This Kid Refuses To Go To Sleep

Trying to get E to go to sleep last night was a little challenging but how could I get mad at this face. 

WARNING...SUPER CUTE VIDEO

A Whole New World

If you've been reading my posts for a while, you will know a few things about me:
1. I'm a tomboy through and through.  Which means that fashion is an after thought at best.
2. Fitness is a lifestyle for me.  Which means that my favorite hair style is a pony tail.
3. I love my son, now 9 Months. Which means that I don't have a lot of spare time
4. I have a demanding job. which means I have a demanding job
5. I'm about to move to a new home which means I have no idea what each room should look like.

Given all that, I'm also now related, by marriage, to someone has more style in her little pinkie toe than I do in my entire body.  She's introducing me to concepts that I didn't even know existed.  She's a huge blogger too and through her connections, I'm starting to put a great deal amount of thought into how I'm going to make my new house a home.  Let me introduce you to...

According To Nina...

I have her to blame for my new obsession with making sure that when you walk into my house, you realize how much I love it.

So now, in addition to all the other wonderful fun blogs that fill my Google reader, I now have a whole slue of Design blogs I attempt to keep up with.  I don't know the first thing about taking the things I see that I love and turning them into beautiful rooms but I'm going to do my best.

Rooms to Inspire

Honey We're Home

The Lettered Cottage

Adventures in Decorating

Jenallyson

I pretty much have to put some thought into every room of the house.  My first goal was to prioritize the rooms:
1. Family Room/Kitchen (since it is where we will be spending the majority of our time)
2. Master bed room (I've always wanted a relaxing retreat and that's what I intend to create)
3. Ian's Room (I've got an idea about what this would look like already so it might be easy)
4. My Office
5. Living Room (I've got NO idea about this room)
6. Dining Room (Same as above)
7. Ian's Play corner (I think I know what to do here as well)

So I wanted to share the first of a few pictures that I think could inspire me.
for the family room

Source: ivillage.com via Debbie on Pinterest

Source: houzz.com via Rhonda on Pinterest

for our living room.

Source: vtinteriors.blogspot.com via Gloria on Pinterest

9 Months Old and Getting Cuter By The Day

My little buddy is growing up too fast.  He's already 9 months and I'm just floored by how fast time is flying.  I'm convinced I shouldn't blink anymore for fear that I miss something.  We took him to get his pictures taken and just like before, he really hammed it up for the camera.  He makes it so hard to just pick a couple.  I feel like a bad mom if I don't buy all the smiles but this time I just bought the CD and now I get to look at them all, all the time. 

Here's just a few from the photo shoot.  Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - Weekend Recap ( U2, Family & Fun)

This is all the fun stuff we did that wasn't house related. 

We Found It

If you've been reading the blog lately, you'll know we put our house up for sale and then sold it.  The problem was we hadn't found a house to take it's place.  Silly me, was listening to all this talk about how the housing economy is in the dumps, houses aren't selling, etc.  I thought I'd be able to find something without any issues.  Turns out, the markets I was looking in don't seem to have heard the housing news.  We struggled for a couple weeks to find a house. 

We founds some, put contracts down and then lost them.  This was really starting to stress me out until this past Sunday.  We had 7 houses to look at.  This was the second house.  Needless to say, we didn't look at anymore.  This house and I fell in love at first sight.  The best part is, we put the contract in at 4:30 that afternoon and knew that we had gotten the house by the time S and I went to the U2 concert that night. 

A huge weight is off my shoulders. I  know we're not done yet but just finding it was hard enough.  We'll get through the rest of the paper pushing.  Here's a quick glimpse of the house E is going to grow up in.  I'm soooo excited to move in.  When I thought about the house we'd grow old in, this is exactly what I was looking for.  S and I will be able to have a nice little family here. 

I fell in love with this kitchen!! I mean really.  I dream about it at night.  I can't wait to go visit it again on Friday. 

I am already planning E's first birthday party here.  It's going to be unbelievable.  We move in 3 weeks and I can't wait. 

What A Weekend..New Babies and Skills & House Hunting

This weekend was so crazy!

