Finally Crawling

Well, this update is a little late, but as of January 18th, Hadley is officially a crawler.  Half the time, she keeps one foot down (see video) so she can better pull herself up once she arrives at her destination… cracks me up.

January 18th: Finally a crawler

Within 2 days, she started crawling, getting up from lying down (laying? lying?  I always mix those up) and also managed to make an escape from her crib.  Worst.mom.ever.  Her crib was in the middle setting since she couldn’t get herself up from lying down, and the same day she figured out how to do that, she figured out how to get OUT of her crib; by flipping herself out and landing on her back.  I heard her wake up on the monitor and usually give her a couple minutes to fully wake up (she has literally started crying before if I try to get her before she’s ready), but when I glanced at the monitor I realized she was sitting up!  In the amount of time it took for me to get from the living room to her room she had pulled to standing, tossed her bunny-lovey out of the crib and flipped herself over the edge.  I was just getting to her door when I heard the thud, followed by the wail.  Although she cried her eyes out for about 2 minutes, I think I probably cried more than she did.  My mom was here at that point and we had her laughing in minutes.  I couldn’t stop inspecting every inch of her body for bruises or bumps, but there was absolutely no sign of anything!  The two minutes of crying were the only sign she was hurt, and after that it was as if it had never happened.  I still watched her like a hawk the rest of the day, but she was absolutely fine – so thankful! 

Needless to say, her crib was lowered to the bottom immediately. :) 

So, with all the crawling, pulling up and cruising around she had been doing, I called our doctor to see if she still wanted us to meet with ECI.  She said “Nope! Sounds like she’s all caught up!”  Just like that?  Seems crazy to me that just a few weeks ago she was wanting us to see a specialist and then viola! we magically don’t have to?  Oh well, I’ll take it! 

So thankful today for a healthy, growing and learning, sweet, baby girl. 

A Red Stamp Recap

After Hadley’s party last week, I was pretty lazy and took my sweet time cleaning and taking down decorations.  Thus, I didn’t document our days very well!  Here’s a quick recap, Red Stamp, style. 

{If you haven’t heard of Red Stamp, it’s an awesome new [free] app that turns your pictures into little post cards where you can write captions.  Most people I know are using it for the Project 366 for their photo-a-day, but I didn’t get on that bandwagon early enough, so I’ll just use it randomly. :)  Thanks to Sarah for sharing!}

Fashionable Friday

With all of the festivities approaching for my sister’s upcoming wedding, I’ve been on the lookout for some cute new dresses and I thought I’d share some of my favorite finds recently.  The mr. is never thrilled to find me scrolling through pages of dresses on my computer in the evening, but I thought y’all might appreciate my hard work.  =)

I’ve pinned most of these on Pinterest, so I’ll just go ahead and use those links…

First up – the Mod Tunic dress.  This is so different than anything I own, but at 5’9” (maybe 5’8” – am I the only one who doesn’t really know how tall I am?) this style might be too short for me?

Source: shopruche.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

Next up – the In the Loop dress.  I love this coral color and think it’s perfect for springtime! 

Source: thebluedoorboutique.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

I am kind of obsessed with one-shoulder dresses lately.  I love that this one from ModCloth has a sleeve, but again, might be too short for me? 

Source: modcloth.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

Aaannnd, in scrolling through my boards to find these pins I realized I pin the above dress, and one just like it, twice.  Maybe that means I should just buy it and try it out already?

I love this next one, but I’ve always been kind of afraid of wearing that bold of a print because I’m so tall…

Source: thebluedoorboutique.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

Again, love this coral color and the cut-out detail on this dress is really beautiful!

Source: us.asos.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

That’s all I’ve got for now – happy Friday y’all!  Have a great weekend!

Help Me Choose!

It’s another “Which One Wednesday” over at A Thoughtful Place and I need your help deciding!  Today’s item of choice is the bedside lamp(s) and I really love both choices!  Head over to Courtney’s blog or leave a comment here to tell me which one you like best!

Hadley’s First Birthday Party–A Winter ONEderland!

