Weston's New Room

I promised pictures so here you go!

I've been working a lot on Weston's room and still have a few things left to do.  We plan to hang a chair from the ceiling by the tree and I need to do some touchup paint.  We have the chair but we are a little nervous about catching a rafter to hang it from!

My dad also came down to help me replace the interior doors.  Much harder than it looks!  We replaced 9 doors and then just swapped out the hardware on the remaining doors. I love them and think they look so much better even though they still need to be painted and the holes filled.

Other than all of that, we have been working on putting things away and insulating the attic.  That was a messy, messy job and I'm thrilled it is over with.

Well, hello there!

So much for being good at updating and documenting our lives!

Anyway, we've moved!  We are back in PA and focusing on getting our lives back in order.  I wish I could say the move went smoothly but that would be a lie.  Within 10 minutes of walking in to our brand new home I started violently throwing up and got a call from Mike saying the moving truck broke down.  I ended up calling my mom (one of the many reasons we decided it was best to move back) and had her come over to take care of Weston.  It's a good thing I did too because by the time she got there, I was in pretty bad shape.  I don't remember much of the rest of that night or the next day.

I do know that Mike, my step-father in-law, and the truck eventually made it that night because I slept on our mattress.

The cleaning company that we hired to do our move out clean royally screwed us over and we can't get our money back because of their shady practices and my failure to thoroughly read things when I'm in a hurry.

We also had a pretty scary day when our sewer backed up into our basement and we were being told it was going to be $20k +, out of pocket.  We were not happy and were talking lawyers, rescinding sales, etc.  Eventually we figured out a much better solution that only cost $400.  We still may have to do the more extensive work but we also found out that we called the wrong people and that it would be about half as much as we were quoted.  Whew!

It's hard to believe we have been here for a month already!  Looking around, I'm ashamed at the amount of boxes we still have laying around.  We'll get there though.  We've been slowly chipping away at our list so at least something is getting done.  Our next big project is replacing all of the doors inside.  I'm incredibly nervous and excited about this!  Nervous that we measured/ordered wrong and that it will be a huge mess (literally). I'm excited though because I hate the doors in this house.

I'm hoping to get back into blogging and posting before and after pictures of the house but I'm not making any promises.

Weston is doing well.  He is a talker!  I quit counting his words as he is easily over 100 words.  He amazes me daily at how much he understands.  He certainly has a mind of his own and is a very strong willed child (no idea where he gets that from ;)). He also loves going potty on the big potty.  I'm hoping this means he will be easy to potty train!

He absolutely LOVES his new house and runs around the circle and the yard screaming with glee! I'm excited for summer so we can be outside in the yard more often.  I really wish the yard was fenced but for now, I guess I'll get my exercise by chasing him all over.

Pictures coming soon!

Picture

I just had to share this.

My MIL sent me the outfit that Mike wore on his 1st Birthday and we had this picture of him in it.  I love that Weston is looking at the picture.  I do wish that you could see the outfit on Weston a little better but I think it is a nice keepsake picture for them.  Who knows, maybe my grandson will hold this picture one day while wearing the outfit.

Halloween pictures coming soon...

Crafting

 Recently, and thanks to Pinterest, I have gotten really into making things.  Actually, it started with Weston's  party and then Pinterest added to it.  I'm actually having a lot of fun doing it but it takes quite a bit of time.

The major project I had for Weston's party was the "army of sock monkeys" as Mike liked to call them.  I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of them when they were all done but I made about 12 as favors for the kids. Here are three of them.

As you can see, they are far from perfect but I'm still pretty proud.

I put them in the favor boxes here along with a monkey book, MumMums, Earth's Best Strawberry and Apple snacks, Birthday Blowouts.  The two older kids got some playing cards, bubbles, and a monkey coloring puzzle.

Another one of my favorite projects for his party was his month banner.  All of those monthly pictures I struggled to get were used for it.  I just printed 5x7 prints of each one, clued them to construction paper and hung them from a string with mini clothes pins.

I also made a birthday banner with his name out of scrapbooking paper and those punch out letters that teachers use.

 Finally, the candy buffet, cake and cupcakes. I ended up not doing fondant for the smash cake.  I just realized that, while it looked nice, it wasn't all that practical for a one year old.

The invitation:

We also blew up all of the balloons.  I really wanted more but we ran out of helium and time since we only had about 30 minutes to set everything up.  All in all, I was very happy with how everything turned out.

Recently I taught myself how to knit and am having fun with that.  I finished this scarf and am working on another.

I am also making Christmas stockings.  Weston has a really nice one from Pottery Barn but Mike and I have dollar store stockings.  I'm done with one but will post pictures when they are both done.

And keeping with the holiday spirit, here are our pumpkins for this year.

I'm still debating about carving out the letters and sticking our led lights in there but I'm not sure that we have time.

Here is our boy picking out his pumpkins.

Picture Overload

I'm still too tired to write much so I'll just let the pictures tell you about the party!

Birthday

Birthday Party

I will write a more detailed post about the party later.  I'll also post pictures of one of the sock monkeys that I made.  I'll get a little bit of a break after everyone leaves tomorrow, I kind of can't wait.  Is that mean?

Here is his "short" slideshow

And the long version...seriously, grab some popcorn if you watch this one.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

ETA: I'll add this one later.  Apparently, I need to upload it first.

Well, It Happened

He turned one!  We had a wonderful day with the little man.  He had his first haircut, a nice dinner, both grandmas and a piece of cake.

The party is tomorrow so I'll do a more thorough update after that.  I've been going non-stop until this very moment trying to make sure everything is ready. 

I can't wait to share pictures with you so check back soon!  Here is one to tide you over.

We're Getting Closer!

We're almost at the year mark which means I need to get my butt in gear making these sock monkeys.  They are taking much longer than I had anticipated.  I'll get there though...I'm determined to finish.

I'm getting really excited for his party.  We found out that some unexpected guests will be coming in from out of town to attend!

We went apple picking yesterday and had such a good time.  Weston LOVED walking around the orchard and eating an apple by himself.  He wanted to pick up every apple he saw and literally squealed with delight whenever he got one.  He did get very sad when we were leaving and I was sure to capture the face.

What a difference a year makes.

9/18/2010

Back to the sock monkeys.