Totally Off Topic But I have to share here because I know there are other mom's out there...

So this is going to be off topic from the Ryan Homes Blog but I feel like many of you, whom built your home around the same time I did, have something in common.  

Kids.

Having my second child and being my my Ryan Home was a fantastic idea.

Both of my girls have so much space and I can't emphasize enough how safe we feel with our kids playing in the yard in our neighborhood.

Everyone in our Ryan community kind of looks out for one another and we help each other out in the winter when PA decides to throw some crazy snow at us.

Some of us in the community have found that our slopped driveways maybe aren't the most ideal and others (me) have been inspired to just buy a new vehicle that just destroys any "driving in the snow" problems that might exist.

Last winter was a BEAST.

But..that' s not what I hopped on to talk about.

I want to share my pure joy and delight for the Ergo Baby Carrier.

Seriously.  I didn't have this thing with baby #1 and I swear my back paid for it.

But I have it for baby #2 and I have to tell you it's the best money in baby carriers I have ever spend.  Literally...it is.

I have bought almost every baby carrier there was out there.   I don't know how I missed this Ergo Carrier the first time around but I"m so glad I didn't miss it the second.

Right now, I have a snuggly little baby cuddled up to me and sleeping away and when I'm done typing here, I'll be able to easily slip out of my carrier and leave her to sleep in her bed for a couple of hours.

Aside from the close cuddly contact, my absolute FAVORITE FEATURE is one of the most simple things about it.

The Ergo Carrier has a little black cloth that you can pull up and snap to your shoulder straps.

The cloth covers the babies head and makes it almost completely dark.

THIS IS AWESOME!

I'm serious.

You have no idea how much I was just struggling to get this little baby bugger to take a nap and finally in a moment of desperation, I remembered this carrier.

I tried to put her on my back first but that just didn't work.  She got more calm but she wasn't going into a trance.

So I switched her to the front carry withe carrier (cause you can do both) and BAM!  in less than 5 minutes she was conked out and now here I'm typing about it.

Little black nap cloth covering her head and a little bundle between me and my computer...BUT at long LAST she is sleeping.

Once I realized I'd have some time after she feel asleep my pure joy and admiration for this baby carrier had to be shared.

Plus...if I let her get a little deeper into the sleep cycle while I rock back and forth and type this blogpost while standing at the kitchen counter (which I still love btw!)  then I might have a chance of having more freedom today than I planned. (Freedom in regards to more time to blog my butt away!)

So there you have it.

An "off topic" blog post about my Ergo baby carrier because it is literally one of the best investments (aside from my home of course) that I have made.

Now...if I could just lose a little more weight and look sexy with this little bundle like those skinny mamas!  ....then maybe I'd share a photo.

Haha!

I hope you have a great day!
-C

ps...My horrible weight loss story is n't so horrible anymore!  Boooyah!

It's Hard. Or is it? Look at all I've done...even if the photos kind of stink!

Ok.  I love taking photos and I know that I promised I would shoe some update photos since it's been a while.

While they are not the absolute best photos on Earth..they are still pretty cool so you can see some of the neat stuff that we've added to the house. :)

The biggest thing we want to do next is to add a deck (yeah I know...we still don't have one) but it's crazy to find a reliable and good deck builder in these parts!

So anyways...here I am just chilling in my house and I forgot to tell you guys that we finished the basement!  (real nice photos to come of course)

It took just under a year because we did all the work ourselves, but now we have the coolest storage closet, a built in "library" of sorts, a full bath in the basement and a family room that still needs some tender loving decoration and care.

I can't decide what to do paint wise and I still need to get to a point where I can keep up with my kids and their toys but I think the house is looking pretty good!  I'll share more photos of that too!

Silly me. Today I didn't have the right camera lens on so please forgive the "strange" photos.  I figured something is better than nothing!

Here you go!

So this is the what I did in the morning room.  I have no idea what to say about it other than sometimes I feel like it looks like a grandmother did it and other times I just love it and that's all that really counts.

Here's one of our living room: 

Clearly I have an obsession with trees...and my daughter loves Spongebob. 

Here you can see we are run by small minions.  (aka two children who are spoiled to death).  I spent a fair amount of time picking out this two paint colors and figuring out exactly what to do on this wall.

I don't mind a plainly painted wall but I couldn't stand the only thing on this wall being a television as the accent so I stepped outside of my lazy comfort zone and spent several hours making this wall look super duper.   I love this wall and it's my favorite by far in our Venice. 

I plan on doing something similar on the same wall that goes up the stairs but I'm no 100% committed to the idea yet. The baby stuff will eventually be gone and I'll be able to show you some photos of what I envision (not with baby toys all over the place).   The book shelf thing on the right will be gone to as eventually we will run wires to have the dvd player downstairs or it will be on a shelf that compliments the tree design.  That's my challenge right now.  I know what I want but I have to find a way to balance it into the design.

Once again, I apologize for the weird angles and such.  I didn't have my wide lens on the camera so it is what it is! :) 

I love the white against the neutral background.  It took a while to do, but I just absolutely love this wall.  Really, I've painted a lot of walls through the years and this one tops all of them!

Here's the basement...(part of it).  

This is the room in the basement that is towards the street in the  Venice.  These build in book shelves were made right against the stairwell and I'm standing in the basement bathroom to take the photo.

Check out some of the bathroom:

This is the downstairs basement bathroom that use to be a rough in!  Yay!  No more concrete walls!  :)   So...we saved a ton by doing it ourselves but it sure seems to have taken forever!  I'll make sure to take better photos once I get my wide lens out.

And last but not least, here's a shameless plug for this wonderful woman named Sheri that I met.  She makes these AWESOME Minion Gourmet Treats for kiddie parties and all sorts of things.  So if you love Minions (come on...I know you do!) and you or someone you know is thinking about having a minions themed party and is looking for minions party ideas, please share her information!  I know you won't be disappointed!  Here's a link to her site where you can order the minions or any other gourmet treats!  She totally customizes things so it's so exciting for me to share her little world with you guys!  I know I'm going to be buying a Corporate Holiday Gift Tray or something like that for the holidays because these are seriousely good gourmet goodies!  (I order the marshmallow/pretzel treats for kiddie parties but I get the gourmet chocolate/caramel choices (see her site) for the more adult based stuff).

Anyways!

I hope you like them if you order them! You'd be crazy not to!

http://www.pretzelcrazy.com/products/mindless-marshmallows

Tell her you found her through me too!  I would love her to know that I'm spreading the word and trying to get her little minion creations out there!  (She doesn't get the whole minion thing...but I do!)

:) 

Have a great day!  See you next time!