Jungle Baby Shower

It's a Jungle themed Baby Shower

It's not always easy to dress up a conference room at work for a party, but it's the small details that help make it cute! Brown packaging paper makes for an easy table cloth.........Oh and the jar of M&Ms on the table is to guess how many BLUE M&Ms for a quick and easy game when you don't have much time to play games at an hour shower.

But to dress up this jungle baby shower even more, we made some lizards to crawl along the table....(love that they are 3D and not flat on the table)

A basket full of the utensils is dressed up with ribbon and a lion out front to add to the theme

Utensils were wrapped in napkins with jungle animal napkin rings (thankfully Cricut comes in extreme handy for making the cute little jungle animals)

Banners are a must!

The cake was made by Simply Scrumptious Cakes and received lots of great compliments!

Oh and I can't forget that when Kohl's cares has their books and stuffed animals at the checkout counter, my mom and I can't help but buy them everytime they change them out. They just so happened to have some jungle animals around Christmas time, perfect gift to give at the same time you are donating to charity!

The favors were little bags of candy with jungle animals stapled to the front (made again with Cricut)

Presents to match!

Adorable hamper with gifts inside!

 That concludes this jungle baby shower on a budget!

The Build: Starting the Roof

As you drive in Providence Lake there are multiple builds going up but since they are all one stories, they are going up much faster. Hard to see homes that started building after us already have shingles on their roof, but I know it's way worth the wait! As you drive through the neighborhood, this is the view from across the lake looking at our build.

Still some more trusses are being set but you can see the roof starting to come together

Closer look at the front of the house. We have made a very complicated roofline in our plans but it makes such a difference in the exterior of the home to have all the peaks that we do.

Love seeing the OSB put on!

Slowly but surely the house is coming along! Can't wait until the OSB has covered the roof so we can see all the peaks! Bedrest has it's ups and downs but at least I can drive to the house and see the progress.

The Build: Trusses

What a view as I drive around the corner and see the trusses high in the sky.......although I was in awe, I couldn't help but say out loud to myself, "I hope Jason isn't on top of there!". He certainly was, but I told him not to even tell me about it!

Of course I was excited to get all the different views, so here's the view from down by the lake looking at the back of the house. Lots of windows to capture the view of the lake.

Front

I loved walking around inside as Jason pointed out which rooms were which on the 2nd floor, and showed me where all the windows would be placed. Here are the guys hard at work!

I can't wait to head back to the site as I heard OSB is being placed for the roof! I am sure these guys are ready to close up the house so they don't have to work with that crazy wind we have been having. Everyone thinks Jason is tanning.....nope, just wind burn!

The Build: 2nd Floor Framing

We just got blasted with a bunch of snow this weekend but today was thankfully nice enough to get some work done on framing the 2nd floor.

This is a view from the front of the house......nice to see the garage framed in....not so nice to walk through all that mud!

Up on the 2nd floor the guys are hard at work. I was happy to see Ben's (our builder) dad up on the ladder.....I think I can finally tell the story. A few weeks ago Jason was helping with the lower level when he was up on a ladder 10 feet high. He had an accident and fell off the ladder onto his right shoulder onto the hard frozen ground. The nail gun he was using fell onto his face. We can't be more thankful that nothing bad happened to Jason but his shoulder was fine and his face his healing after I had to phone a friend (Ben's Wife Amber) to get some dermabond to glue the inch long laceration.

Jason is going to continue to work on the house this week and then will probably have to head back to his 'real' job. It has been so nice having him at home in the mornings, helping me and Austin get ready for work and school. We are spoiled in the mornings with pancakes galore!

Looking forward to seeing the day when the roof gets started so we don't have to fret so much about all the snow.

14 Months

Biggest change since last month is that Austin is officially a walker. He is now more comfortable walking everywhere but still falls often as he doesn't look where he is going. He loves to walk around holding on to something in each hand.

Austin does lots of mimicking these days! His favorite song right now is "If you're happy and you know it" since he knows when to clap along. My favorite is helping him learn the sounds of animals. Its so adorable to ask him what a dog says and hear "woof  woof" out of him.

He still can't keep his hands off Lily but since he doesn't know what being gentle means (which scares me since Ava will be here soon) he spends most of the day chasing after her. Who blames her? He tries to bite her, tugs at her ears, and uses her as a stool to help him get to higher places.

