Getting Christmas Crafty and Thrifty!

Christmas Decor Crafts

Since this is our first year in the new house and money is tight, I decided to do a lot of craft projects to help decorate for Christmas!  I had seen a few regular decor idea's using dollar store items on Pinterest and decided I would give it a shot myself.  I went off to the Dollar Store in hopes of getting a large frame to put over our mantle and cover with Christmas Balls along with my first homemade bow on top.  What I did not realize was I would be walking out with items for not just that project but another one as well :)

Mantel Frame:

~this was my original idea and the reason I went to the store.  As of right now we have nothing above our mantle so this seemed like an easy cheap way to take up some space!  I was lucky in that I had some leftover ribbon from my wreath so I decided to watch a YouTube tutorial and make my own bow!  Here are some quick and easy tips on how to create your own piece!

Things You will Need:
1. Dollar Store Mirrors or Frames (I picked out the only mirrors they had 4 of)
2. Glue Gun & Sticks
3. Ornaments in varying sizes
4. Bow or Ribbon to Make a Bow

How to Make:
1. Place 4 frames how you want mirror side facing down
2. Hot glue bottom two together in the middle making sure to fill in all crevices & then top 2
3. Hot glue top piece to bottom piece, again making sure all crevices are filled
4. Once completely dry flip over and decide how and where you want to place your ornaments.  In my case I placed the large ones first then went in and "filled in" the empty spaces with smaller ones.
5. Hot glue ribbon to top of the frame (be sure not to place any ornaments where your bow will be going)
6. Hang and Enjoy!

Holiday Candle Holders:

These were my wild card idea that came to my while looking at mirrors.  I happened to turn around and see all of these awesome candle holders for only $1 and decided they would be great additions to the end of the mantle, they were super easy to make and to me look like something you would spend $10 a piece on, when I made them for only $2! (not including the candles of course which were $3 a piece at Walmart).

Here is how I did it.

Things You will Need:

1. 2 Glass Candle Holders (any size or shape you would like)

2. Glue Gun & Sticks

3. Ornaments (your choice as long as they have a flat spot to place onto the Candle Holder)

How to Make:

1. Place candle holder on floor

2. Remove hanger string from ornament

3. Hot glue ornament on flat spot to adhere to candle holder

4. Place ornament on candle holder and hold for 10-15 seconds until glue has time to cure

5. Insert Candle and Enjoy!

and for the last one...my first attempt at a Home Made Wreath!

Wreath:

This one I came up with just walking around Michael's.  I went in with a bunch of coupons so I was ready to go and get what I needed.  I got the wreath (fake pine) for $3.99.  While I was outside I also found a beautiful red poinsettia bundle that I used for the bottom part.  I came across the pine cones and thought they would be a nice touch and something to break up the red.  The last thing I added was my ribbon and another piece to the bundle that I cut off another red glittered bundle :).  Overall I think for my first wreath I did a good job and I am proud to have it displayed on our front door!

Thanks for reading and happy Crafting!

~Nicole~

Getting Behind!

Wow, I just realized today I missed Austins 4mo post so here it is!!  I also have a few Christmas Craft projects I completed over the past few weeks that I will put in a different post.  I will post pics and tutorials below for anyone who would like to re-create them so be on the lookout for it!


Austin = 4mo!

So first things first.  Time is flying, we are already in December and my little guy turned 4 months old on the 21st of November!  The day of his 4mo Birthday we also left to head up to Boone for our annual trip for our Christmas Tree, yes the same trip we took last year when Kyle proposed!! It is crazy to think it has been an entire year, but time flies when you are having fun right? :).

So we left on Wednesday and got up to Boone around 10pm (after stopping for dinner).  As usual Austin did great with the ride up there and slept the entire way, only waking up to eat when we stopped.  Once we got there, we got settled, I put him to bed and passed out myself, in my clothes at that. I was just so immensely tired after a long day at work then a 3.5hr drive.

Here is a picture from our 4mo old shoot!

We had his 4mo pediatrician visit the following week on the 25th which included 3 more vaccines, 2 injections and 1 oral.  He did great, although he had no desire to lay down on the table and was not happy until I could pick him up.  Luckily he only cried for about 10 seconds before he was good and ready to go!  His stats were as follows....

