a new favorite

2 posts in one day, can you believe it?!  Me either.  :)

I wanted to share one of my new favorites that I picked up at the Gap on Sunday.  I got these three in these colors.  And shamelessly, I admit that I've been in one of them ever since!  They are oh so comfy and can be paired with anything and in any color!  I plan on getting some colored shorts for the summer from J.Crew or somewhere similar.   

VINTAGE SHIRRED-SHOULDER T

NOW $15.00

worth.every.penny.

Happy shopping,
~Jeni

4 month check-up...a little late

Yesterday we went to Boston's 4 month check-up.  He turned 4 months on February 2nd and we originally had his appointment scheduled for Feb. 4th but due to the snow that day we had to re-schedule.  We had been so excited for this day.  The last time he was weighed and measured was early December and we were dying to know his stats (mainly how much he weighed since I feel like I'm carrying around 100lbs)! 

Since it was his 4 month check-up, that also means it was "shot time."  Even though he's a tough kid and cries for about 2.5 seconds, it kills me to hear his scream.  I turn my back when she sticks him but when I hear the scream I know it's been done.  Jer quickly picked him up to comfort him and he's fine.  :)  Good job, Boston, you rock. 

Anyway, as usual, I took pictures while we were there to document his visit.  Here are a few from the visit and the day.

patiently waiting to be called in to see the doctor

he's such a happy baby.  we put on a disposable diaper for the weigh-in

When we got home, we changed him back into his cloth diaper and had a little picture session.  (makes me sad to see his little bandaids on his thunder thighs)

thank you for my shirt, Nana!

  

We go back for his 6 month check-up April 8th! 

Thank you for reading our blog!

~Jeni

the new white kid on the block

About 3 weeks ago, I started looking for a new entry table and knew I wanted something similar to a buffet table.  I think I had seen it on another blog but can't seem to find that blog for the life of me!  So I got on my favorite trusty ol' website, Craigslist.  I searched for dressers because I knew one would work for what I wanted to use it for and I found this one:

We paid more than what I wanted to but it's VERY sturdy and everything about it was in perfect condition despite some gum left over from a child that I guess didn't know what a trash can was.  Anyway, we paid 200 bones for it.  Yeah, not really my kind of price, but when I searched for something similar on Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel's websites I found that all of their dressers/buffet tables were $600 and higher so I naturally felt better. :)  The look I was going for was white with silver knobs.  I needed to lighten up my foyer, it felt too dungeon-y (I wouldn't look that up in the dictionary) and I knew white would do the trick.

We started off by taking all of the hardware off.  We attempted to take the drawers out but they weren't coming off.  Ideally, we would have taken them out to paint the fronts of them.  But, oh well.  Then, Jer lightly sanded the whole dresser; the fronts of the drawers and the center door.  We needed to rough it up a little bit so the primer and paint would adhere to the wood. 

then we painted on a light coat of primer (Glidden GRIPPER) and let it sit for a few hours.   

dresser coated with primer

I used Rust-O-Leum spray paint in metallic silver and sprayed all of the hardware with a few coats. 

The whole project took less than a few hours of total work spread over a week.  We tend to get lazy sometimes and are also a little ADHD about projects, going back and forth from one to another, to another and back to the first one, etc.  Nonetheless, we got it done, with 2 coats of paint and a round of touch-ups once it was back inside the house.

and here she (she's a she because she's so puuurrty) is

and an upclose picture of the silver hardware

to show you the difference the new piece makes, here's the foyer before (very doinky and dark)

and here's the foyer after.

The wall art is going away soon and I haven't decided if I want to keep the lamps there.  I'll also show you in more detail the decor we have on the top of the dresser, later.  I have a few tweeks I have to do.  I have an idea of what we'll be putting on the wall in place of the art work, so stay tuned (in other words - come back)!  

Jer and I both love the new look.  Since it's the first thing you see when you walk into our house, we are glad it turned out like we (I) had envisioned.  :-)

Happy Monday,

~Jeni

 

W&D... the new couple in the Cook household

We have a new couple that has come to live in the Cook home as of today!

