L Week

Well, I can honestly say that I have had great intentions of starting a letter of the week series with Lauren but life has a way of getting in the way of our grand plans, right? Even though it took us way longer than I ever expected to get through our L week, I am still really glad we stuck with it. Two major things came out of our time focusing on the letter L. Number one, we had FUN together. Not that we don't always have fun, but I was worried that starting a letter of the week curriculum (if you can even call what we did that) would be more burdensome and painful than fun and easy. Number two, Lauren can recognize the uppercase (mama) and lowercase (baby) L!

I am hoping that we will make it through all the letters of her name before baby Easton arrives, but I am not going to add that stress to my life. We are going to do what we can do and I will post our fun here as I can and am able! With preparing for a new arrival (just 11 weeks away) and trying to get my house completely clean and organized, I just haven't had as much time or brainpower as I thought I would to get this thing rolling. Anyway, on to the fun!!!

*Ll*

We started our week with the Frog Street Press Letter L song and poster. I really thought Lauren would love this but unfortunately they weren't a huge hit. We'll keep trying!!! I thought the Larry Lion song was cute, but she was being weird about it.

Then, we got out this super fun book and built the letter L! Lauren LOVED this activity and even though we started with the letter L  we ended up going through the whole book!

 

We spend a lot of time Loving on her babies. She really has such a tender heart to her animals and babies. I love watching her be a little mommy. :)

We read the book, Is Your Mama a Llama, and did a Llama craft to go with it.Lauren really enjoyed the book and the craft was a big hit with her too. Of course, she is really into using glue right now. I let her pick the color construction paper we put the Llama on. She chose purple. I was not surprised. Idea from here.

We also used play-doh to make L's and trace them with our fingers.  

We went to the Library with friends and had a blast picking out new alphabet books!!! I can't find our pictures of the outing, but it was a great little field trip!
The biggest hit of the whole week was the L letter hunt. I got the idea from this blog but didn't have a magnifying glass so we used a flashlight. This activity was seriously SO easy and will definitely be one we continue with each letter because she is obsessed with it! I took out some post it notes from my messy cabinet and wrote upper and lowercase L's on them. Then, I "hid" them all throughout the house. Lauren used her flashlight to go to each room and search for the L's. She loved it. We had to play it again when daddy got home and have had to play it many times since then.

Finding a letter L.

Another big hit was pulling our our do-a-dot markers (totally recommend investing in these fun markers!) and placing dots on the letter L's.

We used this ladybug do-a-dot page as well. Both of these are from COHS. 

I made up this little sheet after seeing a similar one here. Our printer has been on the fritz, so I just quickly wrote up my own. She had to find the letter L's and place a dot on them. I was shocked how well she did. She recognized both upper and lowercase L's with no assistance from me!

 I had big plans to tie in a whole day learning about and doing fun activities with our bible story for the week, Daniel in the Lion's den. Although that didn't happen, we did have a lot of fun reading about Daniel and those Lions in many of her Bible books.

We also made an L is for Lion craft from here. 

We used finger paints to create L art. I used finger paint paper and cut out upper and lower case  L's  out of contact paper. Once I put those on the fingerpaint paper Lauren could paint to her hearts content. When they were dry we peeled the contact paper off and had perfect letters!

 Here is our wall of L stuff from our study. What fun to see the results of our work!!!

Next up...the letter.... 

Aa!

My Mommy Brain

So, I was in Lauren's room yesterday playing with her and looking at her collage wall, specifically the shadow box I made her, when it hit me...I'd made a mistake.

You see, she wasn't born on July 17th. Oh no. That is mine and Shawn's anniversary. Not her birthday. Surely a mom would remember the birth date of her child. Especially her first born child. Especially the child whose entrance into the world was nothing short of dramatic and memorable. Surely. Right?

The fact that it took days for me to notice the slip up is not lost on me. I obviously have some brain storage issues right now. But, I am sure as I am re-creating THE.WHOLE.THING I will permanently store her correct birth date into my mind.

July 21, 2008 

My precious daughter came into this world.

Baby Question #2

Question #2 ~ 

We are going to have to invest in a new monitor as ours is old and doesn't work as well anymore. What monitor would you choose? Would you spend the extra money on a video monitor?

Don't forget to scroll down and answer Question #1!!!

 

Baby Question #1

For all my awesome mommy friends out there, would you help a girl out? I saw this idea on a blog once and I thought I'd steal it and do my own version!!! My brain is in total planning mode right now and I have several big questions swirling around that I need to get answered! I thought you could help me out in the comments section!!! Thanks in advance for all of your awesome advice!!!