My favorite is when he comes home from school with colors on his hands or under his fingernails.....although we've found it on his belly before. It's so great to know that his daycare does so many crafts and sensory projects. I love finding markers or painted colors on him because I know he had fun getting all messy.

He has officially transitioned from the Turtle Room (infant room) to the Panda Room (what we call the big boy room) full time. Everyone walks in the Panda room and they take one nap a day on a cot. Austin has been napping two hours for them but it's nice since he still takes 2 two hour naps at home on the weekends. They also eat family-style which means all the kids sit down at a big round table and eat together.

Since we finally have snow, it has been fun taking Austin outside to pull around in the sled. He hates getting on all the winter gear, but the moment he's in the sled, he is nothing but smiles.

I'd say his favorite foods right now are pancakes and clementines. He could eat either of those non-stop if you let him. Although just today, Grandma let him have his first Oreo. How did he know to skip eating the cookie and just lick off the middle frosting?

Ava's Temporary Nursery

Even though I can't put things on the walls or paint them for that matter, I feel so much better after getting everything set up for this little girl to arrive. After the scare of her trying to come out to meet the world at 27 weeks, I have been anxious for the furniture to get here and be put together. Thankfully Jason didn't waste any time when it arrived and put it together for me right away.

I knew I wanted somewhat of an owl themed nursery long before we knew we were having a girl, so that has been stuck in my mind for quite some time. But, when I saw the adorable pink and green birdie bedding on the Pottery Barn website, I just had to have it! I was even in luck when I went outlet shopping with my mom a while back and found a cute matching rug.

Carla would be proud of this owl from Target, but I also love the closer look at the cute colors of her bedding

An owl hooded towel all ready for bath time and below is a pilllow my mom just finished

Pottery barn owl named Penny

And who wouldn't sneak in a picture of something, small, adorable, and pink.....

I still can't wait to fully finish the room with wall color and her name up on the wall, but that can wait until the build is finished at the end of next summer, early fall......hopefully.

For now, this will definitely do.....and I am in no rush to start using it....hear that Ava? Stay in there!!

Floor.....on the Second Floor

Jason and the crew are working hard to try and put the second floor up before the winter storm hits tomorrow. We have had this string of beautiful weather in the high 40s (even hitting 50) which has led to some great progress.

Here the guys are standing on the floor to the garage which means the lower garage finally has a ceiling, which is 10 feet.

 The stairwell is complete now up to the 2nd floor

The guy came to take away those big dirt piles and do some back filling.

And that's about all the updates I have for now. Hopefully I can get some more pictures before the snow storm hits!

The Build: Main Floor Framing

After a few frustrating days of little to no work due to rain, we are finally blessed with weather high in the 30's with sunshine!

Subfloor on the main floor

But then comes the fun stuff......walls for the main floor. This is a look from closer to the lake looking to the East side of the house

West side.....you get a view of the lower garage (three cars below and above)

Taking a peek into the basement where the cement has just been poured

So exciting to walk through the main floor today as they are putting up the walls. This is a view looking to the dining room that overlooks the lake. To the right will be the kitchen and to the left will be the gathering room.

A view from the top of one of the big dirt piles, which we won't be able to get much longer since they are getting rid of those very soon. Looking straight on to what will soon be the front of the house.

We are looking at some more beautiful weather ahead.......next step to be done will be joists for the second floor. Also awaiting the planks for the main level garage.

All Bundled Up

We knew it was bound to happen, but we finally have snow on the ground today. With it being the day after New Years, both my parents were home and Austin's daycare was closed. We somehow packed in crafting, making homemade baked potato soup, no bake cookies, and everyone's favorite.....taking Austin outside for his first sledding adventure. My dad pulled out Jarred's old sled from the basement and as soon as Austin woke up from his nap, he was fixated on it. He immediately had to be placed in it, which also meant he was NOT getting out of it for any reason. This led to us having to feed him lunch in the sled! We then got Austin all bundled up and even though he hated that part, he was soon smiling ear to ear!

I love that cute little hat!

We took a trip around the house and even down the "big" hill in the backyard.

Austin's favorite was Grandma and Grandpa taking turns pulling Austin in big circles in the front yard.

Even though it was in the 20s with wind, Austin didn't care. His nose was running, his cheeks were red, and his smile couldn't get any bigger!

All bundled up!

Next time I am sure Jason won't miss out, but today they got tons of work done on the build! Sounds like the subfloor for the first floor is done.... which means I need to head back out to the site and take some pics!!