  Our new pearly whites a.k.a. Electrolux

4.7 cu. ft front-load washer (Model #EIFLS55IIW) and

8.0 cu. ft. Perfect Steam dryer (Model #EIMED55IIW)

We like to think of them as a S.T.E.A.L. because that's what we feel like we did, stole them from Lowe's.  Actually we got them for pennies (a pretty pretty penny, but nontheless, a penny) compared to what they are worth.  We are pretty dang proud of ourselves.  How did we get them for so cheap you ask?  Well I'm glad you ask.  We got so many discounts we have to break them all down for you to get the full effect of how much we saved.

First, Lowe's was running a 15% discount off all Energy Star appliances, so the washer we bought, which originally ran $999, was reduced to $849.  Lowe's was also selling all other appliances at 10% off, which reduced the dryer from $999 to $899.  Then, because the Lowe's in Southlake did not have the washer/dryer pair we wanted in stock, the salesman offered us the demo/floor models at an additional 10% off, which reduced the washer to $764 and the dryer to $809.  We also wanted to have the pedestals for them, but those ran $229 apiece.  But, yet again, our salesman came through, offering us 2 new pedestals for a mere $100 each.  To make things even better, we had saved all of our debit card reward points from Chase and used those to get $350 in Lowe's gift cards, all for simply using our debit cards as credit cards.  Finally, we have also submitted our receipt to the State of Texas rebate program, which is funded by the Obama stimulus package, and we expect to get back another $175 for buying an energy efficient washer and recycling the old one.  With such great savings, we opted to buy an extended warranty for the washer and dryer at $90 each, extending the warranties up to 5 years.  In the end, we'll have spent less than $1,600 of our own money for over $2,800 worth of appliances/warranties.  That is a STEAL for sure.

The primary purpose for our shopping for a new, energy-efficient washer/dryer combo is that very soon we will be doing lots of loads of laundry involving cloth diapers.  [NOTE:  This will be the subject of an upcoming post.  We are starting to use the cloth diapers tomorrow].  We are told that older generation washers can use up to 50 gallons of water for one load of laundry.  Our new washer uses about 9.  In addition, new washers are able to finish a load in half the time (ours, 18 minutes to be exact) it takes older washers to do so.  Modern dryers are also much more efficient, since they come with state-of-the-art sensors in them that help stop the dryer from running longer than needed.  These advancements are very impressive.  Adding Boston's diapers to our laundry will now be much less of a burden - financial and otherwise - and will allow us to do our part in preserving the environment.

Yay for us,
Jer

it's walkin' time...finally

Yesterday was a good day!  We started our day off like any other day, woke-up, ate, played and slept (not me, B did).  But this time we went .on.our.first.family.walk!!!  Yep that's right.  I got my fanny out of the house and did some walking...finally!  I hadn't excercised once since B was born.  In fact, I hadn't exercised since around the end of August.  Jer and I were really good throughout the pregnancy of walking at least 4 nights/week.  Every day for about a month I kept telling myself that today would be the day to do some type of exercising but then something (more important, like watching some dvr'd shows, eating or it was too cold outside for B) would interfer with my plans so I kept pushing it back to the next day.  Well here we are 4 1/2 months later and I still haven't put on my walking shoes.  Until yesterday!  Oh boy, was it lovely.  The wind and sun was a little rough for B.  He's not used to either.  Everything about it was perfect.  I had my main two boys with me and the weather was A-mazing! 

the beginning

he did really well...I'm thinkin' he's gonna be a great walking buddy 

Jer took control of the camera.  He wanted to try it out.  I'd been hogging it to myself.  :) 

the end...all tuckered out 

Then...after Jer got off work, we headed over to Lowe's to look at their washers since they are having their President's Day sale.  There were a few brands we were interested in but we called up (really texted him the night before) our good ol' friend (who we think knows a lot about which brands were good), Casey, and he gave us his opinion and rated the top two brands we were looking at.  1) Electrolux and 2) Bosch.  But you'll have to wait  and see what we got and all the in's and out's to our mega savings.  High five to us.  They are beau-ti-ful!  It'll be posted tomorrow after they've been delivered.  I know the suspense is a killer.  :-)

Here's a hint  ;)



TGIF,
~Jeni



good ol' tummy time...or not so good

At B's 2 month check-up back in December, Dr. Shori told us that we need to be doing 25 minutes of tummy time a day.  Not so much.  How about 25 minutes of tummy time throughout a span of 2 months, would that work?  Anyway, as you can imagine, little man is still not a fan of this thing called tummy time.  He looks up at me and for a second I think he's actually "ok" with it.  Then within in seconds people, it goes from this... 

