My Menu Board

I'm taking a break from the pictures to share my menu board.  I finished it!

I mentioned that I bought the frame at JoAnn's on Mother's Day.  It is a 16 by 20 and was marked down 60% off, so it ended up costing me $13.  That is a great price for a frame that size.

I wandered the fabric aisles forever trying to come up with a background.  There were so many fabrics that I loved, but I didn't want something too busy.  I am going to write my weekly menu on it and I didn't want the print to get lost on a funky background.  I ended up leaving without a fabric and decided I would take some time to think about it.  Once I got home and was unloading the car, I found some burlap that was leftover from a baby shower I just helped out with.  Kathi was going to throw it out, so I took it with me.  Thanks, Kathi!

I used my silhouette and some brown vinyl to make the squares and writing.  It is on the inside of the  glass so that when I wipe stuff off it doesn't ruin the vinyl.  (So I had to print in reverse.  Tricky at first, but I figured it out.)

I bought a few quarter yards of fabric for just a few dollars and made the flowers to add color.  I was originally wanting to do some more reds... maybe even a red frame, but was just coming up empty handed.  (I tried to get red vinyl at the store with no such luck and I didn't want to wait to order it.)  It's not quite as colorful as I was anticipating, but I still like it.

I knew I wanted a wipe off menu board.  I looked on Pinterest a lot for inspiration, but in the end just sort of winged it.  I am excited to put it to use!  My kitchen is coming together slowly but surely.  Happy Mother's Day to me! :)

A closer look.  Pay no attention to the flash or the fact that I didn't clean off my fingerprints yet. :)  What do you think?

P.S.  I got the "Eat" sign from Hobby Lobby for $6.  I will do a kitchen post soon, but I am desperately trying to bring in color on a budget.  This was cheaper than making the letters myself, so I went for ease and frugality on this one.

The Kids

We actually tried to take some of Logan first.  Just in case he started melting down.  She took a bunch of shots of him on a blanket.  Then we tried to add Olivia to it.  She just was not really cooperating though.

This picture is just so appropriate.

This is right before Olivia decided she didn't want to hold him anymore and moved her arm, causing him to bonk his head on the bench. Fun times!

Almost all of the pictures of Logan look the same but with different editing. There isn't much you can do with a 3 month old.

Talking...

This is one of my favorites.  I'm sad that we didn't get any with his great dimples, but I'm sure there will be many pictures like that in the future.

This is one of the only other ones. He is actually sitting on Michael's lap.  It's not the best, but it's him. :)

Out of the 120 pictures, literally almost half of them are of Olivia.  While we were walking around the park Michael even said to me, "This has turned into an Olivia shoot."  She was hamming it up and the photographer thought she was just the cutest thing, so she just kept snapping away.  I'm going to have to do a whole separate post for her.

Family Pictures

Our family pictures were originally scheduled for a Saturday morning a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately it was raining.  It has been raining for weeks it seems.  So we rescheduled for a Monday night.  It happened to be a really warm evening.  It was close to Logan's bedtime, so I was worried how it would all go but it turned out pretty good.

I had been wanting to get pictures taken for awhile.  We didn't do newborn pictures with Logan, so I was feeling the pressure to get some pictures while he was little.  Plus, we needed some updated family pictures. It was also almost time to do Olivia's three year pictures.  So we just did an all in one.

I saw a posting on one of my local mom groups for a spring photography session.  She is a stay at home mom who does it on the side so the price was relatively cheap for how much full length sessions go.  She said we would get 50 to 70 edited photos and she was charging what most people charge for a "mini session" (short period of time for 5 to 10 photos).  So I jumped on it!

We were there about an hour and we ended up with 120 edited photos!!!

This is a favorite of ours.  It's hard to get two kiddos to look at the same time!

Nice tongue, Logan!

It's always stressful for me, and I wasn't sure how amateur pictures would turn out but I am pleased.

One looking...

...and then the other one looking.

I wanted a picture of each of us with the kids by ourselves.  This is the only one that she got of the three of us.

