"My Feet Tickle"

Lauren. Lolo. Sweet child. 

Where has my good little sleeper gone? It seems, to my dismay, that she left when the binkie left. 

Everything I feared about getting rid of that little pacifier has come true.

Bedtime is a nightmare. A fight. A giant headache.

You cry. 

You scream. 

You kick. 

You make excuses... 

Tonight your feet tickled. 

Now what in the world am I supposed to do with that? 

Nursery Tour...5 Months Late :)

I had every intention of having Mr. Easton's nursery tour up before he was born. Almost five months later, here it finally is! I blame the sleep deprivation and the fact that when I actually have the time (or the arms) to take pictures he is in there sleeping, and umm, hello, no thank you very much. Sleep is a rare jewel around here and we do not take it lightly.

I wish my photography skills were better, but they aren't and we have no plans to work a nicer camera into our budget for the time being so these pics will have to do! Unless someone wants to gift me a camera. *Crickets* No one? Really?

Let's start with the view from the doorway looking into his room. Like that shadow on the lefthand side of the picture? You would think a professional took these pics, right? Also, the nice smudge in the middle of the picture is classy too. :) As you can see, the canvas I painted for him is hanging, but I still haven't decided upon or written his verse on it.

The curtains are black-out and were pretty inexpensive (considering we splurged on Lauren's from Pottery Barn) from Target.

As you can see this is the changing area. We used the same black furniture from Lauren's nursery. We found the boxes that hang on the wall and the black mirror at Target. That big box usually has one of his stuffed animals in it, but for some reason it was gone in this picture.

What's that? Bad lighting and another blurry spot? You are SO welcome! The vinyl sticker with his name was found here on Etsy and there really isn't anything else on that wall...we are still trying to figure out if we should keep it that way or add something...

When I found this fabric we used in his bedding on Etsy I knew I wanted to build his room off of it. The bright orange and the lime greens and blues just drew me in. The bedding was handmade and created by a lady on Etsy. We absolutely love it! My Meme Bandy made the sheets and that minky dot fabric is sooo soft and cuddly!

Ahhh, the bookshelf. Remember it? My amazingly talented husband created it for me after I could not find anything like it around here. I LOVE it so much. Even more since I know it was made by his own hands. He made one for Lauren's room too. You can see pics of her room and that bookshelf here!!! :) The painted canvas on top of the shelves was done by Lauren for her little brother before he was born. I just gave her some paints in the colors of his room and let her go at it. I think it turned out fabulous and she loved that she had a big part in decorating his room.

The license plate map was the first art piece we chose for the room. (We found it at Target for around $30.) Shawn and I both fell in love with it and knew it would be something we could use in Easton's room for a while! The pictures left of the license plate picture were taken when Easton was almost four months old. The one to the right is an ultrasound picture of him. My friend Carissa made the awesome name art piece and the shadow box on the black shelf is incomplete but will hold his baby beanie hat, hospital bracelets, and his birth stats!

The big comfy chair in the corner is one of those furniture pieces I will never be able to get rid of. I nursed and rocked Lauren many a night in that thing and now I visit that sweet chair every night (multiple times!) with my Easton.

The rug in front of the changing table was a steal at Target! I found it on clearance and I just couldn't believe my luck! They were the absolute perfect colors!!! That door goes to his closet which you can see a little bit of here.

All in all we really love his room and I think that the pictures really don't do it justice...it is way more adorable in person! I love that the colors and patterns we chose can grow with our little man and we can add different elements as he grows up.

Sweet Lauren

My little girl is becoming such a darling little lady these days. Of course, we have our moments, but she has made me laugh or get misty eyed more times in the last few weeks than ever. I wanted to record a few of these sweet memories so that I don't forget them!