...to THIS!

Poor guy.  Breaks my heart every time.  So we'll try again another day.  I know, I know, I'm too easy.  But when he looks up at me with a look on his face saying, "Mommy, why are you just watching me get tortured?" what am I supposed to do?  Pick him up and cuddle him, that's what.  :) 

Our 4 month check-up is next Tuesday (which we are very excited about since we'll get to find out how much this chunkster weighs) and Dr. S is probably going to ask how tummy time is going and if he's rolling over yet.  Sooo...that's when I'll cue Jer to answer the questions.  :-) 

Happy Thursday,
~Jeni

crib sleepin'

Yep, it's true, our big boy did some Crib Sleepin' the night of Valentine's Day!!!  I'm offically a very very sad mommy.  It's as if he's packed his things and we sent him off to college.  But I have to admit, he did very well!  Jer and I decided that v-day would be the day.  A day we would always remember. 

our sweet angel sleeping peacefully



Here's how it went down: I fed B his bottle (more milk than usual so it would take longer to eat), burped him, told him "know that I love you despite what happens tonight", kissed his cheeks until my lips were tired, stood up and kissed him some more, reluctantly walked up stairs very slow (as if I wanted to loose a race to the top), kissed him a little more and gently laid him in his crib.  He fell right to sleep.  Jer and I (actually Jer did) said a prayer standing over him in his crib and we left the room.  Never thought we'd be saying a prayer about our baby sleeping in a crib.  :)  But that's par for us!  Ha.  We walked downstairs with his monitor glued to our hips, well not really, but we couldn't stop watching it (as we tried to watch tv) because we kept hearing him breathe and move.  I guess that's what babies do, breathe and move, who knew?!  :) 

The day after, he took his daily naps in his crib.  It was kinda nice because I had the whole downstairs to be as loud as I wanted.  And then again, last night, we put him in his crib for the night.  For now we think we both have to be there to lay him down.  I'm convinced he won't sleep well if he doesn't have both of us there to wish him a goodnight.  ;-)

~Jeni

*Boston, my love, thank for being our baby.  You are perfect.  ~love you, mommy*

our family of 3 valentine's day

Jer and I typically don't do much for v-day.  One of our main things we always do, though, is get chocolate covered strawberries.  That's our ritual.  But since we now have little man, we wanted to make his first Valentine's Day special.  We started the day with a nap, as usual.  Then we had some picture time.  He wore a shirt stitched by a sweet friend of mine, Elizabeth.  All I did was take her the tie pattern, onesie and fabric. She even has her own website at http://www.henrysmommy.com/ where she sews different things for babies.  In an earlier post, I talked about getting the tie idea from Etsy.  But after thinking about it, I decided to do it myself (except for the sewing) instead of buying it from an etsy shop.  So here's what I came up with, as far as the fabric pattern:

 a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e

Jer usually works from home, but yesterday he ended up going into the office.  So, since we were alone at home I knew I wanted to send him a picture of us letting him know we were thinking about him.  So this is what we sent. 

When Jer was pulling into the garage he called me to see where I was.  He told me to stay in my room until he told me to come out.  He always surprises me and this is what I came out to.  Roses, chocolate covered strawberries, a small wrapped box and a letter.  His love letters are the best.  :-)

He stopped by the grocery store after work and got everything he needed to make us a pasta dinner.  Here's Jer cooking our dinner.

 

While Jer was cooking, I thought I'd set our table.  I looked around the house at what I could find that would make our setting simple but cute.  Here's what I came up with.  I set it for 3 because we wanted little man to enjoy our dinner with us in his bumbo.  :)

The heart fabric was fabric that I got as another option for Boston's tie that I didn't use.

 I used OXO from our scrabble game.

waiting for dinner...hehe

our little family

reading my letter that was written to me from Boston and Jer

my necklace from Boston...isn't he so thoughtful!?  I'll probably take it back since it looks super huge on me.  But he doesn't mind.  He actually agreed.  ;)

and of course, our yummy strawberries!!! (i'm into cheesy pictures of me)

Spending the evening as a family of 3 was absolutely perfect!  We'll remember our first v-day with our little guy, always.  Hope everyone had a very special v-day!

~Jeni