An Update & Picture Dump

I almost hate to type this out for fear of jinxing myself, but we are finally all healthy again!  After 3 doctor’s visits and one trip to the ER, we finally got a diagnosis for Hadley: Roseola.  We sort of suspected that, and I had multiple friends mention it as well, but we weren’t sure until the rash showed up on Sunday.  Poor girl ran a fever from Tuesday evening through Sunday when it finally broke and her little cheeks and neck started showing a rash.  Longest 5 days of my life.  There is just nothing worse than seeing your baby sick.  As awful as this was to go through, I am so thankful for Hadley’s overall health as I know there are so many others struggling with so much more.  Thanks to everyone who was praying for us while she was sick! 

To catch you up, here are a few iPhone pics from the past week. 

Sweet little trooper in the hospital after her fever spiked to 105 last Thursday morning. 

On Sunday I knew she was FINALLY starting to feel a little better because she actually started eating again!  I had to take pictures to document the occasion.

And on Monday we actually ventured out in public for a little retail therapy!  Hadley’s nana spoiled her with a new purse, sunglasses, a baby stroller AND a shopping cart!  She’s learning from a young age that there can be a bright-side to being sick!

Hope y’all are having a good week!  Hopefully I will get back in the swing of things now that little miss is healthy again! 

Fashionable Fridays: Baby Edition

Did you like how I made that title all official-like?  As if this is something I do every Friday and have loads of followers waiting to see what “edition” I’ll come out with next? 

Anyway, when the seasons change, I love getting a few new pieces to spruce up my wardrobe.  One of the GREAT perks of a growing baby girl is that I simply can’t re-use things from last season because they don’t fit!  I thought I’d share some of my baby favorites for Spring! 

First of all, I know I am so behind the times with this, but I just discovered Kelly’s Kids.  I haven’t actually ordered anything, but oh.my.gosh do I want to. 

I want pretty much everything from the Island Blue collection

And the Coral Reef Collection

And the Buckets of Fun Collection

And ohmygosh these bubbles are so cute!

And I want every “basic” in the whole entire catalog.  AND, you can monogram just about everything they sell!  Seriously – put an H on it all and ship me the whole shebang!

I am also drooling over these Matilda Jane items…

Leona Knot Dress

 

How adorable is this Lucy Baby Bubble?

Unfortunately, none of those are exactly in our budget, so here are a few more budget-friendly items I’ve seen recently!

I LOVE this little flutter-sleeve top with bloomers

And this little striped sundress is on sale for $10!

And last, this little bowtie romper would be so cute with a monogram on the chest! 

Ok, that’s all I’ve got!  Hopefully this was more fun to read than a day-by-day update of Hadley’s illnesses!

Just a Quick Update

After our doctor’s appointment yesterday, they said “wait & see, but take her to the ER if her fever spikes to 105.”  Well, wouldn’t you know, this morning she woke up screaming at 7am and when I took her temperature, it was 104.8.  That was close enough to me to 105, and since it was still another hour and a half before our doctor’s office opened, we packed up and headed to Children’s. 

By the time we got there, the Tylenol had kicked in and her fever was down to 100.  They did another strep test (negative), although they said her throat looked really red.  Then, since that came back negative, they had to rule out one more bacteria – which was the ONE thing I was praying wouldn’t happen.  The nurses were great and suggested that “momma go get a drink and wait in the hall” while they cathed Hadley to get a sample. (TMI?  Sorry…)  Although they sent both tests to be cultured, the initial responses were negative, which left us with basically a viral infection with no name. 

All that for nothing?  We are still in wait & see mode – they said we could potentially have 2 more days of fever, and at that point, if it hasn’t gone away on it’s own, to go back in for blood work. 

Hoping & praying we’ve seen the worst of this so far!  Thanks for your prayers!

If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

We officially have our first big fever.  I guess I should be thankful that this didn’t happen DURING the wedding weekend.  And I guess I should also be thankful that we made it almost 15 months without really any type of high fever.  But when your baby is sick (just 2 weeks after having strep), it’s hard to be thankful. 

