Happily Ever Madsens

Archives for December 2019

DIY

How To Make A Blanket Ladder | DIY Christmas Stocking Holder

How To Make A Blanket Ladder | DIY Christmas Stocking Holder

Blanket ladders have been all the rage for a while now and I have wanted one so bad!! That is until I saw the price tag! Yikes! I started looking at the cost of supplies and realized I could totally make one myself for way cheap!! So, I did. Here’s how I did it!

Supplies:

  1. (2) — 2×4’s by 7 feet
  2. (1) — 1×4 by 8 feet
  3. Drill
  4. Sandpaper or sander
  5. Pack of 3” wood screws
  6. Circular Saw (optional)
  7. Wood Stain
  8. Cloth and gloves to stain with

Steps:

  1. Cut the wood into the length you want them to be! We had our wood mostly cut at Home Depot. I’d definitely recommend that! It was like $1 to have it all done and saved us the work. Although, we didn’t have them cut the bottoms into the angle we wanted, so make sure you do that too! Hint: to decide how much of an angle you want, lean something of similar size (like a broom) against the wall to give you an idea of what to tell the guys at Home Depot. Or, do this at home after you have your wood cut and cut it the angle you want yourself. For the small pieces (rungs), decide how wide you want them and cut accordingly. Ours are about 16”.
  1. Sand all of the wood! Sand everything until smooth so that your blankets don’t get snagged!
  2. Stain all of the pieces! Make sure to use gloves so you don’t get it all over your hands. I just cut up an old shirt and used that! Make sure to let it dry for at least 24 hours before continuing.
  1. Lay it all out! Once it’s all dry, you’ll want to lay it all out and make sure it looks how you want it! We just eye balled how far apart each rung was!
  2. Screw it all together! We attached our rungs at about a 45 degree angle so that the blankets would hang how we wanted! You could also attach them straight on like a traditional ladder. Up to you!

For Christmas time right now, we decided to also hang our stockings on the ladder! We absolutely love how that turned out! We don’t have a mantle and we didn’t want our baby or dog to be able to pull them down off of our entertainment center on traditional stocking holders, so this worked PERFECT. Try it out and see what you think! (:

If you have absolutely any questions about the process, leave a comment below or send me a message!

Clyde, Milestone Pictures

Nine Months | Milestone Pictures

Nine Months | Milestone Pictures

Nine months!?! How was Clyde been home with us as long as he was in my belly?! Nine months seems like such a huge milestone. I’m not ready for this babe to grow up!

This month Clyde:

  • Tried even more foods including: refried beans, oatmeal, pickles, chili, steak, broccoli, muffins, roast, creamed corn, curry meatballs, salmon, mandarin oranges, olives, dried cranberries, black bean quesadillas, potatoes and gravy, rolls, parsnips, turkey, pretzel jello, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, Mexican bean salad, peanut butter and his new favorite–banana smoothies and popsicles!
  • Does this sniff/snort thing when he’s excited that is to die for!
  • Is always on the move! He’s either on his hands and knees crawling, scooting or “swimming” haha. He is into everything but he especially loves to dart toward Alexa when mom isn’t looking!
  • Speaking of Alexa.. Clyde definitely knows who she is and anytime we go to ask her a question he will quickly look toward her and wait for her response. Oh and cat noises.. he loves when she plays those.
  • Stands up while holding onto things! He hasn’t mastered pulling himself up but if I help him stand while holding onto something, he gets so excited!
  • LOVES to suck on his bottom lip and make a clicking sound with it! It’s truly the cutest too.
  • Clenches his hands open and shut when he wants something!
  • Learned to wave! He especially enjoys waving to random people at Costco and the ladies at church! Haha.
  • Claps his hands! One day he just started clapping and hasn’t stopped! He loves to show people his new trick and when they clap back he is always surprised that they know how too!
  • Still loves reading books and will do so any chance he gets! He will take the book from us after we’re done and smell it and kiss it! Haha
  • Loved seeing the snow again from the window with dad! We still haven’t played in it yet but hopefully next month!
  • Likes to bathe without his baby bath! At first I was nervous to let him be without it but he loves to lay on his back or belly and splash and play!
  • Graduated to a big boy carseat aka convertible carseat! He wasn’t sure about it at first but loves it now!
  • Weighs 17 lbs 6.5 ounces and is 26.8 inches tall! Clyde made a HUGE leap on the charts for weight and we couldn’t be happier! He’s growing so quick!

This month we:

  • Got new family pictures taken and we are so obsessed with them!
  • Got my sister ready for her school’s dance and took my brothers photos!
  • Got Disney Plus and we are loving every second! We don’t have enough time in the day to actually watch everything we want to but we sure have our lists! Haha.
  • Went to “Bowling for Turkeys” for our sister in laws non-profit Blessings In a Backpack. That was a lot of fun!
  • Celebrated Clyde’s first Thanksgiving! We started it off with our favorite tradition of going to the Salvation Army and delivering meals to those who don’t have family to celebrate with. Then, we visited family and had thanksgiving dinner! Clyde loved ALLLL the food just as we expected! He tried everything and couldn’t get enough. Holidays are so much more fun with kids!

Here’s this month in pictures..