But she also snapped this one when we were walking from place to place.  I actually don't hate it.  I love that Logan is looking back.

Olivia wouldn't stop hugging Michael, so his turned out like this. :)

Sweet girl loves her Boppa.

I really like this one!  Logan is actually almost smiling instead of looking confused.

There are so many that I really do love.  I'm going to have to break the posts up though, because the files are so big.  So more to come...

OMT-Take 2

(A pre-haircut picture)

We had Logan's follow up OMT appointment yesterday.  Outside of having to wait for the doctor for far too long, it went well.  She said that she could feel the muscle in the back of his neck strengthening.  She was also pleased that she observed him easily looking from side to side instead of just favoring the one side.  She also said that the flat spot on the one side has rounded nicely and started to fix itself.  She did the treatment on him (similar to a chiropractor adjustment, but not really an adjustment--I just don't know how else to explain it).  It must have made him feel better too, because he was in such a good mood all night.  He even went 3 hours of being awake before bedtime, which is unusual for him.

We don't have to go back.  He's made such good progress in the last month that we just have to keep on doing what we are doing.  Originally she had said to try to do tummy time each wake cycle.  He has roughly 5 wake cycles a day and I was doing great to get 3 sessions in.  Really, who wants to do tummy time from 6 to 7:30 in the morning? Not me!  And hearing your baby scream for 5 minutes straight multiple times a day is just not fun.  Yesterday she said that I need to be doing it as much as possible.  She said, "I mean like 10 times a day. Not just 2 or 3."  I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped. 10 times a day!?!?  I replied that I was trying to do it each wake cycle.  She said that was good, but that if he was just screaming each time, then I needed to get him up, get him happy again, and then maybe try again in another half hour or so.  Basically, at this point it's not that he can't lift his head.  It's just that it is hard for him (big head problems), so he just doesn't want to and gets mad.  We need to continue to put him in that position so that he gets use to it.  If he can be on his tummy without instantly going into a rage then he can actually lift his head up for a bit.  She said that unfortunately the size of his head just makes it hard work for him, so he just gets frustrated.  She said we all do that.  If something is hard or we just aren't good at it, we just want to give up and quit.  Practice makes perfect.  So that is where we are.  A pretty good report.

He got weighed while he was there.  He was 15 1/2 pounds.  He also got his 3 month shots.

We took advantage of the trip and got Olivia her MMR.  We were waiting until her 3 year appointment to do it, which will be next month.  However, there has been a huge outbreak of measles in Ohio because of an Amish community getting infected.  So I figured we'd just move the shot up a month to be safe.  She took it like a champ!

Night Trained

Since I use my blog as a way to keep track and remember things about my kids, I thought I'd go ahead and give one last update on Olivia and her potty training.

You may remember that I didn't really even want to potty train her when I did, but she was ready and I didn't want to miss my window of opportunity. We used the 3 day method and it worked wonderfully.  She was going all by herself before the end of day 3.  In the scheme of potty training toddlers, we have had very few accidents and none of them have been while we were out and about (thankfully!).

You may also remember that I had no desire to night train her.  First, because she sleeps 12 hours and woke up every single day with a soaked diaper. Second, because she doesn't know how to open her door and get out of her room. And third, even though there is a bathroom across the hall from her, she doesn't prefer to use it and it is a little more complicated with having to use a step stool, etc.

Well, after one week of being potty trained Olivia basically night trained herself.  She started waking up dry and continued to do so.  I'm pretty sure she only woke up wet twice since she has been potty trained in late January.  Even so, we continued to put diapers (we had so many left) and then pull ups for both night time and naps.

Twice she woke up at 1:30 in the morning crying that she had to pee. I had to get up, take her to the bathroom, and then put her back to bed.  She was wearing a diaper, but she refused to go in it.

So a few weeks ago when Michael got laid off I just decided that buying pull ups to just throw away dry was a waste and that if she may have an accident here or there (she hasn't yet) that it would be cheaper just to wash the sheets.  Besides that, it appears that if she does have to go she is just going to wake me up in the middle of the night. So since then she has been going to bed at night and nap in her underwear.  We haven't had a single issue.

