The Baby Princess is 8 Months!

Dear Finley Gracie Girl,

You are 8 months old. I can't help but getting a little emotional about this. You are growing way too fast. This month has brought many changes. You got your first tooth (the bottom middle right one), are beginning to crawl, and can sit up on your own.



You can get up on all fours and move your arms and legs one or two steps forward at a time. In the next few days I know you'll be racing around. You've been preparing for this the past few weeks by rocking back and forth on all fours and doing lots of planks. (You'd definitely be the star in Mama's exercise classes!)



You are such a blessing to me, sweet baby girl. You bring so much peace and joy into my life. In the midst of stress or chaos I love to snuggle you and breathe you in.



The past eight months have flown by, but I'm so thankful that we still have a lifetime together. I love everything about you. You are the most gorgeous girl I know. You are the best little lady! My little bundle of love and precious gift from God.

I love you!

Love, Mama

Hope Your Weekend Is Lovely!

(via weheartit)

Summer Produce

After thinking about it for a long time, we recently joined a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supporting Agriculture and, basically, is is a big organic farm. You pay an annual fee and then a monthly fee and each week you go to the farm and pick up your big box of vegetables. (For you local people, the CSA we joined is GRUB.)



Don't they look delicious?

You never know what you'll get each week, so you get to be creative using veggies you wouldn't normally buy. They, also, include recipes with some of the food. With our CSA veggies and the harvest from our garden I've been trying to cook and preserve everything.

We have had so many cucumbers in our garden, so with them I made dill pickles. I modified a combination of two recipes here and here.



Do you eat fried okra? I don't know anyone else here in California (besides my grandma, who taught me how to make it) that does, but Eric loves it.



I, also, made a huge, huge, huge pot of marinara sauce. We ate a tiny bit and froze the rest.



The next day I sauteed eggplant, squash, garlic, and onions and ate it over whole wheat pasta and the marinara. With Tin Roof ciabatta? Delicious!

Cool Personified

I love this guy.

On days like today, when I'm exhausted and overwhelmed (remember the 5 am wake ups?) I'm thankful for my little people.

And, my big guy that lets me lay in bed and rest for a bit.

Sewing Projects

I have been sneaking in sewing time whenever possible to work on my Home Ec projects. Here are the ones that I've completed:

Bib


Pencil case


Single layer napkin


Double layer napkin with ric rac


Gift bag


Tote Bag


And, a potholder (not pictured).

There are still lots of fun projects to do and another fun class that I just might have to sign up for.

First Day of School

Today was our first day of school. I am now a teacher-mama to a first grader, preschooler, toddler, and baby.

And, here's my little class.



We're very much adjusting and getting back into the routine of school. Judah proclaimed today, "boring!" Thanks a lot, buddy.

I had my lessons all planned out, notes to welcome them to school, and even a morning routine that included cleaning their room. (Yay for beds made and floors picked up!)



This year we're focusing on character over academics. Specifically, patience. If babies are crying and toddlers are screaming and coloring on the floors and we want to be out doing something else.....character is more important.

A lot of times I can be so goal-focused that I get frustrated and annoyed with little ones that are getting in the way of our goals. How dare they. Of course, we will get through our math and reading and science, but our goal is to be more like Jesus.

(Yes, I admit these "lessons" are mostly for the mama.)

Thrift Store Refashion

I finished the first of, hopefully, many clothing refashions. I found this vintage muumuu at the thrift store and saw the potential in it. Hot, right?



After taking off the sleeves, pockets, over 6 inches from the sides, and about the same from the bottom to make a belt, it now looks like this:





And from the back:



Linking to: Blue Cricket Design, Tea Rose Home, Quilt Story, Today's Creative Blog, Making the World Cuter, Sumo Sweet Stuff, Kojo Designs, The Shabby Nest

Coupon Chief

Lately I've been doing a lot of online shopping. I love getting packages (Christmas in August!) and the convenience of it. Take four kids to Target or shop in my jammies on the couch? Obviously, the first.

