Dear Maisie

Our little Bug, well, we made it. You are no longer a baby. You are on your way to being a full-fledged toddler. You turned 1 a week ago. I can't believe it. You came into this world as a joy and you are still my joyful little girl.

You love to clap and dance. Anytime there is any type of music playing you will stop what you are doing and clap or dance for it. You love to be praised. You light up with every loving word.

You are a determined little girl and are not easily distracted if there is something you want. You know what you want when you want it. (Very girl of you.)

You seriously think your brother is the coolest kid you know and try to be around him at all times. You and him say "da, da, da" back and forth all the time. He says it to you, you say it to him, and you both laugh so hard at it. It melts my heart.

You love to be touched and kissed and hugged. You squeal with excitement and giggle with joy. You are so precious.

You are days away from walking. Not sure if we am ready for you to be taking your first steps, but it will be so fun to watch you run all over the place. You are very cautious, so hopefully you will have way less injuries than your brother.

This birthday letter is a little belated because on your birthday you gave us quite a scare when you had a seizure on our way home from Charlevoix. While later in life you might find it cool that you rode in an ambulance, it was not a fun experience. We hope to never have a repeat. You are much better now. Thank goodness.

As you grow, we pray that you continue to explore your world and continue to find joy in the simplest of things. We pray that you maintain your happiness and always know how loved and adored you are. You are so amazing and the prefect addition to our family.

We love you,
Mommy and Daddy

Have I mentioned that I am cleaning?

Looks like new without the cost. Love it. 

I am a woman on a mission, and dang, it feels good!

I actually only have a few minutes to type so I can get back to cleaning. We started with de-cluttering and I have moved on to insane cleaning. Everything is being pulled out, wiped down, put back, and organized. 

I bought this a few years ago
 from Home Depot

Today, I am working on my floors. I get so caught up in just keeping everything swept up that I will be honest, I rarely wash my hardwood floors. They have been a bit neglected. 

I can not believe how shiny my kitchen floor is right now. I am in awe. (Yes, I am patting myself on the back right now.)

Here is what I did to get the best shine without actually refinishing them:

1. Swept and vacuumed them as best as I could. 

2. Wiped them down with a wet cloth to get up any surface dirt. 

3. Washed them with homemade cleaning solution. See recipe below. 

4. Wiped floor down with Rejuvenate Restorer Floor Finish. (An amazing product that really does restore a perfect shine to your floors. It is a must try if you need to revamp your hardwood floors without the cost of refinishing. I love it!)

I know that cleaning floors is not a fun job, but to see all my hard work coming together makes it fun for me. 

Now to figure out how to keep all the crumbs at bay!

Hardwood Floor Cleaner from Nature's Nurture

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup alcohol
• 2-3 drops natural dish soap
• 10-15 drops essential oil (optional)
• Fine-mist spray bottle – 24oz

Instructions 

1. Add all ingredients to spray bottle and shake to combine.
2. Sweep/vacuum the floor.
3. Spray cleaner on the floor.
4. Wipe up with a microfiber cloth.

Different standards

I have always liked a clean, organized home. I am one of those people that feels like my life is out of control if my house is out of control. I think better and feel better in an organized house.

As I mentioned yesterday, my husband and I are going through and de-cluttering our whole house. It has been great and I love going into the rooms that we have completed. 

But looking around at my clean rooms makes me realize just how different my idea of clean has become since having babies. 

Cleaning my house has become a whole different ball game. I am lucky if 3 rooms are clean at one time. As any mother knows, while you are cleaning one room, sure enough you little ones are destroying another. 

There are days where I vacuum and days where I dust, but rarely days where I do both at one time. There are days where my kitchen is clean and days when my bathroom are clean, but rarely at the same time. There are days where just picking up everything is all that gets done. There are days where everything is a disaster and it just is what it is. 

My standards of what is clean have definitely fallen. I mean seriously, where do all the crumbs come from? And the fingerprints are EVERYWHERE. It is constant battle that I am realizing I might be losing.

Looking around at all of our clutter, it is easy to see why it is piling up. Things get put out-of-sight-out-of-mind because it is easier than really dealing with it. That logic is getting me no where when it comes to keeping my house clean. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not a hoarder by any means. I keep a pretty tidy house. But what my idea of clean use to be, and what it is today are just so drastically different. 

I really need to get in the habit of "Don't put down, put away."

It is a great cleaning mantra to stand by. It really would make times like now when we are trying to dig through everything that much easier. 

We are chipping away and it feels so wonderful and I am so happy to really be seeing a difference. 

De-clutter, organize, and sell

Why is it that you always need a vacation from your vacation?