      Weight: 14lbs 3oz

      Height: 24 1/4 inches

Both of those were the same as his 2mo appointment in that he is still in the 25th percentile but his head went from the 25th percentile up to the 40th percentile so my little guy has a big ole noggin. Just means his brain is extra big and full of knowledge :) Besides that it was a simple appointment.  We were given the green light to start Solid foods which we had already had our first taste of Oatmeal.  Excited to get him on one serving per day of that then moving on to vegetables soon after.

4 mo Survey!

Age: 4 months and 2 weeks

Height/Weight : 14lbs, 3oz and 24 & 1/4 inches


Dr Appts : he did great at his 4mo appt and does not have to go back until his one in January!


Changes : he is getting so much bigger, my little newborn baby that looks like every other newborn is long gone and my handsome big boy is here to stay! He is sitting up assisted and we are working on letting him stand (while we hold his hands of course) as he loves to push up and try! He is also now my little tummy guy as anytime he is on his back he almost immediately rolls over to his tummy! He also tries his hardest to push up, so we might have a crawler here soon (lord help us and the kitty!) He is also teething which means more drool than I can care to handle.  The Dr felt his bottom gums and says we might have a nub popping through here soon!


Sleeping: since DST he goes to bed at 6:30pm and gets up around 6:30-7am! It is great as Kyle and I get our time together at night and he is up and ready to go when we need to leave for work.  Not so fun on weekends when we want to sleep later though but he is totally worth it.


Accomplishments : grabs his feet, can sit unassisted for a few seconds, can stand with the help of hands, attempts to hold his own bottle and knows its where his food is, grabs and holds on to toys and can also put them in his mouth, rolls over both ways great.

Eyes : blue and grey, I love his eyes they are so pretty! He is going to be a heart breaker lol

That is it for Austin! Be on the lookout for my next post with some homemade Dollar Store Christmas Crafts!

~Nicole~

Ignore the Mess!

I am working on moving a few things around and changing up my blog...I am new at all this so it may take some time (plus I have a 3mo old at home so really I have no time lol). If anyone can offer advice on how to move my previous posts to seperate pages I would greatly appreciate it!! I am having a heck of a time understand all this HTML jibberish :)

Ok so while I am working on that, I will go ahead and add my post for Austin!!

Austin = 3mo old!

not the "best" pic but the funniest!

Life in General:

Life is finally getting to a new normal.  I have been back to work for about a month and a half and things are going well, besides the whole productivity thing.  Really how can they expect complete concentration when the only time you have to get anything done is at work? I find my mind seemlessly wondering about every 10-15 minutes, even more when our system is slow, and by the end of the day I am husseling to get my work done before I leave. I think over time and really once wedding planning is over with, I will regain some of my productivity but for now it is what it is!

On top of the work fun, things at home are going pretty well.  He is sleeping 10-12hrs every night and besides the whole switching formula's to figure out which kind works for him, he is a fairly good and happy baby!  He loves his playmat and is really starting to grab at things hanging (especially his hippo!).  He also lights up everytime I put him down and turn his kitty on. He could seriously lay there content for a good 30 min, which is awesome for my home productivity as I can use that time for cleaning, laundry, the occasional shower (haha just kidding I do shower people I promise) & other things around the house. The neighbors at this point probably assume I am nuts as I literally RUN around the house doing 5 million things anytime I can put him down and keep him content for any period of time!

I will say the past month has been and will continue to be crazy.  Austin went on his first plane ride to Pittsburgh and got to meet his crazy family!  He also picked up a few "Steelers" items while there hehe (daddy wasnt too happy about that) but overall he did great on the plane and going through Security was not nearly as bad as I had expected.  In fact people were extra nice to me and I even got a fabulous piece of advise from a TSA agent that got me through the line much faster!  On top of that we did the Pumpkin Farm, we have 2 ECU games coming up (Austin will not be joining he will be at Nana's), Wedding Dress shopping, Engagement Pictures, Boone, Christmas/Christmas Shopping aahhh soo much to do and so little time!

