9 to 5

"mom's back to work right when my sweet new stroller arrived and we're about to see the sun again"


after four glorious months off, i headed back to work today. i don't think i'm really allowed to blog about my new place of employment, but it is abbreviated in some circles as ml. i am on a team of 5 and they seem as happy to have me as i was to find them! i decided to scale back my hours with this new opportunity so i can still be home most days with my little man. i work m/t/th and can tell that this is going to be the perfect work-life-balance i was looking for after having declan. today was a great day!

tim is working hard in his career at a place that is known for its baby shampoo... but he's not a shampoo salesman, more along the lines of large medical diagnostic machines. life is good!

the boys

another successful stewart-mitchell pizza night occurred this weekend. parker is 12.5 weeks and declan is 18 weeks.

i don't know how parker can be mad - look how cute his outfit is with his gap tee, new jeans and trumpette socks? declan freaked after the picture was taken... they're a little young to appreciate our new rocking chair from grandma nancy. won't be long though.


they-might-kill-us-when-they're-older-pic


naked babies are very funny

a painted house

as pledged, here are more photos of our newly painted interior, specifically our family room and kitchen. looking back at the "before" photos from when we moved in, i am reminded of the truly blank slate this house was... about as blank as a prison cell. this was part of the appeal for us however! the house is beautiful from the outside, has beautiful dark wood floors and cabinets inside and just needed some tlc along the lines of paint and furniture. sometimes i think i missed my calling, it has been so much fun to decorate this place! p.s. normally this room is accented with an exersaucer, swing, bouncy chair, boppy, play mat and various blankets and toys, but they were removed for quality control purposes for these photos.

the family room is a beautiful olive green (turned out exactly how i had hoped), and the kitchen complements it well a few shades lighter. love love love!

family room before (can you believe we wanted to move in to this?)


family room after, i like to say it is "cozy elegant"




kitchen before (including tim and our beloved realtor, delia huffman) good thing i could see past the chintzy, dusty, dollar-store silk flower arrangement in the window sill. why do people do that?

kitchen after

bunnies

tim and the bunny cake he requested for easter. my mom was happy to oblige as she hasn't made one since i was little and said she needs to get practice for declan!

he ate the bunny's entire head for breakfast today before he went to the gym. ha ha!

family - happy easter!

great grandma betty

grandpa & mimi

grandpa

us!

rice rice baby

yeay! now that he's a big 4 month old, declan got the green light to start food (if you call soupy rice cereal food) and is very happy with his full tummy!

before and after/foyer

BEFORE, ick


AFTER


after living with insane-asylum white walls since we moved in, we finally have color! we got almost the whole interior painted last week and our home looks so loved now! here are before paint and after paint photos of the foyer, "sherwin williams nomadic beige" for all you designers out there... paint makes such an impact even on a budget! we also just installed french doors so tim can have a quiet office. it won't be long and there will be little fingerprints and face marks all over those doors from you know who.

the kitchen, family room and master are even more dramatic but i have to pick up those rooms before i take pictures of them for the interweb for all to see... might be a few days before i get around to those. :)

in case there was any question...

this is what declan picked out to wear today. thanks aunt tina and uncle andy for supporting our cause! we love it!

go john mccain! not our ultimate first choice, but less scary than the other two...

new developments

now this is really starting to be a baby blog isn't it?! oh well, as i've said before, our lives kind of revolve around him now so the blog will likewise reflect! he rolled from tummy to back yesterday, unfortunately we did not get to witness it... he was playing in his crib on his tummy and when tim went in to get him he was completely sunny side up!

starting yesterday, he completely holds his head up and props himself up on elbows. i guess this is not interesting to anyone without kids, but it is kind of cool when your baby goes from a blob to a smiling, strong little man!

babes and their babes

jenna is still mad at me for my summer post of her while very pregnant! so this post should make up for it! last friday we went over to their house for pizza and beer. a wonderful no-fuss friday night with friends and a first with our little men.



here we are with our "baby weight" on our laps - parker 8 weeks, declan 14 weeks.

g & g visit

grandma nancy & grandpa lynn visited us in indy this past weekend on their way home from florida. it was so nice to see them! declan had the chance to show off his new developments like grabbing hanging toys, constant smiling & laughing, vigorous leg kicking, stringing noises together into "sentences," and SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT - YES!!!

and mom, next time you visit we promise we won't make you fold our laundry (though it is military-esque perfect folding)!

miniature family tree

i had these pictures scanned in 2005 for our save-the-date cards for our wedding and thought i'd compare what tim & i looked like as children to see if declan bears any resemblance yet...





well i think it is too soon to tell (plus we're comparing d's 3 month shots to our kindergarten ones), but they are worth a look anyway particularly because outside of our own child i think tim was the cutest kid! his picture always makes me smile.

lock up your daughters

here is declan proudly showing off his shirt i found him at baby gap. i did have to giggle a little when i saw it and had to buy it though i do think many of the "slogan" tees are a bit overdone.



ryan and his girlfriend rochelle were visiting this weekend and ryan was a little jealous of the shirt... kind of wanting one for himself. we quickly realized that it would be incredibly sketchy for anyone older than 4 to own this shirt, as in "dateline:to catch a predator"-sketchy! lol

thank you guys for the awesome books and cool wall letters for the baby! oh and the veuve for us! we have a lot to celebrate!

old friends

my friend becky and i go way back to 7th grade. i visited her this week while in chicago and we had lunch and a playdate with our guys. i got a glimpse of life with two mobile children - makes our house seem pretty tame! her guys are jack and ryan, so cute! next time we'll have to get all of us in the shot.