Laugh to get you through the rest of the week

So I thought we all might need some laughter to get us through the rest of the work week! I've always been a big fan of the Ellen Degeneres show, she's just so darn funny :) She has this new thing she's been doing called "dance dares". She explains it in the video below and then shows you some examples. Take a look and be prepared to laugh! I also encourage you to do this as well, it's hilarious!





I don't know what's so funny about dancing when people don't know it, but it is! Have a great Thursday.

Michelle's Bonus Room Renovation

Michelle here again.  First things first, I still don't want my own blog. I hate having something "lurking" over my head. If I did have my own blog, I'd write the whole weeks worth on Sunday nights. I hate having things on my to do list, I'd need to knock it all out at once. That being said a week here and there, no biggie!

If you recall back when I guest blogged a long time ago, probably it was back in July? that we were THINKING about finishing our bonus room, in anticipation for selling our house. Well, guess what, WE DID! We actually have had it finished a while, give or take back in Septemberish. Actually, we worked in bits and pieces, but by October it was done. James put up the insulation, connected the heating/air stuff, reframed a closet,  and he painted himself. We needed to pay someone to do dry wall (because I couldn't help much when holding the ones for the ceiling up), carpet, and electrical. Let's be honest, I wasn't much help overall :) I did paint the trim and found that I really don't mind doing that. I chose the same gray that my mom has in her downstairs because I knew I liked it. You know how some grays come out blue or who knows what. As expected, the color turned out great. I had  bunch of pictures of our process, but my phone pictures got erased :( I do have some though, so take a look.

Me "helping"

and now for the final product, drum roll please............

TA DA!

What do you think?? 

Happy Birthday James!

Still guest blogger Michelle here!

Happy 29th birthday to my wonderful husband James!! I hope he has a great day! 

We went to Perini Ranch Steak House to celebrate last week and it was DELICIOUS! We also went to see the Hunger Games (more on that later) on Friday!

 I made funfetti cake balls for the first time, too!! They turned out AMAZING and we loved everything about them. In fact, I'm still eating them :) 

I'll leave you with a normal picture of James and myself in honor of his birthday! I still feel like we're 21, but apparently that was 8 years ago. 

Guest Blogger Alert!

Hey there!

Jen's twin sister Michelle here. She forced encouraged me to take over her blog for a little bit so she could tend to baby boy Max. I don't have much to blog about hence why I don't have a blog of my own :) Luckily, she's been telling me this for a while so I've got a couple things to talk about. First, let's catch you up on what's been going on with me. I know most of you know my husband's in the Air Force. We just got word of our new assignment. We've been in Abilene, TX for just about 4 years now so we knew it was coming up. He flies the C-130 now, but will be transitioning to be a T-6 pilot instructor. He learned to fly with the T-6 back in the day and I think he'll really enjoy his new position. We will be leaving Abilene in late July for San Antonio, TX (4 hours south of us). We LOVE San Antonio and are VERY excited!

San Antonio River Walk

They have my favorite restaurant, too Pei Wei! San Antonio also has Sea World, Six Flags, and TONS of great shopping! We will be there 4ish months and can't wait! In December, we will then be making the move back to the South East! Our next duty station will be Columbus, Mississippi for 3-4 years. The most exciting part is I will be 4ish hours away from Baby Max!! ok ok and Jen, David and Molly!
Columbus, MS is a VERY small town, but is near a bunch of great locations. It's about an hour to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We've heard great things about local eateries in downtown Columbus and they also have a nice lake, too.

Well I know when I read blogs, I like them short and sweet. So here you go. Stay tuned for more guest blogs from me :)

It's Garden Brainstorming Time!

It's probably past garden time with all the unseasonably warm weather we have going on. This year I am scaling things back as I just don't want to have a huge garden to maintain. I really want to focus on the herbs and vegetables that I actually use and are easy to grow.

Let's start with a flash back to garden year 1. We did a raised wagon garden. I liked this because you didn't have to bend down and everything was easy to get to and you could move it around. Some of the cons were it was hard to drain and if left in the same spot of the yard, you'd get wheel marks and such. We had 16 squares (4 ft x 4 ft).

Garden year 2 we decided to really up the number of squares and we did 30. I didn't like how we had a TON of grass that grew through the squares even though we had put a weed mat down. It was really hard to maintain and I just ended up letting it grow in.

Source: marthastewart.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: webecoist.com via Jen on Pinterest

This year I want to use some pots and possibly something like this on the patio. I will post again once I plan and I will share what were the easiest and best things to grow.

