Carter's 1st Birthday Party

Carter's turning one and we are throwing him a sock monkey birthday party! 

The sock monkeys are ready for their new homes.

The pictures are framed and ready to hang on the wall.

The grocery list is made. 

We are picking up the bounce house today. 

The weather looks like it's going to be beautiful. 

It's party time!

Just like that...life can change.

On June 9th around 9:00pm we were sitting around our bonfire in our backyard with my brother and sister-in-law.  The air was calm.  It was a beautiful evening.  We were relaxing and just taking in the surroundings while watching the kids play with glow sticks and roast marshmallows.  We could hear laughter and squeals coming from my sister's house just acres away from us.  This was a normal sound in the distance. 

Then it all changed. The still quiet air was interrupted by sirens howling down the street behind us.  This is a main street to the hospital.  The uncommon part was how each siren stopped as it got behind our home.  Blocked by a long row of trees, we were unable to see the lights. 

I called to my sister's house and jokingly asked if another car had flipped over on their front yard.  My sister didn't respond to my comment.  She was on her cell phone leaving a message for someone else.  She was calm, but frantic.  She responded to me by saying, "I can't talk, we had a kid under water".

I turned to Cory and my brother and told them Dawn's response.  They hopped on the ATV and dashed over to my sister's house.  The rest of us walked over moments later.  Shaking and praying the entire way over.  Completely unaware of who was under water. 

The squeals we heard were not of laughter, but of fear from the children when they realized the three year old boy had gone under water and was not breathing. 

The rest taken from: http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/with-call-dispatcher-s-cpr-training-helps-save-boy-s/article_384bf0a4-bacb-11e1-a7bf-001a4bcf887a.html

Lifesaving Award



WITH 911 CALL: Dispatcher’s CPR training helps save boy’s life


YORKVILLE — It was just an average Saturday night on June 9 when Julie Baker and her four kids decided to take a quick swim in a friend’s backyard pool.


The kids were in the water. The adults, having just counted all their heads, looked away from for a few seconds to apply some insect repellent.


And then it happened. Baker’s oldest son Brad, 7, started screaming. His 3-year-old brother, Danny, had slipped under the water. He wasn’t breathing. “I turned around and he was lifting him up to (his sister) Katie,” Julie Baker recalled. “He was blue with no pulse. It was terrible.”


Lucky for the Baker, and her friends the Scott and Dawn Loffquist, Racine County Dispatcher Emily Johnson was at the other end of the line when they called 911. Johnson, like all of the county’s dispatch technicians, had recently received some additional emergency medical dispatch training.

After immediately sending rescuers from the Union Grove-Yorkville Fire Department to the Loffquists’ Spring Street home, Johnson walked Scott and Dawn Loffquist through the steps of child CPR.
“I need you to put one hand on the forehead and put the fingers of your other hand under the bony part of the chin and gently tilt the head back,” Johnson can be heard saying during the 911 call. “Do you see him breathing at all? I want you to roll the baby onto his side and hold the baby’s feet.”

Scott Loffquist followed Johnson’s instructions by the letter, and a few seconds later Danny was breathing.

“Julie, he’s breathing,” Dawn Loffquist can be heard saying to Baker during the call. “He’s breathing, honey. He’s going to make it, honey. He’s going to make it.”

Danny ended up spending the night in the hospital, but the following day he was back at home and doing fine — “just like he was before,” according to his brother.


Johnson, 27, will tell you she was only doing her job, but on Tuesday the dispatcher received a Lifesaving Award for her efforts.

“Danny Baker is alive and well today as a result of the efforts from all of those involved, especially Dispatcher Johnson,” Racine County Executive Jim Ladwig said presenting Johnson with her award. “This truly is a success story. And, it’s important that we focus on and honor those that are responsible for doing great work.”


Getting ready for her 3 to 11 p.m. shift on Tuesday Johnson, who used to watch the show “Rescue 911” as a child, said that while she appreciates the recognition for her work the best gift of all was saving Danny’s life.

“It’s the best feeling in the world,” she said. “It’s why I do what I do.”

(photo source) 

Julie Baker holder her three year old son Danny.  Emily Johnson on the right.  The miracle 911 dispatcher that helped my brother-in-law save little Danny's life. 

Happy Father's Day!

Hope all of you dad's out there had a fabulous Father's Day! 

Our weekend was very nice.  Filled with lots of family time, strawberry picking, jam making, swimming, grilled food, and a creative gift for the main man in our house. 

The kids and I put this picture frame collage together.  We took a piece of construction paper and cut it to fit inside the 10x13 frame.  Then we glued on some pictures, some circle art with the kids names and ages, and added the all about my dad piece to the upper corner, inspired from this pin and this pin.  It turned out better than I had imagined.  Cory (daddy) loved it!  Success! 

