Time does not stand still in this house

Time does not stand still in this house. We are always on the go either just around the house after the little ones or actually on the go running errands, playing Army, hanging out with friends, the list goes on. The only time we rest is bed time, which every day can never come soon enough, lol!

This past week has been some what of a blur. Last blog I really enjoyed sharing our week with everyone in photos so I tried it again this week. Friday we enjoyed a lovely lunch date with our dear friend Andrea and my cousin who is in town from England. We then went to Cabela's to show D there giant fish tank.

We were informed that we are able to move on in the adoption process, we can not wait until its final. I plan on flooding the world with pictures of this adorable girl that has stolen our hearts!

Saturday was a pretty relaxed day, we stayed at home as a family doing this & that and just relaxing. Always a wonderful Saturday when there is nothing on the calendar! We went for a really long walk with my Dad & Step Mom D cant get enough of "Papa" which is what she called both of them cause she cant say Grandma. She gets extremely overwhelmed with excitement whenever they come over its so cute to see. It was Saint Patrick's Day, so Norah got to wear an adorable outfit we got from Shawn's Aunt & cousin.

Sunday was church. Sometimes Drill or the kids prevent us from going, not this Sunday. Norah actually woke up a bit earlier than usual so we went to the 9 am service instead of 10:30. It was kind of nice I felt like I still had a lot of day left when we got home instead of feeling like its 1/2 over. All week I had been looking forward to going to my friend Tabetha's for a candle party... until my Husband decided he needed to go do some work in his classroom & told me I had to take the Girls with me. I don't dread going out with my kids but would love a mini break every once in a while lol! What Mom doesn't. Luckily D is live entertainment and steals everyones hearts so she had plenty of people to hold her and give her attention. Norah slept thru most of it. It was a cloudy rainy day in AZ. Snapped a photo on the way to Tabetha's and then on the way home.

Giant rain clouds!

A FULL rainbow! I couldn't get it all in 1 shot.

Monday was my typical chores at home stayin pjs all day kind of day! While the rest of the world dreads Mondays I love them! I think the kids do too, laying around in pjs all day!

Tuesday I took the Girls for a run. I am LOVING my BOB stroller it is so awesome! I bundled up the Girls cause it was slightly chilly Tuesday morning, I crank up Pandora on my iphone and were off. Ran for a 1/2 hour felt sore when I got home but a good sore. The Girls apparently were worn out from the run too, which was good cause they take a power nap every morning for 45 min - 1 hour. We got back just in time for them to sleep it was perfect, I was able to take a shower undisturbed!!

 Tuesday, Miss Norah turned 2 months old. The time seems to be flying by, but we are enjoying every minute of it! Here is her Dr trip in pictures and videos.

Loving the paper on the table, she would actually get fussy if I picked her up she liked the paper so much, lol!

Top left is in the waiting room. Top right & lower left is waiting for the Dr. Lower right is Dr gave us a thumbs up now were waiting for shots.

Warning: the video is sad so be careful. I had to document the shot reaction for Shawn he wanted to see it. She took it like a champ because she stopped crying as they were putting Band-Aids on then zonked right out.

Shots during & after

shots video

She did really well when we got home too, she pretty much just slept the shots off. Not really fussy and no temp at all. Such a tough Girl!

Wednesday was just a typical day. Our morning routine is pretty much the same I try not to vary if I can help it. All the parenting classes we have taken for Foster Care and my weird obsession with reading Parenting books. Kids thrive off of structure and my kids know the schedule and behave accordingly, it makes my life so much easier and puts us all at ease 95% of the time. Since Shawn isnt here during the day during the week if I ever leave him at home with the kids he would just kinda do whatever which is fine but when hes calling and asking why 1 or more of the kids is fussy... So, I typed out the kids schedules by the hour so he or a babysitter/Grandparents can follow it. Its been really great. No more calls from Shawn while I am out. I have conceded that I am OCD about a lot of things but it works for us and the kids so for now we stick with my anal retentiveness lol!! 

