Mondays!

sums it up perfectly!

A Blink of an Eye

I made a promise that I was going to start posting more and that didn't work out too good. { two thumbs down Cor!! }

it's hard for me, like most moms because life just gets away from you.

I know so cliché to say how time goes by too fast with kids, but cliches are what they are because they are true.I found this even more true as we welcomed baby 2 in May and now it is the first week of December.

I thought I knew my months of the year. I mean I am a preschool teacher after all. I didn't relaize December came after May. Didn't I just give birth to him?Carter Cash is 6 months old and it seriously was a blink of an eye.

Looks like I better get planning his first birthday because apparently that's next week!

Taking the time today to treasure these sweet moments because they go too fast!

Love

Corey

Super Friends Ornaments

I really enjoyed making these quick and super easy ornaments for Jax. He is superhero obsessed and loves them! I planned to do this last year so I already had what I needed. Saw this trick on Pinterest (will link ASAP)to pour paint into clear ornaments creating a unique & professional look to spruce up a boring clear bulb and make it your own.


My mom found these cute metal DC Super Friends ornaments at Target last year. (Retail $8) I took off the hook so the ornament was just the superhero.We bought the clear plastic craft ornaments by Celebrate It (Retail $1.49 each) from Michaels also last year when they daycare made their parents gifts for Christmas and I had some left over. I used Craft Smart Acrylic paint to match. (I have multiple bottles of all different colors on hand.) But you can find these or similar at Michaels or any craft supplies store.

I carefully poured the paint into the ornament while slowly rotating it,letting the paint inside coat the interior.
quick tip: the newer/thinner the paint the faster and easier it was to pour so if its chunky old paint get some new stuff or be prepared for this to take a while.
It really took me less than a minute of pouring and turning before the whole ornament was completely coated.
I then took super glue and glued the super friends to the front. Let dry and that's it! I did this last night and left open they were dry by morning. Happy Monday!!
Love-

Corey

50 Days til Christmas

50 Days til Christmas and this year its on! I am not falling into my usual routine of buying all the Christmas gifts a week or LESS before the big day thus throwing away loads of money by not shopping smart & looking for deals. Today I challenge myself to get organized & shop frequently over the next few weeks. I plan on taking advantage of a layaway program (most likely Walmart) for the big present we want to get. ( a playground!! ) I wish I could do it entirely online but I have to go into the store. BOO! To avoid waiting there with a almost 4 year old and 5 month old I will prepare today and then go in tomorrow while Jax is in school. Checked with hubby in our weekly family “meeting” and we discussed what we felt was a good budget for our family for Christmas. He VOWED that this year he will let me know ASAP of what he wants. Usually he plays the whole “I don’t need anything" card and then a week before (this is where the LESS comes in) he causally names a few impossible finds that I could have ordered or located had I had more time. Apparently he understood my point because today he text me giving me a few ideas! I guess I got his Christmas spirit going, which was perfect because his text reminded me my plan. So I got out my “Christmas App” on my iphone and started planning what we needed to get! Yay! Only 50 days left. I love playing Santa!

Ho ho ho!

Love-

Corey

Spider-Man Pumpkin

Last year the kids were totally into sticking their hands in and pulling out the "guts" out of the pumpkin. Well that's how I remembered it. Although I know better to think Jax wants to be anything close to sticky gooey or slimy. He is a boy through and through but being messy isn't his thing and this is solely because of me and my OCD cleaning his whole life. :/
Anyhooo, Jax was very much into the idea of the days project, making a Spider-Man pumpkin, however the only work he wanted involved the knife and that wasn't happening! He is almost 4 and not ready for carving. Since the kids usually like the goo and slime that parts and the cutting is for me. This year I did it all. These pictures help show what I mean.

Fall Photos of the Ruffin boys!

Today was a beautiful fall day so I wanted to make sure we got outside.
Jax inspired me to do some updated brother pics when he put of his "big brother" T-shirt this morning! I grabbed some matching stuff for Carter and we were off to the cuteness factory.
I snapped a TON of pics like I always do, & sorted and edited after the fact to get the pictures I was looking for. And boy did I get lucky!
Perhaps it's because IMO my kids can't take a bad picture! ;)

Love-

Corey

Be weary of the crunchies!

