Splurges

So I have mentioned quite a few times about how much I miss being home with my girls and how I wish I could be a stay at home mom.  The one and only thing that I do not miss about being home with them was feeling like I could never buy anything that we didn't "need".  I stayed out of work for ten weeks and the majority of that time was without pay.  If you are used to a paycheck and that stops, it is a big adjustment!  Not to sound spoiled (even though I am sure I am), I have grown used to buying myself and my girls things that we want.  Not everything we want of course, I still have bills to pay, groceries to buy and hello, gas takes a large chunk of my money every month. 

Recently I made a little splurge on Hadley and myself.  I bought Hadley this-

Sophie the Giraffe is supposedly the "it" toy for infants.  She has been around for a long time now but I never bought Mallory one.  When I caught them on sale at Very Jane, I decided to go for it and see what all the hype was about.  Sadly, Very Jane could never get them in stock so they ended up refunding my money and I went ahead and paid the $20 bucks and ordered it from Amazon. She arrived at our house yesterday, but poor Hadley never had a chance. 

Even though it is a toy for 0+ month infants, Mallory is OBSESSED.  Yes, the girl who has umpteen million toys could not get enough of Hadley's one little Sophie the Giraffe.  We even had a major meltdown because I would not let her sleep with it last night.  I mean, how can you sleep with a squeaky toy anyway?  I kept reminding her that Sophie was Hadley's toy and all Mallory could say is, "but we can share".  Haha.  Finally this morning, Mallory was still asleep and Hadley got in a little time with Sophie.

How cute.  Anyway, looks like I should have give in and bought Sophie a long time ago.  I guess all the hype was right.  Unless I get home and the new is all worn off, which could very well be the case.  We'll see.

My other splurge was on myself.

I have been wanting this forever but can't do my eye makeup worth crap.  I've never been able to do my hair either but with the help of blog and you tube tutorials, I have come a long way!

Example of hair-

There are TONS of tutorials on how to do eye makeup using this pallette online and I've seen several different bloggers talk about how awesome these eyeshadows are.  Now I have never even come close to spending $50 on eyeshadows before so this was a big splurge for me, but hopefully one that will improve my makeup skills because they could use some help.  What finally pushed me to purchase this was when a new employee came in to meet with me on Tuesday.  I could not stop staring at her eye makeup.  It looked amazing!  Finally, feeling like a big dork, I asked her about it and yep....this pallette.  I went online and bought it right after she walked out of my office.  I have high hopes for this miracle pallette.  So if you see me and think, wow, her smokey eyes look as amazing as a Kardashian's, you will know why.  HA!HA! Yeah right!! :)  

Bad blogger

I've been terrible at blogging this year.  Not that I was ever great at it, but my main purpose for this blog was to have the memories of my kids when they get older.  Hadley is going on four months and I've barely blogged since she was born.  Precious time is flying by and she has already grown and changed so much and I've sucked at documenting it.  The truth is blogging is time consuming for me.  It amazes me how so many moms seem to tap out a blog post so quickly in a matter of minutes every single day and I struggle to blog once a month.  I rarely get my big camera out to take pictures of the kids.  My cell phone is pretty handy at all times so the majority of their pictures are taken with my phone.  Patrick and I got iPhones in June and they have decent cameras so from now on probably all my pics on this blog will be cell phone pictures.  It's much faster and convenient for me and that is what I am all about these days.  AND cell phone pics and short blog posts are better than none at all! 

Here are some of my favorite pics of the girls from the last few months in no order what-so-ever:

This is probably my all time fave to date - it's my screen saver on my phone and my heart could just explode looking at this picture.

I love that I have two girls...don't know if I've ever said that before and I would love to have a son too but sisterly love is so sweet.  Mallory loves it when I tell her she is a good big sister...and she really is.

About ten weeks old

I miss these days at home

4th of July- God Bless America!

She looks like a doll to me here

Mallory's cheese face.  And also on this day she chose to wear this bathing suit for the entire day even though we weren't swimming.

One of our daily walks while I was on maternity leave.  Miss those days.

Three months old on this day!

The girls all ready for church this past Sunday.  Mallory had been sick for a solid week.  Poor girl had bit her lip too :(

Ahhh...Buggy at six days old.

She loves this and is content in it for about thirty minutes at a time.

Princess Mallory playing dress up.  Girlfriend does love those dangly earrings!

And one last cheeeeese for you.

Three!!

I've seen these lists all over pinterest for a while now so I decided that three years old was a good time to start this tradition.  Basically, you take a list of questions and ask your child every year the same ones to see how their answers change from year to year.  Mallory and I sat down this afternoon and I asked her all these questions and she told me that I had a lot of words.  So here we go!

1.  What is your favorite color?  pink

2.  What is your favorite toy?  a dog.  but one that don't get fur on my hands.

3.  What is your favorite fruit?  pears

4.  What is your favorite tv show?  peppa pig

5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  noodles

6.  What is your favorite outfit?  a sparkly shirt

7.  What is your favorite game?  monkey lunchbox

8.  What is your favorite snack?  cheese crackers

9.  What is your favorite animal?  horse

10.  What is your favorite song?  old macdonald

11.  What is your favorite book?  rudolph

12.  Who is your best friend?  carter & brinkley

13.  What is your favorite cereal?  lucky charms

14.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  get in the sprinkler

15.  What is your favorite drink?  grape juice

16.  What is your favorite holiday?  i don't know  after giving her examples of holidays:  easter

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  my dream light.  i like something cozy like a blankie

18.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  just noodles

19.  What would you pick to eat for dinner on your birthday?  hot dogs

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  a nurse

Two months

As of last Friday, Hadley was two months old.  Here she is on her "month day."

