Pinterest inspired sign for Carter

I love browsing pinterest and getting ideas.  This sign that I made for Carter's room was an inspiration from this post on pinterest.  I know... my sign is nothing like the post.  It's not even a headboard, but it was that post that made me come up with the idea - yup, that is how my brain works.  I am horrible at following directions so it shouldn't surprise you that I came up with something completely different. 

First I went to Menard's and searched around for cheap pieces of wood that would work.  I found 4 beat up looking boards that were each 10 feet long and only $1.90 a piece!  Then I went over to Hobby Lobby and picked up a couple letters for Carter's name at only $.99 a piece!  There you have it.  This sign cost me less than $15 which makes it that much more cool. 

I laid my findings out on the floor and came up with this:

Cory cut the pieces of wood down to 5 feet for me so they would take up most of the width of Carter's wall.  The next step was sanding.  Cory used the power sander for most of it, but Ethan and I did the finishing touches with sand paper and muscle.  ;-)

Next step was to stain the wood.  I used the same stain that we have on the trim in our house.  Just one light coat and I did not varnish or sand after staining.  I wanted it to look imperfect and not too shiny.

While the stain was drying, I painted the letters the same color as the walls in Carter's room.

The next day I lined up my boards and screwed them all together from the backside. 

See my cute helper peaking over the top of the boards?

Not only did I attached the boards together with three scrap pieces of wood... but I also pre-measured where the studs were in the wall so I could hang the heavy wood piece on the wall and screw it right in to sturdy studs.  I wanted to make sure this piece of art didn't fall off the wall.  Someone very precious sleeps under this sign. 

And... since I did all my measurements to make sure everything was just right... and flipped over my sign to make sure it was indeed perfect... well... that is when I realized I messed up and needed to rotate my sign because I basically built it upside down.  The letters got moved to the top left corner instead of the lower right because that is where the wood was the smoothest.  I wanted to keep the rustic beat up looking wood uncovered.  If I would have hung it the other way then the strips on the back would not have lined up with the studs in the wall.  That probably made little sense and I'm sure I've lost most of you, but it worked out.  I like the letters better in the upper left hand corner. 

I lined up the letters and attached them with wood glue. 

 I also found a great use for some old text books.  They worked really well as weights over night to press down on the letters and get the glue to hold tight. 

Day 4: Yes, I probably could have done this quicker, but I worked on this over the weekend and the weather was too beautiful to just stay inside and work on projects.  So, on day 4 Cory and I hung up the sign in Carter's room above his crib.  I love it.  I think it looks really rich (as in color) and simple (as in my style).  Carter's room is small (and has very ugly orange colored furniture) and feels a bit busy, but this sign helps calm things down.  What do you think?  Do you love it as much as I do?  

Carter's nursery turned out nothing like I had planned.  I think I might try to brighten it up this summer with some white painted furniture or lighter curtains.  Maybe I could even find a white crib on Craig's List.  This orange stained furniture makes me a bit crazy. 

The best part about the nursery is the brown chair.  Oh how I love that rocking, swiveling, and reclining brown chair.  Best nursery room investment ever. 

Thanks for taking a peak at my latest project.  As always, there will be more to follow.  :-)

A Fishin' They Went

Cory has picked up an enjoyment for fishing over the past couple years. To Cory, fishing means relaxation, time with family or friends, and lately... time with the kids.  Ethan has been all about the sport of fishing, which I believe has made Cory love it even more.  This past weekend Bass Pro Shop had an event for kids where they could do a little fishing inside their store in a catch and release pond.  Ethan was so excited for this.  He had no problems waiting in line for about an hour, because he knew it meant that he was going to go fishing and actually catch his first fish!  See, the sponge bob fishing pole that he normally uses while fishing with daddy, doesn't have a real hook (yet).  So catching his own first fish was a huge deal!

A little "boat driving" while waiting to catch his first fish.

Taking a look at some of the fish he won't be catching.

