The 18 things I packed for the hospital

Organizing Friday

I planned on sharing my list before we had the baby, oops!  I had a repeat C section, so this list might not be the same as others. While at the hospital I like to make things as homey as I can, but not make too much work for myself when I get home either, no extra laundry and NO ONE likes to unpack, especially after having a baby!

My list for baby is pretty small

~Preemie Outfit
~Newborn Outfit
~0-3 Month Outfit
I say 1 of each, cause you just never know what they will fit in!
~pacifier
if you are not against them
~Baby Shampoo
We like the Honest Co. it smells delish!
~Banner for Bassinet
 ~Couple Blankets
~Car Seat

That is ALL I packed for this boy! I like to really keep it to basics

For myself I packed a little more, it would have been less if we had been having normal September weather!

~Robe 
~Yoga pants
~Something comfy to wear home x2
~Camera
~Phone and Charger
~Extension Cord
 those tables are NEVER close enough for phone chargers!
 ~Nook
Could have skipped that!
~Plug in Air freshener
Not a fan of hospital "smell"
~Blankets from home and a PILLOW!
Nothing beats comforts you are used to
~Bathroom stuff
I skipped the eyeliner but I did bring a little makeup

That is it! It took me about 5 minutes to unpack when we got home! I didn't need everything I packed but didn't feel like I over packed either.

Anything you HAVE to have when you are having a baby? Maybe something not on every other list?

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April Goals!

A few days late, this seems to be how things have going around here!

Last month goals are here

FAILED

At nearly all of them!

The house is MUCH better, but not 100%.

Didn't do such a great job with budgeting, I still have a couple projects I am working on to help out financially.

We did read more, not enough though.

I feel like I have been home a little more but running around more than I should be. No dates have been planned.

I do have a good reason for some of this though. I have no motivation and have been sleeping a whole lot more, some unexpected costs in the budget and a whole lot of Dr. appointments.

We are expecting baby #4 in September!!

The other good news is, I get to keep the same goals and try again!

I have lowered my expectations a bit. Knowing that we have other things we are needing to purchase, the budget and debt aren't going to be as good as I had hoped. I tire pretty often and have a small complication so I am giving myself a break on getting as much organizing and cleaning done. As long as we all have clean clothes and dishes it's a win.

Hoping I have some more energy (and motivation) back soon!

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Cowboy & Cowgirl Birthday Party!

All that planning and stressing and it's over like that! So much fun today though!

So here are the details!

Red & Aqua were the colors picked by the birthday kids! Tried to keep stuff not too boyish or girly, SO hard! I think this may have been our last shared birthday party!

Stick Pony Favors

 Straw! Yep.. we filled one corner with straw! Fun!

 Rice Crispy Treat "Hay Stacks"

 mini cupcakes

 Cactus Pretzels.. pretzel rods, dipped in Green tinted white Chocolate, then sprinkled with toasted coconut

 Color coordinating drinks! No idea how I got so lucky to find these!

 MnM's and supplies

TINY little cowgirl headbands for the girls

Stick on Mustaches for the boys

Water Bottles.. with wrappers

 We hid little circles (in party colors) and the kids had to dig in the hay to find them, we traded them the circles for a headband or mustache!

 Photo prop!

 Favor Bags

 Cupcakes and Cupcake Picks

The Favor's before the bag. White Chocolate Covered Oreo's!

This is our Birthday Girl... you can kind of see the little hat

 And this is our little one, it's not his birthday but he was still happy to party!

 This is our Birthday Boy! Took a cupcake bribe to get him to slow down for a picture!

 A little better picture of the hats!

 Finnley found one, he isn't picky! He will wear anything!

We also made a CD for each family with the birthday kids favorite country songs.. forgot to snag a picture though!

And is it TOO crazy that I already have ideas for next year?! And September for Finnley.. September is only 7 months away! 7 months is barely enough time to plan!

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Red Wagon Themed Birthday Party!

ok, I didnt take ANY pictures of the actual party.. but thankfully lots of other people did... so for now, I am sharing the before party pictures!

First are these wagon wheels aka whoopie pies! Seems like they are starting to be popular!. I only went with them because they are round and the colors were right!

And of course, I used as many little wagons as I could get my hands on!

I made the little water bottle wrappers and got the toddler "wheels" cause they were wheels!

I was trying to stick with the same colors, yay for apples.. with caramel.. YUM!

Chips and RED salsa, a tiny tiny little wagon with matching MnM's and the pinwheels and lollipops were favors



I had some leftover sugar cookie dough.. decided to make some little cookies.. I am no frosting pro.. but they kind of look like wagons, and in a wagon!

 And here is Finnley's cake! I didn't think I could frost a wagon well enough, so I used a cookie instead!

And these are the cookie favors! At first I felt bad spending so much on the cookie cutter ( do you know how HARD it was to find a wagon cookie cutter)  But these turned out SO cute and in the end it was totally worth it!

I made the bag tags to match too!

