My living room has been a mess for months

We have been, well, I want to say tirelessly working on re-doing our living room for the past two months,  but it definitely hasn't been tirelessly.  Let me tell you I have been full of tiredness.  It started when I saw a beautiful gray sectional and ottoman at Costco that I loved, in our price range.  I told Andy about it brought him back the next day.  We listed our current stuff on craigslist.  Went back the next day to get measurements of the sectional and solidify it in our minds that it was the right piece for us only to find out they were sold out, completely out and not getting anymore.  You know just the way it works at  Costco. As we left disappointed our current furniture sold on the way home. We spent the rest of the weekend looking, found something we liked, bought it and had to wait over a month for it to arrive.  Still not sure why I picked dark brown again when it was gray that set this all into motion, and also the fact that I have been really  loving the light airy look.  But alas it's what we got, and it is slick so the dog hair won't stick.  Pretty sure I would be hating life if I had to brush dog hair off of the sofa everyday.  Things are slowly coming together but there is still much to do.  But top of this pregnant momma's list was a foot rest of some sort.  Must be able to put feet up.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait too long for the exact inexpensive piece to appear because I HAD to be able to put my feet up soon. 

So that brings me to the current story.  How I popped into Gordman's yesterday to look for mirrors actually.  And spotted this storage ottoman on the top shelf, fairly similar to what I had in mind.  Though I didn't know exactly what I wanted this seemed to be it.  I may have preferred a lighter tan or a gray, gray would have been really perfect, but this, this I can work with.  I found someone to get it down for me.  And realized it was even lined with cedar, I liked it a little more.  The price was a little more than I wanted to pay but thought I just might bite the bullet and do it anyway because I really needed to get my feet up.  But all smart shoppers know you should NEVER buy something from Gordman's without a coupon.  They are a dime a dozen and it would be dumb not to use one.  I probably had one on my email at home, but I asked an employee and she said they were handing some out.  Turns out it was one of those scratch off ones where you take it to the register and the cashier scratches it off and you can get anywhere from 15% to 50% of one item. I prayed the whole way up to the front of the store not even daring to think I would be lucky enough for the 50% off.  That never happens for me, I was just hoping it would be more than 15% off. Ok I was actually praying for the 50% off telling God that I know I didn't deserve it but how nice it would be to get half off of this ottoman. and wouldn't you know it, I felt like the happiest person alive in that moment when the cashier said "you got 50% off".  WooHoo!!! Thank you God for little answers to prayer. 

Now I just have to convince the boys that it is in fact not a hiding spot. No you can't let your brother get in there and then sit on the lid.  No you can't roll it across the floor (it doesn't have wheels so rolling means onto it's side and then onto the lid.)  Once we get that across I think we will be in good shape.

Half-way there

Well by now I am past half way but it took me three weeks to get this post done. I will be 23 weeks tomorrow. No we didn't find out girl/boy at our ultrasound.  It's just wait and see.  I have thought from the beginning that we will have another boy.  Seems likely in my opinion.  Dane has been telling everyone that he is going to have a baby sister, quite convincingly too.  Though I keep trying to prep him in case he has a brother, then he just looks confused and says "no, we're just having one baby".  I feel pretty much the same this pregnancy.  I hate mint right now, still don't have tons of energy (doesn't help that we are buried under projects going on on the home front).  This one doesn't seem quite as active, but only lately has it started getting to be tight in there so time will tell how wiggly this one will be. Baby 3 definitely didn't want to show their face during the ultrasound.  Most of the pictures we got were like this.

or like this......

the only brief face shot we got

 

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Here and here are the ultra sound pictures of Dane and Cade.

Frugal Foaming Finger Cleaner (aka Hand soap)

I have found that the foaming hand soap works best around here.  Since I have one little boy who thinks he needs a hand completely full of soap to get his fingers clean.  The liquid soap goes fast and makes a huge mess in the sink.  I also really like using the Method brand soap.  No reason really, I just do.  But right now I can hardly tolerate any perfumey scents and there is only one maybe two scents of Method foaming refills that I can find and I only like the Sweet Water scent. Dilemma. I decided to go against the rules on the soap pump and see if I could make my own foaming hand soap with out clogging my pump.  I did some googling for ratio's of water to soap and found a little variety.  So true to form I winged it.  I filled my pump up maybe a quarter of an inch up the container with soap and filled the rest of the container with water.  The only thing to be careful of is to not add the water too fast lest you create a foaming mess.  Have you ever heard how to pour beer?  Let it hit the side of the glass first so it won't foam over.  Same thing with the water and add it real slow. Once the water is in, put the pump on, shake it up gently to mix the soap and it works perfectly.  This also means that my refill will last a looooong time!

Tea Towel Throw Pillows

Before

 This is idea is not original to me.  I think I saw it on the Nate Berkus Show or maybe even Pinterest, but I filed the idea away in my mind for later.  It literally took like 10 minutes and I had new throw pillows.  All you need is:
Tea Towel
12x15 throw pillow
Pins
And sewing gear

You fold the towel pretty side in to measure approximately 12 inches with the ends overlapping in the middle.  I did not measure because I had the old pillow cover to go off from.  Then pin the sides,  (NOT the overlapping ends) and sew each side shut.  Turn right side out and shove pillow inside.  Easy Peasy. I know this is probably vague directions, but that's how I roll once I get an idea in my head.

