Craft Room Redo

In the past year or so I have slowly been getting in touch with my craftier side.  Thanks to my friend Erin that showed me it didn't have to be so scary.  my mother is still praising her for this. The past few months I have had even more time on my hands for crafting you can only watch so much tv you know.  Now that I'm going to continue being a stay at home Mom I can only imagine that I'll have many more crafts ahead of me. So I have decided it's time for a craft room redo!  Mostly because this is what I've currently been using, 

 scary huh.

I've already started to find some treasures.  How about this beaut?

I purchased some fun fabrics from facric.com for an amazing price, like $5.50 a yard!  I can't wait to get it recovered.

I also found a table that I'll be using as a desk instead.  I'm not sure what colors of paint I'll be using but I know I want the space to be all girl so I'm thinking of using all of these.

And I found this lovely at IKEA and picked it up on our way home from Utah County last week. 

I can't wait!  I'll keep you all updated on the process!

Reverence

My little man waits reverently for his bottle...

 ...most the time anyway.

Chocolate Fun

Kyle's step Mom Lisa decided she wanted to start a new tradition of having a chocolate dipping party for all those holiday goodies with all the girls.  We had tons of fun, eating and dipping along the way.  We dipped homemade turtles, Oreo truffles, and a few pretzels.

Oreo Truffles
1 Package Oreo Cookies (not double stuffed)
1 8 oz Package Cream Cheese

Break up the entire bag of Oreo's, either with a food processor, or those good ol' fists.  Break them into as small pieces as possible.  Add softened cream cheese and mix until it becomes almost a brownie batter consistency.  Roll into teaspoon size balls and place onto wax paper covered cookie sheet.  Chill until firm. 

You can dip them in almost anything, dipping them while chilled is best.  Make sure to refrigerate after to keep that cream cheese from spoiling.  Enjoy!

Girls Night Out

I'm quickly discovering that becoming a stay at home mom, though the most rewarding job ever, can quickly become all consuming as well.  Girlfriends are needed for a quick break from bottles and diapers.

This last week I got to have to girls night out two nights in a row.  Thursday night my group of old coworker mommies and I headed out for dinner at yummy Cheesecake Factory.  

Usually we meet up once a month to eat lunch and catch up, talk about our babies and compare notes.  This month we decided it would be fun to head to dinner and leave the babes with the boys so we could relax and not worry about wiggly kiddos.  (I forgot my camera of course) We had tons of fun eating great food and fun conversation, we talk about just about everything, no subject seems to be too tabo for our crowd.  We also did a little gift exchange.  I got delicious smell goods from Victoria's Secret from Nicole, Thanks Girl!  I'd show you what I show you what I gave but some others will be getting the same thing for x-mas so it will have to wait until after the holiday.  I've been crafting my brains out though just to give you a hint.

Friday night Erin invited me over for a girls night with some of her coworkers, though from the sound of it, it might have passed for a boys night.  We started off the night eating pizza and gabbing, then the party moved to Erin's amazing home theatre where we proceeded to watch the highlights from everyone's 80's favorite movie "The Labyrinth".  We then proceeded to make fun of; and laugh hysterically at David Bowies skin tight stretch pants, makeup and scary hair.  Afterward we jammed it out on Guitar Hero and gabbed some more.  What a fun group of girls, Erin's lucky to have such fun people to work with.  All in all it was a way fun night!

 Im thinking I might need to host my own girls night sometime soon, maybe a craft night?  Special thanks to Kyle for watching he babe so I could get out and let loose!  Love you Babe!   

My Life Lately

 Tyce is already two months old.  I cant believe how fast the time flies and how fast they grow!   We had his two month check up this week, Tyce did so good.  He's a perfectly average baby with his weight, height and noggen size.  We got his first round of immunizations too and he was such a trooper, he did scream bloody murder when they stuck him but as soon as I picked him up he was just fine.  It was probably more traumatizing for me to watch than for him to get them.

