jillian's barbie beach party

Over the weekend we celebrated Jillian's 6th birthday! Somehow that happened...six years went by in what feels like two blinks. She wanted to celebrate with her friends via Barbie beach party! She just recently started getting into Barbies since her friend next door and her sister have them. And now I think they've created a monster...dressed in pink...wearing heels...

Normally (as in when I don't have a newborn), I like to spend weeks planning and prepping for a party, getting all of the details just right. But this one was thrown together in about two days...so while things weren't quite as I wanted them, I know Jillian loved every bit of it regardless, which is of course ultimately what matters, right? (Mostly. Yes. ;-) )

Side bar: I didn't realize my camera was on the wrong setting when I was quickly snapping pictures and not looking at them, so only a few even remotely turned out! Ah well! 

But the kids (all 16 of them) started by decorating sand castles! Aka gingerbread houses but with ice cream cones. I think this was a favorite for many since they had unlimited access to a tube of frosting. 

Her cake was from Cravings in Pleasant Grove. I had them make the cake and frost it plain, then I added the crushed graham cracker and other easy decorations! I didn't realize how enormous it would be when I ordered it over the phone, so we were pretty surprised when we picked it up and realized it was about a foot tall and probably 20 lbs (no joke). We sent several people home with big chunks and still ended up with a huge amount! Next time I should probably ask about serving sizes before just ordering away! 

^You can sort of see the pink "trail mix" we had as a snack- pink goldfish, yogurt pretzels and pink jelly beans. Why they don't sell the pink goldfish in a giant carton like the cheese ones is beyond me...because buying and opening 6 little bags of them was annoying. I mean, you know you'd give into your kids and buy a giant carton of pink goldfish over the orange ones. Well, I would anyway.

^Jack's face in this picture...hah!

^I love that look of birthday magic on her face! I think I have a picture from every year where she has this same expression. 

We ended the party with swimming! Fortunately our neighborhood pool isn't very deep and just about every kid had a puddle jumper on- other wise that would have been incredibly stressful! But James was still on lifeguard duty. :-p

And now she is the proud owner of 7 new Barbies, a Barbie house, car, and gymnastics set. She's named them things like, "Pinkalicious" and "Wishes", with a few standard "Stacy's" and "Kelly's" in there. This phase of life, which is really almost a rite of passage in the world of little girls, should be titled "pink, plastic, and why-do-they-make-their-little-tiny-shoes-removable-and-the-easiest-things-to-lose-EVER."

Happy Birthday Jillian! We love you!

mudroom and laundry inspiration

I get excited about pretty mud and laundry rooms! Like, giddy excited.

This is me guys. 

I'm a super fun person. 

;-)
 

The mudroom (and by extension laundry room) is the first project on the list in our new house! And I couldn't be more excited. A mudroom was on the "must have" list when we were house shopping- we need a drop zone! Right now we just have a little bench and I threw some temporary Command hooks up on the wall to be able to hang things. In a few weeks we're building out some locker style built-ins and I'm stoked! Then we'll get into the laundry room, which is getting a fun face lift. 

So right now I'm swooning over all of these pretty spaces! 

Six design elements I'm loving right now:

1. Natural wood doors with glass! I'm digging neutral wood tones right now- especially paired with dark hardware. I already have the door we're going to use for our laundry room and can't wait to get it all fixed up and in there! I also want to go with a seeded glass for some added visual interest. 

Image: Hawkes Landing

2. All the storage! What good is a mudroom without maximizing your storage space? I love the use of different baskets, drawers, and hooks this mudroom uses. Not to mention the shiplap and butcher block counters...okay...just everything. 

Image: House Becomes Home

3. Classic textures! Subway tile is super hot right now- but in a classic way, not a fad kind of way, and I'm so glad! I love that the tile covers most of the wall in this room and is paired up with shiplap. There will definitely be some subway tile in our laundry room!

Image: Twelve on Main

4. Not-white paint. I love the classic, crisp lines of a white mudroom- but from a practicality standpoint, I just don't know how to keep that clean for more than like 10 seconds with kids dropping shoes, backpacks, winter gear...so using a darker paint can help mask some of those scuffs! Plus I think it adds some nice contrast! I'm still on the lookout for what color I plan to paint my built-ins...more on that later.

Image: Elle Decor

5. Open shelving in the laundry room. Not much else makes my organizing-loving heart pitter patter like organized open shelving! Our laundry room has upper cabinets right now and I plan to keep them, but also add a few open shelves between them! 

Image: One Kings Lane

6. Lighting. It's ahhhhmazing the difference light fixtures can make! I especially like these goose neck sconces on what would otherwise be an empty wall space. While we don't have the room for one in our mudroom, I might be able to squeeze one in the laundry room (above that open shelving!). 

Image: Our Modern Antebellum

I'm itching to get started!!

on being tired

It's funny how your definition of "tired" changes depending on what phase of life you're in. I guess that is true, and probably should be true, for a lot of our vocabulary- but namely the word tired.

In high school it was tiring just to...exist. The amount of emotion and drama any given girl deals with in high school is exhausting (sooo much draaaama). And then there's keeping up with after school clubs and activities on top of academics, which makes my almost 30 year-old self yawn at the memory of it. But you're younger then, so energy just metabolizes faster and is expendable.

I was tired in college- staying out late with friends or boys and then getting to an 8am class the next morning. Pulling all-nighters to (start..and..) finish papers. But then you've discovered energy drinks and which classes you can snooze through without messing up your GPA too much. 

And then there's a whole new level of tired you discover once you're a mother. The kind of tired that you feel in your bones. And you're older now- so energy doesn't naturally produce itself as easily as it once did (and not even synthetically if you're breastfeeding...freakin' caffeine limitations...). And you might even argue that it's actually way more important to be at the top of your mental game in the motherhood stage of life- even more so than required in college. I mean, we're talking about keeping people alive here. And preferably not just alive, preferably thriving.

