Today

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My boys on River Street this morning. Chris was setting up for his SHPE (society of Hispanic professional engineers) booth. Aren't they adorable? Christian wanted to dress like dad. 

Almost.....30!

So its almost here.  The big 3-0.  I've gone back and forth trying to figure out what I want for my birthday.  Chris has asked me so many times...Its hard when you can't really fit into anything because I almost always want clothes, or a purse or jewelry.  None of those will work this year.  Too big for clothes, too depressing to buy maternity clothes, I have to carry a diaper bag, so no use for a purse and I don't end up wearing too much jewelry right now...SO what to ask for??? Did I mention I'm turning 30???! I imagined myself laying in a pool in Las Vegas with a mojito!  Oh so sad....

After some serious internet searching, think I finally figured it out.  Home decorating stuff! I love to decorate.  I've been wanting to finish up the last projects at my house since before Christian was born and what better time to do in than when I will be spending A LOT of time in my house once baby #2 arrives.  ( I have a feeling me and these walls are going to be very good friends) I know it would make me very happy to see my bedroom done, and my pantry finished and it would be a good time to get it done before baby arrives.

I've put together a list of the things I want to find and make so if you'd like to donate... :) haha!  I'll share here what I get and what my ideas are.  A few before and after pictures too.  I'm so excited!

Love, Nicole (still 29 for now!)

Baby # 2 Who?

It seems that with all the traveling and cleaning and packing and unpacking I've been doing the last few weeks I really haven't had much time to think or prepare for baby #2.  Seriously, besides the window-computer shopping I got to do on Saturday (because we turned off our phones, closed our blinds and laid on the couch all day long...it was amazing) that's really all I've done.  Poor second child.  Hopefully I will get it together by the time he/she arrives. 

I'm really hoping that I can get two ideas together for the room, one girly, one all boy, so that as soon as we find out the sex (6 weeks!) we can get right into GO mode and get it done.  Did I mention I'm freaking out about getting it all done?  You know me, I have a serious list going already.  We had Christians room finished pretty early and I felt so much better once it was ready for him, so I'm going to try and do that again. 

So far the plan is to move all of Christians furniture into the babies room, and then Christian will get new dressers and a bookcase.  He already has his new bed!

How cute is this bed? It starts out small, about the size of a crib mattress and then grows to a twin when your kiddo gets bigger.  The mattress grows too.  Christian loves it.  Thank you so much Mimi & Papa!

I want to get a big bookcase for Christians room so that I can move some of his toys up there...its getting a bit out of control downstairs, plus with a C section I'm probably going to be stuck upstairs for a bit.  Here's the one I'm thinking:

I'm going to lay it length ways and put toys on the bottom row, books on the top row and put all his stuffed animals sitting on top. Then next to it, I'll put a bean bag and a few floor pillows and make it a cozy reading corner.  A few dressers and his room will be done! Since I have all the baby furniture already, all I need to do is decide on bedding, curtains and decorations for the new baby.  The fun part!  My only constraint is the dark furniture (which I love) and the brown chair...which I think I can work around if its a girl, and will work fine for a boy. 

I'm working on a few ideas so when I get some idea boards done I'll post them right away.

Love, Nicole

Baby Stuff Mania!

I have been looking at super-cute, ridiculously adorable baby stuff online.  I am so excited to buy lots of tiny clothes and shoes!  Christian has gotten so big..did I mention he started sleeping in his big boy bed this week?! So you can see why I need a dose of tiny baby stuff.  My baby is growing up :(

On to the baby clothing parade...

Sweet little church shoes from Etsy

 

The cutest jeans are always from Baby Gap

Love this nautical sweater from Baby Gap

Love kid clothes in adult patterns, this dress from Baby Gap is perfect

More adorable shoes available on Etsy

From Janie & Jack, cutest store ever, this would make a wonderful take home outfit

Seriously?! Tube socks? Yes, thank you Land of Nod, we are so getting these

I love rompers! On babies that is. This adorable one is from Baby Gap

Another adorable outfit from Janie & Jack, you can't beat shortalls

From Etsy, a pillowcase dress will be first on my list if we have a girl. So sweet.

This outfit was called, Engineer Stripe,so I had to pick it, available from Janie & Jack

Sweet little hat found at Etsy

An adorable Land of Nod onesie

We used sleep sacks so much with Christian, this one from Land of Nod is still boyish, love that

Really?! Etsy and little girls shoes...I am going to have to set myself a limit if this baby is a girl

Little romper pants for boys! Handmade and on Etsy.

