Confessions Of A Scrapaholic

Summer Movie Recap

With all of the moving/baby craziness this summer, I forgot to post about our Family Movie Nights! Granted, they weren't as elaborate as they have been in the past, but were still very fun.

I had such grand plans for Flushed Away movie night. It was scheduled to play at sunset on the beach at Lake Washington. Personally, I think that is even cooler than a drive-in (although I am looking for one of those too.) As luck would have it, after a gorgeous week of almost 90 degree weather, the day Flushed Away was scheduled to play it decided to downpour rain. Grrrrr. I was holding out hope until the last minute, but as cool as a beach movie sounded, sitting on wet sand in a drizzle sounded worse. So, we watched Flushed Away at home with Kelly's Dad. The impromptu treat? Gummy worms. Kind of sewer like, right? Although if you ever do plan to watch this for FMN at your house, I would recommend some slug like dessert. There are lots of slugs in the movie. Hilarious slugs. LOL!

I know what you are thinking. Why are we dressed like pirates to watch Jonah and the Whale? That is because I got Zoë all excited to watch The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and as it turns out, the movie wasn't being released to DVD until October. BUT the pirates are also main characters in Jonah so I think it worked out. Some gold wrapped chocolates as treats and we were set, although  when we watched The Pirates in October our treat will definitely be Cheetos Puffs (the pirates LOVE rootbeer and cheese curls.) We had to watch the movie upstairs in the playroom where our portable A/C unit was running. It was cooling the room to a balmy 85 degrees instead of the 90+ degrees in the rest of the house. Bleck.

Cars (or Movie Cars as my nephew Harry calls it) was our last FMN with just the three of us. It doesn't look terribly fancy but it was quite the special night. Kelly went to Matt's Gourmet Hotdogs (Zoë's very favorite restaurant) and picked up dinner for the movie...which she got to eat IN the family room. Hotdogs are definitely not my thing, but Kelly and Zoë were very happy campers. Add a racing flag and some race car tires (mini chocolate doughnuts) and you have one fun night. Seriously though, that movie is FOREVER long. Have you noticed that? It kept Zoë's attention but the end really drags on.

Last up (from last weekend) Nim's Island. Eden's first FMN. She was clearly enthralled with the movie as you can see. LOL! It took a bit of convincing to get Zoë to watch it, but we all liked the movie. I am actually going to go buy the DVD this weekend. It is darling. Of course, I am a bit neurotic when it comes to germs so Jody Foster's character was beyond funny to me. The treats? Little islands. :) I used dessert cakes as the base, tinted some Cool Whip blue, piped it around the island (using a ziploc bag) and reused the trees from our Madagascar FMN treats as a finishing touch. Those were definitely a big hit. 

There you have it! I am racking up quite the collection of FMN photos. I am itching to start scrapping them but I haven't quite decided on the format. I am leaning towards the same layout for each movie to create a coordinated look. Then there is the problem of a different number of photos for each movie. Hmmmm. If you are having FMN at your house, what are you planning to do with your photos?

Mommy Must Have's

There have been so many baby innovations since Zoë was a baby. It is amazing how quickly baby gear advances. Here are a couple that I have been using the last few weeks that I just love.

Ergo Baby Carrier
My sister-in-law Janice recommended this carrier to me. She has tried all of them, literally, and told me that this one was the one to buy. I tend to believe her. She works at a baby boutique and finds all of the coolest gadgets and gizmos. If you need a product review, she is your girl. I tried out the Ergo Baby the other day and Janice was not wrong. It is super comfortable to wear and Eden likes being in it. You can carry babies from newborn to FOUR years old in it! Seriously! It converts from a side sling carrier to a front carrier to a backpack carrier. How cool is that?

My Breast Friend
Admittedly, the name is cheesy, but this is a fantastic product. They had them at the doctor's office when we went in for Eden's well baby check last week. The nurse had me use it when she was checking Eden's latch. It is soooo comfortable. Unlike a Boppy, it wraps around your entire body and helps support your back while you are nursing. I also like that it is flat on top which makes it easier (I think) to position the baby. Don't get me wrong, I would never give up my Boppy, it is great for propping up the baby, BUT this pillow is much much better for feeding Eden. It has saved my back. I was always getting hunched over with the Boppy.

Ju-Ju-Be PackaBe Diaper Bag
We received this amazing diaper bag as a baby gift. Boy am I glad that didn't take the tags off of the one that I bought before Eden was born. This bag, besides being cute, is surprisingly spacious and functional. I absolutely love it AND it coordinates with the BeQuick that Janice bought for me a few months back (remember I told you she finds the coolest things.) These will definitely be on my baby gift list from now on. I am very impressed with this company, and it doesn't hurt that their products are gorgeous.

