Exciting News Y'all

We're MOVING! I've written briefly that we live in an apartment, we've lived here almost 2 years and its been over all a really great experience. Way better than the house we purchased in the ghetto 3 years ago (up and coming neighborhood my ass)

If you follow me on Pinterest you probably have seen a new board added. New Home. I'm so excited to move. Its another rental in the same complex that we currently live in. So its not a far move. But its bigger, has a YARD! and has a GARAGE! 

The Mr. recently got a surprise raise and we just figured we should take the plunge to having a bigger place to live! Also our down stairs neighbors suck, and I know they feel the same. 

We're just waiting to get the call saying one is opening up. Pinterest has given me the fever, y'all. I just wanna get into my new home and decorate and get settled. I want to move before the holidays, before Carson's birthday.

I don't know if that will happen. I just don't. I don't know when we will get the call saying that a town house opened up and if we are ready to go. I know from now on I won't be letting any call from the management company go to voicemail.


Here is a screen shot of our new floor plan! Can't wait to get moved out! It will be a bitter sweet move, this apartment has some of the happiest moments of our marriage, our childrens lives. No true "bad" memories here.  When we moved out of the property it had so many issues and was such a clusterfuck that when we moved all the happy memories had been replaced by sad, and disappointing memories.

Click to enlarge

Stepping out Saturday!

I didn't snag a very good picture of my "outfit" if you can even call it that. We spent Saturday at the GREAT STEAM UP! It was awesome. ACRES and acres of tractors new and old, a fabulous swap meet! You will meet my lovely finds during High on Thrifting Thursday! I scored! Then Chris scored later ;)


We arrived at the Tractor Pull at 9 am, and we stayed until 4. No naps for either child, it was about 85* which I know isn't hot for the rest of y'all, but in the PacNW its hot and we melt like crayons.

This is probably one of my favorite Pictures of Oliver and I. Riding the train!

My husband, rocking fatherhood like a Boss. I had to pee and so he offered to take both boys on the packs. Then he wouldn't give them back! 

Look at that sucker drool string! lol 

And this one is just always drooly

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of me and Carson. So much mama love in his eyes! 

These are 4 of my 5 favorite people! Grandma, Papa, Carson and Oliver! (number 5 was sitting behind me letting me use him as a back rest)

Carson was very very excited to kiss all his favorite tractors this weekend. But if it was dirty it just got a glare no kisses for the unwashed

Good lord cheeky baby!

I'm still recovering from yesterday. My back is killing me, my fair skin is a tad pink. Carson fell asleep in the car around 430 pm yesterday on the way home. He slept solid till 730 this morning. He did come crawl in our bed about 3, but that was fine. When Oliver woke up at 4 we went and stole Carson's bed. LOL. I love having my kiddo in a Twin!

Olympics watching is well underway! So much fun watching it with our boys. Carson really enjoys it so far.

Oh yeah, the outfit.

Myself: Sunglasses: Coach Thrifted, Top:Target Shorts: Target Sneakers: New Balance

The Boys: Tops: John Deere Shorts: Gap

High on Thrifting Thursday!

Ooh I haven't been thrifting in a while. Last time I went thrifting was a couple weeks and there wasn't any good stuff to be had. But last weekend, instead of hitting the deck running for garage sales, myself and a dear friend hosted a garage sale of our own. Man I never realized how many things **I** personally do while out g-saling that are annoying as all get out to the host of said g-sales!

1) Eye judging and not getting out. - Seriously people we had SO much awesome stuff people just passed up because we didn't haul it all out into the open. 

2) Going through personal NOT for sale stuff and asking us to make a price. This happened many times and was highly obnoxious. (I am not guilty of this. I usually err on the side of caution)

3) Throwing clothes that are displayed ON THE GROUND! WTF?

4) The talker - We've all been there but man we got some odd chatty kathies over the weekend. My friend, while awesome and sweet. Is also rather blunt and just got up and left on multiple occasions when randoms would walk in, share their life story and not actually buy anything. OR EVEN LOOK!

5) The Non-haggler - We lost so many sales over the weekend because people were just NOT haggling! What is up with that? At a G-sale you generally mark it up a little high so it gives the wiggle room. 

I hope this was fun! Add your favorite rules of thrifting and g-saling!  

Clean bill of health for Carson!

I got a phone call from the allergist yesterday. Carson is not allergic to gluten, he's not sensitive to it at all on the test. ::sigh of relief::

We have started to get a handle on his squishy poop by filling him with fiber pills twice a day and probiotics. I am so glad to at least be getting it under control.