I’m still not caught up on laundry after getting us all unpacked, and now I’ve got to get my Lysol back out in case this is some time of bug that Hadley is fighting.  She started running a fever last night and I had to wake her up to take her to the doctor this morning because her fever was up to 104.  Thankfully it was only at 100 when we were at the doctor (without meds), so it seems to be fluctuating a bit.  All of her tests came back negative, so we are just in watch-and-see mode right now and giving her tylenol/advil every 3 hours. 

If you have a minute to pray – please pray that this is just a virus that is running it’s course.  The doctor said if she’s still running a high fever in 48 hours that they’ll want to do all kinds of other tests, likely including a catheter for a UTI test.  I’m not sure Hadley would ever forgive me if she had to go through that!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with some cute pictures to end on a good note.

Photobooth Fun

WHEW.  We just got back from THE wedding weekend and I am exhausted!  I have a ton of unpacking, laundry and straightening to do, but I just wanted to check in since it has been a few days!  Everything went off without a hitch and my sister is now a married woman(!) and enjoying some r&r in the DR (Dominican Republic) with her husband.  Hadley had the time.of.her.life.  Seriously, the girl was in heaven.  She completely wore herself out, but I have never ever seen her enjoying herself so much.  She was a dancing QUEEN and the life of the party! 

I should hopefully have pictures to share soon, but for now, our photobooth pictures will have to do!

Shameless Twitter Plug

So I finally joined Twitter. 

And I only have 11 followers. 

I’d love to find some more friends on there – so would you do me a favor and click that little link to the right?  I’m @BrittCole26.  I’d love to follow you, too! 

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday–Vegetable Tortellini Soup

I thought I’d share another one of my “go-to” meals with y’all today.  This vegetable tortellini soup is hearty enough to keep the Mr. full, healthy enough for me, and tasty enough for even a picky toddler’s taste buds!  And, it comes together really quickly.  What more could you ask for? 

source

This recipe is from the FamilyFun website and the only change I make is to add more veggies (oh – and usually leave out the onion because we’re not big onion fans here).  So, in addition to the zucchini and carrot that it calls for, I usually throw in at least a cup’s worth of additional veggies (usually whatever I have in the freezer – peas, green beans, corn, squash, etc). 

I usually serve it with whole grain french bread that I toast in the oven with a sprinkle of garlic salt.  Yum! 

Here’s the recipe card for y’all to save if you want to try it out!  If you do, I’d love to hear what you thought of it!

Master Bedroom Reveal

Alright y’all, the time has finally come for me to reveal our master bedroom updates!  If you’re new here, you can read up here, here, here and here to see more about the process I went through with Courtney to make these updates.  There are still some things that I’d like to tweak, and the wall on the other side of the room isn’t finished yet, but I feel like it’s come such a long way and I am LOVING.IT.  I have to send out a gigantic THANK YOU to Courtney, because without her, we would still be living in the “before”!  I feel so so blessed to have had our room chosen for her Just Four Things series, and I have to give her credit for the huge transformation!  So, Courtney, thank you, thank you, thank you!

(And also a quick thank-you to the Mr. for being patient and allowing me to re-do our room when he was perfectly happy with it the way it was.  Happy (early) birthday to me, right honey? )

So, before we see the “after” here is a quick reminder of where we were “before.”

And after working with Courtney on “Just Four Things,” here is the “after”!  (Sorry, it’s tough to get a good picture of the drapes because of all the sunlight that comes through those windows.)

Matt’s side of the nightstand with his “DAD” picture that I made him for Father’s Day.  (Which has been pinned like 5,000 times on Pinterest!  Who would have thought – it was just randomly inserted into one of Hadley’s monthly updates!)

The original plan was to stencil on the larger canvas, but when I put a sample on a piece of paper up there, it seemed to take away from the picture a little.  Do you think it looks too plain without anything on the back canvas?