So Handsome : All Dressed up for the wedding!



Wedding Planning:

Speaking of wedding planning, things are going, I am getting ideas for our planner on to pinterest and we are off to go dress shopping on Thursday!  I am excited in some ways but not so much in others, in other words I haven't lost nearly as much weight as I had planned by now, so I am not sure how much I am going to like myself in the dresses, but have concluded that I will imagine myself skinnier!  In the way of weight loss and working out I am doing fairly well.  I have changed my diet to not include fast food (although well its real life people and I occasionally cheat) and I have also put myself on a strict water diet.  Every morning I have a bowl of yummy plain oatmeal with a sprinkling of natural dark brown sugar, for snacks I do fruit and a cliff bar and then for dinner we have been doing a lot of chicken and vegetables! I am lucky in that Kyle gets inspired to cook healthy and all natural working at Whole Foods, it helps keep me in check even if I fall off the wagon at work.

Craft Projects:

Seeing as its now October and almost Halloween I have started a couple craft projects, one being of course carving pumpkins! I will be sure to upload the pics when I am done but I have a great idea for the 3 we got yesterday at the pumpkin patch (see photo's below of our trip).  My other project involves some chinet cut glass cups, spraypaint & black acrylic paint.  I have so far gotten the cups spraypainted white and will soon be adding eyes and a mouth for my "ghost cups" to line our walkway for the trick or treaters! I got the idea from Chinets website and everything total only cost me under $6 to make 6. Three more would only cost me $1 more (for the led tea lights) so overall not a bad project and they can be reused next year!

Final product (from the Chinet website)..I will be sure to post how mine turn out once I am done!

Survey Says:

Age: 3 months & 1 day



Height/Weight : at his 2 mo appt he was up to 22.5 inches & 11lbs 7oz.  I measure him a few days ago and he was 23 inches and I would say about 12.5-13lbs (I need to weigh him)




Dr Appts : no more appts till 4mo! he did great with his 2mo shots so I hope for the same outcome with these as well




Changes : he loves to grab for objects now and really tries hard to keep a hold of them. more independent play aka I can leave him on his mat and he keeps himself entertained.  he laughs and smiles. can almost hold his head up with no bobbling




Sleeping: goes down between 7&8pm and sleeps until about 7am! (except the days I have to wake him up to take him to grandma's)




Accomplishments : laughings, smiling at faces he knows, turns head towards voices he knows, startles at loud sounds, grabs for objects, found his thumb! lol

Eyes : still lighter, looks like they'll be blue/grey like his daddy

Hope you enjoyed, like I said hopefully here soon this will be a bit more organized!

~Nicole~



2 Months Old! Time is flying by...

Wow, I have a 2 month old!

Its amazing, all your life you hear how you have grown up so fast and how things fly by and you just dont realize it until you have a little one of your own to watch grow every day.  I cannot believe my little man is already 2 months old, where has the time gone?  It seems like just yesterday I was pushing him out!

The past month has been a whirlwind, we are out of that newborn stage and really into the infant stage of learning new things, new facial expressions, smiles & giggles and new developments almost daily.  Sleep is getting much better as he almost always sleeps through the night (5+ hours).  He is more awake and alert during the day and is responding to bright colors, lights, and funny faces!  He coo's and babbles and tries to talk and if you talk about poop, will almost always immediately give you a big grin! (such a boy!)

On top of watching him grow daily, I am back at work & also in full speed wedding planning mode! We hired a wedding planner who will help us through everything and make sure the day of we wont have to lift a finger, he is worth every single penny!  Things are crazy right now in the Bahn/Brown household, but its a new experience everyday and I am learning to just go with the flow!

I would also like to mention that I celebrated a milestone Birthday this past Tuesday, hitting a quarter century old and Kyle will be hitting his tomorrow.  It really is amazing how quickly time flies by, when you are in the moment it seems so slow but looking back I wonder where the last 25 years have gone and also look forward to what the next 25 has in store for me, as long as they slow down a bit!

2 months old and super smiley!

Well thats life so far now here is the survey!

