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Thursday, January 26, 2017

Life with Lucas {week 36}

Time for another installment of what we did all week!


Side note: Who the heck decided it was a good idea to take a baby's picture with these blocks?! Because this child will. not. sit. still. to save his life. He is SO interested in grabbing these blocks, it is pretty darn near impossible to get a picture of him these days! 

Anyway, we had another fun week of swimming lessons....


...playing outside... (this weather 🙌)



...oh and a new car seat for Ella!


Lucas is about to be out of his infant seat, so he's going to move up to Ella's convertible. I didn't want to buy another convertible seat when Ella will probably be out of hers in another year or 2, so I just got her a harness-to-booster seat! This will be the last car seat she needs!! Tear! 

Friday, we had Lucas's make up swim lessons (we missed a day when we were in Virginia for Paw Patrol Live), so I promised Ella she could come and swim after his class. She was SO pumped!


There was actually a girl from Ella's preschool class there swimming with her mom too, so the girls mostly played while Lucas and I hung out on the "beach"!


Our weekend was pretty low-key. I did get a new rug for our front hallway! 


And we also put together this new sofa table! Now to decorate it...help. 


Sunday night, I took Ella to see Daniel Tiger Live! I got our tickets the night before at like 11PM...so it was very last minute, but she had so much fun! She wanted to stand by the sparkly statue before we went into the theater...


Ella is getting really good at going to these shows. Apparently, we are aiming to see every "live" version of kids' tv shows this year. 


Our seats were in the 3rd to last row, ha! So there weren't very many people behind us! We actually could see everything pretty well though!


She looks like she is miserable, but I promise we had the best time!


Monday morning, it was time for Ella's gymnastics class again. Lucas stayed entertained by looking at the trophy case ;)


Ella is working hard on trying to jump with both feet together. I'm thinking of maybe getting her a little trampoline like this for her birthday to practice? 


We also had to stop for a weight check on Lucas. He wasn't gaining much weight when he started teething back in December...but according to Monday, he had gained like 10 ounces in 2 weeks, so he's all good now! 


Tuesday, I dropped this chick off at preschool...


...and then it was time for more swimming lessons! Lucas and his little friends in his class were hanging out on the pool deck before class...



...and then their teacher joined them and had a little pep talk with the guys! It was the funniest thing. 


Yesterday was gorgeous so we spent as much time outside as possible!



With a little break at Chick Fil-A for lunch! 




This upcoming week is Ella's BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!! I can't believe she is almost three!!!!

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Organizing My Kids' Clothes

Ok, so I know this sounds like the most boring post ever. And it probably is. But, someone posted the other day in one of the mom's groups I am in on Facebook asking how we organize our kids clothes. It got A LOT of responses, and people were all very interested in each other's organizational methods. Turns out, there are quite a few hoarders out there like me! So if the word "organize" makes your heart go pitter-patter like it does mine, read on! If not, you can totally skip this post and I won't even be mad :)

First up, Lucas's closet!


Lucas's clothes are still sorted out by size. Right now, he has 6 month stuff up to 18 months in there. Within each size, I organize each type of clothing together, and I tend to hang them from the outfits that cover the least amount of skin to the most. So it usually looks like: short-sleeved shirts/onesies, shortalls/short rompers, long-sleeved shirts/onesies, longalls/long-sleeved rompers, and finally pajamas. Pajamas are always last in each size section. 


Also, this is borderline psycho (if this entire post isn't already), but when I wash his clothes and hang them back up in the closet, I put them at the end of the similar clothes in that section. So, if I wash 3 of his Polo rompers (he has like six of these things that are all 9m and are grouped together), I put those 3 to the right of the other 3 that didn't just get washed. Does that make any sense? That way, I can kind of "rotate" out what he wears. 


Above his clothes, I have these bins to organize more of his stuff: baby carriers, blankets, towels/washcloths, and crib stuff. Up on the top rack is where his coats hang, but some are also downstairs in our main coat closet. 


Moving over to Lucas's dresser, here's a peek at what all is in there:


*Top left drawer: hats, socks, shorts (but I will definitely need to re-organize this once he has more summer clothes!)
*Top right drawer: wubbanubs/pacis, wipes, brush, thermometer, nail clippers, nose frida
*Middle left drawer: pants, short-sleeved white onesies, long-sleeved white onesies
*Middle right drawer: changing pad covers, burp cloths, Boppy pillow covers, two-piece pajamas
*Bottom left drawer: sleep sacks
*Bottom right drawer: Hand-me-downs from Trav (most of which he outgrew before I ever remembered to put him in them!), swimsuits

PS. All organizer bins in Lucas and Ella's drawers are these from Ikea!