Fo is becoming more and more tolerant of the kids. He still has his old fart moments where he just wants to be left alone. But this was a super sweet moment I was able to capture!

The Girls LOVE each other already. Norah is constantly looking at D watching her closely and cooing at her. D is obsessed with kissing her, helping burp her and today even wiped her mouth with the burp rag. Its utterly adorable to watch these two. We are hoping they grow up to be best friends!

Wednesday night I went out to dinner with my Step Mom for company (My Dad was out of town & Shawn had to work late) and she cant get enough of the Girls. 

Getting ready to go to dinner with Grandma. D seriously gives Norah a kiss at least once every 15 min.

While we were at dinner I got a call asking to take a 2 year old little boy. This was the 5th call in 5 days, we had turned down the others because of my cousin visiting. But we went ahead and said ok to this guy. He was dropped off late Wednesday night. He is adorable, smart, kinda shy but very well behaved. He's struggling a little with nap time and bed time but each time is getting a little easier. I say give him a week and he will be adjusted. We found out he has an 8 mo. old brother so we are trying to get him too, he's currently at another Foster home. Hopefully they will bring him here this weekend and the boys can be together and the 2 year old might feel a little more settled with his brother here. Will keep you posted. Yes, we may seem crazy but if the Dugar's can do it well then so can we and we are giving a good home to kids who are victims and desperately need a safe, loving home. 

Yesterday, My childhood friend Laura was brave enough to watch all 3 of our kids with her own daughter here at our home while I went to volunteer at Shawns field day. She did great, the kids had fun and were all tired after a long play date. Field day was fun, I got sunburned and almost lost my voice and today my allergies are now kicking my butt :-)

Squeezed in a little snugging time before I went to field day.

Zonked after her play date!

I came home with an awesome sunburn, this picture does it no justice. In person its just about as red as the shirt I am wearing. 

Its finally Friday and were hanging out in our pjs good way to end the week. Norah is asleep in her swing, D is at the tail end of her power nap and the little guy is watching Cat In The Hat cartoon on PBS. Which allowed me to blog and have a cup of coffee I cant ask for more. Hopefully later my Sister will come over while the kids are napping and be here to respond if they stir so I can tackle some serious homework. We are anxious to see our friends Alaina & JD this weekend who are in town and had a baby Girl 4 months ago. Alaina & I went to High School together and its going to be so cool for our Girls to meet!! Hope everyone enjoys the weekend ahead.

Full steam ahead.

Didn't March just start yesterday? I could have sworn it did. Its already the 15th I cant believe it. We have been enjoying Spring Break this week (Shawn from teaching and myself from school). We were even adventurous enough to start a little Spring cleaning. We cleaned up the whole backyard the other day then spent the night on the patio enjoying a fire in the fire pit, well deserved, very enjoyable. My 2nd cousin Paul who lives in England came in last Friday and we have been spending lots of time with him. Shawn took him shooting for the first time just yesterday, they had a great time! Even though we have company in town, have been doing some Spring cleaning and I have still been working on school work... we have managed to have plenty of relaxing down time together.

Just yesterday little Norah started cooing and slightly audibly laughing... I have experienced firsts with Jessica and D and was worried it would not be as exciting with my own... not the case. Its just as memorable. It was even more awesome to see Shawn experience it since with the other 2 girls he was deployed. I am certain now it will never loose its appeal, it will be an unmistakeable moment every time. I have noted with each child Im more and more relaxed. D falls down all the time and is always getting hurt while horse playing with Daddy. I get less upset at him, and less concerned that she is injured and I just react with an ice cube for her to suck on and a kiss or two lol. I have no doubt Norah will be nice and tough, D is well on her way. I see D fall and simply ask "are you ok?" and she just gets up and laughs. If they fall and you freak, they will freak. If you have that shake it off attitude with them thats how they will respond to. Kids feed off of our emotions and are constantly taking mental notes of our behavior and reactions to things. Shawn keeps saying lets have all Girls but I am not so sure he understands... my theory is Girls get harder as they grow up and boys get easier. His theory is boys are punks, funny cause he is one and has an 18 year old son both of whom drive me bananas, always have so not so sure on his theory. I think we will just take it one day at a time and see what's in store.

