winter blues

I don't know about you but I am so over winter, and I'm pretty sure Lily is too. Often times I will see her just staring out the window and I know she's secretly wishing she were outside playing at the park, having a picnic on the porch, filling the driveway with sidewalk chalk, taking long walks through the undiscovered parts of our neighborhood.....well ok maybe she's not thinking ALL of those things, but I sure am.

This winter I've had to get a little creative with things to keep Lily busy and ways to beat the boredom of the same ol' same ol' when we are stuck indoors. Thankfully pinterest is full of fun ideas for little ones and I picked up a few other ideas from my cousin as well. So, I thought I'd share them with you because it looks like we will be experiencing at least a few more weeks of this cold stuff!

Here's just a handful of ways we tried to beat the winter blues around our house.......

Watching movies and listening to books on the ipad - brother even got in on this one!

Bringing snow inside to play with, sort, pile, eat, you know - all the fun stuff.

I found these play dough and puff ball (don't know the technical name for them) print outs on pinterest and they are so fun. They are different shapes, numbers, letters, colors and the kiddo has to just place the puff balls and/or play dough on them to create a picture. Lily loves this one! I also thought this would be a great thing for the car. I bought a binder and those plastic paper covers and made her her own little binder full of them.

We baked, and ate, chocolate chip cookies!

We tried out our decent sized hill with some sledding and snow man building with our cousins for the day!

Baking soda and vinegar - who knew something so easy could be so much fun! My cousins blog gave me this idea and Lily loved it. I filled a small pan with a thin layer of baking soda then placed vinegar in a handful of small bowls - used food color to die the vinegar, and then we used medicine droppers to squeeze the vinegar onto the baking soda. Lily loved watching it bubble up and of course doing it herself.

Salt. Another one from my cousins blog - I took a small tupperware and filled it with salt, then let Lily use her finger to draw things in the salt. Another simple thing that she loved. Although I must share, this one was going really well so I thought I'd sneak upstairs quick to lay Preston down and let Lily continue playing. Bad idea, I came downstairs to salt all over the kitchen floor. Lily's reaction "whoopsies Mommy, don't know what happened...." Right.......

Give mommy a pedicure! Haha - I only add this one because my lovely husband DID give me a nice foot rub while we were back at his parents one weekend and of course Lily had to help. Although this may come in handy in a few years.....:)

We painted finger nails - Lily absolutely LOVES having her finger nails painted. Most every day she gets into the cabinet where I keep all my polish and brings one to me telling me to "paint please" Although I am finding it to be a good outlet for helping her learn her colors!

And that's about all I got. I must admit we had some fun making up our own ways to entertain ourselves during these cold days however, we are so so ready for spring in our household. I love the smell of spring, I love having the windows open and hearing the birds, I love going for walks to the park, and so many other things. But for now we will just think about these things and enjoy our time together cooped up in the house :)

6 months

The little man in my life turned 6 months old last week - half a year already, really?! And he is growing and developing by leaps and bounds!

We have entered the not so wonderful world of teething and unfortunately with that comes lots of late night fussiness, but other than that he is continues to be happy as a clam, as long as you are giving him some attention! :)

New things for our little man this past month include; sitting up all by himself!, can feed himself puffs, has tried a few foods - sweet potato, banana, and avocado, as well as puffs and yogurt melts - he likes the puffs and yogurt melts the best, food seems to be just ok so far, he got pink eye - boo!, he sits in the highchair, and he really has been playing with toys - grabbing them on his own and interacting much more with the things you give him.

It's so fun to watch them discover the world around them. They learn and grow so darn fast. He has been pushing up on his knees and I have a feeling he's going to be an early crawler - which I'm so not ready for! He sees his big sissy doing things and running around and just wants to join her!

He's outgrown most of his 6 month clothes now and has moved onto 6-9 months - which is a little tricky with this weather because most his 6-8 month stuff is spring and it's still freezing out! He has his 6 month check next week so not sure on weight and height but when he went to the doctor for his pink eye last week he weighed just over 20 lbs.
**At his 6 month appointment he weighed in at 19lbs 2 oz and measure 27 1/4 inches long. That puts him in the 80% percentile for both - he grew 2 inches in the last 2 months!

