Favorite Things Friday

My favorite thing from this week is this little guy!

Elijah Majia!!! Born 28 August! Such a cutie!


I die for this sink... One of my fav bloggers had it MADE from a slab and some Iron...  also love the floor.

This is my DREAM dinning room! There is not a SINGLE item in here that I do not LOVE!

I LOVE this hidden jewelry storage! I want to do this NOW... too bad I have a huge "honey do list" for Matt to complete as we are gearing up for Hunter's Second Birthday party! If we didn't have that looming I would totally be sharing this with you on Monday...

Gibson at 5 Months

Gibson turned 5 months on Monday and he is just continuing to develop and gain such a great personality.

Weight wise we are still not doing well... After weekly weight checks with a nurse and a check-up with our AMAZING doctor yesterday we are now moving forward with some testing and and going forward a weekly check with the doctor so that things can be closely monitored. First step is to determine how much he eats on a daily basis so it will be bottles only for our little man for the next three days.

Here are some highlights from the month..

• Continues to sleep through the night
• Likes to stand but WILL NOT jump. Hates the Jumper-roo
• Went down to Georgia and helped mommy paint a room...
• Can now role in both directions! Such a strong guy
• Scoots all around his crib
• Likes to laugh at his big brother and big sister
• Continues to sleep through the night

  

Here is a look back at the last few months:

4 Months 

3 Months
2 Months
1 Month

Birth Day 

Here is Hunter at 5 Months

Amazon Pantry Review

When I was in Savannah a few weeks ago my sweet hubby, unknown to me, signed us up for Amazon Pantry:

"Prime Pantry is a new shopping experience on Amazon.com. Prime members can shop popular household essentials and have them conveniently delivered.

Adding your first Prime Pantry item to Cart starts a Prime Pantry box. As you shop, you see that each Pantry item tells you what percentage of a Pantry box it fills based on its size and weight. Pantry boxes are large and can hold up to 45 pounds or four cubic feet of household products. As you check items off your list, we continuously track and show you how full your box is.

You can buy as much or as little as you want for a flat $5.99 delivery fee per Prime Pantry box. Save gas, save money, save time."

 

I was a bit surprised when these two BIG boxes showed up at my door...

Full disclosure I was terrified about what I would find... Homeboy NEVER does grocery shopping. I was sure that this little "test" was going to be a disaster and I was SURE that hubby spent WAY too much money on this little adventure.

Sure that I was going to be irritated by the process I dug into that first box...

At first glance it didn't look too bad... I mean pasta, tomato soup, goldfish, Fiber One bars (Emma's Fav.), Salsa and taco shells SCORE...

As I proceeded to unpack the randomness began to appear. It was actually a bit of a therapy session... It provided me with a look into my husbands mind. Multiple times I found myself asking if he wished that I bought certain products or why he felt the need to buy such items for our family.. it was a learning experience and there were plenty of items that I would NEVER buy on my own... but does he wish that I would?

This little old can of Corned Beef Hash is a perfect example... WHAT? WHY? but apparently something that he likes...

Side Note: Many of the cans came damaged from the delivery... they seem to randomly put items into the box...

I've also never bought canned green beans... But I guess Matt wants some on-hand...

Smashed Milano cookies... the crumbs still taste good. But again this isn't something that I've ever even thought about buying... Too expensive for just a few cookies.

He also picked out some cereal that I've never purchased previously and well the kids seem to like it! Again the box is smashed but whatever...

Soup in a box though.... did NOT make it through the shipping process... At least they were smart enough to have it in its own protective bag so it didn't ruin everything else.

Hubby was also smart enough to include a bribe in the pantry shipment... He is a good man!

Here is the full bounty from the two boxes...

 

Really not too bad... but I was interested to see how much the convenience of having our pantry items delivered would cost me... We figured a 20% premium...

 

Last weekend I printed up the invoice that detailed how much each item cost and I headed out to my local GIANT... there was one constant across the board when I compared prices....

