my love for cheap toy organization

i love organizing - like really, really love it. the container store isn't far from us, but i've never been because i'm just not sure i can trust myself in there :) after christmas, i had to figure out something to do with all covington's new toys. i looked everywhere for baskets the right size for the bottom of our shelves but couldn't find anything. i'd finally settled on some that were too small for the space and way overpriced when i realized that my trusty file boxes were almost the right size! i love using file boxes either covered in scrapbook paper or painted to organize. some of the ones in our closet are 5 years old, have been through 3 moves in 3 states, and are holding up great. when i was organizing covington's closet, office depot was having a sale so i got 3 packages of 10 boxes for $30. a dollar a box isn't a bad deal :)

so i drew a line where they were sticking out, cut it with a box cutter, stuck the back inside the front, making the bottoms overlap, and hot glued the mess out of them. i did all 7 boxes in less than a 2 hour nap time, so i'd say it wasn't a bad project! that night, i put 2 coats of white craft paint on the fronts while watching a movie and made labels out of scrapbook paper covered in masking tape. not bad for a completely free project.

see the rough edge on that second box? in hindsight i should have used that one as the back piece (not that i'm ever going to fix it or anything...)

       

now i'm not expecting these to last forever but covington has pulled them out and crawled on them daily for 4+ months, and they're still looking great. they hold a ton - all the cars and trucks and  instruments and balls and trains and puzzles and movies. i do so love a free project.

8-15/52

8/52

two of his favorite things - hanging things around his neck and the bathroom

9/52

we loove sliding

10/52

playing with the farm

11/52

his favorite place to crawl - between the bikes, guitars, and wall

12/52

checking himself out in the mirror

 13/52

chewing on the camera strap and the look i can whenever i pull out the big camera

14/52

playing in his easter basket

15/52

a boy and his blanket

i like a little color

hey, remember when i used to blog more than once a month and about more things that covington?  no?? either way, i did a couple projects last spring i thought i'd show all 2 of you that still read this :)

so before we even moved to wheaton, i was on craigslist looking for a great dresser that i could paint with big drawers for storage in our... dining room? eating area? the place next to our table? we don't get real fancy around here :)

i found this awesome dresser in an old yellow color that was perfect for painting. we got there and james was all excited because it's apparently hand made with handwritten markings on the drawers and "dovetailed somethings or anothers" so apparently we stubbled across a great dresser for a great price.


(funny side-story - the week before we moved up here, i found a dresser that i loooved and the couple said they would hold it for me until we got there and then they totally sold it out from under me. well, we go to pick this one up and it was from the same people! i didn't realize it because the email addresses are all encrypted but they recognized mine and so they were all embarrassed and kept telling me how much better this one was than the other - how funny and totally random is that!)

so we got the dresser in and loaded it up with stuff and it sat there, not matching anything else in our entire apartment, for over a year. i was totally terrified of completely ruining it. on top of that, the handles had to be replaced because one was broken and they were an odd size, so i spent 6 months looking for odd sized handles that would fit and 6 months contemplating how hard it would be to fill in the holes and make new ones. when i'm nervous, i read articles on how to do things, so i read a ton of articles on spray painting, but we live in an apartment, so i kept trying to figure out if we could do it in one day in the  parking lot of take it to a friend's house or should i just use a roller inside or a brush but it could smell and now we have a baby because i've waited so long but if i wait any longer than that baby is going to be crawling and i'm going to have a whole lot more trouble trying to paint it and what color should i paint it - red but reds are so hard to pick out but blues are real hard because i don't want another navy dresser but i don't want teal but... and so on and so forth.

SO one weekend i just did it. i had the paint guy pick out his brightest best-selling red and i filled the holes in with toothpicks and wood glue, per a woodworking magazine's direction, and just went for it. after priming and 2 coats of red, i was pretty sure i'd ruined it and we'd be tossing it in the dumpster, but the 3rd coat plus some poly did it and it's my favorite project i've ever done. it's not perfect - there are some brush strokes and such, but the red is fun and did i mention it holds a ton. plus, i'm just glad it's done and i don't have to tell everyone that comes over that i'm planning on painting it soon :)

p.s. james made that awesome lamp with the bark still on it and the little wooden bowl. i like him.