#1 ~ We are looking into getting a double stroller for our kiddos. They will be almost three years apart so we are thinking of doing a sit and stand stroller. Any thoughts? Recommendations? Reviews? 

 Like this one?

Or this one?

Or ~ Do you suggest a regular double stroller like this one by Chicco?

Or this one by Graco?

THANK YOU!!!!

"Mine a Big Gurl!" - Lauren Barry

I am just beyond excited to finally have most of Lauren's big girl room done. I am not kidding when I say that I've been dreaming of this room {not the actual her growing up and moving into it part} for over a year. When we moved into this house a little over two years ago I kept thinking that I wanted to wait until she was ready to transition to a big girl room before going crazy with the decorating. While I am glad now, it was so hard to wait for her to have a cute room. I always felt like it was just empty and undecorated.

Thankfully, waiting and planning paid off as Shawn and I were able to pick up pieces here and there over the past year. For instance, we got the adorable headboard and frame for $10 and painted it white. The cute {and practically brand new} toy box was found by my mom at a garage sale. I stalked Hobby Lobby for their 50% off sales and got a ton of really cute stuff for pretty cheap. I made the scripture verse canvas above her dresser that was my dad's when he was a baby. Shawn made the cube bookcase and saved us a ton of money.We found the bedding at TJ Maxx and saved a ton of money. I originally wanted a quilt from Pottery Barn, but we just couldn't spend that much money! Some of the things in the room were from her original nursery at our old house so they are sentimental as well.

Wanna see it? 

 We LOVE it so much and I even have a few more personalized touches to add before Easton arrives.

The view from her bedroom door. I love the bookcase that hangs just above her bed. Don't worry, Shawn hung it properly with screws...it isn't going anywhere! I love that she can reach the books she wants to read before nap and bedtime. Shawn painted her little nightstand silver after my mom gave us the idea. We LOVE it and it looks much prettier in person! We got the name wall sticker through my friend Carissa who sells Uppercase Living. The little step stool and fluffy green rug are from Target! The tulle bedskirt is also from Target and adds such a sweetness to the bed! Oh, and I re-did that lamp a while back after seeing one in the Pottery Barn catalog that was crazy expensive.

Shawn painted this wall with stripes using the same color paint in satin and semi-gloss finishes. I have one more little homemade item to add to this wall and I plan on adding cute little clothespins to the wire flower frame to hold up pictures and Lauren's artwork. I also plan on adding some kind of wire {Shawn has to help me figure this one out} to the vintage window to hang artwork on as well. The toy box holds many of Lauren's beloved stuffed animals. The two little flowers are also from Uppercase Living. I got that idea from Carissa who did them in her little girl's room. 

This dresser was my dad's and then mine as a child. Shawn painted it white and we added glass knobs {found at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off} to give it a super girly look. I painted the canvas above the dresser and love to speak that verse over Lauren. 

I am loving this wall that Shawn and I created using a ton of stuff we've collected and made! That weird shining thing on the right hand side of the picture is a mirror reflecting on that wall. The blank frame is waiting for a special print my friend Carissa is creating for me. 

An up close version of the adorable sticker flowers. Love them!

The bookcase still has a lot of work to go as far as filling the pink storage cubes and such, but Lauren already loves to pick out and put back her books.

 This mirror hung above Lauren's changing table and we love it so much.

The silver bedside table. Much cuter in person! The lamp is one of my favorite things in her room.

I made this shadow box using the tiny hospital shirt and pink cap she wore when she was born. I used my Cricut to cut out her vital stats and as soon as I can find her hospital bracelet {I put it up for safekeeping}
I plan on putting it in the box as well. I love the picture of her we have framed above the shadow box because she was barely a day old and she is wearing the little shirt.

I found this little Love sign in the Valentine's section at Hobby Lobby. I thought it was PERFECT for her room!

 Lauren wanted her Jesus star by her bed. It is a reminder for her to shine bright for Jesus and that he is always with her. My friend Mandie gave them to all the kids when we went for the Happy Birthday Jesus playdate in December.

The preciousness is almost too much with the little lamp on. It turned into such a peaceful room and exactly what I had envisioned!

Of course I have to include a picture of my big girl in her bed and new room. We got the safety rail that has the hideaway function and so far we are really glad we went with that option. I love that I can slide it under the bed when it isn't in use and that she is secure in her bed at night and during nap time.