Three Months!

I cannot believe that Parker Reed is THREE months old! Each month has blessed us with a another little piece of Parker's sweet personality. We are having SO much fun with him. Here are a few things that have happened this month....

Length: About 25 inches (we go in next week for a check-up)
Weight: I'm going to guess 16-ish pounds. You are a whopper!
Head Circumference: 18 inches

Milestones This Month:

-You can sit up with assistance very easily.
-You can raise your head off the ground for about 30 seconds while doing tummy time.
-You can roll over from side to tummy and side to back. (You actually rolled over tummy to back the day after you turned 3 months though!)
-You discovered your hands at around 9-10 weeks old and are obsessed with sucking them and looking at them. You also rub your eyes when you're sleepy. It's the cutest thing!
-You have moved up to big boy bottles and drink 6-8 ounces of breast milk every 3.5 hours during the day. You can nurse in about 15-20 minutes which is exciting for mom!
-Your record for sleep so far is 7.5 hours! You've been doing this pretty consistently since you were 9-10 weeks old. :) SO proud!
-You've grown out of a lot of your 0-3 month clothes and are mostly in 3-6 month clothes.
-You figured out that you are ticklish on July 5th while your daddy was tickling you! It was hilarious.
-You let out little giggles when you talk but haven't done a full-on belly laugh yet.
-You got your first set of shots this month....it was more traumatic for mommy though. :(

Things You Like This Month:

-Your Bumbo! You get so proud of yourself and smile like crazy when you're sitting up.
-Your Nap Nanny. I love your Nap Nanny too!
-Your hands. You suck on them all the time--we can hear it from across the house!
-Books. You have really taken an interest in your books lately and really look at each page.
-TV. You get sucked into the TV like the rest of us. You totally zone out but still suck your paci like crazy while watching which is pretty funny. I feel bad for letting you watch TV though, so I bought....
-Baby Einstein videos. These creep me out but you are mesmerized by them! They are great for when I have to shower/do productive grownup things around the house.
-Daddy. And you love when daddy "flies" with you.
-You love bath time.
-You L-O-V-E to be naked.

Things You Don't Like This Month:

-You don't like when your schedule gets off! We did a very casual version of Baby Wise with you, and your routine got really messed up when we were traveling...you were over-tired and NOT happy!
-You don't like the nursing cover and always try to pull it down while we're out in public. Because of this, I have flashed an entire Mexican restaurant. :-/
-Your legs were achy after your shots and you hated that it hurt to kick. It was so sad!

Special Memories From This Month:

-You drove to Galveston (Texas), Monroe (Louisiana), and Odessa (Texas) this month. You were a travel champ as usual!
-You stuck your feet in the Gulf of Mexico this month and loved it!
-You went swimming for the first time this month. We bought a huge blow-up pool, spent about an hour getting it ready, and then you sat in it for about 5 minutes. Very anti-climatic. :)
-You rode in a golf-cart parade on your first 4th of July.
-You met most of the rest of your family this month, including two sets of great-grandparents, a great-aunt and a few cousins, and your second cousin who is 5 days older than you!
-I loved getting to see you coo and talk to everyone in our family. They LOVED you so much and you were so happy to entertain them! It broke my heart when we had to take you home.

My baby is getting so big! I can't believe it. Have a wonderful day, friends!!

Lately...

Loving....The time that Parker and I have been able to spend with Bryan this summer. Also...the rain that west Texas has been blessed with lately. I LOVE rainy days.

Praying for...To worry less. To be more content. Motivation and Courage. Tougher skin.

Resolving to...Not stress so much about having a "perfect" schedule everyday. It's taken a while to find a routine being at home and I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself.

Reading....I started reading The Art of Racing In The Rain. I was instantly hooked, but time has escaped me....I have been a terrible reader! I'm also enjoying Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. These devotionals are just what I need each morning.

Excited About...My trip to Colorado next week to visit my family. I miss them so much.

Nervous About...My half marathon in September. I think I might be pushing my body too hard too soon after having Parker...

Working On...New designs for the shop. New blog posts. Cleaning out the house. A really exciting shopping opportunity and giveaway for this month! Running. Lots of exercise and new workouts. :)

Trying To...Be a better wife. Soak up my time with Parker.

Missing...My family. Our trip to Galveston last month! SO fun.

Enjoying....The fact that I can be a stay-at-home mom. It is truly a dream come true! And Parker. I seriously have never met a sweeter, more laid-back baby.

Using....Instagram. Spotify. I am late to both of those parties....but I love them!

