Tiny Toms!

I love dressing Keaton in different outfits even though he is not excited to change out of his pj's every morning.  My mom and I went shopping the last time she was here and bought a ton of shorts and cute colored polo shirts for the coming months.  To add to his spring/summer wardrobe, Zulily was having a sale on Toms.  I think they do this probably 2 or 3 times a year and they sell out quick!  Thanks Gamma for helping stock Keaton's closet and my obsession with clothes!

Tiny Toms are the cutest and can't wait until it warms up a bit so Keaton can wear these! 

Painting party!

My friend Angie had a "girls night in" party and it was so fun!  It was put on by one of Angie's friends that started a business called The Modern Social.  It is sort of like those Wine and Canvas places that are popping up around town. Click here for her Facebook page.  We each got our own canvas and off we went.  The instructor would generally tell us what colors to use in different area's but she was great at letting everyone go with their own style.  I had so much fun with everyone!

We started with the black paint and made the outline of the bridge and buildings.

This is Kate working her magic!

I had such a fun time and would definitely do this type of party again!  I'm definitely not the best artist, but with a few adult beverages in the mix, I did pretty decent!  We aren't going to be hanging this picture in our living room, but it may go in Keaton's playroom when we working on that space in our house.

Professional on the left, mine on the right!

Happy 1/2 birthday!

We celebrated Keaton's half birthday on March 2nd.  He is officially 18 months old and the cutest toddler if I do say so myself.  Although we have ventured into the "throw a tantrum if mommy says no" stage.  I'm not sure where he learned it but I think this may be the dreaded terrible twos that everyone talks about.  If this isn't the start then I don't even want to know what year two has in store for us!  All of his sweet laughs, and mumbley words make up for all of the crying.  Oh yeah, and when he grabs my neck and gives me the biggest hug, I love those moments.

I know you want the play by play how blowing out the candle went...so here you go!

Not so sure what mommy is doing here...

Do you know how hard it is to tell an 18 month old to blow out the candle without actually blowing it out yourself?!  Try someday and you will see!

AND...it's out!  We clapped after he blew it out and I think he liked the clapping part more than actually blowing the candle out.  I broke up the cookie for him to eat but he only took one bite and wasn't interested in the rest.  We've never really given Keaton cookies or junk food so he definitely doesn't have a sweet tooth and most of the time doesn't even know sweets exist.  Drew and I tend to have our junk food splurge at night after Keaton goes to bed.  He has had the occasional weekend cinnamon role, but other than that he hasn't really been introduced to much.  Keep eating those fruits and veggies buddy!

Random picture Friday

I have so many random pictures of Keaton from February.  It was a fun month despite learning about his peanut allergy and I can't believe my little guy will be 18 months old this Sunday.  It is amazing the personality he has...despite the "terrible twos" starting for us right now, he's still a doll most of the time.  I'm already ready for the *mommy saying no is the end of the world* stage to be over.  

First, Happy Birthday to Grandpa!  Grandma and Grandpa are in Michigan this weekend enjoying the cottage they just bought.  We can't wait to take our first trip to stay in the new place and we are so excited to start making memories in Michigan!

This is a game we were playing where Keaton would stand on my legs and then fall face first into the couch and then jump back into my arms.   Ahh to have the joy of the little things.

When Gamma was in town she ordered a few things from the Disney Store and despite the new toys, the coolest gift was the box!

We miss Gamma and can't wait for her to come back in April!

We bought some spring/summer clothes for Keaton and as a joke I put a pair or shorts on his head like a hat.  We laughed for a minute and when I tried to take them off he got really upset and wanted me to put them back on.  He played like this for probably a good 1/2 hour.  Silly boy!

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you have a fun filled weekend!

New Mommy welcome home basket!

My friend Leslie just had her first baby a few weeks ago and I wanted to put together something to bring to her when I met baby Leo.  I scoured Pinterest for good ideas but for the first time ever, I wasn't very impressed with the new mommy baskets that people had put together.  Most of pictures on Pinterest had dollar store baskets and didn't give a good description of what they put in the basket. (side note: there is nothing wrong with a dollar store basket, but I wanted to give her something a little more functional to use for the long haul in Leo's room)  I knew I wanted to spend around $40 and came in a little over budget  after I found everything I wanted.  I sort of splurged on an Etsy purchase for Leo's room. :)  It definitely wasn't necessary for the new mommy basket, but I couldn't resist.  Look at sweet Leo!  He is such a good baby and was so calm when I was there...very different from Keaton!

I hadn't seen the nursery yet, but Leslie told me that she used teal and mustard as the main colors.  I was browsing the basket section at Target to try and find something that would be a good size to use for future toys...(we have 4 baskets in our living room full of toys for Keaton so the size was key!).  I stumbled across this basket and it was perfect!  I mean really...teal, mustard and gorgeous!  I wanted to buy one for myself too, but I was good and only got one for Leslie.  To top it off, I scanned the item in my Cartwheel app (Do you know of the Target Cartwheel app?  It is a must download if you love Target as much as I do, but that is a post for a whole other day).  The "Threshold" brand items scanned an additional 15% off for that day only so what I though was a $20 basket really came in around $15!  Oh yeah, I also have Target Red debit card tied directly to my checking account which gives me an additional 5% off everything I buy. I was looking at an additional 20% off all Threshold brand items that day. Whoohoo!

