Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone.

I hope all had a spooktacular and safe Halloween.

Flashback Friday

My Little Ladybug!



Last year Rylee was this super cute Lady bug for Halloween. I think the costume would have fit her again and all I would have had to do is cut two feet holes and add a pair of red and black striped tights. Instead we opted for the monster costume. And regardless, she is cute in whatever she is dressed in :) Well that may be my biased opinion but I am allowed to say that right?

Well happy Halloween Everyone and Breathe Easy...More pictures to come after this weekend!

Bumps and Bruises

It's been such a gloomy day here. We did nothing at all. We left the house only to venture to the clinic to get our H1N1 shots. A very lazy gloomy day.

The clinic was very nice and allowed us to enter through the back doors so that we did not have to walk through the main area and waiting rooms filled with sick people. We went in seperately so that Miss. R. did not have to step foot into the nasty germ filled clinic.

We are very excited that our entire family has been able to finally get the vaccination. However, tonight we found out that one of daddy's co-workers is sick with the flu. Luckily, daddy has only been in the office for the past 4 days and he does have a seperate office within the office and the co-worker has not been in this office. So I am sending the lysol with my husband along with strict instruction of disinfecting every inch of that office. And daddy also has become aware that if he does become sick, he is quarantined to the basement for 10 days. We will not allow our little one to get sick.

On another note, tonight, my dear little one has been squeezing through the smallest little openings to find her way behind things. We have our chairs and end tables arranged so that she cannot get behind them, or so we thought we did. Well tonight my dear friends, she squeezed behind my glider, and then proceeded to slip and fall, smacking her poor little head on the base of the chair. And this is the results.



This picture was taken a good 4 hours after the incident. Look at the line. My poor baby. And you would think she would learn, but she up and tried to squeeze back there another four times. Little stinker. At least it didn't break the skin or isn't any worse then just the giant (in my mind) mark on her forehead.

Time to clean out and rearrange the living room to further babyproof I guess.

Off to clean the kitchen and finish watching private practice. I love Thursday night TV.

Breathe Easy World, Breathe Easy!

Yipee for protection, boo for ouch

After being completely frustrated and almost in tears about not being able to get my precious daughter the H1N1 shot, we got a call from her CF clinic telling us that they had a dose for her. Whew...A huge sigh of relief.

We had to make the hour drive to the clinic to get the shot, and when we got their they asked if she needed her 2nd seasonal flu shot and guess what. Today was 4 weeks to the day so she was able to get that too. 2nd Whew. Our towns 2 clinics and community health clinic has none of that vaccination so we were very relieved and felt our hour trip one way was well worth the gas money.

Rylee also got her throat culture done as she has had a small cough for a couple of days. I'm not convinced it's NOT teeth as she did get a small cough the last time a couple teeth popped up but most doctors do not believe this thought and so we were prescribed bactrim. I am waiting until the culture results to start her on this strong of an antibiotic, especially since nothing she has cultured before has needed this strong of an antibiotic except pseudo which is treated with tobramyacin. So there for we wait until friday to find out what's next.

So as I began typing this, I recieved a phone call from the local clinic here in town and guess what.......They recieved more doses of the H1N1 vaccine and our family was on the list to get it. After discussing how we had just taken her to get hers today, they said that my husband and myself were also on the list so we will be getting our doses tomorrow. YAY. 3rd sigh of relief. We will now be mostly protected from this nasty virus. R. does need to get a second dose in four weeks if we can find it so hopefully we will be able to get some when that time comes around.

So my very frustrating day turned into a fairly decent day. R. hasn't had any reactions to either of the vaccines and has been playing happily since getting home.

Off to cook some supper I guess ..... Happy Wednesday and Breathe Easy Blogworld!

Fall Fun

Today is suppose to be the last decent day of the week weather wise so miss R. and I took total advantage and headed outdoors for some fun. Rylee has never really been outside walking around and she just recently started walking in shoes so it's all new to her. This past summer she was so afraid of the grass and very much disliked the way it felt on her legs so we always used a blanket and she rarely crawled off of it.

She was very interested in the leaves, although not interested enough to touch them. I guess we are bringing up a very clean girl....she doesn't like to get dirty (well at least not with dirt - food is another story)

She kept looking at the leaves and pointing to them wondering what they were.

She discovered the swing and enjoyed pushing it back and forth.

A quick smile for the camera.

And back to pushing the swing!

Mom was also working on her photo skills and shooting on manual mode. It's getting better but so much to learn.

