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Yesterday Chris sent me this text:

"It's the final countdown.  One month until it's two on two."

He's cute.

 

And that's scary.funny.exciting.crazy.and the best news ever...

all at the same time.

my stockpiles

I was going to start working on my grocery lists for this weekend, but it's 9:15 and the first time I've sat down all day and I think I might be done.  But before I go to bed, I thought I'd show off my stockpiles.  I like looking at other people's stockpiles and it motivates me to work on my grocery list more.  Well, normally it does, but, right now, I'm just completely out of energy.  But here's the loot.

This is the cabinet in our half bath off the nursery.  I keep the majority of our health and beauty stockpile in there.  I have other random things in the linen closet in the main bathroom, but this is where most of it goes.  I could buy toothpaste or toothbrushes every week if I let myself.  I don't know why, but I can always get those things super cheap and had to stop buying them because it was getting obsessive.

Our basement is divided into two parts: the finished living room and the unfinished laundry/craft/storage area.  It's a great set up for stockpiling because no one ever sees it.  This is just my diaper stockpiling area.  I seem to be pretty brand-loyal with the Huggies diapers.  I used to be a Pampers snob, but when Ellie was about 14 months, they changed their formula and it caused major burns all over her bottom.  It was horrible.  So I switched to Huggies and haven't gone back.  I have been randomly buying the Pampers Sensitive Swaddlers diapers if I get a good deal, but I've been using them for baby gifts since I'm not sure Harper's butt will like them either.

This is also in the unfinished part of our basement.  These shelves hold all the food and household stockpiling stuff.  I have a fairly large pantry in the kitchen, but don't like to keep a lot of extra stuff in there.  Not that I hoard things, but every once in a while I like to go downstairs and just stare at all the stuff I've been able to buy super cheap.  Maybe I like this stockpiling stuff a little too much.

The last area I have for stockpiling is the refrigerator we have in the basement.  I got this in Decemeber after my parent bought a new one for their garage.  I was super excited to get it and immediately began filling it up.  I did take some pictures, but I don't think they were even worth posting.  I buy a lot of bread and frozen veggies and that was basically (besides some bottled water, juice boxes from Ellie's birthday party, and waffles) all that was in there.  The fridge will come in handy when I have to start making Harper's baby food.  I made the majority of Elliott's baby food and while I liked doing it, the freezer was often overflowing with ice cube trays and bags of frozen carrot puree.  So having the extra freezer in the basement will definitely help.

So after going through all my stockpiling areas and pictures, I almost got up enough energy to start working on my grocery list and coupons.  Almost.  But I know I should go to bed because when my alarm goes off at 5:30 in the morning, I'm not going to be happy about it.  So coupons tomorrow.  Goodnight.

black and white

This? This just makes me happy.  Boom.

and then she turned two

Today is my babe's second birthday--unbelievable, right?  When I look at her, she seems giant, but when I think about it, there's no way she can be two.  Two years old. 

It's fun to see her grow and change, her personality getting more bold daily.  She has my fingers, toes, butt, thighs, and hair color mixed in with Chris' cheeks, eyes, and thinness.  She's a perfect little mix of things I don't like about myself, but LOVE on her.  Funny how God works those things out. 

And so today we both took the day off to celebrate her.  They're currently lying in bed, snuggling, and watching Barney.  After pancakes made by Daddy, we'll have to get ready for a day of Monkey Joe's, McDonalds, (hopefully) a long nap, and a family dinner tonight.  A perfect way to celebrate a perfect little girl.  

Happy birthday Elliott Quinn.

 

wish list for harper

Harper Kimery will be here in about six weeks.  And while we're 90% sure this is it in the kids' department, I still have some things I need to buy because with Elliott we borrowed a lot of stuff from my sister.  But now that she's having a baby three weeks (or so) before me, it's not possible to share--boo.  So we need to buy a swing and playmat pretty soon. 

We already bought a new crib because Ellie destroyed the last one.  We also need a double stroller (and those bad boys are expensive) and a new music player for the crib.  Elliott had one she loved and she still uses it on her toddler bed so we can't steal that one (again, boo).  So I'm shopping around online and here are some of my loves.

This playmat from Babies-R-Us.  With Ellie I went pretty gender neutral on things because I knew we'd be having more kids and I didn't want to buy things I couldn't use if we had a boy. But this time I'm going all girly and pink.  We know it's a girl and, again, probably the last Graham child, so I don't have any reservations about pink, pink, and more pink.

The swing I borrowed from Melissa went back-and-forth and side-to-side.  Having not really looked at swings, I thought this was a common feature, but unless I'm willing to spend hundreds of dollars (which I'm not), we're going with the plain, old back-and-forth swing.  Harper won't know what she's missing.  This cute pink and brown swing from Buy Buy Baby is all we really need and it takes up a lot less space than the one we borrowed did.  Space wasn't too much of an issue when it was just one babe, but with all of Elliott's crap and baby stuff, this uber-organized mama can't handle all the clutter.  So less is more, always.

Stroller: not super-exciting, but we need one that we can attach our car seat to so I can go walk around the mall for exercise and to cure boredom while on maternity leave.  Okay, maybe for other purposes too, but this is all I can think about right now.  I can't imagine being stuck in the house all week for my 8+ weeks of leave with no way to get out and walk or be around other people.  It depresses me slightly just thinking about it.  And I'm sure it will be more of a hassle, but this stroller from Babies-R-Us is a must-have so I don't go crazy and start selling off my kids before we hit summertime.

Basically, just because it looks cute, isn't expensive, and has the lullaby/classical music option I want this one from Babies-R-Us.  And the "soothing sea sounds" just sound calming,  And since my mom has repeatedly told me that no two kids are alike, I'm imagining this baby will be a beast when made to go to bed (because Elliott really wasn't) and I'm going to need all the help I can get. 

Alright, so for now, that's it.  I could go on forever with things I "need" for Harper, but, in all actuality, I don't need a lot.  Unless it has to do with cute baby clothes.  And then I need more, lots more.