Crazytown- Population: 2

Hi friends! It has been quite a whirlwind around these parts. We are working on getting our Christmas decorations up, getting presents ready, the house ready all while we continue our daily activities. We started our new family tradition of getting our tree! Growing up, we had both fake and real trees-but we mostly had fake ones with my mom. They were easier for us I think so they just stuck. John grew up with real trees, so we decided to carry on that idea with our own family. This year we were able to go and cut down a tree instead of picking it up from Home Depot. Don't get me wrong-those trees were fine-but this was new. We got to hunt for the perfect tree, pick it out and even support local-all wins in my book! We went to Sneads Farm in Fredericksburg and it was wonderful!

They actually were hosting a USO event that we didn't know about but got to check it out. They were providing military families with a free tree, stand, decorations, wrapping paper, lunch all sorts of wonderful things all for free! You enter into a drawing and you get your voucher emailed to you if you were picked-but we were able to still participate. It was amazing! Not to mention the farm had fresh kettle corn...and if you know me-I love my popcorn.  Kaden had a blast, we have a perfect tree and all we need is for Santa to come down our chimney!

One of the great things about the Marine Corps is the friendships that we get to make. Granted we only get to stay (geographically) close for a few years at a time but with all the jobs stationed around the world (literally) you're bound to come across one another again-but if you're lucky enough to become friends with a few of these amazing people-then you get to plan a get together! One of my good friends from Twentynine Palms was here visiting family while her husband was training and we were so lucky that we got to have her and her wonderful daughter over! Kaden and Aleyna are 4 days apart and Laura and I were working together and pregnant together at the same time. It was amazing to see her and her little one. We joke that we already have our kids' marriage arranged so we'll see each other all the time. Kaden and Aleyna truly had the best time together- these pictures are about a year apart (exactly) look how big they are now!

I had some of our kickball ladies over with their little ones to decorate salt dough ornaments last week. We had lots of baked goods, coffee, kids running around playing and adult conversation-all amazing things in my book! We also had a holiday get together and bunco night the other night with the same ladies-a much needed 'mom's night out'! I'm so glad I joined this team of ladies-we all have different stories but we all have things in common and having our lifestyle- we usually have family far away so we get to 'make' our own family and that is an amazing feeling.

We have a crazy week ahead of us with Christmas fast approaching. Kaden has his LAST developmental NICU follow up!! (insert happy dance here) I can honestly say I'm not as worried about this appointment as I was the last rounds-this kid is a parrot and repeats (or tries to) every word out of your mouth. He is learning new things every day and he's growing and getting through every stage of toddler-hood we can have-all while I'm pulling my hair. But I wouldn't change it for anything-he's doing what he needs to do and I am truly grateful for it.
My mom is coming to visit! I haven't seen her since last Christmas! This is the longest gap that we've gone not seeing each other, which is weird-but I know she's excited to come and see Kaden (and me too maybe...) She's coming from the warm weather of Arizona-and we're expecting snow soon-she's in for a surprise.
So between a big appointment, my mom coming and a few play dates scattered throughout the week. We have our hands full. One thing I do want to share with you is I just received this amazing new cookbook from the Birchbox Book Club that I am a part of- Homemade Decadence by Joy the Baker. Let me tell you-it looks amazing. I can't wait to share the recipes with you! I hope to share them on a regular basis with you all because I want to make everything. SO if you're local, get in touch with me because I need to share all of these baked goods with you.

I'm going to make it my mission to be better with my posts with you all-probably starting with a delicious baked good. Until then, I'm going to go enjoy watching "The Holiday" on Lifetime and mentally prepare myself for the crazy week we have ahead of us! 

Holiday Crafting

Happy December everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and if you participated in Black Friday, I hope you got some amazing deals! I stayed in my PJ's and scored some deals online-my favorite way to shop :)
Everyone seems to either have their decorations up, or are in the process of decorating. Last winter we were moving across country, so we didn't have a chance to decorate so we are working on ours now! I'm excited to be able to with Kaden getting older so he can see everything and enjoy all the wonderful lights.
You may have seen this on Instagram or Facebook, but one of my newest crafts was our holiday chalkboard with a pompom garland-I love it.