Next up is Ella's closet!


Since Ella's clothes are all mostly the same size (2T/3T), I organize her stuff by type of clothing, and separate it with dividers: sweaters/jackets, short-sleeved shirts, long-sleeved shirts, short-sleeved dresses and long-sleeved dresses. 


Ella's clothes are also organized by color within each section. I also try to keep brands/similar clothes together...like all of her pink Lilly dresses are all together, all of her UNC dresses are together, etc. 

And then here's a peek at what's in the bins underneath the hanging clothes:


And her drawers...please excuse, they are a bit of a mess right now!

*Top left drawer: socks, tights, white t-shirts, hats, Shrimp and Grits tabs
*Top right drawer: wipes, brushes/hair stuff, lotion, nose frida, medical stuff
*Middle left drawer: pants
*Middle right drawer: swim stuff, underwear
*Bottom left drawer: bloomers, shorts, capris
*Bottom right drawer: RANDOM...shopping cart cover, breastfeeding stuff, child-proofing stuff that we prob need to set up for Lucas!

Ok, so if you've made it this far, I know what you're thinking: WHERE ARE ALL OF THE CHRISTMAS CLOTHES, MINDY?! Well...

Welcome to my guest bedroom closet!


This is where all of the clothes that Ella and Lucas can't wear right now (either because they are out of season or too big/too small) live. 

Up top I have the stuff I'm going to consign, and the things I need to go through. 
Down below are clothes I've sorted but just didn't have time to put away, and then...my hoarding stash. See all of the Christmas outfits?! And all of the summer dresses?! Yes, I have a problem. So, I will move those summer things into Ella's closet (Lucas's summer stuff is already in his closet) when I take some her winter stuff out (like, Valentine's Day and snow outfits). I also put their Christmas clothes in their closet at the same time I get my Christmas decorations out...and put them away when I put my Christmas decorations away. 

So, when I say "pack away" clothes, that is probably a whole other post...but I have a bin for each size/gender that I put the clothes in to, and store in my attic. So if you ever want to borrow some cute clothes, that is where you'd want to look! :)

And there you have it...a riveting post on organizing children's clothes! 😉 
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Friday, January 20, 2017

Life with Lucas {week 35}


Happy Friday! Here's a look at our past week!

Thursday we said goodbye to my parents....


(side note, MOM: what are you wearing?! I can't believe I didn't say anything while we were there, haha! Love ya)

Our car was really gross from driving through all the snow and slush, so we got a car wash ASAP!


These 2. I can't even handle them sometimes. 

Friday afternoon was GORGEOUS, so we broke out our new stroller from Santa and walked up to our neighborhood playground!


Lucas got to go down the slide for the first time, which he loved. 




Sunday Ella went to a birthday party at the same place where she has gymnastics! She was excited to show off all of her skills. 



But her favorite part? The cupcake, duh!


The next morning, we went right back to gymnastics! First she wanted me to take a picture of her "being a gymnastics girl." 


Not sure when she turned 8?!
Anyway, the parent observation room was closed, so I got to watch her class in the gym! Yay!



Tuesday, this guy had a great swimming lesson! His teacher was really proud of his back float! 😉


I figured since he was such a great swimmer now, that it was time to graduate from his baby bathtub. He loved sitting in the big tub and splashing the water!


On Wednesday, Ella wanted to wear her ballet flats, "just like you, Mommy." If I am her fashion inspiration, well, that is scary!


We went to our church story time, and the theme this week was to follow Jesus on an adventure...so the teacher had set up this whole obstacle course adventure-type thing. We got stuck in the bubble-wrap section because both kids were OBSESSED with it!



That afternoon, we had a play date with our friends! Lucas got to chill on a blanket with his baby friends while Ella and the big kids played!


That night, Ella helped me make dinner. We are trying something new to help her eat more than just fruit snacks, cheddar bunnies and macaroni & cheese. My friend told me about this game (ps--not sure why it's now $50! I paid no where near that!), which I ordered immediately, and this is our first week doing it! I'll report back if it truly works after the 21 days...but check out Ella eating a pepper while she helped me cook! Miracle!!!!


Have a great weekend!
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