Christmas Home Tour

The baby is still sleeping so I have more time! I told you I wouldn't bore you in the last post with my excuses but now I will :) No one may care about this but I do and this will help me when decorating next year too! Instead of blogging I have been doing a little of this:

It's my dining room. I'm very proud of it. The chandelier is a mix of Salvation Army and dollar tree buys. That cake plate on the table is something I made for the holidays. Maybe I will do another post soon on all of my craft secrets :)

I've also been doing a bit of this:


It's my curio cabinet. Again, the garland and the candy canes hanging from it came for Dollar tree and the ribbon I had from long ago. Throw in the Santa pictures and the window clings and for less than $5 I have a masterpiece!

Don't forget to add one of these:

Isn't it purdy?? We moved it out of the window and put it by the stairs this year and I don't think it will ever go back. And of course the train is once again underneath. Caroline LOVES playing with it as long as we don't make it whistle...she hates that sound. And if you notice, there is no baby gate or anything surrounding it. I have done great at teaching her about looking and not touching:)

I've also done this:These are on the wall in the living room. Again, you can find some of the best stuff at Dollar tree if you have a bit of imagination :)

This is my bookcase. The little wooden box is actually an Advent calendar with numbered drawers if you open it up. I am looking forward to using it next year with Caroline. I got it years ago the day after Christmas at Target. Which is why the reindeer has no head....That candy jar on the left is something I made. Yes. I. MADE. that. Very proud and will just change out the candy and the ornament throughout the year now for the seasons and celebrations.

And, much like most of the women in the world, I am doing a bit of this this time of year....

I usually make three different kinds of cookies and three kinds of candy. Not counting the stuff I make with my family....crazy lady.

This is the piece de reistance of my collection this year. I am going to HAVE to do a post about the original blogs where I get my ideas from so maybe someone else can try them.It took me much longer to finish than I had planned and a bit more than I planned to spend (always buy a bit more than you think you will need when things are in the dollar bins at Target!) but I LOVE IT!!

I also love our mantel. I made those stockings too. I seem to have a brand new love affair going on with my sewing machine lately. I am so grateful to have one of my own! Here is a close up. Brad and I chose each of our fabrics...one for the inside and one for the outside. Yes, I am that talented! And, then we chose Caroline's together. Brad's inside fabric isn't Christmas themed. It's hunting themed :) I plan to make any more we may need in the distant future.And, of course the holidays wouldn't be complete without being dressed perfectly. And, you need the best accessories if you are a cute little girl. I have been trying to keep up on this hobby since I am now selling them (and still giving them away to friends and family) but, alas my child still does not have enough hair to sport them. I can't wait until next year....then she's all mine!

Whew!!! That's not even all of the pictures of my holiday items I planned to post. But, I will have to show you how our bathroom is decked out at another time. Plus, it gives me a bit more time to finish a few more craft projects. But, if you don't see me for a while you know what I am doing. In between the laundry, cooking, wrapping, christmas cards, and cleaning I throw in there too. How do you manage to keep yourself sane these days??? Any tips?? After I rouse myself from my sheer exhaustion I may have the energy to think about the advice. :) Merry Christmas!

I have excuses....

Tons of them on why I have been so blog lazy lately! But I will spare you with those-at least until another post :) Miss C is fast approaching her first Christmas and her first Birthday and we are having such fun!!! My parents decided to give her her big present early since she is trying to walk. She now wanders up and down the hallway pushing her musical walker in front of her. Why do children's toys have to have such annoying sounds?? She has a ball with it and belly laughs the whole time...well until she stops walking to bust out the dance moves. I have been trying to get a video of her but she now knows what the camera is for and usually stops what she is doing so she can investigate it. She really enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and pigged out big time-just like her daddy! We've been to a parade already, watched some old time Christmas movies and even been to see Santa twice!! She did pretty good too. We also celebrated Christmas with Brad's parents already as well. Again, why do toys have to make noise :)I have been saying for a few weeks now that all I want for Christmas is Caroline's two front teeth and it looks like I have gotten that wish early! It seems like we were teeting with her (and still are) for months! Those poor gums were always so red and swollen but one has fully popped through and is slowly growing out more and the other just broke the gums the other day. She has the funniest expressions now. She is such a cute and a "cheeseface" as we like to call her trademark move these days. While I may not be blogging much I am taking lots of pictures and videos lately to make up for our absense from our blog world.

