my new baby carrier

I've been wanting one of these mei tai carriers since I had Boden, but never could bring myself to spend the $80-$100 for one, or decide on what color/print I wanted. This time I decided to make my own - I found a basic mei tai pattern online and adapted it to fit my size and made some adjustments to make it more what I wanted. I'm so excited and can't wait to use it with our little girl in just a few months!

I made it so I could change out the panels - so far I've only made 2 panels but I'm sure I'll be making many more. I get bored of prints easily. (Which is why its hard to decorate my house...about a month after I get done I'm ready to do something different.)

Since I currently look like this:

(no, Michael was not standing on the couch to take this photo - he's just that much taller than me!)

...and don't yet have a baby to put in the carrier to model it for you (I thought about trying it out with Boden, but I think he's a little big), so here's a couple photos from the babyhawk website of this type of carrier:

So, it should look something like that...I hope. And the bonus is that i didn't have to settle on just one print, and it didn't cost me anywhere near $80.

I've actually been doing a lot of sewing lately. I made a new nursing cover for myself out of the same polka dot fabric I used for one of the carrier panels, made a nursing cover for a friend who just had a baby, and I'm working on finishing up the rest of the bedding for the crib. Every time I go to the fabric store I find more fabric that I love and want to use to make something - I just need about 10 more hours in a day and I could do it all! :)

What have the Brueseke's been up to?

This is gonna be a long one! August was a busy month for us. We're happy to be moved in and getting more and more settled into our house each day. A few weeks ago, Michael and I made the trek to Chicago to go to IKEA and get "a few" things for the new house.

I had so much fun and could have stayed there and shopped for days. Luckily for Michael we were on a time schedule and didn't get to just browse. We were on a mission. Not that we could have fit anything else in the Durango anyway :). We made a quick stop at the Crate & Barrell outlet while there too (another place I could have spent and entire day!) and found a great rug. We also got to spend a little time with our friends Andy & Kasia and their new puppy while in Chicago.

Here's just one of my many favorite purchases from IKEA (thank you Molly & John for helping me put it together!) This big shelf is going to provide lots of storage for toys, games, books, and who knows what else in the playroom side of our new living room. I can't wait to fill it all up and get organized!

We made it back from Chicago just in time to go to a Cardinals game. Boden LOVES baseball and can sit still and watch it much longer than I can. This game was extra special because Boden finally got to meet Fredbird!!!

We also got to spend some time with out-of-town family this month. Michael's step-sister Lauren came to visit with her little boy, Austin. Austin is 4 months old (well, 5 now) and such a happy baby! Boden loved playing with him and he even helped feed him a bottle.

Boden and I also made a weekend trip to Nebraska to see some of my family. Unfortunately, Boden got a stomach bug while we were there and we didn't get to see everyone we had hoped to. I still got to see some family at my cousin Michelle's wedding shower, and we hung out with my parents and sisters. Before he got sick, Boden helped blow some bubbles with Aunt Caela, help Poppa build a fire in the fire pit, and even played some guitar with Casey.

When Boden was feeling a little better, he found the energy to help water some flowers...in his underwear. (When a little kid has been throwing up on and off you eventually just quit putting clothes on them - it's just easier that way. lol.)

We've also been busy this month playing at the neighborhood playground....


and of course, eating lots of watermelon.

oh, and just 8 MORE WEEKS til our little girl is due to arrive!! Yikes! I go back and forth with being really excited and feeling completely unprepared. This pregnancy has gone by SO fast!

Hope you all are enjoying the tail end of your summer too!

our little musician

boden got a guitar for his birthday from auntie caela & uncle casey and he LOVES it! he's always running around singing, but rarely will he do it for the camera. this morning i caught him in a rare mood and he was willing to perform:

questionable

sometimes Boden's fashion sense is a little questionable...

exhibit A:


exhibit B:

hmmm...what do you think?

home at last

We're still here! Well, technically we're in O'Fallon, MO now. We've been very busy with buying a house and moving lately. I've been meaning to blog about it, but honestly it was such a messy process that if I had written about it when we were going through it, it probably would have been a bunch of whining and complaining and who really wants to hear that?

