Happy Spring!

Well today wraps up my week of Spring Break. It was so nice having time to get things done and time to spend with Carson. On Monday, Carson had his 1 year ENT appointment to check his tubes. Everything looked good and the doctor said that both tubes were working their way out of the ear drum. He wants to see us in about 5 weeks to check if the tubes have fallen out and if they havent, he will remove them. After Carson's appointment I wanted to have a fun afternoon so we went to the mall to have lunch and then went to Build a Bear to make a bear for Spencer. When I was pregnant with Carson I made a bear that has his heart beat in it so we did the same thing for Spencer. Carson loved helping stuff the bear and then giving it a bath.
Tuesday and Wednesday Carson went to daycare for a few hours so I could get some stuff done around the house and run some errands. Thursday was another Carson and Mommy fun day. We started our day with a visit from the Leprechaun. The Leprechaun left a trail of foot prints and gold and also made a mess in the playroom. Carson loved finding all of the gold. Then we have green pancakes for breakfast. Then we went up to Anthem to ride the train around the park. Carson was in heaven. He had a smile on his face the entire time. My plan was to let him play at the park after, but the playground was closed :( I needed to run into the Carter's outlet up in Anthem to find a "coming home for the hospital" outfit for Spencer so I promised Carson we would go to another park when we were done shopping. He was so good at the store and even picked out a few things for Spencer. I also got Carson his "Big Brother" shirt and got Spencer a matching "Little Brother" shirt.
Since it was getting close to lunch time, I asked Carson what he wanted for lunch and of course he suggested McDonalds. So on the way tot he park, I stopped and got McDonalds and we had a picnic at the park. After we ate and played for a bit, we headed home to take naps. Friday was a Mommy Day so Carson went to daycare again. I had things to return and I was treating myself to a pedicure. Boy was it nice to be sitting and having someone rub my feet.
Here are some pictures from the St. Patrick's Day and the train park:












Throughout the week I have been working hard on Spencer's room. His room was previously our junk and craft room so there was alot to do. We put the twin bed in Carson's room and put the crib together in Spencer's room. I did most of Spencer's laundry and even started putting the diaper bag together.
My mom bought the bedding for us as a gift and she ordered it this weekend. It should arrive this week and I can not wait.
This is the bedding:


I borrowed a friends Cricut machine to make a baby shower present for a friend and I am hooked. I have been trying to come up with a project for Spencer's room and today I got it! I am going to make a Subway art canvas. I already have the canvas (I just painted over the picture I made for Carson's nursery) and the vinyl. My plan is to start cutting the vinyl out today since I need to return the machine to my friend soon.
Here is my inspiration for the subway art:


I am not in love with parts of this so I am going to add some different words and such so we will see how it turns out.

The countdown is on...

Well, as of today I am 31 weeks pregnant. I would love to say that time has flown by, but its hasnt. I feel like I have been pregnant forever! When I was pregnant with Carson I never remember feeling "done" but then again I wasnt working full time AND chasing after a 2 year old everyday. Working full time as a teacher is exhausting in itself, but then coming home and taking care of Carson or other wife/mommy duties completely wipes me out.
This pregnancy is very similar to my pregnancy with Carson. No morning sickness, no funny cravings, hip and back pain, but most importantly my belly measuring small. With Carson my doctor started noticing my smaller belly around 30-32 weeks. She started monitoring the growth by doing monthly ultrasounds and the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy she had me going in for NST's (Non Stress Test) twice a week.
At my appointment today, my doctor told me that she would like to start monitoring the baby's growth because when she measured my belly, it measured 28 cm. It is suppose to match up with the number of weeks you are. I am not too worried because I know everything worked out fine with Carson. I just make small babies I guess!
The one thing that is different with this pregnancy is that I have low blood platelets. We first discovered this in late November/early December. My doctor didnt seem too worried (levels were 121,000) and told me that we would check it again at in a few months. So, after learning of this "disorder" I started researching. The biggest thing that stood out was that if my levels were too low at time of delivery then I could not have an epidural! AHHHHHHHHHH, are you serious?!?!? That is the one thing that scares me most.
I had more blood work done last week and my levels went down even more (102,000). The first thing I thought when my doctor told me this was Could I still have an epidural??? My doctor is going to keep an eye on my levels and I have to go back in a few weeks for more blood work. I really hope they go up or stay the same. She said something about if they get below 88,000, but I honestly dont remember what she said. I was too focused on getting an epidural.
Well, I now go to the doctors every 2 weeks and soon I will be going every week. 9 weeks sounds a lot farther away then I think it really is. We are getting ready to put Spencer's room together. Next week we will be putting the twin bed in Carson's room and moving the crib into Spencer's room. The car seat is all washed and ready to go and Spencer has a ton of clothes ready to be washed. My wonderful friends are throwing me a baby shower in 2 weeks. They truly are the best and I cant wait to see everything they have done.