We are on the list to accept more Foster Kids and in the last 4 days I have received a call everyday being begged to take a kiddo. It breaks my heart to say no but with company in town and Shawn and I actual able to spend some time together this week, we decided to not accept any this week. Its so sad to think that there are that many kids being displaced from there homes. I wish with all my heart more people would open there homes to Foster care. I think to many don't really fully understand what it means and how it all works and are afraid to ask questions thus forming there own wrong opinion as why not to do it. (If anyone is interested or even just wants to ask questions feel free to ask away I would love to share with you.) I cant see my life without it. We have touched the lives of 8 children in almost 3 years now. About to adopt our 1st one and she is the Sunshine in my life I cant imagine my life without her I love her as much as I love my own biological child, there is no difference and there never will be. We actually found out this week we are another step closer to making the adoption of D finalized... I can not wait for that day to come. Should be no later than August, so everyone say a little prayer for us that we encounter no speed bumps and can have this little Girl forever in our home.

Some how with Shawn working Mon-Fri, Me going to school full time, running around after the Girls, keeping up with the house and Army for us both I have still managed to do a few more little projects around the house. I hope to share those soon, more of my OCD organizing and my obsession with seeing things online and re creating. The Girls room is all done we just need to get them a bunk bed. The one I am in love with is from Pottery Barn and will probably take a year to save for but it will be the icing on the cake as far as there room goes, and well worth the wait I am sure.

Not a ton new going on mostly same old same old, but we are full steam ahead with life. I am trying to do a weekly post if I can so that you can at least hear how the Girls are growing. Hope everyone enjoys there weekend. I am looking forward to ours, we have nothing planned which is always nice. Last weekend I had to play Army so it didn't seem like a weekend. 1st one away from the Girls in a while and I missed them a TON. Thank goodness for apple and facetime. I actually got to see D say Mama for the 1st time!! It was A-dorable! Have a great weekend everyone!

A few pics of our week... lots of napping going on.

Norah taking a late afternoon nap.

This picture is worth millions... Shawn is not a fan of manual labor. But, we got some Spring cleaning done, the whole backyard is ready for Summer use!

After all that Spring cleaning a nap was in order. Napping seems to be the pass time of choice in our house right now.

We had dinner on the cleaned up patio with my Dad, Step Mom, the Girls and my Cousin. Then we enjoyed a nice fire in the fire pit, poolside. It was an awesome day!

It was Norah's 1st fire. I cant wait until we take the Girls camping for the 1st time.

Two peas in a pod, they both love to sleep, and they both sleep soundly.

Sleeping thru errands.

Busy is an understatement

Now 3 weeks into school and I am already behind. My kids seem to have this weird sensor... every time they nap and I do house work they keep sleeping, I try to do homework and they wake up lol! Yesterday I had my sister come over and sit around to respond to the girls if they stirred so I could get some serious school work done. It went really well so its going to be a weekly thing now every Wednesday! Not exactly my idea of Me time but it will do for now. Have to keep the finish line in mind which is that MA degree!!

This past week we had a 6 month old little boy in our care for Foster. He had such a sad back story I couldn't say no when they called to ask if I would take him. He had an infectious smile and a great disposition all things considered. It was kind of nice having a little boy around too. D loved having another baby around and he was mesmerized by her. After I said yes and hung up the phone I doubted myself for a little bit but it turned out better than I expected. So grateful for family, my Dad and Step Mom came over the night he was dropped off with homemade dinner in hand and extra helping hands. Which was perfect... My Dad took Norah, my Step Mom took the new little guy and Shawn had D. Which freed me to run to the store for formula, some boy clothes, and drop of a prescription for the little guy. The 1st day or 2 of his stay was a bit crazy but I soon got him on the same schedule as the girls and it worked out great. 1 hour power nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the after noon. I was able to work on homework in pieces and maintain the kitchen and laundry. We were sad to see him go but are now confident that we can take on a 3rd easily when they call again... cause they will call again. The need for Foster homes is so great. Its now near and dear to my heart. I have brought the topic to my church and they are going to give me the chance to bring the topic to the congregation, I am so excited. Good quality Foster homes are few and far between. These kids are the innocent victims in all this. The system may struggle at times but it does work. We raised Jessica for a year while her parents stepped up to the plate and did an amazing 360 with there lives, we are so proud and happy to be a part of that success story. We have seen other kids go live with loving family members, and children become adopted. I just wish more people would open there homes to these kids.