There's the 'cheeseface'!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love my new toy Auntie Nicole!

It's Thursday...tell me a story

Lets make up stories about a picture. Not just any picture but this picture:

Ready? And, GO! Troubles? Here, let me give you the story I have to go with this picture. Maybe it will help you with yours.

One day a man and his beautiful, young wife loaded their adorable little girl (hey, it's MY story) in the car to drive to celebrate a family birthday. Upon arriving at the celebrant's home-who also happens to be the wife's sister they proceed to 'unload' themselves and their equipment from the vehicle. The wife steps down from the massive SUV and stands on the curb listening to a sound almost like a hissing snake. Shrugging it off because she doesn't know much about cars and maybe it is something the car is just doing but isn't a sign of trouble. She moves to the back of the car to grab the bags. Meanwhile the husband hears this sound as well and as his near perfect wife takes their beautiful baby in the house he investigates. Minutes later, after a brother in law went to help, both men enter the house with the above object in tow. That is what was stuck in the wheel of the car. They must have ran over it while parking outside the birthday house. It was trash day and they thought maybe it had been in a pile of leaves or fallen out of a trash can. The vehicle was promptly taken to the shop and the tire resealed. After this short setback, the birthday celebration got underway and all was well. The tire is doing fine. They still don't know what that thing is or how it got in the tire.

Based on actual events. (written EXACTLY as they happened)
Any excitement going on it your life?

Happy Winds-day

This has taken me a while to post about so please forgive me. We had a bit of excitement the week before Halloween. We were under wind storm warnings that Wednesday and I spent the day watching the trees out my front window bend and sway in the breeze; I prayed they wouldn't come crashing down on my roof! Little did I know that Brad would come home from work to find this:

Thats our backyard and I never heard a sound! Brad was carrying things down the outside stairs and in through the basement when he noticed it. He came in and told me 'we lost a tree by the stairs'. I went outside to discover we hadn't lost A tree we lost THE tree. It took us about 4 days and some help from my dad and brother in law and the handyman who works for our neighbors but we got it cleaned up. It is amazing how much this tree covered all on its own-the space it empty now and we are trying to figure out what to do with it now. We were so lucky this landed in the lake and didn't fall the other way!

Boo!!

Caroline's first Halloween was a success! We had quite the weekend with my parents, my sister and her family staying with us to enjoy some fesitvities out our way then rounding out the weekend with trick or treating at Busia's house. Due to a wardrobe malfunction (and the fact that I found it for $4.25)I had to buy her a new costume on Friday and she was adorable in it. It was so much fun to experiece all the fun by watching it through her eyes...we are really looking forward to Christmas now!

The weekend started with 'haunted pancakes'

Then we started the tricks or treats at Canterbury Village Saturday night

Daddy carved her first Jack 'O Lantern on Sunday afternooon...

And finally she made it through a whole block of trick or treating with the other kids....she had a blast and was so friendly and all smiles for everyone.

On Monday we had her 9 month doctor visit and the doctor played with her more than checked her out I think. Then, her doctor said no matter who else she saw that day Caroline got the award for cutest baby of the day....what else could be so wonderful to hear! Everywhere we go and everyone we see says how happy and cute and beautiful she is lately. And, she seems to be very healthy at 19 lbs. 10 oz (but I don't think that is right and who would know better than the one who carries her around all day) and is now in the 97%-tile for her height at 29.5 inches tall...her doctor was suprised to see the big jump from last time. She has been standing while holding onto the furniture but she has just started letting go and being able to stand for a few seconds at a time. Plus, I am noticing her trying to figure out how and if she could stand without holding onto anything and she walks like a champ holding onto our hands so we are getting closer!! She babbles all the time and can say hi, bye, mama, dada, yeah, papa and our version of no which is 'ah-ah'...she tries to repeat just about anything these days and is so cute about it.