Survey Says:

Age: 2 months

Height/Weight : at his 1 mo appt he was 9lbs, 12 oz and 23 inches, so we will see!  I think he is up to at least 12lbs and probably 24-25 inches, but I have no clue


Dr Appts : Oct 1st, his 2 mo Dr visit...I am dreading this one as he has to get 2 shots, excited to see how much he has grown though


Changes : gaining weight like crazy, he is also getting taller by the minute I swear.  He is in 3mo clothing and will probably be moving up to 6months within the month or next months!


Sleeping: we have a great bedtime routine in place now, he goes to sleep anywhere between 7:30-10 depending on his nightfeeding, if we have a bath ect.  His initial stretch ranges anywhere from 5-8 hours and then we do a feeding and he goes back down for another 3-4 hours before he's up for the day.  Naps are shorter and harder to accomplish but he still takes a few during the day, most days.


Accomplishments : his head is getting more steady by the day, he only flops every now and then if he isn't paying attention, he is grabbing and batting at things on his activity mat and he still tries to push up and stand on his own. He is also smiling and making faces and sometimes will even laugh!


Eyes : turning lighter and looking like they are going to be grey/blue!

He is still doing wonderful on trips out and as long as he is fed and changed he will mostly sleep while we run errands or grab a bite to eat. 

Life is good!

~Nicole~

1 Month Old & Wedding Update

Austin is 1 month!

My oh my how time flies.  2 days ago my precious little man turned 1 month old and it hit me that I only have 2 more weeks until I have to leave him and go to work *sniff*

(loves looking out the window!)



It is absolutely amazing to watch him learn and grow and change on a daily basis.  He is a champ at eating but unfortunately mommy doesnt make enough to satisfy him all the time so we have had to supplement (mostly at night).  I am getting my stock ready though and should be able to continue to pump when I head back to work so my mom can feed him during the day.

So my new monthy survey to keep up with Austins changes and accomplishments is below, enjoy!

Survey Says....

Age: 1 mo, 2 days

Height/Weight : not sure his appt is next week but he is up to 0-3 mo clothes and size 1 diapers so he has grown!

Dr Appts : next thursday 8/30

Changes : he now has little rolls and his hair has grown a bit since birth, he now has chubby cheeks and a double chin!

Sleeping: during the day he sleeps for about 2hours then wakes up, diaper change, eats and if he wants to stay awake he'll do tummy time, at night he is sleeping around 3-4 hours for his initial stretch then back to 2-3 as he does during the day

(one of his fav places to sleep)



Accomplishments : he has been able to really steady his head since birth but is almost to the point of doing it all on his own!  He also already rolled over from tummy to back and is smiling and making new noises

Eyes : getting lighter and bluer by the day! I think he's going to have my eyes as I can already see a ring of a different color forming around his pupil :)

So Austin is doing fabulous and like I said changing daily.  We have gone on several outing since his birth and I am so excited to say that he does fabulously out and about, we even nursed in public a couple times (with a cover) and he did great (as did mommy)!  Overall I have a pretty good baby, once he starts sleeping through the night and his gas is completely gone I think he'll be even more perfect than he already is!

Wedding Update:

So now lets move on to the Wedding!! If you haven't seen on Facebook we had to change the date yet again due to a large Marlin Tournament taking place the weekend we had initially booked.  Sadly because of the tournament and all the people coming to town for it the hotels we wanted to book would not let us block rooms and we didn't want to worry about any guests not being able to stay nearby. 

Our new date is May 4th, 2013 and will absolutely not be changing.  We have the venue ready to go, the hotel blocked, wedding planner and photographer all set for that date so there is no changing lol :).

Within the next month or so I will be doing my dress shopping and finally doing our engagement pics!  Be on the lookout soon for our Save the Dates and then invitations to follow with information to our wedding website! (can you tell I am excited)

 

Life in General

Overall things are going well in the Bahn/Brown household and we are adjusting to life with our new man.  Wedding planning with a newborn is stressful and I have to use any extra minutes I have while he is sleeping during the day to clean, do laundry, pay bills, and plan the wedding on top of making sure he doesnt wake up and maybe get a chance to shower/eat! 

Life as a mommy is wonderful and I wouldn't have it any other way!