London | 9 Months

AT 9 MONTHS OLD : She's almost been out as long as she's been in! (two more weeks)

• has two teeth
• crawling
• Says "HI", "muhhhh", "dada", "yeah"
• babbles all the time and mocks big sister no matter what she does... kissy faces, lip smackin', growling, you name it!
• eats everything we eat and more!

FAVORITE THINGS

Sharing a room with big sis! The girls are finally in the same room and we have a playroom in the house again, what a relief! My biff convinced me to switch them into the same bedroom so that we could have more space for toys in the house and let me tell ya', I am so thankful we did. The girls go to bed great, don't wake each other up, and wake up separately in the morning usually without making a sound... then there are some mornings where they chat away and it's seriously the most heart melting sound ever. One of their favorite things to do is mock each other. Lennon will make a kissy noise and London will do it back, every.single.time we are in the car for the.entire.time. It's the best... Favorite toys around here are her raspberry teether, her wooden teether, and her toy cars. She is drinking bottles all by herself and eating finger foods now more than puree's so I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest looking at healthy home made finger foods for babies - if you have any ideas or tried and true recommendations let me know, I'd love to check them out and try new things! We are officially out of cloth diapers... I couldn't even keep up with my own laundry let alone diaper laundry. Once teething hit and Lon kept getting diaper rashes I was done. I would love to go back to them someday but we will see... these Target diapers are so cheap, and soooo nice! Headache free, hassle free, leak free and best yet, LAUNDRY FREE. Making my life simpler one thing at a time. She loves going to gymnastics with big sis and playing all over the floor watching the big kids, and crawling super fast toward the foam pit! 

Oh, and she's getting into EVERYTHING. 

Some of OUR favorite & must have baby items so far are:

Dohm sound machine - AMAZING and such a must have!

LuSa Organics Sleep Potion

Aden & Anais blankets to snuggle with

Camilia for teething

LEAST FAVORITE THINGS

London doesn't like being left alone - if you leave the room she whines and then crawls super fast toward you to follow you anywhere you go. She's not scared of the hardwood floors anymore... or the dog dishes. Joy. 

She doesn't like tomatoes - go figure, big sis doesn't either! She doesn't like dirt or sand in her hands or mouth, but won't stop trying to eat it either. This child is a handful. 

Kale, Cucumber & Veggies OH MY!

What happens when you go to the grocery store and come home with random veggies and need to make a side dish with dinner?

....throw them in a bowl with some garlic vinaigrette and voila! 

I literally eye-balled everything!! If I had to guess I would say I used 3 cucumbers (salad sized), half a squash, half a zucchini, half a bunch of kale (just the tops), and eyeball the dressing and olive oil to taste. It served 4 people and we had leftovers! 

Kale

Cucumber

Zucchini

Squash

Garlic Expressions (salad dressing)

Olive Oil 

Feta Cheese

Let it sit for a while in the fridge as it's best super cold and with the dressing soaked in.  This is just the ingredients I had on hand and for making last minute dinner plans I had to make something delicious. It would be really good with fresh tomatoes, sliced almonds, or anything that you can get your hands on! 

Everyone loved it,

it's delicious and it was even better after sitting all night for leftovers today. 

Delicious, healthy and super yum-yum.

Here's my inspiration - this one is next and it looks amazing.

Chopped Greek Kale Salad

London | 8 Months

AT 8 MONTHS OLD :

• almost two bottom teeth - they're sooooo close 
• army crawling and scooting 
• Said "HI"
• babbles all the time!
• eats everything we eat and more

London is the silliest, funniest, giggliest, happiest little babe you'll ever meet. She smiles when you look at her, laughs when you're playing with her and pretending to get her, and giggles when you tickle her or kiss her toes. She is happiest when she's playing on the floor with her toys, with Lennon and Luke and when mama and daddy are talking to her. She loves EVERYONE! 

FAVORITE THINGS

All of the above.

Eating with her hands, exploring new foods like mac & cheese, orange, eggs, pancakes, chicken fingers, green beans and most recently sand and lake water... (not her most favorite!) She loves being around people and cries when someone leaves the room. She loves taking long naps and sleeping 13 hours a night (who doesn't?). She loves her little pink fuzzy blanket that she sleeps with every night. She loves Sophie, Lennon's stuffed animals and barbies, chewing on lego's (the big ones, don't freak out!) and scooting like crazy toward a cell phone if it's lit up on the floor. She is scooting and crawling better every single day although she's still learning how to get her knees up there to her hands so she's still army-style crawling. It's fun! She is sitting up all alone now and only face plants when she's eager to get something too fast... lol! 

We recently spent the week up north with family and she absolutely loved it. I was so worried that she wouldn't do well being that she is out of her element and sleeping elsewhere which she's only ever done ONCE. But, she proved me wrong and actually did better than she does at home. She napped twice a day for a few hours each time, slept 12-13 hours each night and never made a sound even though the girls and I shared a room and shared a cabin with almost 20 other people. It went so smoothly I shouldn't have doubted her - or myself. We swam in the lake every day and London loved the warm water, boat ride and the company. The company was the best part! Her great-great grandma was loving the snuggles and kisses, she loved feeding her bottles and her great-great-aunt was loving it too! It was a blast. She's totally a water baby just like the rest of the clan.

LEAST FAVORITE THINGS

Nothin'. 