Wearing....This sparkle skirt from H&M all. the. time. Also these leopard sandals from Target.

Listening To....I still love the soundtrack from The Hunger Games and have been listening to it non-stop. Also....Cory Morrow and Turnpike Troubadours. I'm in a Texas mood!

Dreaming of....What I can do if I set my mind to it!

So tell me, what's going on in your world?

Have a wonderful and safe weekend :).

{I borrowed this fun idea for a post from Emily at Jones Design Company. We all know how amazingly talented she is. I admire her and love her blog!}

Quick Fix.

Hi there! First, thank you all so much for your well wishes on our third anniversary yesterday! It is truly crazy how fast time flies.

A few days ago, I shared how we lined the binds for privacy in our guest bedroom and nursery. Yes, they work great, yes it was cheap to accomplish, BUT there was one problem with our "After".

Our new "blackout" blinds weren't exactly the prettiest things to look at from the outside. Whoops :). (Don't mind the sprinkler--just keeping it real!)

My OCD self had to figure out a solution...SO I headed to the fabric store, bought some clearance outdoor fabric (ticking stripe baby!), and did a little hemming....

A little ironing....

And then staple-gunned my blind-covering concoction right on to the top of blinds...

Side Note: Don't you just hate when you finish a project and in all of your "I'm Finished!" happiness are bummed to realize that you need to take it down and fix something? That is the downfall of all DIY projects in my opinion.

...And re-hung the new and even more improved project for the outside world to see.

Ahhhhh, so much better. My OCD-ness can calm it's little self down now. ;)

Are there any projects that you have had to re-do to make them more functional for your lifestyle and space?

We are headed to the airport to pick up my sweet mother-in-law for a weekend of fun and baby-kissin'! Have a great day.



Three.

Three years ago today, I started the best journey of my life with Bryan. I cannot believe that another year has flown by.

 I haven't really thought about the details of our actual wedding in a while, so it was fun to look at our pictures and re-live that rainy, happy, once in a lifetime day.

 We have been blessed beyond measure this year. I pray that our fourth year of marriage is full of even more laughter and happiness.  

Happy Anniversary to the only person I have ever loved. Love you, Bryan!

Snapshot.

Hi, friends! I hope you all had a super weekend and a wonderful Monday. I meant to post yesterday, but it just didn't happen (really need to work on scheduling my posts ahead of time *sigh*). Anyways...what was I talking about? Oh yeah! My reasoning for not posting is that we have been super busy! Story of my life ;).

I am quickly learning that the only downfall to being the official family photographer is that I am never in any pictures! I probably have about 1,000 photos of Parker and Bryan playing on the couch....but they are just too freakin' cute and I can't resist. ;). Bryan is only a few weeks away from starting football season (and I am only a few weeks away from being a coach's widow until November), so we have been making sure to get in plenty of quality time with him before then. Can't wait to take Parker to his first football game next month!

Ya'll....our house is a disaster zone. I was tempted to start cleaning it this morning, but I made myself sit down to post. That's dedication in my clean-freak book. The disaster-ness is mainly due to some overwhelming cleaning and organization projects I decided to start (and am finding hard to finish) this weekend. I'll do my best to have a few posts up about those soon. AND I did a little sewing project for our guest bedroom this weekend as well. Post to come. Soon, friends, soon.

My friends are going to hate me for posting these (I always get complaints when I post pics of friends/family on the blog!), but we have been having so much fun with some of my favorite people so I couldn't resist. Our friends from high school (youth group), Kendra and Nathaniel (and their kiddos) came from CO to visit this weekend so we had a lot of fun spending time with them all weekend. Bryan has discovered a new golf course that he is in love with (remembering that come Christmas time), and went golfing not once but twice (big deal!) on Friday and Sunday. We were also happy to have two of my best friends from college (Alli and Whit) over on Friday night for pizza and hang-out time. It's crazy how refreshing girl time is these days! Last night, we headed over to the head coach's house for his daughter's 3rd birthday party. I had fun meeting the new coaches wives and letting Parker get some more sweet attention from everyone! Fun stuff.

On top of all of this, I have been nervously training for my half marathon which is set for September 23rd. Holy crap, I don't know if I can do it---but I'm going to try! My body is definitely weaker post-pregnancy, and I didn't realize just how hard it would be to train until I was already signed up for the race. I've been trying to do some sort of workout almost every day--but I'm not going to lie, I am still sore from the yoga video I did on Sunday (which was a beginner level)! I feel a little ridiculous...but so is life. ;)

ALSO....I have a new obsession. I have just discovered food and fitness blogs and I am seriously addicted. They are the perfect motivation to get my boot-ay off the couch and have tons of ideas for healthy meals. Did you know that people have blogs where all they do is take pictures of their meals throughout the day? Crazy-I know, but SO interesting! I love it. I have too many favorites to share, but I found a lot of them on Peas and Crayons by looking through her "What I Ate Wednesdays" link parties. I'm also loving (and kind of hating) the workouts from Blonde Ponytail. That girl is ripped!

