Atlanta and a Little Project

I am getting up at 3:30 am to head to Atlanta to buy the spring collection for the store tomorrow and it is now 11:22. I think I should probably make this short and sweet and hit the hay. I was just way too excited not to share what I have done!!!! I started on my long list of to dos and managed to come up with a project I didn't even intend on doing in the first place. I am working ever so hard on Aidan's "Big Boy" Room and I cannot seem to find anything I like. The fabric I picked out (twice) is discontinued and so drapes and duvet cover are on hold for the time being. I wanted some really cool new furniture for him and once again couldn't find anything I LOVED or could afford. Yesterday at about 4pm I googled how to make furniture look vintage. After about five minutes of reading, I threw Aidan in the car and headed to Lowe's. $19.67 and 6 hours later. We went from this... (This is not our actual dresser, just one I could find that SORT OF looked like ours because I was too focused to take a before picture. This was the shape and color of ours.)

To This...TAAAA DAAAAAA

The flash from my camera is actually making it look a little bit lighter than it actually is. Cute though huh? Adam is so proud. Especially since I was trying to convince him to buy this... (for $1900)

This is all you need...
And this is what I did...

1. Removed drawers and primed them. Then primed the dresser.

2. Put first coat of paint (Olympic Color Poolside) on drawers and then dresser.

3. Fed Aidan dinner. (Trying to go step by step here ha!)

4. Put second coat on drawers and dresser.

5. Ate dinner myself.

6. Took a piece of steel wool and started rubbing all the corners and edges of the drawers.

7. Used Min Wax stain in Dark Walnut and a foam brush. Painted the stain on and quickly wiped it off with an old tshirt. All in the same direction. I think tomorrow when I get home I will probably take a Q-tip and add some stain around the edges and let is sit longer.

8. Followed suit on the dresser.

9. Knobs were the WORST part. Use gloves!!!

10. Husband came home from work in disbelief of how well it looked. Now, I have this great piece of "vintage looking" furniture and an entire room to finish. At least I now know what color the walls are going to be (khaki).

Anyways, if your feeling brave and have some patience, try it out on a piece of furniture that needs a face lift around your house. Everyone enjoy sleeping in on your Sunday. I have to be up VERY soon!!! Thanks for checking in!

Link up your paint projects here!!!

Really Really Quick

I have promised myself (and my family) I would spend a little less time on the laptop and a little more time with them and doing projects around the house. So you may notice a little lapse in blogging for the next few weeks. My current to do list looks like this:

*Plant flowers for the fall in window boxes and around the tree at the corner of the driveway.
*Paint the dining room (Festoon Aqua from Sherwin Williams) and rearrange current photos and hang new mirror.
*Start Aidan's big boy room. A project I tried to start and got behind. First on the list...sanding the "Twinkle Twinkle" verse at the top of his walls. We are even building his bed ourselves.
*Clean out the attic and start getting ready for the Decot/Harvey yard sale that is happening the weekend of October 24. Yeah that's coming up! Add yard sale items to Craig's List in hopes of a little pre sellage (my word).
*Demo two walls between living/dining room so we have one LARGE living space. I may hire someone to do this. It sounds scary!
*Cut down all the leftover lumber from the laundry room addition and take it to the curb for trash pick up next week.

Told you I was going to be busy. Anyone wanna help me??

Happy Anniversary Baby!

I should go ahead and give my blog friends some history on Adam and I before I go in to my anniversary post.

