Babies on the Brain!

While Matt and my dad were busy in the basement, I was busy preparing gifts for all of the babies about to come into this world. In March and April alone my friend Lindsay is due on the 15th, me on the 22nd, my friend Rebekah on the 27th?, my friend Ashley on April 7th, and my friend Sakeen at the end of April!

Here are the burp rags and bibs that I made:


In case you are feely crafty, or have eighteen billion pregnant friends, here are the tutorials I used: Bib, Burp Rag

We've Been Busy...

Jack continues to grow and is a little busybody. He had his 3rd haircut today, and looks much older. He absolutely loves the car and truck he got from Grandpa John and Grandma Debbie. When you shake them the engines rev and then when you set them down they take off. Jack walks around and around and around shaking them listening to their engines rev!

Today Jack got every single toy out of his basket, so that there was room for him in it! He is turning into a little ham when it comes to having his picture taken.

My parents are here for the week, all to help us with the basement remodel. It is a slightly bigger project then we originally realized, but it is great to have my dads help. Yesterday I went downstairs to take pictures to find my dad and Matt working with headlamps due to shorting a circuit! Luckily as of today all they electric work is done, whew! My mom is enjoying spending time with Jackson, and helping me out around the house.

Sleepy Boy

Jackson is still teething, and has 3 of his back molars coming in. Yesterday he was in so much pain that he absolutely would not nap. Then around 5pm I was making dinner, Jack was having a snack, and this is what happened! He slept for a full 45 minutes before we finally woke him up. What a cute little stinker.

Celebrate!

Last Thursday we headed off to Minnesota for my brother Jake's wedding reception. We were greeted by family and bitter cold, and had an excellent trip. Because the reception was at the zoo conservatory, they had a penguin at the reception which Jack loved! During the reception Jack enjoyed lots of cuddles from aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, and just about anyone he could lay his head on. The reception was a ton of fun and we are happy to see Jake and Brittany start their married lives together. Now we're just hoping that Jack doesn't have to wait too long for cousins!

We spent most of our long weekend at my parent's house up North where we enjoyed lots of time by the fireplace playing with Jackson. He got a kick out of wearing my dad's sweatshirt a shoes. He also got tons of cuddle time with his grandma and great grandpa, horse rides from grandpa, and tons of new Christmas presents. Matt and I enjoyed sleeping in, something Jackson rarely lets us do! My grandpa Bernie had a stroke about a month ago, and hasn't been doing too well. We made two visits to the nursing home to see him and he loved to see Jackson, he laughed for the first time since the stroke, and continued to laugh a lot at Jackson! It was great to see Jack bring a smile to his face.

Bathroom Upgrade!

Before begining our basement demo, we decided to get the basement bathroom up to par. Since my "before" and "after" pics do not do the bathroom justice, I will explain. The bathroom had a wood toilet seat, rusty metal towel and toilet paper bars, a "lantern" light fixture, yellowed creamish outlets and light switches, bent metal blinds, and dirty wood paneling. Now the bathroom has a clean coat of birds egg blue paint, white trim, a new light fixture, new towel and toilet paper bars, white switchplates, white wood blinds, and a white toilet seat. Although minor, the upgrades make a world of difference and I am no longer afraid to use the basement bathroom!

DEAL ALERT

Many of you are constantly asking me, "How'd you get that great deal", or "let me know when you see a deal like that". I think that I will just start posting some of the great deals I find on our blog. Here are a few I've scraped up this week:

Ace Hardware Gorilla Shelving for $29 a piece, after a $10 mail in rebate, good in stores only, up to 3 per household. Here (now that we've got a garage, shed, and utility room we need shelving)

Rachael Ray Magazine subscription for $4.99, Here, when you use coupon code EE78. (normally I don't pay for magazine subscriptions but I have been wanting this one for a long time)

Children's Place boys carpenter jeans for $4.99 and 2 piece pajamas for $4.99 in store. (I got Jack a pair of 3T and 4T jeans for that price!)

Buca di Beppo $10 off $20 purchase. Here. Doesn't expire until 12/31/2010. (one small family entree with an appetizer and waters will come in around $20, bringing it to $10 after the coupon... I have a feeling that's where we will be going on our next date night!)

No Asbestos!

As you all know, our goal is to refinish our basement before the baby is born. One major potential obstacle that was standing in our way was that most basements completed before 1970 have asbestos in the ceiling tiles. If that was the case with our basement that would cause the budget to SKYROCKET, due to bringing in a professional asbestos remover. We sent out samples for testing and today we received the great news... NO ASBESTOS! That means that now Matt can begin the demo of tearing down the old tiles without any worries! Just in case you haven't seen it yet, here is a picture of our BEAUTIFUL basement!

Don't you just LOVE the cabinets with fake glass, the faux wood paneling, the faux brick wall, the orange fabric wall, the broken 12x12 linoleum tiles, the stained yellowing ceiling? If you look really close on the right side of the orange fabric wall you will see a beautiful outdoor lantern sconce. You also can't see phone and cable lines, strung through the room, attached to the walls. We've got a lot on our plate, but we're ready to get rolling on this room!

Teething disaster

Today started off great, Matt got home from work early, Jack slept in, we were on track to get to church early and then it happened... Jack threw up. It was a disaster. We were about 1 block from church and there was puke EVERYWHERE. We had to pull over and strip Jack, of course we didn't have a change of clothes. Then we headed back home with Jack in his diaper on my lap in the front seat, due to his car seat being a mess. Turns out Jackson is teething. He's got a terrible diaper rash, won't eat anything but yogurt, is incredibly whiny, and will barely nap. Let's just pray this tooth gets here quickly!

He did manage to sneak in some playtime on his rocking trike, he is a little daredevil though and yesterday I caught him standing on the seat doing, "no hands". He's going to be one to watch out for!

Have I mentioned I love Craigslist?

Due to the remodeling/upgrading on our house, we had a growing trash pile that we were fearful would cost tons of money to have taken away. Then I came up with the brilliant idea to post our trash for free on Craigslist. I posted a huge broken computer desk, broken washer and dryer, and broken screen doors for free, being completely honest about the state of each item. The washer and dryer were gone within 1 hour, the computer desk about 1.5 hours, and the broken screen doors took a full 24 hours! I guess the saying, "One man's junk is another man's treasure" sure holds true!

Now... if we can only get someone to take the dirty diaper bin we will really be doing good!

Happy New Years

For New Years Eve we went to a friends house for a game night, their son had a new 4 wheeler that Jack loved, he didn't do too great with the steering, but loved riding it!

2010 will surely be another busy year, including the birth of the next baby boy McGurn! Until then we are going to just be working on getting the basement done. Over the past few days Matt has been working on painting the basement bathroom and putting new fixtures up, I will post pics once it is complete but it will be a relief to have at least one part of the basement complete!