 

Ready for it.....

 

EVERY SINGLE ITEM was CHEAPER through Amazon!!! WHAT???? I was shocked!

 

Example.. those Milano Cookies $3.69 at Giant and $2.68 at Amazon (over $1 in savings)

 

There were a few items that Giant didn't even have and for the below comparison I completely omitted them from my calculations...

 

Giant Food Total: $ 162.54

Amazon Total: $133.20

 

My final verdict...

 

I have to give Matt a big pat on the back for this one... I think that from now on I will be shopping for many of my pantry items through Amazon Prime Pantry and that at the grocery I will stick to the outside aisles. I will also keep a running list of pantry items so that I can fill an entire box.. need to justify the $5.99 per box delivery fee. (the savings alone also seemed to make up for that). Additionally, Amazon pantry has coupons for select items that I didn't even factor into the above price comparisons... With coupons Matt had an additional $2.08 off his total...

 

When it comes to the dents and damaged items...

 

I think that Amazon will continue to refine their shipping procedures (as this is a new niche for them) and, fingers crossed, items will not arrive as smashed as they did for this first order... Additionally, we took photos of all damaged items and sent them to Amazon and we were reimbursed back.

Savannah Visit: William's room

Two weekends ago I visited Savannah to help out my Sister-in-law. In addition to cooking some meals I also wanted to take on a painting project. We decided that I would paint my nephews room during this visit and that I would pain my nieces room in September...

 

Sadly, I failed in the before photo department. After moving the furniture I remembered to snap a few photos though... The room was just plain Jane off-white... the house is also a rental so there were random smudges all around the room that I was happy to get rid of...



 

We went with Glidden paint that was color matched to Martha Stewart Hydrangea (eggshell/low luster)

And here are the after photos...

And let me just say that this was not done without some obstacles... During the cutting-in process a slip off the step-stool had this as the end result...

 

YUP the entire gallon of paint spilled... this photo was taken AFTER I had gotten up a majority of the paint and already made the call to a PROFESSIONAL! My first call though was to my girl Virginia as I was FREAKING OUT!!! She was quick to turn to google and provide me with some direction!

 

Public Service Announcement: If you Spill paint on a carpet... pick up all access paint as quickly as possible, CALL A PROFESSIONAL, keep the edges wet so that it does not dry and all paint can come up... again with the help of a PROFESSIONAL!!!

 

I called Genesis Carpet Care (in Savannah, GA) and they were AMAZING! The owner came out right away and with a lot of work the carpet now looks like this! A million times better. You can still see a faint outline of the stain but again a million times better. THANK YOU!!! They were also really competitively priced. I HIGHLY recommend

My Sister-in-law was such a sweetie when I revealed the tribulations of the day. (Tribulations may sound like a strong word but believe me... I almost had a heart attack!) Everyone was happy though with the end result in the room.

 

To end on a good note here is the after again!

Hunter's 2nd Birthday Party: Construction

This morning I shared a 23 month update for our Hunter Man! Cannot believe how fast time has flown and that we will be celebrating his 2nd birthday in a few weeks!

To say that I am sooooooooo looking forward to Hunter's 2nd birthday party is an understatement! About two months ago I settled on a construction theme for the event and I've been busy pinning fun ideas ever since!

Here are some of the great ideas that are giving me inspiration for our party...

For his invitations I went through the very talented Heather at LIFEvents. (Photo was taken by the AMAZING Virginia of House of Maps Photography)

 Cannot wait to share the DIY details as we go along!

Hunter at 23 months

Oh my goodness Hunter will be TWO in under a month!!!! How is this even possible? I'm in major mommy denial and time needs to SLOW down!!!

This has been a really exciting month even in the last week Hunter has just been developing at warp speed!

At 23 Months Hunter...

