5 On Friday {The Good With The Bad}

Ya'll....this has just been one of those weeks that you just try to survive. I think I might have.....

So I am going to layout all the yuck of the week and then follow that up with a silver lining. Just trying to find the blessings amid the crazy.

1. Haley got 3 shots on Tuesday and seemed to be OK with them until yesterday. She went on a feeding strike and would only eat 2 ounces and just scream and not take any more. She also seemed more tired that usual. They told us this might happen after the shots but I thought it would be like right after...not two days later.

The good thing is that she seems to be getting back to normal now and took more ounces in the night and slept from 9:00 to 2:00, which is a pretty long stretch. Also, she is very healthy and for that we are so grateful!

2. This is our busiest time of the year with work and especially this week. So of course my Internet was down for 24 hours....WHY NOT?! (I work from home by the way) So I could not do anything for a solid day and we live in a rural area where everyone uses the same provider and so there was not anywhere for me to go to get Internet either.

But this just meant that I had more time to be with my kids during that day and play and see them....so not all was lost.

3. I ordered the costume below from Party City a couple of weeks ago and it came earlier this week and it was the total wrong size! They sent me a boys size and I had ordered a toddler size. I called and the toddler size was back ordered so they agreed to send me another firefighter costume...except they said that their corporate office would have to call me to confirm they could do this...ugh! So I waited for that call for two days and finally called and just asked for a refund. What a mess and it amazes me how upset I get when it's something for my kids. I was so worried about Jonah not getting to be a firefighter for Halloween and not finding another costume in time. It's not exactly easy to get out to a store with a infant and the nearest town is 40 minutes away.

But I scored a great deal on a firefighter costume on Ebay in his size so hopefully that one will work!


4. Tomorrow we are heading to the pumpkin patch with friends and I am so excited. I look forward to going every year and it really gets me in the Fall spirit.

Last year at the pumpkin patch. Jonah has grown so much!

5. With all the craziness of the week and the having-an-infant-that-gets-up-twice-in-the-night, the hubs and I were wore thin yesterday and not being very nice to each other. After both kids were settled down we just took a moment to ourselves to talk and figure out what is working and what's not working and come up with some solutions together. So grateful for my precious husband and his love for his family and wanting to help out. I don't know what I would do without him!!

Linking up HERE.

Halloween At Our House

I transitioned my Fall decor over to Halloween last weekend. I am gradually starting to add more Halloween stuff to my stash. I used to not have any at all because I thought it was a hard/weird holiday to decorate for. But now that I have kids I think it's fun to decorate and get them into the spirit. I just decorate my hutch and put some stuff outside. You'll also see a peak at my first ever burlap wreath that I made (and probably my last LOL). It was not easy to make and now I know why those things are so expensive to buy. I love how it turned out though!

 I painted a canvas in a black and white chevron pattern and then glued this felt jack-o-lantern place mat to it (from the $Tree).

 I printed out this free Halloween garland from a blog. I can find the link if anyone wants it.

 Some of my other decorations: Ghost from Hobby Lobby/ sparkly pumpkins from Dollar Store/ another free printable in a spray-painted frame. I made the black lace covered tea lights last year.

Outside I just added my wooden crate and a mum and pumpkin with our Boo flag.


I love keeping it simple and but fun for Halloween. Now lets just cross our fingers that the mum survives till the end of the month. LOL

Haley is 2 Months Old!

Haley was 2 months old on Saturday, October 5th! I cannot believe how fast time flies once you have two kids!

Here is our sweet little sugar dumpling on her month-day.

She went for her well-checkup yesterday and she weighted 10 lbs. 9 oz. and was 22 inches long. That puts her in the 26th percentile for weight and 23rd percentile for height. Dr. said she is proportionate so that is good. Her head circumference was in the 72nd percentile though! She is going to have a big ole noggin like her brother. :)

Here is what Miss Priss has been up to this past month....which is not a lot more than last month. LOL

Sleep:

She is getting there! We had a couple of rough weeks just in that she would not sleep a stretch much longer than 2-2 1/2 hours. This was mainly because she would not drink enough milk before bed and then would not drink much during the night. She also was doing funny with eating during the day too. She got to where she would just take about 2 ounces and then we could hardly get her to take the rest. But since moving up in nipple size and letting her go 4 hours between feedings she has been doing much better. Last night she slept from 7:20 to 12:30 and then from around 1:20 to 5:20. So that is a much longer stretch. The Dr. seemed to think that every 4 hours would be a better schedule for her too. This has improved her ability to also nap for longer times during the day because she is fuller, where she had been waking up completely in the middle of her nap times but before the next bottle was due.