Almost every day since Lauren was a baby I have asked her at the end of the day when we are cuddling and winding down for the evening what her favorite part of the day was. I always want to have open communication with her and I want to know what sticks out in her mind as totally awesome. I can remember asking her before she could talk and I would answer for her. These days, however, she is big enough to answer for herself. I've loved hearing her thoughts on what makes each day special for her. Some days it is that trip to the park. Other days it has been watching a movie (right now it is Tangled) together. The other night, I was giving Lauren her bath and I was sitting on the side of the tub with my feet in the water. She decided to sit beside me with her feet in the water and then she looked up at me with the sweetest face and said, "What was your favorite part of the day, Mama?" I almost lost it! It was seriously the most adorable moment ever. All of these nights I had asked her and now it was her turn to ask me. Loved it!

The other day I was playing with Lauren and Easton and I said, "I think I should throw Easton in the trash, right sister?" I was kidding, of course, but Lauren looked at me with a look of shock and said, "No! We need to keep brother. I love him!" And she really does. I am constantly amazed at the way that she looks out for him. She is the first to get him a toy or his binkie when he cries and she wants to make sure he is okay at all times.

I love my little girl so much and I cherish these little moments now because I know that before I know it they will be gone and we will be on to bigger and different sweet moments and challenges.

What a Big Boy!

We finally got down the jumper from the attic for Easton to use. He's been holding his head up really well for a while now and he is super strong so we figured that he was ready to try it out. I am so glad we did because he loved it! It was so adorable to watch him try to absorb all the colors and toys and things to touch. He looked so overwhelmed at first.

It was soon pretty obvious that his favorite part of the whole activity gym was the teething sun. He grabbed that thing right off and pretty much stuck to playing with it.

I LOVE this picture of my little man. He is just too stinkin adorable!

Shawn wanted to make sure that I explained that Easton is not wearing capris. Ha! This picture sure makes it look like it though! What a little doll!!!!

Women's Conference

On Saturday my dear friend Kelly and I headed to my hometown to participate in a Women's Conference my growing-up church was putting on. Actually, Shawn, Lauren, Easton, Kelly and I headed to my hometown. Shawn had to lug the kids along so that every three hours he could bring Easton to the church and I could feed him. Why will that sweet child not take a bottle?!?

The conference was really great. We enjoyed the speaker and I feel like I learned a lot by being there. We also got to take part in a couple of fun break-out sessions. The first one we went to was a "Spa Session". I was hoping for a massage, but alas my name did not get drawn. We still had fun soaking our feet and having some girl talk time.

Our next session was "Cupcake Decorating"! We were super excited for this one and had huge dreams that we were going to uncover our hidden talent of amazing decorating ability, get discovered by Food Network on the spot (why they were at the conference in my dreams I don't know) and get asked to start our own cupcake show. I hate to disappoint you all but that did not happen. However, I was pretty impressed with our mad sunflower cupcake decorating skills.

The frosting we had to use was pretty much straight up Crisco and sugar so we weren't on any kind of sugar high at all. Nope. Not at all.

The conference was a lot of fun and we are already looking forward to next year!

Octopus Lunch

I've been so excited about starting preschool with Lauren this fall. Our year officially starts in just a few weeks and I've had our first theme on my mind so I decided to make a little lunch in anticipation of it.

Can you guess our first theme?

(turkey octopus sandwich with royal icing eyes and cheese mouth, sliced cucumber (seaweed), Scrabble Cheeze-its, and apples cut to look like coral)

Rainbows

Lauren and I love to create with chalk outside. It has been so steamy this summer that we really haven't had a lot of opportunities because the sidewalk has been too hot. Last Thursday night was a bit cooler though so we seized the chance to get creative!

We had just watched a Sid the Science Kid episode on rainbows so we decided to sing the song they sang and make our own.

"Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet too!"

As we sang the song, Lauren would hand me the color of chalk we needed. I drew this rainbow...

...then she drew her own!

She even made sure there were white clouds on either end of it! 

She was really proud of her rainbow and I was so excited to see her complete it all by herself! What a big girl I have!!!

This activity was so fun because not only did she get a review in colors and a chance to work on her fine motor skills (holding the chalk and drawing half circles) but we got to talk about the great story behind the rainbow. I love hearing her tell me about things she's learned from the Bible. I love knowing that her little heart and mind know that God made the rainbow.