Nothing to Something

We have a corner in our living room that to put it bluntly, SUCKS!

It has a weird pop out for the bathroom that resides on the other side of it and is just super choppy.

I have always hated it and we usually have our armoire possitioned in the corner to mask/hid the weirdness. But with our growing family, toys & soon to be baby things ie. bouncy seat, jumparoo, and car seat, we decided to move the armoire and open up this corner. Doing so made the living room seem way more spacious but it opened up the weird corner and it's even wirder walls.

So without spending money I went searching around the house for something to "help" the walls out.

Here is what I came up with...

I don't have a good before picture so the one with our Christmas tree will have to do.

Before:

After:

Maternity Photos w/ Dornbusch Photography

We had the honor or doing a maternity session with Dornbusch Photography when i was 33 weeks pregnant. David & kim are local photographers here in Bend and are a lot of fun to work with. There studio is set up at there home which made for a very comfortable and accommodating place to take pictures, especially with a 2 year old! The session was a lot of fun and totally different than the photos we had taken when I was pregnant with Cade. It is nice to have 2 totally different styles to show case my 2 pregnancies.

Here are a few of the photos:

Cade's New Room (finally)

I was finally able to snap some pictures of Cade's new room. He LOVES his room and at night when we ask him what he wants to pray for he ALWAYS says "to thank Jesus for Grandpa Don coming to paint my new room"! It is the perfect boys bedroom, big enough to keep his train sets out or his car rug open and all his insturments out! His room "theme" (if you can call it that) is a cross between travel & trucks.

Check it out:

Art wall
Music "studio"
Fun wall decor

Shelf decor

more shelf decor

Still crafty

So as a mom of soon to be 2 boys... 7 weeks and counting!

I was feeling a bit sad that I won't be making the hair clips, tu tus, embellished shirts/onzies etc.

But as a mom who loves to sew and craft it up having 2 boys wasn't going to stop me from doing the things I love.

In comes craft/sewing blogs from moms with boys!

I totally stumbled on all of these blogs by total accident and one blog leads to another and my total excitement to started on some projects for these little rascals!

If you want to be inspired by all things boys check these out:

http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/

http://www.made-by-rae.com/

http://www.dana-made-it.com/

The Perfect Pizza

This weekend when my parents were here we took them to one of our favorite places to have dinner as a family.. Flat Bread Pizza! So Yummy!! Cade did the honors of showing them how it was done, and suprised everyone by eating almost his entire pizza, this has NEVER happened before!!

:)

I had a little someone sneak into bed with me this morning.

It's a good thing he is so cute!

BOYS

This quote will be printed out, framed and hung in Blake's room for sure!

"Little boys come in all shapes and sizes,

Shy and adventurous, full of surprises,

With misshapen halos and

mischievous grins,

Small dirty faces, and sweet, sticky chins.

They'll keep you so busy, and yet all the while

Nothing can brighten the world like

their smile.

And no greater treasure has brought homes more joy,

Thank a curious, active lovable boy!"

-Author unknown

Sneek Peek

Here is a sneek peek of what will be Blake's world....

More to come, just hold tight!

Full Speed

What have I been busy doing?

Washing, washing & more washing!!

I took a trip to the store for some Dreft & have started the washing/sorting/organizing process.

It has been so fun to dig out all of Cade's teeny tiny baby clothes and reminisce of when/where he wore it.

I also pulled apart & washed the carrier, swing, bouncy seat & am currently working on the rocking chair cover.

Gotta get crackin, I only have 10 weeks you know!!!

I am still waiting for the "nesting" stage to kick in. So far I have been feeling very unmotivated to do anything.

A Tasty Treat

Plum Sauce

1/2 cup plum preserves

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup apricot preserves

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. apple juice

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp ketchup

1 garlic clove, minced

In a small saucepan combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 10 min.

So far we have had this sauce over Pork and Chicken and it so yummy. Next I'm going to try it over some salmon!

I love sales!

IToday I decided to take a peak in at Old Navy to see what they had on sale and to my suprise they had TUNS of stuff!

Here is what I scored:

Winter coat for Blake $4.99

Green Military jacket for Blake $ 4.49

Onsie $ 2.74

Slippers for Cade $.98 ea

For a grand total of

$14.18

I would say that is a steal!!

Funny Boy

Cade is such a character. He loves putting his snacks in a bowl. Today when I gave him fruit snacks, this is the bowl he picked out.... not sure how many fruit snacks he thought he was getting!!