And finally we took a ride in the swing. Rylee just giggled and giggled and giggled. She loved every minute of it.

Rylee really enjoyed her brief time outside. It's good for her to get some fresh air as we are on total lockdown here. A little time in the back yard never hurt though.

And then tonight this is what I turned to. My little princess found the box of tissues and decided that they needed to be pulled out of the box.

Of course this mommy first sees the photo op of the little princess making a mess. Daddy didn't think that was such a good idea. His exact words were "And you let her do it." Oops. She kicked and screamed when i took her fun away. We have since put the tissues out of reach.

Well off to feed the peanut and then to bed. Good night blog world.

9 Days on the Ranch

Nine days on the ranch is quite a long time. Miss R. learned all sorts of new stuff. Sorry for the picture overload, but we had lots of pics to document the time!

Rylee learned how to climb on and off of stuff. Her favorite thing was the big fluffy recliner. She pushed the stool in front of it and climbed up and down it.

Rylee helped Kristi make banana bread with chocolate chips in it. I think little miss memorized the recipe by the way she is watching Kristi so intensly. On a side note, Rylee wore this shape sorter on her head around the house for the majority of the 9 days. It fits perfectly on her little round nogin.

And the best part of making banana bread is eating it for breakfast. Rylee loves banana bread which is good because it is high in fat and you can add lots of butter! And a few chocolate chips make it even better.

And here is the photo shoot out on the ranch. It's so beautiful out there.

Mommy and Ms. Rylee

Daddy and his little girl

Modeling one of her new hats!

Walking across the bridge.

A family shot

Vacation!

So I didn't drop off the face of the earth. My friend Kristi had to come back to our side of the state and so we road out with her to her house. She lives on a ranch and has no cable and no internet. We were originall going to be out at her house on Tuesday, but she had to make an unexpected trip to our area, and so she was wanting company on the 7 hour trip home. So we went out 5 days earlier.

It was a very long drive, and Miss R. did awesome on the way out. The way home not so much. But we had a wonderful trip and enjoyed the time with the friends we don't see too often. They are so good with Rylee and I hope for the best in their trials to becoming parents. They have been struggling but are finally getting into the insemination process and hopefully it will work. They deserve the best!

While we were out at their house, we had them take a few quick snaps of us for our christmas cards. This is what the big pic on the card will be. Although i hate the way I look, it was the best of the pics and will have to do. Of course the little one wasn't up for smiling, but she is looking. And I am loving the vest on her. Super adorable.



Well more to come later, I have lots of catching up to do on the blogs I've been missing and lots of cleaning to do around the house, so we will hopefully have a productive day tomorrow. Good Night all!

Hair Pretty's and Monsters

R. has always had a ton of hair. She was born with a thick full head of black hair. Some fell out, but not a ton, and she continued to have a headful, however about 3 months ago it got to the point where we could put ponies and bigger hair pretties in it. Up until now we had been just putting the simple little alligator clip bows to swoop her hair to the side (she has a natural part on one side of her head and if you don't swoop it, it all lays forward and looks goofy). So i have been busy making tons and tons of bows for her.

This is my first attempt at a bow other then a Korker bow (which I love). I think it turned out pretty cute. It matches her Daddy's Lil' Pumpkin shirt pretty well. And she even manages to keep the headband on for the most part.



Korkers, Korkers, and more korkers. I don't know how many Korker bows a little girl can have, but I love them. And I especially love the little packs of ribbon from the target dollar section. They come with 5 or 6 coordinating colors/patterns and are just enough to make two matching Korker bows.

This one is a fall fun one that has apples and wonderful fall colors. I love it!



And this one was a pack of Halloween ribbon from the dollar bins. So easy and I don't have to worry about matchin ribbons!



So after much browsing on Etsy - I love that website - I decided that I was going to attempt to make my own apple shirt. I was wanting something to go with the fall korkers that I had made(see above). So I went to my local WalMart and picked up a white shirt, some packs of material (our walmart has scrap packs for $1.00 or $2.00. They are just little samples of material, but plenty for what I needed ), and some heat & bond.

I cut out an apple shape (kind of goofy looking apple, but it works), a leaf and a stem. I ironed the heat and bond to the back of each material and then ironed them to the shirt. I still need to stitch around the apple but this is how it turned out. It will work.