 

 

Last night was pure bliss..... drum roll please.... he slept through the night!  He's been showing signs that he was getting closer to this.  Slowly the past week he has been waking up later and later for his middle of the night feeding, so the night before last I didn't go in when he was stirring to eat.  It only took him an hour to go completely back to sleep but before that there was only half hearted wining and noise making.  It paid off too, last night was the first night in two months that I've gotten more than four consecutive hours of sleep at a time.  For those of you that may be wondering, we are doing Baby Wise and it seems to be paying off. (Baby Wise is a sleep training program for infants which if followed should have babies sleeping through the night between weeks 8-12, Tyce is 9 weeks)  Let's cross our fingers that it wasn't just a one night thing.

Our family also welcomed another little soul into our lives this week.  Kyle's step brother Brett and his wife Chantee gave birth to their little girl Isabel Chantee Wyatt on the 15th. We visited last night and she was absolutely adorable.  Tyce's first cousin!

The days left on my maternity leave are slowly dwindling down.  I find myself going into brief panic modes when I realize that soon I'm going to have to go back to work and leave my little baby with a stranger to be taken care of.  I'm dreading trying to find someone trust worthy and reliable enough to watch over the most precious person in my life.  I don't suppose any of you stay at home mommies of mine would be interested in making some extra dinero every month?  *Sigh* Or do you have any suggestions of where to look? Help!  

Tyce's Blessing

Holy Cow!  What a whirlwind it has been the past month.  I have been spending my day with this cute little man. 

I'm learning new things every day about being a parent.  I never could have imagined that my life could be this fulfilling doing nothing but sitting at home changing dirty diapers all day every day.

Yesterday we had Tyce's blessing.  I feel so fortunate that I have a husband worthy to hold the priesthood and was able to give our son his blessing, Kyle did an amazing job.  We are also fortunate to have have the support of our families and friends.  Tyce already has so many people in his life that love him.

Now that I'm finally getting the hang of this Mom thing I'm looking forward to soaking up every minute of the next two months I have off of work and preparing for the up coming holidays with my new little family.

Our New World

Meet Tyce Edward Blanchard, our new little man, the little person that our whole world now revolves around.  We are completely in love!

It seemed like he was never going to get here.  We were set to be induced at 6:30 am on Wednesday the 15th and were delayed 3 times throughout the day only to be told that we would have to wait until Thursday still with no guarantee.   We checked in at 5:30 and they told us they had room.  We were up in a flash and to the hospital by 6:30 that morning.  We settled in for a long day of waiting and visiting with family.

September 16 at 7:55 pm Tyce arrived. 7lbs 11 oz, 20 inches of perfection.

Everything went very smooth, I was surprised at just how fast everything went once we made it to that 10.

We have been entranced ever since.  It turns out our little man has a broken collarbone, he's such a trooper, it doesn't seem to bother him at all.  The Dr says he should be ship shape in two weeks.  Considering everything that could have gone wrong we consider ourselves extremely blessed that the broken collarbone is all that happened.

Now we're all just adjusting to one another and loving every minute of it.  We cant wait for our adventures as a new family. 

New Due Date?

We have been busily preparing for the arrival of our little man.  Part of the preparation has been getting all my paperwork in line to take my maternity leave from work.  One of the documents they need is to be filled out by my doctor stating that I legitimately need the time off.  I picked up the completed paperwork at our last Dr appointment and had it for a few days before I really sat down and read it all the way through.  To my surprise everywhere it stated my estimated due date they have listed 9/15/2010.... um what?  The 23rd has been the only date I've known of since my fist visit. 

I have had long break (3 weeks) between my last appointment as well because the Dr has been out of town, I'll have my next appointment next week.  Everyone keeps asking me if I'm going to ask him about it or not.  I'm not sure, it might be nice to have this kid a little earlier which might not happen if I point out this conflict.  My friend Mandy just gave me the low down on my Dr (we see the same one and she just came back from maternity leave) she said that our Dr is even open to starting me earlier than our due date if we ask him nicely.  Which means "potentially" we could be having this kid in the next two weeks.  Initially the thought of it possibly only being two weeks away scares the crap out of me, but after the nights sleep I just got last night I'm warming up to the idea.

So...Tyce... we might be meeting you sooner than we thought!  We'll see!
 