Eating:

Well I touched on most of that above but she is up to 4 ounces every 4 hours and we increased her to a level 2 size nipple which has helped so much. My gut told me last week that something was not right because she would just take a couple of ounces and then want some more a couple of hours later but then wouldn't really eat like she was super hungry. Turns out she has been trying to schedule herself and needed our help. I think that coupled with the fact that she was growth spurting and needing more fluid per feeding. I think we are at a good place now and I imagine she will be up to 5 ounces before this next month is over.

Playing:

It's still tricky to keep her awake for much more than an hour after feeding but she is a happy and smiley baby and loves to hear us talk to her. She loves watching the fan and she will stare up at our family pictures on the wall like she is studying them. I think she is just seeing all the colors in them. She definitely knows our voices and reacts to them. She loves to lay on her back and just move her arms and legs all around. We have to swaddle her for naps and night time or those arms will just keep her awake. She is so strong too and will hold that little head up anytime we put her on our shoulders. She does not lay her head down at all.

Personality:

Haley is really a very content baby and does not need or really even like to be held much unless it's eating time. She loves to lay down and kick and when she's tired she likes to be put in her bouncy seat or the swing and goes off to sleep on her own. We used to have to rock and sway Jonah to sleep and then try to lay him down and then many time he would wake back up. I am thankful that Haley seems content to put herself to sleep because it has helped a lot with Jonah being so active. She also is content to just sit in her bouncy seat and hang out while I do things around the house. As long as she can hear or see me she is usually fine. Also, Haley absolutely loves white noise. When she is getting tired and a little fussy I just turn on my white noise app on the phone and usually she is out within minutes. That little discovery has been a life-saver!

We are just so overjoyed with our sweet Haley bug and can't wait to see her change and develop over the next few months. I am just soaking up every bit of these first stages of her being a baby because now I know how fast it goes by.

Five on Friday: September Edition

Where did the month of September go?! I can't believe it has just come and gone! I am so excited for all that is in store for October though. I can't wait to watch the leaves turn, break out the jeans and plaid, take Fall pictures, go to the pumpkin patch, sit around a bonfire and smell the tobacco barns smoking.

This is my first time to link up with Darci up but I enjoy reading other bloggers that link to this so I'm giving it a try.

1. Haley will be 8 weeks old on Monday! I can't believe she is already 2 months old! Update to come soon on all that she has been doing...which is still mostly eating, sleeping and pooping. LOL

2. I am back to work full-time as of this past week and survived the first week!! This is also our busiest time of the year at work....so fun times..NOT! I am really missing my babies each day but at least if I can't enjoy them, my Mom gets to, since she watches them for me. Such a blessing and they aren't too awfully spoiled. :)

3. I am ready to decorate for Halloween this weekend!! I've had my Fall decor out for most of this past month (click here to see the post about that) but now I'm ready to transition it over to Halloween! I will do a post of how that all turns out. I already have Haley's costume and know what Jonah wants to be. Jonah wants to be a fire fighter and so I'm trying to figure out how to DIY most of his costume because the ones I've found online are WAY too expensive for a kid costume!!

4. I am trying to get back into an exercise routine now that I'm back to work. The hubby really wants for both of us do a local charity 5K in November and I am no where near ready. Right now it takes me 20 minutes to walk a mile. I am really out of shape after having Haley even though I actually weigh a pound or two less than I did when I first found out I was pregnant with her. My body is just different (as is to be expected) and there is so much more that I just want to get toned back up. The hubby has been so supportive of helping with the kids in the evenings a couple times this week so I could get some walking in. Any tips on the best way to train for a 5K? Any good song ideas for walking to? I am all ears!

5. Just for fun here is clip of a comedian that another blog I follow posted. I love the part around the 2:30 mark about glitter. So true!! LOL!

Have a great weekend!!

Fall Hutch {Pumpkins & Chevron}

It's starting to feel like Fall here in Tennessee! The trees are drying out and the leaves will soon be changing colors. Everyone is predicting a colorful Fall with all the rain we got over the Summer. I have been itching to get all my Summer decor down and get the Fall stuff out. I finally accomplished that this weekend!

I am sharing my hutch all decorated for the Autumnal season. If you want to see how I've decorated this hutch in the past you can check it out here: Halloween, Valentines, Easter and Spring/Summer. You can also go to this post to see how I transformed this $25 hutch with paint.

As you can tell the theme for this year's Fall hutch is PUMPKINS!! I am not sure how I ended up with so much pumpkin decor but I have a bunch and I'm putting it all to good use this year. I just love pumpkins so I don't mind that I have so many. What says Fall better than a pumpkin?!

Haley - 1 Month Old!