Thats all I've got today. He's a healthy little bean pole!

Happy 5 month birthday!

I can not believe my sweet baby boy is 5 months old. He's crazy big and full of energy. I have a feeling these boys are going to put me through a lot of obstacle courses when they get bigger! Oliver is already starting to scooch on his tummy. We're working on going to all 4's.

O is the sweetest baby, always willing to give a snuggle and a smile no matter what.

Size wise he's over 19 lbs and 26.5 inches long. HUGE boy! Not fat, just chunky monkey!

Oliver LOVES food, everything about it. I gave him a bite of salad over the weekend, he inhaled the lettuce. He thinks his purees are delish and I'm still making all his baby food! I love knowing what I'm giving him.

I think at 6 months we'll start giving him finger foods too.

I can't believe my baby's are almost 6 months and almost 3. Where is time going??

My 5 month old...

I have a lot to say about this. But I'm short handed ;) nursing sweet O. So enjoy a few pictures!!

This picture is so flipping cute! Its so hard to get him smiling just in time! But I had help ;)

My Photography helper  

The trick is to coochie coochie coo O and then yank C out of the pic as soon as he's smiling!

Oliver blew his first rasberry today! On Carson's chest. Both boys giggled for probably 5 minutes! 

I love this Collage, 1 weeks vs 5 months! 

The allergy testing and other things

We got the results from the scratch test immediately yesterday. Negative. He is not dairy, soy, chicken, or chocolate intolerant. Yes I had him checked for chocolate. He eats MM's like they are going out of style. He picked that bad habit up from his mama. He tested "slight positive" to tropical fruit. Hence the hellacious diaper rashes that occur after he gets into tropical foods.

When those tests came back negative, we decided to just go ahead and have him tested for Gluten Sensitivity. Blood draws + toddlers = one sad mama. I had to hold him down. Why do nurses never offer to hold your kid down for you? Cause I honestly do not enjoy being the one to have to hold my baby to a table while they poke and prod him. I hate getting my blood drawn, I can't imagine being 2 and having it done. We go to the pediatrician tomorrow. I think I will ask the nurses to take charge and I will just hold my face to his face. Give him kisses. Not restraining him.  Yes tomorrow is another blood draw. I want his levels checked to make sure there is no underlying issue. We will discuss running further tests. Trying to figure this out. I almost wish he had an allergy to something, so it would be an "easy" fix.

Its a major conflict going on. I wish it was something easy, and the further I search the more concerned I become that something could truly be wrong with him. It could be nothing. It could just be, he's a kid that always has the shits.

He's starting to get quite the cocktail of pills every day. He takes 1 one a day toddler vitamin, 3 probiotics (1 per meal) and I am starting him on a toddler fiber supplement in hopes that maybe its just because he gets like 0 fiber form his awful diet.

I'm hoping that his levels tomorrow show he is in good health. At the very least, we can deal with diarrhea. I'd rather him have normal poop, but this is doable as long as he is healthy otherwise.

Potty training front? Well we've tabled that until he is having a months worth of solid bowel movements. I don't want to further scar him by trying to force an issue. Since he has no real control over his bowels (who would with constant diarrhea?)

His mood seems to be improving, his behavior seems better. I think we  will keep him off milk, not other cheese products though. I'm really hoping that we find the answer soon. I hate that my baby is in so much tummy pain.

More updates after his doctor appointment tomorrow

Allergy Specialist

I'm taking Carson to an allergist today. I'm nervous but excited, once we know what bothers him, maybe we can start working on fixing his stomach issues. He's so small it shouldn't take much to fix his digestive system once we know what to eliminate.

I hope its only allergies to stuff he will grow out of. Milk allergy scares me, if its life long, he'll never get to experience an ice cream social after swim lessons. Or go grab a pizza with his friends. Of course these are all down the road and I would always try to make sure he is able to do those things. But it is still nerve wracking.

We are seeing an allergist that not only specializes in digestive allergies, but also has a strong focus on celiac. Fingers crossed thats not a problem for C.

I must say I am incredibly thankful for the fact that we have kick ass insurance and I don't have to take him to only certain doctors. I'm basically able to take him where ever I feel will give him the best treatment.

I plan on keeping our appointment on Thursday with our Pediatrician mostly because I also want to address how to deal with his picky eating, and having his blood levels checked because I think he is anemic. He was "slightlly anemic" at his 2 year check up, but all they told me was I needed to get him to eat better. Obviously they haven't experienced an extremely picky kid. I try my hardest and its still not good enough.


