Monday, August 25, 2014

Weekend re-cap

This weekend seemed to come and go way too quickly but it was still a fun one nonetheless :)

Friday afternoon my SIL came over with lunch and baby Sam.  My little nephew was a preemie and honestly you could not tell one bit when seeing him! I couldn't believe how much he had grown since the last time I saw him.  He is way too cute!


The cousins :) Couldn't believe Brayden & Ella actually laid down for this picture!



Babies with pacis = so much cuteness!



Saturday we lounged around the house all morning and Ella Bella enjoyed a pudding cup :)


I snapped this pic while she laid next to me while I was nursing Avery - I just love her cute little legs, especially in these shorts!


We then headed to a friends kids 1st birthday party where Ella proceeded to eat all of the popcorn she could find on the floor - #keepinitreal


After the party we headed over to my in laws to celebrate my FIL's 59th birthday.  Here's my niece with my girls, another super cute picture!



Sunday I took Brayden & Ella on a playdate with one of Brayden's preschool buddies and his brother.  We went to an indoor kids play place since the weather is beyond nasty right now (so so humid and hot!)

These boys were obsessed pushing the girly carts around the place, but they showed their true boy colors when they would just crash and ram them into everything and eachother.  I was so happy to get Brayden some boy play time - he is always surrounded by girls! Not that that is a bad thing, but sometimes he need boy time.


Little Miss pretty much kept to herself and had tons of fun, it was good to get Ella out and about too :)


She found her best friend, Minnie!!!!!


Sunday night Ella was so cute brushing her teeth, she is better at it than her brother!


These are from this morning.  Morning time is always mine and Avery's bonding time, she is the most alert and everyone else is still sleeping.  I could just stare at her forever.


This is the look of one tired but happy Mama!





Friday, August 22, 2014

The middle child needs love too

As I write this post, Brayden is finishing up his sleepover at my Mom's house - his very first time sleeping away from us! (well, she did actually watch him overnight when he was 8 weeks old but he doesn't remember so that doesn't count, right?)

Sleeping away from us is a BIG deal for my little man.  He attempted to sleep at my in laws a few months ago with my nieces but at bedtime got scared and wanted to come home, so he did.  I wasn't sure how this 2nd attempt would go, I was a little nervous for him because I knew he was a little scared.

My mom picked him up at 4pm yesterday and before he was leaving, he was hugging and kissing me and telling me how much he was going to miss me and half crying while saying it.  I just kept telling him how much fun he was going to have!

So off they went and my Mom provided multiple updates throughout the night, she said he would go back and forth with wanting to stay and wanting to go home, but eventually he went to bed and earlier this morning, I received this pic saying "Good Morning Mom!"



Anyway, now onto what this post is really about - my sweet little Ella Bella who has now turned into the *middle child* - I can't really say just yet if it's true what they say about middle children, how they are forgotten about, etc, since I'm only a couple weeks in to this 3 kid thing, but even before Avery was born, poor Ella never really got the attention she deserved.  Brayden is older and literally demands every minute of my attention and while I have tried really hard to be equal, I know it's just impossible sometimes to give Ella the attention I want to.


So this sleepover thing was good for everyone, but mostly for me and my Ella - I was SO excited to spend some quality time with her! Thankfully Avery was very good about eating and then going right to sleep which gave me plenty of one on one time with Ella.

First I assembled her shopping cart my MIL bought her a while back, she was obsessed with it!



She then put her baby in it and would walk around the kitchen, playroom, entrway non stop, with every few seconds stopping to take her baby out and re adjust her.  It was the cutest thing ever!





We then played kitchen and grocery shopping and had some tea - her baby joined us :)  It was so cute to see Ella as a little Mommy to her baby, she was so good with her, it literally melted my heart!




Even though it was wet outside from all the rain, we headed out to play - this picture is pure Ella - just so darn serious all the time! I can promise you even with this look, girlfriend was having a blast.


Next it was inside to do some puzzles - Ella is really obsessed right now with this alphabet puzzle and she amazes me at how well she does it!





We ended our night watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse then it was off to bed for storytime.  I can't remember the last time that I spent time like this with just Ella, it was so nice and much needed for both of us!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

First solo outing

So last week I finally had enough courage to take all 3 kiddos out by myself for the first time - ok, so it was only to a new park a few minutes from our house, but still! By the time I loaded everyone in the car, I felt like I had ran a marathon - but I knew these kids and I had to get out and do something, anything.

We drove until we found a park that I could park right in front of since I only brought one stroller for Avery and I can't trust Ella to hold my hand and walk for longer than .2 seconds.  Thankfully we found one pretty quickly :)


Such a big girl doing slides by herself!
The kids had a total blast at this park, way more fun than at our neighborhood park.  Maybe it was partly because they were going just as stir crazy as I was being at home for so long.

I'm not use to being at home all the time, I like to get out, go shopping, take the kids on errands, anything really.  But since I was restricted to not driving and just flat out scared to take out 3 kids, we've been home, A LOT.





Doesn't my boy look SO big here!? *tear*



Goofy faces :)

When it was time to go, they were not having it.  I had to convince them to get in the car by telling them we were having a pizza party when we got home (we really were but they needed to hear it again)


After I opened the door to let Brayden & Ella in the car (they just go sit in their carseats until I come buckle) I went and put Avery in on the other side and when I came back to the back where the kids sit, I didn't see Ella.  Brayden told me she was driving the car, this little stinker :) Always keeping me on my toes!