She goes to the doctor tomorrow for her two month checkup, so I am not sure of her exact stats.  I think she weighs about 12 pounds.  She's a big girl...just look at those legs!

She is definitely a mama's girl.  If someone else is holding her, she is usually looking at me or looking for me if we are in the same room.  That's probably because we have very rarely been seperated in the last two months.  The only person that has kept her so far has been my mom.  I think everyone else is a little wary because she still does not care for the bottle at all.  Most of the time if someone talks to her or shows her some special attention, they will get a big smile.  Especially Mallory.  Hadley loves when Mallory talks to her and she gets the biggest smiles.

Hadley is wearing a size 1 diaper, but as soon as I finish the box we are on now, she is going in a size 2.  She wears 3 months clothes, but some are a little snug!  I'm guessing by three months old, she will definitely be wearing some six month sizes.

She is pretty content in her swing or laying in her pack-n-play looking and swatting at the animals above her.  She has days here and there where she wants to be held a lot and just can't seem to be satisfied, but don't we all?!  She loves to be outside in the stroller or worn in a sling or carrier.  Also, she does great riding in the car...as long as the car is moving we never hear a peep.  Her bedtime has become earlier and earlier recently and she is now going to bed about 8:00.  After getting a bath, getting in her swaddle blanket and eating her last meal, she is out until around 3:00-4:00.  Then she usually wakes again between 6:00-7:00, will eat again and then I put her back in her swing for another hour or two of sleeping.  She will pretty much nap anywhere, she just goes off to sleep when she gets tired. 

We could not have asked for a better baby.  She is so easy-going and laid back.  She is loved more than she could ever know!

Show us your life - master bedroom

I'm linking up with Kelly again for her Show Us Your Life posts and this week is master bedrooms.  There were tons of gorgeous kitchens last week so I am sure master bedrooms will not disappoint either. 

This is looking in from the door.  I'm not sure why there is a weird shadow on the left side of the picture.  Notice we don't have any blinds or window treatments.  That is because we live WAY out in the country with no neighbors.  I eventually want to get plantation shutters throughout the house and we had someone come give us a quote on the price.  Let's just say they are not a priority for me right now, ha!

I guess I should have taken the time to straighten the pillows a little more.  My talented future sister-in-law made the throw pillows for me.

My side of the room, along with Hadley's bed for now.  I plan to move her to her crib in a few weeks, but for now she is sleeping good in her rock-n-play and it is convenient for me to feed her during the night.

The opposite side of the room.

Now, for the not so pretty.  We bought our furniture on sale off the floor from a local furniture store.  The mirror that went with the set was already sold so we didn't get a mirror at the time.  One can be ordered, it is just something we haven't done yet but need to.  I'm getting a little tired of looking at that big bare wall.

A put a picture of the fan up because as far as ceiling fans go, I think it is pretty!

 
That's our master bedroom.  Hope you enjoyed!!

Please slow down.

Hadley is now six weeks old...almost seven.  To say that I have enjoyed my time at home with her and Mallory would be an enormous understatement.  I could SO be a stay-at-home mom.  I didn't really feel that way when I had Mallory so I am not sure what has changed.  Maybe I am just more comfortable as a mother now, who knows?  Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to stay home right now with a brand new mortgage payment so I will be heading back to work in about three weeks. 

Now, more about this little girl...

She is one big pile of sugar and we are pretty inseparable.  One reason for that is she doesn't like a bottle at all.  We need to work on that a lot in the next three weeks and I pray that she will take one soon.  She is really such a good baby though.  We did have a little rough spell around the time she turned one month old where she wanted to be held at all times during the day.  Mallory was like that a lot too and so that's what I did with her - hold her.  But with a two year old at home too, it was impossible for me to hold Hadley all the time.  We have had to let her cry some and honestly, I think it has been the best thing we could have done.  She has learned to like her swing and being in the pack-n-play and now soothes herself to sleep at night.  I never thought I would see the day! 

She is ready to go to bed around 9 every night and has slept up to seven hours, but mostly she sleeps between five or six hours then wakes to eat and sleeps another two hours or so.  She has been on a routine lately where she eats in the morning and then I put her in her swing and she will go back to sleep for about two hours.  Ever since turning one month old she also really studies faces and smiles when being talked to.  Hadley has brought our family so much joy.  She is sleeping right now and Mallory keeps saying, "I want Hadley to wake up."  I am amazed at how much she loves her little sister and what a big help she is to me.  I honestly thought she would be way more jealous.  I am so thankful that is not the case.  So far. Ha! 

This was at Mallory's end of year preschool program.  She's with her two teachers she had, Mrs. Regina and Mrs. Carol.  She LOVED them and it is so funny when she plays school and pretends that she is one of them.  It was a fast school year and I can't believe there are only 2 more years of preschool left for her!  Time just needs to SLOW DOWN.   

Show us your life - kitchens

I am going to do my first ever link up with one of my all time favorite blogs, Kelly's Korner.  You can't help but love Kelly!

We have only been in our house for seven months so it is a work in progress.  One thing that I have always known that I wanted for our kitchen was white glazed cabinets and dark hardwood floors, so those were easy choices when building.  Picking out the countertops and backsplash were much harder for me, but in the end it all came together and I am happy with the results. 

Here is our kitchen looking from the living room- 

View from standing at the pantry door and a glimpse of the living room.  I wanted to link up last week for living rooms but never had a chance last Friday.

I still need to get a rug to go in front of the sink and some pretty dishes for the glass cabinet.

View from the other side of the kitchen.

All of our appliances are KitchenAid and we love them except for the refrigerator.  It's impossible to get ice without it falling on the floor!

The breakfast nook.  This is where we always sit and eat as a family when I cook.

View of the kitchen when standing in breakfast nook-

 

That's our kitchen, hope you enjoyed the tour!!