AP's Room Reveal!

AP's room has been in the works for a really long time now.  Normally, it's something you start putting together before the baby arrives, but since we were in a rent home during the entire pregnancy, we did absolutely nothing.  Not to mention, I couldn't find anything that went with the color scheme I initially wanted for his room.  So I procrastinated on trying to pull his room together, even after we moved into our home. (Trust me, this will be an underlying theme in every home post I make going forward.  I have a problem!!)

However, I finally settled on bedding.  Then we found a weekend to go furniture shopping and I was fully prepared to not find anything I liked. But to my surprise, we actually found a dresser that I liked that was very reminiscent of a RH Baby piece I had my eye on, and it was about $1,000 cheaper.  Sold!

So, everything started coming together after that.  Jason and I did a legit DIY project for his wall.  I mean, it was nothing crazy, but for this chick who is a perfectionist, it was a big risk step.  But it turned out beautifully and adds a lot to the room.  Then, on top of it, AP's Uncle Ty bought him an awesome teepee that fills the room and really makes it seem like a little boy's room!  We stained the tops of the teepee poles to match the arrows and I just love how everything turned out.

I still want to add some pieces to the walls and upgrade the chair, but I think we've made a great room that Austin will be able to grow up in! 

DIY Wooden Arrow Tutorial
Dresser: Mathis Brothers Furniture
Nursery Bedding & Mobile: Restoration Hardware Baby & Child
Teepee: Amazon
Club Chair: Target
Sheepskin Rugs: IKEA
Wood Clock: Amazon.com
Crib: StorkLand and Kids Too!

This House We Built is now a Home!!

Nearly 5 months have gone by since we finally were able to move into our home.  And it's been amazing so far!  We are so proud of the home that we built.  And so much has transpired since we closed.  I've clearly been AWOL for a while now.

Our little man is now 7 months old, J took part 2 of the CFA exam, we found out we will be welcoming another niece into the world this year, we hired a nanny for AP, left him with grandparents overnight for the first time, started planning our annual Cam Family trip, lost my grandfather unexpectedly (R.I.P. Opa), and welcomed extended family to Norman. 

In spite of all the changes, we've finally settled into a routine over here.  AP is a bouncy, smiley, happy baby!  We're seriously obsessed with him and half convinced we should stop having kids while we're ahead.  I don't think we could have asked for a perfect child.  He's trying to crawl but is terrible at it.  I mean, why use your hands when you can use your head and legs?  He has the most precious smile and the best laugh ever and can handle just about anything like a champ.  It has been such a wonderful blessing having the honor to parent this little bundle of joy and we are so thankful for him.  You should hear J and I when we're at the dinner table with him.  You'd think we were smitten, the way we gush over him...oh wait, we are!! Ok, I'll stop oohing and ahhing over him, because I could go all day!

We are loving our home.  I'm slowly, ever so slowly, trying to decorate it.  I'm a commitment-phobe right now.  I feel like every piece of decor or furniture I buy will be around for 10 years, so I've been taking my sweet time so I can make sure I really like how the house is evolving.  Not to mention, I'm struggling with nailing down the style of what I'm wanting.  Do I want transitional? Contemporary? Casual elegance?  I haven't the foggiest idea. 

But, we are incredibly proud of the thought we put into building the house.  There are two or three things that we overlooked and wished we would have thought to consider when building the house, but nothing drastic by any means.  One of the things we wished we had put more thought into was making the kitchen trash can drawer bigger.  So, I think we covered our bases if that's the kind of thing we feel like we overlooked.  Thank goodness!

So, I'm hoping to slowly introduce our home to you all.  Maybe one day I'll be a legit blogger. ;-)  Until next time!

Five on Friday: Phone Apps

 1. Paprika Recipe Manager  2. PocketMoney 3. mSecure Password Manager

 4. Grocery iQ  5. My Medical

1. Paprika Recipe Manager - This is one of my absolute favorite apps. It's a recipe management system with tons of features. First of all, there are no pre-loaded recipes, which I love.  I only want my stuff in there, not a bunch of recipes I'm never going to use.  Then there are features like saving recipes straight from a website with a push of the button, meal planning calendars, shopping lists built from recipes you're planning to cook with, a place to create reusable menus and more. 

I love that everything can be categorized and organized however you deem best. It also seamlessly syncs across all devices. So regardless of whether I'm on my phone or iPad, I know I'm looking at the same thing. And when J needs to check out a recipe, his phone syncs with the app as well!  And when you have a recipe pulled up, the app keeps your device awake, so no trying to wake up and unlock your screen with dirty hands. 

I talked my mother and mother-in-love into getting the app and now we share recipes back and forth so easily! And when I'm out grocery shopping and decide I want to make a certain meal, I just open Paprika and check what ingredients I need!  It's such a lifesaver. 

2. PocketMoney - When I was 15, Quicken was my money management software. Yes, I was that awesome that I was reconciling my checking account at that age. But, when smartphones came around, Quicken didn't have an app so I found PocketMoney.  I'm able to keep track of all our accounts and keep them reconciled. I do wish there was a way to sync easily among devices, as Jason never has an up to date version of our data.  Overall, it's a good financial management app.

3. mSecure Password Manager  - I couldn't live without this app. It literally maintains all our passwords. I try to have unique passwords for every site I visit, so this allows me to keep track of all that.  It's nice that it has different standrad fields based on what kind of login information or sensitive data you're storing.

4. Grocery iQ -I bought this app, used it for a while, then thought it wasn't useful, so I went back to my method of just keeping shopping lists on the Notes iPhone app. Then I tried this app out again and now I really like it. I'm able to make different lists based on different stores. So, if we're at Target, I can pull up that list and all my aisles are organized based on Target's layout. 

If I'm out running errands and J's still at work, since the app syncs across devices, I'll just text him and tell him to add anything else he wants to the list. Or if he cooks and thinks of things he needs to restock the kitchen, he doesn't have to tell me, he just adds it to the list and I'll know next time I go out.  Additionally, you can create favorite items, along with prices, so we can budget our groceries better and it's easy to quickly add items. 

5. My Medical - This has quickly become an app I rely on. While J and I are pretty healthy, it's nice to have a place to refer to when trying to remember family history, past procedures or past visits to the doctors. It also let's us track any medications we have taken or are taking and also tracks immunizations as we get them.  I can also store documents. so test results and lab reports that we've had taken are all in one place.