As I think about the fact that our little guy is yet another month older I can't help but be overwhelmed by the incredible blessing he is to our family. He really does just do something to my heart every single day. He is a little miracle and makes me smile just thinking about him. I absolutely adore that little man and can't even imagine our family without him in it.

And here's some pictures of Mr Smiley himself, enjoy!

dirty laundry

So I never believed in a family bed nor did I EVER think I'd be one that would allow my child/ren to sleep in our bed however, we are that family. Ever since we moved our bed has been a place of rest for 4 family members - insert deep sigh. 

While Preston began sleeping in the pack and play beside our bed in Cedar Falls, we quickly realized he much preferred our bed and slept SO much more and better when cuddled up next to me. So, what'd our sleep deprived selfs do? We allowed him to sleep next to me. Then once we moved Lily became really scared often in her new room. She would wake up screaming and screaming and have a really hard time settling down unless she was cuddled up next to us. So, what'd our sleep deprived selfs do? We allowed her to sleep in between us.

So our bed looked something like this - Preston on one end, then me, then Lily, then Jimmy. Glad we went with a king sized bed!

And we've been dragging our feet on correcting our problem, until recently. A few weeks ago we got Lily a big girl bed. My thought process was that maybe if we made a really big deal out of getting her a new bed, letting her pick out a toy/stuffed animal to sleep with her in her new bed, a new pillow, etc. that she would be excited to sleep there. And it's been working, for naps. We have yet to make the transition at night but we are getting there - slowly but surely! She has taken all her naps in her big girl bed for the last week and our plan is to get her sleeping in their at night within the next week too. I do have (somewhat) of a valid excuse on this one as Jimmy has been working late nights all this past month so I'd rather wait for him when I can have his help.

And Preston....I can confidently say that he is now sleeping in his crib all night long as of a few days ago. And although I do genuinely miss our snuggles I am sleeping so much better, and I think he is too! He has transitioned to waking only one time in the night and it's been so wonderful.

So one down, one to go until we have our bed back to ourselves. And I think I can pretty confidently say that once a 3rd child comes along he or she will start out in the crib so we don't have to go through this transition period again!

Lets hope I'm not the only one whose bed isn't their own and who has become that person that does something they said they'd never do. I think as a parent we all find ourselves doing this on a thing or two. 

5 min makeup

Since having Preston I've had to learn ways to make my getting ready routine a little bit quicker. I seem to have less time and less sleep but that doesn't mean I have to compromise the way I look. However, it does mean I have to figure out a way to get myself ready quicker.

Aside from taking showers during nap or at night time, opposed to the morning, which I was doing after I had Lily, for the most part, I have figured out a daily make up routine that literally takes me 5 minutes and I thought I'd share it with you.

This is what I do 90% of the time now unless I am going somewhere special for the day and/or have a date night with the hubs. Otherwise, this is it folks. These 8 items are all I need to make this face presentable. 

From top to bottom here's what the products are, they are listed in the order that I use them as well:

1. Revlon Photoready BB Cream - have you heard of this stuff (BB Cream)? It's the latest in the make up world and it's fantastic! It's a moisturizer and concealer in one and I love it. I use the light/medium, you just pick your skin type and it matches your skin tone naturally - LOVE!

2. Bare Minerals Matte Finish Foundation (Fairly Medium is the color I use) - I have used this product for years and love it. It gives you great coverage yet a very light feeling on your face.

3. Last part of my base is Bare Minerals Bronzer in Warmth - again I've used this product for years and really like it.

4. Then onto the eyes - I start with a eye shadow stick - have you tried these? This is Covergirl Smokey Shadow Blast. I either use that stick or Bare Minerals eyeshadow in Cashmere color. I like both of these eyeshadows and may prefer the Bare Minerals just a tad bit more.

5. I then use black eyeliner on my bottom lid only. I use Maybelline Define a Line in black.

6. Then mascara to finish off my eyes. The tip I always have with mascara is keep applying - apply several layers to get a great look. I'm not drawn to one mascara over another, I tend to try different brands/types often. The one I am currently using is Loreal Voluminous Million Lashes.

7. And the last step is a simple gloss. I like all Victoria Secret's lip glosses the best - this one happens to be the Mint Beauty Rush in a tub. Good good stuff!

And that's it, it literally takes 5 minutes and I like the natural yet finished look it creates. Hope this gives you a few tips!

And here's a picture of the finished product.........