Gus's Room and Guest Room

I'm linking with Kelly's Korner for kid's rooms, and I hadn't put up pictures of our guest room up yet either, so I'm going to do both today.

 We just recently added all these pictures to the walls in Gus's room. I have always liked Gus's room. I think it feels warm.

 One of my favorite things in Gus's room is this name train we got him. It has a caboose too, but it had been misplaced when I took pictures :)

 I had fun finding these colored frames to put up pictures in Gus's room. Gus made this canvas with his hand prints at my parents house.

 This is the doorway into Gus's room.

 Gus's bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids. Above his crib is framed prints of classic Winnie the Pooh. We found these on Ebay, and I love them!

We still would like to add a few things to Gus's room, but we are waiting to find out if we are having another boy in November! 

We just redecorated our guest room over the last few months. 

 This antique furniture has been mine since I was very young and I love it!

 I have this picture on the wall in our guest room, and it is very special to me. This is my grandmother and her mother. I think it is a beautiful picture.

Thanks for checking out our home! You can also see our living room, kitchen, and bedroom.

Our Weekend

We had a nice weekend at home. On Saturday we went to a nearby town and got some more plants for our yard. Josh does a really great job in the yard and enjoys taking care of it. During the afternoon, Josh and I made a cake together. I hadn't cooked many desserts in the last few weeks, so it was fun to bake. The cake turned out very pretty. It tasted good. The cake was a little dry, but it didn't stop us from eating it! :) I got the recipe from a Christmas Southern Living book.

Saturday evening, my mom arrived. She is staying with us for several days. We always enjoy having her visit! She took a few pictures of us this morning after church.

I can't believe how much my belly has grown over the last few weeks! I'll be 18 weeks this Tuesday. I did start having some swelling this weekend. I'm trying to keep my feet up, and I'm also wearing support socks. Hopefully, I can keep swelling down!

Mischief

There isn't anything much more fun than watching your child learn and grow. It all happens so quickly, it's hard to keep up sometimes! But...... there are some things you wish your child wouldn't do, and then the fun of disciplining begins. And wow- I think it may be as difficult has a baby waking up multiple times in the night.

We call Gus our little Firecracker. He has a fun personality but likes to get his way! He has learned several new tricks lately which aren't always our favorite.

 For instance, this is where I found him a few mornings ago:

 As you can guess, the flowers had to be moved. This practice of crawling onto the coffee table is strongly discouraged :)

And since we have learned to climb on things, this is another new trick:

So far, he is only climbing into the recliner and not onto the other furniture. But, standing in the recliner is a favorite activity, and another one that is strongly discouraged :)

I love watching Gus learn. I love that he enjoys exploring and figuring things out. I pray that I learn to discipline him in a way that is pleasing to God. I know it is the job of parents to train their children, and I take this responsibility very seriously. It isn't always easy, but I know it is what is best for all of us. I've watched those "Nanny" shows where the children are out of control. I never want that to be me. And so, each day, I do my very best to train Gus "in the way he should go." I pray that "when he is old he will not turn from it." But let me tell you, there are many days when I am ready to give up!! I'm so blessed to have a teammate to help me. Josh is such a great daddy and husband. I'm so thankful that we work together to train Gus, and that we agree on how we want to raise him.

As I'm writing this morning, we have already had confrontations with Gus about crawling on the table and standing in the chair. I'm sure it is going to happen many more times before he goes to bed tonight. But one day, he is going to understand, and we won't be fighting about it anymore. And there will be something else to learn. I want to take it all in, the good and bad. I love my little boy, and he won't be a little boy forever.

Father's Day Weekend

This weekend Josh's parents came to visit us. I worked on Friday and Saturday morning so that Josh could spend time with his parents. I think everyone had a great time. Josh's parents got Gus and a little splash pool and Gus enjoyed it.

Samson was thirsty!