Love is in the air!

Well, maybe not love, but Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away. I finally finished a few projects that I have been working on. Thought I would share them with you...all 2 of you who probably read this ;)

Cupcake Liner Wreath


Foam Hearts I found in the dollar section at Target. Just hot glued them to dowel rods


Valentine's Day Subway Art that I found in blog land
Still waiting for the hubby to spray paint the frame white for me


Conversation Heart Topiary inspired from Mine for the Making


Here is a project I am working on for Carson, No Sew Blanket:


Cutting the fringe


Tie the 2 pieces together (like you would a balloon)


Looks super cute so far doesnt it???

After Christmas Craft

Who doesnt love crafting??? Who doesnt love a good deal??? Who doesnt love CRAFTING and a GOOD DEAL all in one???
I cant take all the credit for this project. A friend of mine, Megan, posted pictures on Facebook of the wreath that she made before Christmas and I just LOVED how it turned out. I made our Winter wreath about 4 years ago and I knew it was time for a new one. I could not wait to try and make a similar wreath to Megan's but I knew I was going to wait until after Christmas so I could take full advantage of the 50% off sales.

Here is my inspiration, Megan's ornament wreath:


Megan used a wire hanger as her form. She added a bow she made with ribbon to cover the hook.


I did not have a wire hanger, but did have a wood wreath that I picked up at the dollar store in the fall to make a fall wreath but never did. The day after Christmas I went to Target to check out the sales. Since this was the first time making this wreath I wasnt sure how it would turn out so I didn't want to spend a ton of money on the ornaments. I knew I wanted to do red and silver and found the perfect ones IN THE DOLLAR SECTION!!! Yes, the dollar section and they were 50% off!!! I bought 3 tubes of each color for a total of $3 on the ornaments. I couldnt wait to get home and start crafting. (I actually went back and bought 1 more tube of each color a few days later in case I needed more and they were only $ .25 a tube!)
I covered the wreath with silver ribbon (that I have had in my Christmas stuff for the past 4 years). Then I basically just started gluing the ornaments in place. There was no real science to it. I am a perfectionist and wanted it to be perfect but there were several times I just gave in and put them where ever they would fit. I realized that I needed smaller ornaments to fill in spaces and to break it up a little. Good thing I have TONS of little ornaments that I put in vases. I just grabbed my silver, red and frosted clear ones and went back to work.
I am really happy with how it turned out, although there are several spots that bother me. Maybe I will get inspired again and add a few more ornaments before hanging it up next Christmas.
Here is my finished product:



What do you think??? I still have to add a ribbon at the top but I will deal with that in December :)

Whats in a name?

Before we found out that Carson would be having a baby brother, we (or I) decided that this baby would be named BEFORE going into the hospital. If you didnt know already, we had a hard time naming Carson before he was born. Every time we talked about names, I just could not picture our son being named that. I kept thinking "what if it's the wrong name?" or "what if I pick this name then change my mind later after everyone already knows?" When I went into labor (5 days early) we still were very unsure about what we were going to name our new precious baby boy. At the time, the choices were Carson James or Hunter James. Boy am I glad we picked Carson! Hunter is a nice name and I like it, but just not sure I can picture my son being named Hunter.
That brings us to naming this baby...
There is 1 criteria that has to be met in the naming of our children... one of their names must be related to a family name somehow. My brother, sister and I all have names from family members and Greg's middle name is his dad's name. Carson's middle name is James just like Greg's. Since we already honored Greg's side of the family I really wanted to use a name from my side of the family. Do you realize how hard it is to find a name that flows with Szymanski??? And to make matters even harder, it also had to go well with Carson. Immediately we were faced with "rhyming" names. I have always liked the name Bryce, but Greg thought it sounded like a nickname so I suggested Bryson. We both really liked it, but did not like how is sounded with Carson. Ok, back to the drawing board! What about Spencer? When I was pregnant with Carson, Spencer was a name that was always on my list, but never really considered. Greg liked it so that became #1 on our list. Now we had to find a way to use a family name with it. My dad's name is Stephen and that would be quite a mouth full of S's if we did Spencer Stephen Szymanski so it was back to the drawing board. Then I had an idea... what if we used the initials of my dads name??? My dad's side of the family is Jewish and a way to honor family members is to use their initials instead of their full name. (If I have this wrong, then i'm sorry. This is what I grew up hearing, or maybe I thought I heard it) Since Spencer and Stephen both start with the same letter, it worked :) Now I wanted to see if I could find a middle name using the same initial as my dad's middle name. That part was easy for me... Noah.
Ok, so I think I have explained way too much in this blog about how we came to the conclusion of our new baby boys name. We ordered new personalized Christmas stockings (super cheap after Christmas) so I guess it is official now...