Shawn continues to be busy with school and will soon start playing Army again. I am actually going to play Army this weekend for the 1st time in 2 months. Anxious and not excited all at once. It will be nice to get out of the house and be with adults and I know Shawn can handle things at home. I am more not excited about the early wake time and the long day on my feet. Good thing its only 1 weekend a month.

I am so grateful every day that we are blessed for me to stay home with the girls, all while doing my part to help others doing Foster care, and serving my country. I hope my girls grow up knowing that they can do anything they put there minds to, it takes a lot of hard work but its all well worth it. Going to bed every night with a smile on my face is priceless. Shawn is always telling me that I have such a big heart and that I am on a mission to save the world... I don't know if I can save the world but I am sure going to try!!

Both Girls are growing right before our eyes. D LOVES to dance, every day she dances with or without music. She recently learned to spin circles she discovered it all on her own, last night she did a solid 4 or 5 circles before becoming dizzy. I am hoping to put her into dance next year and seeing where she goes with it. I don't want to be the Mom who forces my kids to do anything, if she loves it I will of course be on cloud 9 since I grew up with dance being 75% of my life. But if she doesn't I look forward to seeing what she does pursue.  Norah is a happy content baby she usually only cries when she is hungry. We are lucky to have such a well behaved newborn... well shes almost 7 weeks now. Shes smiling more, more alert and is trying to coo when we interact with her. D loves her "sissy" and showers her with kisses, literally cause her kiss is more like a lick lol! I know that they are going to grow up being best friends! D's adoption should be finalized by summer time and I cant wait to shower the world with pictures of BOTH girls. They are the sunshine of my life right now, making me laugh and smile daily. They have Daddy wrapped around there little fingers. When Shawn comes home from work every day D goes running to him while laughing it never gets old. I just hope she still does that when she gets older
;-)

Well the girls will be waking up from there power nap soon and it will be time for us to watch Kathy Lee and Hoda on the Today show while playing with toys... my living room looks like Toys R Us threw up in it. I used to clean it up every night but now only if people are coming over. Good thing our house floor plan is conducive to this, its in the back of the house out of eye sight! Cant imagine it any other way though.

Here are some pictures of Norah at 1 month old. Enjoy your Thursday and upcoming weekend!

3 Day Weekend

Who doesn't love a day off? I do, always have! Some might say being a stay at home Mom everyday is a day off... not true. The girls keep me very busy and can't ever seem to be done with my chores especially now that we have a bigger house. Some times I feel like a dog chasing its tail. So, when Shawn has a day off I try to mix the to do list with a little down time if I can. Shawn is great at relaxing, what man isn't lol! This Presidents Day weekend we managed to relax and tackle a few things around the house. When Shawn is home I a bit more productive because I basically let him have Daddy duty while I do things like laundry which is what I managed to do this weekend. We went for a walk on Saturday as a family which was really nice. I am loving our double stroller, its awesome!