We had a nice Father's day as a family. Josh's parents left very early Sunday morning. We spend the morning at home, and then drove to a nearby town and ate lunch at Red Lobster.

We took a long drive home, and just relaxed at home for the rest of the day. Gus is so lucky to have such a wonderful Daddy. I always knew that Josh would be a great Dad. We are blessed!

Our Bedroom

I'm linking again with Kelly's Korner, and this week I'm showing our bedroom.

We are very blessed to have furniture from my grandfather. It is so nice, and we love it! We have had it about 6 months now. Our nightstands were mine that I got many years ago. We hope to get new ones sometime soon since our current ones don't match the new furniture.

Our bedspread is a duvet cover we found on sale at Pottery Barn. Our lamps are from Hobby Lobby.

One of our favorite things is this antique couch, I think it is beautiful. It was always one of my favorite things in my grandparents house. And as with every room in our house, there are some toys.

Our dogs sleep in our room in a kennel that you can see in this picture.

We still need to hang a few more things on the walls. We just decorate some things slowly.

15 Month Update and Shopping for Boys

Gus had his 15 month appointment yesterday. He is a healthy growing boy just as I already knew. He weighed 23 lbs 6 oz and was 30 inches long.

Gus is wearing mostly 12-18 month clothes. People talk a lot about shopping for boys so I wanted to talk about it a little.

Shopping for Boys

When we found out we were having a boy, of course I was ready to do some shopping. Often times when you walk into a children's store, 90% of the stuff is for girls. This can be so frustrating for a boy mom. I thought before I had Gus, I would dress him in Ralph Lauren Polo clothes that I would buy at TJ Maxx or something. As I started shopping around, I realized that even buying them at discount stores can sometimes be a little expensive. I began looking at many places and discovered you can dress a little boy very cute and not have to buy super expensive clothes! 

So, where do I buy most of Gus's clothes????? The majority of Gus's summer clothes have come from Target and Old Navy. I sometimes buy things at Baby Gap, but I have been happy with the things I've found at Target and Old Navy and they are much cheaper!  Sure- if we have a special event coming up we might splurge. But for everyday wear that is going to get spilled on, it isn't worth spending a lot of money to me. 

Raising a boy was a whole new world for me since I only have a sister. It has just been so much fun! Shopping has gotten a lot easier now that I know where to get Gus clothes. I hope this offers a little help to those of you out there with boys.

Our Kitchen

I'm excited to be linking again with Kelly's Korner to show my kitchen! You can look HERE for my living room from last Friday.

 We spend a lot of time in our kitchen! We live in a small town, so we eat at home most of the time- there are very few options for eating out! My husband and I both like to cook. This first picture is the table that is in our kitchen area. Our kitchen/dining/living rooms are all one big room.

Across from our table is where we keep our son's highchair, and we also have a kitchen for our son which a friend was so sweet to give to us. He enjoys playing in his kitchen while I cook!

Last year, I was so blessed to inherit my grandmother's china. When I did, my husband bought me this beautiful china cabinet which I love.

I have my beautiful grandmother's china on the middle shelf. It is such beautiful bright flowers, I just love it.

On the top shelf, we have the china we got when we got married, which I also love.

And here is the rest of our kitchen! My son Gus decided to start snooping in a drawer while I was taking pictures, and my dog Bear also wanted to make an appearance.

One of the things we love about our kitchen is that it has so much cabinet space! We had a lot of kitchen stuff when we moved in, and there is plenty of room for everything! I enjoy having a window to the backyard over the sink, and we have a bird feeder outside the window.

This kitchen has been great for us. I enjoy finding new things to cook for my family. You can find many of my recipes under the recipe tab at the top of the page. Since we are talking about kitchens, I wanted to share my favorite cookbook too.

I got this cookbook when I got married. I think it is the best overall cookbook. It has a big variety of recipes and we have liked almost everything I have made from it. If you need a good basic cookbook, I highly recommend Betty Crocker!