Oh, um...

....hi blog! Nice to see you again.

It seems I took a bit of a blog sabbatical. I guess that's to be expected when you're busy enjoying the summer and chasing after a 10 month old who does.not.stop. Um, like ever. And yeah, our house should have been baby proofed ages ago.

So anyway, I'm back! It's hard to believe the summer is almost over. We just got back from our annual trip to Cape May where we learned a cold, hard lesson that vacations are no longer about working on your tan & reading the latest US Weekly. No, no it's not, my friends. Vacations are now all about occupying your baby on the beach (while she gets sand in every imaginable crevice), still trying to honor a nap schedule, and eating dinner at 5:00 sharp in an effort to be in bed by 7:30 (parents included!). And to think next year we'll be chasing a toddler down the beach. Hold onto your swim trunks folks!

the baby tent that we used all of an hour...and then it took 17 hours to figure out how to fold it up

 

 

yep, we carted ourselves to the beach everyday with that thing behind me...all 827 lbs. of baby gear

 

 

 

first day at the beach...meh (meltdown to ensue in 5, 4, 3....)

 

 

playing in the town fountains was WAY more fun (and a daily must-do)

 

 

 

 

lobster salad sammies at the Lobster House (touché)

 

 

second day at the beach, much more successful...that, and we got her to keep a hat on...finally.

 

 

 

 

for the record, I hadn't even noticed him.

 

 

 

 

day 3: beach living is easy

 

 

 

 

 

And...because I couldn't go without including this pic from this past weekend at the husband's family cabin....

 

 

 

OMG. What in the world?? She looks like a toddler in this picture!! I can barely believe my girl is almost a year. I know, I know, every mother says that. But seriously, I still can't believe it! Miss thing & her eight (yes EIGHT!) teeth. She polished off a steak last night.

Just kidding (obvs)!

In other news, I've been working on Emme's playroom. It's coming along, and we are SO freaking happy to have a place to contain all of the toys! Not to mention the room is adjacent to the living room, so it could not be more perfect. I never thought I'd be that person who required a toy/playroom in our next house. But would you look at that, I've become her. I'll share progress pics soon!

Or in 4 months, or whatever.

 

 

New kitchen floors!

So we got new kitchen floors. Almost 4 years post kitchen remodel (but who's counting?). Whew. So now that that embarrassing admission is out of the way...

We finally got around to having the floors replaced 3 weeks ago. It was one of those moments of "why didn't we do this sooner"?! We're so, so happy with how they look. And naturally, I meant to share photos sooner, but life just got the best of us. We spent some time at Lake Chatauqua for the 4th where this cute face enjoyed the water & two boat rides for the first time in her life.

 

 

I'm kind of obsessed with her. That's why I don't blog much. I'm sure you understand.

Anyway, we just got the 'ol bill for the floors, so I figured that was an excellent reminder to finally share pics of our kitchen, alright already.

Lest you forget (or have blocked from memory) the beauty that was the before....

 

 

Mmmm...tasty. I have no idea why our realtor insisted we have these updated before listing our house.

  

So anyway, what was supposed to be a 2-day job, turned into a 3-day job (raise your hand if you naively believed the flooring sales guy when he tells you it will only take two days....ME! ME!). The contractors worked their tails off while they were here. Which I suppose makes it easier to cope with the fact that I took a day off of work to accommodate the new schedule. Because I would have been uber ticked had they been sitting around & picking their noses the entire time.

 

Day one: the old floors come out & the subfloors are in! This seemed to be the most time consuming part of their job. And to think that the husband wanted to do the demo (this is after talking him down from doing the ENTIRE job himself...of which he has zero experience in the tiling department, btw). Yeah, ain't nobody got time for that.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Proof that I was too lazy to move the fridge when we painted, oh....3.5 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

By the way--things still look the same back there. Hello my name is: LAZY.

 

 



 

 

While all of that was going on, the rest of our house was looking a little something like this...

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

I have no idea why I was so stressed out for 3 days. Because, feeding a baby next to a stove in the dining room is totally normal.

