U is For...

 

"Seriously mom?! You're gonna put pictures of me in my underwear on the World Wide Web?!"
 

"Move over, Calvin Klein!"
 

 

Other 20 Week Pics:

Taking a Father's Day nap!

4 Month pics!

Learning how to sit on your own - leaning!!  (Love this outfit!)

Face plant!! :)

"Aunt" Donna

Cool shades, dude!

You and Mama at the Keizer Volcanoes game!

21 Weeks - June 23, 2011

• You have really started grabbing our faces this week and pulling Daddy and I close to you for a snuggle.
• Also, you are getting good and wrapping your arms around my neck for a hug. You are especially snuggly after a nap.  It melts my heart!
• Your hand eye coordination is getting so good!  You have a bird hanging from your car seat that you can pull down and then it vibrates as it goes back up.  I always hear you tugging on it in the car. :)  The other day, after I put you in the car seat, I stood outside the car for a few minutes and just watched your clumsy arms stretch out for your swinging bird.  You had sheer concentration on your face as you steadied your arms to grab onto your bird's foot and yank it down!
• You are getting SO determined to crawl!  You are getting good at stretching out and pushing yourself closer to your toys ( which I've been putting just out of arms reach).  You are getting better at pulling your knees up underneath you.  
• You are also seeming to understand that you can bounce a little in your Johnny Jump Up.  I can't wait for you to really start jumping!!  Until then, you are enjoying standing up in it.
• Your daddy thinks you are beginning to look more like me as a baby.  He says you have the same expressions as me. :)  He also says that this must mean that your future baby sister Ellery will look just like him. :)
• You went to your first baseball game this week!  We had a family date to the Keizer Volcanoes game.  You watched a few innings (literally, you sat there and stared straight ahead at the game), and then you conked out for the next few, and then woke up for a couple more. :)  You seemed to really enjoy it! 
• Mommy left you for the longest time yet - for over 2 hours!  I left you home with daddy while I met some ladies for coffee from 5:45-8 am!  You were still sleeping when I got home.  (And so was your dad.) :)
• You celebrated daddy for his first Father's Day this week!
• You are a total boy!  We had you laying on your tummy on the ground and you kept ripping farts loudly...and then giggling after each time.  It was so cute.  
• After you eat, you love to stand up on me and put your arms around my neck and burrow your head into my shoulder.  It is the sweetest thing in the world and I really am hoping you never outgrow it.
• I've taught you a trick!  If you have a toy on the ground, I lower you down to it, say "pick up your toy!" and you do!  Then I raise you back up and you keep holding it to play with it.  I'm a proud mom, that's for sure!
• You met your "aunt" Donna this week!  She has waited patiently to see you!
• You've been practicing sitting up this week.  You never want to just be propped up anymore.  You always use your stomach muscles to pull yourself forward!

You seem to have just sky-rocketed in growth this week, Zeek!  Not so much physically, but in your abilities to do things!  You are making me one proud mama!

Love you, little monkey.
Mama K

My Shabby Chic Armoire

One more big project got finished last week.  Remember the armoire from my house ideas post?

This one:

Well, like I had mentioned in that post, I had just googled pictures for inspiration, and in this case typed in "shabby chic armoire".  I found this one in the images that popped up and immediately fell in love.  I loved the curved top and door shape and the drawers on the bottom.  When I clicked on the picture, a website for selling furniture popped up.  Lo and behold, this very armoire was listed for sale (on the same page as similar ones listed in Tennessee and Pennsylvania and far away), but this was listed in ALBANY OREGON!  20 miles south of me.  I searched for this same armoire on Craigslist and found the listing and called the woman up.

Skyler and I went to see it a couple days later.  I loved it.  She wanted $325 on it, but was willing to go down to $250 after some hum-hawing from us.  I would've bought it for $300, but Skyler wasn't sure he wanted to even pay $250 for it.  It was legitimately old, which meant cracks and some breaks in the wood...which Skyler saw as repairs he didn't really care to do.  So, sadly...we walked away...  Then a couple weeks later, while I was in Texas for my brother's wedding, I found another armoire that had a similar shape to it, and wrote "this is nice" along with the link, in an email to Skyler.  A week later, I came home to find that armoire in my garage!

Here it is:

 

The price tag?? Only $100!!  For a solid real wooden piece of furniture.  I knew that with a little work, it could be exactly what I pictured... I went to Lowe's and picked up some wooden decals to add to it on each door and one on the bottom drawer:

I painted it white (what else?!) and changed the knobs to clear glass knobs... and I LOVE IT.  It's exactly what I wanted!  And here she is, sitting in my living room:

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I love it even more than the "inspiration" one. :)  What do you think?

Love, K

Puddin' Head...

Happy Father's Day!

I love you, Sky.  

You're an incredible dad and Zeek and I are beyond lucky to have you.

Love,

K

T is For...

 
20 Week Stats - June 16, 2011

• You've been reaching for Mommy and Daddy's faces a lot lately.  You love to grab our cheeks and pull your face into ours.  It's so precious!
• You also have been throwing your arm over our shoulders when we carry you around!  You're becoming such a little boy!
• You tasted a little mushed yam this week.  I think introducing you to solids soon will be easy, since you never seem like anything is unusual when you get tastes now.
• We went to a Grad party on Sunday and Daddy held a sweet little 6 lb. baby girl all dressed in pink.  After holding her for about 15 minutes, he looked up at me and so seriously said, "Ellery is going to have me wrapped around her little finger..." :)  Daddy is ready for you to have a baby sister!!
• You've been carried around in your Boba carrier lately because you're finally big enough for it.  You really like it and it's way more comfortable for me to carry you longer in it than your past one.
• Your hands are getting so chubby and you have the cutest knuckle dimples!
• Your hair is getting lighter and lighter.  I think it's finally done thinning out your newborn hair and now is growing your real baby hair.  It's so soft and fine.
• You smile so easily at anyone who makes eye contact with you.  Grandma Miller used to write that on the back of all Mommy's baby pictures!
• You also are starting to laugh more easily now.  Especially when people talk while making wide sweeping hand motions.
• Tractor is for your Grandpa Miller and Great Grandpa Miller!!  Happy Father's day, Dad and Grandpa!!