House Hunting - We have been looking for our next house.  We have to be out of ours on Aug 15th so we're getting down to the wire on finding some where to live.  We've got a couple really good prospects to look at tonight so I'm praying one of them is worth putting an offer down.  We put an offer down on a house last Friday but lost it so we're back to square one. 

New Family Member - I'm one of 4 kids.  My sister already has a little girl, I, of course have E and now my one and only older brother is celebrating the birth of his first child, a son named Jack.  He's just as precious can be and everyone is doing great. Congrats Joe and AccordingToNina  I went home with E to wait to meet him.  While we were in the waiting room, E decided to try some new skills out for the crowd in the room.  He was the best entertainment ever. Check him out. 

At 8 months old, he's doing this.  I'm so excited for him to learn all these great new skills but I just wish he'd slow down.  Why does this all have to happen so fast? 

After all this travel and back and fourth E and I crashed on Sunday.  Taking a much needed 2 hour naps (sorry I blocked my face out but it would've scared you).

More Than Just Brick and Mortar

I wanted to dedicate one post to one of my first loves..my first house.

I bought this house right as S and I were starting to date.  In fact, he even house shopped with me and had some input (because I knew he'd be the one I married).

I found this house originally but thought it was out of my price range.  I kept driving by after looking at numerous other houses (all terrible), I decided to try to put a bid in.  It was rejected and I didn't get to rebid.  Then a few days later the agent called and said they'd accept the bid if it was still an option.  I took it.  I loved the neighborhood, the charm of the house, everything.  It was love at first sight.  On move in day, I even had S's parents helping out and I, being the project manager, had a project plan that kept all my resources busy for the entire day.  Don't worry, I paid them.... in food and beverages.  Oh and did I mention I documented every improvement.

If all happens as planned and we do move, I'll be very emotional come moving day.  Even as I write this, I'm tearing up.  I know memories go with you but to think of the events that have gone on in between these walls is amazing. 

If these walls could talk..and you asked them if they liked us living there.  My HOPE is that the response would be absolutely.  "They treated me well"

This was the house on day 2 (after some immediate landscaping)

This was the original kitchen

This was the ONLY bathroom.  I wish I would've taken a picture of the tub/shower.  It was really bad. 

This was the main living area.  I fell in love with the house because of this room.

Now...

We've LOVED updating this house.  Everything about it to me is cozy and inviting.

This kitchen was my baby last year before E came along. 

This is the front room now.  I love coming home to this room. 

The bathroom also turned out well. 

July 4th Recap

Like most people, we tried to surround ourselves with family this weekend and had planned on it being pretty low stress.  However, on Friday, we signed a contract to sell our house so instead of bar-b-queuing we were house shopping. 

I'm still a little bit in shock by the fact that we actually sold our house.  Now I know we still have to get through the inspection (which could be bad) but we're at a point where I need to wrap my brain around the fact that we're about to move out of my first house.  The house we got engaged in, the house I brought E home to, the house we but our blood sweat and tears in.  It's been more than just a structure to us.  We love this home and wouldn't be leaving if it weren't for our expanding family. 

We visited about a dozen homes this weekend and didn't find one.  We're comparing everything we've seen to the first house we saw which we LOVED.  Nothing else seems to compare.  We're going shopping again this week so we'll see if we're able to find something that I can fall in love with.  It's so hard to take the high emotions out of this process and think logically. I'll keep you updated but in the meantime, a quick cute E story and some pics of our weekend (or really the babies)

Quick Story - This morning at 5:30, E woke up and I brought him in bed with me to snuggle for a little while till the alarm went off.  When I did have to get up, he was asleep so I surrounded him with pillows and got ready for work. I was about 4 feet from the bed when I started to hear him giggling.  When I looked over, he had completely turned, head down towards the headboard and was twitching like my dog does when she's chasing a rabbit in her sleep.  I couldn't help but laugh.  I wish I would've captured it.  But just recording the story will have to do. 

OH..Also, my little 8 month old is standing.  I'll try and upload a video tonight.  He's getting pretty good.  I can't believe he'll be walking in no time.

 That's E's cousin M.

 These are pictures I took from my parents/brothers apartment from downtown STL.  Beautiful!

 Downtown STL.  I'm getting better at taking pictures.