With the craziness of the holidays, we decided to throw Hadley’s birthday party a couple weeks after her actual big day.  (Not to mention that having it later meant that some of our closest friends – and Hadley’s first friend – who live in China right now, were able to be here for the big day!)
I decided on a Winter One-derland theme for her party, and in true Texas fashion, we had a beautiful, albeit windy, day in the mid-70s.  Go-figure!  This time last year we had had a couple days of snow!  It was wonderful, though, to be able to use our back patio, as our house was not made for entertaining 20+ people!  
Before I dive into the pictures, I want to make sure to include thank-yous to our family and friends.  I could NOT have thrown this party without the massive amount of help I received!  My mom came up  4 days early to help with Hadley and getting the house in order, my dad MADE Hadley’s smash cake (he also made the cake for our wedding, which you can see in this post – DELISH and such a special treat to have it homemade with love).  My sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law were huge helps as well – I wouldn’t have any pictures of the day if it wasn’t for Katie – and the BBQ wouldn’t have been nearly as tasty without Eric’s help!  My in-laws came a little early as well and helped arrange the tables and cut up vegetables – not to mention bringing the adorable mason jar server for the lemonade!  And my dear friend Courtney came early to help with the decorations!  THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU to all of you!  And to everyone who came – we feel so, so blessed by the friendships we have in you! 
Ok, on to the pictures!  I had every intention of getting out my good lens and snapping some artsy, beautiful pictures, but of course I didn’t take one.single.picture on my camera!  Thankfully, my sister took pictures as we were setting everything up! 
First of all, this was the invite I designed… (I blocked out the address info, just so you didn’t think that was all white space!)


The dessert table…  We had cupcakes, “ice cubes” (marshmallows dipped in white chocolate, dipped in sprinkles), chocolate covered oreos, and “frosty truffles” (cake batter truffles). 

This was the table by the front door.  One of my favorite things that we did was have the guests fill out a “Wishes for Hadley” form (thank you Pinterest!).  I will forever treasure these cards!  The favors were cookies that I set out towards the end of the party with a card that read “Thank you SNOW much!”






At the food table, we had BBQ chicken sandwiches, homemade potato salad (thanks mom!), fresh fruit, and veggies and dip (“veggies dipped in snow”). 

I also set up a hot chocolate bar with marshmallows and chocolate chips as add-ins. 

A little behind the scenes look – Eric is shredding the chicken while my dad makes the hot chocolate!

And, last but not least, some pictures of the birthday girl!
Checking out her presents with Brynn…

When it came time for her “smash” cake (which I put in quotations, because she was SO not into smashing the cake, whatsoever), she was a little less than enthused.  She loved being sang to, and loved all the attention, but I had to break the cake up for her and even then she took a little taste and decided she wasn’t in the mood for cake.  She did, however, love the banana filling that her Poppie put in the middle layer for her! 

We had her shirt made by the wife of one of Matt’s co-workers!  She has an adorable etsy shop called LilyBella’s Boutique and she did such a great job.  Thank you Elizabeth! 
All-in-all it was SO much fun throwing this party, but I am exhausted!  Thank you, again, to everyone who came to help us celebrate!  We love you all! 
Sources:
All the paper products (labels, banners, cupcake toppers etc…) were homemade with my new Silhouette machine!  I had planned to make stickers for the cups, but for some reason, I couldn’t get the print & cut feature to work with sticker paper. 
Cupcakes: Sam’s – delicious cupcakes at only $13 for 30!
Cookies: A local bakery
Hadley’s shirt: LilyBella’s Boutique
Decorations: Most of the snowflakes were found either in the dollar section at Target or at the Dollar store!
Oh and one more picture… after everyone had left we realized we didn’t take a picture of the three of us!  So, I set up the self-timer on my camera and we stuck Hadley back in her high chair for this picture… ha!




Linking up with:

Another Decorating Decision

It’s another “Which One Wednesday” over at A Thoughtful Place!  I am loving how the room is coming together so far, and now we need your help on the drapes! 

Head over to Courtney’s blog and leave a comment to vote for which choice you like best!  (I’d love to hear from you here, too, if you’d rather!) 

 

I’m still here…

Y’all, I don’t know what the deal is, but I just canNOT get on top of my to-do list lately.  The blog has taken a back seat, and it’s making me feel even more behind that I’m not documenting our days!  Not to mention, reading the blogs I read feels like catching up with friends over coffee and I haven’t even had time for that lately!  So, this post will be representative of my  mind lately and be a jumble of thoughts!