This week has been full of just trying to get back to regular routines and organizing from a busy July. We are using the next two weeks to get our house in tip-top ship shape. The clutter has started to take over our house and we need an overhaul. 

Our house is only a 1200-square-foot bungalow, and with 2 little ones, a dog, and 2 adults, keeping it organized and de-cluttered is a constant battle. We just went through our basement storage 6 months ago and already it was overflowing with things that either need to be donated or sold. It is crazy to me how quickly it all piles up. 

The organized shelves after we cleaned them out. Sorry, I did not
think to take a before shot, and not sure I would want you to
see how bad it was. It does feel good to have it all organized again. 

Since my husband is working a ton lately, we are breaking up all the cleaning into little hour and a half chunks each night. So far we have gone through our basement and I have done most of the kitchen. I will finish that up and the bathroom during naptime today. We will have bedrooms, family room, closets, and garage left to do. Seems a little overwhelming when I think about it all. 

I am hoping that we are all done by this weekend so that next week I can get ready for my first garage sale. That should be interesting! 

I know that the more clean and organized the garage sale the better the sales, so I will need next week to get every thing clean and ready to go. 

When you have 2 little ones, doing anything extra during the day outside of our regular eating, sleeping, playing, and cleaning routine takes more energy than you would think. Bob and I use to do a lot of house projects before we had kids, but quickly those projects get replaced with just corralling the troops and spending time as a family. 

The beginning of my very, very disorganized sell pile.
Mostly home good items, but it is a definite full of
a lot of miscellaneous items. 

It takes planning and organization to just get those things done. We do less projects as a team and more as individuals. Obviously, one of us needs to be on kid duty when they are awake. The other problem is that you don't want to exhaust yourself doing a project, so when the kids are awake you have the energy to take care of them. They are rested and ready to go no matter what. 

Anyone have good tips for hosting our first garage sale? I know that organization and clear pricing are key. We live on a busy road, so I don't think that we will have much advertising needs. I am just planning on posting a Craig's List ad a couple days before and the days of. What do you do?

On a side note, I had Maisie's follow-up peditrician appointment today. She is doing just fine. The doctor is not so sure on the pnemonia diagnosis and thinks that it probably was just a virus. We will finish out the antibiotics since we had already started them. Other than that, she is back to normal. 

Charlevoix 2012: Making Memories

For as long as I can remember, my grandparents lived in Charlevoix, Mich. As a child we went up several times a year, but mostly during the summer. I didn't go up there as much as my siblings, but it definitely was and is a special place for me. Randomly enough, my husband's family has also been vacationing there for years and now we get to share Charlevoix with our children.

This trip was somewhat special since it was the first family vacation there since my grandmother's passing in January (my grandfather passed away 3 years ago), as well as the first since my dad's heart attack in June (he lives there, too).

We went during their special Venetian Festival. The week is filled with music in the park, a beauty pageant, carnival, parades, races, and anything else you can think of. It has changed some through out the years, but it is definitely a very traditional event that brings back a ton of memories for me.

I hope as the years pass, Maisie and Calan enjoy Charlevoix as much as we do.

1) The famous bridge to Lake Michigan. Opens every hour and half hour, and yes, we were that close , so it was a bit loud, but fun for the kids. 2) Calan was exploring everything the second we got there. He did not sleep at all on the way up. I guess he was pretty excited. 3) Maisie just checking everything out when we got there. 

1) Calan was a little sick Friday, so we hung around the hotel while the rest of the family had lunch in Petosky and the guys went golfing. After naps, we walked down for some Superman ice cream. Perfect vacation treat. 2) Maisie and I enjoying some mommy/daughter time while Calan finishes his nap. 3) Maisie loving the pool on Saturday. Calan was not into swimming this trip. I think the pool was too cold for him. 4) Maisie loving life Saturday night after dinner and walking around downtown. 

Saturday morning was the Venetian Parade. It was the kids' first parade we have ever gone to. 1) Walking downtown to the parade. 2) Calan watching the fire truck go pass. He loved it, but thought it was too loud so close. 3) That is a tractor on steroids. Calan loved it. 4) Calan loved all the bands and would listen and clap for them. The bands were always my Grandfather's favorite part. Made me happy to see Calan enjoy them so much. 

After dinner Saturday night, we walked along the marina that now includes a splash pad since its remodel a few years ago. Calan wanted to go in, but wanted someone to go in with him. He would not do it by himself, so Grandpa Gris came to the rescue and got soaked. 

Saturday night after our walk downtown, we headed for more ice cream. Calan choose chocolate. Let's just say, we headed back for bath time shortly afterward. The kid was a disaster. 