Everyone likes to save money and saving money is super easy with online shopping. Enter Coupon Chief. With over 50,000 coupons for over 15,000 stores you're bound to find a coupon for what you need.

They have coupons for all of the major stores like Target, Amazon, and Old Navy, but I was really excited to find a coupon for Toms Shoes. I had been wanting to order a pair for Judah for school, but wasn't expecting Coupon Chief to have a Toms coupon. I used the $5 off coupon and, because they were on sale, figured I should probably buy a pair for myself as well.

Another fun feature is the Pay-2-Share. Sign up for an account, upload coupons/coupon codes, and get paid every time someone uses your coupons. You can, also, read the Coupon Chief blog.

I highly recommend bookmarking Coupon Chief and doing a search before you make an online purchase. You might as well save a little money!

How much of your shopping do you do online? Do you usually use a coupon?

This is a compensated review for couponchief.com

What I Wore

I'm linking again this week to Lindsey's What I Wore Wednesday at The Pleated Poppy.

From the last two What I Wore Wednesdays I've learned that 1. I really like dresses and 2. I like dresses a lot better with tights, cardigans, and boots. I'm ready for Fall and cooler weather clothes. This week was a little uninspired in the wardrobe department. Last week was a lot better.





Dress- Forever 21
Bracelet- Forever 21 (where I get most of my accessories!)
Shoes- Target



My outfit consists of some version of this Tues-Fri when we go to the gym. In addition to running shoes, which I hadn't put on yet.

Tank tops- Forever 21 and Old Navy
Pant- Old Navy





I know this picture is really awkward. We wanted to take it in front of the neighbor's old car (in his driveway), but I didn't want him to see me, so we took the picture in .2 seconds. I'll have to try again another time when he's not home.

Tank top- Target
Skirt- H&M
Flip flops- Old Navy
Headband- Target
Earrings- Forever 21
Ring- My husband :)

4 Simple Goals

I'm joining in with the "Four Simple Goals" challenge over at Elsie's blog. Basically, everyone is posting positive, simple goals that they want to complete by the new year and then rewarding them self when they're completed.

1. Spend more time playing with my kids. I love holding my kids, snuggling, reading to them, but, honestly, I rarely get down on the floor and just play with them. So, I want to be intentional about this everyday. And, spend less time on the computer when the kids are awake.

2. Do more "fun" activities for homeschool. Last year it was all I could do to get through phonics and math, especially second semester with a newborn. This year I want to do weekly science, social science, and Bible along with the classes Judah will be doing at school.

3. Plan my meals each week again. I'd like to plan them on Fridays so I can shop for ingredients at the Farmer's Market on Saturdays.

4. Regular date nights. With the kids taking most of our attention I think it's so good to have some time just to focus on each other.

I'll update as my goals progress AND with my rewards- best part, right? Want to join in?

Weekend Recap

Busy, busy, busy, busy.

Friday morning I cancelled my gym appointment (I have to make appointments to take the kids to the childcare), so that we could stay home and get ready for the yard sale. Finley ended up taking a morning nap for several hours, so my three eager helpers and I cleaned, sorted, and priced items. I did more work during nap time and all afternoon, evening, and into the night after Eric got home.



Judah was so excited about the yard sale and his lemonade stand that he woke up at 5:45 Saturday morning. The rest of us were up at the same time (me) or shortly after to set up for our 8 am start time. By 7:45 we had sold a lot of stuff and the yard sale was buzzing. Good thing I didn't advertise for a 7 am start time.

Right after the yard sale we headed to Sierra Nevada for a delicious late lunch with my aunt and cousin who are in town from Virginia. (You know we had to take them to our favorite place.) Tori, by the way, is the youngest out of all of our 10 cousins. I'm the second to the oldest and I realized that I have more kids, by myself, than all the other 9 cousins put together. There are two other great-grandkids from two of my cousins. So, just a random fact for you. ha! (And, a picture of Tori with Finley).



After we brought the boys home Finley and I then left to pick my mom up from the airport. My mom, Finley, and I went (pretty much) straight to my grandparents to have a late dinner with them and my aunt and cousin. By then it was Finley's bedtime, so we headed to home to find the boys all in bed and rushed through her bedtime routine and get her into bed. I was wiped!