Definitely post a comment if you can recommend any other must-have items. I am loving all of these new products and since I can't drive anywhere for four more weeks, online shopping is my friend. Hehehe. (Now let's just hope Kelly doesn't read that, shall we?)

Double Take

I told you that Eden looks exactly like Zoë when she was a baby, but I don't think you can truly appreciate the similarity unless you see it with your own eyes. Check it out. My "twins." (Click on the image to view larger.)

They may look alike, but I can assure you, they are as different as night and day. Even knowing that, it still amazes me how much they look alike. Apparently we only know how to make one model. Hehehe.

The Details...

We are adjusting nicely to having a new baby at home. Eden is the sweetest little thing. She looks exactly like Zoë when she was a baby. (I will be definitely be posting side by side photos soon.) She may look just like her big sister, but there is a night and day difference. Eden sleeps most of the day, hardly ever cries, and is content to just sit and watch the world around her. I've got to say, I wouldn't trade Zoë for the world, but it is certainly a nice change. :) We are still struggling to master nursing, but I am not giving up. That is pretty much what takes up most of my day and nights.

A week ago our journey began (admittedly not as cool as "In a Galaxy Far Far Away" but I do what I can.) I copied Jenn's idea and got my hair cut/styled the day before Eden arrived. Excellent idea, Jenn.  I went to my usual stylist. She does a great job with my hair. However, I think next time I need to be a teensy bit more specific in the description I give her. I told her that I would like a bit more shape to my hair, that she could shorten it a bit if she'd like, but that I had to be able to tuck it behind my ear. As much as I try to fight it, I am an ear tucker. She styled my hair and it looked amazing...from the front. Then she spun me around to see the back. I have almost no hair the back!!! My hair has never been this short in my entire life. I didn't freak out or anything, just thanked her and went on my way. Honestly, I think I was in a bit of shock. It doesn't look terrible, and yes it has been amazingly easy to keep up, but I will definitely be letting the back grow out. It's only hair after all, right? And 90% of pictures are taken from the front so I am not too worried.

Kelly took the afternoon off of work and we spent our last afternoon together as a family of three. Then it was home to check off the last few items of our to do list. Kel and I were up until midnight and had to be up at 4am. (You know how I find all sorts of things that must be done before I go anywhere.)

We checked into the hospital at 5:30am and they put us in a pre-op room to get me ready for surgery, but also because all of the rooms were full. Apparently last week was crazy busy. The hospital actually had a record number of births the previous Saturday, 21. Why? Now is when all the Christmas & New Year's babies are being born. LOL! I was hooked up to the monitors and prepared for surgery then we waited. And waited. There was a woman in labor who's baby was breach so my c-section was bumped by about an hour. We didn't really mind, her situation was much more urgent than ours.

When the O.R. opened up they walked Kelly and I down for the c-section. Now that was strange...walking calmly down the hall to go have a baby. As soon as we got to the doorway I started shaking. I wasn't scared at all, but I my hand was shaking uncontrollably. The anesthesiologist said it was adrenaline and I am inclined to believe him. I laid down on the table and he gave me a spinal block (Kelly tells me that the needle was much smaller than the epidural needle.) I laid there for a few minutes while I slowly felt everything go numb. Then, a few minutes later we had a baby. Crazy.

I was wheeled back to the pre-op room to "recover" and to wait for an actual room to open up. Kelly called all the grandparents and our brothers. And (being the nerds that we are) took a picture with his phone and emailed/text messaged friends.

We were in the room for about an hour and the nurse came to announce that we had a visitor. Huh? Zoë and Marie weren't going to arrive at the hospital until after noon. In walks my mother. (Who lives five hours away in Spokane) who decided to drive over and surprise us. We were definitely surprised. She wasn't supposed to be here until Sunday.

As much as I was enjoying my time with my sweet baby, I could hardly wait to see Zoë's reaction to her little sister. She certainly didn't disappoint. She ran into the room, "Eden! Awwww, she's soooo CUTE!" She absolutely loves her little sister. She wanted to hold her immediately and we happily obliged. (Thankfully the novelty still hasn't worn off and she thinks "Baby Burb" is pretty awesome.)

