Have you seen the PINK fire trucks?

If you have been following Mom Mart for a while you have probably heard me mention my extremely crafty sister-in law Wendy. She is by far one of the most creative people I know and she is a blast and a half to hang out with. This last weekend my SIL took my boys with her to see the pink fire trucks in Aurora Illinois and here is what she shared about her experience…

 

 William driving the truck under Uncle Shawn's supervision

The day of the dog in Chicago… Hot dog!

This past weekend my brother and sister-in-law came for a visit. They came up on Friday late-afternoon and left on Sunday mid morning. They stayed with us in our new home and spent some time with their nephews. Little Steven definitely has a new bff in his uncle Devin.

On Saturday we dropped the kids off with my mother-in-law for the day so that we could spend the day in Chicago eating hot dogs and enjoying the Cubs game. The hot dogs were fun and unique and the Cubs game was hot!

So why was it the day of the dog? Well… we decided that we wanted to eat hot dogs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday. Think this sounds kind of gross? Surprisingly having various hot dogs throughout the day was delicious and fun.

 

#WW: Fall is coming

 

I love fall, but I cannot believe that it is starting so soon! I know that the drought we have been experiencing this summer in Illinois has caused the plants to change color early. I guess I wasn’t prepared for how early the leaves would be changing.

Make ahead freezer meals?

I like being able to go and do things with my day and not worry about being home in time to get dinner on the table by six. I am all about the make ahead meal. I like the ease of just reheating something versus spending large quantities of time each night preparing a meal. This just makes sense to me. Unfortunately it also involves a lot of planning and preparing, more so than I am typically prepared for.

I plan a weekly menu each week with my husband and we try to change things up for family meals. Lately I feel like we have gotten stuck in a cooking rut and I am on the lookout for something new. I have been looking at Crockpot recipes.

I have been seeing a lot of pins on Pinterest about make ahead freezer meals and I have started to give this idea some serious consideration. I think it would be quick and easy to toss a bag into my Crockpot in the morning and have dinner magically be ready when I get home from running errands and going on play dates or even after a long day of *gasp* cleaning my house.

Updating an old Light fixture…

Our family room is almost perfect… Almost.

I shared with you earlier our little painting project with the big bold RED walls. Simply painting those two small walls really made a difference in the entire feel of the family room. By painting those two simple walls the perception of how large the family room is in size dramatically changed. It now feels larger and open… I could be crazy, but I am loving the red.

So what is wrong with my family room?

Well, to be perfectly honest there are two things that need attention. Number one on this list is the ceiling fan/light fixture that came with the house. The light fixture itself does not fit my personal style at. While I am a fan of traditional, I lean a little more modern when it comes to fixtures and appliances. I like to capture traditional with my furniture choices of rolled arms and wood accents.

This ceiling fan also makes a noise whenever it is turned on. Making the possibility of relaxing in the family room with the fan on an exercise in tolerance. I cannot tolerate a noisy fan. End of exercise.

It’s Official: My son is Potty Trained!

Potty training has been my arch enemy over the last year and a half. Yes, I said year and a half. I have been working on Potty training my first born since before I gave birth to my youngest son.

I have tried a lot of different approaches to potty training with very mixed results and have reached the conclusion that potty training is not for the faint of heart or people with queasy stomachs. Potty training boys is one hot mess and I could not be happier that my son is FINALLY potty trained!

I say he is officially potty trained now because he has spent an entire day going to the restroom without being prompted. He has had zero accidents. He has pooped in the potty {this was a seriously huge milestone for us}. He has woken up from his nap for the specific purpose of using the restroom and then he has gone back to sleep. He can tell me when he needs to go to the potty and he can hold it until he gets there. So how did this happen?

Home Makeover: Guest Bathroom Update

We are trucking right along with our home makeover. We have been collecting paint swatches and priming walls like crazy. Our latest project has been getting the downstairs guest bathroom looking good.

The downstairs guest bathroom is a half bath. It is a surprisingly roomy half bath, especially when comparing it to our old half bath in our townhome where you felt like you were in a closet every time you went to the restroom. Our new half bath is small, but there is wiggle room and with the high ceilings there is plenty of opportunity for wall storage.

#WW: New York in a nutshell!

A little over two weeks ago I took a trip to New York to go to BlogHer12. That was the purpose of my visit to the big apple, but it is not the only thing that I did… In fact, I saw quite a lot of the city!

 

I walked through Central Park.

 

Bronchitis… you are not my friend.

