Four Month Photos

I love documenting our family.  I love taking photos of us just living in moments in addition to the big  things like holidays and birthdays.  This also means sometimes I miss moments because I am behind a camera.  Hmm, small price to pay.  I can not document my family as well as a professional photographer can.  I have lots of friends who do this job very very well.  A couple months ago Christina Campbell from Eternal Treasures Photography came to our house to shoot some photos of our ever-growing baby girl.  We decided with Isla to do newborn, four, eight and twelve month photos instead of newborn, three, six, nine and twelve.  Mainly because we saw that some of those months didn't necessarily allow enough time for change with Cian and because I just plain ole can not afford to support my photo junkie habit that often.

We did this session in Isla's room at our house.  As you know, our house is not the biggest or always the cleanest place on the block so I had to do some picking up to make it semi-photo worthy.  I am so happy with the way the photos of our sweet little thing turned out.

 Cian woke up from a nap during the photo session and was not too happy at first about having his photo taken.  I don't think Isla was too happy about sharing the camera.  Honestly she just wanted to chew on it for a little while.

 He warmed up pretty quickly and wanted to be the center of attention.  Who needs photos of the rest of us right?

I am so glad Christina was able to capture our family at this stage in our lives.  I am also glad Steve complied with my complaining and took his shoes off to get photo with all our little feet in it.  I can be very annoying, umm persuasive.

Six Months Old

And just like that half a year has passed.  Just like that I blinked and my daughter is six months old.  She is a curious, rolling, roly-poly little person; a person who expressed her likes (baby food) and dislikes (going to bed without being snuggled) and who expressed her love for her mom and dad and especially for her big brother.  Just like that we are in a two-kid routine and she is a huge part of our lives forever.

 Little Isla,

You are such a smiley, happy, laughing part of our lives, even if daddy goes get "frusturate" with you when you cry.

•  You are rolling everywhere. You want to move so bad and you are trying to but can't quite figure it out.  We are afraid you will be crawling very soon.
• You can still wear some of your 0-3 onesies but you have mostly moved up to 3-6 month clothes.  You are definitely growing, we can see it in those sweet baby cheeks. (I have nicknamed you jowlie.)
• Cian's nickname for you, baby Islie has stuck.  You are also Isla Kate and baby girl.  There is a song I sing after every time I say baby girl.
• You are so happy.  People often comment on what a happy and easy baby you are.  Daddy thinks otherwise because you are a bit difficult at bedtime.  Yes you, much like your older brother, do not like to put yourself to sleep.  You like to be snuggled until you are good and asleep and then put in your own bed. This happens some nights and then others I am afraid you are left crying in your bed.  There is a little bit of mommy guilt on those nights.
• We started using size two diapers because we ran out of ones.  I thought this was going to work out great since you were in the weight range but I was holding you the other day and I felt some warmth on my leg.  Yep, peed right out of that size two...
• You have a superhuman grip.  When you grab onto something I have to use some strength to get it away from you.  My little Herculette.
• Everything, and I mean everything, goes in your mouth. We are going to have to watch you, especially with Cian's little toys. (legos)
• I think you are going to love holding soft things. You like holding your blankets and little lovey animals.

I am still so thankful for you and the blessing you are to our lives. I am so excited to see the girl and then woman you will become.

Love,

Mommy

Isla went to the doctor today and she weighs 14lbs 7oz and is 25.5 inches long. She is in the 20th percentile for weight and 40th for height. My little baby girl.

one month through six months

Little Dream House: Isla's Room

Moving on in the tour of our house, which by the way is the longest tour you will ever take, we will move to Isla's room. Thanks for waiting around for weeks.  Isla's room has lots of DIY touches but has yet to really have her touch. Cian's room is full of his toys and things that he loves but Isla's, while it does have toys, hasn't been made "hers" yet.  I hope she will love it as much as I do!

I know I blogged about her room here, but a few things have changed and I didn't want to leave her room out of my little dream house.  The wreath on the door was made by my two best friends in the world for my baby shower and I love having it in her room.

