To-Do List Jars

Each year I can't help but get a little excited as Spring Cleaning approaches. While I admit that I don't love the actual cleaning process, I do love the great feeling of a spotless house! This year I've been trying to think of a way to change my usual Spring Cleaning routine up a bit. This is how I came up with the "Deep Cleaning To-Do List Jars."

The idea is that whenever I have a minute I'll pop open the "To-Do" jar, pick out a task, complete it, and put it in the "Ta-Done" jar. It'll be a surprise every time, and mix up the fun and not-so-fun tasks. Plus, I'll get to watch the "To-Do" jar slowly empty while the "Ta-Done" jar fills up!

If you'd like to try some of your own, here's how I did it...

1. Pick out two small jars. I used baby food jars since there seems to be a plethora kicking around my kitchen at the moment, but you could use any size or shape you'd like. They don't need to be very big since the slips of paper don't take up very much room.

2. Paint the lids. This step is optional if your jars have plain lids, but I wanted mine to be a cute springy color. I used acrylic paint and two coats covered the lids nicely.

Tip: You'll need two small stands to put them on while they dry. Two thimbles would work great, or two soda pop tops. I used the lids from two bottles of body spray since that's what I had around and they worked well.

3. Make your list. I used a table in a word processor to type up my list in a format that could easily be printed out and cut into strips. You could simply write your list out and cut it into strips. I printed mine on some cute yellow paper to add some color to my jars. You could use card stock, fabric, little discs, etc. to personalize it.

4. Cut your list out. Make sure the slips are small enough to fit easily through the openings of your jars.

5. Make the labels. Be creative on this step. You can keep it simple with paper, markers, and glue like I did, or you could go crazy. Have fun and make sure to make it something you don't mind having out on your counter.

6. Attach the labels. I used some Tacky Glue for crafting and they adhered to the glass perfectly.

7. Get to cleaning! Now that you have some extra motivation, pick out your first slip and get to work on your to-do list!

Just Plain Cute

Some of the cutest pics from the last couple weeks...

 Dad feeding him.

 Running his own spoon.

 I love his little ears, they're so stinkin' cute!

 Playing in the box we got in the mail.

 Carrots EVERYWHERE!! :)

Becoming Mobile...

It's happening, Oliver is becoming mobile! We're pretty excited, even though it means a lot more messes! It's just so cute to watch and fun to help him learn.

Here he is attacking Mickey. We put Mickey just out of his reach to give him a little extra incentive to practice moving. :)

He digs his toes in and pushes to move forward, but he's really good at rolling over to get where he wants.

He's started getting his bum up in the air, he just hasn't figured out how to get bum and head up. It's so funny though!

Sorry there's no videos tonight, I can't get them to upload.

He's also more mobile in the walker. He loves to join us in the kitchen whenever we're getting dinner ready. We call him our "Little Explorer" since he's always checking everything out.

 He loves to smile at his reflection in the oven door, it's so cute!

 As you can see, he also likes to steal the dish towels that are hanging on the oven door. He then hauls them with him wherever he goes.

He has so much fun in the kitchen, sometimes he'll play in his walker in the kitchen for half an hour!

We decided he was getting too big for the cradle top in the crib, so we moved him down into the bottom. Now he's a crazy sleeper! Here are some of the crazy positions he moves around in at night.

He also scratches the netting on the side of the crib in his sleep, it's so funny.

As you can imagine, this one's our favorite!

Little Sicky

Last week was Oliver's first time being sick, and let me just say that he is a way better sport about being sick than Mike and I are. We were both whiney and a little ornery, but Oliver smiled and laughed almost the entire time he was sick. He was only sad at night a couple times.

 This is the face he started to make when I would get near him with the bulb syringe to suck out his nose. "Ugh, no mama!"

He loved playing with the package of "Boogie Wipes," which are absolutely amazing for little runny noses I might add, and it served as a good distraction while I tried to clean out his little stuffy nose!

Thankfully, he's feeling all better now. Hopefully we'll be able to avoid all colds for awhile!