 

A few weeks ago I made (with some help of course ha) a giant chalkboard. I found the tutorial on a fellow blogger's site over at We Lived Happily Ever After. She has amazing tutorials, graphics, printables and so many wonderful ideas! She's also a fellow Marine wife so decorating our homes can be kind of difficult because we move every few years. Go take a look at what she has going on! Anywho, a few of you have wanted to know how to make it-so I would love to share this with you! Click HERE for Hannah's chalkboard.  

For this project, you can get everything at Lowe's or Home Depot in one swoop. 
You'll need:

Two 1x4" boards cut at 27" 

Two 1x4" boards cut at 45" 

The plywood backboard is 4x2'

- See more at: http://www.welivedhappilyeverafter.com/search?q=chalkboard#sthash.RrDBJHkO.dpufer

Two 1x4" boards cut at 27" 

Two 1x4" boards cut at 45" 

One plywood backboard at 4x2' (make sure it is SMOOTH)

Metal braces

Chalkboard Paint (you can make your own, but I already have a ready made can)

Wood screws

any paint or stain for your boarder

1. Paint your big plywood backboard with your chalkboard paint. I put about 4 coats on it to make sure it is super coated since the wood absorbed most of the first coat. Paint your boarder boards as well. I did this one afternoon to let all of them fully dry overnight before I put everything together. 

2. Take your metal braces with your wood screws and connect the boarders with them. Make sure you put the braces towards the top of the boards-you will be attaching the main board to the same boarder! (I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of this while we were putting them together!) The two smaller pieces will be top and bottom and the longers on the sides (which seems pretty simple, but just to make sure we're all on the same page) 

3. After the boarder is put together, place your backboard on the boarder- and you guessed it-take your wood screws and attach the board. 

4. Flip it over and 'condition' your board with chalk. Rub rub and rub some more chalk on it and lightly erase it.

5. Take a step back and admire your new chalkboard! 

I apologize for the not so great lighting...eek.

 Well there you have it my friends! Easy peasy cost effective chalkboard, just my style. I also made the pom-pom garland that went on top of the board-which I will be happily sharing with you all- so stay tuned! 

xox

Two 1x4" boards cut at 27" 

Two 1x4" boards cut at 45" 

The plywood backboard is 4x2'

- See more at: http://www.welivedhappilyeverafter.com/search?q=chalkboard#sthash.RrDBJHkO.dpuf

Two 1x4" boards cut at 27" 

Two 1x4" boards cut at 45" 

The plywood backboard is 4x2'

- See more at: http://www.welivedhappilyeverafter.com/search?q=chalkboard#sthash.RrDBJHkO.dpuf

World Prematurity Awareness Day

My goodness, you guys- I haven't posted in almost a MONTH. I have been busy making and sending our crochet headbands to help raise awareness for cervical cancer. We are about half way to our goal, so thank you so much for all of your support-please keep the orders coming! 

I want to share another awareness with you all- today is World Prematurity Awareness Day. This day floods my mind and heart with memories and emotions. Each year, nearly 500,000 babies are premature, or preemies. That's 1 of every 8 infants born in the United States. These little miracles come for all sorts of reasons, medical or not. You can read about Kaden's story HERE.

I still remember basically living in the NICU for 6 weeks, doing everything in my power to help him get stronger every day, and waiting 4 days to hold him for only 15 minutes-because he was so fragile. 

I remember bringing him home and waking up every hour to make sure he really is breathing, because that is what kept us from coming home-he would forget to breathe, which would drastically drop his heart rate. I remember having to take him weekly for weight checks because he was born weighing in at 3 lbs 2 oz. and I would worry and stress about if I can produce enough milk since I exclusively pumped for him-because he wasn't strong enough to nurse naturally.  I remember driving over an hour one way bi-weekly to get his eyes checked because he had ROP  (Retinopathy of Prematurity), to a cardiologist to check his heart murmur, and weeks of physical therapy.  But I also remember emailing my husband videos and pictures daily of this little guy and telling him all of the amazing things he has been doing and how he has been growing. 