 Finally, Ethan's turn!  Here fishy-fishy... 

Safety goggles and all ;-)

A bite!

and a catch!

My proud little fisherman!

 Way to go Ethan!

Alike, but Different

Often times people see Carter and comment on how much he looks like Ethan.  Sure, I see it a little bit, but I'll have to say that really... they look very little alike.  Carter is a mimi-me and Ethan is a mini-Cory.  I was browsing through some old photos and came across a couple of Ethan at 8 months old.  Here are some side by sides of Ethan v. Carter.  Wow, look at how light Ethan's hair used to be. 

Ethan                                          Carter

   

Wow, those are two amazingly precious boys if I do say so myself... ;-) xoxoxo

I May Have Found One That I Love!

We braved out to another fireplace store last night with all three kids.  Carter was sleeping in his infant car seat and Mariah and Ethan were busy entertaining themselves with a bowl of chocolate and my camera phone.  Sorry fireplace store... I had no idea that my kids were secretly eating all of your chocolate.  Guess I was a bit focused on looked at stone. 

Here is a little peak at what I found on my camera roll on my phone this morning... This is what happens when you leave kids alone with chocolate and a camera.  There are many more of these pictures, but I'll only amuse you with the following.

Yup, my kids definitely have my personality!  hee hee

Back to the stone... I think we found the finishing touch to our currently-ugly-fireplace!  This place had so many more options than the store we visited this past weekend.  Cory instantly fell in love with a dark color, but I quickly talked him in to a much more neutral color. 

What do you think?  Yes, it's basically the same colors as my walls and my carpet.  Cory's a bit worried that it will blend in too much, but it's stone.  I think it will grab people's attention and look beautiful for years to come.  Not too trendy, not too bold.  Perfect!  I can mix any decor with it and paint the walls all the different colors that my little heart desires! 

I browsed the web a bit for some pictures of neutral fireplaces and quickly came across this post on one of my favorite blogs.  Her fireplace is light and a similar stone.  I think it's beautiful.  I can't wait to have something like this in my home!  

Stone Fail

We went looking at stone this weekend for our fireplace.  Six years ago when we built our home we left our fireplace unfinished.  About a year later we threw some black granite tile on the base of the fireplace to make it look more "finished".  The grout is cracking out and the tile just doesn't look pretty anymore.  I've hung many things above the fireplace, but nothing really makes it look any better.  It's an eyesore.  It needs a finish.  We tried to find it a finish, but had no luck.  Our material quotes came in 2-3 times more than I was expecting.  The one stone that we liked the best is on back order until mid summer.  The other stones were too orange, too pink, or exactly what my brother has on his fireplace next door. 

Here is our current mess:

A view from the left side:

And a view from the right side:

We really dislike those gold trimmed doors too. Maybe I'll just trim the fireplace in a wood trim and mantel and paint it white?  Maybe we can just stone the bottom half and build a new hearth and save ourselves some money?  Or... maybe we will just set this project aside again and take the kids on vacation?  Or... we could save that money and maybe stone the fireplace in 6 months or a year after looking at more stones?  No clue...

One Day at a Time

Raising a teenager is exhausting.  She hates me.  She seriously hates me.  I know it's not "real".  I know this is what happens to teenage girls that don't get everything they want.  I get it.  We have all been there.  We were all teenagers at one point.  Those evil drama filled years that many of us would never go back and relive. 

As a teenager:  We see things from our world only.  The world around us doesn't really exist.  We are the existence.  We can do anything.  Go anywhere.  The world is our canvas and we are free birds.  Until... mom and dad (or step dad) tell us no and make us do things like wash dishes and feed the dogs.  They take away our texting abilities for a day or two at a time and they tell us we can't do extra curricular activities.  They want us to respect them and tell them our plans in detail.  They expect us to know what's going on at school and what events are coming up.  But, as teenagers, we don't care about the details.  We just know that we want to be somewhere and we should be allowed to be there.  If we have to explain ourselves we get upset and blame our parents for being mean to us. 