Adam and I started dating in January of 2006. June of that year, I bought my first house and after the search for a roomate was looking grim, Adam moved in. I was pregnant by early October. Not in the plan. Having grown up in a Catholic family, the fact that I was unmarried and pregnant didn't exactly go over well. It wasn't at that time I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Adam. It was so soon and I wasn't 100% sure. Aidan was born June of 2007 and the first time I saw Adam hold Aidan was when I knew. It was just meant to be. We were so happy and everything made sense. The "new plan" was falling in to place. In August, Adam convinced me to leave Aidan for the first time and took me out to dinner. I was floored when he proposed. I was even more floored to find out my dad had been holding the ring for him since June. Of course I said yes. Over and over and over. At that time, I was designing kitchens but my maternity leave was almost up and I was not looking forward to going back to work. We were planning the wedding for October 12, 2008 but when we realized that I would stay home with Aidan full time and leave my job, we had the dilemma of health insurance. I was carrying Aidan and I's health insurance at my job and wouldn't have been able to get on Adam's plan unless we were married. So, I left my job and when October 12, 2007 rolled around, we made the decision to get married at the courthouse. It was official, I was Mrs. Adam Harvey. It just didn't feel official. Luckily, my parents were on the same page as us, and thought it was only right to stand up in front of all our family and friends and really get married. We kept the same date October 12, 2008 and had the wedding of my dreams. I find myself still thanking my parents for how beautiful it was. That's the story. That's where the two year anniversary comes from. I know there are people that aren't close friends of ours that get confused when I say my two year anniversary is coming up. The not secret is out. On to my anniversary post...

I cannot describe how lucky I feel to be married to my husband every single day. He is the most amazing man I could have ever wished for. He is the biggest giver and most generous provider for Aidan and I. He is honest and loyal. His desire to make me smile everyday is enough for me to love him forever. Except forever won't ever be enough. On our wedding day, Adam really wanted us to write our own vows and say them in front of everyone. I was having terrible anxiety about that, so we decided to write our own vows and just exchange them right before the ceremony. So, on my anniversary day I thought it would be sweet to post my wedding vows to my hubby so he can read them and be reminded of how much I loved him that day and how I love him even more now. Happy Anniversary to my perfect husband. I love you so much baby!

Adam,

Today, I am going to stand before all of our family and friends and give myself to you. Life before you has no meaning. I wake up everyday and I am so thankful you are the person laying next to me. I cannot promise you our love will always be a fairytale but this is what I can promise you...

I will love you for who you are,

I will always fight for you and for us,

I will be honest,

I will be your shoulder to cry on,

I will be your strength when you don't have your own,

I will always be your biggest fan,

I will pick less fights about your boxers on the bathroom floor,

I will be the greatest mother of our child and future children,

I will take care of you when you are sick or hurt,

I won't let us go to bed mad,

I will always be your partner in crime, your best friend and lover.

I promise to love you unconditionally every day from this day forth...forever.

Love, Your Wife, April

Fall Decorating Postponed

Well I was going to take pictures of all my fun fall decorating today but instead I have been in bed sick. ALL DAY. When I jumped out of bed this morning to get Aidan ready for school, I immediately felt nauseous (I know what your thinking and no I am not pregnant). Luckily, Adam had already volunteered to take Aidan to school. Well being the crazy little lady that I am I couldn't imagine not taking Aidan to school so I decided I would at least go along for the ride. BIG MISTAKE. I have never been car sick but I am guessing this is what it feels like. I am sure Adam was ready to kill me by the time we got to school. I was sweating, complaining about bumps in the road, the radio, his speed, and my head was pounding. He parked the car and left me in it so he could run Aidan in. The little guy looked so cute in his rain coat and hat today. Adam said you could tell I was feeling under the weather because his outfit wasn't nearly as cute as they usually are. I got sick in the parking lot at school. Glamorous mom aren't I? Thankfully, it was raining so all the closer parking spots were taken and we had to park in overflow. I came home and immediately got in bed. Just to show you how wonderful my family is...someone called in to work for me, my mom came to get Aidan when Adam left for work and when I finally woke up at 6pm, my mom was here feeding Aidan dinner and had cleaned my house. I tried to eat a little dinner and it made me feel worse. I am going to catch up on some DVR and hopefully get some sleep (with the help of Tylenol PM). I am going to take pics tomorrow of our house decorated for fall and post them. I have enjoyed seeing everyone else's. Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Happy Birthday To My Hubby!!!

Today my hubs turns the big 28! He is currently at work thinking I have nothing planned for this evening. Little does he know...I have a surprise dinner planned!! I got up early (he usually is up hours before me) and made him breakfast in bed. I think he was #1 shocked I was up so early and #2 that I was able to cook that early in the morning! Haha! I even ran to the store to get him balloons. Gah, I'm getting good. Aidan and I are sitting here waiting for his birthday cake to finish baking so that we can frost it soon. There isn't much frosting left from Aidan digging his fingers in to it but...we'll work with what we've got!!!