I was also lucky in the frame section of Target!  I found this Threshold frame in the clearance section and I got an additional 20% off of that.  This buy came in at about $6! Again, I wish they would have had more because I wanted some for my house.

As soon as Leslie and Ed announced Leo's name and stats I searched Etsy for something fun to buy his with his name on it.   I thought she may have something with his stats, but thought she could use this in another room if she already had something in his nursery.  I found this Etsy shop and put in an order with the right colors and this is what we got.  So adorable!  The shop also gave me the 2nd picture below and it fit in perfect.  (I just wish I had a second frame!)  The birth stats cost $16, but since I got the 2nd pictures as well I'll say it was $8 for each.  They key for me was not having to print them.  We don't have a great printer so I wanted a shop that printed and mailed me the items.

Now on to the dollar store to get some items to put into the basket.  I must say that I love the dollar store, especially to pick up cheap crafting items.   I spent $13 collecting a few things that will be helpful in those first few months with a new baby.  Yummy smelling body wash, and bath salts, hand sanitizer, face wipes for Leo, disinfect wipes for toys, batteries for all of those wonderfully LOUD baby toys, comfy socks, wet wipes travel size and a huge bunch of hair ties.  Why is it that all hair ties mysteriously disappear throughout the day.   I think there are hair tie eating monsters that live in our house because I start the week with 10 hair ties in my bathroom and end the week with 2.   So strange!  Another item I found while browsing Pinterest is the "SHHHH baby is sleeping" door hanger.  I really wish that I would have had this at my house for those first few months or even now when we put Keaton down for a nap.  I won't admit that in the beginning days I was rude to someone that came to our door when Keaton was sleeping...I also won't admit that I told that person to SHHHH in the middle of our conversation.  I blame the remaining pregnancy hormones after giving birth!   I can't find/remember the source of the blog that I printed the sign from. Shoot! 

I had to add this picture below because it pretty much sums up the stage Keaton is in...blurry guy running all throughout the house.

I put all the items in the basket, but it didn't look that good because everything was sort of floating around at the bottom of the basket.  I came up with a great solution!  Plastic bags and some brown paper strips to cover them up.

All the goodies organized in the basket!

Finished product ready to be delivered!  I think Leslie really like everything and the picture and basket worked great in Leo's nursery.  Overall, spent around $50, but well worth it to give a nice gift to a new mom and great friend!

Peanuts suck!

A few weeks ago we gave Keaton some peanut butter for lunch and he didn't like the taste so he spit it out. Luckily he didn't swallow any because his lip swelled up almost immediately.  At that point we were hoping it was a coincidence and he just bit his lip, but I had a feeling it was because of the peanut butter.

So off to the allergist we went!  Keaton was such a good sport and didn't cry when they were messing with his back.  He got 6 pricks in all and the nuts they tested were almonds, cashews and peanuts.  I was praying so hard that he wasn't allergic to almonds.  As most of you know my step-dad is an almond farmer and we live in the middle of the orchard!  It would have been so hard if he was allergic to almonds since we couldn't really get away from them when we visit California.  Luckily, he isn't allergic to almonds, but peanuts and cashews gave a positive allergic reaction on his back.

Here we are right before they pricked his back!

This is his back minutes after they did the tests.  The top line is almonds middle is cashews and the bottom, huge reaction is peanuts.  I'm glad we know that he has this allergy so we can begin to monitor the foods we buy and the things he eats.  I am so thankful that he didn't have a reaction up to this point.

We now have our Auvi-Q (equivalent to Epipen) ready to go if needed.  I'm also checking all of the labels on the foods we eat and realize this is going to take some management from us to make sure we know what he is eating at all times.  We have to go back to the allergist in a year for them to draw his blood.  Once they do a blood draw that will give them a benchmark number.  We will then go back every 6 months to a year to monitor that number in the hopes that it will go down.  If it goes down over time he may have the chance of outgrowing the allergy.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Booster seat and "CHEESE" face!

No more high chair (well almost)!  Whoohooo!  Actually, we are only using the booster seat at dinner because it is so much easier to put Keaton in the high chair for breakfast, but I think the high chair days are numbered! It will be so nice to pack up that huge thing that sits in the corner of our kitchen.

We also have an adorable new "cheese" face when the camera comes out!

More CHEESE!!

IPAD lover...

I can only imagine what his teenage years are going to look like because Keaton is obsessed with the IPad and IPhone...and watching videos on the computer.  It is so different from how Drew and I grew up and I know we are going to have to have rules and time limits on electronics, but for now we let him enjoy playing on the computer.  He already knows which apps are his and can swipe the pages and open his favorites. 

The good thing is he also loves reading books and wants Drew and I to read him stories just as much as he loves being on the IPad.  I guess we can have the best of both worlds!