;) 

London | 7 Months

FAVORITE THINGS

She adores her puppy - and he adores her! He lays on my lap every morning when I feed her, he is always laying next to her on the floor and when she steals his toys from the basket he waits patiently for her to drop it, steals it and runs! Too fun! She loves to roll around and chase her toys, scoot all the way across the living room, steal Luke's toys from him and try to eat everything she can wrap her little fingers around.

She's gaining weight - hooray! Her little cheeks are getting chunkier and her diapers are getting snug around that tiny belly. She LOVES to eat! I make homemade puree's and don't skimp on any delicious, nutritious foods. She's had it all and loves it all! Her favorite is quinoa, cherry, apple blend, avocados and sweet potato! She also loves puff's -what baby doesn't? She loves swimming at GiGi's, playing with her Aunt Maci and Uncle Byron and GiGi, and shopping! She's the best shopping companion because she LOVES that Tula! She is seriously a happy, happy, joyful and loving baby girl and we are so blessed!

LEAST FAVORITE THINGS

Being wiped up after eating all her delicious food.

When she's over-tired or over-hungry.

When Lennon takes a toy from her! 

Happy 4th Birthday Lennon!

Happy Birthday, gorgeous girl!

4 years ago... 4. I can't believe that 4 years ago my life changed forever. I was lying in a hospital bed at 4:19am 4 years ago holding the baby girl that would soon change my life forever, become my very best friend, my heart - soul & world. Everyone told me that becoming a mother would change me, that becoming a mom would make me feel a love like I had never felt before, cry happier tears than I have ever cried, laugh at poop, cry at the thought of leaving her alone over night, and make me love like never before. It did.  

I am the happiest mother in the world,

all because of this little girl. 

Lennon's Princess Party was an amazing success filled with lots of her favorite toys, her favorite bounce house, and all of her favorite people. She got everything she could have ever wanted (except for a trampoline - maybe next year! haha) and she enjoyed all of the fun, laughs and playing in the rain with her cousins. The look on her face when she opened her favorite gifts was pure joy and excitement. 

Thank you to everyone that came and made her birthday awesome!

This morning we woke up to a house filled with pink balloons she could barely walk through the hallway, we made pancakes topped with pink frosting and sprinkles and she's now dancing around in a tutu, singing "Happy Birthdayyyy to meee... I am 4...." She is the happiest girl alive and we are so blessed to call her ours.

Happy Birthday, Lennon Danielle!

London | 6 Months

[6 months in & 6 months out]

FAVORITE THINGS 

London loves everyone and everything - mama, daddy, Lennon's giggles, Luke's kisses, all food so far that she's tried especially mint chocolate chip ice cream yesterday on her official half birthday. She loves trying to scoot to grab things, growl, laugh out loud at us and roll over a million times to get where she needs to go... she's quite fast at that now. She loves drinking out of sippy cups, chewing on everything and exploring new tastes. We went to the zoo for the first time this week with friends, to Frankenmuth today and she's always so happy to go out and about with us. She's always so happy!

GiGi & London

& sister giggles in the mornings 

LEAST FAVORITE THINGS

She absolutely hates being wiped up after being a messy eater and when someone ignores her... that's pretty much it! 

Oh, and not only did we make it 6 months being parents of two kids I also made it 6 months breastfeeding! WOOHOO. I cannot even explain how proud I am that I did this! It's been challenging, tiring, hard, exhausting, all of the above... but most of all it's been rewarding and has created such an amazing bond that can never be replaced. I LOVE IT!

House Project | Out with the Gold & Gaudy

I am so so so thrilled to say that my two-day project is finally done! I'm even more thrilled to say that I did it all alone!!! Well, with the help of a toddler but does that really count?

I have been dying to cross some things off of my house to-do wish list and little by little we are getting there. Many of the projects are so minor that they don't feel like I accomplished anything (ahem - filling nail holes... boring!) so this time I was ready for a serious face-lift project! 

Replacing allllllll of the gaudy, nasty, hideous, eye-sore of hardware throughout the house. I mean seriously, when was that "in"? 

I researched and compared prices online (Amazon and Home Depot) and ended up ordering the majority of what we needed online. Amazon Prime for the win! I got to work yesterday while the girls napped and just finished today. Seriously when you give a girl the OK to do a project and the tools to do it nothin' can stop her! 

The look of my house completely changed! I loooooooove it!!!! I can't believe we didn't do this sooner. We literally only spent a small amount compared to what we thought we would have spent. You can't beat it, for under $200 our house looks totally amazing.

It was a lot of tedious, annoying work but it wasn't too bad. Overall I probably spent 4-6 hours doing it all. 

Things I learned during this DIY project:

- old homeowners suck

- old homeowners do things half-ass (like drilling out door hinges properly!)

- my drill parts are magnetic!

- the torque settings... I had no clue what those numbers were and why they were there but I've now mastered google searches and the torque settings on the drill. 

- it's really hard to put hinges on the door before the door frame... Don't do that! Door frame then door. Always. 

- don't unscrew all the hinges at once, that obviously takes the whole door off and it's reallllllly hard, like nearly impossible hard to put the door back on alone. But, I did it! 

- door stoppers are so weird

- gold is hideous

The end! Now come over and see it, and have a beer with me. All this hard work deserves one, or two...