Kelly, bless his heart, made his best attempt to not work. Unfortunately it appears that his entire company grinds to a screeching halt when he is gone. Eden had just been born and he was already getting 911 calls from his business partner and operations manager because of crisis in the office. I wasn't angry with Kelly at all, he was just as frustrated as I was, if not more. Seriously, they couldn't leave him alone for even six flipping hours? Here he is multi-tasking, holding Eden just after he got off the phone.

I don't know what we would have done without Marie. She was so helpful and supportive the entire time we were at the hospital. She stayed at our house with Zoë and took her to school each day. She kept me company in the hospital. She picked up the hospital room and brought me ice. And she took pictures for me. Oh did she take pictures. I love that girl. I couldn't get out of the bed until Thursday since I was hooked up to all sorts of things, and Marie captured every special moment for us. Here are some of my favorites. Thank you Marie! We love you!

We had lots of visitors which was nice. My Aunt Mary and cousin Brett came by on Wednesday. That ended up working out well. My Aunt Mary was scheduled to fly back to Spokane that evening and instead drove back with my Mom. (Yep, she drove over for four hours.) Our friends came by the next day. It was a nice flow of visitors, just enough that we weren't overwhelmed or bored.

There you have it. Now we are home and adjusting nicely. Friday, Kelly's Dad arrived a few hours after we got home. He is so helpful. He finished all sorts of projects around the house with Kelly. (Including picking up our new bedroom furniture. Yay!) Sunday, Kelly's Dad left and my Mom came. I think my BIL and SIL are coming for a visit at the end of the month for Kel's birthday. We are certainly utilizing our guest bedroom. We have had more visitors in the last week then we have in a year. LOL! I suppose that comes with the territory though. :)

A Quick Photo

I wanted to post a quick picture of our sweet baby girl. I will be posting details and more pictures once we get home today. :) Thank you all for your well wishes and congratulations!

Our New Little Princess

Pictures and all the details coming soon. :)

The Decorating Bug

I have been on a decorating kick lately. True, it could be nesting, but I think it is more of a just-moved-into-a-new house kind of thing. The whole house is a blank slate, waiting for some personality. I have been trying to do it a little at a time, and especially waiting to buy pieces of furniture until I find something that I absolutely love, not just something to fill a space.

I have been making pretty good progress on the bedrooms. I ordered grown up bedroom furniture for the master which should be arriving any day. Now I just need to decide on an accent color for accessories and some draperies. No rush there.

Last night Kelly hung up the curtain rod in Zoë's room so I can hang her valances today when she wakes up, and hopefully I can talk him into doing Eden's room tonight. (Depending on what time he gets home.) The nursery is organized but I wouldn't say it is completely decorated. I bought three white frames at IKEA a couple weeks back but have yet to decide a) what to put in them and b) where to place them. Again, no real hurry there since Eden isn't even going to be in her nursery for at least the first few weeks. I would love to do something like this, maybe of Zoë holding Eden and fabric in the other two?

Now for the playroom. I am very happy with the way this space is coming together but it still needs some finishing touches. I saw this great piece in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and immediately fell in love with it, but not the price tag. Instead, I found something similar and bought it through Direct Buy for a fraction of the price. The downside? We won't have it for 10-12 weeks. Annoying, but definitely worth the savings.

I finished up Zoë's family tree the other day as well. I painted one in her bedroom at our townhouse along with a castle and promised her that I would do another in the new house. I went more modern this time around. I was inspired by some vinyl wall art that I saw at The Land of Nod. Our tree needed to be much bigger. We have a very large family. :) You can't tell from the picture, but we also use the tree as a growth chart. I wrote down the measurements from the old tree and transfered them to the new tree. It is amazing to see how much Zoë has grown in the last two years. Actually, it is amazing to see how much she has grown in the last three months, almost two inches!!! Now all I need to do is print off some new family pictures to put on the tree. I also decided to copy Jenn's idea and put the girl's names on the wall. Love it.

I also framed some of Zoë's "masterpieces" for the playroom. They will be super easy to switch out and she is so proud to see them hanging on the wall. A few days ago Lisa posted a great link to inexpensive decorating ideas. You should definitely check that out.

Still on the list is finding some fabric to coordinate with the family tree in the playroom. I want to find a fabric that incorporates all of the colors to use for curtains and throw pillows, and maybe some sort of crafty wall art. If you are sew inclined - ha! - and you see a fabric line that would coordinate please send me a link. I went to the fabric store today and found all sorts of beautiful fabric, just nothing in my color palette. Ugh!