Here are the kiddos presenting the frame to dad. 

(sorry for the blur.. moving kids can be hard to capture with my phone)

Friday Phone Dump

Another week, a ton more phone pictures.  Is this all I do?

Let's start with Sunday morning.  Is my head hanging off the bed?  We look pretty comfy all snuggled together.  xoxo

Little bit of grocery shopping together.  Carter is big enough to ride up front with Ethan! 

 Oh Ethan, you are my crazy man.  I love the expression in this picture.  By the way, this was an impromptu jump in the pool.  I let him strip down to his undies and hop in.  Who really wants to take the time to go in the house and put swim trunks on?

A little shopping with Mariah.  Look at these feet planters!  Seriously, would you put these on your porch and fill them with flowers?!

A little bonfire (okay BIG bonfire) fun on Saturday night.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  We roasted marshmallows, watched the kids play, and took in the beautiful nature.

The kids played with glow sticks.  Ethan put them on his ankles and ran around the yard laughing.

And then there is my obsession with home decorating.  This is the view when I drive up the driveway every day.  Yuck.  The rest of my yard is so pretty, but we put the pool and dog cage at the end of the driveway.  Nothing blocks it.  It looks horrible.  We've tried plants, but the dogs pee on them and kill them.  We've added white lattice, but that looks horrible too.  No idea what we are going to do about this area, but we have to do something!

A lamp.  I finally bought a lamp for our bedroom.  I love it.  Seriously, who waits until they are in their 30's to buy a lamp?  Guess I did...

Paint.  Here is a start to my I need to paint something post.  See anything you like?

A little fun decor for our monkey man!  I love Pottery Barn Kids.

It only took 6 years, but I finally bought some art work for the basement family room.  Movie time!

That's all for this week.  ;-)

I need to paint something!

I have the urge to paint.  I want to paint all the trim in my house white.  I want to paint my kitchen cabinets white.  I want to add board and batten to my dinning room and paint it white.  I want to paint my laundry room cabinets white.  I want to paint an old dresser white.  I want to add some color to the walls in the basement with maybe a blue color?  I want to change the color or our mud/laundry room.  I want to get rid of the red paint in our half bathroom.  I want need to touch up the paint in my family room... or maybe just give the entire room a new look with a new color?

We've been in our home for over six years.  Most of the rooms are still their original color.  It's time to paint.  I need a new look for our home.  A brighter fresher more uplifting look.  I love splashes of color, but all of the brown's and dark colors are starting to make me feel boxed in. 

 Where should I start?? What can I get Cory to agree on? For some reason most of the homes in our area are full of stained wood, dark wood colors, lots of heavy wood patterns, and dark wall colors. If you look at southern homes they are full of beautiful woodwork, board and batten on the walls, and lots of white woodwork with beautiful dark wood furniture accents. I want that. White woodwork with wood furniture accents.

Look at this beautiful white and bright kitchen.  So fresh and clean looking.  I could cook and clean in this kitchen all day.  I hear birds chirping and sunshiny songs playing in my head when I look at this picture. 
 

(source)

And this dinning room with tall board and batten walls.  Dark color on top, but the white b & b makes the room pop with life.  I love the dark wood accents and colorful artwork.

Ahh to dream... and then to paint. 

Carter's Walking!

Friday Phone Dump

There were a couple things that I planned to post about this week; how I made a shirt and hat for Carter, how we landscaped my mother-in-laws yard in one afternoon, and how I've been redecorating our home instead of remodeling our home.  My husband loves the last one.  But, all of those nice quality pictures are still living inside my camera... so this phone dump will have to sum things up.  Maybe next week I'll get to the step by step on making Carter's birthday shirt and hat.  I am so in love with how his shirt turned out.  It will definitely be going on pinterest! 

We have a big event coming up in our family this month.  A huge reason to celebrate.  Carter will be turning 1!  Not only will he be one, but he is our first child with a summer birthday.  That means we have to throw a big party with swimming, a bounce house, and lots of outdoor games!  Can't wait!

To get ready, my good friend Lindsay came over and took some amazingly precious pictures of Carter.  Lindsay is an awesome photographer!  She gave me this sneak peek picture of Carter and I am so in love with it.  I used it for his invites and shared it all over facebook and instagram.

In preparation for Carter's pictures... well... it caused a busy Friday night.  Not that I had the past 11+ months to get ready for this big photo shoot or anything... ha.  After work on Friday I ran over to Wal-Mart and browsed the store for ideas as quickly as possible.  I left with a white shirt, a pack of buttons, a large sheet of blue paper, some clearance ribbon with little pom-poms, a candle, and some cake sprinkles.  Total expense = $11

I came up with this adorable little cake. Mariah made the cake for me during the day and I frosted and decorated it when I got home from work. Huge time saver not having to bake the cake that night. Thanks Mariah! :-)

Then I surprised myself and made a button shirt for Carter.  I laid the buttons out next to the shirt, put some fabric glue on the shirt, and pressed the buttons in to place.  Went to a Norwex party at my sister's house while the glue dried, came home later that night and stitched on each button. 

