Blake 15 month Update

Blake had his 15 month well check up appointment today. He just turned 15 months on my birthday January 21st. I still can not believe how much time has past and how much he's grown. The first 6 months I really feared going to his well check up appointments because of the colic and slow weight gain. It always seemed like he was never going to be on the charts but today what a difference.

Blake 15 month Measurements

weight: 22 lbs. 15 oz.

length: 31.25 in.

head circ: 18.25 in.

Blake was a trooper.  He had two shots today. He cried for a bit but got over the pain very quickly and was back to his sweet, giggly self. I love our pediatrician she's really wonderful and always takes the time to sit down and talk with us and answers all of our questions. Blake was being a bit of a show off. When the doctor asked me how Blake was doing with all his milestones  like pulling himself up, bending over, walking etc. He actually did them right when she asked  LOL! As to to say yes doctor let me just demonstrate for you. Such a sweet boy. He has always been great with shots a little bit of a kicker though so the nurse and I had to really hold him tight. But after he just likes to cuddle and finish his sippy cup and he's all good. We're almost done with the frequent doctor visits now. We're getting closer to just the yearly visits which will be great.

I just can't believe all that he's accomplished these 15 months. He's just recently really taken off with walking. He took his first steps two days after Christmas. He was standing and holding himself up since November but really started taking some steps on his own in December. Today while we were waiting for what seemed like forever in the doctor's waiting room ( Doctors ugh!) Blake took 9 steps! I was so proud of him.

He's always been a talker making noises and sounds and watching to see what our reaction was. Now he's even louder and will repeat what we say to him back to us.

Favorite Words

"Mama"

"Dadda"

"Bo Bo" for Liam

"No"

"Yup"

"Car"

"Ba" for ball

My little man LOVES to eat anything and everything. He would eat all day if I let him. It's so fun to see his face light up and his little fingers & toes wiggle when he's waiting for me to bring him his food while he's seated in his highchair.

Favorite Foods

Bananas

Cheerios

Oatmeal

Yogurt

Mandarin Oranges

Cottage Cheese (the top favorite)

Chicken

Carrots

Peas
Turkey
Chicken Nuggets
Ham

Balls are his favorite toy. He has a very strong arm and can throw the ball high in air sometimes hitting the ceiling (oops!) He's got  a really good aim. I'm thinking he may become more of the athlete between the two boys. Blake has really developed his motor skills especially with throwing and griping ball. He also like to play with Liam's matchbox cars and his monster trucks pushing them along the floor. He also likes to help Mommy empty the dishwasher. He runs in the kitchen when he hears me unloading and will grab the silverware out and reach up and hand it to me and say "Mama, Mama."

He also loves his push walker although he does great walking on his own now he hasn't been using it as much. He also loves music. We bought him some shaker instruments for Christmas this year and he has a blast with them and loves to dance whenever he hears music. He loves going to story time on Mondays and his toddler music class on Tuesdays.

Favorite Songs

"You Are My Sunshine"

"Old McDonald"

"Twinkle Little Star"

My Projects for January & February

So proud of myself I completed two of my projects this month already. They were so much fun to do and I thought they came out great. The menu board was a bit different. I'm not sure what happened with the frame I don't think it was true to size it seemed smaller than 11x14 I had to make some adjustments but overall I'm happy with the outcome.

Project #1 - Menu Planning Board

My Inspiration

I'm desperate to find ways to help with dinner time around this house. It's so crazy. I've never had to meal plan before but my husband has always been on me about our meals so I wanted to try to find something that I could use that would be easy, fun and cheap. So by a wonderful surprise I came across a tutorial on youtube on how to make this awesome menu planning board.

I was in heaven! This was going to be the perfect solution. I had looked on etsy and saw something similar I was actually thinking of buying that was $60 YIKES! So I watched the tutorial Sarah from Making Life Simple did and she walked you through step by step and made it look so easy. So this is definitely going to be a fun project to work on.

Here's the link to MakingLifeSimple's video tutorial on YouTube.

Project #2 - Weekly Planner

My Inspiration

This next project is one that I really have been wanting to do for almost a year now. I know crazy huh? It started when I met a sweet Mom, Kristy through a Moms playgroup the boys and I are a member of.  I was over her house for a play date and saw this adorable weekly planner hanging on her wall in her entry way.  It was made from a picture frame I actually had at home in the closet ( funny right!) I asked where she bought that and she said she made it herself from scrapbook paper and stickers etc. I thought It would be perfect for our family in keeping up with our crazy weekly schedule. A few months later  while looking on youtube again for tutorials I came across a popular youtuber Mom named Jenni from candidmommy who posted a tutorial on how to make a weekly planner and she showed this exact same picture of Kristy's for her inspiration. It was too funny! Since then I have seen this picture all over pinterest and youtube and several other people have made tutorials and blogs about making one as well. So Kristy is quite the star as she should be this is such a cute idea! I hope mine will come out half as darling as this one!