Okay, I need to stop. I told myself I would be done blogging at 9am and it is now 9:21am....

Tell me, do you read food/fitness blogs? What are some of your favorites? Have you ever trained for a half marathon? What are some favorite workouts you've done? Anyone else have any new house projects that they would like to share?

Have a great, great Tuesday!

The Cheap-o Way of Lining Blinds

Hi, everyone! First, I want to say THANK YOU for your responses to yesterday's post. I mean really, ya'll are awesome and encouraging and I am so happy to have gotten to know many of you through your kind words and sweet emails. This is the reason that blogging is pretty much the best thing ever. :)

Anywho, a few months ago, I mentioned that we lined our cheap-o bamboo blinds with some blackout fabric from JoAnn and many of you asked me how....so today, I'm showing you! Now, heed my warning--at the time we did this I wasn't planning to show a how-to, so you will have to bear with me.

To begin, let's take a trip down memory lane. I purchased these blinds from Overstock.com about 2 years ago. I got them for every window in the house, and I still love, love, LOVE them. They seriously changed the way our house looks. The only problem was that they weren't great for privacy because they weren't lined. I could have upgraded and gotten some more expensive lined bamboo blinds....but I'm too cheap :). So...when the time came to decorate the nursery and guest bedroom (the only rooms that have windows in the front of the house) I knew we had to figure out a solution to our no-privacy problem.

Enter this fabric from JoAnn Fabrics. It's a flame-resistant blackout fabric in Ecru. Originally $10.99 a yard, but we got on sale with a 40% off coupon.

We measured the blinds that needed to be lined beforehand so we knew how much black-out fabric to buy. Once we brought it home, we cut the fabric to fit the blinds (leaving about an 1/2 inch of exposed blind all the way around).

(I got lucky and found ONE picture of my mom lining the blinds back in January!) Score.

We bought some upholstery spray adhesive at JoAnn's (they have a ton of different brands), sprayed it on the blinds, and then placed the fabric on top. Make sure you have a drop cloth underneath the blinds just in case any of the adhesive tries to seep through. We smoothed out all of the wrinkles and then very quickly lined the edges with hot glue (that's right - hot glue).

After the blinds were dry (we waited 24 hours), we hung them back on the windows and held our breaths to see if they would actually fold up. It took some finagling--a lot at first--but after we guided the blinds to fold correctly a few times, they went up and down without a problem!

Now creepers can't spy on us! I'm happy to say that we accompished this for less than half the price of many of the pre-lined blinds I've seen on the market. AND they still work perfeclty six months later. Oh, happy day!

Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend, friends. :)

 

This Is What Matters.

Last night, I was suffering from a bit of insomnia (welcome to my life), so I headed out to the living room, turned on some recorded Jimmy Fallon, and (of course) opened my computer to catch up on all things creative. Unfortunately, I fell into the same routine that I have done one too many times these last few years--I began comparing myself. To other women, to other blogs, to other mothers, friends, Etsy shops, designers, decorators, cooks, homemakers...you name it, I envied it. Soon enough, the same thoughts began to run through my head, from "Why isn't my blog as popular as hers?", to, "If we only had another bedroom, THEN I could make an office just like that one", and, "I wish we had more money, THEN we could redo the kitchen backsplash." I quickly became unsatisfied with my life. Jealous.

But then, a sound pulled me from my disgruntled-ness. Parker had woken up and started to fuss--something he usually does at around 3am--so I did what I usually do and went back in to our room to stick his paci in and wait for him to go back to sleep. As I rested my hand on his little cheek, his breathing immediately slowed, his arms stilled, and (sure enough) he fell asleep. He was so happy, so content, to have his momma there. Just me. That's when it hit: None of that--those things that I worry about and compare myself to, really matter. At all. Sure, I love blogging, I LOVE the women I have met through blogging, I love Etsy, I love decorating and fashion, but in the end... I am here to be a good wife, a good mother, and a good (and genuine) friend.

My little boy loves me for me. He could care less that his mother made X amount of Etsy sales last month, or has X amount of followers, or turned such-and-such room into the best "Before and After" on the planet. All he needs to be happy are his mommy and daddy. If there is one thing I have learned from being a mother, it is how crucial it is to learn how our children perceive the world--and then live that way.

