2 Years Old

Winnie turned 2 yesterday. Where did the last 2 years go? Here's a picture of our sweet birthday girl, Queen Winnie:




Her ladybug cake:

Winnie was very excited about her birthday. All day long everything was her "birthday" something--her birthday breakfast, her birthday dress, her birthday daddy. . .

Matt and I gave Winnie a CD player for her birthday. I never would have thought I'd be giving a 2-year-old a CD player, but we set it up today and she knew how to use it without me even having to show her.

I finally finish a project. . .

I'm great at starting projects, but not so great at finishing. On Monday, I finished one that I've been working on for a while. . .

Meet Luke Matthew. He was born at 8:30 Monday night, weighed 7 lbs, 20 inches long.

People keep asking me which one is better--unmedicated birth or having an epidural. I really couldn't say which is better because they were very different experiences. I'd recommend a natural birth to anyone who thought they'd still be able to enjoy the experience that way. Winnie's birth was much more intense and I was much more focused on just one thing. With Luke I was, of course, more comfortable, more relaxed and enjoyed being able to watch Matt's reaction to everything.

Winnie is slowly adjusting to having competition for our time and attention. Overall, I think she's doing quite well. My Mom's been here all week so the house is even relatively clean. Poor Matt, though. Baby's in our room so we're really disrupting his sleep. A few more nights of sleep deprivation and the dark circles under his eyes might be black enough that people will think he's been in a fight. Luckily, Luke's been a little better every night and last night even gave us a 4-hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep.

425 East Center

The Lizzie V. Sutton house was listed for sale this week. The listing is sparse on details and doesn't have any pictures. The picture above is from the county tax records.

http://utahrealestate.com/866991

The Sutton house is one of my favorite houses in all of Provo and a Provo Historic Landmark. Just 4 blocks from the courthouse, it is the perfect location for our future plans since one of my goals is to live within a mile of Matt's work. The house has been for sale 3 times in the last 3 years and I'm pretty sure it's been owned by investors for quite a while. Currently the house is a triplex with two 2-bedroom and one 1-bedroom apartments. One of the 2-bedroom units is almost twice the size of our current house, so even though we wouldn't gain a bedroom, I think we could make the space work for quite a while until we could afford to expand into the other units and ultimately restore the house to a single family residence. If only it was a year later and Matt was done with school. . . and if only it weren't $370,000.

Clothing Wish List

My post-baby inspiration:

Anthropologie Dear Watson Coat, $99.95

Charlotte Russe Pintuck Blouse, $18.99 (as if I could wear mustard yellow)

Anthropologie Grand Acres Blouse, $39.95

Anthropologie Trousers, $49.95

Payless Wedges, $17.99

Forever21 Woven Top, $22.80

Anthropologie Ruffled Denim Skirt, $158.00 (luckily it's only available in a size 2, or this skirt would be a serious temptation)

American Eagle Ballet Flats, $17.99

Anthropologie Ribbons & Ridges Cardigan, $19.95

Charlotte Russe Belted Pinstriped Top, $21.99 (I love it, but I'd probably have to shorten it 3 or 4 inches)

Closet Love

I still haven't finished organizing the new closet systems, but chances are they aren't going to look much better than this any time soon, so I'm posting pictures anyway. The Rubbermaid systems are fantastic and I think you'd have to see them in real life (or have a lot better pictures than what I can take) to really appreciate how much space and easy organization they provide.

Master bedroom closet before:

Master bedroom closet after:

The curtains are blocking how much more we were able to fit into our closet with the new system. It's tight, but it's organized. All of Matt's music gear now resides in our closet in addition to our clothes and other random storage. The curtains on our closet are temporary--we couldn't fit a crib in our room and still have room to open the closet doors, so we put up some curtains.

I didn't take a picture of Winnie's closet before, but it was just the standard building model with one shelf and a rod. The after in her room is more exciting to me than our room, even.

This closet is where it feels like we have a lot of room now--I'm not sure what to do with all the extra space so I haven't really done anything. All of Matt's gear is in our room now, but all of my craft supplies still reside here.

The only person who's not entirely happy with our new closets is Winnie--they were one of her favorite places to hide and now she doesn't fit in either one!