Anticipating Santa's Arrival

Christmas this year was one of my favorites! Having a 2 year old made everything new and exciting. Everything; the lights, the tree, snow, cookies and Christmas music was so fun to experience with Cade. One highlight was Christmas Eve (which we celebrated a day early to accommodate traveling). Cade loved writing his letter to Santa and leaving milk and cookies for him. He was very worried about his little neighbor friends Liv and Neve, he wanted to make sure Santa wouldn't forget them, Tyler and I re-assured him a couple times that he would go to there house too!

Cades reaction "Christmas" morning to an empty plate and cup was priceless!!

From the Mackesons

Christmas Cookie Fun

Rolling

Cutting

Waiting

Eating!

"Ho, ho, ho merry Christmas little boy"

The title of this post is Cades response when asked what Santa says. He is absolutely obsessed with Christmas, snow, skiing, gingerbread men, and pretty much everything else winter/Christmasish. He is totally Tylers son when it comes to outdoor adventures; the first day it snowed here in Bend, Cade was asking when he was going to go skiing. Since then he asks to go about 3-4 times a day, it's either

"I go skiing today mom?"

or

"lets play in the snow!"

The first few days of snow I thought I was going to go crazy with him asking and winter was looking to be SUPER long, luckily it has tapered off a bit, but not totally.

Now that he is all suited up with awesome bibs, boots, a sweet coat & gloves ,we have given him his fare share of playing in the snow, 2 times sledding, 3-4 mornings of playing outside, and the making of a full sized snowman! I am so glad that he likes the snow so much, I mean we live in Bend it would be pretty sad if he didn't.

I know the day is coming when we will actually take him skiing (Tyler is set on it being this year...) until then I will keep praying for his safety!

Waiting his turn to sled (sporting his new jacket)

Loved santa but did not want to sit on his lap

17 weeks

The count down to ultra sound day has begun! 2 weeks to be exact.

You will have to excuse the lame picture but I needed a picture to go along with the post or I know I would hear from some of you out there! :)

So at 17 weeks I:

* Am seeing my belly stick out

* Have been feeling the baby move. Officially felt the flutters at 16 weeks. It's really weird to feel it move and not know yet if it's a boy or a girl!

* Craving sweets like mad! Peanut butter pie to be exact

* Exhausted ALL the time! My left eye has been twitching for about a week now, so i had my mom check with an eye dr. in her office and sure enough the reason is because I am so tired. I guess I will be taking more naps, can't complain about that!

* Starting to freak out about all that needs to be done to get a room ready for another family member!

* Excited to know if we will have little boy or a girl, and finally put a name to the "baby" in my belly

Everyday Life with a 2yrd Old

We have quite the chatty Kathy on our hands!

He is pretty much talking all day long and it is so much fun to listen to his little brain work.

Yesterday he was walking around the house "talking" to Jaxon and Jace on his cell phone.

His conversation went a little like this,

"Hi Jaxon I'm watching the beavers with my dad, ya I had fish for dinner what did you have, o yummy! You going to school today? (phone drops on the floor and back flys off) "whoopsy daisy the phone just brokeded!"

Tyler and I both just cracked up!

It is conversations like this that he has with himself and other people pretty much all day long!

I love it!

We also have a little adventurest with a GREAT imagination! Cade loves snow and anything skiing. The other day he was playing with the magnets on our fridge and decided that these long rectangle mangets were his "ski boards" he took them layed them down on the floor and put his feet on them like he was skiing, pretty soon he comes running over to me asking me for his jacket and his sun glasses so he could go skiing!

It has been snowing today and all he has been talking about it how he is going skiing when daddy gets home from work. I can't wait to acutally get him up to the mountain and see what he really thinks of skiing!!

Dinner Time

Coming up with a dinner menu is one of my least favorite things to do. I like to have 10-12 meals planned out before I go grocery shopping, it doesn't always happen but it's my goal!

To make things eiser this Fall/Winter I'm going to try something new.

Starting this week I will be attempting the following:

Mon: Itallian Night

Tues: Community Group Potluck

Wed: Soup Night

Thur: Whatever

Fri: Mexican Night

We will see how it works, so far so good.

Mon we had Lazagna

Tues we didn't have community group but Tyler and I went on a date :)

Tonight (wed) we are having Ministrone Soup

Thur we will have Fish

and fri we will have a Lime crusted Chicken, it's a new recipe so we will see how it tastes.

As I have my menus planned I will try to update my blog with them, that way any of you other moms out there that hate this task as much as I do, can get some new ideas!