And here are a few pics of my precious little R. Here she is modeling her new headband bow, one of her new skirts, her Daddy's lil' pumpkin shirt, and Purple tights! Yes Purple tights that who knows what else she'll wear them with, but I liked them for this outfit. The funny story is that I was driving to go pick up some tights to match and was telling my friend how R. owns 2 colors of pink tights, white tights, brown tights, various colors of striped tights, but no black tights. So instead of black tights, I pick up these purple ones. OOPS. Still in need of some black tights I guess.

And here is my little one in her new monster costume for halloween. She was going to be this however given the change in weather, I thought it might be a little cold and I refuse to make her a costume that will be covered up by layers and layers to keep her warm. We will make her the pumpkin tutu dress when she a little older and can wear just long sleeves and tights to keep warm. (well hopefully it is a nicer October by then too.)

Well, Happy Weekend everyone. I am busy taking photos this weekend and running to hobby lobby to get some supplies for a banner I need to get done. Hope everyone enjoys the warmer weather that WE are supposed to have.

Enjoy and breathe easy!

Halloween Cookies and Crabby Pumpkins

Last night was not a success with my sweet innocent nocturnal baby! She went to bed at 11pm, up at 12:30am up at 3:00am and up at 4:30am. Finally at 5:30am I fished her a sippy cup of milk and she gulped it down and went to sleep until 9:30am. Phew.

We made pumpkin and ghost sugar cookies. I had great intentions of making these fabulous cookies until I remembered while doing them that I absolutely do not enjoy making sugar cookies. I quick frosted them and decorated them as my little pumpkin is being quite the crab. It sounds like she just now fell asleep as I resorted to the pack and play in the bedroom as she was inconsolable and didn't want to play but refused to sit on my lap and rock. It is very quite back there now, so I assume she finally gave in.

The cookies are for my husbands work trick-or-treat for a family with a little girl who will be getting a kidney transplant at the end of October. Her mom works for the same business as my hubby and they are going to bring their kids to trick or treat at each of the desks/departments as they will miss halloween trick or treating. I made them each cookies and will also have some yummy sugary candy in there as well for them.

I also wanted to wish Megan and Justin congrats on their new baby boy Lane. He is adorable. Megan checks in on my blog and is from the same area as me. We actually used to work together. This is their first child and I hope all is well with their new family and wish them the best of luck. Now on to making their baby gift!

Well I will be posting soon with all the new bows I am making and will be having a photo shoot of some friends and their family on Sunday. Lots to do. But now off to make the best of my quite time. I should be napping.

Sorry no pics of the cookies. Like I said, I had good intentions, until I started.

Happy Thursday and breathe easy everyone!

YAY NIGHT 3 - Success

Night 3 was offically a success. R. went to bed in her bed at 11pm and slept...get this...until 8:30am. I didn't get up at all and go into her room. She didn't get up at all and cry. She just slept all night! YAY. I am jumping with joy as to how excited I am about this.

Today we are leading a not very exciting day. We will be going to the post office to mail a package, but that's about it. We will be having another low key day. I am planning to make a few more bows, and maybe see if I can find something to use as R's little bow holder. Right now she has them stuffed in a rubbermade type of bin thingy with drawers and on a ribbon hanging from a pipe cleaner! Fancy I know.

On another note, Rylee really started to say MOM MOM MOM lately. She is getting louder and louder at talking or jabbering I guess it would be. I love it.

Well off to the post office to get that done.

Have a wonderful Wednesday and Breathe Easy!

Sleep is good

Tonight is night 3. Night 3 of this sleep training thing that we have going on here. Our problems all started back in January. R. was sick and we stayed in the hospital for 6 days. The first night we let her sleep in the crib and every time they came in to start her IV's they woke her up. I think the first night we all got less then 2 hours of sleep. So after that, we started letting her sleep with me on the cot. All was well. She slept all night and we were getting enough sleep. Well we came home and continued to let her sleep with us so we could keep an eye/ear on her through out the night. After about a week of that we began putting her back in her room in her crib. Well this is where we started having issues. She would wake up at about 3 or 4 and we would bring her into our room to finish the night.

Fast forward to this past summer. It had gotten to the point of her going to sleep around 10:00pm and waking by midnight. When we went to Omaha to the zoo, she slept all night in her pack and play in the hotel. So we began putting her to sleep in the pack and play in our room. It worked for about 2 months and then she began waking up again. Well after my trip this last weekend, we decided it was time for change

After she began sleeping in her pack and play we lowered her crib and also took the front of the crib off to make her crib a toddler bed. We had been giving her naps in there every once in a while and it worked fine. On Sunday night I put her to sleep in the crib an she slept from 10:30pm till 3:00am and then until 5:00am. On Monday night she woke up at 12:00, 2:00 and 5:00. So what will tonight bring? I'm hoping it is better then last night. I guess we will see what tonight brings and hope for the best. It's about time for some treatments, but i will leave you with some of my fave pics of my babe sleeping!