Fall Crafts-Part one

As I have said before, since having C-baby my creative instincts have returned. They have more than returned...they are on FIRE!! It all started by reading/following a few craft blogs. Then those linked to other blogs sometimes. And, I started following those ones too. Then more links. More ideas and instructions. More trouble for me! I have spent so much time in the craft stores the last few weeks but I am having so much fun and usually spending much less money if I had bought things already made! Most of the crafts are for Halloween but some are specifically for the house decor. Here is what I have to show off so far:
This one is on our front door and only cost me $6 to make! Wreath frame, leaves and Harvest sign all found at Dollar Tree. Pic with the pumpkin and stuff on it was from Big Lots.

These ones I am very excited over! I found the instructions here at THIS blog. I had seen a ceramic 'B' pumpkin at Hobby Lobby and it cost $30! I was so happy to find a much cheaper way to do it myself. I bought one of those fake, carvable pumpkins from Joann's and a paint pen. I printed the B off on the computer, cut it out, traced it and filled in with the paint pen. I then embellished with little crystals I had on hand. It cost less than half of what Hobby Lobby wanted! The little pumpkins I got at Dollor Tree and Big lots and covered them in glue and then sprinkled glitter all over. So easy and so BEAUTIFUL!!


I got the idea for this "Haunted House" here. I bought everything at Joann's and it was so easy and quick. The second picture is of everything put together on the top of our bookcase.

The next one is a before and after. I went to Salvation Army and found this for $1...
Then I took it home and it became this:

Instructions HERE....it looks much better in person :) and, I used my paint pen again for the face.

Finally this is what I got around to finishing today. So excited for Halloween this year! I bought C a pail that is a pumpkin wearing a Packer's helmet last year so she will use that for one set of Trick or Treating and this for the other:

Isn't it the cutest! I originally found the instructions HERE

It was the first time I had used Heat N'Bond and let me say: WOW!! that stuff was so great and easy to use. No problem whatsoever and it is so strong!

That's it for now. Now, don't go thinking I have all this free time with a home and child to take care of :) I do a little between housework while C sleeps and my wonderful husband lets me take a hour for myself at night a few times a week so he and his little girl can have one on one time! Come back soon and hopefully some more of my projects will be done!

Long time no update!

It seems the end of our summer is when we were the busiest! August was filled with a wedding, some birthday parties and a very special weekend visit from Grandma and Grandpa Borek. Whew, have we been busy!!! Life is starting to even out again and Caroline has gotten so big so fast!!! Currently this is the bulk of my days...