After

I didn't even worry about the current towel hem showing since I barely sewed the sides together.  I think it adds a little extra detail.

My Valentine's

I love looking at other people's attempts to make a holiday special for their family, and usually I think that is awesome I could totally do that next year or the next holiday and then before I know it the special day is upon us and I have done nothing in preparation.  Same goes for this year.  Monday I was really dragging, a combination of winter and pregnancy.  So I did not come prepared Tuesday morning for Dane's last tumbling class and party where most of the kids brought treats.  He seemed rather disappointed and confused, though he bounced back quickly and tried to cut in on his friend and hand out their candy for them.  So we headed to Target afterward so he could at least bring treats to his Cubbies party on Wednesday.  As we were walking through the valentines section I saw some sprinkles.  And by the way I have always loved Valentines day.  I love the hearts, the pinks and reds, the decorations and all the cheesiness involved, and really why not have a day set aside to do something extra special for those you love, if we treated everyday the same then life would be boring.  After grabbing the sprinkles I decided we should make some sugar cookies, which in my mind is almost a must, but after going mostly gluten free around here it has really taken the joy out of baking and I hardly do it anymore.  But I remembered I had a GF sugar cookie mix in the pantry and a can of frosting which is very unusual around here since I much prefer the real stuff.  But for this last minute idea it worked out perfectly. 

The boys helped me mix them up.  After naps Dane helped me decorate them and then we ate them together in the tent for a little party. We each had two, quite the sugar buzz, I tell you.

I had to bribe Dane with a cookie to get him to wear that shirt, then he insisted on the tie.

I had to continue to use the cookie as leverage in order to get a few pictures.

 While we were making cookies I remembered Andy was making us a special dinner, and thought maybe I would try and decorate and make it a special valentine's party, so it wouldn't all be on Andy to make the meal nice. I went in search of anything red, pink or white that I could use to spiff the place up.  I found a red streamer, and some Christmas wrapping paper to use for a table cloth.  Some heart shaped bowls and pink flowers.  And Dane found a red punching balloon that I confiscated until after dinner.

 

On the menu was: 

Gnocchi with bacon and a white wine sauce

Asparagus 

Spinach Salad

Creme Brulee

Trying to flag down our waiter for a refill

It turned out to be a fun filled day and the boys were bouncing off the walls excited for most of it.

Lastest project- a must read **with edit

For the past three months I have been putting all my efforts into growing a new baby!  And let me tell you it is hard work. Exhausting actually.  Hopefully I will get a second trimester wind here soon.  So far I feel pretty much the same as I did with the boys.  The morning sickness hits at night, I don't get sick but I feel disgusting most evenings.  And I walk around huffing and puffing like an obese person trying to exercise.

Here is the new little gummy bear

The most repulsive thing this time around is mint- in any form. Including toothpaste and gum.  Yup, I share Dane's tooth paste, actually I bought my own bubble sparkle toothpaste and it's pretty much fruity gum here on out.  In my other two pregnancies my mouth needed to be minty fresh at all times, though I did have to change flavors of mint on a weekly basis.  Dane, the little stinker, Andy told him one day to be careful and not blow his minty gum breath in my face.  So what do you think most three year olds would do?  Yup, at every opportunity he will get in my face and blow his minty gum breath on me. Gag.

Another weird repulsion.  This past summer and fall I was obsessed with mustard yellow.  I wanted a pair of ballet flats that color, a scarf, a purse.  I had one mustard yellow tank top and a necklace I wore with about everything.  For Christmas I received a yellow scarf which I loved, and I used some money to go purse shopping.  I found what I thought was perfect and it was yellow and a great size.  Well, not a week later the very sight of it became repulsive.  But now I am stuck, because I don't really feel like shopping yet. Maybe a purse in grey is what I will look for this time.

such a pretty color, why does it make me want to barf now?

**I forgot to add my due date is August 7th, and I don't think we will find out this time but I still have time to change my mind on that one :o)

In with the new, out with the old

What do these two have in common?  Answer:  They both suck.  One in a good way, one in a bad.  The one on the left is old news.  Finally.  We have had it since we got married over 8 years ago.  And it was fine in our first 1 bedroom apartment, then in our mostly wood floor house.  But now, since we have carpet and a disgusting dog that lives in our house, well it just wasn't cutting it.  The new purchase was long over due.  I mean that old one smelled like dog butt, I couldn't even keep it in the hall closet anymore because it made our coats smell like burnt dog.  It was banished to the garage.  But really who wants to spend money on a vacuum?  Not me.  We found this wonderful Dyson at a refurbished vacuum shop for about half the price of a new one, plus they put a 1 year warranty on it.  My new best friend and I vacuum almost everyday, not because I like to but because of the dog.  And I can say it is quite satisfying to see how much that vacuum picks up every time.  There is even one entry way that I was getting ready to call the carpet cleaners in for and that has seemed to lighted up too.