Love, Mama K

Sweet MaLea

This is sweet, precious MaLea:

MaLea is the daughter of my good friend from childhood, Ashley.  She is 7 months old.  On Sunday, MaLea got rushed to OHSU and was diagnosed with Meningococcal disease with severe spesis.   Good news: today she passed the "hump" and she is more than likely to survive and may not need amputation. 


Please pray for this sweet baby's recovery and her mom and dad and the rest of the family.  She will be staying at Doernbecher's Children's Hospital for at least 5 weeks.  If you would like to donate to help the family cover costs, there is a bank account set up at Wells Fargo Bank under "MaLea Fox Family Fund", or you can donate through the CaringBridge website set up for MaLea. (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/maleafox)  

God,

 You hear our prayers.  You hear our cries for help and for healing.  Please hold baby MaLea and wrap her tight in your arms.  Snuggle her and shower her in kisses.  Heal MaLea and restore her little body to full health.  I pray for her mind and brain, that there is no damage but that it is fully healed.  For her arms and legs, that they have great circulation and that the blistering heals quickly.  That her bruising and blood spots diminish and fade away.  God, I pray for Ashley and MaLea's family, that they are also wrapped in your arms and comforted by You.  That they know you are a God of love and you have the power to heal.  That children are precious to you.  

Be with little MaLea tonight as she sleeps, Lord.  Give her a dream that makes her laugh. :)

We love you, God.  Thank you for your healing touch.

Amen.

Lots of love to you, Ashley and MaLea!!

K

S is For...

 

Other 18 Week Pics:

 You always hold your hand up when you get startled when you're sleeping. "Shhhh.  No talking". :)

 Sitting up on your own!

 

 Sitting up in your Boppy pillow, playing with your toys.

 You scooted yourself completely around!  You were facing your toys...

 Do you see little dimple starts too??? Or am I crazy?!

Yumm-o!

 19 Week Stats - June 9, 2011
 

• You started sitting up a little on your own!  You grabbed on your pant legs and pulled yourself up.  You could see your face tense up as you used your stomach muscles to pull yourself up!
• We had the third paintball event so far in your life!  You seem to NOT want to sleep at all the day before the event when Mommy has TONS to do.  You did excellent at the event though.  Several people commented on you and how good you were doing!  You just hung out all day and played with your toys and talked!  
• Your new favorite thing to do is pull your pacifier partly out of your mouth, or put a finger or two in your mouth, and go "bbbbbb!" and blow spit.  It's so cute!
• Our car rides now often are filled with you just sitting in your carseat talking to yourself.  It's so fun to hear you babble.
• You still aren't jumping in your Johnny Jump-Up but you've started standing up really well in it!  You like to just suck on and slobber all over the side of it. 
• We've started putting you in the middle of your Bobby pillow so that you can practice sitting up!  I think your big pot belly helps you stay upright a little bit. :)
• You've gone back to taking really long naps (2-3 hours) in the morning and in the afternoon.
• You've started sleeping LONG through the night!  7-8 hours!  I've been putting you down for bed in your crib at around 8:30 and you'll wake up around 3-4:30.  Then I bring you to bed to feed you and you'll sleep in still until 9:30 or 10.  
• I put you on your tummy on the carpet in front of your toys and before I knew it, you scooted completely around the other direction!  You started getting your buns in the air and scooting yourself up on your knees!  Crawling soon??? :)
• Every time we go run errands, I get stopped by lady after lady about how cute you are and YOUR EYES!  They all love your eyes.  Whenever anyone stops to look at you, you give them the biggest grin and get that sweet little twinkle in your eyes.  You LOVE to look at the cashier's and so I always turn sideways so you can see them from your front carrying pack, so you don't have to crane your neck so far. :)  (You're welcome).

You're getting so grown up, little guy!  I love you so much!

Love, Mama K

White Painted Bookcases

So I told you my living room is finally coming together... :)  Time to show some of the fruits of my labors!

Remember my "living room idea pictures" that I posted a while ago?  Well, I had posted these bookcases as an idea for my new living room:

I already had bought two similar bookcases more than a year ago for $20 each from Craigslist (I love Craigslist) with the intentions of painting them.  Never happened.  Not until this house anyway.  I knew these ugly brown faux wood bookcases weren't going to cut it anymore...

Before:

 

So after several layers of paint, filling one of the holes from the old pull handles with putty and new glass knobs, I'm so happy to have a change from the drab brown!

After:

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Vast improvement, in my opinion!  I originally had intended on replacing the backs with beadboard and also doing some on the front doors, but dang.  That's some spendy stuff.  I couldn't justify spending about $18 for each bookcase to add the beadboard when I bought them for only $20!  But, I still like how they turned out, even without the beadboard.

I love how bright they are and how colorful the books look on them now.  This was the first project I got done (a few weeks ago now) for my living room.  Even just having those in the room made it feel ten times more homey.  Almost done with the other big living room project...then a couple more things to paint and a window seat to make cushions for...

My goal to get the majority of it done is by next weekend when I am having my cousins baby shower over here.  I *hope* my last few projects will get done by then! :)

Love, K