OH MY! I just love these ruffle bottoms! Think of all the cute pictures we could take in these?

Hope you had fun daydreaming of little clothes to come with me.

Love, Nicole

12 Weeks Today

Oh Baby has now turned into Oh Babies.

Well-- it will sometime on or around January 3, 2012.  Today I am twelve weeks and hopefully all this morning all day sickness will end soon.  As in today :)  Christian and I are in Oklahoma right now visiting Mimi & Papa.  We are having a good time just hanging out and relaxing.  My parents are flying back with us this Saturday, and all of us can't wait to see Chris.  We miss him so much.

We are looking forward to July for many reasons.  We hope to celebrate the 4th with our family and friends, the 10th is my mom's birthday, and the 12th is our third wedding anniversary!  It's hard to believe that three years have gone by so quickly, and we are about to be a family of four.  Crazy?!

I should be updated here more often now that the "baby" is out of the bag.  I seriously couldn't think of anything to write except "I AM SO SICK." And really who wants to hear that? ;)

love, Nicole

@ Art Festival

C loves hats.

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Garden

These are the cherry tomato plants I got for Christian. It's by far his favorite food, he eats them at least once a day, sometimes twice. I figure maybe if I can grow some it will make a dent in our tomato bill :)

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A Gardening we Go

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A Need for a Simpler Life

I have been thinking a lot about ways to make our life over here in the Baksa home simpler.  I wouldn't say things got even crazier for us after Christian was born, but that doesn't mean that's not exactly what happened.  I'm just not admitting it.  We run around, here and there, mail stacks up, Christian grows out of something every five minutes, work events, wedding planning, parties, dinners, last minute get togethers.  Its not that I want to stop doing things.  Chris and I aren't happy unless we are doing a hundred things, but maybe we would be.  Its worth a try. I mean I've just recovered from us thinking it was a good idea to move into a new house, plan a wedding and send him to school for his MBA all at the same time.  And that was almost three years ago.  

Maybe we should start small.  A clutter free home means a clutter free mind, right?

I keep thinking back to my insane idea about four children.  FOUR.  Yes, as in three more.  I'm not going to lie and say that as I type that sentence I am not in agreement with you that I may very well be crazy.  But, crazy or not, I just can't help it.  I have always wanted a big family and no matter how Christian rocked our world (in lots of good ways too!) I still can't shake that feeling that there are at least three more little Baksas waiting to join us. 

Our missing Baksas???Ha!*

I use to hear women say that when they sat at the dinner table they felt like someone was missing until they had their next child.  Before I had Christian I use to think those women were weird.  Seriously your sitting at the table imaging someone else that isn't even born yet? I'm usually focused on the food...Now that I've had Christian all I can think is, seriously you have time to think at the dinner table.  I'm lucky if I get to eat my food before its cold AND avoid getting hit in the head by a flying Mickey Mouse fork because Christian is, ALL DONE, or "Awwlll Nunnn!" as he puts it. 

Regardless of this simpler mindset,  I'm still on this large family kick...its been going strong since I could speak apparently.  Old thoughts die hard.  So if I'm going to do this, and more importantly convince Chris we should do this, I can't think of a better time to SIMPLIFY.  More kids will mean more chaos, more bodies will mean more stuff.  More stuff can not go in that garage.  (I'd show you a picture of the garage...but Chris would probably stop talking to me :)

Our home, our schedules, the insane tower of magazines taking over the table...the laundry that gets out of control much more often than its ever under my control...So number one on my list is to TOSS.

This may look semi organized but you don't want to see all the stuff we've crammed in those green striped baskets

Step 1. Throw away/donate a lot of stuff.  Shoes, clothes Chris has had since high school (TEN years ago), clothes that don't fit (me..today),  paper, there is so much paper, purses (this one will hurt, but there is no use pretending that I will ever carry a bag smaller than a small child for like the next five years), ect. ect.  I feel like when we straighten the house its really just pushing the ridiculous amount of stuff we have back into every drawer we have. 

It's Tuesday, by Friday you won't be able to see this table.  Then I'll clean it and we'll start all over again! Yeah!

I'm off! Let you know how it goes,
Coley

*image from www.urbanmamas.com

Spring Is Here

Already in his summer "uniform"

After a week of rain, spring has sprung! We are very happy to be able to go outside and play everyday.  I'm especially happy that Christian stopped standing at the door yelling, "Go-go" all day long. 

