25 Days of Christmas

I love Christmas.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder how I ended up putting up with Colin because he is the opposite. Other than gifts and our Christmas day marathons(we have 4 Christmases to go to every year), we don't really do anything to celebrate.

The year before last we were given a small Christmas tree and decorations by some of the ladies I work with because it was an "abomination" that we didn't have one; I was ecstatic. Last year I was 37 weeks pregnant, so there was no traveling home to see our families.

As you know, we had a baby in January. One of the first things I said to Colin when I was pregnant was that I was going to go all out for Christmas. She was going to have fun. We were going to decorate and bake and everything else one does during this season! She was not going to miss out on anything.

This year she is a little young and life is a little crazy to do a lot. We are moving a week before Christmas, so we wont be setting up our own tree this year. Life is putting a huge kink in my holiday plans!

However, to make up for it, I am going to do as many crafts as I can! I am making all of the gifts we are giving this year. I'm not sure if I will post these until after Christmas, just to keep the surprise for those family members who follow my blog.

My friend Randi at Sowdering About in Seattle is doing a 25 Days of Christmas link up. I decided that I am going to participate.

We all know how my 31 Day Challenge ended up...and I know going into this that I may not have enough material for 25 days, or time for that matter... which is why I decided to incorporate some of the people that I love in this challenge. I am working out some guest posts from some very talented ladies.

So here it is! Come back here to see an updated list of my posts. Be sure to check out the link up on Sowdering About to follow some other great blogs this holiday season!

1st Day of Christmas: Santa Baby
2nd Day of Christmas: Salt Dough Ornaments
3rd Day of Christmas: MistleTOES
4th Day of Christmas: Sweet Traditions
5th Day of Christmas: A Little Bit of Decorating
6th Day of Christmas: Show Me the Lights
7th Day of Christmas: Cookie, cookie, cookie!
8th Day of Christmas: Dolling Up for the Season- Guest Post by Rachel Sitton

Scrub a Dub Dub, There's a lot More than You Think in the Tub.

Rowen loves bath time.

This was when she was a baby. Now that she is a toddler, bath time is less of a relaxation time and more of playtime.



 The second she hears the water running, she speed crawls to the bathroom.
Her love of the bath also comes with a love of her bath toys. She loves to chew on them as she gets washed down.








You know what also loves bath toys? MOLD.
The insides of bath toys are the perfect habitat for mold; dark and wet.

I discovered this one day when I was squeezing out the excess water. To my horror, chunks and chunks of black mold squirted out with it. I will spare you the pictures, but it was awful.

So, I decided that I needed to figure out a way to clean them

First I filled my sink with hot water and added 1 cup of white vinegar. White vinegar is good at killing things such as mold.

I filled up the toys with the water/vinegar and let them soak for 30 minutes.

I then squeezed everything out of each toy. This worked well getting most of the mold out, but not all of it.

So, I tried the whole process again.

Still mold.

This time I filled my sink up with hot water and added 1/4 bleach. I filled the toys up with the water and let them sit for 30 minutes.

Again, I squeezed everything out of the toys. NO MOLD!!! I let the toys dry.






To prevent water getting into the toys in the future and giving mold the opportunity to grow again, I whipped out my hot glue gun and filled in the holes.

Day 28: Utility Closet

Before...

Everything is all over the place. Laundry, baby gear we are not using, floor mat. The washer and dryer have become holding places for things we want out of sight and out of mind.

First I took all of the unused baby gear and put it with the rest of it in my bedroom closet. The laundry basket was also put back in its spot in the closet.





I put up a tension rod below the shelf. We cloth diaper. Drying your diapers can wear out the elastic, so its best to hang dry. Thanks to the tension rod we can now do that here, instead of on the railing of the crib or the shower.





Then I moved to the shelf.
I moved all if the laundry related items to the left. I put Colin's tools and the baby proofing gear in  the middle. Lastly all of the cleaning related items were organized on the right.

Finally I finished putting away everything on the dryer, and moved Rowen's laundry basket here. It was originally in her crib, but I had to move it when I organized the crib a couple of weeks ago.

...After

This is day 29 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series click here.

Day 27: Baby Cabinet

Before....

I started by taking everything out and putting in a huge pile on the floor.

Then I sorted. 

I decided that the bottom shelf would be for breastfeeding/pumping items.

I exclusively pump... because of this I have acquired 3 pumps; manual, battery-powered single, and a daily-use double. I only use the battery powered single when we travel and the manual is a back up. I found this little bag. It was the perfect size for my single, and the perfect size to just throw in a diaper bag when we are out.

I took the rest of of the spare parts for this pump and put them in a little metal organizer (Dollar tree).

I then went through the rest of my pumping stuff an put it in nice and neat.

I found tons of stuff we never use. Formula, baby powder, a ton of bottles and bottle parts.I have this constant fear that I am going to run out of milk for Rowen, so I kept the can of formula. There were tons of slow-flow nipples and some pacifiers that Rowen wont use, 3 nasal aspirators, and about 15 bottle caps. I kept 5 bottle caps and threw everything else away. O, I also kept the baby powder.

I put all of the grooming and medical items on the top shelf.

...After

This is day 27 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.