Unfortunately teenagers don't see the bigger picture.  As adults we don't always see the bigger picture.  Life is hard.  I 'm not going to lie.  But, it's rewarding.  Even these days where I go to work and struggle all day long to hold back the tears knowing that my daughter is telling all her friends today how much she hates Cory and I and how horrible of parents we are... it's still rewarding. 

Carter is 8 months!

Our little monkey turned 8 months old this past weekend.  He is really turning in to a handsome big boy.  And... yes, we call him monkey all the time.  Funny how nicknames start.  When naming our children we tried to think of all the creative nicknames that people would come up with.  We never thought of the nicknames that we ended up calling each of the kids.  Mariah (peanut), Ethan (E-baby/E-man), Carter (monkey).  I'm sure he'll grow out of the nickname eventually, but for now it fits him perfectly. 

Carter had a tough bout of illness this past month.  He was diagnosed with RSV, pneumonia, a double ear infection, and pink eye.  Thankfully we were able to get through that tough time with a little bit of meds and a lot of snuggles - and no hospital stay!  I took him for his recheck yesterday and the doctor said his ears look great and his lungs are clear!  Way to go Carter Monkey!

We have been offering Carter more foods lately.  We've tried some finger foods, juice, stage two veggies and fruits, some dinner blends, and baby yogurt.  He isn't a fan of many of the foods and prefers to stick with oatmeal cereal, blueberry yogurt, and "boob-milk" as my family calls it.  I haven't been pushing the foods and figure eventually he'll get hungry and we can explore more options at that time. 

I gave Carter his first haircut this weekend.  I know, you may think I'm crazy, but it must be the hair stylist in me that just can't let his little hairs get long and out of control.  Cory had a much harder time with Carter's haircut than I did.  Carter had these long hairs on the top of his head - about 20 of them - that had to be 3-4 inches long and were tickeling his eyebrows.  The rest of his hair is thin and about 1-2 inches long.  He has this faux mohawk on the top of his head that forms in to a peak and points to his nose.  He still has this point, but now it's shorter and those long crazy hairs are no longer.  No, I didn't save the hairs, but I did have Cory take a couple pictures.  I'll add those to another post. 

Carter isn't crawling yet, but he is pushing himself around the house backwards and spins in circles to get where he wants to go. 

Carter loves to say mama and knows exactly how to use it.  He calls for me and reaches for me whenever I am in sight.  He is a mama's boy all the way. 

He is my snuggly little monkey.  I love him so.  Happy 8 months Carter Oliver.  We love you lots!

Spin Baby Spin

He's not crawling forward, but he loves to spin in circles.

Cut From the Same Cloth

These were Cory's words this morning as Mariah and I were yelling at each other...

Mariah was yelling at Ethan, so I yelled at Mariah.  Mariah yelled back at me and went outside to sit in my van.  Oh the joys of parenting a teenage daughter that is just as headstrong as I am...

I told my dad the other day that Mariah can be a real handful.  His reaction: Ha, Good!  Thanks dad... guess I wasn't a walk in the park either. 

Oh I love her dearly, but we sure can bump heads.  We are, as Cory put it, cut from the same cloth.

I Can't Sleep

It is horrible.  I can't sleep.  I am so tired.  I yawn all day.  I'm in a fog.  I can't focus, but when I lay down in bed at night... I can't sleep.  I can't turn off.  My mind keeps going.  I lay wide awake until midnight every night.  I'm lucky if I get to sleep until 3 or 4am uninterrupted.  Then by 5am I am wide awake again.  Why is this happening?  Last night Carter was in bed by 7pm, Ethan was in bed by 8pm, and there I was wide awake, trying to sleep, but not actually falling asleep until around midnight.  I just need to sleep.  This lack of sleep is causing anxiety.  I have bags under my eyes.  I am getting irritable.  I really need to sleep. 