I imagine he's wondering if I have anything better to do than take his picture right now, what a look

We have been cleaning out drawers, cleaning floors, and working on a new plan for our yard.  The biggest news is GRASS! We are getting GRASS! Some of you may remember that we tried to "fix" our grass on our own. We won't be doing that again. Ever. Mostly because we only made it worse.  If that was possible.  It's like deciding to dye your own hair.  It isn't going to be pretty. 

First thing Thursday Envy Lawn Services will arrive to rip up our spotty grass and replace it with fabulous golf course grade-A centipede grass.  I am so excited! I'll show you the progress as we go along...its suppose to take seven days...we'll see.  I can't wait to actually sit in the (GREEN) grass and it not be dirt or the medusa grass we have going on in the backyard. 

Its going to be almost as awesome as this smile:

love, Coley

Cutest Shoes

My good friend Mindy gave Christian these shoes & they are seriously adorable.  

Thank you Mindy! You rock.  

Christian loves these and so do I.  The brown ones squeak when he stands.  

He'll fit the blue ones this winter.  

Aren't they sweet?

Cutest Thing

Its raining outside and I gotta get out there.

If It Keeps Him Off The Dog Bed

\

Tell me this isn't the cutest kids couch? It would match perfectly in our living room and flips open to be a little bed.  Christian needs something to sit on in the living room...I'd give anything to keep him from laying in the dogs bed all the time.  He's obsessed.  He grabs a book or a toy and then lounges in the dog bed. I found it on Amazon (of course), its called the P'Kolino Little Sofa - Sleeper.  

Cute huh?

I Said I Wanted How Many?!?

 

 

4?! Did I say 4?

Christian Baksa: You've Got Mail

Christian was oh so surprised when I told him who the mail was from

We came home today to find that Christian had mail.  And since he loves going to the mailbox anyway, he got to pull it out of the mailbox all by himself.

Look how thrilled he is

He had been asking for some pictures of his cousin Penelope, since he pointed out he was only 4 months old when he met her and he couldn't quite remember what she looked like.

Giving Penelope a thumbs up

And wouldn't you know it, Penelope had sent him a bunch  of pictures! He's trying to narrow down which ones to put on his bulletin board in his room.  They are all so cute, he thinks it could take days to decide.

Love you Penelope.

*special thanks to Grandma Baksa who may or may not have had something to do with this....we love you

Why we won't be taking baths in the sink anymore...and other fun pictures

Reason #1 for not taking a bath in the sink, ever again:

 Do you see all that water?! It was on the floor, the walls, and me (see below for reason #2)

  

 Guess he thought I needed a bath too...

And another big reason we can't have water everywhere...

 

 

 

 

See that bowl? I use this to rinse his hair. Christian uses it to dump large amounts of water on the floor...apparently the constant splashing just wasn't doing the trick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christian insists he had nothing to do with any of the above.  

And on to the fun pictures,

 

So behind

Today as I wrote a check, I had to check the calendar to see what day it was.  Seriously?! Christian will be six months old in 2 days.

SIX MONTHS OLD.  Doesn't even  make any sense.  How has it been that long? How is he so big? How, why, how? :) 

all dressed and ready for church...

There is so much I have not posted, so I figured I better get it up here, before I look up and the little man is a year old.  You may have to pick me up off the floor.  I already miss the squishy little newborn he once was...  (sigh)

 check him out...holding his bottle!

Our little Christian is doing so much you just won't believe.  A milestone update is in order:

• We have teeth! Two little bottom teeth.  They are adorable and sharp.  Don't say you weren't warned.  
• We can sit up! Last Thursday I put Christian in the sitting position, braced to catch him and he did not fall.  For a full 5 minutes.  He's almost a pro now. 
• Solids.  Christians first food was Sweet Potatoes (his Papas favorite) followed by bananas(yum, he says), then green beans (better than tolerable he concludes), followed by apples (that he only really likes with cinammon), then prunes (yum..as odd as that is), then peaches (which he hated so much he gagged and then gave me a dirty look), and peas (which were barely tolerable).  Next up we try avocado! *I will update here later with my baby food making adventures*
• We aren't quite crawling yet, but we are rocking back and forth on our hands and knees...very promising.  I am in the process of baby proofing as we speak.  I want to be ready for it, when I come back in the living room and he's on the other side of the room.  

 seriously prunes mom?

We have had such a wonderful time this past month with our little guy.  He's smiling all the time, babbling like crazy, and squealing like a baby terydactal (his new nickname...seriously his screeching is intense...straight out of  Jurassic Park)

he is obsessed with solo cups

All our love,
coley