Yes, shortly, and I mean SHORTLY after perfecting her crawling skills Caroline has learned to stand up! She does it everywhere and while leaning on anything she can. She has taken some steps sideways while holding on to the couch so I am sure she will be taking off much sooner than I anticipated! She is often found standing when we go to get her out of her crib after sleepytimes and is waiting for us to walk through the door. The house seems to be fully protected from her little hands now and if it's not safe from her she helps us realize that fast enough! We are glad we replaced our stairway banisters last year since she is now trying to climb on them as she stands laughing at us. She is getting into everything and I love hearing her laugh and seeing her little smile when I tell her she can't do something :)She is just too big now! I am starting to put her in more 12 month clothes and she just turned 8 months last week!She is growing up sooo fast!
She has two teeth on the bottom of her mouth and we are Still waiting for the top ones to pop through. It seems like we began waiting weeks ago....she has had a few runny/congested noses that the doctor thinks we can blame the teething for. Even though she doesn't have teeth that doesn't stop her from eating anything and everything we let her try! She has her dad's appetite and fortunately not her mother's picky eating habits! She can also now clap, wave, show you how big she is and she gives me kisses when I ask for them and pucker my lips....awww! She also LOVES to talk on the phone-but has recently discovered she can push the buttons!-so if you ever want to hear her just give us a call! She may even surprise you with her 'speaking' skills...we have heard a few 'words' come out of her mouth. One day while at my parents house she was watching my dad go in and out of the house getting ready to go somewhere and Brad told her 'Papa is getting the car ready' and after that she began crawling down the hallway and all we could hear was "Papa. Papa. Papa" My mom stepped out of her room as I leaned forward on the couch to look down the hall and we both thought "Nooooo. It can't be" but sure enough that is what she was saying...and has continued to say much to my dismay! But, the other night at dinner Brad got his heartstrings plucked when his little girl finally said "Dada"...I think if he could have jumped in the air he would have! Now, I am working on the 'mama' end of things :)

This just in....

It's Caroline's first tooth!!! A few days before she crawled this little bugger FINALLY popped through her gums. She is drooling non-stop now...worse than before :) She is doing ok with the teething process but we still have our cranky moments. We are always within arms reach of the orajel and Tylenol these days!

On the prowl

This past weekend while waiting for our neighborhood picnic to start Caroline surprised us in a big way. We all were sitting in the livng room and she crawled all the way from one side of the room to the other! No stopping, no falling-it was INCREDIBLE! And, we were both together to witness it. She has been creeping, dragging, army crawling and rolling herself all over the place for the last month or so but she finally did the real deal for us. I tried to capture it again but the second time was a little more tough for her but she does do it at some level once more in the video. Yes, you hear correctly-she was going for Brad's shoes. I know, it's weird but that is a topic for a whole different blog post! Now, my days will never be the same...she is unstoppable and uncontrollable! If it is possible to cause more chaos and find more mischief than she was, she is doing it :) Mommy may lose some weight from all the lifting and moving Caroline to a safer spot that she is doing now!

I swear I need a week to recover

Vacations are so much fun. Why do they have to be so much work??? I took one teeny tiny person on vacation up north last week and it took me a whole week to get us ready and I am sure I will need to spend this whole week recovering from it! Caroline and I spent a lovely week on Heart Lake (near Gaylord) with my family last week. We can never know when Brad will be allowed to take vacation and of course he didn't get it that week but he went up on Saturday with us, left on Sunday and then surprised me on Tuesday at 4:00 saying he was on his way back up to spend the night with his girls! He of course came back Friday to get us too ;)
All in all the week was near perfection. We had GREAT weather...a few hot days but we spent a lot of time in the water then and just a few scattered rain drops that never ruined any fun. My parents and I took a ride to Traverse City one day while the Elsey's explored the U.P. (my mom doesn't do bridges so I promised her her own fun!) Caroline even enjoyed her first ride on the Mackinac Island ferry. We spent a few HOT hours on the Island and my nieces loved seeing all the horses and carriages and different kinds of bikes. Luckily I had brought my Ergo carrier and as soon as C got fussy I strapped her to the front of me and she proceeded to sleep for most of her first trip to Mackinac! Mackinac also held our only injury for the week and lets just say it involved someone other than me and a set of stairs on the boat. We all survived and are doing fine! We of course grilled out for nearly every meal and loved it. Caroline loved being in the water and as much as I tried to stop it she also loved eating the sand :) We had a tent for her to sit on in the beach but since she is crawling now she would just find a way to get to the sand on her own. It was so nice to just relax around the lake. We had beautiful views and a big deck to sit on too. There was lots of playing on the playground for the girls, lots of time to read books and listen to music for the adults (I can't remember when I last did that!) and we even had a DVD player in the cottage...I think it may take me three weeks to get the soundtrack to Mary Poppins out of my head now! I put it in one day early in the week because it was time for the girls to rest and stay in the cottage for a while if they wanted to go swimming after dinner. (naps were almost non existent on this trip for the chickadees!) Ania LOVED Mary Poppins and would sit there mesmerized....we probably watched it ten times during the week. She would look at me and say 'Minca, Mawwy Pippin??' with her big smile! I think it may be her favorite movie right now. Not only did I teach them to love that movie but I also took this vacation opportunity to teach my nieces a new 'magic word'. I spent a bit more time in the cottage giving Caroline a break from the sand and sun (and she did actually nap well for me) so I would be sitting in there and from time to time I would hear little feet on the deck and then a pounding on the door followd by "I have to go potty!!" I would get up and let Miss Abigail in; they can't turn doorknobs yet. after about the millionth time of doing this I told Abby in order to get the door open she would have to say the magic words which are "auntie Minca is beautiful'. She would bust out in giggles but she always said it :) I wasn't the only one teaching things though...My mom taught Caroline how to stick her tongue out and blow raspberries! It's cute until she has a mouthful of food...
It was quite a memorable week and now we are home. The suitcases haven't been put away and the laundry is still waiting to be done but I am giving them all the evil eye whenever I pass by them :) I did come home to a beautiful surprise though-Brad spent his evenings vacuuming, doing dishes, working on our staircase and other houshold items so I would come home to an AMAZING house. What a guy!