So there you have it.  She is basically completely potty trained.  She still doesn't prefer to go when we are out and about, but she will if she really has to or if we coax her enough.  She also refuses to pull her pants up, so we still have to help her when she is done.  Baby steps.  She will have no choice but to master this by the time preschool starts though, so it will be happening this summer.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Logan's First Haircut

Yep.  I finally did it.  He got his first haircut at 3 months.  (That cannot be normal, right?)

C'mon.  That is out of control!

I kept having to tuck his hair behind his ears.  You shouldn't have to do that for a boy! :)  And when it would be in front of his ears it sort of looked like he had weird sideburns or something.  He looked Amish to me.

Who knew one could come out of the womb needing a haircut?  And then it grew like a weed. Holy Cow!

So it was time to trim it up!  I was waiting until after our family pictures in case I messed it up.

Luckily he sat pretty still for me.

He is just so yummy!

I cut about an inch and a half off of the sides and the back.

Hopefully it looks alright when it dries.  I'm not professional.

I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more haircuts in our future.

My Mother's Day

My Mother's Day might have been a little unconventional to some people, but it was perfect for me.

It actually started around 3:30 AM when Logan woke up for his middle of the night feeding and I did not have to get up and do it.  I didn't get up with him at 5:30 AM when he decided he wanted his day to start.  Michael's goal was to allow me to sleep in as long as I wanted to.  Although I heard Olivia on the monitor before Michael did, so I got up at 7:20.  It's not quite sleeping in compared to my old standards, but since my days have been starting between 5:30 and 6 AM the past month I will take 7:20!

Michael went and got me Starbucks.  That has been our thing since we first got married. I get Starbucks for breakfast on my birthday and on Mother's Day.  It's one of my love languages. ;)

We sat around and had a relaxing morning.  Then Michael took care of the kids while I got ready. In peace.  There was no baby sitting in a bouncer on the bathroom floor, or a toddler pulling back the curtain saying "Mommy, what are you doing?".  It was just me and my super hot water. Ahhh.

So if you read yesterday's post, then you know that Michael was unemployed.  His gift to me was time alone.  He decided that he would take the kids to his mom's house and that I could just go and have the day to myself.  Some people may think that is strange. To some, Mother's Day equals spending quality time with your children.  But I am a stay at home mom.  I spend all day, every day, with my children.  And with Michael being off work these past two weeks, we have had plenty of family time.  He figured that this was a win/win.  I get time by myself.  His mom gets to see her grandbabies. And he got help with the kids.  Perfect.

I tried to come up with something to do that would be relatively cheap, but still enjoyable.

I started out at the movie theater.  The first matinee of the day is only $5.

I saw Mom's Night Out.

It was cute, relatable, funny, and wholesome.

From there I headed to lunch.  Some girls in one of the groups I'm in had mentioned PANERA the other day, so I had a bit of a craving for it.

I needed a few health and beauty products, so I wandered TARGET.  Did I mention I was by myself!?

What would a day by myself be without checking out a craft store?  I would have loved to walk Hobby Lobby, but since it was Sunday I settled for JOANN'S.  I'm working on a menu board for my kitchen.  I found a frame for 60% off, so I snatched it up.

From there I headed to KOHL'S.  I had $10 worth of rewards to spend.  I ended up finding a picture for my kitchen.  With the $10 free and a 20% off coupon, plus the fact that it was on sale for 50% off, I spent $2.50.  Not too shabby.

Lastly, I roamed the aisles of HOME GOODS before heading back to my mother-in-law's house.

We had dinner there, headed home to put the kids to bed, and had a relaxing evening.

In the movie, the husband of the lead actress talked about how on an airplane you have to put on the oxygen mask on yourself before you can help others.  He told his wife to "put on the oxygen mask" and take care of herself so that she could be a better wife and mom.  I'm thankful that I was able to take some time for myself and put on my oxygen mask.  Even more so, that my husband knew that this would be the perfect gift for me at this stage in my life.  It may have seemed like an odd gift to some, but it was just the kind of thing I needed.