Organizing Part 2

This weekend I went to H-town to visit my fam and friends. In addition to celebrating my Dad's birthday, I got to see my maid of honor's adorable 1 month old baby girl (she's so tiny!!), and B had 2 stellar play dates at the park with her friends Davis and Everett. Needless to say, I've lost a little focus on organizing the pantry. I think I mostly feel the need to write this post because I promised a "part 2" versus actually having made substantial progress on my original organization plan. I can say that SOME progress has been made, so we'll just go with that...

I decided to take advantage of TCS's annual elfa sale, and bought the back-of-the-door pantry unit to install.


The baskets are convenient, although sometimes lethal. B has walked into them head first a couple times and I've slammed my shoulder into the upper baskets a time or two. Other than that, I like that they can store oddly shaped packages and small random items that can get lost amongst the vast shelving.

I also put on my engineer thinking cap and decided to make my own compartmentalized box out of B's gerber graduates cardboard container. I cut off the sides and used them as dividers to store ketchup, CFA sauce, saltines, and other random condiment packages. Not as pretty as a $4.99 basket from TCS, but equally as functional.


As for the rest of the pantry, I have grand plans to separate everything into different sections - a baking section, a canned goods section (organized by food type like beans, fruits, etc.), a pasta section, a chips / cracker section, etc. I'm choosing to focus on the fact that I still have 4 months until baby boy gets here. We'll see what happens between now and then...

Garden Prep

It's that time of year again - time to get our Spring garden ready! And this year - we've completely upgraded our backyard to accommodate a serious array of veggies. Last year we planted everything along the side fence, and it looked something like this:


This year, K built 3 awesome raised beds that look like this:


They'll keep everything much more organized and will allow us to better utilize the space in front of the fence. We'll also put down weed block which will hopefully keep out the pesky briar vines that threatened to overtake our peppers and tomatoes last year...

We got dirt delivered today - a special vegetable blend with organic compounds that will surely provide enough nutrients to help the soon-to-be-planted seedlings grow and thrive.


Keeping our fingers crossed for a year of bountiful harvest!!

Belly Shot

The 537th thing that's more exciting than finishing organization around the house? Taking pictures of my pregnant belly to post on the internet.

This time around I'm not really keeping track of weeks, or anything pregnancy related for that matter. It's funny how all-consuming your first pregnancy can become while the 2nd is something that's just "there." I write down my doctor's appointments on the calendar and show up when they tell me to, I take a second to reflect on the miracle of life when I feel little man's kicks, and the rest of the time I'm chasing around our 20 month old and trying to keep the house in order.

That being said, I think I'm around 21 weeks. I kinda hope I'm off by a few weeks because I don't think I was nearly this big at 21 weeks with B. Here's a recent belly shot:


And just in case it's not clear that I'm with child, today I decided to wear a bun-in-the-oven shirt that I found in a maternity wardrobe a good friend graciously let me borrow. Yes - it's short sleeved, yes - it's supposed to be 79 today - in the middle of January...

Organizing

This post is pretty incriminating, only because I'm revealing how cluttery and messy certain areas of our house are. I take full responsibility for this insanity given the fact that the house is my job, but really - going to the park with this sweet gal is SO much more fun than organizing!!!


BUT - I finally decided to stop procrastinating today and made a morning trip to The Con.tainer Store. Normally I would never shop there as I think it's ridiculously overpriced. Why pay $4.99 for a plastic basket when you can get one at Wal-mart for $1.97? But desperate times call for desperate measures. I think my nesting must be kicking in early, and instead of ignoring it I'm going to hold on tight and ride the wave as long as it lasts.

Stop 1: the spare closet in our study. The study itself is a tornado. Every weekend both K and I vow to tackle the piles of mail that have taken over the desk and floor, but that never seems to happen and we continue to make excuses for the wreck. I decided to start small and pick 1 area that needed serious attention - gift bags.

I'm pretty sure I have enough gift bags to open a gift wrap shop. To begin, I sorted them into 5 categories: Christmas, wedding, baby shower, solids, and birthday / random gifts. A before shot of them all over the floor in their respective piles:


And here is the after, demonstrating the solution of a double-sided hanging tote organizer:


Really I think I could've used 2 as this thing is insanely heavy loaded up, and the hook that holds it at the top is bent downwards from the weight. But I have only 1 door, only 1 closet that's "mine" for stuff like this, and so pushed the limits to get it all to fit. In the grand scheme of things it's WAY better than what it was beforehand.

