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