 

 

Day two: tile is in! Woot, woot!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, down the hall, someone was perfecting her crawling skills when she should have been napping.

 

 

 

 

We've since lowered the crib after we discovered that she also figured out how to grab the monitor & play with it in her crib. Never a dull moment around here...the baby proofing has begun!

 

 

Day three: a new crew came back to grout, install thresholds, & moldings--a supposed 2-hour job that turned into an all day event. Again, I guess I can't be too upset as they continued to work their hind ends off. Those, my friends, are the types of contractors I love to work with...the one's who you don't have to babysit, who do their job, do it right, clean up after themselves & then get the hell out.

 

 

 

 

 



And here ya go...official "after" shots of the kitchen...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

It's almost impossible to take pictures of this space, since it's enclosed and small (but this should give you an idea, right?). I also didn't bother to remove the crap from the fridge or clean up the counters before taking these pictures. Styled shots aren't our reality folks! The bottles, box of Cheerios & vitamins is our everyday life. Although, true story--our pantry really is that tidy & and organized on a daily basis. And that's saying a lot since a certain someone--cough, husband, cough--never puts anything away.

 

So there you have it, the kitchen! Now what project can we start working on next? 

 

Oh, by the way

We have grass.

 

 

Lest you forgot how awesome it looked before...

 

 

 

 

And because I'm bragging, check out the entire yard! 

 

 

 

Looking good yard, looking good. Not that I'm enjoying the fact that it rains every day, but dear mother nature...our lawn thanks you.

 

 

Also, I need a new camera. For reals. Or my Iphone needs a new operator.

 

 

The end.

 



House hunting

Get ready for a wordy post folks, because this family (points to self) is officially in the market for a new house. We actually started the whole house hunting process back in February--when the husband informed me that he had contacted a realtor who was coming over to take a look at our house, like, um...that next night. Say what now?

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We've always known this isn't our forever home, as our living space is comfortable, but not large by any stretch of the imagination (adding a baby into the mix only drove home that point). But look, this mama ain't looking to move anytime soon. Besides, just weeks before meeting with the realtor I got on a major purging kick. It's what I like to refer to as the 'everything must go, we must clean, organize and ship it off to Goodwill' mode. I became a borderline hoarder when I was pregnant...must be I was coming out of my new mommy haze, and finally got my wits about me to get all of this shit out of here. Aiming to live simply, I was.

Our realtor gave us good news. Really good news, in fact. He offered to list our house for significantly more than I'd imagined. Makes you feel good about all that love & hard work you put into a place. But again, this mama ain't really ready to move--a point I drove home to our realtor no less than 6,402 times during our meeting. But as resistant as I was to moving (the thought makes me a bit--okay a lot--emotional), I couldn't help but get a little excited at the thought of a new home.

We've already seen some places--some we've both hated, some we both liked (but were sadly over budget) and another that I loved but the husband did not. The husband is the first to admit he can't see past the awful. Me? Well, I totally envisioned us living in the House 'o Liberace. But I guess buying a house is a big enough decision that you should both be on board, right? I can usually win when it comes to what color we'll paint a room, or what throw pillows we'll toss on the couch. But in this case my other half won (Spoiler alert: House 'o Liberace sold just weeks later...evidentally to someone who saw past the ugly, or at the very least loved mirrors on every.single.wall in the house).

I should mention that our house is not currently on the market. It's also worth mentioning that there's really not much out there. Well, at least to our liking. We're looking at two desirable & in-demand neighborhoods...you know, with everyone else in Buffalo. So I guess for the time being, we're not moving. Or looking (but really we're always looking even if we're not looking...did you get that?).

My mind kind of exploded at the thought of making any changes to our house when we were thinking about a move. But now that we're at a house hunting stand still, girlfriend is all about making some changes! First off, we're getting the kitchen floors replaced next week. Yep, the floors in that room we had remodeled almost 4 years ago now (hello, embarrassing admission!). I'm also tweaking some pieces that won't be coming with us...nightstands for our bedroom--finally!--that have been collecting dust in our garage since last summer, I'm changing up a wall in the kitchen (that was in desperate need of a makeover), and I've also gotten to work on Emme's play room (aka the old scrapbooking room). Here's a crappy shot of how things are looking right now...

