Why I'm Livin' the Life!!

So, the other day I'm sitting in the pool with my girlfriends and I proclaim, "Man, we are living the life!!" My girl, Kathryn, laughed at me and I remember her saying something like, "Oh yeah, this is nice, but you have a 5 month old and in another 20 minutes you'll be outta the water nursing her... again." And she was right :)

The point she was trying to make is true. I mean it Kathy, your post is totally totally accurate. I may be a stay at home mom, but I'm certainly not living a care-free life on a caribbean island!!

But you know what, I really really REALLY love staying home with my baby girl :) And for this stage I'm in, it really feels like I'm living the dream right now! Yes, every day is a day full of work. But doesn't everyone work? And to top it off, the job I get paid to do is working with children. So the way I see it, I can either work with your children, or work with mine... and I'd rather work with mine!!!

I'd rather go to the zoo, pack up for the pool, take a trip to the park, and just run errands to Costco and Target, than run around actually working. Yes, I am actually working when I'm with my child all day, but there is a big big difference. I invest my time in my little girl and husband every day. And I get a reward for it!!! I get to enjoy having a wonderful marriage and raising a beautiful daughter. One day I hope to reap the benefits of all the godly training I put into this little girl. I will train her in His ways and watch her grow in his likeness! I'm so excited for that! I still work a few hrs a week, and I enjoy what I do and find it very rewarding, but it is not the same as raising my own daughter!!

So, my perspective right now is gratitude. I'm so grateful to get to stay home because every week for 5 hrs I am reminded of my other option.... to work full time.

I choose staying home with this sweet face and investing my time in her!!! :)

*I would just like to note that I really do enjoy my job! I work with children with autism and I LOVE helping them overcome their learning challenges and helping them succeed in a school setting! I love working with the parents of my children, too! But who can blame me for enjoying time with my little girl just a little bit more? :)

Elisabeth Grace: 6 Months

How did this happen?! How did my BABY become 6 months old?!?

Elisabeth, you are the CUTEST 6 month old I have ever met! I can't believe that God blessed us with such a wonderful baby!

At your 6 month appointment you weighted 16 pounds and 7.5 ounces. You were in the 60th percentile! Not bad since you started life in the 90th :)

You also were 27 inches long (90th percentile) and your head is 44.5 cm around (95th percentile). You have a very large head my love, probably because we tell you how perfect you are all day :)

You currently wear a size 3 diaper and you fit in all of your  3-6, 6-9, and 6-12 month dresses. You don't fit into 3-6 month shoes though! You have the tiniest little feet!

You. Are. So. Cute.

You have the most precious personality. You smile all day long and just love everyone you see throughout the day. You are very hard to get a giggle out of though!!! But that doesn't keep your mama and daddy from trying all the time!!

During your 5th month of life I took you in the pool at {Auntie} Danni's and dunked you under water for the first time. You were totally okay with it! We probably did is 6 or 7 times and each time you just looked a little confused, but okay. I'm doing it now so that you're not scared of the water when you're older. We'll see if it works :)

On the day before your 6 month birthday you rolled over from back to tummy for the first time! It was so precious! Both your dad and I were playing on the floor with you early in the morning and you just rolled right over to reach for your daddy's watch. Right now you only roll to the left.

On your 6 month birthday I took you to the zoo!! We went with {Auntie} Kathy, Blake, and your cousins, Luke and Erin! I would like to say you had a great time {I think you did} but really, you just nursed in all different sections of the zoo and slept in your stroller. Maybe we'll try again in another 6 months :)

Everyone wanted to show you the elephants because Luke and Erin  {and actually a lot of people} think you like elephants. You used to have little jammies with elephants on them and we called them your Ellie jams. We call you Ellie sometimes, but usually Elisabeth :)

This month we've been giving you a few different solids, too! We started you with rice and oatmeal and now we've moved on to peas {not a fan, they make you choke}, sweet potatoes {yum!}, avocado {it's okay}, and banana's {yum!}. I'm not really introducing one per week because that's just not my style. But I promise, if you get a rash, I'll figure it out fast :)

You're actually 6 months and 2 days in this picture. It was your poppy's birthday! We went to hang with him in Canton and had a great time!!

Thank you for being the sweetest baby in the entire world. And for sleeping so wonderfully. And for having such a flexible personality!! Which you surely get from your daddy ;)

Getting it All Done

I have been really convicted lately that I need to be getting more done during my day! Now, you could ask, "Then why are you blogging right now?" And I would tell you to just back up, every one needs a 30 minute break!! :)

But seriously, I just feel like I could be doing So. Much. Better. So I'm going to try! And I'm going to write about it so that someone holds me accountable! If other people know, I'm more likely to follow it.

I recently read that Michelle Duggar (mother of 19 children) finds time to have quiet time with the Lord, exercise for 60 minutes, eat healthy meals, home school her children, and I don't know, a list of other things. I read the article a long time ago.... And she has 19 kids!! So why am I having such a hard time fitting in my bible study? Or exercising? It's just silly!

So today I got motivated and as soon as I put Elisabeth down for her first nap, I hit the gym! AKA- had a date with Jillian Michaels in my basement :) Just this simple act has completely motivated me to find a new groove. So, here is what my new schedule will look like:

6AM- Wake up call!! Put on gym clothes, pump, bible time, breakfast

7:30AM- Elisabeth's wake up time, nurse, get her dressed, read a a book

8:30AM- Have her watch her "My baby can read" DVD {that's right, we're teaching our daughter how to read, stop judging me} While she does this, I will do a quick clean of the main floor

9:30 - 11:30- Elisabeth's first nap, I will work out {finally} and take a shower! With the remaining time I will work on the zone of the week {from FlyLady}

11:30- Feed Elisabeth... and at this point I should be ready for whatever the day brings!  I could go to the pool, out to lunch, or go to the park. Or I could devote the day to more cleaning which I will probably do twice a week.

