5 Years of Marriage

January 30, 2010

5 Years

1826 Days

1 Man 1 Woman

1 Apartment 1 House 1 State of Residence

1 Dog

1 Baby on Earth 3 Babies in Heaven

9 Beaches Walked On 

9 Countries 8 US States 34 cities Visited

3 Fishing Trips

4 Cruises

3 Cars 2 Trucks

1 Incredibly Blessed Life Together

Clearance Shopping for Toddler Clothes

Something I love about post-Christmas sales...shopping for next year's fall/winter clothes!

I get a ton of emails from different clothing stores all year, I often delete the emails because there are way more than I need, but I do keep an eye on the deals. I've started to notice that around mid-late January the deals on winter clothes really take off. (No pun intended ;))

So, over the last few weeks I've stocked up on some great items for Barker to wear next fall/winter. Not too much because you can't exactly predict how quickly he will grow, but I can guess. I also know that at any size he is going to need jeans. So when I see 60-80% off deals AND I have my own coupon and store cash, I get pretty excited!

May favorite sites for scoping out the clearance section are Kohl's and The Children's Place. This month I also checked out Crazy 8 and found some good deals (thank you 20% off coupon from Parent's Magazine)!

And now, here are some looks I can't wait to put my growing guy in next Fall:

From Crazy 8

 for fun, silly outings (plus our VBS theme is pirates this year! I hope this will fit by then. ;))

From The Children's Place

for my sophisticated little man

Teehee. Who says dressing up a boy can't be fun? =)

Toy Organizing!

After two months of presents (Barker's First Birthday & Christmas) our current toy "storage" (a coffee table) was getting a little over stuffed.

I looked online and thought about different toy storage units/shelves but couldn't really decide on one.

Today I finally decided to do something about our toy explosion in the corner of the family room. I collected every single toy and almost every book as well as the baskets and boxes we had been storing them in. Then I separated them out into 6 piles. One pile will stay in the family room, one will go to Barker's bedroom, and the others are in our "storage room" waiting to be rotated in. The plan is to rotate his toys every few days. Hopefully this will cut down on the crazy messes, keep him better entertained and make everything a little more manageable.

I also must admit, I love organizing. Sorting books and toys into bins gave me a fun flashback to my teaching days. =)

So here is what our coffee table/ toy display now looks like!

Of course there are still plenty of larger toy items around the house.

Let's see how long we can make this last... ;)


(And yes, we still need to do something with our Christmas Tree. 0=))
 

~~ Don't forget to click below! ~~

Moving things around

Barker has discovered he can really move things around now that he can walk, and it is quite the adventure.

Sometimes it makes since and I think, "what a clever boy!" Like when he started tucking all of the remotes in with the DVR on our TV stand. But this this morning, he discovered the remote for the DVD player, carried it into the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and tossed it inside. LOL I'm not sure why it goes there, but apparently that is a good place for it.

I have a feeling a lot of things are about to go missing around here and toys will be showing up in random places.

Just as I thought of writing about this, Barker started collected his legos on his slide.

I should probably start putting trackers on important items... Have you seen my phone? ;)

Ball Pit Obsession

My son has developed an obsession with ball pits.
It may have started when I created a ball pit for his first birthday.

We now keep it in the garage, and he climbs into it whenever he gets the chance.
Over the break we were visiting family and he found an empty box. After discovering he could climb into the box and have fun, he then brought in his new balls and created a very exciting ball pit!

But it was only the beginning.
One day last week I looked up and saw that Barker had filled his little playhouse with balls and blocks and created a new ball pit!

Two days later we heard a lot of noise coming from the laundry room. And wouldn't you know it, he had transported his balls into the dog crate and made yet another ball pit. Later I had to remove the balls so the dog could go to bed, but this morning he was at it again!
Then, a few minutes later, he became even more creative and turned his seat into a ball pit...keep watching, he eventually tries to get inside his chair ball pit. =)

So there you go, Barker's new entertainment that he mostly created himself! It's a lot of fun and very amusing, just a little noisy. ;)

My Son May Be A Baby Ninja

Well, we've been back from our Holiday trips for nearly a week now and are starting to settle back into our daily routines. But today I had the realization that Barker may be a sneaky ninja! Here are my signs:

1. Yesterday I had my phone next to me on the couch then suddenly it was gone! I looked everywhere and finally discovered that my son (sneaky ninja baby) had taken it and carried it away, right in front of me and I didn't notice!

2. He always likes to hide behind things then peek out and laugh. And obcession with peek-a-boo? or...ninja?

3. Whenever I'm at the table, doing something on my laptop, Barker likes to walk along the back side of the table and wait for me to notice him standing there. He thinks it's hillarious because once again, he has "snuck up" on me. ;)

4. This morning, he was climbing up the stairs but when he got to the landing, he would stand up, giggle, then dive and roll around on the landing. Seriously, rolling around like a ninja. No lie.

5. And the, just before I put him down for a nap, he walked over to me fussing a little. I picked him up, gave him a hug, then put him back down. Then I looked down at my new robe (Christmas present) and saw I was somehow covered in spit up. Once again... Sneaky. Ninja.


I guess I should have known when I caught him stretching the other day....