I still have about 2 more weeks before I can really start working out. I have never really enjoyed working out but have had to off & on in order to take my Army PT test when needed. I have 6 months to take and pass a PT test again and have told myself that I will take & pass the 1st attempt. So, I have a lot of work to do & I am anxious to get to it. The Army requires 60 points in each event and if I did that bare minimum I would need to: Do 20 push ups in 2 minutes, 46 sit ups in 2 minutes, and run 2 miles in 20 minutes. I have always tried to do more than the minimum to set a standard for myself, my fellow soldiers and my unit. Having to lose weight while preparing for a PT test will be a new challenge for me but I think I am up to it!! My Dr gave me the green light to start walking at my 4 week recovery mark. I started walking right at 4 weeks which was this past Friday. I walked for an hour and was sooooooo sore the rest of the day. It was a good sore though. Saturday we only walked for about 30 minutes. Before we became pregnant I weighed 127 pounds, my top weight while pregnant 181. Yes, thats right I gained 54 pounds. As of this morning the scale said I weigh 153, so I have lost 28 pounds in just 4 weeks. This is great number wise but the scale is not everything. The numbers are not everything. Muscle weighs more than fat so this needs to be factored in as well as I am not going for a certain number but to look good and feel good again. The Army does have a chart of age, sex & height as to what you should approximately weigh so I have to keep that in mind in this journey as well. The goal really is to be HEALTHY and not OVER weight. So I will share parts of my journey with everyone, I am not afraid to put it out there for everyone to read :-)

Little Miss Norah is now of course a month old. Doing Foster care and having raised 2 kids from birth thru that... I now think that each kiddo grows faster and faster. Its still amazing to see mile stones and I dont think I could ever get board of witnessing them! Both girls had Dr appointments on Monday and both girls are hitting all there miles stones on time if not a little early. The Dr was extremely happy with them both. D is now 24 pounds and will be coming off formula over the next few days transitioning to milk and more big girl foods. Shes been trying many of the things we eat but the Dr said its now time for her to eat what we are eating. She is such a big girl and I can hardly believe she is a year old now. I have enjoyed watching her grow this past year and cant wait to see how she blossoms over the next year. 

School started yesterday and has already been a challenge with the girls today, but I am bound and determined to make the two work with out either of them lacking. I always love a challenge so I will keep you posted on the full time Mom who is also a full time college student journey. Having 2 young ones I am sure I will have many stories to tell along the way.

Hope everyone enjoyed there 3 day weekend as much as we did. Any time together as a Family is always welcomed!

Falling into a routine

     So, little Miss Norah will be 1 month old tomorrow. This past month has been a blur and I was just thinking last night that it seems like ages ago that I was pregnant not just 4 weeks. She is a really great Baby and is falling into a routine at a steady pace. Shawn will say she is difficult but this is only Baby #2 for him this is #3 for me in less than 3 years. My Baby skills are more polished than his. He has been wonderful though, coming home every day from work and taking over the task of the girls so I can get a mini break if only it means I make dinner and can finally do the dishes. He wakes them up and gets all 3 of us girls moving in the morning lol! I am not exactly what you would call a morning person but I have become more of one with kids, kinda don't have a choice.

     This past Monday Miss D turned ONE... I cant believe it. She is growing so fast right before my eyes. A year ago I got a phone call asking if I wanted a Newborn Baby girl and for a moment I almost said no. Thank goodness I said yes because I couldn't imagine my life with out her. She is one amazing little girl, whom I grow more and more in love with everyday. We are hoping all goes well and she is officially and Adams by Summer time. That means we will have gone from a family of 2 to 4 in just 1 year!! I feel so blessed, I find myself staring at the girls thinking I must be dreaming.

     Shawn is back at work after 3 weeks of helping out with Norah and my recovery. He was reluctant at first he enjoyed his days in pajamas lounging around, but now that he's back in the classroom he couldn't be happier. I went thru the process to become an official volunteer for him and was going in to help him out regularly until Norah came. Last Friday was the 1st time going into his classroom to help with 2 kids. I go when school has released for the day of course. I felt like I was moving in. I had to bring the playpen to keep D contained and toys for her, bottles galore for both it was pretty comical but it went well. We got a lot accomplished. Not sure if I will go back to doing it weekly but I will still go, I have to Shawn's not that creative so when he has creative projects to get done he calls in the reinforcements lol.