 

 

 

It's hard to believe this is the smallest room in the house & I can already see that it's going to take me the longest to finish (there's only so much Baby Einstein I can force let my child watch). I'm using Behr paint which (in my opinion) is pretty much the suckiest paint on the planet (eh...have Home Depot credits, will use). It's hard to tell from this amazing shot, but the new color is a pale, pale pink. Ironically, a color I was thinking about for Emme's nursery way back when. Hello, full circle. I have no other plans for this room aside from wanting a taller book shelf. I love the one that's here now (my grandfather made these for me and my cousins way back when) but it's kind of dwarfed against this wall & likely going to get a complex.

I came across this idea earlier today. Um, amazing, right?

 

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Granted, I haven't stenciled a wall since college (a pretty amaze-fest floral border). Something makes me think this will be a bit more complicated, but whatevs. I think it would be kind of fun as an accent wall. At the rate I'm moving along on this room, I might have to ship baby off to her grandparents' house for the weekend!?

Anyhoo, I'm alive & it feels good to be blogging today. And getting my ass in gear when it comes to tackling projects around here. Mama got her mojo back!

 

 

I'm alive

Well, well, well. Would you look at that, this girl is alive! It's been over 2 months since I've last showed up. I orginally started this long drawn out post to tell you what I've been up to all this time. But frankly, that seemed like an intense thing to tackle. I mean, we have a baby, we work, we live, we're busy. So let's just start with the present and work from there, shall we? So here we go...

 

Oh yeah. Katie's got her spray painting groove back...

 

 

 

 

Awhile ago I picked up this Ikea kids table (the chairs were AWOL) at the Salvation Army for $5. It's a mess, and I've got plans for it. I mean, we're not even crawling yet, but the good news is that Emme can start crafting next week.

 

 

Oh my god you guys, this is our lawn. Nice, huh?

 

 

 

For the record this is the worst of it. But the rest of the back yard (and front for that matter) are just as patchy. When we had the roof redone 2 years ago our lawn took a huge beating & never came back. Clearly we were too busy to notice that year. Then last summer I was too prego to care. But this summer? Well, this summer, my friends, is the year that the lawn comes BACK! I've got really high hopes. We're seeding and watering (rinse & repeat) like it's our job. I mean, getting grass to grow is like my life's mission at this point (I even declared it to our neighbor...she told me to say a lawn prayer for them too, although their's is fairing much better than our's at this point).

 

Speaking of neighbors, nosey Nellie here loves checking them out...

 

 

 

 

Just keeping up with the Jones's, she is.

 

 

Speaking of the bambino, we've started making baby food!

 

 



But before you get too excited, you should know our efforts were in vain because she's not a fan. It's a texture thing, and clearly I need to fine tune my baby food making skills (there's some dramatic gagging going on at times). So back to the store I went & Gerber continues to nourish our baby. There's only so much time in the day, you have to choose your battles wisely, right? This is one I'm not bothering to fight right now. I figure we can give it another go in a few weeks. In the meantime, I get to keep my mother of the year award because I'm not feeding her lumpy zucchini & carrots.

This year was my first official mother's day. We stayed at home & everyone came to us (with food in hand). The husband took care of everything. Really, it was a great day. I think this post over at Natalie's blog pretty much sums up what being a mom is. I could not have said it better myself.

And because I'm a mom I get to share this super cute pic of the wee one. It's old, maybe a month or so? But this is the sweet face I get to see every morning and after every nap. Even if she screamed her head off trying to get some decent shut-eye, she's all pleasantries when she awakes. Does not get better than this folks.

 

 

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this happened 3 years ago today...

 

 

 

 

Still one of my favorite pictures! 6 years together, 3 years married & 1 baby later...time flies when you're having fun!

 

 

 



The post where I talk about random things

Because when you don't blog forever, this is what you get. Me posting about random things that have happened in the last month (get ready for some outdated photos!). So let's get started, shall we?