Can you tell the walls are striped?  They are the exact same shade but a different finish.  It was quite an adventure getting these to look the way I pictured.  (Yep, blogged about that here also.)  It took a few tries to get it right but I love the way the stripes turned out.  We also made the magnetic board pictured.  I got the frame from a friend who owns a local frame gallery, we spray painted it pink, covered a piece of metal in fabric and hello, cuteness!

My sweet friends made the accordion flowers for my shower and we ordered the wall cling from Etsy.  This is where my sweet little munchkin lays her head.

The dresser that went with her bedroom set broke so we took one from my grandparent's house to use.  I was afraid it would really clash with the wood furniture but it turned out ok!  I also made the banner above the photo for a styled shoot for Modern Vintage.

We had some great gifts, like the photo and the owls above.  They fit perfectly in her little ole room.

My friends made the Isla banner above and I made the paintings featured below.

Why Isla's room is special: I have already spent many nights calming my sweet baby down in here; drying tears, singing her to sleep, watching her roll over and play with toys.  I have nursed my sweet baby and seen her go from a newborn who couldn't see twelve inches in front of her to an infant who is looking around and soaking in everything around her. I have listened to her baby laugh and squeals and watched my husband become a tender, loving dad to our second baby.  I know there are are lot more memories to be made in this room and I can't wait to experience them.

Wardrobe Wednesday: Easter and Other Miscelaneous

I haven't had a Wardrobe Wednesday in awhile so I thought I could catch up a little.  Last weekend we celebrated Easter and that gave me (another) chance to wear my cute new dress from Target.

Sweater: JC Penny, Dress: Target, Necklace: Vintage from my mom, Shoes: Toms, Headband: Charming Charlie

 

The kids outfits are not their Easter outfits but the last few days they were able to wear long sleeves and pants.

Easter

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  I love candy, Easter egg hunts, that sweet bunny that brings it to me, but most of all, I love Jesus.  Year after year I am still in awe of the empty tomb and so thankful that when that stone was rolled away my king was gone.

I always have to work on Easter Sunday and I am lucky that my church also happens to have a Saturday night service.  I usually volunteer and work with children for this service but this year I actually went.  It was amazing, but it felt strange not being with the kids!  I am getting ahead of myself.  We started the day off with an Easter egg hunt and petting zoo at the country club where I work.  I look forward to this all year because there are the cutest little baby animals that seriously  make me squeal like a seven year old girl.  This year I took the kids with me to work and Steve came up to meet us when the event was winding down.

Two week old pig. I wanted to bring this one home.

I realized two things during this egg hunt, 1. my child was brattier than most of the country club kids, 2. my kid thought yelling at the animals would bring them to him.  In all fairness, he wasn't mean yelling but he would just get right up next to a bunch of baby ducks and say, "hey duck, come here".  It kind of reminded me of this snl skit where Mark Wahlberg talks to animals.  Much like Mark, Cian talked to many animals that day.  I heard, "come here piggy piggy," then when piggy didn't come over there,""mom, that piggy doesn't like me." It was fun and sweet watching him play. He also really liked the Easter bunny.  I think it is because he thought he would be getting something.  I guess that explains the first thing I learned.

Photo from The Tennesseean

As I mentioned, Saturday night the kids and I went to the World Outreach service which is held at the Murphy Center every year.  This is close enough to walk, so we walked up there.  I felt completely strange at fist sitting the arena and not helping with children's ministry but after listening to the music and hearing the sermon I was excited that I was there.  Lauren Alaina (I just found out who she was last week, I am behind on the pop times)  was there and Charlie Daniel's played "How Great Thou Art" beautifully.  The sermon was about unlikely believers.  Jesus didn't choose the pious and self righteous, the perfect pretenders. He chose the sinners, the sick, the ones who needed him the most; the hard-hearted,  the fair-weather, the outcasts.  This gives me hope, for me and for those who are unlikely believers.

After service we met Miss Pattycake who had been at Cian's service and Cian went down a big ole bouncy slide.  When he go to the top he started jumping and wouldn't come down then when he finally came down he did so on his stomach. The guy manning the slide had to start telling kids not to jump and to go down on their bottoms after that.  Yep, that's my kid.

Steve walked up and met us on the way home and we enjoyed a nice walk home as a family on a gorgeous evening!