nineteen months old

Mom of the year didn't know what day it is! 19 months isn't a huge milestone but I do want to have these entries to reflect on Ethan's growth. It's late and we are still moving in to our new house (overdue on a post on that, too) so let's just say it's a good thing there's a Blogger app on my phone. And forgive me if its wonky! I'll correct it later ;)

{one year ago today!}

He wears 3T pajamas and wants to be outside for about half of the day. We have an awesome backyard now, so that's ok by mama, too. He sleeps in a big boy bed now (full-sized mattress!).

{in his big boy bed}

He is increasingly independent and learning new words every minute, it seems. He started saying "ok" today (just one noteable one!), and I have a much easier time communicating with him what I do/don't want him to do; it's a blessing until he gets frustrated with my words not aligning with his desires and a tantrum ensues. 

He is also a little copycat - it is both adorable and terrifying. I got him on video having a fake conversation on his fake phone and pausing to put the fake person he was talking to on hold to talk to me - put the phone to his chest while he did it. I don't know who he saw doing that, but he absorbed it like a little sponge. My prayer is that I teach him well with my actions... Oh Lord, do I ever need help with that one.

{figuring out how to put on shoes}

And in about 6 more months, we will meet the next baby Haynes, who will probably imitate their brother more than they do me. He is going to be an awesome big brother - I know it!

xo,

Haynes home #2!

We took shifts at the new house today. Austin ripped out some floors this morning, so new ones can go in this week. 

Austin bought a pry bar to get the boards up. And we didn't rip out perfectly good floors! We visited the house two times after deciding to buy it (went twice for that, too) and the longer we were there, the more we realized the serverity of the buckling, bowing, creaking and water damage (dishwasher issue, we think). We realized they weren't genuine hard wood floors, so they couldn't be refinished. We actually think they're original to the 22-year-old house so they've seen a lot of wear. Austin doing all this manual labor saved us $700 on the floor install, however, we still have to work out logistics on getting it removed from the house. We also need a rotting swingset removed if anyone has tips on that!

I went in for the paint in the afternoon. There is so much green in this house! There's also a green room with purple shelves (that's so 90s, y'all). This is how our game room used to look:

I am not into accent walls - personal preference. This one was really bright and  one of the first things you see from the front door. I started by taping it off & cutting in on the edges with primer:

Then I painted one coat of primer. I just needed to cover that green, since going from darker or brighter colors to another color can be really difficult.

Without primer, I would've have to paint a lot more coats of the mocha color. This way, I actually got away with one coat of primer, and not quite two coats of mocha. 

I followed the primer with more cutting in with the mocha color, followed by rolling in the middle. Cutting in can be a painstaking task, but it really saves some time in the long run as you're less likely to mess up your edges. 

BOOM!

I also riddled our home of some woodland animals in Ethan's room (much to Austin's chagrin):

Sayonara, suckers. 

Around this point, I realized I couldn't find the matching paint for this room, but I knew this was a possibility all along. I chose to prime the animals because I will eventually either successfully match this paint color, or I will (sigh....) paint Ethan's entire room. Ugh. I'm pretty determined to match that darn color. And while I made jokes about ridding my house of the creatures, I ultimately made the decision to remove them because Ethan's decor is nautical, and I would rather spend a few bucks on paint than have to toss what I have for him already.

Tomorrow morning, the movers come! It's going to be a crazy place for about 3 days, what with sticky floors and a generally non-child-friendly environment, but come Wednesday we should have beautiful engineered hickory floors with rustic details. (Eeek!) Next week we might look a little more like a home!

Stay tuned...

xo,

18 months... and one to grow on

I am SO late on posting this! We have had a lot going on, so I delayed it to give myself some space to accomplish other tasks, and get a minute or two to rest!

Our little man is 18 months old! The last month has been full of... Moving. We also saw snow for the first time when we visited GiGi's new house in Colorado, however, we really only liked it a lot for a couple days. And it was unbearably cold for a couple days (single digits + Texans = NO GO!) so we played indoors a lot. We finally did find a nicely groomed sledding hill which we loved!

While in Colorado, we accepted an offer on our home, and the sale has been mostly smooth sailing (knock on wood!). We close on Monday (knock on wood again!), and we are really excited to begin the Cypress, TX chapter of our lives. I won't talk about the new house until it is for sure the new house and we have signed the dotted line, but rest assured that we are excited about it! Rather than try to do a lease-back with our house, we decided to stay with my parents. So far we are looking at about 12 days here. Should be a fun & busy place! My brothers & Meghan had all moved out so I thought we should keep them company! 😉

And now for some exciting news for Ethan and the rest of the Haynes fam:

Ethan has been out

Twice as long as he was in,

Which seemed like perfect timing -

So we're starting up again!

Baby number TWO is due

Halloween 2015!

xo,

17 months old!

Ethan is 17 months old today. Time is really flying by! This little boy understands and speaks more every day. He's becoming more independent (or maybe I'm just a little less of a helicopter mom), more opinionated and more adorable every day.

We've got our hands full with showing our house and getting ready for our Vail trip, so this post is a short one, but we have some cute pictures!

xo,