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Friday, June 18, 2010

7 Quick Takes ~ Vol. 19

1. John's crib - John is still sleeping very well in his crib. In fact, he is there right now! Last night he stirred a couple of times, but I never had to go in to comfort him - he basically slept from 9pm-8:30am on his own. I am loving this sleeping arrangement!!

2. My schedule is slowing down for the summer. Little Flowers and Mother's group are not meeting during the summer. My only weekly commitment for the summer is Encounter (a bible study) on Tuesday nights, and the Pro-Life Youth Committee (every other Saturday). I am looking forward to nice weather and more time to play with John!
3. John's buddies - John is a very social guy. He loves people a lot and is not very shy. Here are some pictures of John with his friends that I just found while clearing out our camera:

John and James - playing in James' dog's pen! Silly boys!

John and Joey Gaunt - He couldn't crawl at the time, but John thought he was still pretty cool!

4. It has been a long week! Andrew has been working pretty late most nights this week - in order to catch up and prepare to take Saturday off. John and I are excited to spend good quality time with Andrew this weekend! (See #7)

5. There aren't many things cuter than my two men snoozing together:



6. You know you have a toddler when... you know exactly what toilet paper being unrolled sounds like.

7. Parish Camp - Around 3:30 today we are headed out to go to our parish camp for the weekend. It is at Camp Berachah in Auburn. This is our first trip of the summer!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Ferry Ride Photoshoot

A couple of weekends ago, John and I took the ferry over to Seattle to hang out with friends. John loved walking around on the top deck!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

New Video of John

Here is another video of John walking. He sure is getting good! His newest activity is climbing on anything and everything!

Friday, June 4, 2010

John's New Room

Last week, I cleaned out our closet (I wish I had taken a before picture - it was SO bad!!) because I was having guests over who wanted to use the crib for their baby's naps. The crib was buried deep under piles of clothes, stuffed animals, boxes, and other random items.

That night, since it was all cleaned out, Andrew and I thought we would try putting John in the crib again. He has been on a twin mattress on the floor by my side of the bed - and that was working, kind of... But John still relied on us to lay with him until he fell asleep or else he would just get up and crawl away. Andrew and I were tired of spending up to an hour each night coaxing him to sleep. Also, he usually ended up in our bed at some point during the night anyway.

His first night in the crib was rough, but over the course of the week he got better and better! Now he basically goes to sleep on his own in the crib and only cries for about 5 minutes - usually less! Some nights he sleeps the whole time - other nights, he wakes up once or twice, but usually goes back to sleep on his own.

Here, Here, Here, and Here are just a few of the posts I have written about getting John to go to sleep. Needless to say, it has been a long journey; which I am sure is not over, but the point we are at now is pretty good!

Since he took so well to the crib, I've been working on decorating our closet to look more like a bedroom. I want it to be a happy place that he will like to sleep and play in! Here is what it looks like so far:


Again, I wish I had a before picture because this is a huge transformation! The best part of this room makeover is... I have spent no money! I decorated it with things that we already had around the house.

Organizing: Update on Our Box System

Last September, I announced that we adopted the box system that the Duggars use for organizing. Now, I'm here to confess that we had all the boxes and stuff was stored in them, but I never actually wrote down what was in each box! So, it has been successful in getting everything out of sight, but it has not been very practical in the way of finding something quickly.

Yesterday, to took on the task of going through each box and writing down the contents (in a general way). I printed off a typed reference guide that tells what is in each box. It is now posted in our closet so we can glance at it when we need to find something.


I think this system will work a lot better now! It is so nice that basically everything in our house has a home, and - for the most part - it is all organized!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Family Traditions: Birthday Plate

Another tradition I wanted to start for John's birthday was making a ceramic plate to be his "birthday plate." This year we made it and in subsequent years, he will eat off of it on his special day! When we were making it, I couldn't help but imagine him eating from it on his 80th birthday! I hope it lasts that long!

Family Traditions: Growth Chart

As John's birthday was approaching, I kept thinking of all the traditions that I wanted to start. Having a growth chart was one of those traditions. I wanted to make it so it was very personalized and less expensive. I'm not sure if I saved any money by doing it this way, but I am very pleased with how it turned out - and that is worth a lot!

As you will see in the pictures below, I chose the theme of "Growing toward Heaven." I used holy cards to depict Heaven at the top, and the earth below with a picture of Jesus with children on the grass. Then, there is the lonely St. Jean Vianney on a cloud in the middle. He will (God willing) have more Saints to join him on their own clouds when we have more children. Each year we will mark the growth of our children on their birthday.





When John was born he measured in at 21 inches. On his first birthday we measured him at 31 inches - He grew 10 inches!

(Funny story - after birth, the nurse told us he was 19 inches and at his four-day appointment, the doctor told us he was 23 inches! There is no way he grew 4 inches in four days! - So we decided to average it out and say he was 21 inches at birth.)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Toddler Mass Kit

I'm blogging over at our Parish today:
My son just turned one in May. He has been pretty good in Mass, but since he learned to crawl and now walk, my husband and I have had to spend a lot of time with him in the vestibule. Sometimes we wonder if we should even sit down in a pew at the beginning of Mass!

One of the gifts we gave him for his birthday was a bag for Mass. I found the items at various Catholic stores over the last few months. I wanted to make it really special and personalized, so I bought a denim bag at JoAnne Fabrics, and used this method to paint a Marian cross on it. I also embroydered his name on the front of the bag.

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Organizing: Before and After Pictures!

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Walmart and happened upon the isle that had little baskets for organizing. They weren't too expensive - so I bought them with hopes that they would help motivate me organize the two "junk drawers" that we had.

Here are the results:
The Desk Drawer

Before(I spy - a holy water font, a Mexican train game piece, a spool of thread,
a ruler, and a model of an 11 week old fetus)


After

The Kitchen "Junk Drawer"


Before
(I spy - a blue pen, a baby picture of Carrie Herring, refill bottle of holy water,
4 bottles of Purell, an old tin, and a screw driver)


After
These pictures bring me such joy!! I love being organized!