We were originally scheduled to close on July 24th, but that got delayed a week, and then another week. The sellers live out of the US (in 2 different countries) and there was also a relocation company involved so there seemed to be a lot of mis-communication or communication errors through the process. Thankfully, our apartment manager was generous enough to let us extend our lease by 1 week so we didn't have to move out to a temporary location. My mom was in town for the whole week when we were supposed to move to help with all the cleaning and packing, but unfortunately had to head back home to start school before we could get into the house. :( Hopefully they'll be able to come visit soon and see the house.

We've learned and grown a lot through the process though. We had to rely on God to show us if we were supposed to continue the process even with all the struggles we encountered and we really learned some lessons on patience and trusting His timing and His plan through all of this. As frustrating as the whole thing was, we were both filled with a peace from the moment we saw the house that never left us, we knew that this was the place God had intended for us. We also were overwhelmed with love from friends and family who offered to help us during this transition time. We had offers from so many people that we could stay with them if we had to be out of our apartment before we could get into the house, a crew of about 8 guys helping us move, a generous donation of restaurant gift cards to help us out while our kitchen was packed away, a group of girlfriends helping me paint, and a wonderful home-cooked dinner provided for all of our moving help on moving day. Not to mention all the people who prayed with us and for us through the processes. Thank you everyone! God has shown us His amazing love through all of you.

So -we are finally in the house - and we LOVE it! We're not completely unpacked and there are still a few walls to paint, but we are taking our time. This 6 mo. pregnant lady can only do so much in a day. The kitchen and bedrooms are put together, which is most important. The rest will come together soon.

Here's a couple photos of the new house (even if it is still a little messy):





I love having a big, open kitchen


Boden even helped me paint a little bit


These were a nice bonus that came with the house - however no one told me that HE washers on the second floor of a house can spin so fast that it shakes the room below it. The first time I did a load I was in the kitchen when it started the spin cycle and I thought we were having a small earthquake! We bought some shake pads at Lowes the other day so hopefully that will help. Other than that minor detail - I love these things!








Boden's new "big boy" bed with the quilt my mom and I made. I'm making matching crib bedding and curtains for the room too...one of these days.


The subdivision playground that is just a short walk away - one of the things I LOVE about this neighborhood. There's a pool too -thats an even shorter walk!


We're starting to get used to O'Fallon and learning where everything is. It's a really nice town and I think we're going to love it here. Although Michael has a little bit longer of a drive to his office now, we're much closer to the O'Fallon church and excited about getting to know our community and the people out here...and eventually Michael will likely have an office out here too. We are so excited about what God is doing here! Come visit us! :)

a week with nana

Boden had an exciting time while we were away on vacation - Nana came to stay with him for the week - and they had so much fun. They had picnics at the park, went to the zoo, went swimming, and then went to Grant's Farm on Friday when Poppa joined them. My mom is a kindergarten teacher - so I think the fast pace of a toddler was an easy fit for her - she's used to changing activities every 10 minutes! Here's some photos of their week:

Thankfully, he was happy to have us come home and very excited to see us. He especially liked the sombrero we brought him (too bad it was a little small, but he doesn't mind at all)

A Refreshing Retreat

Michael and I got the opportunity to spend the week at a resort in Mexico last week...alone! It was our first time away from Boden for more than one night. I was a little nervous about leaving him for so long, but very excited about Michael and I getting to spend some time together. Lately life has just been busy, busy with the new church, Michael's school, buying a house, etc. And we know it's not going to be slowing down soon with the coming arrival of little miss. So, we took the chance when we got it, and had a great time.

this is where we spent most of our days, just relaxing and reading

Boden had a great week with mama & daddy gone, but he was sure excited to see us when we got off the plane - and we were excited to see him too!

"look what I made!"