I love this picture. We were in the height of nap/sleep training at the time and it was NOT going well. There were many days that all she did was scream. (Spoiler alert: we now have a regular napper on our hands and it's glorious). Can you believe this sweet face gave us such grief a month ago?? I think she screamed a total of 23 hours that day. Okay, I'm kidding. But she refused to nap the day this picture was taken. The husband's parents babysat for us that night & we enjoyed a fabulous (and much needed) night out...and several glasses of wine.

I've also come to the realization that the babe has more hats than any one human could possibly wear in their lifetime. And to think that this hat almost got packed into our hospital bag for our trip home! Four months old and it was still big on her...

Funny enough, it's a scene I see often when getting her out of the car...

On the flipside, this adorable hat that I bought for her (while pregnant) doesn't really fit her properly. It's like it does, but it doesn't. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Especially if your baby has a weird head like her mama.

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. And by a lot, I mean maybe one or two days a week. Which if you know us is a big deal since the husband does ALL of the cooking. But my part-time work schedule, doubled with the fact that Emme goes to bed shortly after the husband gets home, means that dinner just has to be ready & on the table early some nights. And guess what? I'm it! The husband and I have been doing Weight Watchers since January (something I should talk about in another post soon!) and I've found a lot of great WW recipes on Pinterest as well as Emily Bites--a great site that gives you your points for every recipe, which means that I don't have to think about it...I just make it. Incidentally, the blogger is a local girl, who also happens to know some friends of mine...seriously, only in Buffalo. So as they say, when in Buffalo eat Buffalo chicken enchiladas...



I also roasted a turkey for the first time--by MYSELF--last month...while the husband was out of town no less (the perfect time to tackle a major cooking adventure, right?)! My parents were also out of town (the reason we got this turkey in the first place....long story), so I had to go this one alone using Google, my own instincts & my Anthropologie timer... 



Yeah, I know...the turkey ain't looking so hot in this picture, but it was dark and late when the photo was taken. My sister helped me eat some of it, so she can vouch for the fact that it was legit. I mean, it took two of us to do a bang up job at carving it, but it was still good.

Speaking of food, we've been a little food obsessed lately. It's hard not to be when your tracking your daily points! I have an almost daily Wegmans salad habit. I can't help it, they are so easy and so good. I'm especially into their tofu/harvest salad. I never cared for it until I got pregnant & then craved it everyday. Amazing how your tastes change when you're knocked up!

And while we're on the topic of being obsessed...I almost can't wait for easter to pass. Because it means these things won't be in my face everyday.

Four points for a sleeve of these. And SO worth it. Although, my points could probably stand to be used elsewhere...like, for legit food that isn't 100% sugar.

I went to Lowes the other day for the first time since before Emme was born & I was like a fish out of water. I went in for some screws, washers & nuts (wow, that sounded inappropriate) & I actually had to ask for help finding what I needed. Which, incidentally turned out to be the wrong thing, so the husband sent me back with a specific list the second time. That reminds me...note to self: share pics of this project soon!

And what is probably sad mama moment #9,267, we packed away the swing and bassinet (sniff, sniff) and replaced it with the jumpy seat! Perhaps it was a little premature to bring this out... 

 Ah, the sweet, sweet look of confusion! Not to mention those sweet little feet still don't touch the floor. But she's becoming more and more entertained by this thing everyday. At first she just sat there with a look of bewilderment and wouldn't touch a thing. But we've obviously had her in it enough at this point because she's branching out, touching & discovering things. Plus, her dad and I know each musical note by HEART...in fact, we'll go to the grave singing these songs...

And just because I couldn't not include a more recent photo, here's our little shamrock on St. Patty's day!

Yep, packed that shirt--My First St. Patrick's Day--away the other night. Sad mama moment #9,268! If you follow me on Instagram (@ smigelkm) you've already seen these pics, but our festive get up was too good not to share again.

Whew. I think that concludes my random rant for now. Maybe I'll get on the ball & start posting pics and updates more often. Now won't that make your head spin?