16 better not come too soon :(


So it may have only been to a park a few minutes away, but it was still my first solo outing with all 3 kids! Once it was all said and done, it really wasn't too bad, yet I don't think I'm quite ready for a trip to Target!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Family Sign

This is a project I had pinned a long time ago and kept putting it off, but finally a few months ago, I tackled it and it has been one of my favorite projects yet! It has made such an impact in our family room and we get tons of compliments on it.

I don't think it hurts that surrounding the sign are pictures of my adorable family :)





I made some changes to the tutorial like making my sign smaller and not adding the hardware to it.


First I started off by going to Home Depot and picking up 4 furring strips - these are by the wood section and super cheap, I think they were $1 something - I got mine in the size 1" x 3" I believe as the 1" x 4" would have made my sign way too big

I had the guy at Home Depot cut them to my size for me (side note, for some reason I thought I only had to pay for what I was having cut, but it turns out they give you the rest of the pieces, something I did not know and now feel a smudge stupid for! )

When I got home, I stained my cut pieces - on the front side of the sign




Next, my hubby added some wood board pieces we had laying around to the back to hold all my strips together



 I had the hardest time fining letters for this sign! The letters in the tutorial from Pinterest were waaaay too big since her sign was much bigger so I knew I needed something smaller.  When I struck out at all of the craft stores and would not pay an expensive price tag for some custom sizes online, I randomly came across these from Walmart for $1.66 each!!  Bonus was they were already white so that saved me time with not having to paint.





I used wood glue to glue the letters to the sign, I just lined them up at first to make sure they looked good, but I didn't bust out a ruler or tape measurer to be exact.

After a day of drying, it was time to hang!!






My vision for this wall was always to put pictures up somehow but it wasn't until I saw this sign that it all came together in my little head.  I just LOVE how this looks!!



Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Mini Vaca

So my hubby's side of the family and us do a yearly week vacation together every year, we started this little tradition 4 summers ago.  Last year we went to South Haven, MI and it was awesome.  We knew we wanted to go back there this summer but the way places book, you have to book a full year in advance.  So when we booked it last year (August) I was not pregnant and the hubby and I hadn't even for sure decided if there would be a #3.

Fast forward a few months and I got pregnant! My due date was 8/8 and since I knew I would have a scheduled c-section a week before, that put me around 8/1 - our annual vacation was to start 8/2 through 8/9! Of course we were a little sad that we would miss the vacation but we were having a baby!

To top it off, the house the family was staying at this year was a house my hubby had found and put together all the plans for with the owner, it was a brand new beach house steps away from the beach... just look at how gorgeous this place looks!



Anyway, the months leading up to the vaca the family was hoping I would go into labor just a couple weeks early so we would be able to join them, welp, that didn't happen so 8/1 was the day we welcomed our sweet baby girl! We did however say that if I felt up for it, we may come up for 1-2 days at the end of the week.

Well after 4 days in a hospital where I was pretty much confined to the bed, then home for almost 4 days doing pretty much nothing but taking pain meds and nursing every 2 hours (yeah those go together hand in hand, LOL) I was about to lose my mind come Thursday.  We decided that morning we would head up to MI after mine and Avery's dr appts.  And so we did just that :)


Of course I couldn't do much, literally I walked to the start of the beach from the house a couple of times but could never walk down by the water, I couldn't walk around town so the hubby would drive us in while everyone else walked.  I pretty much nursed around the clock and got some alone time with Avery while everyone headed to the beach on Friday.  But you know what? It was AMAZING and just what the dr ordered (although I didn't ask his permission, shhh)



I just love those toes peeking out!


Grandma Pam with my nieces and Brayden, of course, Brayden was being a stinker :)



Aunt Becca pushing Ella around :) So thankful for family that was willing to help and give my hubby a break!




MC Ella :)



My future BIL pushing the double stroller - let's just say we are really good birth control for him and my SIL!

This was Friday when everyone was at the beach (right behind me!!) I had a nice class of blush wine and relaxed outside a little while Avery slept.  I was pretty excited!


Snugglefest :)



It's a little crazy that Miss Avery had her first vacation experience at the old age of 6 days old! But hey, that's how we roll :)






Me and my handsome boy! 



My awesome hubby who fully enjoyed himself for the 1 1/2 days we were there :) 


Ice cream!


Hanging on the beautiful balcony :)




Some pictures my SIL snapped while Brayden was down by the beach



Again, being a stinker!

Another shot of the house, it was so beautiful!What wasn't so beautiful? The fact that as I'm snapping these pics of the house, my BIL is in the window mooning me, yep, that's our family!




I love this pic of me and my Ella Bella! 


I have to share some awesome pictures my SIL took, she is so damn talented!









I am sure some people think I am CRAZY for taking a 6 day old away all while recovering from a c-section, but really, it was the best decision I made! I was worried if I would regret it once we were there (you know, being so hormonal and all!) but I didn't one bit.  The kids, the hubby, and heck even me, needed a little break and this was perfect.  We are so happy we got to spend some time with the family!
 
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