Enough ramblings. I will be back later today with results. I've been a bit MIA recently because of family being here (SO much fun! Post to come!)

High On Thrifting Thursday

I feel like its been ages since I wrote a thrifting post, I missed it. But I sure haven't been missing out on thrifting. 

Over the holiday my mom and I went out to buy chickens. Not chicken meat, or eggs. Live chickens. Chris cleared out their coop and we wanted some chicks for Carson. No luck finding baby chickens, normal sized chickens, or roosters (keep the roosters!)  But I did have some awesome furniture finds this week. 

We swung by a couple garages sales and I found this 

amazing roll top desk. 

Its got amazing little cabinets and really awesome old brass handles. I just love it. I bought it for 20$ and when I got home, I sold my old desk for 40$! So on this, I made 20$!! Granted we met the people in Costco's parking lot and that store is DANGEROUS!  We do have plans on painting it. But I would LOVE some opinions (leave a comment!) on what color. I'm always drawn to teal. But I also love the idea of a green, or maybe even a yellow (teal accents?) 

20$!! but really I made 20$$

Then over the holiday I was browsing Craigslist for Twin beds for Carson. We'd been talking about getting him a "Big kid bed" for his THIRD birthday (if you follow me on Pinterest) you'll know that I am starting to have a minor mental break and am PLANNING a party. Woah. 

But anyway, last week I came across this cute wooden bed frame + mattress on craigslist. I texted the woman if she could send me a picture and why she was getting rid of it. She was on vacation as well and couldn't get a pic to me until today.  I spent a whopping total of 48$ on a twin sized bed, mattress, sheets, frame! Target had Sean White sheets for 7.50! I was really excited to get him a big set of big boy sheets. He threw a pretty giant fit over an 80$ quilt set. That was....well....parenthood

48$

Happy thrifting! Hopefully as summer rolls on we should be able to find more good stuff! 

Lego's helping my friends all around the country!

A wonderful, and far away (tear) friend of mine, Beth Anne over at the Heir to Blair wrote recently about how Lego and Blogher contacted her about doing a lego promotion. She tweeted excitedly about how much Duplos have helped her adorable son Harry! I was so excited to finally read her blog post about their speech therapy and the wonderful work the therapist and the legos are doing for Harry.

In our own home we use Legos for many things, we use them for play mostly. However, I'm always trying to work with Carson on counting, colors, naming animals and building his own creations.

My brother and I always played with legos, my husband and his sister played with legos growing up. Legos are timeless. They are eternally fun, no matter your age. The best part of legos is they don't have walls, everyone enjoys them. They encourage play time, learning together and playing together as a family.

Please read more about Harry's speech therapy over at The Heir to Blair

Carson's Food Allergies (gross poop post!)

So at the end of June I sort of threw a tantrum over the fact that Carson has been potty training for over 6 months and was still constantly shitting his pants. 3-5 times a day cleaning shit off your kid wears you a bit thin. Honestly.

I was mid tantrum when I really started to think about it. If I had diarrhea 3-5 times a day, I'd probably shit my pants at some point too.

So I was left to figure it out. I do not believe its just his body's "way" I think thats bullshit excuse to not do tests and figure it out. He never exhibited any allergy symptoms as an infant and I never eliminated anything from my diet.

I wonder though, in hindsight if maybe he had an allergy that we didn't catch because he was seeing a family practice doctor and not a real pediatrician till he was 15 months old. He's always been tiny. like 10-25% which isn't ridiculously small or anything. Its pretty normal and no red flags ever went up.

But after over 2 years of cleaning up diarrhea I knew we had to figure out something was wrong. I always brushed his gross digestive habits on his piss poor diet. He's a picky eater and when all you will eat is mac and cheese and chicken nuggets, apples and bananas. Of course your shit is going to be gross.


My mom is a huge advocate for going gluten free. Now I don't honestly believe in going GF unless you have a true sensitivity or intolerance or celiac. I am a firm believer in everything in moderation.  This could just be my love of pasta and love of home made bread talking. I want to exhaust all options before we try going GF, mostly because giving up gluten will be an entire family change. Not just a change in diet for Carson.

We are 10 days into dairy free toddler diet. Its been weird and I forgot the other day when I ordered him a hot choc at starbucks and with in 45 minutes of drinking this milk based drink, he had extreme diarrhea. He's been having the most solid poops ever, which is great.