The crunchy granola type has a way to get in your head. Don't let it. Just be you! Don't get trapped in the green mommy hype. Just do the best you can. That's all you can do! :) have a great Sunday fellow Supermoms!

PS
I'm a breast feeding & formula feeding, baby wearing but don't take my stroller I need a place for my diaper bag, co-sleeping for the first few months, disposable diapering (i DONT need more laundry!) NON judging mama. Just doing what I can.

If I can save money with out added stress I do it. If I make it myself I do. But I look at my time as money. Is it worth it!? Some people do it for the show. I do it for my family! Sanity is key and stress should be limited.
Do what you do & never second guess yourself. You're the mommy! And mommy knows best.

Lots of Love

Corey

Jax goes to Preschool

Finally, it's here. The school year has officially begun. & at the risk of sounding like a bad mom, I am super excited. But for good reason. Since having Carter and closing the daycare, Jax really hasn't got the socialization he so needs. I am glad for him to have something to do where he can play and learn with kids his own age.
He goes Tuesday & Thursday from 9-130 and its just the break I need to spend some great time one on one time with Carter without feeling like I'm leaving someone out!

Jax started back at the same school where he went last January through May. He is in the same class with the same teachers. He misses the county's school cut off for VPK (pre-kindergarten) by only a few months so he is actually one of the oldest in his class this year. He will begin VPK next school year and Kindergarten the year following that. It's a big change this year because Jax was one of the youngest last year. I think Ill like this better, Jax has always been a very prominent personality wherever he goes so it's a perfect fit!

The teachers said he did a great job showing the new kids a LOT about how their day goes and how to do certain activities! She said he is a great leader!!

I took a picture of him before he left and decided to ask him some questions for a bio after school. Using Picasa 3 from Google. I am  really excited to do this each school year and create a book for Jax one day.

No pain. No gain.

7/31/2012
So it's day 3 of Jillian Michaels.
I'm feeling sore all over but the good sore. The kind that makes you want to do the same exact thing the next day. Well at least that's what happens to me. I can't wait to complete Jillian's Michael's 30 Day Shred. A few girlfriends and I have recently started the program and hope to have shredded our bodies in 30 days.
{wish us luck!!}
I've taken before pics, which to be honest I am not brave enough to post yet. I think I will for sure once I get a good "after" picture in 30 days. :)

My goal right now isn't a number this time. I plan to keep up with my healthy lifestyle and maintain where I was with my fitness pre-pregnancy. That in turn with get me where I want to be wearing cute size 2/4 clothes and feeling great about my body!
Operation get my body back is in full effect. I can feel muscles that I forgot I had. With counting calories on myfitnesspal.com and doing JM I will see results like I did the last time.
I will post this picture of me after my first son/pregnancy and after I lost the weight with JM shred & ripped the first time.
This picture is my inspiration. I did it before I can do it again!
Love-

Corey

Welcome Baby Carter!

So I cant believe the hiatus I took while pregnant with Carter. I literally didn't blog my entire pregnancy. I kept the daycare open the whole time. SO I was pretty busy preggo & running the daycare. At night the last thing I wanted to do was blog. Now looking back with all the catching up I have to do I am pretty bummed I didn't keep up with it.

I closed 1 1/2 weeks before Carter was born. I was hoping to get 3 weeks til my due date but he came early. 6 days to be exact.

We welcomed Carter Cash in to this world at 10:26pm on 5/23/12 after 20 hours of labor. He was 9 pounds 1 ounce and 21.5 inches long. He looked just like his big brother except bigger & we were in love instantly!

{Photo Credit Tiffany Kelly of Impressions Photography}

Big brother, Jax is doing great and we have come a long way in the past couple of months adjusting to our new family dynamic.

Carter may look like his brother but there are a lot differences! Finding out all about him has been such a cool experience. Already being a parent I realized right away those first few weeks go so fast that I made sure this time to take it ALL in. Snuggle more. Complain less. Love each moment because before I could blink he would be in that next stage in that next moment, and I wasn't going to miss a thing.