"Melvin"

When Cade was a baby I wanted him to have a "favorite" thing. Like a blanket or a stuffed animal, don't ask me why now, but at the time I thought it was a cute idea.

So I found a cute little giraffe lovey blanket and I put it with Cade all the time! They were together when he slept, hung out in his swing, rolled around on the floor; Melvin was always by Cades side. Pretty soon Tyler gave it a name and from then on it was called "Melvin". Well my little plan worked because now Cade is obsessed with Melvin and pretty much does everything with him. He sleeps with him, plays hoops, the piano, race cars and puzzles all with Melvin by his side

Yes I cursed my son!

So when we asked Cade what he wanted to be for Halloween it was only fitting that he said MELVIN!! So this year Cade will be sporting a giraffe costume! Should be pretty funny.

3 months old with Melvin

2 years old with Melvin

Musician in the Making

Cade got a suprise in the mail today!

A late birthday present from his uncle Brad.

What is more fitting from a musician than a piano! It is so awesome and just the prefect size for a toddler, complete with a bench and sheet music stand!

His favorite songs to "play"/sing so far are "TwinkleLlittle Star" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

(Movie to follow)

:)

A Season of Change

Out with Summer and in with Fall/Winter!

I always love this change in the seasons and I know I have blogged about how much I love fall, so I won't bore you with it again.

We have had a lot of exciting changes in our household!
-We now have a 2 year old. Cades birthday party was so much fun. It was a blast to watch his anticipation as he understood what was going on. His excitement over a "choo choo party" was so fun and the look on his face when he saw the decorations was priceless! He had lots of friends and family join him as he turned 2.

- Cade has graduated to a twin bed! He loves it and calls it his "big boy bed". We were nervous about the transition since he would be able to get in and out as he pleases and the fact that he still wakes up at least once during the night. He suprised us and actually stays in it! He is still waking up his usual 1-2 times but he doesn't get out, just cries until Tyler or I comes in and layes him back down. (we have tried letting him cry it out but 1-2 hrs later her is still crying. Much eaiser to just lay him back down. Pick your battles right?!)

- Potty training is in full effect! Cade is doing great! No accidents the past 2 days and he even kept his pull up dry the entire drive home from Portland. He is finally telling us when he has to go which is much eaiser than taking him every 20-30 min. This week we are going with just underwear and no pull up during the day, wish us luck!

- I have taken on teaching art and technology to pre schoolers at The School of Enrichement. I started this in Sept and it is working out great. It's only Thur & Fri morning and Cade gets to go with me and participate in the pre school program which he LOVES!

- Tyler's job is going great! He is so good at what he does and passionate about getting to know and helping his clients. He is all settled into his own office. It is probably the best looking Edward Jones office there is! Tylers mom blessed him with 5 paintings to hang. 3 of them were done custom for the office and the other 2 were ones she had already done and let him display.

I am so proud of you Tyler!

- Well saving the best for last!! Our family is going to be getting bigger come April! We are SO excited to share that baby #2 is on the way. I am currently 11 weeks and finally feeling good! The first 10 weeks I was feeling pretty sick and just super tired. But I think I have turned the corner and things are much better! Our 10 week doctors appointment went great! All 3 of us went and got to hear the heart beat as well as see the little peanut on an ultrasound. Cade thought it was the greatest thing ever and still asks if we can go back to hear "baby heart beat woosh woosh!" He is going to make an AMAZING big brother! I absolutly can't wait to see him with a sybling.

Summer time

Wow is it seriously the end of August already?! If feels like the summer just got started and we are already going to be saying hello to fall! CRAZY

Well we have had a blast this summer. As you can see I have been the biggest blog slacker ever. So to not bore you by going back through the summer and detailing everything we did I will just pick a few highlights and post pictures of them.


SUMMER 1010
Mackeson Family together for Tyler & Brad's birthdaysHappy Birthday daddy!!

Floating the Deschutes River

Fun @ the Children's Festival

Swimming at Juniper

Together with my sis & bro

Riding the Carousel at Salem Waterfront
He LOVED it and rode about 5 times in a row :)

My sister & her boys came to spend 3 days with us!
So much fun!

Outside listening to the thunder storm

Wow is it seriously the end of August already?! If feels like the summer just got started and we are already going to be saying hello to fall! CRAZY

Well we have had a blast this summer. As you can see if I been the biggest blog slacker ever. So to bore you from going back through the summer and detailing everything we did I will just pick a few to highlight and post pictures of.