6 Month check in: Caroline saw the Doctor right before our vacay and it was a great visit. The doctor was excited to say that Caroline was her second patient this year to start crawling at 6 months...we are advanced! She also couldn't get over how 'well balanced' Caroline is-her exact words. Everyone always tells us how much she smiles and how happy she seems but to hear our doctor gush over it and tell us how wonderful that is for us as parents was special to hear. Caroline weighed in at 17 lbs 10 ounces but I think that is WAY off but whatevs. She is 26 1/2 inches long and is still in the 75% range for it all so the doctor couldn't be happier. She is hitting all the development marks and doing all the things they would like for her to be doing and she had fun showing off all her skills to the nurse :) We are now feeding her more foods and are in the next level of them and we are allowed to give her a lot of different foods from our plates now too. We love trying new things with her and she loves to eat so it's all good. We are teaching her how to drink water from a sippy and she loves that-she gets this triumphant drooly smile every time she takes a sip! So, we are still on track and she is doing wonderful! We were just talking the other day about how perfect she is and wondering if that meant any more children we have down the road would be little terrors :) We are having a ball with her and can't wait to start experiencing more and more everyday with her!

Half a Year update!

Yesterday marked six months since Caroline has been born. She is halfway to being one year old! Where did my baby go? It seems like just yesterday...in fact when she woke me up early in the morning I laid in bed thinking 'this time six months ago I was enjoying an epidural!'.

She has been hitting so many of her milestones lately! She gabs and gabs and make noise over everything. Anything she can reach goes into her mouth lately-including her toes. She seems to have just discovered her feet and now always has them up and over her face. She also has found out she has a tongue and blows raspberries and sticks it out CONSTANTLY! And, she is making a lot of new and funny faces with those lips and tongue of her too. She gets up on all fours and rocks all the time too. I think we may be a few days away from full on crawling. Not that she isn't into everything already. She scoots, she rolls, she army crawls, she pushes herself...she is all over the place! She sits up like a champ and has even learned to play a version of peeka boo with me. When I put one of her burp rags on her head now she knows to yank it off and I yell 'Boo!' and then she busts into smiles and giggles. Everyday she is more fun than the last. We have done some swimming in our little blowup pool, we go on walks all the time, we sing and read books and I am trying to teach her to clap. We can't wait to see what the next six months hold for us! We are also looking forward to taking her to the doctor next week to find out how she measures up now. Although, we do have an idea...Brad stepped on the scale with and without her the other day and there was an 18 pound difference!