Stop 2: the pantry. To be continued...

It's a...

BOY!!!!!!

Yep - a baby brother for Miss B! We are very excited to have one of each! With both B and this baby I had dreams. More with her - maybe 2 or 3 times? - dreamt that she was a girl. And with this one, only once that I clearly remember - dreamt that it was a boy. We also have a gender predictor at my Mom's group that has been proven freakishly accurate. It's basically a gift bag with burp cloths inside, tied with either pink or blue ribbon. When you reveal that you're pregnant, the drill is to draw from the bag to see what you get. I don't know the exact stats, but over 4 years and tons of pregnancies it's been wrong maybe 3 times? I drew out a blue burp cloth over a month ago. Go figure!!!

The one thing that I am so excited about - like want to jump up and down relieved about - is that I don't have to pick out BOY bedding!!!!!!! Going gender neutral with most of B's things was the best decision we ever made. Who has time to re-decorate a nursery when you have to focus on potty training and getting together a big girl room for your existing toddler? We even have some clothes - the standard green and yellow (mostly pj's) - that we'll be able to use for baby boy. Admittedly I did already go shopping for his first little man outfit the day we found out...I couldn't resist! But again - knowing that all I have to do is get a couple blue changing pad covers, a blue lamp shade, and blue letters for his name for his room to be complete makes me one happy Mama.

To end on a random note - my doctor told me that white males take longer to cook, so there IS hope of having a few more days between baby #2 and Miss B! We can't wait to meet you sweet boy!!!

A Typical Weekend Day

This picture makes me laugh out loud, not only because I think it's hilarious, but also because it makes me joyfully appreciate the simplicity of our beautiful family. To depict, it's B reclining on the back porch in her A&M chair watching Daddy pick up dog doo in the back yard.

Here's a front view, wearing a Target sticker she got from the cashier on a trip with Mommy earlier in the day.


When that gets old, she decides to eat dirt from a dead potted plant.




Most days when the weather is nice, we go out to the front porch and B runs up and down, watching the cars go by and sometimes pushing her doll for a walk in its stroller.




And then when it's cold outside, we sit in the garage with Daddy drinking Jamba Juice while he works on projects.



His most recent project is building this awesome step stool for B to use in the bathroom or to get up into her soon-to-be big girl bed.


This is the finished product. I love having a handy husband!!


Thank you, Lord, for our cherished family-of-three weekends filled with silly little moments like these that make my heart full...

Breakfast, More Zoo Pics, and a Big House

To begin, I have to say that I've never been a big breakfast eater. Or maybe it's just breakfast foods that I'm not a fan of. I think I've mentioned before that once my old boss got me PB crackers and Slim Jims as a Christmas present because these were 2 things I frequently ate in the morning at the office (with Cheez-its being a close 3rd).

Because we planned to get to the zoo right when it opened last week, that meant we were forced to have breakfast on the road. We each grabbed our respective food choice and set it on K's center console while loading up the car. I took a picture before consumption. Can you guess which is which?


Yes, mine is the chocolate cake. I'd like to blame it on pregnancy cravings, but if I'm 100% honest with myself I have to say that I'd choose chocolate cake over Greek yogurt for breakfast any day. We did each have a Boost before leaving the house, which means I got SOME nutrients to start the day. I'm going to have to turn my diet around pretty quickly before B starts thinking it's normal to have chocolate at every meal.

As for the zoo itself, I have to post a few more pictures - mostly of the animals because they were so incredible. My favorite was the gorilla. The kids next to K and B were eating apples and I swear he was giving them the evil eye through the glass, about to break through for a bite.



And who doesn't love a baby monkey?


The elephants and giraffes were equally amazing. And yes, it was worth paying $5 for 3 pieces of lettuce to feed the giraffes. They came right up to us!!




All in all, we were thoroughly impressed with the Dallas Zoo.


Last - about the big house...check out what monstrosity is being built on our old lot. Wow!!!