Any recommendations?  Herbs?  Medications?  Relaxation techniques?  I am guessing some of this is related to my post partum anxiety.  I am hoping it passes soon, but I need to find a way to get through it.  I need to function. 

Farts

Haha, childish yes, but I love this.  Carter loves to make fart noises by blowing on things with his mouth.  Cory started this with Carter when he was just a couple months old.  Cory would blow on Carter's tummy and get the biggest smile out of Carter.  Carter has since caught on how to copy daddy. 

X 4

Pink Eye, Double Ear Infection, RSV, and Pneumonia

That is what Carter was diagnosed with on Monday, February 13.  I couldn't believe my poor little not-even-8-month-old-baby had all these illnesses going on at once.  I was shocked, scared, and felt completely helpless.  He was so sick that he didn't even want to nurse from me.  That is how I knew things were really bad and what he had wasn't just a cold. 

The week before Carter came down with all these illnesses, I had dropped him off at daycare and heard another kid coughing.  I was frightened by the sound of the cough, but what choice did I have?  I had to work... and someone needed to care for Carter.  By Friday evening Carter had that same frightening cough that I heard from the kid at daycare earlier that week.  Friday night Carter's cough sounded like croup.  We ran a steamy shower and kept him in our room over night.  By Saturday night he was sounding very congested and gurgly so Cory took him to the ER, because the walk-in's had already closed.  The ER gave him an oral steroid, checked him for RSV, said it was negative, and sent him home with no meds.  All day Sunday I knew he wasn't well, but figured it was a cold because he was just at the ER the night before.  Sunday night Carter was so irritable and by Monday morning he no longer wanted to nurse from me.  That is when I knew that we needed to get back in to see the doctor quickly. 

On Monday morning Carter's pediatrician confirmed that he had RSV by putting a tube up his nose and testing the mucus.  He sent us for chest x-rays which confirmed the pneumonia.  And, just a simple look at both Carter's ears and his left eye were enough to confirm he had a double ear infection and the start of pink eye.  Carter started on augmentin, eye drops, and albuterol through a neubulizer.  The doctor said the cough could last a couple weeks.  Cory and I decided to keep Carter home from daycare for the week.  We wanted to do everything we could to keep from having to hospitalize him.  Fortunately we were successful.  He is getting much better and returned to daycare yesterday.  He is still not back to normal and has a bit of congestion, a cough, and a smaller-than-normal appetite, but he's getting better. 

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers while we were doing all that we could to get our little Carter-Monkey on the mend back to health.  RSV and pneumonia can be seriously threatening in small children.  We are so happy were were able to catch this and get it under control as quickly as we did. 

Evening with Pinterest

Last night we had a pinteresting evening.  I started working on some wreaths, while the boys sat and played with bubbles.  All thanks to pinterest.com.  Man I love that idea site. 

Wreath pinspiration / Bubble pinspiration

Eight Feet

...of shelf.  That is what we built this weekend. 

I had been struggling with decorating this wall for... umm, six years.  Then it came to me out of nowhere (well okay: pinterest, houzz, and blogging) that I could build my own shelf!  Some husband convincing, a trip to Menards, and $20 later.  Hello mighty shelf!

Here is the wall before the mighty shelf.  Someday the entire wall will be one color.  Just haven't gotten to that yet.  We need to put in our archways and do some drywall blending first...

 Building the shelf: We glued the pieces first and then screwed them together.

 Cory predrilled the holes to make them easier to hide with wood putty.

We added brackets to what we thought was going to be the underneath of the shelf.  I changed my mind after it was all painted.  My next shelf will have the brackets on the opposite side.  The way the shelf ended up makes the brackets kind of pointless, but they can be hidden.  Still learning DIY...

All painted

And hung above the couch.  Doesn't that fit better?  The items on the shelf are just for height ideas.  I've only purchased one thing for the shelf and I'm waiting it to arrive.  I'll take down the candle holder that you see on the left.  It never really had much business being there anyway.  Just one of my past random thoughts that didn't quite work.  ;-?

Whatcha think?