Here's the link to Kristy's popular blog NextToHeaven

Here's the link to Jenni from candidmommy's video tutorial

Here's links to a few other video tutorials I found

Video #1

Video #2

2013 Projects

Welcome 2013 so happy you're here! I'm ready to get my butt in gear and start doing some fun projects to be organized, a little creative, and have some fun. I'm the first to admit that I am not the crafty, organizer, planner type Mom. You know like the Moms with blogs who have hundreds of subscribers posting pictures of their organized pantry closet, or laundry room they just re-organized. Sure that's great not knocking them at all but that's really not me. I really don't have patience for that kind of thing and find it takes time away from my boys.  Also we are on a very tight budget so extra spending for projects is usually a No but hoping this year we'll  be able to spend just a little to get an organized home in return. So this is going to be a new adventure for me and definitely a learning process so please bare with me.  I'm looking forward to the challenge and getting out of my comfort zone for a bit.

I decided this year instead of having New Years resolutions I would work on completing one project every month.  So it would be more like having monthly goals instead of yearly goals. This way hopefully it would make it a lot easier for me to complete and stay on track to remember (hopefully).

I thought I'd post my projects here and blog about them once I complete them each month. This way it will hold me accountable and hopefully make me want to complete each project on time.

I'm the first to admit that I'm sure these projects are not going to be my own ideas. I will definitely be posting links to my inspiration giving credit where credit is do. I really hate when people don't credit others for ideas they steal really it's not nice people!

There will be 12 projects in all 1 project for each month.  Got it? Good lets get started!

A New Year & A New ME!

Wow! I can't believe it's time to start a brand new year.  I like welcoming a new year and reflecting on the past year. In 2013 I decided to really make some changes hoping to stick to them but I don't like to think of them as resolutions because I've never been able to stick to any New Years resolutions.

Of coarse health is top on my list like most people. I've lost 16 lbs. but really need to loose about 20 lbs. more to get back to my "good weight."before kids.  YIKES! Our family was blessed to receive a membership to a country club as a gift last year and our family has enjoyed spending time at the club whenever we can. It's been a few weeks since I've been able to go since I've been sick now for two weeks since Christmas. Thank God I'm finally on the mend and feeling better today. I felt like the entire house was shut down. It's hard enough when both kids are sick but when both parents are sick at the same time it's a nightmare. So glad we made it thru keeping my fingers crossed hoping we don't get sick again this season.

I've been doing lots of research on pinterest, youtube, organizing websites and blogs etc. on ways to organize the home. I found there are so many things I need to start organizing to make our home run much smoother. I guess I'm starting to realize I can't think of everything on my own I need to reach out to other Moms for ideas. I look forward to posting a blog about all the projects I hope to accomplish in 2013 around the house to help our family stay more organized and for me to not feel so overwhelmed.

Keeping in touch with family is so important to me. We live very far from our relatives and loved ones and sometimes it's hard to keep in touch. It's lonely sometimes and hard to be away from family. I'm looking for ways this year to try to keep in touch with our relatives and loved ones who live far away so we can always be a part of their lives and they a part of ours. It's so easy to get caught up in the daily craziness of life that you loose sight of what's important and that's family. So I'm hoping to work on that part of my life in 2013

I also have thought a lot about trying to find my purpose. Yes, I'm a Mom, wife, daughter, friend etc. but there are a lot more layers to me as woman. Lately I've been really trying to search for a way for me to have an outlet that will allow me to grow more as women. Whether that be volunteering my time, joining a group, or going back to doing some of my work in TV, Radio, public relations, music etc. not sure. I hope to post a blog about this part of my life and hopefully I'll be able to find what I'm searching for to help complete me.

Again it's hard to believe 2013  is here. I just pray for our family to remain healthy, happy and filled with joy this coming year.

Happy Noon Year 2013

I was so sick on New Years Eve and New Years Day. I am still struggling with being sick. So we did not do a lot to celebrate. Liam was able to attend his yearly Noon Year party thanks to Chris he brought him New Years Eve morning. He counted down the Noon Year and had a fun day.