Strange

For some strange and unknown reason this pile of shoes by our bedroom door annoys Michael.  He claims it is because the shoe rack is mere inches away and because he trips on them whenever he walks into our room.  I don't know.  I think he's overreacting.

In other news:

It took 3 years, but I finally got Ginger to walk through the door of Spencer's play house.

Elliott is as long as an ear of corn.  He has the bones and muscles of a seasoned body builder and kicks/punches me around the clock.

We bought these pajama pants for Spencer when he turned 2.  They finally fit.  Kind of.  They are still pretty big around his waist.

I have shown incredible restraint during the month of September and did not buy any Halloween/Fall decorations, though I was tempted many times.  I finally broke my streak yesterday.  I bought this sign.  It is made of foam.  It cost $1 at Target.

And to wrap up this segment of in other news:

We're going back to Disneyland.

Spencer has asked us at least 4 times a week when we're going again and I refuse to go with a baby, so our options are 1) we wait another 3 years (veto), 2) Michael and Spencer go without me (double veto) or 3) we go now (yes please).

We're going to be seriously broke upon our return and will have to eat ramen for lunch and dinner for weeks, but I think in the end it will all be worth it.

It's our family babymoon. 

Our last chance to vacation as a family of three before we become a family of four.  

A weekend in Tucson

We went to Tucson 4 times in 6 weeks during June and July.  Then we stayed home for 9 weeks.  We've been really busy on the weekends and there hasn't been any event going on in Tucson that we needed to attend.

This past weekend we finally made the trek because 1) my sister-in-law, Kendra, was in town for a wedding and 2) my mom's very good friend, Ellen, passed away after a long illness.  There was a celebration of her life (an Ellebration, if you will) at my parent's house on Sunday. 

So, we haven't seen Kendra since Thanksgiving.  Did I take one picture of us with her?

No.

But I do have this shot of Ginger trying to make herself comfortable under the kitchen table.  Silly dog was on top of the base of the chair.  That can't feel good.  Just move Ginger.

We ate at Michael's parent's house on Sunday morning.  After breakfast I took advantage of the grandparents playing with Spencer and Michael watching football and went to take a nap.  After a few minutes I was astonished (really, astonished. That's not exaggerating) to hear rain pounding on the roof.  We went outside to discover a huge rain cloud dumping rain on the backyard.  The rest of the sky was cloudless and blue.

Once the rain let up a bit Spencer jumped right in.

Then sat down.

Then rolled around a bit.

Then stripped down.

And had a grand ol' time running around naked.

Sunday afternoon was the memorial service.  I got to spend time with friends I have known my whole life but don't get to see often enough.  April, Ellen's niece, and Tyrel, Ellen's son.

Then it was back home to start another 6 weeks of busyness.  Really, it's going to busy from now until New Year's Day.  And then we'll have a baby.

And then we'll know what busy really is.

4 year photo shoot

We went to JC Penney this morning and had Spencer's 4 year pictures taken.  The photographer took a lot.  We did not order a lot.  We got out of there spending less than $40.  It's the cheapest we've gotten out of a portrait studio, like, ever.

I don't really have anything to say about each individual shot, so you can just scroll and enjoy.

Coming right along

 My initial goal was to be done with baby preparations by Thanksgiving.  Things are going so well, though,  that I might just be done by Halloween.

We already have clothes, we already have most of the "other" stuff (bathtub, swing, boppy pilllow, etc) and we even have 2 new boxes of diapers ready and waiting.

Last weekend we bought a car seat.

 

I've been trying to spend as little money as possible in the decorating department.  I know that I will find cool stuff as time goes on and I don't want to buy the first thing I see just for the sake of buying something. I also know the room will morph and change as Elliott gets older.  I'm trying to suppress my OCD feelings that everything in the room needs to be completely decorated and perfect by the time he's born.

I've had these frames since I was 21.  They belonged to my grandparents and I took them after they passed away.  Michael and I have had them in every apartment/house we have lived in.

It was a hard decision to make (just because they belonged to my grandparents and I can remember them hanging in their house), but I took the print and mat out, painted the frames black and put pre-painted ocean critters in them.

Total project cost: $8

This mirror also belonged to my grandparents.  Ditto everything about the frames.  I agonized about should I paint it or not?

Painting won.

It looks less like a blob in person.  You can still see the carved woodwork.

Michael was responsible for hanging the crib blanket on the wall.

I found these cool, gauzy blue curtains at Ikea.  A $6.99 package comes with 2 panels.  I bought 2 packages.  Spencer made the fish in his art class.  Not counting the cost of the actual class, it was free.  He was really excited to share his project when I asked if we could hang it in Elliott's room.

The bear is pretending to be Elliott during a diaper change.

Just this week Spencer made an octopus in art class.  The whole theme of the class is, conveniently, "ocean", so I'm sure Elliott's room will be decked out by the end.

You may remember that we put the desk in the closet to make room for a twin bed and a crib in the room.

We took the closet doors off for easier access to the desk drawers.  Then I spent days agonizing about something to do in place of the doors.

I found this curtain at Ikea for $4.99.

And this children's drape for $14.99.

One pair of scissors and a hot glue gun (and a 3rd degree burn on my thumb) later, and we have this:

It looks rather idiotic in the picture.  I actually hate how it looks in the picture.  When you are actually in the room though, it has a nice, colorful appeal to it.  I'm happy with it.

I'm waiting for wall decor to be marked down 50% at Hobby Lobby and then Elliott will get letters spelling his name above his bed, just like his big brother Spencer.