With our little girl planned to make an appearance this fall, I've decided to start my serious attempts at potty training. I have absolutely no desire to diaper two children at the same time and have decided I will do as much as I possibly can to avoid it. I've been setting Boden on the potty here and there since he was about 6 months old, just to get him used to it. I know some kids can be afraid of the potty, so this was my attempt to avoid that. And also because our spunky pediatrician told me if I started when he was 6 months old I could have him trained by the time he was 1. (I guess she should have been more specific to mention I needed to be consistent about it. Once every couple days doesn't really do it, if you're wondering.)

So a few days ago I decided to just take off the diaper and suggest he go on the potty, alot. He much prefers the little bjorn potty, I think because he can get on and off it himself and he can move it to another room rather than just sitting in the boring old bathroom.


He was really excited about this at first. He would go and then he would stand up and exclaim "Look what I made!" and we would all cheer and say "Yay Boden!" That was apparently exciting enough to him that he found a way to go pee approximately 11 times in the first 20 minutes. I was thinking, "wow, he's really catching on to this...this isn't going to be so hard after all....well, unless he really has to go that often." And then he tells me "I need to go poo poo" and he sits down on the potty, goes pee, then stands up and poops on the floor. Seriously?

Poop on the floor wasn't so exciting to me. I decided I didn't really want to do that again so we headed out for some "big boy undies". We found some with Cars and some with Thomas the Train. I saw some that were little boxer briefs for toddlers which I thought was just adorable, but they were only solid colors - not nearly as exciting to a 2 year old as Thomas the Train. Isn't that the most adorable little underwear model you've ever seen?

He actually does really good when in underwear and has only had a few messes. In fact, we even had a successfully dry trip to the bookstore the other day with no diaper. He definitely knows the difference though - if he's in a diaper or a pull up he doesn't really even bother to tell me he's going. I'm not expecting him to be trained by next week, but I think we've got a good start (at least I hope so!)

......................................................................

on another note of how grown up my little guy is becoming, he's taking his first nap in his big boy toddler bed right now. I really want to go take a photo, but the shutter is too loud and I don't want to wake him (this is one of only 2 naps he's taken in the past week so I'm not chancing it). We aren't really planning to move him out of the crib until we move next month, but he was refusing to nap, so I laid down on the toddler bed with him and he fell right to sleep.

random moments in our life

Lately we've been keeping pretty busy. We've been house-hunting in O'Fallon for the past couple weeks. House-hunting is not really one of my favorite things to do, it's time consuming and stressful, and disappointing when you find out a house you like has just been sold, but it sure is exciting when you finally find a house that will be perfect for you - like we did just a few days ago! more on that in a later post... Michael has been very busy working on his sermons for the Ephesians series our church is doing this summer. This is the first time he's done a series, so it's been a good challenge for him and he's really enjoying it. I didn't get to hear him last week since I was doing the preschool lesson, but many people told me it was great. Hopefully we'll start getting them recorded soon and posting them online so those of you who live out of town and want to listen can.

Boden is acting more and more like a little boy all the time - his imagination is starting to show up and he is cracking me up all the time. We were driving to a friends house this week to go swimming and he had his little diving rings and he was pretending one of them was a steering wheel - he was turning it around and around and saying "look mama, I'm driving!" Very proud of himself too.

The other night he insisted on wearing his hat to bed...and when I went in to get him in the morning he was standing there in his crib with his hat still on! I had totally forgotten about it, so I had to chuckle when I picked him up.


He also had his first popsicle of the summer. (I know, I know - who gives their 2 yr old a popsicle while wearing a white shirt, right?) He actually did pretty good at not getting any on himself, but it was hot outside and melting fast so I finished it off for him :)
He's also become quite the climber. I walked into the dining room the other day to find he had fixed himself a little "snack" and pulled up a chair to read my bible. We have a counter height table, so I was surprised to see him get all the way up on the chair by himself.

Then, one day last week he put on daddy's flip flops, shuffled towards the door, and announced that he needed car keys and that he was going to church. LOL. "See you wayter mama!"

Being the mom of a 2 yr old can be a struggle sometimes, but there is so much joy in it too. I feel very blessed.