All swaddled up!

Miss R. could be found like this alot. She loves her little rainbow blanket and still drags it around with her all the time.

This one has got to be my fave of her sleeping. First off the outfit she has on was my favorite. It was so darling. She had a lot of purple when she was tiny but has since been clothed in a lot of pink. suprisingly. But I absolutely love the way she is sleeping like she was just exhausted.

And although this picture isn't the best and you can barely see her, it has a lot of memories and is quite funny. We were at the air show and it was about 100 degrees out. There was no shade an of course she needed her big rainbow blanket to cuddle with. I must also mention that this nice blanket is fleece. Anyways, the F22 just happened to be up next in the air show soon after she went to sleep. If anyone has heard this plane, it is unbelieveable loud, to the point of my little princess needing ear plugs. So we shoved an earplug in her ear as she was sleeping so we now have a picture of our little princess dressed in pink with her neon yellow earplug.

None of the pictures are of the best quality, but all are of her sleeping. We are praying for good sleeps tonight!

Good Night!

Rylee's New Wardrobe

Well here it is. The new loot that miss R. got while I was on my shopping trip. She is stocked up for the year! She has everything from sweats to dresses to casual.



My favorites out of the trip has to be the purple, blue, white, grey and charcoal sweater with the charcoal skirt and shoes. The sweater is Tommy Hilfiger and was only $21.00 (that is the most I spent on one piece of clothing for her). The skirt is from the childrens place and was $3.00. The Shoes are from Marshalls and are Stride Rites. They were only $19.99.

Speaking of Marshalls....Both pairs of Calvin Klein Jeans were from there at $12.99 each. Super cute and the skinny ones will look awesome with her little brown boots she has. The remainder of the jeans were from The Childrens Place and 2 of the 4 were only $5.99. the other two were $11.00.

Gap was my weakness. She didn't need sweats, but they had some super cute ones. The brown outfit says Gap on the butt. The pink one was on sale and the purple was just plain cute. She also got the cute pink and blue striped dress from Gap. The other pink dress is from Tommy and the cute pink vest is from Old Navy.

The picture of the shirts are all from OshKosh and will look so nice under her OshKosh hooded zip up sweatshirts that she already has. The red shirt is from Tommy and will look so adorable with a couple of the skirts that she got. Oh and talking about skirts, the striped skirt is from OshKosh and was only $.90. What a steal.

I also got her some super cute knee socks from gap, some tights from OshKosh, some clippie bows from Tommy and some pj's.

There is also a picture in there of R's halloween costume. She was originally going to be a pumpkin and I was going to make her a tutu dress with the pumpkin face on it and green korkers at the top for the stem however I figured since it snowed here it would be too cold for that, so I instead bought her the pink and purple monster from the Childrens Place.

And all mommy got was a hooded sweatshirt, a teeshirt and a pair of shoes. Who do you think is spoiled here?

Daddy and miss R. had a good time. They ate McDonalds one night and took a walk. They had some super good bonding time. It was a much needed vacation for me.

Well last night was night one of Rylee sleeping in her own bed. We've been struggling with the sleeping thing since about July. She slept from about 10:30 until 5:00 am in her bed. Then she was wide awake until 6:45 and we went back to sleep until 11:00am. Well, the 10:30 until 5:00 was a start and pretty good for sleeping and not getting out of her toddler bed. We will see how her night goes tonight!

Tonight we are making chicken and stuffing casserole for supper, so I better get busy. Happy Monday and Breathe Easy!

I'm HOME!

I am home and I am really really really happy to be home. Although it was so nice to get away, I missed my little girl very very much and my husband too!

We left Thursday night and drove to my cousins house. We stayed up way to late watching dvr'd greys anatomy and private practice. We got our coupons (or coup's as they were referred to as) all ready and also our game plan. Friday was an entire day of shopping the outlets!