Love-

Corey

Project Nursery

I was obsessed with creating the most perfect nursery that I could!
Like the majority of people reading this, cost is a factor. It plays a role in when I do something or what I do in life. It's just the way it is. That doesn't mean I can't get the look I want with little to no impact on my family's budget.

CHANGING TABLE
Used changing table at Mom & Tots $30.00 + Spray Paint & Paint ($20) = $50

BEFORE (with primer)

Professional Maternity Pictures

  30 WEEKS

3.21.12

So I took belly pics of myself every single week in the same mirror. I was obsessed with capturing the belly my whole pregnancy. I felt this intense need to get each moment since I hardly had any pics of me pregnant with my first DS.

My pics were mediocre pictures at best and were for one purpose only, to see the belly grow and grow. I also needed/wanted to get professional pictures done. Ones that I could no way do on my own and ones that included daddy & soon to be big brother!

I contacted my long time friend and awesome photographer, Tiffany Kelly of impressions photography. I always go to her when I'm going to spend good money on pictures. Besides being a great friend, she is so talented and amazing with my son!

I was approximately 25 weeks when we made contact about the pics and decided 30 weeks would be perfect for a session. I bundled it with a newborn session with plans that she would come shoot those adorable sleeping nakey baby pics of Carter when he was born.

The idea was to capture me and the belly at its best! Big enough to be nice and round but I still wanted to be comfortable. Not ginormous and uncomfortable like you tend to feel towards the end (36-40weeks)

30 Week Belly

So 30 weeks came and it came fast!
And considering I am posting this months later with a newborn by my side just shows me again how fast time really does go by. So cliche I know, but so very true.
Any-who. Here are the pictures to share with you, Enjoy!

{Please do not copy} all rights reserved

This is one of my FAVORITES!!

This picture makes me smile.

The ones that she caught of Jax and myself are precious. I am so in LOVE with them. This is the last photo shoot that he and I will have the mom & only child dynamic.
It was such fun being in the studio. Tiffany always knows exactly how to direct us since I never know what to do!!

I really loved the few she got of me and Jason. He isnt usually the most patient during these sessions. He puts on a face and gets it done but I can tell that he is ready for it to be over, meanwhile I could do this all day.
Jax is such a ham so obviously he is more like me in that category!

Tiffany did an amazing job at capturing the best and most flattering angles. Thank goodness because when you have gained 30 plus pounds, any help at a good angle is a blessing. These ones with the hats are such awesome photos, probably two of my favorites.






My best part of the session was when it was just me and the photographer. After the family shots I sent Jason & Jax on their way home and spent the rest of the session with all focus on the belly. We couldn't help but laugh and catch up while we were shooting. It was fun great girl time too! Bonus.

These I love because she captures the moment so well. I move my eyebrows a LOT when I talk and express myself. I was trying to be serious and my eyebrow kept going up and I was making this funny face! Tiff kept reminding me and it was making me laugh too hard!! <3

This silhouette is the most perfect of them all. I asked Tiffany to do one similar to what I had seen online. She created such an awesome picture for me and I couldn't be happier. 

Absolutely Love This!

The Pregnancy Story: 3rd Trimester

Well it finally arrived!! The home stretch. Let the exhaustion begin!
The third tri is sooo hard imo. Towards the very end you are so big, uncomfortable, & most if not all the wicked preggo woes are back with vengeance. That's right if you had morning sickness or headaches etc. be prepared for them to rear their ugly heads. again.
So not fun!
I was fairly lucky on the sickness side. I didn't have it in the beginning for either of my pregnancies and I didn't experience MS towards their ends either. I know, I know. Go ahead a hate. ;)
Obviously I am not your poster child pregnant lady. I had the minimal problems and did my best not to focus on them. What I found the hardest was this is the part of your pregnancy that time feels like it stands still. I mean you just FLEW through 28 weeks and now HALT! Your whole world seems to go in slow motion that last 12 weeks, and when you are getting bigger by the second and are getting less and less sleep, it's easy to wonder what the heck did I get myself into? Focusing on the reward at the end helped me get to D Day. My little precious would be in my arms. At in that moment hemorrhoids and vomiting are a distant memory. The true power of LOVE! <3

Trips to the park at this point we somewhat bearable. It was only March and the weather was just starting to get hot. So it wasn't that bad.