Sunday we woke up ready to go to church, but Silas had a bit of a runny nose, so instead Eric, Judah, Samuel, and Captain went to the park and I put Finley down for a nap and laid on the couch and watched Project Runway.

When the boys got home Eric fed Silas lunch and put him down for a nap and Judah, Samuel, and Finley and I went to Emily's cute son, Oliver's, birthday party.

After that a fun swim party/bbq with all of my mom's family.

I was, seriously, exhausted by the end of the weekend. Every weekend I think that I want to just relax and do nothing (or, as much as nothing as you can with lots of little ones), but then fun stuff comes up and we decide that we'd rather have fun than do nothing. And, I'm glad we do. I just wish the kids would have let me sleep in a little later than 6 this morning. (But, waking up at 6 and sleeping the whole night is better than waking up a few times during the night, so yay for Finley for teaching herself to sleep through the night!)

Today we're cleaning the house, doing laundry, did a little painting and pre-homeschool (more on that later) and are meeting Eric at Costco for lunch and some essentials shopping.

Cupcake

Did you see this cupcake on Prudent Baby?

Family Pictures

Yesterday we had pictures taken with Crystal from Tres Bebe, thanks to Jenna, who won Crystal's blog contest and gave us the other free session. So, a big thank you to Crystal and Jenna!



If you live anywhere near the Chico area I highly recommend Crystal. The night before the pictures Samuel told Eric that when she got to our house he was going to hide in his sleeping bag and not come out.



Thankfully that didn't happen and at the end I asked Samuel what he thought. "Good!" It was all really natural and the kids felt completely comfortable.



Speaking of comfort, yesterday I felt Finley's bottom left tooth poking through. She's still been her happy, smiley self and, actually, the night before slept from 8pm-6am, nursed and then slept until 8 am. (She slept from 8-6 again last night). So, yay for Finley and her non-fussy teething!



Tomorrow we're having a yard sale, so I have a lot to do today to get ready. Do you have any fun weekend plans?

Little Beauty

So, I felt a little silly posting so many pictures of myself yesterday. I love looking at everyone else's What I Wore Wednesdays, but I've been a little self-conscious posting pictures of myself, seeing as I still have quite a bit of baby weight to lose (it seems like it's gotten harder to lose the weight with each pregnancy).

Although, this little lady looks GREAT with roly-poly thighs.

Here's an excerpt from a recent journal entry:

Finley Grace,

You are an incredible gift to everyone who comes in contact with you- friend, family, and strangers alike. Your gift of a smile always brings one on everyone's face and it is a rare person that can pass you by without a comment, smile, hello, or chat. Seriously, girly, everyone loves you.

The novelty of having a little girl still hasn't worn off. You are so much fun! We (your Papa, brothers, and I) are all so much in love with you.

Love, Mama

What I Wore

Dress- Made by Lex
Belt/Slip- For Elyse (local boutique)
Shoes- Target
Bracelet- Forever 21

I love the ruffle detail on this dress. And, Alexis is so sweet. I asked her if she could make the neckline a little stretchier for nursing and she gladly did. Great costumer service!





Dress- Trucker (local boutique, affiliated with Lulu's)


(You already saw this one!)
Dress- Thrifted
Belt- H&M


This is my stay at home (mom) all day, didn't leave the house outfit. Please excuse the no make up/no hair style. And, the blurriness. Photo by my five year old.
Shirt- Target
Shorts- Capris from Trucker that I cut off





Dress- Thrifted
Belt- Local
Shoes- Robyn Marie's Shoe Closet (another local boutique)
Ring- H&M

This is my first "What I Wore Wednesday" with Lindsey from Imperfect. Head over there and check out all the other cute outfits for some wardrobe inspiration. And, check out my friend Jenna's, too.

Baby Shower: Gifts

For baby Noah (and Brooke), I made a guitar onesie,



burp cloths,



and, my very first bib.



See the baby shower decor here.