.99. I think they are adorable, the look of an old-fashioned milk bottle. Definitely going to buy some the next time I go to an IKEA. How can you not?!?


Hemnes Shoe cabinet: I have been looking at this shoe cabinet for a loooooong time. Someday it will sit in our mud room...but we actually need start working on it first. We have an Hemnes dresser and love it, so obviously the shoe cabinet also has to be amazing. It costs $129. There is also another Hemnes shoe cabinet that has 4 compartments for shoes instead of 2...but I like the taller one.


IKEA 365+ Serving platter: I really like to host with serving platters. I think they give your food table a nice definition in height while also being quite functional. This one is clear, going with pretty much any style. And it's cheap: $14.99. It's made of glass, not flimsy plastic. Definitely would be a great addition to your serving dishes.


Stockholm Fabric: I've never bought fabric from IKEA before, but I really like this pattern. I wonder what I would use it for? It costs $8.99 per yard.


Stockholm flatwoven rug: I love the style of this rug and the pattern has become really popular. This rug is 5'-7" x 7'-10" (odd size for Americans, I know) and costs $199. 


What are your new favorite products from IKEA? Or maybe some of your old favorite products? IKEA definitely never disappoints, which makes them fun and dangerous all at the same time :-)