I cannot believe that one whole month has come and gone for our sweet, precious Haley! She is just the sweetest and best baby ever!! I am biased of course. LOL Here is what she has been up to so far in her first month of life.

Weight: Not totally sure but I would guess she is past the 8 lb mark
Height: Probably still close to 20 inches long

Sleep:

Haley is so much better of a sleeper than Jonah ever thought about being and that has been a God-send! She goes 3 to 3.5 hours between bottles and takes about an hour to 2 hour nap between feedings. She still gets up twice in the night to eat. Once usually around midnight to 1:00 a.m. and then again around 4:30 to 5:00 in the morning. She sleeps very soundly in the night (or maybe we just pass out so deeply we don't hear her LOL). She doesn't just wake up and scream for the bottle either. She just kind of starts stirring and then we know it's time for her to eat because she never goes back to sleep once she starts stirring. I usually feed the midnight one and then Michael does the early morning one so I can rest more. It takes her a good 20 minutes to finish a bottle and then burp and sometimes she has gas so the whole process is almost an hour worth in the night. It's great to have Michael's help at night and especially as I transition back to working.

Haley is a noisy sleeper though. She grunts and wallows around in the bed for a while but she does go to sleep on her own. I don't remember Jonah being so noisy or going to sleep without our help. She does like the pacifier from time to time to get her calmed down enough for sleep. She takes it in spurts though. All in all, we are so grateful for her being a good sleeper this time around...we are older than we were with Jonah, ya know! LOL

Haley is also a great napper and she can sleep through anything. We don't make Jonah be super quiet when she is asleep and he plays with is toys (many that make noises) and it never phases her. She even slept through the lawn mower while we were outside the other day. Michael was mowing with Jonah on there with him and so we were outside and it was loud. I had her ears covered with a blanket but still. I don't know how she did that!

Eating:

Haley takes 3.5 ounces at each bottle already and I am sure we will be up to 4 ounces soon. We haven't had any issues with her formula and she does not seem to have any major gas issues other than the normal stuff. She does not spit up regularly either, which I attribute a lot of that to having her adjusted twice already by our family chiropractor. Once at the hospital the night she was born and then last week he adjusted her again.

Personality:

Haley is just the most content baby! We can just lay her down anywhere and she is just happy to be there and will fall asleep just about anywhere too. The only time she fusses is if she is having a gas pain and then once it's passed you can lay her back wherever she was and she is fine. She just seems to be an easy-going baby for the most part and we have gotten lots of little smiles (probably gas but we'll take it) and coos already.

Milestones:

Lots of firsts of course.

-First bath
-First trip to church, Roro's, Nana's, Hobby Lobby, grocery store and Dr. office
-First time sleeping in crib
-First smiles and coos
-Loosing her cord stump

Loves:

Haley loves her swing and bouncy seat. She loves her bottle and pacifier. She also loves white noise like fans and the dishwasher running. She loves her bath and has never fussed once when she is getting bathed. I think she also loves her Mommy, Daddy and big brother too.

Hates:

She hates being dressed and having her arms handled too much. She hates the car seat sometimes too. I think she hates it because her little head has to be squished in the newborn support and then we have to handle her arms a bit to get her latched in and she doesn't like that. Once she is comfy she will go right to sleep in the car though.


1 Month Pictures!!

We just love how Haley has rounded out our little family and can't wait for all the fun that she will continue to bring to our lives. I am hoping to post some more before I have to go back to work full time. I want to write about how Jonah has taken to being a big brother and some other happenings around our home. Stay tuned!

Jonah's 1st Fish

This past Labor Day weekend was so nice and relaxing! On Saturday evening we went down to Land Between The Lakes to Piney Campground where my in-laws were camping for the weekend. This campground is just down the highway from our town and it's THE BEST as far as campgrounds go. Large lots with tons of shade and kids can ride bikes everywhere. We took Jonah's fishing pole along and he and his Daddy were looking forward to doing some fishing off the dock near the boat launch. Haley and I stayed back in the air-conditioned motor home (it was sooo hot!). Jonah, Michael and Poppa went down to the dock and got Jonah all fixed up with a cricket as his bait. Michael's Dad, Bill kept a watch on the line even though Jonah had a lot of slack in the line from moving around and when he saw the bobber go under he snatched the line to set the hook for Jonah. Then Jonah got to reel it in!!

We were all so proud of him and as you can tell from the pictures he is pretty proud of himself too! When anyone asks him how big his fish was he always says "it was 30 pounds, 80 pounds!" LOL He is already a true fisherman!!

Fishing for the first time!

 Proud fisherman!!

 Jonah and Poppa

Jonah and his proud Daddy!