Any by shopping I mean, we went from store to store and were there from 10:30am until about 8:00pm. It was a long day, but I got some very cute things and some good deals. We then went out to supper and were off to down town Minneapolis to our hotel. Well the GPS got us their alright, but it did happen to take us the very long way. I think we had it set in Longest Route mode instead of Shortest. Downtown is directly west of Albertville on the interstate pretty much. The GPS took us on some county road and it happened that we crossed over the interstate 4 times. Then we drove through a fairly scary portion of the residential area. Bars on windows, chain-link fences with barbed wire around car dealers, etc. I am so not used to that. But we finally made it to our hotel in one piece. Well we parked in front and unloaded onto the luggage cart, and our arms as we had a lot of packages and sent our car around to park with valet. We walked in and WOW. We all felt like we were on the movie pretty woman walking into the hotel with all of the packages. I am not at all used to staying in huge fancy hotels...but this was definitely one and the price showed it. As we walked to the front desk, directly passed the lounge/restaurant, we felt extremely under-dressed but made it up to our room to sort through things, and regroup.

We added a little makeup and touched up the hair a little and changed the clothes into the night life clothes and headed down to the bars. We all had a good time, but did stay out too late and were very tired on Saturday. We only managed to get lost while walking around a couple of times and also walked home in the SNOW. Overall.....great night

Saturday we went to the Southdale mall and hit up Marshalls and Macy's and some other little stores. We also ate at Maggianos for lunch. Oh YUMMO Italian. So delicious. We ate family style and figured they brought out around 11 plates of food for the 4 courses. 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 2 pastas, 2 entree's, 2 desserts and a bowl of bread with olive oil. The ravioli were delish.

After lunch and the mall we quick hit up target and back to the outlet mall for a couple of quick stops then back to my cousins for the night. They wanted to go out again at the bar in the little down which is directly across the street from her house, but when we sat down in the comfy chairs, there was no more of that talk. We were in bed by 11 and slept till 8. The first decent sleep in a long time for me. We quick got up and got things around and hopped back into the car to head home.

I soooo missed my baby girl.....This week is all about recooping and spending time with miss R. Hopefully we get this bed time routine figured out soon for her. She has been having quite the issues, and I am very tired of being kicked all night and the not wanting to sleep in her own bed. Heres too a tiring week of that, but hopefully good in the long run.

I am going to post her awesomely cute and stylish wardrobe in a couple of days, as they are all ready to be washed right now, but heres a couple of ideas. 4 dresses, 6 pairs of jeans, 4 pairs of shoes and a couple of sweat suits. There is more, but you get the idea. Super cute!

Well happy end of the weekend everyone!

Shopping Spree!

Well today's the day I leave my baby for the first time and I'm off to my shopping spree. I am nervous to leave her but excited for some girly time. I am hoping to get some good deals and the outlet mall and I am very excited to shop! I love shopping!

Well I won't be on till maybe Sunday or Monday, so enjoy the weekend, and as always, Breathe Easy!

The Sun Will Come Out....

Today! YAY, for the first time in about 2 weeks, the sun is out. It's not overcast, it's not raining, it's sun shiney! We are going to venture out into the world today on a walk, since it is beautiful! That is if I get all of the laundry done and all of R.'s clothes layed out for the weekend while I am gone. Well not a very long post, but will leave you with some fabulous pictures of my babe when she was just a little thing!

Today's Tidbits

Again, not much of a blog worthy day here, but a random tidbit of information basically about CF and our little family.

Tidbit #1
I hate CF. I guess, if you have read any of my previous blogs, you probably already have gotten the idea that I hate CF. And yes, Hate is a very strong word and I don't use it often, but in this case, I HATE CF (me yelling it). Although I hate CF, I am very thankful for a lot of things that have become to our family because of it.

• I am thankful for my little girl. She is the love of our lives and the most important thing in the world to us. I can't imagine a day that we didn't have her in our lives, nor a day that we won't have her in our lives.
• I am thankful for the doctors, nurses, and medical people that take care of my baby when it is needed. We don't have to make the trip often and I am also thankful for that, but when we are in need of medical help, they are always there. They never seem annoyed that I call at least 1 time per week, or sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. They are always very helpful and understanding.
• I am thankful that I get to stay home and take care of my baby. Although I believe that daycare and social interaction is very important in a childs development, I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to keep her safe from germs/bacteria/infections.
• I am very thankful for the cystic fibrosis foundation. Without them, the life expectancy would not be increasing each year. Their would be no new treatments, and they wouldn't be as close to a cure as they are. We will see a cure within my daughters life. I know it.
• And finally, I am thankful for all of my family, friends and aquantances that donate to our cause and other causes to help research continue for all of the nasty and horrible disease out their that affect little people and big people the same.