OH and his first birthday, when he first sat up, smiled at me, laughed, trying new foods, his first word (for the record- it was 'mama'), when he started walking and the smile that will melt the coldest of hearts. We have so many memories that both terrified us and made us laugh so hard we had tears running down our faces-all because he is a healthy, happy growing baby (or should I choke out the word 'toddler'?) 

Once upon a time, doctors told us that he may not be developmentally on track with kids 'his age' because of being born so early. But I beg to differ. We've been meeting with doctors and specialists and they sometimes have a hard time believing he is a preemie. This little guy is growing and thriving SO much every day, it blows my mind. He's been hitting milestones left and right and 'passed' his NICU follow ups with flying colors. 

SO today, I am wearing purple to represent World Prematurity Awareness Day for all of these little miracles everywhere. 

Cervical Cancer Awareness

Alright friends-this post is more of a personal one from my family to you all. I am helping my wonderful sister in law with this new project and we need some help. Let me fill you in:
3 months ago, my sister in law, Brittany, received some devastating news that she has been diagnosed with cervical cancer. I can't tell you how she felt, but I can tell you that the news hit us like a ton of bricks. She is only 27 years old and is one of the healthiest, and bravest people that I know. She took a huge leap of faith and dug deep for some courage and  wrote a little story to share with everyone, so I'm going to share it with you instead of me telling you the details.

"Those of you who know me well know I am a fairly private person. So, it takes a good bit of my courage to share with you what my family and I have been going through the last few months.

About 3 months ago, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a very survivable disease and I was diagnosed at an early stage. However, I was told at my first oncology appointment that the current “gold standard” treatment for my condition is a radical hysterectomy. Maybe this isn’t so daunting for the majority of cervical cancer patients as most women are diagnosed in their late 30’s and early 40’s and have already had children. However, at 27 years old, I was devastated. I expressed my desire to have children to my oncologist who told me about an option at MD Anderson in Houston, Tx that could potentially preserve fertility. I recently found out I was a candidate for a brand new research study that would still afford me the chance of becoming pregnant.

Without research like that being performed at MD Anderson, I would most likely have undergone a radical hysterectomy and been unable to bear children at 27 years old. I share my story with you to raise awareness of the importance of research in cancer treatment. As a way to give back, my family and I are selling handmade ear warmers/headbands to raise funds for cancer research. The headbands will be of teal color to represent the cervical cancer ribbon. All proceeds will be donated to the Foundation for Women’s Cancer.

My family and I are incredibly grateful and blessed to have been provided this opportunity. Please help us in spreading the word in hopes of raising funds so we can pay it forward."

Without research, doctors would be jumping to solve these issues with such drastic measures. Please help us with our goal to spread the word of how important other options are for cases like Brittany's. We are truly grateful that she has amazing doctors to take care of her and that research like this has allowed her to keep her ability to have her own children someday. 

Our teal handmade, knit and crochet headbands are avaliable for purchase at my Etsy shop. You can also contact me directly if you would like. We can make them for both adults and little ones- 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Foundation for Women's Cancer. We hope to raise at least 1,000.00- so please help us reach our goal and spread the word! 

Although you may not know her, thank you for supporting my amazing sister in law in this journey, our family is incredibly grateful.
xo

 Etsy Shop

New Changes!

Hi everyone! I have some exciting news to share with you all! If you're friends with me on Facebook (on my personal page or the blog page) you may have seen that I have started to create amazing sparkly jewelry!

I am happy to announce that I have officially created an Etsy shop and I'll be adding more wonderful gifts as they are being made!  I love supporting small business, especially ones owned by moms creating things based off of what they love to do.

With this shop opening, things have changed around the blogging world. I thought it was important to create a united tie with both pages I have and so came the new name, Watkins and Co. The logo is close to my heart because of the elephants, especially the little one holding on. Kaden's baby shower theme had elephants and I carried that into his room, so they have a special little place in my heart-because of my baby.