Again, a best attempt at a family photo. One day we will get a good one. 

Not the First Birthday I Had Imagined

Every time a nurse or doctor asked me her date of birth, I just shook my head and said today. Needless to say, no baby should be in the emergency room on their birthday.

I had thought Maisie's first birthday would be a day where we smile, where we eat a small cupcake for lunch, where we visit with my mom for a little bit before driving home from vacation, and where our drive goes smoothly and uneventful.  

The day started out as planned. Maisie woke up happy and went down for her morning nap just fine, but she woke up with a fever. She was pretty warm, but we were on vacation and I did not have a thermometer, so I am not sure exactly how warm. I gave her some Tylenol and she cooled down a little, but was still acting a bit sick. 

She barely ate lunch and was not into the cupcake I tried to give her. We went for a little walk and headed home from vacation at about 1:30 p.m. She fell asleep instantly.

However, about an hour and a half into our trip she got pretty upset and threw up. We pulled over as soon as we could. I tried to calm her down in some shade holding her and rocking her, but nothing was really helping. I was feeling car sick from the road we were just on, so I figured that she was feeling the same. We got back in the car and were heading toward the closest hospital when she fell back to sleep, so we thought OK let's just try to get home. 

She woke up a few times over the next 2 hours, but wasn't acting upset. 

We stopped at a rest area about an hour away from home to change diapers. Maisie was still warm and acting sick, but was smiling and even giggling at Calan. Bob put Calan back in the car and I bent over to put Maisie in and all hell broke lose. 

Maisie started to convulse and seize up. 

I yelled to Bob to call 9-1-1 and I held Maisie on her side watching her seize for what felt like FOREVER (but what was probably 3 minutes). 

She convulsed, her eyes dilated, and she turned a bit blue. She luckily breathed through most of it and did not bite down on her tongue. 

We took an ambulance to the closest hospital where they watched her for the next 3 hours. It took almost 2 hours for her to start acting normal. I guess after seizures it can take awhile for people to act normal again. For adults, they act confused; for babies, they basically lay not moving at all. 

They did a couple tests to figure out what was causing her high fever and from a chest x-ray, she has the beginnings of pneumonia. 

She does not have a cough, running nose, or wheezing. So, I asked the doctor how I was suppose to know and he basically said I wasn't and that is why they usually do an x-ray to rule it out. In babies, pneumonia symptoms do not show up like adults. 

We were released about 3 hours after we arrived with a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to follow up with our doctor this week. 

This morning, she is already 100% better. She barely has a fever and is smiling and eating just fine. She is dancing and clapping like the happy baby she is. 

Not at all how I wanted to be spending her first birthday, but so glad that we didn't panic and that Maisie is healing quickly. 

We will be taking it very, very, very easy this week. 

Already feeling and acting so much better this morning. Thank God!

Busy girl

The Breakdown: Fire Truck and Butterfly Birthday Parties

Well, the last two months or so have been all about my kids' birthdays. I am happy that everything turned out so fabulous, but I am even happier that they are done. Not sure their birthdays will be more than a special breakfast and dinner next year. We shall see.

So here is what I did and where I found the ideas for Calan's Fire Truck 2nd Birthday and Maisie's Butterfly 1st Birthday:

Decorations

• Calan's fire truck birthday was inspired by FREE fire truck birthday printables I found online. I used the printables for the everything from the invitation to his birthday banner to party favors. It was a life saver. I kept everything in the red, black, yellow color scheme. I used crae paper and fire hats I found at the dollar store decorated, as well balloons. Pretty simple and easy. 
• For Maisie's, I did a few things the same and added a few more. I fell in love with butterfly printables from Amanda's Parties to Go on Etsy months ago and used that to base everything else from. I used it for her invite, birthday banner, high chair decorations, and cupcake toppers to name a few. I even used it to make a Butterfly Hunt in our backyard. For her dessert table, I found adorable butterfly wall stickers from the Dollar Store of all places and then got a few photos together that I clothes-pinned to some extra ribbon from her birthday banner. I also found a pink flower garland and pink butterfly nets from the Dollar Store. I used a 50-percent-off Michael's coupon to get Martha Stewart's tissue pom-pom kit to finish up outside. 