Found It & Got It

I searched and searched for a diaper bag over the past few weeks.  Last week I finally found one and got it.  Isn't she pretty.

I have actually been doing a lot of online shopping lately which I have never really done before but I'm finding to be quite enjoyable.  The only problem is that I have no patience for the shipping process and I'm too cheap to pay for it to get here faster.

Another purchase that I made was for a Belly Bandit.  Have you heard of these?  I started hearing somethings about them and how well they work shrinking your belly back down to size after you have your baby so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I'll let you know how it works out. 

I have definitely hit that wall where I'm absolutely sick and tired of being pregnant. I'm uncomfortable ALL the time, exhausted, and just wishing away the days until I get to feel like myself again.  I'd give anything to lay on my stomach right now.... *Sigh*  only 6 more weeks to go.

Nearly Done

Kyle and I are nearly finished with Tyce's room.  We finished up painting the book case donated to us from the Blanchard Grandparents to be and it's just the perfect fun punch of color I was looking for.

I also finished my block letters with some matching scrapbook paper and mod podge.  Kyle built the empty frame to go around it out of our left over trim from the faux wainscoting.

My talented Mom got the finishing touches on the baby quilt and left me with a bunch of left over fabric circles.  I decided to mod podge them to a blank canvas for a wall hanging.

I'm starting to run out of steam but there's still a little more I'd like to get done, curtains for one.  If I don't get them done in time though I think his room is complete enough to leave it be for a while.

Diaper Bag Dilemma

So I'm currently haveing a diaper bag dilemma.  Dilemma number one, I dont have one yet.  Dilemma number two, I don't know how much is too much.

I would really love to have an adorable bag from Petunia Pickle Bottom but they are just rediculously too much money for a bag.  So I was looking into other bags, it seems to me that they're all realitivly expensive if you want something somewhat cute, anywhere from $50 up.  I figure since I will most likely be utilizing this diaper bag for quite a while and it will most likely double as a purse most the time I might could bring myself to spend the money.

I found this very cute bag on Nordstrom.com.  It's still a little pricy, but the custest I've found for the least amount of $, but not too much that I couldn't justify buying it as long as I use it for a year or more.

So, what I need from all you mommies out there is feedback.  Did you spend a pretty penny on your diaper bag?  If yes, was it worth it?  If no, what'd you get for how much and has it held up?

Baby Shower

I was lucky enough to have my first baby shower this weekend. (I know it's a little early but summer is just too busy for everyone and July worked best)  My wonderful sister threw it for me, it turned out AMAZING as everything she does is.  A lot of people showed up even with the heat and I cant be more grateful, we needed every little thing we got.  Let's just say the Tyce is going to be one stylish little guy when he gets here!

Thanks Charlotte 

& 

Thanks to Everyone That Came!

We love you!

-Kait, Kyle & Tyce

Photo Editing

I was blog hoping around the other day and stumbled upon an awesome post about a free photo editing web site called Picnik.  I hoped on it to see what it was all about and as it turns out you can do some really cool stuff other than just making your pictures pretty; you can make photo collages, and add wording and such to your photo's like those pro bloggers that always tag their pics.  It only offers some of it's services for free, they have a premium program that you can pay for to get all the options, but what they do offer for free is more than enough for what I would want or need to do with it.  Just check out this before and after pic of our master bedroom.

I'm way excited to try it out when we have a million pics of the baby, cheaper than going to the pro's! Perfect for us normal PC owners that don't have all the bells and whistles.  Check it out for yourself here!

Tyce's Room

Kyle and I finally finished up all the painting and furniture assembly for Tyce's room this weekend.  I'm in love with it! 

BEFORE 

(plain boring and beige)

 And remember this fabric, my Mom whipped up a darling bed set in no time at all.

AFTER

The paint was an initial shocker for me but it turns out it was perfect.  I think the faux wainscoting turned out great too, it was definitely a learning experience for us getting it up.

Now I've got to get to decorating it.  I have a couple ideas in mind but not enough to fill the room.  Hopefully it will be ready for his arrival.  Which should be soon, I'm 30 weeks today, Wahoo!