I went to pinterest to find some inspiration and hopefully you'll get a little green thumb to do just something little this year. It really is rewarding to see something start either from a seed or even a small plant that you'd get a nursery.

Source: dighomedesign.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: container-gardening-for-you.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: gardenfreshliving.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: whitewatercrafting.com via Jen on Pinterest

Wordless Wednesday- happy bath boy

What We Have Been Up To

I've been a bad blogger, but in between feedings and taking care of buddo I run out of time. I had great fun with my sister hanging out and running around town. I've found that getting out of the house once a day really breaks things up and works well for us, even if it's just walks.

Here are a few photos of what we've been up to: enjoying the warm weather, meeting cousin Kinsley, lunch with friends, shopping at the mall and running errands.

Hopefully I'll post more often, but forgive me if we don't.

Max- 1 Month Update

Max is over 4 weeks old now, but I have just now taken the photos off the camera so it's time for an update. Unfortunately, I also don't have stats from the doctor as we aren't going until next week. I did weigh Max on the home scale and it said that he was 9.2 lbs so we'll see how much he's grown next week.

 Max started out his early weeks not loving his bath, but it is growing on him. He likes the warm water. He has peed on us NUMEROUS times. After baths and during diaper changes. We need more pee pee tee pees for sure.

 We are trying to follow baby wise as for as trying to get a schedule going. This is what his days look like now.

6am: Wake up for a morning feeding as Daddy gets up for work
6:45-7:30am: Awake time/play time
7:30-9am: Nap time
9am: Feeding and repeat
He eats approx every 3 hours (exclusively breastfeeding) and we put him to bed in the bassinet usually after the 8/9pm or 11pm feeding. He is still waking up at night between 3-4 hours.

For his awake time activities he plays on his activity mat, we swing in the swing and we walk around the house looking at blinds/lights and fun things.

 Baby Max is a happy boy for the most part, but he is a bit fussy at times. After he eats and plays for his 15-30mins he gets really upset and cries a lot. He could just be tired, but I'm just being real. He also is not doing that well with night time sleeping. He fusses a lot and we play the pacci game all night (does he want it or does he not). We think he might have his days and nights confused or just likes to nap more during the day so we are going to try a few things like keeping it dark and not talking to him for night time feedings to distinguish the times.

 Max naps in his swing or in the pack and play bassinet during the day and his bedside bassinet at night. 

 He likes to be swaddled at night before bed, but sometimes he likes to have his hands free and wiggle around during the day.

 I started pumping some days after the morning feeding to start building up a supply. 

 I wanted to see if he would take a bottle so I had Michelle give him a bottle and it went really well!

 He loves riding in the car and taking trips to lunch with friends or shopping around town.

 See, I told you he cries :) 

 He are some pictures we took for his official 1 month shots. At the 1 month mark he was still in newborn clothes and newborn diapers although we were just trying to use up the diapers we had. He is now (almost at 5 weeks) in 0-3 months that are a little big and size 1 diapers. 

 He got baby acne pretty bad from around 2 weeks to 4 weeks. It is just dry skin areas now. 

 Love him, so cute (yes, those are Molly's ears).

 We love our little boy and can't believe he is already this big! 

Molly didn't want to be left out. He's hoping for sleeping through the night very soon, cross your fingers. 

Hospital Randoms

I found some more photos from the hospital that I thought I'd share. 

Here is the happy daddy in his shirt that he was making right before my water broke. 

Sweet boy always opening his mouth

For someone who never held a baby he sure got a lot of practice at the hospital. It was so cute to watch. 

This is David changing his first diaper. He was making that face on purpose for the camera, but it's still funny.

Real action shot. 

A photo of our family of 3. We just love our little Max. 

We decided to get up and walk around our floor one afternoon. 

Here we are looking a bit rough, but it was nice to get out. There was never anyone around, it was so quiet even though there must have been a ton of screaming babies everywhere. I really can't say enough about how much we liked our stay at Northside Hospital.

Time to head home. 

David taking precautions in loading max into the car.

Of course I sat in the back like a paranoid first time mother. He did great in the car and still does. 

A lot of people have asked me how Molly has been with Max and she's done really well. She was very curious when we brought him home and really just wanted to sniff and lick him all over. Max already looks so big compared to this photo!

She's been really sweet and just goes up to him in the swing to check him out and comes to hang out in the nursery with us when he does activity mat play. Don't get me wrong, she still steals his toys and wabbua nub on occasion, but she's a great big sister.