Tidbit #2

Well speaking of donations, I am beginning to think about all of the fundraising we will be doing for our Team Roses for Rylee. We have set a goal of raising $10,000.00 this year and believe we are very capable of meeting this goal. Here are a list of our fundraising efforts that will be taking place this year.

• Roses for Rylee bracelets - These are the typical rubber/silicone bracelets (like the livestrong ones). They are purple and say Roses for Rylee on them. We have size Large (adults) and size Small (children). We have been selling them for $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00. - The thing I find amazing about this is how far they can travel. I have a friend in Tuscon that ordered 10 of them. She said she was going to give them to her coworkers as she see/assists with a lot of Lung Transplant patients. Well on her facebook, she was tagged in some pictures and as I was looking at them, I noticed a purple bracelet on someone I didn't know. I asked if it was a Roses for Rylee bracelet and they said it sure was. I was amazed at how someone who doesn't even know my dear R. would wear a bracelet in her honor. We donate 100% of the profits (so every penny we recieve for a bought bracelet) to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We have lots left so let me know if you would like some.
• $10,000 from 10,000 people. This will be a letter that we will send to everyone we know. We will ask people to send $1.00 to us and then forward a letter with our story to 10 other people. We are hoping we can get to $10,000 through this. The thing about this, is it only costs $1.00 plus 11 stamps. Easy peasy huh. Usually families do writing campaigns asking for donations. We have a very hard time asking for money, however this form of a chain letter may make it easier. We will be sending them out with our christmas letters this year. If we know you, expect a letter asking for a $1.00 donation.
• Rock for Rylee Carnival. We are planning to do a carnival in the spring however with the economy it is looking a little tougher then expected. Our plan was to get donations of money, prizes, supplies, etc. from local businesses and then all profit would go to the CFF. Well, many larger business have a lockdown on all donations/giving due to the economy. Sad but understandable. We will see how this works out later on when we here back from some businesses.
• And finally, we will be partaking in the Great Strides Walk. This is the walk that raises money for the CFF. Last year we walked and the total raised at this local walk was over $91,000. It's amazing how 24 teams of people can raise that much money. We love it!

Tidbit #3

CF has changed our lives. I was never a germaphobe but am now. My hands are raw from washing them and using hand sanitizer, I am paranoid about tap water, and anytime I hear the words bacteria, flu, virus, swine flu or bugs I get freaked out and run and hide in my house. We have quarintined our little R. to the house for the flu season. She goes out when she won't be around anyone, like for drives in the car, pumpkin patch, swinging in the back yard, but she does not go into any stores, restaurants, businesses, etc. She did go to the clinic to get her flu shot and I about had a heart attack taking her around all of those people with flu symptoms. However, I love my life, and I love my little girl, CF and all.

Tidbit #4

Non CF related - I am going to go shopping this weekend! I am so excited and plan on getting R's winter clothes, shoes and some other little things for me maybe. And we are eating at a yummy italian restaurant and it's all girls going. I can not wait!

Well again, a lot of randomness and nothing to exciting, but none the less, important to us.

And one last push - Get your Roses for Rylee bracelets TODAY!

The House Makeover

The makeover is done. Well, not really. I still have lots of stuff to do yet. But I thought I would post a couple pictures of the before and afters.

Before

After. Mr. Crafty Husban made the Coat Hooks, and I painted an old bulletin board brown along with the mail holder. I used stickers to put the words "Bills" "In" and "Out" on each of the slots. I also sprayed the basket red, and the pumpkins a metallic gold and silver color. The jars/vases are filled with candy corn, flowers and topped off with some simple ribbon bows.

The Before - just after we painted. I forgot to take a picture before we took everything down.

The after - I switched out the pictures on the wall. They used to be wedding pictures and are now all of miss. R. I also added the word family above it. I have yet to fill our boxes on the right side with trinkets!

The Before - actually this was the during. Before there were some pictures of Miss. R.

The after. The picture frame will get pictures of R. in them but for now, we just hung it up. The quilt is one that Rylee got for Christmas from her grandpa. It has a picture of her in the middle of it and the white squares have roses in them. "65 roses" to be exact. Click here to read the story of "65 Roses".

And this is finally a close up of the neat looking jar after filling it with candy corn and adorning it with a brown, tan and red ribbon. I love how it turned out.

Well today the plan is to move the toy corner and declutter the book area....And if time permits go through R's clothes. Out with the summer (even though they still fit) and in with the fall/winter wardrobe.

