M is For...

Other Outtakes...

Other 12 Week Pictures:

Your first Easter! 

Getting better at playing with your toys.

Sleeping with your arm raised.

Sitting in your Bebe Pod, playing with your toys like a big boy!

Yo!

Reading Daddy's Health Promotion book with him and getting smarter! ;)

13 Weeks - April 28, 2011

• You turned 3 months old this week!! (Mommy hasn't gotten pics yet because of being so busy with the move, but hopefully tomorrow!)
• We moved into our new house this week.  Grandma Miller watched you while we moved and you did so good the whole day.  Mommy was so proud of you.
• You celebrated your first Easter on Sunday.  No, we didn't get you a basket and no, we didn't even see any family on Easter...but if I didn't say it here you'd never know the difference anyway... We were just too pooped after moving the day before!
• Mommy trimmed your other toenails for the first time this week...whoo! ;)
• You (briefly) found your left hand this week.  You haven't paid much attention to it yet.... but maybe it's old news now after exploring your right hand for the last few weeks.
• You are getting SO good at holding toys on your own now.  You put things immediately in your mouth, so I started giving you your teether toy from Zach and Gemma.  You seem to really like gumming it!
• You had the most incredibly massive poop I have ever witnessed this week.  I think you may have gotten daddy's sickness a little bit and you didn't poop for 2 days.  (Usually it's at least 3 times a day).  When you finally did poop...oh man.  Watch out.  I had to call in back up (daddy) for help.  We had to completely strip you down and I think it took me more than 10 wipes to get you clean, where I didn't feel like I was just smearing it around more...
• You got a new "big boy" tub!  You still sit in your netting part inside your new tub until you can sit on your own.  The first time we put you in this and had some water in the bottom of your tub, you gave daddy the funniest look.  You weren't sure about the warm water on your feet and bum.  You were used to just getting showers with me every day and just getting spritzed with water, not actually sitting in it!
• You have been standing SO much lately!  We just put our hands around your waist to brace you, but you stand for several minutes with all your own strength!  (Or rather, you are strengthened by God, little one!)
• Every morning, daddy puts your clammy little feet to good use.  He gets you barefoot and has you "walk" in a few laps around the top of the island in the kitchen.  You take steps!  It's so cute!
• Mommy and Daddy gave Grandma and Grandpa Anderson the crib back when we moved.  You have retired from it. :)  Someday it'll be back at our home for each of your brother's and sisters.
• Mommy "ghetto-weighed" you this last week.  (I subtracted my weight from our combined weight) and you weigh at least 13 lbs!
• You are 24 inches long now!  5 inches more than birth!
• Daddy gave you a grape to taste.  You always make the same confused face each time you taste something new.  I don't mind these "tastes", but I really don't want to start you on solid foods until 6 months.  You're still a champ at nursing, but it's not excessive so I think that's an easy goal. :)
• You sat in your Bebe Pod (like a Bumbo chair) for the first time this week.  At first, you weren't sure what to think and you went straight as a board.  Mommy had to show you how to sit in it and after you got the hang of it, you seemed to like it. :)
• Grandma Miller says he's noticed that even in the 2 weeks since Texas, you are much much more alert now.  It is true.  You are really good at recognizing who is talking or where a noise comes from now.

I cannot believe my baby is 3 months old already.  It really is so true when they say that you guys grow so fast.  You are growing SO fast.  But I'm absolutely loving watching it.  I love how alert you are getting.  It's so fun to see you more interactive.  I cannot wait till you're my cute little toddler, running around and giggling.  Wait...Yes, I can.  Don't grow up too fast, precious son.  Mommy wants to take it all in. 

Love,

Mama K

Before's and After's

My goodness moving (or rather, unpacking) takes so much longer when you have a 3 month old!! :)  I'm enjoying taking my slow time though.  Normally I am such a pro mover that I get the house totally set up and ready to go in less than two weeks.  Now, I am at the one week mark and feel like the house is completely disheveled still.  Partly due to the fact that we are getting some new furniture and other furniture is getting a make-over before coming in the house.  This all slows down unpacking since I need the furniture to unpack things into!!

It's also good for me to go slower though because I'm really making an effort to go through and physically touch every.single.thing. so we can have a big garage sale in the next month or so.  It's a challenge to really ask myself, "will I use that soon?"  "Will I really wear that shirt that I've had for 6 years and stopped wearing 2 years ago??" :) I'm one of those "what if" girls.  What if I get another camera some day and need that empty extra camera case??  What if something comes up and I'll need to wear my red cowgirl boots??  You know, those sort of life's what ifs. :) 

Anyway, so for now, here are some before and after's of the house!  This house was a foreclosure so it was not real pretty... My father in law completely gutted it to the sheetrock and re-did everything.  As in everything - cabinets, counters, flooring, etc.