 

Anywho, I'm taking a jump into the world of Etsy and I am very excited for this new adventure! I hope you'll come along with me on this one.  Currently the shop is little, but I have plans on expanding to different items and adding more wonderful beads in new colors as they come in! These rings are perfect for anyone who loves a little sparkle-including yourself! Keep your eyes peeled for new items and take a look at these amazing hand made rings and think about your holiday shopping list and lets get some presents ordered!

Etsy Shop

(click to be redirected to the shop)

Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake

Every other Friday, Kaden and I head over to our local MOPS group that we joined this past late summer. If you're a mom with little ones, I highly recommend checking your local chapter out. There has been a lot of negative social media about 'mom' life and there has been a lot of moms tearing each other down. This group comes together to build each other up and provide words of encouragement to each other. Our table had to bring our breakfast/brunch items for this week's meeting and what I made turned out to be a hit (yay!) and I want to share it with all of you! I made this delicious Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake. It's as good as it sounds, I promise. The last time I made this, I was fighting off contractions right before Kaden was born, which makes me chuckle now. Well shall we get started? 

To make this, you'll need:
9x13 pan (I used a foil pan since I was worried I would possibly drop this while chasing/carrying a toddler and didn't want to shatter my glass pan-but either works!)
1/4 cup margarine, melted (I used butter)
2 cans of cinnamon rolls with icing
4 eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I used milk instead)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Gather all of your ingredients and preheat the oven to 350.
2. Melt your butter and pour it in the pan.
3. Open and chop up the cinnamon rolls. The recipe I used said to cut them into 4 pieces, but I made them smaller.
4. Once both cans are chopped up and spread out evenly in the pan, combine the eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla together in a bowl and pour them over the chopped rolls.

5. Pop the tray into the oven for 25-30 minutes.
6. Once they're done (resist the urge to take a bite) melt the icing that came with the rolls a little bit so it is easier to pour- and pour that sugary delicious treat over the rolls. 

 And there you go! It smells amazing, tastes amazing, looks amazing and is perfect with a hot cup of coffee. This doesn't take much to get together and would be perfect for the upcoming holiday with family! Happy weekend friends!

Kids bounce back...like rubber bands.

Now that it has been some time and I'm over the traumatizing injuries we have encountered, I wanted to share some thoughts with you all. I have always been told that babies (kids, rather) are incredibly resilient. I've had encounters to prove that saying to be true, but never really thought too much about it until recently.
During Kaden's 18 month wellness check, his pediatrician was concerned about his lack of weight gain. He didn't gain any weight from 15 months to 18 months and he didn't measure on any of the percentiles. So she wanted us to adjust his diet to cut out all processed foods, all sugars (unless natural) and he can only have whole wheat. Side note: we eat pretty healthy as it is now. Yes he would have juice occasionally, organic granola bars, kids yogurt, the occasional treat. So this didn't seem like a huge change for us. We were told to come back after 6 weeks to see if he gained any weight and if not we were going to have to get blood work done to possibly rule out any thyroid issues and or celiac disease issues.

So we went back, and he's still a little guy. He also started walking in between his two wellness visits, so he has been burning calories left and right, but he has a good appetite. She still wanted to do blood work and I agreed to make sure we don't have to worry about anything. Well, it took 5 people, 3 and different attempts to try to draw enough blood for 4 vials. Have you tried to wrangle a 1 1/2 year old to have a needle shoved in his hand? I don't recommend it. We had to try his hand because his veins are so small they couldn't find any in his arms and his hand had the only 'big enough' one. I say this with all seriousness- I was more traumatized than he was. I literally had tears in my eyes throughout this process and I finally said enough and hugged the bajeezes out of him. By the time we got home a few hours later (after a play date in between) he seemed to have forgotten all about that morning- but I didn't.

Fast forward to two days later. I brought Kaden with me to my kickball game since we have all moms on our team and we help each other with our kids while we all play. There was an accident where Kaden was leaning on the fence and fell forward and ended up biting down on his bottom lip, hard. Our first busted lip. After we sat and waited for it to stop bleeding (and praying it does so we didn't have to get a stitch) he got up and walked around, saw a slide, pointed at it and said "weeeeeee" (aka slide) so who was I to tell him no after that incident? He took a little longer for this boo boo to be forgotten, only because certain foods would burn when he ate them-which I totally understand. I've busted my lip quite a few times.