There's no leaving her on her own anynmore! I ran to the bathroom one day and 30 seconds later I found her like this!


Taking a try at the crawling thing...


She's got her feet...


There's that tongue!


Sitting on her own!

When I'm not cleaning, I'm crafting.

My thumb boo-boo post reminded me that I havne't shown off some of my creative side on here for a while. With the arrival of Caroline my arts and crafts side has started to take over again. Ever since I was a little girl I have loved crafting and creating. I am not too bad at drawing, I decorate cakes, I make simple jewelry and I can even work my sewing machine. Yes, I actually own my own machine:) Lately I have been making things with my little girl in mind. And on that thought, I thought I would share with you since they really all easy and some of them used recycled goods and simple supplies and take very little time.

We have one huge wall in our living room that had nothing on it. We decided we would devote it to our children and their portraits. Well, while we only have one child right now it looked very empty so I had to come up with something to go with it and the result was this:


That is a thrift store frame that I bought for $2. Removed what was in it, sanded it down and spray painted it black. Then I found some scrapbook paper that I like and cut it to fit. Brad helped me stamp Caroline's foot but her hand was not as easy. I finally gave up trying to stamp it and waited for her to fall asleep and traced it and then backed it with black. Looks good to me and I will probably continue to do it for anymore children that we add to this gallery:)

On that same trip to the thrift store I found some more frames and one of them turned into this:

Again, I took a $1 frame from the thrift store and sanded and sprayed it. I also removed the glass...a la my cut finger :) I had found the foam 'C' at Joann's a while back and kept it trying to figure out how I could use it. I went back to Joann's and found some scrapbook paper that I liked and cut it to fit the frame. Put that and the backing of the frame back in the frame and then glued the C to it. I finished it with a ribbon hanger and it is now on Caroline's bedroom door!

Now, I wouldn't have mentioned the sewing machine for nothing. I have used it to make ONE thing for her so far. She started showing favoritism to certain blankies and fabrics at different times so I took that as my cue and made her one of her new favorite things:

The pink front is flannel just like the burp cloths that she lays her head on when I burp her on my shoulder. The back is terrycloth like the washcloths she likes to chew on while I am folding towels with her on my bed :) I added some more texture witgh felt rick-rack and four different ribbons-one 'taggie' on each corner. She LOVES to chew on those. She rolls around in it on the floor and hides her face in it and on our car rides she usually falls asleep holding onto it.

And, finally if you haven't received one of these yet it's probably because you have little boys! I make hairbows now too. I figure SOMEDAY my child will grow some hair. I will be ready!

This is what happens when you do housework:

I will now confess to you that I am afraid of my garbage can. Seriously, just going into it makes me very wary today. Just last Thursday I feared no ordinary household cleaning equipment and now my trash can gives me the heebie-jeebies. I was cleaning house for a party we were having this past weekend and my idiot meter kicked into gear. Upon clearing off our kitchen counter I found a pane of glass from a picture frame I used in a craft project. I realized that I would never use this piece of glass for anything and I thought for three seconds about putting it into a box before placing it in the trash can. I should have thought it through some more. Alas, I didn't and put it in the nearly full trash can standing up on it's side no less. I thought with it being a full piece of glass with no broken pieces it wouldn't hurt anything. WRONG. About twenty minutes later I went to put more things in the trash and since it was so full I did that thing where you push down when you put things in. I caught the knuckle of my thumb on the edge of the glass and ripped the skin off. I pulled back a finger with a flap of skin hanging off of it. Great. I called Brad who rushed home to take me and my washcloth wrapped hand to urgent care. The WONDERFUL doctor who saw me cleaned me up, sewed my finger closed and told me to keep it covered and dry for two weeks and there shouldn't be any more problems. Aside from the tetanus shot I had to get in addition to the stitches I think it all ended better than it could have. I advise you to never let your guard down when it comes to cleaning your house. You may not be so lucky :)