I don't exactly know why I'm sharing something so personal--I guess it was just heavy on my heart this morning. I am SO happy to be back to blogging, back to Etsy, and back to gaining inspiration in this hugely creative online world, but I am going to do my best to take it all in with a grain of salt--something that I know will be hard in this "Pinterest perfect" world. I hope that you all know that whatever you see here on my blog is just a teeny-tiny sliver of my real life. Like one percent. No, half a percent. The pretty parts, if you get my drift. ;) The other 99.5% is a completely awkward, hectic, but beautiful mess.

  I need to stop myself before I ramble anymore... I am so happy that each of you read and hope I didn't offend anyone with this post. I am so thankful to my sweet Parker for teaching me more than I have ever learned about life in these last (almost) three months. Let's all enjoy the messy and imperfect, eh? (Apparently I am Canadian now.)

Have a great day!

Shopping Obsession: Initial Necklaces

Hi, friends! I was reading the wonderful Daybook blog a few weeks ago (love me some Daybook) and saw an adorable Von Eshna initial necklace in one of Sydney's posts. It was love at first sight. The idea of getting some sort of special reminder of my precious little Parker had been casually floating around in my head for a few weeks--but seeing this necklace made things serious.

I began searching for the necklace. My necklace. The sort of necklace I can wear every day, with every outfit and every piece of jewelry. A hard task, but not impossible. ;) Here are a few of my favorites:

Here is the original Von Eshna necklace that caught my eye. I love it, but am having a hard time swallowing the $79.99 price.

I love this Von Eshna monogram necklace as well. Same price, very different.

I headed over to Etsy to check out my options there. Of course, I wasn't disappointed. I found this adorable little bow necklace from Maria Allen Jewelry. AND it's only $29. That's right, twenty-nine bucks. Yeah!

Another favorite was this dainty little leaf necklace with a simple stamped initial from CoCo Wagner Jewelry. I'm slightly obsessed. And the $28.00 price tag doesn't hurt either ;).

I love love love this simple one from Bluegrass Loft. Pure perfection! And it's the cheapest at $22.00...so tempting.

Another take on a leaf necklace is this pretty little thing from the shop, Dangling Jewelry, that is only $31.00. My only worry is that it's too girly. Is that irrational? I am a girl, after all....I just worry that since it's for Parker, he might be embarrassed by it. Yes, I suppose that's dumb.

Another great monogram option is this beauty which is a little less than the Von Eshna version at almost $50.00. I love it but can't decide if it's too....frilly. Yes? No?

And lastly (but not least-ly),  is this super simple hand-stamped necklace from E. Ria Designs. Only $35.00 and definitely able to handle everyday life.

So, what do you think?? Which is your favorite and why? Is getting a pricier necklace worth it or should I go for something handmade? Have you seen any other goodies like these? Tell me, tell me! I need opinions.

Have a great day!

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BHG on Pinterest

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and fun weekend. Our little family headed down to Odessa, TX (Friday Night Lights, anyone?) to see Bryan's grandmother, cousin, and Parker's new second cousin! Those babies loved getting to hang out and GG (as we call her) loved getting to show off her great grand kids at church yesterday morning. Love, love. Good fun.

Anyway....what am I posting about? Oh yeah--am I the only one who just now figured out that Better Homes and Gardens has a Pinterest account? I am? Well, I am not too happy about that because their boards are ah-mazing and I wish I had been pinning from them long before last night at 2:30 am. ;)

Here are a few of my favorites:

You can't think of BHG without thinking of recipes. I love this board because it shows recipes that link to their website and to many wonderful blogs all across blogland. LOVE it.

I am always looking for ways to decorate little nooks and shelves and I loved looking at BHG's board that is purely dedicated to the (complicated) art of styling a bookshelf.

We all know I love a good living room....and of course, BHG never fails to impress with pretty living rooms! I even found some that I had seen in issues years ago and got to fall in love all over again!

There is a board for every holiday. So. Very. Perfect.

And one just for patterns! I'm secretly loving the tree wallpaper even though that trend started a couple of years ago. I wish I was more of a pattern gal....still working on that ;).

So that's that. Pinterest is a very counter-productive addiction, don't you think? I find myself pinning things that require a lot of action and time--time that I'm spending sitting on the couch looking at my computer ;). Funny how that works out. Got to love those pretty pictures though!

What are you favorite boards on Pinterest? I would love to see some links!