I am so sorry that I have been MIA for the most of last week. I picked up bronchitis somewhere along the way and have been too stubborn and too busy to do anything about it. I know, I know… I am bad.

Early last week I started to feel terrible. I developed a tickle in my throat that left me irritated, but not too worried. Then that tickle developed into a full blown cough that left me feeling exhausted, achy, and annoyed. I was annoyed because I had a houseguest and big plans and no time to be sick. So I ignored it.

theBabaSling Review: A Baby Carrier by Joovy!

  

While neither of my children are infants anymore, I still enjoy baby wearing with my youngest son whenever I can. My oldest is three years-old and is too large for baby wearing, but my youngest son is sixteen months-old and weighs around 20lbs. He happens to be all about the snuggles so I try and baby wear with him whenever possible.

I love baby wearing and have been doing it since I gave birth to my first born son three years ago. I have tried several different types of baby carriers over the years. Have a tendency of leaning more towards the soft structured carriers because they make me feel safe and secure in my baby wearing. I was never a big fan of the sling until trying theBabaSling by Joovy.

What is #BlogHer12?

This time last week I was just starting to unpack from BlogHer’12. I had made it home after a nice week in NYC and I was slowly recovering from the time change, the late nights, and general craziness that is BlogHer! BlogHer’12 was amazing and overwhelming all at the same time.

I was lucky enough to snag a room in the conference hotel. I did not have to worry about transportation back and forth from conference to hotel and was able to hop up to my room whenever I needed to – totally the way to go btw!

I cannot tell you how many times people in the hotel and on the street stopped me to ask what was going on and what the big conference was. Apparently my large tag and lanyard gave me away as a conference attendee. My response was simple, “I am here for #BlogHer12 a blogging conference. It is a huge conference for bloggers to learn, connect, and share.”

That definition is simple enough, right? I mean… what do you say to a random stranger who is looking around at 4,000 bloggers who have taken New York by storm? Everywhere you looked in and around the Host Hilton Hotel in New York you saw men and women (yes, men go to BlogHer too) wearing BlogHer badges loaded up with bags of swag!

When is the last time you shopped around for insurance?

I have been told that it is common practice to shop around for insurance every couple of years. People do this in order to make sure that they are getting the best rates possible. I was never very good at doing this. I know… you only get as much out of something as you put in. If I was not willing to put in the effort to shop around, I was going to pay a higher price for insurance.

A child and his LOVEY

My first born son never had a lovey. He never had a blanket or a stuffed animal that went places with him. I have no idea why, he just never latched onto anything. My baby boy {who is now almost 16 months old!} on the other hand has a little stuffed cow that goes anywhere and everywhere.

 

Meet Moo Cow.

Wordless Wednesday: Superhero son to the rescue!

For my son William’s third birthday his aunt gave him a cape and super hero tee shirt with his name on it. While at the time he was unappreciative of this gift, it has since then become a favorite. He just loves to run around the house in his super hero tee shirt and cape.

Post Pregnancy Feet: Changing shoe sizes as an adult.

I had heard other moms complain about their feet changing throughout their pregnancy. I considered myself lucky that I never had swelling feet and my shoe size never really changed. I thought I was very blessed to have had both of my pregnancies in the winter where soft snuggly boots and comfy socks were a must. And then I put on my go-to pair of heels and wanted to cry.

I do not often wear heels. In fact I almost never wear anything but flip flops and sneakers. I was caught completely off guard when I went to put on my heels and they no longer fit me. My stinking feet grew!

DIY Kitchen Organization

It is no surprise that I am a very organized person. If you know me in real, life you know that I am a wee bit obsessive about things being tidy and organized and efficient. I am always on Pinterest looking for better ways to organize my life, my family, and my home.

A simple fix for an old piece of furniture!

I simply adore community sites that allow people to sell or trade their old stuff. Sites like Craigslist and Bookoo and FreeCycle are all sites that allow people to guy/sell/trade/donate their used and unwanted items. No sales tax and no shipping. It is all local.

I have been known to peruse these sights looking for great deals. I have found some seriously amazing deals too! For example, I just bought a small white Stanley Furniture dresser off of Craigslist for $10. The same dresser would have cost me over $600 {crazy, right?} brand new in the store!

Wordless Wednesday: Water Play Day!

My boys love to play outside. Unfortunately, it has been just too darn hot to spend more than a couple minutes at a time outside. With my lawn turning tan and my boys growing bored I decided a water play day was just what we needed.