Room Reveal!

As many of you know, I have been working on Grant's Big Boy Room transformation for quite some time now.  It has consisted of many hours of planning, "pinning" on Pinterest, countless DIY projects and finding the right balance of new and old.  Grant loves his new room, although he has not made the transition to his Big Boy Bed yet, we do read to him every night in it and he enjoys taking his friends in there to play with his pirate ship and tee pee!

 The big boy room is now complete so, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to visit Grant's Nautical Nest...

 It has truly been a labor of love.  Ron has put together every piece of furniture and I have enjoyed making the curtains, the oars and covering the lamp shades in coordinating fabric.  Grant loves the tee pee his Mimi gave him for Christmas.  It also serves a greater purpose, keeping him out of our walk-in attic!

 We both love the larger than life World Atlas that covers the wall on the left.  I joked with Ron that when I can't find him, I'll know he's up in Grant's room staring at that map.

 "Where do you want to go today, Grant?"

 I'm in love with this bookshelf because you can actually see the covers of all the books making it easier for Grant to choose one at bedtime.  I have on the other hand, caught him climbing the shelves to reach a book at the top on numerous occasions.  Luckily it is bolted into the wall!

 For this project I covered cork boards in fabric and then clipped on the photos.  I plan to have a more diverse collection of cards, photos and mementos to display soon.

 All boy, Superhero capes, Captain America mask, Firetruck hat, baseball caps, these are all things we can't live without.  Finally, a great way to display them.

 There's the beloved navy dresser I had to twist Ron's arm to make a special trip to IKEA for.  You should have seen how many parts he had to put together!  I couldn't be happier with it now, it's big, sturdy and has tons of storage space.

 What I love most about the room are the sentimental pieces that mean a lot to Ron and I.  We bought this picture of the USS North Carolina after we got married to remember our Wedding Rehearsal Dinner that was held on the ships bow in Wilmington, NC.

 This memento from Ron's Marine Corps days has found its perfect home on top of Grant's dresser.

 Here's a closeup of one of the lampshades I covered.  These two were much harder to complete than the one I did for the play room due to their irregular size and shape.  This project was trying but overall, I'm happy with the finished product!

 Another special print.  I purchased this vintage Marine Corps Poster for Ron our senior year of college on eBay after he was accepted into Officer Candidate School.  I had it framed and unfortunately, it's been sitting in his parents house since 2004.  Now, it finally has a home in our house and reminds us daily how far we have come!

 Another bookshelf for Grant's growing book collection

 and lastly, the other lampshade I covered.  I found this lamp, shade and all at Goodwill for $5.99.

Now, let's hope the transition for Grant into this GIANT bed is a smooth one.  After all, I plan on that crib having another inhabitant very, very soon.  Thanks for taking the tour!

Beverly Visits Pensacola

My sister, Beverly flew from Philadelphia to Pensacola last weekend to interview with Baptist Hospital.  She will be done with her OB-GYN residency this June and has begun her search for a job.  Over Christmas, she mentioned to Ron and I that Pensacola had been recruiting her and through some easy persuasion we convinced her to come down and check it out!  Much to her surprise she really liked the hospital, doctors and the overall area.  She also likes its proximity to New Orleans, (she lived there for six years and went to Tulane) and to family (us) of course!  No surprise to us, the doctors and hospital staff all fell in love with her as well and an offer is on the table.  Let's just hope this girl figures this one out soon and we can begin planning for Beverly to move down south!  What a blessing it will be to have her 45 minutes away.  Also, to have her be a part of our boys lives and think about how easy it will be on our parents to visit the both us in one trip!  God knows, they need it.  Beverly and I have lived so far a part the last 15 years, it's time we got our acts together! 

We enjoyed a fun weekend in Pensacola, Ron and I took her to kid-friendly and atmosphere aplenty McGuire's Irish Pub for dinner Friday night.  Unfortunately, this is the only decent photo I got on my camera.  The rest were taken on my cell phone.

 Bev, Grant and I rode around Saturday morning with a hospital appointed relocation specialist.  One of our stops was Pensacola Beach where I was able to get some quick cute pics on my phone.

 28 weeks here.  Grant does a great job of hiding the bump

 Grant loves his Aunt Beh Beh

and Saturday evening Beverly came back to our house where she rested, enjoyed some of Ron's treats from the grill and we made smores with the neighbors.  All in all, a quick but great trip.  It was wonderful seeing my big sis and having Grant warm up to her again so quickly.  For awhile after she left Sunday morning he would walk around the house saying, "Where's Beh Beh?"  Hopefully, we'll all be able to see a lot more of her very soon!

Aarrrgghhhh Matey!

Grant received a special surprise in the mail not too long ago from his Mimi.  He was thrilled to find a Pirate Costume and Super Hero Cape made especially for him inside!  These days, I'm having a hard time keeping him in regular clothes.  He wants to be Batman or a Pirate everyday of the week.  Check out his Mimi's sewing skills.  The best part is, we were invited to a Pirate and Princess Party today where the kids are supposed to dress up later this month, Grant is going to have one unique Pirate get-up!

 All I need now is to find his eye patch... where oh where...

 Here's a closeup of the fabric for the pants.  Ah-Dorable.

For now, looks like there will be no treasure maps for this Pirate.  I think he wants to go to Outer Space!  Thanks Mimi, you are the best!  Superhero pics to come!