I'm trying to adjust to my new "normal;" my new level of constant exhaustion that comes with having three young kids, one of them being a newborn. I mean, I can barely form a cohesive sentence when talking to another adult. If we've had a conversation recently, you and I, there's a 75% chance I've zoned out entirely to what you're saying solely because my brain is functioning at roughly half the level it did pre-newborn.

But every day is a little easier. Well, sometimes it's a two-steps-forward-one-step-back sorta deal, but we're heading in the right direction!

 Sheesh. 

Mommin' ain't easy. 

Worth it though. So freaking worth it.

extend lashes

A few months ago I shared the plans for the eyelash extension salon one of my good friends and total boss babe, Kristen, just opened!

Out of the three inspiration boards I shared on the first post about it, she liked the Kate Spade look the most:

 And here's how it all came together! It also makes me want to start getting lash extensions again...

They gave the whole interior and exterior of the building a facelift. Isn't it so fun!? Everything turned out beautiful and I'm so happy for her new (and so far thriving!) business!
If you know people near Alma, Michigan- make sure to spread the word!

showering baby bates

My sister is due in less than a month! We're all counting down the days until Baby Bates (whose first and middle names have yet to be decided) shows up- my sister the most, I'm sure. We had a little baby shower for them today at mi casa!

 Since my other nieces and nephews live back in Florida, I'm especially excited to have a nephew living in the same state! 

I'm not gonna lie, I think it was one of my favorite spreads I've ever done. All hail cheese. 

I know a lot of people don't like cheesy baby shower games, so we skipped those (though I totally don't mind them. Sure, pass the diaper filled with a mushy candy bar and lemme smell it while we pretend it's poop...can I eat it?) But we did find a game that was pretty funny- a spoof off of Cards Against Humanity- called Babies Against Parenthood.

 

Thanks to everyone who came! You are already so loved, Baby Bates! I know Michaela is ready for the next few weeks to fly by, but I for one am NOT! That means it's too close to the end of summer, and I'm not prepared to even go there yet!

sisters

You'd never know from how perfect these pictures turned out, that getting out the door to get to the shoot on time was a bit of a nightmare and Jillian almost puked in the car. 

So I'm gonna go ahead and chalk this up to a modern-day miracle.

It's funny to me how many people (and there have been so many) ask me if we're going to "try for a boy next time." People do know that the odds restart with each kid, right? It's always going to be 50/50 no matter how many of them there are. ;-)

But even though our family is 80% girl, I certainly don't feel jipped. 

Having a sister means you always have a best friend- and they each get two. There will be arguments over clothes, shoes, boys, screeching at decibels levels you never thought humanly possible, drama and emotions, with lots of talking about how we feel. But there will also be lots of giggles and secrets shared- that thicker than water kind of love.

Nah, we just don't feel jipped. We feel incredibly, incredibly blessed.

Thanks for the most adorable pictures, Mar Downs!

the story of charlotte

We're a family of FIVE. That is a pretty good size group.

I mean, we bought a minivan (and it's awesome. all hail power sliding doors). 

Charlotte Lynn joined us on Monday, May 29th at 2:58pm, weighing 7lbs 4oz and 20" long.

Her arrival was pretty routine (fortunately!). This was my first scheduled induction, so it was a little odd to go to bed thinking, "we're having this baby TOMORROW!" I did try to get labor going on my own several days before, but to avail. I mean...an hour of High Fitness did nothing people. Nothing. She was pretty content in there!

I could hardly sleep the night before, in the same way that you can't sleep the night before Christmas. We arrived at the hospital at 6:15am and got all settled in. I started Pitocin around 7:30ish. My contractions were mild and I actually couldn't feel a lot of them. A couple hours later I decided to get my epidural (bless) before my doctor wanted to break my water. 

Progress was slow at first- it took 6 hours to go from 3cm to 6cm dilated! Speaking of which...the hospital wall had a nice little visual display of what 1 to 10cm dilation looks like. Thanks for that visual. 10cm sounds so small, but when you see it on a chart and realize what is going to be 10cm...it doesn't seem so small anymore.

But after that things happened crazy fast! I went from 6cm to holding her in less than an hour. We told my sister she could be in the room with us (since she's expecting her first baby in July!), and she barely made it to the hospital on time.

She came out super quiet. A few squeaks and small cries here and there- so the nurses had to rub and pat her quite a bit to finally get a good cry out of her. 

Even though this is our third baby, I'm so amazed every single time when I see an actual living, breathing, tiny little human come OUT of me. That I made. From scratch.

(all the while wondering how in the world they could possibly fit in there).

Jillian and Olivia absolutely loved meeting her and were excited to get to help wash her hair for the first time.

Everyone is asking who she looks like- I think so far she's a pretty decent mix of both of the girls! Her eyes and face remind me a lot of Jillian, and her nose, mouth and chin look a lot like Olivia. I just hope she keeps her dark hair! 

Recovery this time around has been a lot smoother and I'm so grateful! I think it just gets easier the more babies you have, but I'd also like to think all that exercise throughout my pregnancy has helped just a little bit. That first time you realize you can actually bend over without anything getting in your way is just blissful.

I love having a tiny little person to cuddle and gawk over (not so much wake up with several times a night, but I suppose it's a package deal). Suddenly Jillian and Olivia seem so much older in comparison to Charlotte's wrinkly, squishy little body.

Since we've been home, Jillian loves to hold her and will even "baby talk" to her- it's pretty funny to listen to. Olivia likes to tell everyone every time Charlotte sneezes. "Mom! Charlotte bless you'd again!"

 We all love her to bits and our family is feeling pretty complete!