Earlier this week, our new friends Rachel and her son (from Stickers for Mommy) invited us over for dinner and for us to take a look at her consignment sale preparations. Kaden and Callum played, ran around and laughed together. Kaden ends up falling (my kid is still learning the world of balance) onto his lip (again) and we have a small busted lip. Tears and blood came, hugs were given, few minutes passed and all was right in the world.

This kid is entering a whole new world of injuries. As he should be. He is climbing on everything, and it will only be a matter of time until he starts jumping off things. I just can't believe how much this kid has been through already from being poked and prodded every day in the hospital, his shots, falling, swallowing a penny and who knows what else will be coming our way. But he wakes up the next morning with a smile on his face every day and is ready to take on the day, every day. I truly believe that kids are so resilient, I see this every day and I think that these little people are sometimes stronger than us as adults.

TOMS....TOMS for sale...

Have you ever read the book "Caps for Sale"? Anyone..? Well in my head as I typed the title...all I could think of was the book. We read this book a lot apparently.
Anywho- I have something to share with you all, since the end date is quickly approaching...like by tomorrow. I am sorry to share this on such late notice, but perhaps you already know of it! I just found out. We all know the wonderful world of Toms shoes right? The "one for one" campaign? Well, I am a fan of these shoes because they're cute, comfortable AND they provide shoes to someone in need! Win win all around. What the bargain shopper in me doesn't like is the total price when I pick out a few shoes I want. A friend of mine (hi Kelli!) went to a warehouse sale a few summers ago that Toms has on the West Coast  in a few cities- she went to the Arizona one- and told me about the AMAZING deals she got on her Toms! (like paying 15.00 for a pair...but I digress.) I was instantly jealous and literally checked daily for the dates for this years sale and had my mom on board to go for me! 
Well....days passed by with no date. We're now in the fall and the sale is a summer thing. So I commented on one of their IG pictures about the sale and whaddya know, they commented back! They told me that they're having a 'warehouse of sorts sale' on http://www.tomssurprisesale.com/ but only for a limited time! I checked out out (of course) and some of the items are up to 45% off, free shipping over 25.00 AND there's a coupon code (we all know I love my coupons) for an extra 5% off with SURPRISEGIFT!

They don't have ALL the fantastic shoes on there, but there are a good amount! If you're a college ball fan, they do have quite a selection of shoes to support your school! Unfortunately, they don't have any Arizona State shoes probably because we're amazing and sold out. But if you're a fan of the University of Arizona...well I'm sorry (just kidding) but they do have a shoe for you!






 OR if you can wear kids shoes...you can check out what they have to grab an even better deal! It's totally acceptable for an adult to wear red glitter shoes right?
I hope you find something you like, happy shopping friends!

Oh, by the way- you can sign up to be on the list to be notified of any warehouse sales! Go to http://www.tomswarehousesale.com/ and check it out!

DIY Non Slip Socks

I just wanted to share a little something I crafted last week with you all! Since the weather is cooling down (at least here) we are going to be wearing more socks and slippers. Since our main floor is either wood or ceramic tile, my feet freeze unless I'm wearing something. I can only imagine how cold Kaden's feet will get now that he is zooming around the house! We've been on the hunt for slippers, but he has pretty small feet. He's been wearing socks, but with that comes quite a lot of slips...so enter non-slip socks! This project is SUPER easy-let me tell you. Here's your list of what you need, ready? 

Socks.
Puffy Paint.

Yup. All you need to really do is flatten the bottom of socks and make all sorts of designs on the bottoms! Make sure you actually put a good amount of paint on them-hence the name puffy paint.
Once they dry you can wash them and dry them, and the paint will help your crazy monkey from falling. (Assuming you have one like mine)

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures for this post! If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help-but if not- happy crafting, friends! 

Hello Fall!