     Besides the Girls growing up right before our eyes, there hasn't been a whole lot going on. Shawn loves work, I am enjoying being a stay at home Mom and all that entails. Starting on the 20th I am going back to school for a second BA degree. I applied to ASU for a MA in Non Profit before the Holidays and was not accepted due to a lower GPA. So I am going back to Wayland where I got my BA in Criminal Justice. I will take enough classes at minimum to bring up my GPA but might possibly go all the way as to obtain a 2nd BA degree, this time in Christian Ministries. Thank goodness Uncle Sam foots the bill, & it helps that they pay me to go to school as well. Getting paid to be a college student is something I never dreamed of, super grateful! Going to give School a good 3 weeks to integrate it into our schedule then around mid March we will be starting Emergency Receiving & Respite for Foster Care. Its an on call last minute kind of status but short term too. I am still fumbling with what I want to be when I grow up but Shawn & I have decided that there is no rush and if I start a civilian career at the age of 35 for 20 years I can still retire at the age of 55. So for the next 5 years I enjoy my kids, keep going to school to keep my brain active as well as to interact with adults lol, and we wait and see what God has in store for Me/Us. I am excited for the journey ahead.

     We splurged and had Newborn pictures taken of Norah, as well as Family and 1 year old pictures for D. I can only show pictures of Norah on here but am anxious for when we can share cute D's face with the world. So here are a few of my favorites from the Newborn session...

This one has special meaning, Norah is asleep in my Grandma Rahn's old suitcase. A suitcase she had for ages. It still saddens Me that she passed away in October and just missed meeting Norah. But this picture makes me happy in a special way.

Norah Patience Adams

Our own little Miss America!

Wrapped in the same flag we used in our Maternity pictures, it was wrapped around my belly!

Happy in Daddy's arms.

Hope everyone enjoys there Presidents Day weekend. We will its a 3 day for Shawn so we are going to stay at home and enjoy some family time!

The miracle of life

Its been crazy busy since my last post. A HUGE change in our life... Baby Adams is finally here! Norah Patience Adams born January 20, 2012 at 8:52 pm 7 lbs 14 ounces and she is PERFECT! Her due date was projected as January 20th. Thursday, January 19th at about 7 pm we sat down to watch a movie, just prior I had been complaining that I was "so ready to have this Baby" and "what is she waiting for". The house was SO organized it wasn't even funny we had gone as far as cleaned out/organized/labeled the inside of our pantry & refrigerator. I even said "shes going to catch us off guard", that she certainly did. At 8 pm my water broke unexpectedly and we were off to the hospital. I wasnt completely sure it was my water so Shawn kept saying were coming back home and thought putting the bags in the truck was silly. Well, it wasn't silly, they admitted us right away and I was in labor for 24 hours 52 minutes. When we got there I was so excited, anxious and scared thinking this is it were really having a Baby. I was not prepared to be in labor for so long. I had wanted to go med free for the whole thing... after 9 hours no meds and only dilating 4 cm I knew I had to fold and get an epidural or I would be out of energy to push later and would probably have to have a c section. Shawn says the epidural was the best thing ever since we didn't have to go to the bathroom all the time for me to puke. I ended up having some serious back pain with the epidural, they had to flip me "like a burger" every 45 min to try and ease the pain. At 22 hours I was told that I could push, I was also told that the Baby was sideways and there was a large possibility I wouldn't be able to push her out, I am stubborn and wanted to try anyway. 2 hours of pushing and she didn't budge, we had to have a c section after all. At that point I was starving, tired and beyond ready to meet my daughter that I was not upset I just wanted to move forward. We had 4 names picked for Baby Adams and we planned on meeting her first before picking. When I heard her cry Norah stood out in my head, as I was rolled back into our room I heard the Dr yell Norah down the hall, the photographer said she liked Norah... but when Shawn handed her to me for the first time a Norah Jones song came on Pandora that was playing on my cell... it was fait, Norah it was!

We stayed in the hospital from Thursday night until Monday morning. Going home was a welcome relief and has been a surreal experience. I have done the bring a new Baby home before with the Foster kids so there wasn't any real stress attached. The first night was bad, Baby needed to adjust to the new environment, but since then its been almost smooth sailing. She is well on her way to sleeping thru the night, right now she's up about every 3 hours eating tons! She's  blessing to watch sleep and grow already. After a very long four years of trying she is finally here and we could not be happier or feel more blessed. We have so much to be thankful for. A week before Norah's arrival we were given the good news that we can adopt our Foster daughter, we couldn't be happier.

