channeling my nesting

I sat down the other day and starting making a list of all the things I'd like to get done before the baby comes.  It might be the most massive, overwhelming list that ever was.  It includes everything from cleaning out the garage and attic to painting the foyer to organizing closets to moving Declan & Fifi into the same room.  But I've said it before, there's really nothing like a little nesting to get things going.  Yesterday we all spent some quality family time in the garage and got it all cleaned out.  Even though my giant bus Suburban won't fit anyway, it's nice to walk through without tripping over anything.  Here it is:

  Now we just have to keep it like that!  Today while Jay was at work, I tackled the pantry.  I even broke out the label maker and put some plastic bins on the top shelf and labeled their contents. 

I also designated one cork tile (on the inside of the pantry door) to holding coupons and the other to recipes I use all the time.  See?

wew-hoooooooo!

Declan is three and a half, he'll be four in January.  And until last week has had absolutely no interest in being potty trained.  I didn't push him, I figured he'd eventually get it.  Although, the last few months I've started to wonder if he ever would.  People always said, "don't worry, it's not like he's going to go to college in a diaper".  So that's what I kept telling myself.  But as he would sit on the little plastic potty for what seemed like hours and not go, only to pee on my carpet within minutes of getting up, I thought that he might be the one.  The kid that really did have to wear a diaper to college.  The kid they did the 60 minutes special on. 
So, Jay and I decided one afternoon last week, that that was it.  He wasn't wearing diapers anymore.  We put him in underwear and that night he went twice on the potty.  Every time he went, we went crazy.  Hugging  him and jumping up and down like lunatics.  We kept telling him how proud we were and he started to become really proud too.  He's only had a couple accidents since last week.  I don't think I have been this excited about anything, ever.  It really might be my greatest accomplishment to date.
So, it looks like Declan will be able to go to preschool in the fall and I will not have 3 kids in diapers come November. 

long time, no see...

I knew it had been a long time since I wrote a blog post, but when I clicked on my blog today and saw my last post was on Valentine's Day, well that's just embarrassing.  Good news, I have a giant excuse!  Well, more like a teeny tiny excuse! 

That's right, we're having another little Sprinkel baby!  We're all super excited!  I am 16 weeks (as of yesterday) and am starting to feel like myself again.  Not sick anymore and not so tired, so I'm enjoying this stretch of pregnancy before it gets really hot here and I get really huge.  I feel like I'm already nesting.  I've started all these projects around the house that I've been putting off for years.  My plan is to get a good chunk of my to-do list checked off before the little Turkey gets here (yep, I'm due ON Thanksgiving!). 

I also want to start blogging again so I can document this pregnancy.  I'll try to post as much as possible.  Ava had her last day of 2nd grade today, so that's kind of a big deal.  Now that the kids are all out of school, I won't be running all around as much, so I should have some time to tackle all these projects. 

First, up I decided last night around 6pm, that I wanted to paint our upstairs hallway.  The hallway and the foyer are the only spaces in the entire house that we've never painted.  They still have the builders' grade dinghy off-white paint that was there the day we moved in.  Only now, there are also little fingerprints and crayon scribbles on top.  It's my biggest pet peeve in this house, but it's not really an area I can do myself because of the 2-story foyer.  Me (pregnant) + giant ladder + paint + toddlers= no bueno!  So I decided I'm going to start by picking paint colors and work on finding someone to help me get it done.  I picked Ashley Gray for the upstairs hallway and Revere Pewter for the foyer (both Benjamin Moore).  So last night, Jay helped me do the hallway.  It makes the biggest difference.  I can't wait to get the foyer done too!  We also have this little nook/niche thingie upstairs that I've never exactly been sure what to do with.  I thing in the model home, it had an urn full of silk flowers or maybe a bust of David.  Well, today I decided to paint the inside of it Ocean Slumber (by Valspar).  Also, I found this picture in a CB2 catalog and I really like the tall vase with the river rocks and the grasses. 

The niche/nook needs something really tall or it just looks silly.  So I'm thinking of recreating this maybe next to a stack of fun coffee table books and maybe a picture frame.  I'll post a picture when I get it all together.  

And I promise the next time you hear from me, I won't have already had the baby!  ;)