Food

• Calan's party I did not do a lot of homemade foods. A lot was easy prepared food from Costco. A big hit was the Spinach Ravioli served cold with olive and the seasoning mix that comes in the package. The main dish was just Costco pizza. I thought about making our own, but just did not have the time. I did try to keep the food related to his color scheme of red, black, and yellow. Red, orange, and yellow peppers and did, chopped strawberries, carrots, cheese and crackers, etc. 
• For Maisie's party, I again hit up Costco. Easy peasy. We had pulled pork sliders on pretzel buns,  Asian coleslaw, pesto tortolini (served cold), and chicken caesar salad. Appetizers were meatballs, cheese and butterfly crackers, goat cheese spread, chips with guacamole and salsa. I also made homemade strawberry lemonade and had izze pops (delicious). 

Dessert

• I made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting with red sprinklers on top and served with vanilla ice cream. My mother-in-law made adorable sugar cookies cutout as fire trucks, hydrants, and fire hats. 
• Maisie's desserts were obviously pretty amazing looking and absolutely delicious. I baked and decorated strawberry cupcakes and frosted with vanilla and Duncan Hines Frosting Creations strawberry shortcake frosting. My mother-in-law again made her amazing sugar cookies decorated to match Maisie's butterfly decor. And Bob's aunt made the amazing cake served with vanilla ice cream. I also had chocolate covered pretzels for anyone with a chocolate sweet tooth. 

Miscellanous

• I found a cute reasonable definitely be able to wear again shirt for Calan at Kohl's. I had to buy Maisie an adorable butterfly pillow-case dress from Etsy that matched her party perfectly. 
• For party favors, Calan gave fire hats, whistles, stickers, and fire truck tattoos. I found bug catchers from the Dollar store that I filled with stickers and butterfly tattoos for Maisie's party. 

Everything was pretty easy to put together. I hope this helps some else plan a fun party for their little ones. Not sure if I mentioned everything, so if there is something you saw in pictures and want to know what I did, please feel free to ask. 

Happy Birthday Party Day

The special guest of honor

Well, I am done. My party planning for the year is done. Maisie birthday was celebrated with friends and family. My little girl played, got covered in cupcake, and smiled the whole time. It was perfect.

The amazing desserts. I made the strawberry cupcakes, Bob's mom did the adorable cookies, and Bob's aunt made the amazing cake. Everything was delicious too. 

The dessert and gift table. I'll break down both Calan's and Maisie's party tomorrow on where I found ideas and what I did for them. 

Our best attempt at a family photo. One day these will be easy again and not torture, right?

My baby girl. She turns one July 29. Can't believe it.

Really was so happy all day. It made all the work worth it.

I kind of sped through opening gifts because it had started to get pretty warm and we needed to get inside to cool off. 

She investigated everything.

Singing Happy Birthday and another look at her adorable cake.

Getting her first taste. It was love at first taste. 

Love her face here as Calan started to move in on her cupcake. 

She ate all of it. 

(For all my friends and family who have already seen all these pictures on Facebook, sorry for showing them all over again.)

Tomorrow I will breakdown both parties and share links to recipes and how-tos for everything.

Good friends just make life better

How cute are these 3 playing together?

Yesterday, I had a great day with a dear friend of mine who I have known since middle school. We spent the day at her dad's lake house with our babies splashing in the water and her dad's dog insanely searching for rocks. It was 100 degrees here, but we had an amazing afternoon.

It was funny though because the same house that we now had children napping in pack-and-plays was the house that we definitely got into a little trouble at in high school. The house where we once laid out in bikinis to get some sun, I was now sitting in my full-piece in the shade to keep cool. 

One thing I think every adult learns as they transition through life is that friends cycle in and out. Not that friends aren't still friends; it is just that friendships change. I think that I am just so lucky to still be sharing my life with some amazing women. 

My friends and I at my friend in the middle's baby shower.
This is the only picture of us 3 pregnant together. 

Last year, I was actually pregnant at the same time as 2 of my dear friends one due in April and the other who I spent the day with yesterday was due in June. However, instead of June, her son came into this world at 26 weeks 3 days on March 12. Though looking at a picture of Carter today, it is hard to imagine him as the 2 pound baby he once was. I can still feel the hug my friend gave the first time I came up to the hospital to see her. He was so little, but man he was so strong. 

His stay at the NICU was nothing short of miraculous. He grew so big so quickly and did so great without a single issue that he was released 2 months later (still 1 month before his original due date). Besides some major reflux issues, he has been perfectly healthy. He just started walking a week ago. 

Seeing my 2 babies and her little guy playing together in the water just made me so happy that I have friends like her (and many other women). There is rarely a week that I don't have a "mommy" friend I can call and hang out with. I could not imagine my life without them all. 

Being a stay-at-home mom can be really isolating, but good friends really make life so much better. 

Who are the women in your life that you couldn't do without? 

Our view for the afternoon. I grew up nearby, but now live about 40 minutes away.