With the arrival of fall comes the love of everything pumpkin...right? I love fall. I grew up in Indiana where we had bonfires, football games, sweaters, hoodies and s'mores. I missed out on this glorious season for the past 7 years from living in the desert. I'm so excited to be able to do all the fall things with Kaden now that he's older! The other week we took a trip to a local farm, Clark's Farm. I've been wanting to go to all of the farms and apple orchards around the area but we can only do so much with what time we have, so I figured lets start small. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

 

This place was great!! It wasn't overwhelming which I was worried about. It had a bunch of activities to keep kids busy, especially little busy bodies. 

 

 A pallet maze

A few animals to pet

A small snack shop

  

  

A classic "mom, no more pictures" face

But he let me get one more.

If you're around the Stafford (or surrounding areas) go check them out! With the price of admission for an adult you get to take home a pumpkin! They have a station for pumpkin painting, face painting, riding a pony and even a little shop for hand made items. They also are open around the winter for Christmas trees...which we will have to visit when the time comes! Happy Fall, friends!

Prepping for the Holidays

You guys, we have less than 100 days until Christmas is here.

Less than 100.

I'll let that sink in for a minute.

I really don't want to be rushing around this year trying to get gifts for everyone especially because I am a classic procrastinator. I also have found it to be increasingly difficult to get gifts that family members actually would use-something that they would enjoy having instead of a generic gift. Now that our family includes our crazy Kaden, I think a safe gift for the grandparents would be pictures or something personalized along that line.  But you can only have enough room on your shelves and walls for pictures before they're completely taking over your house right? But you can always use more magnets.

I was recently contacted by PicStick, a company that creates magnets out of your pictures to create personalized magnets.  It is super easy, all you need to do is upload 9 pictures from your computer, tablet, phone, Facebook account or even from Dropbox, make sure they look fantastic and click order! It took less than a week for them to be made and sent to us. The only issue I found was if you zoom in on your pictures when you add them, it does make them grainy. Other than that, I think these are fantastic. They're easy to slip into the envelope with your holiday cards for a just because gift, or you could make a whole sheet as a gift for someone. These are 14.99 for a sheet that includes 9 magnets but I have good news!

The people over at PicStick were generous enough to create a promotional code for me to share with you all- when you are done adding all of your pictures, be sure to enter OPS25 to receive 25 % off your order! 

So head on over to PicStick.com and get a little jump on your holiday gift giving! Enjoy friends-

xo

Happy Neonatal Nurse Day

 If you are a Neonatal Nurse- I wish I could hug you-wherever you are. I am forever grateful for every single nurse that we had while Kaden was in the hospital. A part of me still misses some of the nurses that we had because they were such a huge part of our life for so many days and nights. Don't get me wrong, some of the nurses we had were less than friendly-but regardless they still were responsible for taking care of our little man when he needed it the most. Before February 11, I have never met a NICU nurse before. I haven't even been inside of a NICU.  Then before we knew it these strangers would turn out to be some of the most important people in our lives whether we were ready or not. I came across a post on a Preemie baby website I've been reading and following and it prompted me to write my own. I just want to take this chance and thank the NICU nurses everywhere, specifically the nurses that we had in our life.

Thank you for remembering us every day and every night. 

Thank you for requesting to be Kaden's nurse time and time again.

Thank you for answering every single one of my 384,598,728 questions I had daily.

Thank you for listening to my concerns and advocating for me.

Thank you for missing your child's baseball game to take care of our child.

Thank you for letting me call every hour to check on Kaden when I had to go home for the night.

Thank you for telling me "you will be okay" when I needed it the most.

Thank you for re-swadding Kaden 500 times a day because he broke out-yet again and re-taping his tubes because he pulled them off/out for the 25th time that hour. 

Thank you for sitting with me every day and every night when I had to be there without John.

Thank you for picking this profession and kicking ass at it.