And because who doesn’t love a good “before & after” comparison shot – here you go!

Most of the sourcing info can be found on Courtney’s blog, but here it is again in case you don’t want to go digging for it. 

Paint color: Sherwin Williams Quiver Tan

Bedding: Pottery Barn Grand Duvet in Sandalwood

Fabrics:  

1. {Euro Shams} P Kaufmann Indoor/Outdoor Woven Slick Mink

2. {Toss Pillows} Favell Floral Metro

3. {Bolster & bottom of drapes} Waverly Ellis Turquoise

Lamps: HomeGoods (for a steal! LOVE that place!)

Also, if you missed it before, I wrote a tutorial on how I made the euro shams – it was really super easy!

 

Okay, sorry for the picture overload… what do y’all think?!

Spring!

Spring may technically be another week away, but most schools I know are on Spring Break this week, and so I think it counts as Spring already. 

(And why do schools take Spring Break before it’s actually Spring?)

Anyway, after some seriously long and exhausting days in the Coleman household, Hadley and I decided to do a little shopping recently.  She found a great deal on ruffled leggings at Gymboree for $3.  I was proud of her bargain hunting.  I mean, seriously when can you ever find those deals in your size? 

I spent a little more than she did at Bath & Body Works.  I honestly haven’t shopped there (until this Christmas) for years, but I was lured in by deals and the promise of an amazingly scented home.  (When you are constantly spraying febreeze around a diaper pail, the idea of something actually smelling good is enticing.)  I bought a few wallflowers at Christmastime and found some scents that I LOVED.  They were still plugged in up until now.  I think it’s time for our house to stop smelling like a Christmas tree, yes? 

Well, once again, I found a scent I LOVE.  It’s called Spring.  That’s it.  No “Tropically Fresh Coconutty Mango” or anything like that.  Just Spring.  And it smells like a flower shop.  Just fresh cut flowers without being flowery and girly smelling.  I love it.  I might have to go back and stock up in case they don’t bring it back again.  I even bought the candle and I love the little touch it adds on the mantel.  Isn’t that zebra holder super cute too?

Do you have any favorite scents?  Or have you been avoiding bath & body works since high school like I was? 

A Tale of Two Hadley’s

Last week I had the pleasure of watching a friend’s little girl for the day when her sitter cancelled last minute!  Sarah was actually the photographer in our wedding so I’ve known her for about 5 years now!  She is a teacher now and wound up living really close to us when they moved to Dallas and we’ve become even closer now that she’s a momma to a sweet little girl (who is also named Hadley!). 

I’ll admit, I was terrified a little anxious about being all on my own with a 3 month old and a 14 month old.

(Yes, I realize plenty of people CHOOSE to have kids that close, and yes I realize they all survive just fine.)

(I am not one of those people.)

Although we had a few moments of chaos, overall the day went really well!  Sarah’s Hadley (I think I’ll refer to her by her nickname Haddie to avoid confusion) was super sweet and content all day long.  The only time she fussed was when I waited a little too long to put her down for her first nap.  The 10 o’clock hour was a little chaotic as Haddie was waking up ready to eat at the exact same time Hadley was cranky and ready to go down for her nap, but we all survived and actually had a fun time! 

Here are some of the precious pictures I captured throughout our day.

These next pictures are priceless to me.  I let Hadley “hold” Haddie because I could tell she was just dying to get closer to her.  Hadley was so sweet and gentle with her!

See what I mean?  Such a sweet, happy little girl!

Hadley “hugs” by laying her head down.  This is her attempt at hugging Haddie.

I was seriously missing how easy it was to put down an infant.  Haddie just needed a quick swaddle and paci and she was out.cold.  Oh if only Hadley could have taken notes!

I was so thankful for a beautiful day!  We got our wagon out and went for a long walk.  Both girls were SO content throughout the whole walk.  I’m pretty sure a double stroller would be a necessity if you had two so close in age!

All in all, my worries were pretty unfounded.  We had a great girls day!