I have a feeling its going to be a hard full transition since we are attempting to take him off milk, cheese, and yogurt. Three of his main food groups. But with foods like Almond milk, soy cheese (I am not a fan of soy and am searching out better options) and Almond cheese (bottom right squares!) hopefully we can make this commitment to his health.

I will update at the end of the month of dairy free toddler. If you know any great dairy free boxed mac and cheese dinners please share because thats C's favorite food and major suck, he can't have it.

Summer slow down!

I swear its crazy how fast summer flies by in this house. How fast life flies by as well. I swear it was just yesterday we were getting married, yesterday Carson was born, yesterday Oliver was born, yesterday.

The first day of summer here in the great pacific northwest was met with cloudy sky's, rain and a high of  60 ish degrees. But the real start of summer is the Fourth of July! Kicked off by spending the 3rd through the 7th down at my parents home on the Oregon Coast! The boys fished, Chris gardened, I sunbathed.

We rang in the birth of our nation by watching native americans blow up fire works. The irony is not lost on me. A great part of growing up near an Indian reservation. Illegal fireworks. No cops.

Carson is still talking about the fireworks. He told the sweet older ladies at our garden about them tonight and how they blew up.

I swear we can never leave my mom and dads house on a normal time frame. I always say we'll leave by 4 pm. Normally its about 7:30 at the earliest. Its still a two-hour drive.

We ate burgers 5 nights in a row. In my world, thats heaven! I live for summer foods. Clean kitchens are so easy when everything is BBQ! Nothing like spitting cherry pits too.

We have officially taken Carson off ALL dairy. Its the first step towards identifying a food allergy. We've gone to food allergists, and his pediatrician. Everyone tells me that its just "his bodies way" Um no. No its not. I have a ton to post about on this topic and I will hopefully have a post about it by the end of the week. Food allergies and picky kid is not exactly an easy task.

This next week we're spending some quality time with Chris' sister and mom! So excited. We haven't seen the Aunt for a while and daddy-Grandma was here last month and it was a total blast!

I swear summer is just flying by, busy this weekend. Next weekend we're doing a garage sale with some good friends. The next weekend is the Great Steam up a few towns down. My birthday in august, some sunshine fun with my folks.

Before I know it, it will be Labor Day. Then Carson's 3rd birthday.



Random fact. I have had hiccups the entire time I've been writing. Ugh. Bed

Great deal on audio software!

Vacation

I love visiting my folks down on the oregon coast! Its always so much fun and really relaxing. My mom, even though she hates to do it is a really good cook and makes yummy food for us to enjoy. She's one of those super grandma's that always has yummy snacks and foods for Carson.

My Dad took Carson fishing on Wednesday, he's a little rockstar with a fishing pole! Its great to see my dad being such an awesome Papa! 

We had so much fun at the beach, it was super windy which made it not as much fun cause Oliver cried. But after he got wrapped in a wind breaker he was perfectly happy! Carson and I explored the sand and explored some caves which had awesome sea anemones.

My mom and I went to the store on the fourth just to get junk food for fireworks, then we met some guy in the wine isle. We talked to him for like 25 minutes about all sorts of random crap. But when we walked away? I asked my mom how she knew this hilarious dude. Nope, she didn't know him at all. Random. We also bought awesome hats. 

My parents set up a super awesome cute little toy story bed for at the house! Carson LOVES it!

Oliver spent the majority of vacation sleeping in his pack and play outside under the apple tree. Sunning himself on the deck or snuggling up with his mama and anyone and everyone that will hold him! 

We took the sweet pea to the beach. First time ever he hasn't levitated standing on the sand! 

Little pool shark in training, he really enjoyed playing pool with his papa, papabear and uncle!

My mom and I think we are awesome! The duck face picture was also taken! 

My mom surprised us with a new toddler bed for Carson, she scored it 30$ off craigslist! 

The health code at this ice cream shoppe is lax at best

over 4 years together and still so in love! 

Heading down to Grandma and Papas got his bux on! 

Sleeping under the apple tree! 

I love coming home from vacation feeling for the most part refreshed. I got a bit of a sun burn and its hot at home, so we're off to go swimming! 

Steppin out Saturday (Sunday)

We've been totally MIA not just from blogging, but from life. Summer time does this weird thing to us as a family. We just got home for a five day stay at my mom and dads. So much fun, 70+ degrees all weekend. Watching my baby boy curl up under an apple tree in his pack and play and sleep in the sunshine, watching my big boy run through the tractor sprinkler in cute little swim trunks. But enough about vacation thats a whole nutha post. 

Skirt: Gap Top: Target 

After vacation exhaustion face