I also need to paint a mural or some how decorate Zoë's cubby under the stairs. I was hoping to do that before Eden was born (painting with stitches is just not going to happen) but I can't really decide on a theme. I don't want to go in there without a plan. It has the potential to be so darling and I don't want to mess it up. (Or spend hours painting, only to change my mind in six months.)

That's all for now. We are down to a day and half and I've need to do a little bit more organizing. (That would be the nesting kicking in again.) Have a good day!

Did she say FOUR pounds?

I had my last OB check-up yesterday. It is hard to believe that this time next week I will have a new baby. Craziness! Everything went as usual during the check-up except for the weigh in. I haven't been paying much attention to the scale for the last few months because I am doing so much better in the weight gain department this time around. Let's compare, shall we? First up, tummy shots from my pregnancy with Zoë.

It's OK, you can say it. I got HUGE! I was not about to let that happen again. Here are the tummy shots from my pregnancy with Eden.

You can imagine my surprise when the nurse told me that I gained FOUR POUNDS in the last week. Um, excuse me? Don't you think that if I had gained four pounds in a week my pants would being getting snug? Or spandex like? The nurse was very sweet and said, "Well, you have less than a week to go, maybe it is water weight." So I showed her my feet/legs. Her eyes got wide and she said, "WOW! I don't know how I missed those. Yep, that is where the four pounds is." I have some seriously swollen feet/legs. There are no words. Except maybe Fred Flinstone.

The doctors suggestion? Cut salt out of my diet. I smugly reassured her that I don't eat a lot of salt. I'm not a snacker. She smiled and nodded then proceeded to pop my happy little food bubble.

Doctor: Do you eat cheese?

Me: Yes.

Doctor: Then you eat lots of salt.

Doctor: What did you eat for breakfast?

Me: Oatmeal and a banana. (It doesn't get healthier than that, right?)

Doctor: Instant oatmeal?

Me: Yes.

Doctor: That is loaded with salt.

Crap! I went through the cabinets last night and as it turns out, all the food we eat is loaded with salt.  And here I thought we were being so healthy! Foods that I never dreamed were high in salt are filled! Wheat Chex, tortillas, canned black beans and tomatoes... the list goes on and on. I am kind of freaking out.  Now I am on a mission to find some healthy food for my family to eat (swollen feet aside.) Any suggestions?

More Good Things

I jotted down a few more good things over the last few days to share with you. They were supposed to be on the original list but I....

Wait. What was I saying?

Oh yes, good things. I forgot.

Pregnancy brain has most definitely set in. I can't tell you how many times I have looked at my last blog post to see what is on my to-do list. Kelly likes to tease me and says, "Well at least we will have smart kids (since they are obviously eating your brain) and you are cute." Sweet man. ;)

First up, Bake Me A Wish birthday cakes. I found this great website on my Mom's birthday. Zoë wanted to make her a birthday cake. Since we live on opposite sides of the state I thought I would look into a delivery services. Voila! Now, instead of sending people flowers on their birthday, they get cake. It is roughly the same price and yummy! My Mom and Kelly's grandma both said their cakes were delicious. (Which is more than I can say about the cakes I make.)

Next, Medela Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags. These little sanitizing bags are pure genius! You can reuse each bag 20x and they sanitize pump accessories, bottles, binkies, etc. in 1.5 minutes. It doesn't get any easier than that. I got all of Eden's baby paraphernalia sterilized in less than ten minutes. I actually stocked up on all sorts of Medela products this time around in hopes of having better success nursing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I don't remember them having all of these items when Zoë was born. I don't know if it is because they are new, or because I had no clue what to even look for last time. LOL!

Another Good Thing: Babies R' Us
Babies R' Us is an awesome store. If you are having a baby, you must find one. It is well worth the drive. I have never seen such a selection or concentration of baby supplies. They have everything under the sun! I found all sorts of things that I never knew I always needed. :) Honestly though, the nursing section alone is worth the trip. I haven't found such a wide variety of products anywhere.

Now I don't know if this falls into the good things category or not, it is definitely not a necessity, but I think they are hilarious.

My very favorite card is:
"If I've learned one thing in my initial time as a parent, it's that I owe you, my partner in this venture, some apologies. One for engaging in that back-and-forth opera of semi-conscious snorts and moans to suggest I was still asleep when the baby started crying at 4am. One for figuring out our baby's pooping schedule so that 'my turn' always falls on a pee diaper. And one for passing our right before our long-awaited date night."

And then there is this little gem:

Alrighty, I am off to the doctor for my last check-up. The next time I see her will be at the hospital next Wednesday morning. Eek! Is it just me, or have the last nine months just flown by?