• Hadley is 12 and a 1/2 months old and is not crawling or walking.  She tries to crawl, but just ends up scooting backwards, and would rather be standing and cruising around on furniture or strolling around the house holding my hands.  And up until yesterday, if she was lying down, she couldn’t get herself up to sitting.  Her pediatrician referred us to ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) at her one year check-up because of the not-getting-up-on-her-own thing.  She made a point to say she doesn’t think it’s any type of neurological delay, but rather than Hadley is probably just too lazy and stubborn and would rather squawk at me to help her up instead.  Regardless of the reason why, being referred to a specialist for your child is never a fun conversation.  Of course, the day I called to set up her evaluation, I walked into her room after her nap to find her like this…

• She did this twice more that day, but hasn’t done it since, so I’m keeping her appointment for now (it’s not until the middle of February). 
• I would wear leggings every day if I had enough different tops to wear them with; they are easy to play on the floor in AND when it’s cold, the only shoes I want to wear are my Uggs.  Seriously, I am the pickiest person I know when it comes to shoes.  I like boots (with skinny jeans or leggings) and I like ballet flats and flip flops, and that is seriously it.  Does anyone have a recommendation for good shoes?
• Planning Hadley’s party is taking over my life!  I decided to wait a couple weeks after her birthday to throw the party to give myself some time to get our house back in shape after the holidays and I am so glad I did!  I feel like my to-do list grows infinitely each day! 
• In addition to Hadley’s party coming up, I’m helping to host a shower for my sister in February, then her wedding is in March (eeek – that means I have 2 months to figure out my toast!!) and then we are planning our first “vacation” in May with Matt’s parents to Hilton Head!  (I’ve heard it said that you don’t vacation after you have kids, but rather you take trips – I’m fully prepared for a fun “trip” either way ). 
• Speaking of trips, this will be our first flight with Hadley, and we’ll be getting a rental car while we’re there.  Any tips for traveling with a little one?  A lot of what I’ve read says not to rent a carseat as there’s no way to guarantee that they are safe (not in an accident or expired, installed correctly or missing parts, etc…), so I’m thinking we will check a seat, but ours is pretty heavy, plus I would hate for our Britax seat to get damaged!  I’ve already got one rec (thanks Liz!) but would love to hear what anyone else has done! 
• Hadley may be “behind” when it comes to her gross motor skills, but it is so fun to watch her right now as she figures out things around her.  Just in the past couple weeks she’s started to:
• brush her hair with her hair brush
• “put her shoes on” aka: take a shoe and slam it on top of her foot over and over
• put the lid back on a jar (I had a baby food jar out earlier today and she kept pointing at the lid so I finally gave it to her expecting her to chew on it.  She grabbed it, then grabbed my hand with the jar to pull it closer and then popped the lid right on it!)
• Answer the phone – by putting it up to her ear and then saying “eh!”

I love to watch her discover new things around her and can almost see a lightbulb go off above her head when something new clicks! 

Ok, was that a random enough post for you?  Hopefully after we throw Hadley’s party and make a little more progress on our master bedroom I’ll be able to sort through my thoughts better! 

A Work in Progress

If you've followed along for awhile, you might know that our master bedroom is one of the only rooms in our house that I just have not been able to get to a place that I’m happy with (décor-wise).  We have a great space in there, I love our furniture, and we have a beautiful bay window, but with a husband who actually has decorating opinions, trying to marry our “visions” has just not worked out so well. 
This is where Courtney comes in.  Courtney is a super talented interior decorator/blogger/mom extraordinaire and I have loved reading her blog over the past year or two.  She started a series on her blog called “Just Four Things” where she picks a reader’s space and transforms it by changing 4 elements of the room.  I submitted our master bedroom when she started the series, but honestly never thought I’d hear anything, let alone be selected.  So, imagine my surprise, when not only did she respond (literally within less than 24 hours) that she had already chosen another room but she’d keep me in mind for the future.  Again, I thought, “well, that was nice of her to respond!” but again, I figured I didn’t have a shot at being chosen.  (I’m sure you have no idea where this is going, yet, right??)  Well, I got an email a couple weeks ago from Courtney saying she wanted to work on our room!!  Y’all, I am seriously SO excited about this. 
So, head on over to A Thoughtful Place today to see the first “installment” where she introduces the room and leave a comment with your choice for the first “Which One Wednesday”!  I’d love to hear about it over here, too! 
Here’s the bland, boring lovely “before” picture…

Like Father, Like Daughter

Last time we were in Houston, I asked to look through some old photo albums so I could see some of Matt’s baby pictures.  I came across a couple that look JUST like Hadley in my opinion.  Lately more and more people have been telling me how much they think Hadley looks like Matt, too.  See for yourself!