Inspired...

I love to decorate. I've been told by numerous people that I should be an interior decorator. It's flattering, but I would be no good going to someone else's house and decorating it for them...it would probably turn out just like mine. My style totally reflects my personality, my passions, my sentiments... Usually when decorating a room, I'm the type who has one object that I start with, and build the room around it...a lamp, a picture, a pillow, etc... I decorate with gusto. Lots of bold colors, patterns, I don't like matchy-matchy. It takes me forever to completely finish a room. We like to create our own paintings to personalize a room and make it "ours". I rearrange and add touches here and there untill I can sit in the middle and decide its "done" its "me" its "us". So all this to say I've been completely uninspired to decorate our bedroom. Last year at this time, I got sick of the red walls and decided to repaint it a light/sunny yellow color. We put up a couple wardrobes, and hung a few pictures, but we keep saying...it's just not us.
Saturday night, I came home from a "girls night out", and walked into our bedroom to find the most beautiful comforter on our bed. My husband is the greatest.
Here's our old comforter...(shabby chic)

Here's our new comforter...i love it! You can't tell from the picture really, but there are birds and flowers stitched in a different fabric on the orange branches. I'm already inspired to finish our bedroom...

And, whats a post without some pictures of little lo lo?
We got to visit the Ackermans and their new baby Brennan a few weeks ago. What an adorable little baby boy! Jon and Chaeli will be great parents.


~mb

fun after bath time

Not too sure what I'm supposed to do here...cry because I'm cold, or laugh at the silly people making faces at me...


laugh!
and laugh...

and laugh...

and laugh some more...

Lo is just too cute when he giggles.

mb

first booboo

I think I will stick to cutting nails that are my own for awhile...this is Josh's job now :)

mb

Lorens Rolled Over!

Other than all the smiles and laughing, I guess the most exciting milestone we've reached is that the boy is rolling over! Usually I give him tummy time on my lap, and I just sat there dumbfounded last thursday when he flipped over. I got his third roll-over on video. Note to self...do not talk while recording next time...
mb

growing up!

Lorens had his 2 month check-up yesterday, and I realized how much he is growing up! Here is what he is doing now...
*smiling and cooing and "laughing" all the time - we love to make him smile
*sticks his tongue in and out when we wiggle ours at him...thanks dad for teaching him this! :)
*sucks his hands and thumbs
*loves to stare at hanging toys in front of his face
*smiles and squirms when we play patty cake
*loves to stare at the Mary Englebreit border I have in the laundry room where he gets changed
*he is a good sleeper! He takes 2-3 naps in the day and sleeps 5-7 hours in a row at night.
*ever since he was born, he continues to be on the small side. At 11 weeks old he is weighing in at 9 lbs. 11 oz. His head is pretty little too. So, he is pretty low on the growth chart. He is long though!!! 23 and 1/4 inches! The Dr. wasn't worried because he is so long...proves he is growing i guess!
*he definitely knows who his momma and daddy are. sometimes I have trouble getting other people to hold him because he will end up wailing once he realizes I'm not holding him anymore.

He also got his first vaccinations yesterday...soooo sad! I was absolutely dreading this. He let out the longest, loudest scream I've ever heard, all the while looking at me, wondering why I was letting this happen to him. Someone should have been videotaping my face because I realized when the nurse looked at me that my face was twisted in horror like I was the one getting the shots. Lory made it through though. He stopped crying as soon as the nurse handed him to me. I think I was the one who needed a pat on the back and an "I was a brave patient" sticker on my way out. :)

Also whats going well...cloth diapering! I had a lot of people ask me in the beginning if this was going well, and I had no update because the diapers would just fall off the poor kid's butt. A non-existent butt is just not conducive to a cloth diapering regiment. But now that it has filled out a bit, we've been able to embark. For awhile we were doing about half regular diapers and half cloth diapers, but now we're in cloth diapers all the time at home. Its going really well and its not as hard as I thought it might be. I'm actually not grossed out by any of it, and I think its kind of fun in a weird way. Josh has actually been more gung ho about it then me...he is a cloth diapering pro. I'm glad we were able to stick with it - it sure is saving us a lot of money, and I'm glad we're doing something smart for the environment.

And for something funny... since we have had Lorens, we haven't been able to go see any movies (which we love to do), and so what do you do when you have a newborn in the middle of a blizzardy (horrible) Michigan winter? You borrow 2 seasons of Veronica Mars and watch over 40 epidsodes in 3 weeks. We became slightly addicted to "pop culture's savviest, sassiest, kick-assiest teenage detective show". :)

OK...Here are a couple pictures that we snapped of cutie little Lorens over Christmas...

this is us doing laundry together...Lory isn't too thrilled...
this is me and Lory playing Tiger with Cade, Lorens' cousin...
Lory watching Mr. Cow in his bassinet...he loves him some Mr. Cow...
a cute picture that Josh snapped of me and Lory at my parents house...
don't my parents look so natural holding the screaming baby? hahahaha

~mb

Thanksgiving!

We went home to see visit my family (Michele's) for thanksgiving this year. It took us 4 hours to actually pack up and get out of our house as opposed to the 30 minutes that it used to take us. It probably would have taken us another 4 hours if we had to pack all our baby stuff...but thankfully my parents were given a ton of baby stuff - so it truly saved us a hassle! Over our stay, my parents babysat for us for the first time - it was nice to be away from Lorens for a couple hours...but also very sad! My sister and Josh and I went to see Twilight. I kid you not, we were the oldest people in the theater. It was a sold out show of solid 11-14 year old girls. When Edward (the "hot" vampire) appeared in the movie, the theater erupted in girly screams and clapping. When Edward and Bella kissed, everyone giggled and whispered and screamed. It cracked me up...especially when Josh tried to join them. :)

This Thanksgiving I was so thankful for my new little love, as well as my husband who takes such good care of both of us. Also so thankful for my mom.

Here are a couple pictures from our thanksgiving week.

family pic

Lorens' first steps...sort of...don't you love that frown?


yawn!!!!!!

~mb

Here are a couple of pictures from Lorens's first few weeks. Things are going great and we're in love!







Here's a link to see the professional newborn pics we had taken.
I'll post more soon...