(I hope it's okay to post these WVMLS before pictures because they have their name on them...taken from the house listing on www.wvmls.com)

Living Room BEFORE:

Living Room AFTER:

The paint looks the same, but it's a fresh coat of paint, slightly different color.

Kitchen BEFORE:

Kitchen AFTER:

Office/Craft Room BEFORE:

Office/Craft Room AFTER:

 Nice new and beautiful carpeting!

Yeah...My craft closet. :)

Zeek's Room BEFORE:

Zeek's Room AFTER:

Partially moved into... :)  We decorated his nursery around the green color in his room at the other house, so we chose to keep that the same color here too.

Guest Bath BEFORE:

Guest Bath AFTER:

Master Bedroom BEFORE:

Bleh.  Violet.  Our last master bedroom was purple before we painted it too... I hate purple!

Master Bedroom AFTER:

Master Bathroom BEFORE:

Master Bathroom AFTER:

Close up of the tile.  Didn't he do such a good job!?

Other "after's" that I didn't have "before's" of...

 Front door on the right, looking towards the hallway to the bedrooms from the living room.

 

Hallway to the bedrooms.

 I have a coat/shoe closet by the front door for the first time ever!! Hip hip hooray!!

 

Nice storage closet.  Thrilled. :)

 

Laundry nook!

So there you have it.   Didn't my father in law do a FABULOUS job?!?!  And in THREE weeks?!  I'm amazed.  (And so thrilled that Skyler grew up with such a handy dad.  Skyler learned good handy man skills growing up!)

Now...back to unpacking while the little one is asleep.  :)

Love, K

L is For...

Other 12 Week Pics:

Playing on your caterpillar play mat.

 Sleeping with your pinky up... Just to let me know you'll be ravenous as soon as you wake.  ;)

Still so precious when you sleep. 

These are my favorite moments with you.

12 Week Stats - April 21, 2011
This is a smaller post, because we spent the week packing and then moved and I'm posting this a week late!! Sorry dude!

• You can now grasp your plastic key ring and shake it around!  You can hold onto it for several minutes before dropping it.
• I think you may have giggled.  Once.  Whatever it was, I absolutely loved it!
• Grandpa Anderson gave you a taste of cantaloupe and Daddy gave you a taste of oranges.  You weren't sure what to think.  But you kept licking anyway. :)
• We celebrated Great Grandpa and Grandma Miller's 60th Wedding Anniversary this week!  You got to meet some more Miller's that you hadn't met yet: Paul, Darla, Corrine, Aaron, Elaine, Quinn, Keith, Jim, Erica, Jason, Jackson, Addy, Adrian and Anthony. 
• You are outgrown of all your newborn things now.  (Sad)
• You napped for 4 hours (almost) straight for mommy and daddy while we packed up the shop!  Thank you.
• You hung out with your buddy Cyrus this week.  I remember when he came over to see you when you were 3 day old and he was almost 2 months old.  I remember thinking how huge he looked next to you.  Now you're almost the same size!  Soon, you'll both be on the ground wrestling each other. :)
• Mommy gave you a lollipop this week for your L pictures (obviously).  Such a bad mommy...the things I do for cute photos....  You LICKED and LICKED like there was no tomorrow.  You had red and blue all over your cheeks and shirt afterwards!  I tried to snap pic's fast so you wouldn't suck on it for tooo long... :)
• You started wearing your size Medium G-Diapers, but they are still a little big on you... But the smalls are about too small.  You're in a funny in-between size because of your skinny buns and hips and big round tummy...
  

So I'm Getting a New Living Room...

Since graduating high school (7 years ago, yikes), I have lived in... (let me pause and count)...9 places and soon the 10th.  For 2 years of the time, I had moved back in with my parents.  So for the other 5 years, I lived in 8 places.  I averaged a move every 6 - 9 months between school changes and roommate changes and city changes.  My living room essentially stayed the same (or very similar) through out and I never had any dramatic changes with furniture or other big pieces.  Things always just gradually changed when they did and it was easy to adapt to the change.

Because I'm a professional at moving (wink), I can always walk into a new place and visualize my stuff in it.  With this new house, I'm having the hardest time grasping it all.  Since selling all of our current living room furniture and looking to get new items for our new house, my living room will (for the first time) be totally and completely different.  To help me organize my head and ideas, I started gathering photos of things I liked and of things I know in other rooms that I have that I can paint or change and add to the living room. 

My style is definitely a little shabby chic, a little french country, and a little romantic.  My bedroom is probably my most true to my style choice:

Here is what I'm envisioning for my new living room (while also trying to keep in mind that I'll have a little boy running around soon.  grin)

I'm sure I should be giving photo credits...but I just started Google Image searching a while back and never saved where I got the pics from...Sooo, sorry about that!!
 
I can't wait to get in there and start.  I think this is going to be my favorite move yet. :)  I've already found a couple of these pieces and have ideas to make some of the others...

Drooling over the idea of having my crafting space again. :)

Love, K