Pottery Barn Kids Copycat

I found these decorative oars a while back at Pottery Barn Kids.  I thought they would be adorable in Grant's big boy room.  Not willing to pay the $69 a pop price tag I wanted to make this a fun "do it yourself" project.  All it took was finding some sensibly priced oars.  I searched and searched and couldn't find anything worth buying, everything was in the upwards of $30, $40.  Finally, Wal-Mart received a new shipment of wooden oars and at $10 each I knew I had found what I was looking for!

 I purchased the two large oars at Wal-Mart and then found the two paddles at Michael's for $6 each.

 Last Saturday as it rained cats and dogs outside, Grant and I embarked on operation oar

 Grant is a wonderful helper, he is very independent and wanted to paint everything himself with no help.  Of course, what I allowed him to do was very limited and I eventually had to correct many mistakes.  Overall, it was a fun activity to do together.  I taped off the sections of the oars that I wanted to paint different colors and used cheap craft paint found at Michael's for $1.

 and here is the finished product!  I couldn't be happier with how they turned out and with only spending around $25 for the entire project.  They just "make" Grant's new room and add so much personality.

 In the end, we decided the two other paddles were just too much.  I'm going to put those up in our playroom eventually.  I attached the oars to the wall with 3M Velcro strips.

 My favorite part, adding Grant's initials to the bottom of one of the oars with yellow stickers. 

Potty Training: Mission Complete

On Saturday all of my BFF's got together in Raleigh to celebrate one of my best friends, Brittany with a baby shower!  Brittany is due with Wilson Wade in early April and I was just miserable over having to miss out on such a special occasion in a friends life.  I wanted to share with you some recent "craftiness" I was quite proud over, things I had prepared for Britt's shower.  I made her dividers for her babies closet to divide the different sizes in baby clothing using just the products below.

 This idea was of course found on beloved, Pinterest.  The pink ones are for my pal, Jackie.

 I was in charge of the favors for the shower so unsure of what would be easy to ship and not cost a fortune in freight costs, I made these little bird favors filled with wildflower seed.

 Grant was ever ready to help Mama scoop the seeds into the bags.

 I coordinated the colors with the colors from the shower, navy, green and yellow.  I was happy to hear that they shipped beautifully and were a hit!

 On another note, Grant is potty trained!  Praise the Lord!  I took the boot camp approach and enrolled him in a 3 day, no nonsense, not leaving the house or Mama's side training program.  One of the first things we did before starting the program was go out and purchase his "big boy" underwear.  He was very proud of them and carried them all around the house for a couple of hours.

 and for 3 days, Grant looked like this... The book suggested that he wear just a shirt and the underwear around the house for the entirety of the process.

 The ebook I used as a guide was:  3 Day Potty Training by Lora Jensen and can be found HERE.  The first day was miserable, I cleaned up accident after accident and wanted to pull my hair out.  He awoke twice that night with soiled sheets.  The second day he had two accidents and soiled sheets the next morning.  The third day, no accidents and slept through the night and woke up dry!!  He has woken up every morning since dry and we couldn't be happier or prouder of our little man!

 and here I am 27 weeks, Baby James is kicking up a storm and I'm starting to feel all the aches and pains that come with carrying around all that extra baggage.  Good news is, I'm diaper free for 3 months, (and then, it starts allllll over again!)

Carnival

Mardi Gras is in full swing here in Alabama.  We look forward to the fun, festivities and moon pies every year!  Last Saturday we joined some friends for the MMOR parade in Fairhope.  The Mystic Mutts of Rivalry is a walking dog parade and one of the more fun ones to take Grant to.  Dog Lovers unite and dress their beloved companions up in their best Mardi Gras flair.  We first took Grant to this parade in 2010, you can check that experience out HERE.  The parade did not dissapoint, Grant caught tons of loot and moonpies for Mommy and he even got to hang out with his gal pal, Chatam.

Grant and I with close friends, Joni and Chatam waiting for the parade to start!

 and now I'll let the mutts steal the show...

 This year's theme was "The Wizard of Pawz."  The black poodle in front was dressed as Dorothy and even had on a braided pigtail wig, it was darling!  Do you spot the wicked witch and tinman?

 Ballerina Lab

 Daddy helped Grant get a better view of the puppy dogs

 I loved this little guy

 Grant really excited about that little maltese in the corner that came over and gave him a lick!

 This dog sported the collapsed Wicked Witch of the West on his back

 Joni's hubbie caught this shot of us watching the parade

 This bull mastif was larger than life and made quite the appearance in his tutu

 And if one parade wasn't enough, we stuck around to catch the Knights of Ecor Rouge parade later that evening.  We were joined by even more friends and enjoyed floats that were modeled after the theme, "Giants."  Clifford the big red dog, Jolly the green giant, Eli Manning and the Giants football team were some of the floats that passed us by, sorry for not having any photos of this one.  Left my camera in the car by accident.  The two below are curtesy of Joni.

 Grant enjoying cheese puffs before the parade started up.

 Just wanted to share this little cute story before I leave you... the other morning Grant was digging through a kitchen drawer and discovered a sucker!  He begged and begged me to let him eat it.  I repeated over and over that he had to finish his breakfast before Mommy would let him have this sucker.  A little later, I went into my room to get dressed, he came in a few minutes after me and proudly boasted his empty cereal bowl with the sucker in his other hand.  "Look Mom, all Gone!"  I knew better and said "Grant, Where did you put your cereal?"  He said, "I threw it in the trash!"  At least at this age, he's honest!

 This is the trash can from the upstairs bathroom I had just brought down and emptied and also where he decided to discard of his breakfast!  Pretty smart, huh?