• Learned how to open the door to his room... Matt found this out at 3 a.m. when there was a little visitor by his bed. (I was out of town)
• Vocabulary tripled
• Now walks up and down steps without having to hold on to anything.
• Can throw a ball with much more accuracy and loves to catch
• Loves to spin in circles
• Will play fetch with Sophie
• Will sit and play with his Mega Blocks and Legos for a good hour just building up and taking apart
• Is becoming a little better about eating more.
• Loves to be tickled and thrown in the air
• Is such a GREAT big brother! When Gibson is taking a nap he will run all around the house telling everyone to "SHHHHH"
• Had his first experience with Juice... He is obsessed with the Naked "Green juice" Which is good for him and we have been making fresh juices...
• Likes to say his ABC's (we say a letter and he will repeat it) The only letter we have a hard time saying is M
• Loves to parrot... we say a word and he will repeat it back.
• Love to put on shoes!

 

Savannah Visit: Cooking

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take a few days off work and I headed down to Savannah with Gibson. The original plan was to fly but when I got the news (last minute) that my flight had been cancelled I took to the road and we drove!

Driving alone with a 4 month old isn't my idea of fun but it was important to get down there for a Saturday visit with my brother so I couldn't wait for the next direct flight. As a plus, it allowed for me to take a few more items... like his mama roo which was helpful to have around while I was cooking and painting...

The weekend consisted of a nice visit with my brother, church, lunch out, cooking and preparing of a lot of freezer meals, and I painted my nephews bedroom! A very productive weekend!

A few of the meals that I made were:

The BEST Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas - With only 4 ingredients these are SOOOO easy and yummy! I made this meal for dinner one night but made some extra of the filling and placed it in a freezer bag along with flour tortillas for my sister-in-law to cook up on another night.

My Sausage, Goat Cheese, and Arugula Stuffed Peppers: Another easy and tasty meal. So easy in fact that, under my direction, my 8 year old niece did all of the cooking for this meal! 

Creamy, Tomato and Spinach pasta: I made this one as a freezer meal. Placing uncooked pasta in a freezer bag, Added a freezer bag of uncooked (frozen) shrimp, and pre-cooked the sauce and added that in a freezer bag. Placed all three items into one bigger bag with cooking instructions on the outside. (Directions: Cook pasta. Thaw, shell, & Cook shrimp. Add sauce to shrimp and heat through. Add pasta to shrimp and sauce mixture. DONE)

Chicken, Broccoli, Rice Casserole: this is one of the freezer meals that I did before Gibson's Birth. I decided to to a half recipe and it ended up being MUCH more manageable! 

Sausage and Zucchini Casserole: This is such a yummy and flavorful dish! So easy! 

Plum Pork Tenderloin: this is a crock pot meal

Next Tuesday I will be sharing my before and after of my nephew's room!

Favorite Things Friday

I would like to add DIY Panels to our downstairs doors. Right now they are just plain jane and this gives so much personality!

 

 

Yes please to ALL of this house! From the fabulous kitchen with the painted base on the island and marble, painted beams, Wallpaper accent wall in the half bath! Even the piggy bookends holding the cookbooks!!! I WANT IT! Don't even get me started on the gift wrap station in the laundry room. That would be my happy place... Don't know where mommy is??? In the Laundry room of course!!!

 

This Nursery for a Third Child is AMAZING! It makes me want to re-do my own kiddos rooms!! the closet organization is just making my head spin. Soon we will need to do our own closet revamp when Gibson and Hunter start sharing a room. Which, side-note, is likely only a few months away since Gibson is such an amazing sleeper. I just want to get him through his first few teeth.

 

What rock have I been living under??? I didn't realize that H&M has baby clothes. I'm not an H&M lover typically but this vest, via Brooklyn Limestone is too much!!! Would it be a crime to put my boy in it??? I asked Matt and he thought that Hunter could rock it.

 

I'm obsessed with this first birthday party!

 

 Hope that everyone has a GREAT weekend. I'm off to Savannah for 4 days with Gibson!