I'm so excited about my new morning schedule! It really has me wondering, what the heck have I been doing every morning? Why has it been SO hard for me to find time to do my bible study and work out?

I would love to know how other new moms {and more experienced moms} are finding time do fit everything in their schedule! I will likely need a whole new batch of motivation come tomorrow when it is time to workout again....

 Here are two pictures from earlier today! She wasn't very happy during either of them, I guess we all have our days :)

A Fantastic 4th

Happy Independence Day!! (one day late...)

We had a great 4th of July! Josh and I woke up and did some SERIOUS cleaning. Like, super serious. We probably cleaned until 3pm. Then we got dressed and headed over to my sisters house to hang with Sean, Carrie, Luke, and Erin!

How cute is this family!? We had a very impromptu cookout at their house and then headed down to our dad's house in Canton.

Elisabeth loves her Poppy! Check out those matching outfits! ;)

Here's Aunt Carrie holding Elisabeth watching some test fireworks

Me and my pops! Love this guy!

At 9:30 we headed up to my dads roof top deck. What an amazing place to watch fireworks. You can even sit higher than this on the actual roof and you have a complete 360 degree view of the city. I wish I could have gotten a clear picture of that! We could seriously see ever single town's fireworks. It was amazing!! 

Here's a cute picture of Elisabeth enjoying her first firework show with her daddy! What great memories! She was totally fine staying up late. She is so good :) And she slept in until 9am today, too! Gotta love that! 

How everyone had a great time celebrating Independence Day!!

Elisabeth's Nursery

So I’m FINALLY linking up with Kelly’sKorner for her “Show us Your Life- Children’s Rooms”

I love children’s rooms! I had all these great ideas for Elisabeth’s nursery. Some of them we did, but a lot we just didn’t even have time to do! But it all worked out because people gave us so many wonderful things for her room that it just looks beautiful! I’m really excited to post pictures and write about all the wonderful things people made that we put in her room!

This is my sweet baby girls room! It just makes me so happy being in here! I wanted a room that had no theme at all, but I couldn’t find the right bedding. I settled for a purple cherry blossom theme and I really like it! I just wanted something simple. That can be so hard to find these days!!

This is the view when you walk in and look to the left. Those beautiful cherry blossom paintings were our splurge. They were from this reallllly fancy store…. Sikeeeeeeeeeeee. My sweet husband made them for Elisabeth! Isn’t he amazing!? I’m still in shock that he painted those! I think they are so beautiful!!

And yes, I just said, “sike.” :)

The chair in the corner is an extremely comfortable nursing chair from Babies R Us. It’s a deep chocolate brown with very smooth corduroy-like fabric. I really love it! And the beautiful purple/blue blanket on top is one that my mama made for Elisabeth! It has a beautiful purple ribbon that goes around the edge and it also came with a matching Ravens teddy bear! So cute!!

If you look just a little further to the left, you will see the picture frame my sweet friend Pamela made! It has all the letters of the alphabet, but then the E is bold. So, essentially is says, “E is for Elisabeth.” And it matches her room! So adorable! Funny story- Pamela actually had to make several of these for us because we kept changing our mind about the name, Ha!! She’s a good friend! :)

In this corner we have her dresser, totally full of clothes J And a few other things that people gave us. The beautiful pictures hanging on the wall were taken by our friends, the Hillmars. They take some 1 month photos of Elisabeth and they are just absolutely beautiful! These are just 3 of the many that I loved!

The top is Elisabeth’s feet with our wedding rings around the toes. The bottom one is my hands around her feet making a heart. And the middle is Josh and I both holding her cute little body. We got some of these photo ideas from Pinterest, such a great resource!

This isn’t a great picture, but I LOVE the needle point that my Grandma Jeanne made for Elisabeth!! It says the day she was born, her full name, and how much she weighed. My Grandma is so amazing! Also, to tie in the pink I keep some ADORBALE shoes and a little pink piggy bank up there, both were given to us by friends. And the Purple lamp is from Pamela and the super cute picture of Josh and I in our Ravens gear was from my friend, Kathryn. That picture was taken in the photo booth after my amazing baby shower!!

A little further to the right and you can see Elisabeth’s crib! We didn’t put her name above her bed until she was three months old. In fact, her room wasn’t really completely put together until she was three months old. We’re not typical first-time parents I guess. I traveled to three different Michaels' to get all the letters. I became very dedicated because I felt bad about not doing it earlier. Ha!

If you know me, you know this is my favorite part of her room!! Lol! I love baby girl clothes! I love dresses and bows so much, I just think they’re so cute! I hang all of her dresses and a few of her outfits and then everything else goes in her dresser. It’s organized by size and then type (church dresses vs play dresses). I also LOVE the hair clip holder that my friend, Faith, made for Elisabeth! Isn’t it adorable!? It says, “Beauty is not in the face, it is a light in the heart…" Amen! 

Well, I think that’s her entire room! I just love it! It is so calming and beautiful. We chose purple just because we’re huge Baltimore Ravens fan. We joke that purple is a neutral color in our home! Hope y’all enjoyed the tour!!

And here’s is a picture of my sweet sleepy baby cuddled up in my chest earlier this morning. Thought I would throw a pic of her in there just for good measure J Have a great day!!