Love That Shot - Home Sweet Home Photo Entry

Alright, my last photo entry for this week for this giveaway! :o) Today's photo challenge was "Home Sweet Home". I'm still in love with my most recent home project, my curtains to hide clutter in my bedroom, so I'm sharing one of those photos again.

And by the way, my bedroom has STAYED CLEAN since completing this project! It has getten a little messy here and there with dirty clothes or what-not, but nowhere near the atrocity that it was when I did the initial clean up. AND, I have also made my bed almost every single day as well. Yeah... I'm pretty proud of myself. 'Bout time I grew up in this area of my life, huh? ;o)

Yummm! Love That Shot Photo Challenge

So I'm doing another entry for Love That Shot's Photo Challenge. Hey, I'm trying to win a cute camera bag, and a wrapped canvas print! ;o)

Anyways, today's challenge is "Yummm" and the picture that instantly came to mind was this one:

I made these amazing cupcakes (*ahem* If I do say so myself!) for my nurses after I had Logan last year. The nurses who took care of me in the days after my emergency c-section were amazing. I somehow got all of the really nice, sweet and caring nurses on that ward. And there was also the nurse who was with me during labor, and more importantly during the prep for the c-section itself. I don't know how I would have gotten through it without her arms around me as the anesthesiologist attempted to put my spinal in, and with her talking softly in my ear, helping me breathe through the most horrific contractions of the whole labor. I was in transition, and hysterical. If she hadn't been there, I think I would have completely lost it. They probably would have had to just put me under, and I would have missed those first precious moments of my son's life. So much was stripped from me when I entered that operating room, I can't imagine having had to lose even more.

So, needless to say, the gratitude I felt toward my nurses (especially Gail) was very strong, and I realized what an important job nurses truly have. And I wanted them to know how much I appreciated how well they took care of me. So I made one giant cupcake for each of my individual nurses, and I also made two dozen regular sized cupcakes for all of the rest of the nurses in the Women's Center. I had a lot of fun with it, and the cupcakes were SO yummy! Hehe, I kept a few at home for us to eat too. They were chocolate cupcakes, (I can't remember if the cupcakes themselves were from scratch or not) with a vanilla bean paste filling, in two different layers (from scratch) and a chocolate sour cream frosting on top (from scratch as well). I colored the filling blue, since I had a boy. ;o)

Well, this is making me hungry so I think I'm going to wrap it up. ;o) Head on over to Love That Shot to see their other photo entries from today! Be careful though, they might just make you drool a little. ;o)

Condo Living: How We Play In the Water!

On Memorial Day it was so hot out, and I was busy for most of the day, preparing to leave for Texas a couple of days later. It finally got so hot in the house though, that I took Logan outside with a Rubbermaid container, and put some water in it for him and let him have a little summer fun, splishing and splashing away. He had a blast! He loved climbing in and out of his “swimmin’ pool” and playing with all his toys. It was a fun time for us, and we’ll probably be doing it again soon! :o)

This post will get me an extra entry in a drawing that I entered on a new blog I found. :o)

www.lovethatshot.com

I was supposed to put their button in my post, but I can’t figure out how to do it, so I linked directly to them instead. If you’re interested in photography, you should hop on over, their site is great!

Playing Outside

I took Logan outside to play today for the first time this year, he had a lot of fun! I snapped some cute pictures and thought I would share. :o)

He was watching the kids in the yard before we went outside.

Playing peek-a-boo. Silly little boy. :o)

Inspecting the grass. :o)

Inspecting the grass again… not sure what to think…

He leaned WAY over to get to the walkway so he wouldn’t have to touch the grass at all.

He then proceeded to bear-walk down the length of the walkway, he was cracking me up. ;o)

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter today, my heart overflowing with love and gratitude for our amazing Savior. So thankful he rose from the grave. Without it, his death would be meaningless and we would yet be without hope!