Mississippi

first flights and surprise birthday celebrations 

new houses and water fun

great grandmothers and green grass and lots of sliding

warm weather and swinging

lots of cousin time

and snuggling with new babies

and grandparents

we love mississippi

saving memories {perpetual calendar update}

ya'll, last week was one of those weeks
not bad, just looong

covington had a little virus that turned into a strange rash - nothing too bad but we haven't been ANYWHERE except the doctor in a week. the day we went to the doctor, i was all like 'covington! get excited! we'll get dressed to go to the doctor in 90 minutes!!'

of course, it was also the week that james got crazy busy with school midterms and a million reports due at work so we got to see him in 30 minute increments

and then on top of that, i decided to give up diet coke because...well i can't remember because i haven't had any diet coke in 5 days (that's huge)

and did i mention the high on the first day of spring was 26 degrees?

it wasn't a bad week at all and i'm so, so, SO thankful to be able to be here and stay home through all the rashiness, but the truth is the days were starting to run together.

thing are getting just a bit monotonous. 

it's these kinds of weeks that im glad that i do this little perpetual calendar every night

i got the idea from {under the sycamore} and started it a couple years ago. each night i write down a little thing that happened that day. somedays they're big, somedays they're small. the first year, it was totally boring to do because there was nothing to look back on, but now it is so fun to look back on all the nights we ate with joy and jason in chattanooga and the many $3 movies we went to pre-covington and how we were so excited that covington was staying awake a little bit longer last year at this time.

so next year, i'll remember the long week home with the rash (because i'm not trying to erase the longer days), but i'll also remember that covington started giving real hugs this week and that he's walking like a champ and that my parents surprised us with a huge order from Omaha Steaks (yay for meat!!) and that james was matched at wheaton's counseling center for his practicum next year (yay for working super close and getting college holidays!).

   

besides all that, it's actually good just to keep track of things - when was your interview? when did covington roll over? we've gone to look up things more than once 

so the sick days at home might be long but so much good happened last week that might have just gotten lost in the monotony if i hadn't written it down.

 i've seen some really pretty journals they're making now so you don't have to make anything. so go start one now! it's really fun

and if you get a late night text from me reminiscing about the time we went out to eat 2 years ago, now you know why :)

sweet friends and fun times

so i was looking through blogger and realized that i'd started a bunch of posts and never finished them - i can't even blame that on pregnancy brain anymore :) so here's one from november...

have i mentioned how much i love it when people come visit up here?
luurve it.
i'm so thankful to have had lots of great visitors in the last year and a half. so so thankful.
a couple weeks (months) ago, out sweet friends Joy and Jason from chattanooga came up and we had lots of fun doing some sightseeing.

we finally made it to the sears (now willis) tower. the views were great and i looove heights, so stepping out onto the glass was so so fun. joy and jason did a handstand on it because they're just way fun like that.

we also went to my first broadway play - i love lucy - which was so good and finished off the night with the biggest chocolate mousse cake you have ever seen. it was a great weekend. now if we could only erase the 700 miles between us...

one year, part 2

the birthday boy was not exactly in the mood for picture taking, but we tried our best. we had some sweet friends over for homemade pizza and cake but because we're apparently only obsessed with our child, we took no pictures of them - we're hospitable like that :) the balloons we got covington were quite the hit, which is good because they're the only thing we got him :) he'll never know... he started taking steps the week before his birthday and has gotten better every day. he gets so proud of himself! his smash cake was a huge hit - half of it ended up in his lap but he did manage to take down quite a bit of it. i think he liked it :) happy birthday to covington!

one year

oh guys

this little boy is amazing

he has my whole heart and i can't imagine life before him. 

he's some kind of special

and he's a whole year old today - 

the best year ever. 

that smile.
those cheeks.
those blue eyes.
that toothy grin.
i just stare too often that i'd like to admit.

it's so hard to believe that we didn't even know him a year ago.

this month covington is...

loving -  his instruments, especially the keyboard, rolling his cars, stacking up blocks, and playing with the boxes that all his toys go in

getting into - the bathroom and garbage cans. oh the fun. oh the germs.  and stairs - he looves stairs.

eating- anything and everything - avocados, green beans, pb&j, bananas, cheese sticks, oatmeal with applesauce, chicken sausage, grapes, pasta, sweet potatoes, and anything in a squeezie pouch

sleeping - still an hour in the morning, two in the afternoon, and 8 to 8ish. we're so spoiled with this one.

saying - a whole lot of nothing. lots of babbles, no words yet.

moving - a few steps at a time and then sprint-crawling. he's also becoming quite the climber. and a bit of a dancer.

he's also busy growing a mullet.

he's my favorite.

happy birthday, sweet boy. i hope you know how much we love you.

5-7/52

“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013″

5/52 - watching him sleep never gets old

6/52 - his favorite place - holding onto our legs

7/52 - camera curiosity