Snow Day

Yesterday we woke up to a good 6+ inches of snow and it was still coming down and coming down fast until about noon. Luckily Vince had changed his flight last minute and made it back from PA before the storm hit. So we got to have a fun snow day! Ben started off by having a bowl of snow for breakfast! As I type this he is on his second helping today!

After breakfast I decided to pull out this tub of beans that I had and had been waiting for a special day to pull it out for him. It is just an Ikea baby bathtub full of beans from Costco and random kitchen items from the dollar store-nothing to exiting. So I wasn't sure if he would like it or if it would even get more than 5 minutes of play time before he moved on to something else. I was pleasantly surprised though because he played with it all day (except when we were outside playing of course)! And when Vince put it away for the night he cried. And first thing this morning he ran into the playroom and asked me "where my beans at mommy?" so I went and brought them back out for him today since it looks like it will be another snow day for Ben & I!

After Ben's nap we went outside to "help" Vince shovel the driveway. There was a good 10 inches on the ground and Ben would get stuck unless he stayed to the shoveled part of the driveway! He had fun shoveling and eating the snow! I took him on a quick stroll of the neighborhood on his sled since they hadn't plowed yet and then it was time to go in and warm up! Almost as soon as Vince got done shoveling it started to snow again and I think we got a good inch or two making our total right around 12 inches for this storm!

                                         "Put me down Daddy-I need to go play"

Chocolate Covered Ben

What is a Valentines Day without chocolate covered strawberries??? Ben did more eating than dipping but I think that was to be expected!

I Heart Ben...

Pee-Pee in the Potty

2 weeks ago Ben told me he had to go pee-pee and he wanted to go in the potty. I thought for sure he was all talk but figured why not pull out the little blue potty and see what happens. To my surprise he sat right down and went. We were both so excited! And once he found out he gets an M & M each time he goes he was hooked. So for the past few weeks he has been going pee-pee in the potty a few times a day. He also has a potty at GG and Grandma's house and likes to show them how he can go pee-pee in the potty! I don't think he is ready for full on potty training (I am definitely not) and I don't want to push him since he is barely 27 months old. So I figured we will just go with the flow and see what happens...

Ben The Climber

A few weeks back I looked at the video monitor and saw this one morning...

Luckily I think he scared himself and so he didn't go all the way over but now we know the day will be coming sooner rather than later. So I've started working on Ben's Big Boy Room. I decided on a theme...Vintage Transportation. I picked out his new bedding but am waiting for a sale or coupon before I get it since I don't need it just yet. I ordered some artwork from an artist in New Zealand and I am working on collecting some really cool accent pieces for the room. I already have his night stand-bought it at a thrift store months ago but I need to repaint it. We found an antique twin bed frame than needs to be repainted as well. And got a good deal on a twin mattress and box spring this past weekend. So slowly we are getting all the pieces ready so when Ben is ready we will be too! But I am secretly hoping we have a few more months before we have to make the big move.

Bedroom Makeover

Since moving into this house I have been slower than usual to "make it our own". Maybe it is because it's the 5th house we have bought in the last 9 years. Maybe it's because it the first house we bought since having Ben. Or maybe I am/was just burnt out. Whatever the case I finally got the bug to makeover our master bedroom. I had been holding out a bit trying to make Vince make good on a promise he made a year ago-that we could get a king size bed. I finally got him to bite the bullet and make good on his word. But this turned out to backfire on me at first. We went a picked what we thought was a great new bed. It was a king and it was "plush firm" just what we thought we wanted. Well it got delivered and I was so excited to go to bed that night. And then we got in the bed and it was hard a a rock. I am not even exaggerating. I woke up constantly it was awful. We figured we just needed to break it in. So the next day the 3 of us worked hard trying to break that bed in. Jumping. Walking. Rolling. Kneading. Went to bed on night number 2 and it was worse. I woke up at 3 am and my shoulders and hips hurt so bad that I left our room and crawled into our old bed in the guestroom. And boy was it heaven! Vince called that morning and convinced them that since the bed was literally bruising his wife they should  let us exchange it after 3 days not the standard 30 days. So we went and picked out another bed and went with the another model and got the "plush" not "plush firm". I must say I was a bit nervous to go to bed the next night but I was pleasantly surprised...it was wonderful! I am in love with our new bed!
So since we went from a queen to a king we had to give up our sleigh bed and come up with a new headboard option. And we needed to do it fast because I hated the way our room looked without a headboard. So I turned to Pinterest and found a few tutorials on making a fabric headboard and thought Vince and I could handle it. So first I needed to paint the room and get all the supplies ready to go so we could maximize our time when Ben was napping or asleep at night.  It is amazing what just a $30 can of paint can do to a room. I picked a clay like color and love it! As luck would have it the fabric store had the batting, foam and fabric all on sale that week so I got our supplies for 50%! Then it was off to Lowes to get the rest of the supplies and we were ready to go. I really wanted to make a tufted headboard-they look so much classier to me. So I went to work making buttons. I had no idea you could make your own fabric covered buttons!

Then once Ben was in bed we got to work on the headboard. I must say one of the most frustrating and time consuming parts of this project was the tufting. (But it was all worth it!) First we had to mark the back of the board where we wanted the buttons to go and then drill them. Once we got that done it was time for the foam, then batting, then fabric and then the rest of the frustrating tufting stringing. The last step was attaching the french cleat to the board and then the wall so we could securely hang it.  

When all was said and done this project took no more than 2 hours and an hour of that was the damn tufting. I must say Vince and I were pretty proud of ourselves and we love love love it!

So now I had the walls painted, a new headboard built but still had some work to do. When I bought our bedding a few years ago I bought a king in the hopes of getting a king bed soon. I also watched for Pottery Barn to finally put in on clearance and I bought an extra pillow sham. The only thing I didn't think of was the bed skirt but as luck would have it ebay had one for sale! Score! The only problem was it was in the blue pattern not the red that I wanted but oh well at this point I couldn't be too picky because I didn't have the funds to buy all new bedding. I moved the curtains from the playroom into our bedroom and bought new ones for the playroom. I liked how the blue of the curtains was the same as the blue in the red duvet cover and shams. I wanted to break up all the earthy tones and I think the blue does it! Then it was the never ending hunt for lamps. We needed something with height since our new headboard was so tall but something that also went with the dressers and nightstands. I finally scored at TJ Max! Now all the major parts came together and it was time for just a few little personal touches. Our framed letters from grandparents went back up and a few new treasures from the antique mall and we were done! We both really love how it turned out and it feels much more like home now! 

Before

After

January Birthdays

The month of January was a camera fail for me-I hardly touched it. Partly due to me somehow messing something up so the quality of pics aren't great. I need to take it in to the camera shop this week. So unfortunately I don't have many pictures from the past month or so.

The 13th was Vince's 34th Birthday! I kept asking him what he wanted to do...dinner, a party, outing with friends, stay home??? He finally decided about 2 days before the big day-he wanted to go to dinner at Jack Stack! So Ben and I took Daddy to dinner! We had a great time except that the hostess wasn't listening when we said " 2 and a highchair" so we got a booth with a booster that we had to take or keep waiting and we had been waiting almost 30 minutes at that point so we decided we had to take it. We quickly learned that Ben is no where close to being able to give up the highchair at restaurants. He was slipping and sliding-climbing and standing-it was a mess. But the food was delicious and Vince enjoyed his free dessert! So all in all I think it was a good birthday celebration.

The 22nd was my Dad's Birthday! We celebrated with a family dinner at my parents. Ben had just learned how to sing Happy Birthday and boy did he have fun singing it to his Bapa and helping him blow out his candle!