Enjoy the day! and as always, BREATHE EASY

Chili and Cornbread

You can deffinately tell it's beginning to feel a little fall like! It was chilly here today. So after my not so nice night of rest last night, I woke up bright and early to start the day off. I did R's, nebulizer, fed her breakfast, started a load of laundry, and off to the great WalMart for groceries and some little decorating supplies. When I got home we made some Yummy french toast, eggs and bacon for a sunday breakfast lunch. Then I through the ingredients for chili into the crock pot for supper. Boy was I glad I did that. To not have to worry about supper after spending the day decorating was a relief. All I had to do was quickly throw together some corn bread and Walla! It was so scrumptious and warming, especially on this chilly fall day.

So on to the decorating. I don't have any pictures quite yet, but I will give you a little idea of what is going on in our household. Well I took all of my pictures and decorations off of the wall in the entry way and put up a bulletin board, mail organizer, wooden sign and coat rack. I also cleared the stand off and put up some very fall looking decorations. I took a big glass jar and filled it with candy corn - not only the yellow, orange and white stuff, but the red and tan, the brown and tan, the yellow white and brown and the normal stuff. Then I tied a ribbon around it. I also filled two small pillar vases with this candy corn mixture and stuck some very pretty fall flowers in it. Then I spray painted some pumpkins, added a little ribbon and placed all the above items on a red placemat. My crafty husband is still working on the shelf for the bottom, and I also spray painted a basket red to go on the shelf. This will house R's shoes, hats, mittens and winter stuff.

On to the living room - So I decided to paint the wall. We just made it a couple shades darker brown. So as of now, that's all that is there. a brown wall. We have yet to put up the shelves/pictureframes/pretties that go on the wall.. I also sprayed a couple more baskets to house R's books and some toys. Right now we have 4 bright foam mats where we keep her toys and books. It is kind of an eye sore. So i am hoping to move the mats and the majority of her toys to the toy room/scrapbooking room. At this point we don't play in the toy room much, but eventually she will be in there all the time. I'm hoping this will declutter the living area a little.

Well off to finish the remodel/redecorations! Happy Fall everyone!

Insomnia

It is officially 12:36am as I sit here typing this. What does that mean you may ask? Well it means that I cannot sleep. :( Sad, considering it is my day of the weekend to wake with the little one and that could very possibly mean 7:30am but still I sit here, my mind wandering and pondering little thoughts.

Today was fairly productive and this may be adding to my insomnia tonight. I keep thinking about all that is on the agenda for tomorrow. Today I painted a mail organizer/key holder deal, a bulletin board, and a coat hook board. My awesome and fairly crafty husband whipped out the coat hook board in like 10 minutes. Edges routered and everything. I have been wanting to do a little something to my house to dress it up a little/organize it alot and declutterfy the entire thing. Well I finally started.....in the entry way. I will be taking down the candle holder wall pieceamajig and moving it to the bedroom (we do not light the candles in it so no fear of us burning the house down from a fire in the bedroom from candles). I am going to hang the bulletin board and mail organizer above the nice table that my husband made for me a couple years ago - See....he is a very crafty guy. I am also gonna put the coat hook board up on the wall behind the door. This will hold R's coat, the diaper bag, my purse, Daddy's coats and hats, etc. Mr. Crafty also made a shelf for the bottom of the forementioned table that I am going to put a couple baskets on to house rylee's winter hats and mittens, and other misc. items that will end up there.

So this is what brings me to the no sleep thing....The baskets. As I crawled into bed tonight, I was thinking about how I really didn't want to go and buy new baskets/totes. I have a ton already. So I decided I was going to spray paint a couple of the ones, and now get this.....I am going to try my hand at sewing the fabric liners for them. So all I will need is a little spray paint and a couple yards of fabric....Way better then spending $20.00 or more on baskets I would say. So as I was contemplating this, I decided how nice it would be to give the living room wall and fresh coat of paint. This led me to decorating the livingroom, which eventually took me to decorating and painting the bathroom and finally moving things into the bedroom/cleaning/hanging pictures/reorganizing. So here I am, sitting in the dark on my computer still thinking about all the possibilities for tomorrow.

I will deffinately be posting some before and after pictures of at least the entry way tomorrow or monday. Another thing I would like to do tomorrow is make it out to the pumpkin patch, and also work on getting my photography business going. I need to make the postcards to send to people. And as I was thinking about that, christmas letters/card came to mind and it reminded me how I was thinking about sending out our $10,000.00 from 10,000 people letter along with christmas letters this year.

