You Don't Look A Day Over 30 ;0)

Happy Birthday Pops!!

Hoping this year brings you everything you have ever hoped for and more!

A Few Other Things

Getting Organized
Monday's
Staying Warm

Over the long weekend I had visions of getting a million things done. While that may not have become my reality, I did manage to be somewhat productive. The rest.. Well, it can wait for another time I guess :0)

One of those things was to tackle the dis-organization of Vincent's toys. One of the simpler things in life that makes me SO happy is to see things neatly in their place. Like have you ever just stared at the racks and racks of colored paper at a craft store just because it looks so organized and beautiful?? No..? Oh, well I'll continue with my story then..

Anyway, the lack of organization of Vincent's toys in the living room was starting to drive me a little crazy. For instance, this is what the corner of my living room looks like on a regular basis..

Two big over sized play toys filled with all of the other small-ish toys along with everything else just sort of strewed about the floor... I get it though, this is exactly how Vincent wants it but I needed to do something about it. For my sanity :0)

Along came Costco Friday morning. And what did they have?? Only the most perfect little storage system for just $19.99!!! For sure my kind of deal. It's one of those snap together kinda but it's light weight and I was able to put it together however I pleased. So I did! And with the help of some adorable Target bins, the look is complete!!
So much better...

We decided to move the big toys to the other side of the couches as barriers to keep a certain little adventurous dude in the living room while we hang out and play.

It works great at keeping the dogs out too! I'd say the living room is FINALLY baby proof. Nice.

Monday's:
Every third Monday Jay gets to stay home. Then I'm the lucky one who gets to drag my butt to work while wishing I could crawl back into bed and snuggle up with these two.

But, as an update to an old post about schedules changing, starting in January I will be going part time!! So on Mondays and Tuesdays I won't even have to bat an eye at my alarm clock when it tries to go off at 5:45. Instead ill be spending quality Zzzz time with my fam. As you can imagine, I'm pretty much counting down the days until that schedule goes into affect.

Staying warm:
This morning I am thankful for a warm house. As yesterday we were not so warm. Our heater decided to act up and as a result we had no heat until about 4:30 in the afternoon. It actually got down to 62 degrees in the house and I was ready to resort to heating the house with the oven. Poor Vincent looked like Randy from A Christmas Story, all bundled up in tons of layers. Not to worry though, all is warm this morning in the Turri house. And Vincent is back to wearing only one layer of clothing :0)

I am ever so grateful for my diligent hubby who worked on it constantly until it worked perfectly. And for saving us however much $$$ it would have cost us to call in a professional. Lucky us!

Countdown to One. 19 Days to go!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and it was definitely a day to be thankful for. But with a year full of things to be thankful for, it was nice to sit down and appreciate them all surrounded by the family who could be with us. Especially since Thanksgiving was the last first holiday for Mr. Vincent. With his love of food, I think it was his favorite holiday so far. But that's just my guess ;0)

Hoping all of you had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did. 

Now time to get my christmas on! ;0) 

Countdown to One. 21 days to go!

This is exciting.

Because this, is the last can of formula I ever have to buy!! Per doctors orders, a child's first birthday is usually the time when you're "allowed" to switch your baby over to whole milk. So, with only two and a half weeks to go, I'm going full-blown weaning mode. From formula to big boy milk, yes!! Formula is not cheap so really this like a pay increase for us and I'll take it! ;0)

Also, as I prep for his actual birthday party, I thought I'd give you all a sneak peak at one of the things I've crafted up!!

Oh and speaking of his b-day party, if you haven't already marked your calendars for December 17th you should probably go ahead and do so now.

Invites will be coming to a mailbox near you in the next week or so (hopefully).

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!

Countdown to 1. 27 Days to Go!

The one year mark has taken on a whole new meaning this week in that some sort of unexpected changes are going to be made to his daily schedule as soon as the new year rolls around. You see, his current care takers are Jay's parents. They have the time and availability that allows them to watch him during the day while Jay and I work. However with their work load about to increase, some adjustments have to be made in order to be sure and accommodate everyone. Things, for now, are still up in the air. But, because they are about to change, I wanted to take a look back at the all the memories Vincent made by being able spend his days with his grandparents.

See the beauty of the whole arrangement we have with Jay's parents is that we get daily pictures of our little bundle of joy on whatever adventures Grandpa and Grandmom (or "GrandPom" as I mistakenly say way too much :0), go on. It helps me feel reassured that the choice I've made to be a working mom is a good one. Because not only do I know that he is ok, but they are able to spend some extra special quality time with him. It's really a win win all around. And it sure has gone by way too fast.. As you can see, he's not really a baby anymore.