Spencer Noah Szymanski!

Before Christmas Fun

Winter Break started at 11:01am on Friday the 17th and boy was I excited. My mom and sister were flew in that morning. Greg and Carson went to pick them up since I had to work and then Greg brought them up to my school. My mom and sister have never seen any of my classrooms or schools since I started teaching. It was nice to show my mom around and introduce her to some of the awesome people I work with. My plan was to get some copies made for the week back to school, but once they got there, I was ready to pack up my things and get home.
That afternoon/evening we stayed home and relaxed since my mom and sister had gotten up at like 4:30am to make their early morning flight. The next morning we headed to my cousin's house for a "Christmas" breakfast. Carson was excited to see Jordan (my cousin's 7 year old). Jordan and Carson got to exchange presents and Carson was just in LOVE with his new remote control train. He had to have it open right then and there. He did not put it down until it was time to go home, and even then he had to hold it in the car. When we got home Carson ran in the house to show daddy (daddy had a cold and stayed home to rest) and he had to set up the track that came with the train. That train kept him busy for the next several days.
I dont really remember what days we did what, but the the days leading up to Christmas were full of fun, shopping and spending lots of money. We took Carson to the gym, went to Glendale Glitters, made gingerbread houses, outlet shopping, saw Santa, went on a train ride, date night with the hubby, baked cookies, lots of shopping, pedicures and lunch with my sister, painted ornaments, "snow" at Desert Ridge (an outdoor shopping center) and church on Christmas Eve. Here are a few pictures from all of the fun leading up to Christmas:

Breakfast and gift exchange with The Politz Family (Jordan ran off before the picture)


Carson playing with his new train


Once we got home, he set up the track


Making Gingerbread houses




Glendale Glitters




Walking around the neighborhood looking at the lights before bedtime


Train Ride with Mimi


Sitting on Santa's lap


Painting Ornaments (made from salt dough and cookie cutters)


Running in the "snow" at Desert Ridge


Shaking the keys and singing Jingle Bells at church


After Church


Reading 'The Night Before Christmas'


On Christmas Eve we went to the 5:30 church service and then came home and had a delicious dinner, lamb, roasted potatoes and asparagus and noodles. Carson got to open 1 present before bed, his new ornament. I found the perfect ornament at Hallmark, Mickey Mouse on a Choo Choo. Carson loves it. Then we got our jammies on, left cookies out for Santa and read 'The Night Before Christmas.' Carson was so excited for Santa to come.
I will update more tomorrow with all of the fun from Christmas day.

Shutterfly Holiday Cards!

I love Shutterfly. I have ordered Christmas cards from them in the past and I have never been disappointed. They have so many cute cards to chose from. It always takes me several days to decide. I have also made a few calendars. I made each set of grandparents a calendar of Carson's first year and my mom still has hers in a drawer.
After Greg and I were married I made a super cute desk calendar for my desk at work. I got so many compliments on it. I really should make another one :)

I just took at look through all 274 sample holiday cards to choose from and it is hard to pick a favorite. Since we havent taken our family pictures yet, it is hard to pick one to go with the colors but I am really in love with this card:



There are also over 700 Christmas Cards to choose from as well. I will be taking a look at those later on after Carson goes to bed :)

Shutterfly is giving away 50 FREE holiday cards! Yes, you heard right, FREE!!!!
Now, if you love Shutterfly as much as I do, then click here to check out this amazing offer!