Made a hat to match at 6:30am the next morning.  I was so proud of how the hat and shirt turned out.  It was a much easier project that I was expecting.  And really inexpensive!  We were all set for Carter's 7:30am photo shoot!

Carter had a great time smashing in to his cake.  He even chewed on the hat a little bit.  It was a short life for the cake and hat, but well worth it.

On my way home from Wal-Mart on Friday night I stopped by a rummage sale.  I saw a slide that caught my eye and I actually had cash on me - that never happens.  I knew it was a sign and I had to stop and pick up that slide.  When I got out of my car an overly friendly dog greeted me with a jump and scratched up my arm.  Urg... seriously people.  If you are having a rummage sale... lock up your animals.

But, the scratch was worth it because I picked up this slide for $10.  The boys love it.  Even our little dog Oscar plays on it.  Carter is such a climber.  He goes up the steps and down the slide all on his own.  Ethan loves to make a fort out of it and hide underneath.  I think this picture is precious.  Carter is peeking at Ethan through a hole (that is supposed to be there) in the floor of the fort.  Love my boys! 

Next up on my photo dump, my red bathroom.  This is our half bath off our mud room and laundry room area.  This is the area that is taken over by our dogs in the winter months.  It's summer now which means the dogs sleep in the garage and I get the bathroom back until the weather turns cold.  I've been wanting to update this bathroom for a while, but I'm not sure what to do with it.  I'm thinking a lighter tan/gray color?  Or maybe a blue/gray?  I'll have to pick up some samples.  

Speaking of blue/gray, I also need to repaint the playroom, but I'm waiting until we put up the board and batten and trim.  I took this picture not because of the color and the to-do-project-list, but because of the awesome benches from IKEA.  It is amazing how much stuff the bins hold and hide!  Look at how clean and picked up the toy room looks.  Ahhh love!

In case we weren't busy enough this weekend, we also went down to Cory's mom's house and helped her with some landscaping.  We added 105 bags of dirt to her area around her house and planted a bunch of plants.  Don't the irises look pretty around her big tree?!  I alternated them so they will bloom in dark purple and light purple groupings.

She had the peonies in the landscaping, but we added the other plants in front of her house.

Then for a little home decorating.  Mariah, Carter, and I did some shopping on Sunday morning.  We stopped at Michael's and Pier 1 and picked up on some great deals.  Plus I had coupons!

I am loving these balls, but having a hard time keeping Ethan from playing with them.  He loves the small globe, but he thinks it's a bowling ball...

This is the part I am most excited about.  I have been wanting these reels for a while.  Kept eyeing them up online and finally bought them!  Can't wait to get them on the wall in our basement family room! 

This piece I picked up in the store right away.  Loved the colors.  I carried it around for a while, then set it down because I wasn't sure where I'd put it.  When I was checking out I decided I had to have it and ran through the store to pick it back up.  I'm so glad I bought it because I love it.  It lives on the angled wall at the bottom of my stairs.  Its the first thing we see when coming down the stairs to the basement.  So pretty!

And finally, the vase for our dinning room.  I needed something kid friendly, yet pretty looking to soften up the space.  I found this large wicker vase on a great sale and scooped it up quickly.  Now I need to find something tall and eye catching to put inside the vase.  Loving all of my new purchases.  I'll get this house decorated eventually... room by room. 

Friday Phone Dump

Every week I take a ton of pictures with my phone.  I feel that every moment needs capturing...  Then after capturing those moments, I do nothing with the pictures.  So, I thought I'd start a Friday Phone Dump.  Enjoy! 

Last weekend we went down by Lake Michigan and met up with my mom and step-dad.  They took us out on the boat for a nice relaxing cruise along the river. 

This was Carter's first time out on a boat.  He enjoyed the boating, but really wasn't a fan of the life jacket.  He couldn't sit down on his own while wearing it. 

On Sunday night my men decided a little camping in the family room would be fun.  Some day we'll move the tent outside and go for the real experience. 

This year I decided to add a little color to my plants around my purple tree.  I had Cory work up an area and I planted some bright pink flowers and then finished it up with some mulch. It looks so much brighter and cheery now.

Look at this cute-pie!  This is his first full haircut.  I've trimmed his bangs a couple months ago, but this was the first time I gave him a full haircut.  He sat pretty well for it.  Love you little man!