There are so many more things that I am so thankful for. But most of all, thank you for keeping our baby alive and thriving when he was most fragile. Being in a hospital can be pretty horrible, but thank you to our nurses for making it a little more bearable.

xo

 

you can read about Kaden's story here

Our First Urgent Care Visit

Well it has been some time since I posted-I'm sorry I've been behind (yet again). We've been quite busy over here. If you saw our most recent Facebook status- you would have heard that we had to go to the ER for a penny update. Let me share with you:
I never thought my child swallow a penny. Honestly. I know that all kids get into everything but I guess I thought we wouldn't have to go down that road. Well-I was wrong. Turns out Kaden is continuing to throw surprises my way. (I mean, what kid does that?) Typical Friday afternoon, we were going through his clothes prepping for our upcoming family trip to North Carolina for a wedding. I knew there was a penny in his room, I put it on the shelf towards the back remembering to grab it on our way out. Nope, he wanted it and I didn't see him grab it-put it in his hand and transfer it to his mouth when I was changing his pants. Whaddya know...he starts choking, coughing and I start to panic. He tried to throw up, but it didn't come out which made the penny travel down. I remembered all of the training we had to go through at the hospital for CPR and acted.  John raced home and we tried to get him to throw up again-with no luck. We called 911 and the paramedics rushed over (firetruck and ambulance...sirens and all) and by the time they came to check Kaden out-he was acting like nothing happened. What a stinker. They suggested we take him to the ER or Urgent Care to still get him looked at and we of course agreed. After what felt like forever-we finally got his x-ray. 

 See that big ol' white spot?? Yep, that would be a penny. A PENNY. All we could do is wait for him to pass it. How you ask? You reach a new level of parenting-that's all I'm going to say.  We were told it should pass within 24-48 hours and if it hasn't within a week we need to take him in for another x-ray. Well that doesn't really ease my nerves..what if he doesn't pass it!? What does that mean will happen!? How would I know-we've never had to encounter this issue before. But we decided we'll deal with that when the time comes. We go on our family trip to North Carolina and come back and we have yet to see a penny. So after 9 days (let me add here-he acted completely normal this whole time...) we call and check to see what to do. We were told to go to the military hospital that has an ER which happens to be about 45 minutes away just in-case we have to have surgery. Excuse me? Alright, let me calmly take my child to see if we have to surgically remove this stupid penny. After hours of waiting in a germ infested ER...we had our results.

 

HAPPY DANCE! We are penny free! Somehow we missed that dreaded thing. The doctor chuckled and sent us on our way back home. He also told us that pretty much everything will pass. But I also don't want to experience any of these situations again and I hope other parents won't have to go through this either. BUT if you do-just know that you're not alone. Oh the joys of parenting-you learn something new every day-right?

xo

Consignment Sale Finds

Well it has been a week since I went to the Weecycled Consignment sale. We have had a busy few days here and my grandma was here from California visiting. This sale is traveling and was close by us last week so we decided to check it out. The sale had chances for pre-sale for volunteers, consignors as well as military families. Thank goodness we went then, because it was packed! I can't imagine what it would be like when the doors opened to the public. Some of the moms that were there came prepared let me tell you-they had wagons pulling their goods and even those giant plastic tubs with a rope tied to it. Talk about serious. I made a quick walk around the toys, snagged a tent with a tunnel, an easel as well as a construction table that came equipped with a set of tools for little ones. I decided the easel as well as the tools were going to be hidden until Christmas-mom win!

I found the area packed with boys clothes. When I say packed, I mean it. There were some great deals, and not so great. Besides the gifts that we got, the most I paid was 6.00. Let me show you some of what we got:

Yes, that is a tunnel with a tent...in the middle of the front living room....

 TONS of pj's. We're in 18 months now, but I saw a 3 pack of 24 month Carters fleece footies...for 5.00. How do I say no? I'm holding onto a little bit of hope that one day Kaden will want to spend a day in his pj's watching Disney movies once winter comes...and if that day comes- I will be prepared.

how cute are these?! Baby Gap and Old Navy

Gap jean jacket, Old Navy puffer vest and the cutest corduroy coat

Baby Gap jean jacket was 6.00 that my grandma picked out, vest was 5.00 and so was the coat!

 

Ralph Lauren button up was only 2.50, the rest were 3.00 each. We picked up some jeans too, great deals on those too of course!  And lets not forget my 'retro' shoes-

 

Overall, I think we got some great finds! The sale is coming our way again in October- I think I might skip the pre-sale and head for the end of the sale where most of what is still there is extra 50% off. I'll let you know what we find then-

xox