Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Week With Nama and Dapa



Mom and Dad had a week off at the beginning of October, and they decided to spend the week up in New Jersey with us. I'm pretty sure it was because my mom was going into Michael withdrawal, but it's to be expected. :) It was nice to have them there, and Dad hadn't gotten to see Michael since the summer...about time for more quality time with Gramps!


My parents are such good sports. They drive 12 hours each way to visit with us, and what do I do? Put them to work of course. I had a whole slew of projects for my dad to help with...from fixing a broken toilet seat to installing shelves. And Mom was busy working on creating a new footstool for the mini-man. The help was MUCH appreciated...that to-do list was getting waaaay too long!


But don't worry, I didn't make them work the whole time they were here. There was still plenty of time left to hang out with Michael. We squeezed in a few cool outings while they were here:

We took a hayride at a local farm and went apple and pumpkin picking.






Mom and Dad took Michael to an indoor playplace while I had to work one day.







Michael played the part of Grandpa's Little Helper.




Grandpa taught Michael how to build an airplane.




Grandma and Michael even left you with a photo tutorial for how to make homemade sugar cookies. Just follow the simple steps below:

1. Measure dry ingredients.



2. Mix



3. Add wet ingredients.



4. Mix again.



5. Roll out chilled dough.



6. Cut out cool shapes using cookie cutters.



7. Have Mommy bake them in the oven. While cookies bake, do a happy dance on the chair. (No pants required)



8. Don't forget to give yourself a Hitler mustache with the flour. Why not liven up the party a little bit?



9. Time to decorate!



10. Most important step of all: Don't forget to sample your work!!



Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Big Project

Well....a lot has been going on since my hiatus from the blogging world. First and foremost, the news you've all been waiting for....

It's another BOY!!!!

That's right ladies and gents! We went for the ultrasound Labor Day weekend (that's how behind I am!) and found out the exciting news. I will now be extremely outnumbered by males in my household, but I absolutely LOVE having a boy already...they are so much fun! It will be exhausting I'm sure, but we are looking forward to welcoming our new addition.

So, having heard this news, the next hurdle was going to be where to put the new addition to the family. We have 3 bedrooms, but I could not fathom living without one functional guest room for how often it is used. We decided, due to the change in decor on the new toddler bed we had introduced Michael to a month prior, we would just flip flop rooms. His current room was already decorated, and the landlord didn't want it touched, but it was not working with his new "Cars" bedding. Marion, however, was opposed to decorating a room in a house that wasn't ours, so I decided to take on the task myself when he went away on business for two weeks. Hey, he said he didn't want any part of it...not that I couldn't decorate...you must be specific with me people. :)

A few pictures of my big helper assembling his new bed:


And of course you have to give it a test run....that was hard work!



One of the first mornings in the new bed...I love this picture. :)


When I finally decided on how to decorate the room, I enlisted the MUCH appreciated help of Danielle and Adam that weekend. Danielle primarily helped me with the room while Adam graciously did babysitting duty. I couldn't have done it without them!!! Michael had so much fun spending quality time with his uncle...I heard about the fair Adam took him to for the entire week following!

Of course, due to my indecisiveness, the room wasn't completely finished by the time they left, but all the major work was done. After a few more online purchases and forcing myself to just make a decision already, the room was done!!! I couldn't have been happier with the results!!