I feel like the pig in the book "IF YOU GIVE A PIG A PANCAKE". What more can I think about that will remind me of something else tonight.

Well I suppose that is enough random rambling for the night. I am going to do some list making and hopefully get tired enough to crawl back into bed without waking the hubby or the little one. Good night to all.....Happy sleeping!

Relax and Replenish

Yay for Friday. Happy TGIF everyone. I still can't believe how much I truely enjoy the weekends even though I'm home all week. It just seems that having R's dad around makes everything a little bit easier and more relaxing.

We don't have much planned this weekend except for laundry, some simple projects and sleeping and relaxing. I have a busy week next week, so I do need to prepare a little for the week and next weekend however.

My dad is coming down for a meeting for work, so he will be here overnight again. I am also suppose to have a meeting with a Hockey Team about the fundraiser that they are doing for CF. We are very excited that they are willing to do this fundraiser. However, with all the preparations for being gone for the first time over the weekend and my dad visiting, I'm not sure if I can make it to the meeting. It was so nice of them to invite me to come, however my friend may have to tackle this one herself. I hate to spread myself to thin and then not be able to enjoy my weekend away. We will see what the week brings though.

I am really beginning to think about some easy projects that I can do to get a little more organized around here. We have bills, medical bills, appointments, etc. on top of all of our other every day clutter. If anyone has any great ideas, let me know.

We might venture out to the pumpkin patch later this weekend to see if it is not so muddy. It has been raining here or drizzly all week so I'm doubting it will be good pumpkin pickin whether but I would really love to get just a few more pumpkins.

On a positive not on the excercising - I hopped back on the elliptical again, even though it was rainy and yucky out and I could have layed down with Rylee during her nap. I rode it and felt way better after doing it. We will see what today brings, but I'm hoping I can continue to push through the first couple of weeks and get into a routine with this.

Well this post was very random, and not much interesting things in it. I have lots of little things going through my mind about shopping, fundraising, organization, and paying bills. I should sort through my thoughts a little.

Well TGIF everyone. I hope this weekend is relaxing for all and we can start the week Replenished! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Always, Breathe Easy!

Flu Shots and Yummy Granola Bars

So yesterday Rylee had her first flu shot. Too bad we have to go back to get another one in four weeks since it was her first time getting one. The hubby and I had ours two weeks ago and R. was going to get hers last week but the fever put a minor glitch in the plan. So off it was to the yucky germy clinic to get her shot. We barely got in the room and she saw her normal nurse and burst out crying. The other nurse was like, geez, I haven't even got the needle ready. I told her that it's a mixture of shots, blood draws, and nasal suctions that have happened in the last 6 months that makes her not like nurses. Luckily the crying was short lived and it was off to get icecream.

Now on to today. R. had a rough night last night and was up for like 1.5 hours in the middle of the night. Every once in a while she gets in her mind that this is ok. Well she slept in till 9:00am this morning due to the nice little hour and a half play time at 3am. So we got up and fought through the nebulizer and CPT and then it was time for breakfast. I swear that she is a little piggy. She ate a whole container of yogurt (of course it was the little ones that I mentioned a few days ago), a 8 oz cup of pediasure and an entire granola bar. It just amazes me how much she loves the yogurt and granola bars. And for her to eat the granola bars like such a little woman. She no longer crumbles them on the highchair tray. She nicely bites little pieces off. So cute.

And as for me, I am on about day 3 of the workout. I skipped the second day as we were very busy but I got back on the horse yesterday and did a workout video in the morning while R had her breakfast and then last night I jumped on the elliptical for a while. Today I am thinking I will try and work out during Rylee's nap. They say it takes 28 days for a new thing to become a habit so wish me luck on this one. only 25 more days to go until I actually maybe won't mind working out. On a positive note...my legs were sore today so I can tell it somewhat worked a little.

I am also going to do a little decorating for the season. I spray painted some pumpkins and they are sitting outside waiting to be centerpieces on the island. I also brought up a couple of pumpkin decorations I have collected over the past few years. I need to dig out the window clings and get those up on the windows. I have been in a redecorating mood lately and can't wait to change some things up in our house. I really would like to have a little command/organization center somewhere in the entryway or kitchen so if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Well that was a lot of rambling and if you made it this far, thanks for reading. IT's thrusday today and that means, one more day till the weekend. :) Even though I stay at home all week, I love my sleep in saturdays and my time with my husband on the weekends.

Happy Thursday everyone!