Enjoy some of our labor/delivery photos...

This journey has been a long one but well worth the Patience... Norah Patience Adams.

The week before her arrival I did many projects around the house... need to take pictures of them all and share, pretty impressed with myself as to how they came out and how much I got done. I am finding the key to a stress free life with kids is organization. If everything has a place then its more likely we will put things away and it makes things easier/quicker to find. More on this later...

Race against time

So last nights post was short and sweet. I was racing to post before my laptop died as well as the hubby was beckoning me to come watch "Its a Wonderful Life" with him before it got to late. So I shared a few of the projects we worked on over the weekend. I woke up today looking around feeling really good at what we got done around the house. When I moved us into this house a year ago (a week before Christmas) while Shawn was deployed, I was determined to get us settled in before the end of the year. I pretty much did getting everything unpacked. But, after a year of day in and day out I have re evaluated some areas and have moved things around trying to make our day to day as efficient as possible. We have a room that is our in home gym and over time sorta became a storage unit and you could hardly see the carpet. Saturday night we cleaned up and cleared out and got the gym in working order... just in time! Shawn has been on a work out break since coming home 3 months ago from over seas and I have obviously been on one for 9 months now. We really want to jump into working out once Baby Adams gets here! I have a couple pictures to hang in there and a small pile of misc things that need to be put away then I will post a picture!

Today I started small, I actually try to every day if I get at least 1 thing done off my to do list then I accomplished something. Today I managed to vacuum all the furniture which is a huge chore since we have a hairy Jack Russell. It took one hour to finish thank goodness D takes a power nap every morning.  I managed to get 2 more organizing things done as well. I have been spending a quality amount of time on Pinterest and cant get enough of it and all the ideas it has to offer. I thinks its why we have been on a bigger than usual project drive. I am really loving the organizational ideas. I expanded on two I already had in place today.

I have a great bank that offers a money tracker online but is not as down to the penny as I would like. So, today I labeled a small accordion file of areas we spend money on and plan on really charting it every 30 days, to then at the end of the year compose the best budget for us. Before I was just keeping a box of all our receipts if we needed to find one for a return or something. I am really stoked to really see where all our money is going.

The other was a binder that I had been storing menus of restaurants in it and some business cards. Well I revamped it based of a few pins I had seen on Pinterest plus some ideas of my own. We now have a binder with tabs of: Sitter, City, Services, Menus with room for more later. Under Sitter I have a fire escape plan, instructions for the kiddos, dog and house as well as contact info for Shawn & I and Dr. hospital info. Under City I have our trash/recycle schedule, and local amenities such as the baseball stadium schedule. Under Services is all the business cards for auto or home repair type places that we have used or have been recommended to. Menus is pretty self explanatory but I did include a piece of paper with our address, phone number, housing development and cross roads. Things I know I could never remember when I was baby sitting so its there for a sitter or even family thats over watching the kids/house. The binder has been a great resource and now that its been expanded on I know it will be greatly appreciated and used often!

On a whim I decided to organize D's hair things. Santa and my Sister in Law helped to make that collection larger & brighter! So thanks to Ikea (bin) they were already just tossed in and 2 up cycled items I have a super easy accessible hair bin for her. A 6 egg holder carton and 2 microwavable dinner trays.

I am always stoked after something goes from useable to super efficient. I am always tell hubby that if things are easy to put away/find then we will be more inclined to put things away and not let stuff pile up. We are both amazed at how right I am at this. It also makes it easy for kids to jump in on this as well as anyone who comes into our home can find what they need with out digging.

Only 11 more days or 18 max before Baby Adams gets here and I am hoping that this week I can finish most of my projects to feel more than ready for Baby and can just enjoy her, D and family time! Hope you all had a great Monday! I sure have.