And I forgot to take pics of the cupcakes. but grass frosting on some and some were white, used the cute cupcake pics I made a while ago!

I was SO SO bummed about his party clothes.. usually in Oregon it is NOT 80 degrees the end of Sept. I was pretty sure we would have a cloudy and 60's kind of day. So when I searched ebay for this

I KNEW he needed it!! And it would look SO cute on him.. too bad sweat isn't a good look on babies! But now we have this cute little sweater that should get lots of wear this fall!

That's all I have for today but there should be some real party pics soon! 

And who is ready for Halloween? I am working on it now that the party is over!  Maybe I can start sharing this week!

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Summer time diapers that look like Jeans?!

Well Summer is almost here!  Found these online..  had to have them for a couple reasons..
1. I am probably going to do less cloth diapering in the summer because I don't want to run the washer/dryer more than I HAVE to. Gets too darn hot!

2. I haven't bought the baby much as far as shorts go, now I am not going to.  Cute Diaper and a shirt are fine with me! And again with the laundry.

These are sold out on some sites already!  Our Targets are just getting them, not even unloading until tomorrow, but I was able to get them to pull a box out for me :)

Since they are huggies, and we have had good luck with them, I am hoping the quality will be the same.
And use those coupons if you have em!

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Done with Finnley's room, for now anyway!

I can't decide on a paint color! But everything else is as done as it is getting, until I get some more inspiration!

I got the subway art idea from Kat at here is her post on it..She got the idea from tatertots and Jello. I changed it a little, I used brown with vanilla paper and I used the cricut machine to do my words! But I love how it turned out, I used his initials, his birth weight and date, his nickname (little bird, thanks to his big sister) and some other random words and a couple that have other meanings to us! I had a LOT of fun making this and I think it was fun to include his baby stats into it! I like that it is simple but looks good in his room! I am sure I will find something small to go on either side, not sure what exactly, because I don't want to get too much going on, I don't want it to look busy!  Two more pictures of the Subway art, not the crib, and in different lighting.

Ikea dresser.. could they get any more plain in shape? I love how simple the shape is but the fun red color! The picture does NOT do it justice! (we have 2 of this same one we liked it so much!)

When he outgrows his crib ( our other 2 were out of their cribs by about 15 months) I plan on getting THIS bed from Ikea.. I like how simple it is and can go with anything, if for some reason he decides he isn't into cowboy stuff!!

Alright that is it for now.. Any cowboy ish ideas y'all want to share, I would LOVE to hear em!

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It's still not finished.. but getting there!

Slowly coming along in the baby's room!




So far I have convinced the big ones to help me sort all the toys and toss/donate the ones that are missing peices or that haven't been played with in a while. The closet used to hold one of these

 Which was full of books, pretend food and lots of puzzle pieces. It worked well, fit in the closet and doesn't interfere with the clothes but it sure made that THE playroom. Decided to empty it and take it out and downstairs where we have a large closet it fits nicely in the side of and we can avoid toys all over 5 rooms (hopefully just 3 now!) With the storage unit out I moved the play kitchen in the closet, the kids still play with it, it isn't taking away space from the baby's room AND I can close the closet and all the toys in it and pretend it's not there when it is really messy!



My mother in law made a wonderful cowboy themed quilt that is all the colors I was hoping to tie into the room! A chocolate and pale brown, some dark red and blue. The Bumper was something we found would be helpful after he got his helmet! He was rubbing his helmet on the rails and I think it was waking him up some at night, not to mention the arms and legs out the rails aren't the best for sleeping! The bumper is soft minky material and plain! There was a "coordinating" EXPENSIVE dust ruffle and the colors weren't exact, that would really have bugged me.. so I just bought some cow print, soft furry on sale fabric and put it under the crib.. good enough and just a little cow print was enough for now!

The curtains were on clearance for 3 bucks for the pair, they are tab top, not really my thing, but I had the bandana's on before and they cover the tabs nicely!

The wagon lunchbox was a Real Deals score, clearance and right now it has his pacifiers in it, even though, he hasn't used one in months! The rope border has been up for a year and a half or so now.. I just nailed it into the wall every foot or so, and when they were loops, to hold them in. The pillow is a Real Deals goodie, it says "Mind your manners" and the metal BEHAVE sign above the closet was at a local craft store.

The chest fits perfect.. ( even though the picture is HORRIBLE, I had "help" taking that one) I don't know how we got so lucky with that! It was a wedding gift and now holds all the toys the big ones have outgrown but we wanted to keep for the baby, and clothes he has yet to grow into. I am hoping I can find time to make a cushion for the top, the biggin's love to sit and read on it.. I don't see that changing anytime soon and I want to encourage them to "read" to their little brother!

I still need to repair the walls and paint.. or get some help painting. This weekend is going to be too nice to be inside though!  I need some help finding something for above the crib which is also the biggest wall. Reasonably priced is the hard part for me! Any ideas from y'all would be wonderful!

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