Countdown to One

With it being Vincent's 11 month birthday and all, I find it fitting to begin a countdown to his FIRST (tear) birthday! I thought, more for my own sake than for anything else, I would take the next 30 days to reflect on everything that's happened over the last year. From the actual emotional transformation that took place between how I was before I was a mom and how I am now, to things I would do the same and the things I would do differently as a reminder for the future should I ever be lucky enough to become a mom to another beautiful child. I think it's important to remember these things because life so quickly passes us by and the next thing you know, you don't remember any of it. I find this time extremely precious so I want to be able to remember it for always.

So, it's day 30 of the countdown and I want to to share of my favorite memories. One of my favorites of Vincent's first milestones. His first laugh!

A baby's laugh is one of the most amazing sounds I think I've ever heard. Maybe second to hearing their heartbeat, but a very close second at that. So back in February or March, Vincent was about 2 or 3 months old, Jay and I were having a rough time trying to put Vincent to bed. He was just crying and crying and nothing seemed to be helping to calm him down. After what seemed like forever I finally decided to breakout the swaddle (the #1 thing we could NOT live without for months by the way). I laid him down on the bed, wrapped that swaddle tight around his little body and next thing I hear, is this little creature, who had been so mad just ONE second before, all of a sudden BURST out laughing. I instantly looked up at Jay to make sure he had heard what I just heard and by the surprised smile on his face I knew he had. Our frustrated demeanor from having tried for so long to get him to calm down just melted away in that one instant. With that one little laugh. It was so unexpected and it took forever it seemed before we would hear it again on a more consistent basis but I will never forget it. Vincent isn't the easiest little guy to make laugh so when I can squeeze one out of him I just melt. And I don't care what I look like trying to get him to do it either, haha.

In the spirit of laughing and brightening your day, I've attached a link to the very first laugh I was able to catch on video. You can tell by his size that he isnt 2 or 3 months old anymore. In fact the date on the video says May 14th which means he was exactly 5 months old but hey! a laugh is a laugh, no matter how old you are. :0)

No Hands!!

"Look Ma, no hands!!" this is what I imagine him saying while he does this... His newest trick!

Just the other day he pulled his hands out of mine and just stood there all by himself. He would even catch himself if he started to feel himself getting off balance. So I counted. And one time, i counted all the way up to 15 seconds! I counted out loud and the higher I went the more excited he got. You can tell that he's so proud of himself. And I'm proud of him too. We clap together when he's done. It's absolutely my new favorite thing he does. :0)

Paper Mobile

I've wanted to do a paper mobile for Vincent's room for quite some time. I've seen so many different tutorials on them that i was anxious to try one out. And lucky for me, I found the time to finally make one today so I thought i would share how I did it..

Supplies:
- different color paper
- ribbon
- two lollipop sticks
- glue gun
- circle punch
- small hole punch

Instructions:
First I went through all of my scrapbook paper and picked seven colors that I thought would work well together.

Then I punched eight - 1 1/2 inch circles out of each color.

After that, I used a small hole punch to cut ribbon holes on either side of each circle.

Once all of the circles were punched out and each one had two ribbon holes cut into them, I began to string them accordingly onto pieces of ribbon I cut about 23" long. I strung the ribbon though the front of one of the holes so that it went out the back and then I brought the ribbon back through the front of the opposite hole. I did that until I had all seven colors strung together on the strand.

And I repeated that step until all eight strands were strung.

Once the strands were done, I set them aside in order to put together what would ultimately hold the mobile in place. I decided to use lollipop sticks for this part simply because I actually had some left over from another project, however I'm sure there are many other options. Anyway, I placed the sticks together to form a cross and cut out a little indentation for where one would need to sit on top of the other. Then I placed them together, strung my ribbon around it several times and glue gunned the end of the ribbon in place.

Then I glued all of the stands around the stick holder. I put two on each side and tried to make them so that they all didn't hang at the same length. FYI, I found gluing the strands exactly where i wanted them to hang was far easier than trying to tie the ribbon around the sticks like I had originally planned.

Once all of them were in place, I took a final piece of ribbon, strung it around the middle of the sticks, where they cross, and then hung the mobile from the ceiling!! It weighs practically nothing so a tack was sufficient enough to hold it. And thanks to my hubby being so tall and handy, I didn't even need to pull the stool out to hang it up :0)

Here's what the final product looks like..

And for those of you who knew what this area kind of looked like before.. Here's it is all new and improved!

I'm loving how it looks and even happier that I was actually able to complete a project, start to finish in just a couple hours. That's one thing that is definitely hard for me to do..

Happy crafting!!