We got a few family pictures while we were at church today, and then I got some of Logan at Nanny and Papa’s, opening his “Spring Basket”. I love the traditions for little kids that are typically associated with Easter, but I want my children growing up knowing the true meaning of this holiday, and to not be focusing on the fun, candy, gifts, etc. that often come along with it. So what we’ve decided to do, is to continue the traditional Easter celebrations, but instead of using them to celebrate Easter, we will use them to celebrate Spring. Anyone who lives in Alaska knows that Spring is certainly something to be celebrated. ;o) I can’t wait until next Spring when we can do an egg hunt with him and everything. I’m so glad that we have found a way (a lot of Christian families do this modified form of celebrating. Haha I don’t take credit for coming up with this on my own) to still incorporate these fun things into our children’s lives. I always loved doing egg hunts and such. :o)

Anyways, picture time!

Logan thought he was being SO funny and kept lifting up his shirt, showing off his belly during pictures. Haha, apparently he takes family pictures as seriously as his daddy. ;o)

Logan loved his “Spring Eggs” :o)

I Can Breathe Again!

My house has been quite the sad, embarrassing disaster here lately. Downstairs has probably been the worst, since all of the junk that was in our under-the-stairs-closet is now scattered all over the dining room, due to our remodel project. It’s hard to keep that from looking like anything but a disaster. Tools, wires, parts, etc. are scattered everywhere, not helping matters at all.

Now, while downstairs has been the worst, upstairs really hasn’t been much better. And in that area… I have no excuse. And it’s been bad. See?

Yeah… that’s embarrassing. But you see those plastic stacks of drawers in the last two pictures? They are what initially led me on this quest to clean my room. Those things used to be in Logan’s room. But Mike kept getting frustrated when he needed something out of them, and couldn’t go in there because Logan was sleeping, so he moved them into our room. The one room that wasn’t tainted by the clutter of our small home (ya know, clutter besides my laundry laying everywhere *ahem*). And I so badly wanted to keep it that way. Every tiny little spot of storage space we have is taken up by something. We have no more room. (And I have gotten rid of a TON of stuff, trust me! It’s not so much that we have too much junk, we just have a really small house, with almost zero storage space) So when the clutter overflowed to my “no junk” zone, I began to feel even more overwhelmed by it all. And I knew there was no changing Mike’s mind about having those things in our room, so I had to find a way to hide them. I got the project done, and the room completely cleaned up a few days ago. And here’s what it looks like right now… because I have kept it clean so far, which may be more of a miracle than the initial cleaning itself. ;o)

I moved one of the drawer things over to my side of the bed, so I would finally have something to put my stuff on besides the floor. I think that covering this up will be my next project. ;o)

This is what I did to cover up the two tall, and the one shorter drawer things though. Isn’t it pretty? And not cluttered at all anymore. :o) They’re just two curtains hung on that lowest shelf by circles of sticky-backed Velcro. I love that they hide something ugly, while adding color and pretty decoration to the bedroom. :o)

I used my old Olympus camera for these next pictures, so you’ll have to excuse the horrid picture quality. Man I hate that camera. Maybe it’s just the lens that’s the problem, but regardless, I LOVE my Canon. :o) I only used my Olympus because the lens I bought for my Canon has a really narrow angle, and doesn’t zoom, so it crops things in pretty tight (which is why you only see tight shots of the messy room above, instead of the room as whole). The lens on my Olympus has a wider angle, so I used it so that you could have a better feel for the room as a whole. ;o) Crummy pictures like these will have to do until I have money saved up to buy another lens for my camera that better suits this type of photography. :o)

I tell you, it’s amazing. I can breathe again. Even in the dark, a clean room feels incredible. :o)

I spent most of today finishing up Logan’s room. I had it all clean a week or so ago, but then had the bright idea to drag out all of his clothes, so I could get out his 9 month clothes, and put away his 6 month stuff (yep, he’s still a tiny little peanut!). Well, in the middle of me doing this, he got tired and needed a nap, and it’s been a mess all over again ever since. Until today. Today I got his room completely clean, so now, my WHOLE upstairs is clean! Which is amazing. :o) Anyways, here are a few shots of Logan’s room. Again, with the Olympus and in much worse lighting than the pictures of my room. Don’t judge me by these terrible pictures. Haha. ;o) My husband says I’m too picky when it comes to my photography!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!!! :o)