So...I just want to say to my hubby that rarely reads my blog unless I make him...I love you very much! Thank you for being a DREAM husband and father. When I think of you, forever is never enough. I hope you have the greatest birthday yet and I can't wait to be a part of so many more birthdays to come. Aidan and I love you! Happy Birthday Baby!!!!!
P.S. Your getting old. You didn't just read that, don't worry. HA!

Show Us Your Life Baby Gear

This week Kelly's Korner is hosting "Show Us Your Life Fridays" and the topic is Baby Gear. I haven't participated the past few weeks because it has been all about food. Let's face it, that is not my forte!!! So, I figured I would make a Top Five List of Things I could not have lived without when I had Aidan and a list of Five Things I never used.

Top Five Items I Could Not Live Without:


1. Baby Swing. I would recommend buying one that A) Plugs in if the batteries run out and B) swings from side to side and front to back. Aidan slept in his swing in the corner of our room for the first 3 months of his life. This one is the Fisher Price Aquarium one. We got it as a hand me down and I have to admit, I was not that crazy about the "fish" print but it was a lifesaver!


2. Travel System. The Chicco travel system is pretty middle of the road on the price and I don't know how people can live without a stroller that allows you to just drop the car seat in it, and go. On this note, if you have two cars, buy an extra base, they are not fun to install over and over. I chose the orange and navy because (obviously) we had a boy. I don't think if we ever have a little girl that it will be a problem...especially if she is covered in pink.

3. Baby Carrier. I honestly used to see people wearing these and think " I would never use that thing"...well let me tell you, Aidan was in that thing all the time!! If I wanted to clean my house, he was in it. If we went grocery shopping, he was in it (car seat is too much to put in the shopping cart every time). We would host dinner parties, Adam would wear it. It was great! My best friend Candace is actually the one that bought it for me and she even wore it when we went out! I had the basic black because I am pretty simple but it comes in some cute colors these days!




4. The Avent breast pump to bottle conversion kit. If I had not bought this, I would have pumped in to the bottles that came with my Medela breast pump and I would have had to transfer every bottle. Avent has a conversion kit so that you can just screw on your bottles to the breast pump and pump directly in to them. I am sure every bottle manufacturer makes one.



5. Boudreaux's Butt Paste. One word. AMAZING. Aidan has thankfully never had really bad diaper rash but whenever he had a little, this stuff would clear it up in hours.

Then there is the one million things you can live without. I will only list my top five things so you don't have to read on forever and ever and ever.

1. Wipes Warmer. I returned mine to Babies R Us before I even opened it. Your baby is not going to know whether or not it's wiped are warm or not. If you want to warm your wipes, save yourself the money and run them under warm water. 2. Diaper Genie. It only holds about 7-10 diapers before you have to change it. Newborns go through this many diapers a day. A basic trash can will do just as well and you won't have to spend the extra money on the refills.


3. Swaddler blankets. Regular baby blankets work just as well. Aidan wasn't in to being swaddled for very long.



4. Bouncy seat. I know some people LOVE bouncy seats but quite honestly we did much better with the Bobby one versus the one that just vibrates. Feeding Aidan and then trying to put him in there was a disaster because it would make him sick.

5. The Bumbo Seat. Aidan NEVER used this. By the time he was big enough to sit in it, he was sitting up on his own and wanted to get out of it! There are people out there who love to take this with them everywhere but for us it just didn't work.

In Other News...

We have purchased Aidan's first potty. I took him to Target and let him pick it out himself. I am not quite sure when he will actually use it, but I wanted him to get used to it being around and who knows, maybe he will just surprise us and start using it one day!!! We also picked up some very cute boxer briefs for little guys and got a new pair of PJ's with firetrucks, police cars and helicopters on them. Also picked out by Aidan himself. I can't say I am surprised he picked these over the ones with horses and cows on them because he LOVES firetrucks. Lucky for me, these were only $6 (love you Tar jay). Here are some pictures to show you Aidan's current uses for his new potty!! Happy Thursday Everyone...I am off to watch Grey's.

( Terrible photo of Adam) "Dada, do you like your new hat??".

"See Dada, it fits you very well"


Silly, silly boys they are.

Aidan's New Frog Potty