DIY Card Booklet

After Charlotte’s 2 baby showers I knew I wanted to keep her cards from everyone but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them. I knew I didn’t want them thrown into the bottom of a box like most other cards I keep (hello our wedding cards). I came up with this little idea so that I would be able to easily look through them and read all of her sweet messages from family and friends.

I started with 2 pieces of card stock and picked out the largest card to measure the size I needed to cut covers. (I wanted to make sure that none of the cards stuck out the sides.) With my paper cutter I cut both the front and back cover, so that they were slightly larger than the biggest card. I then cut a little rectangle, in the solid paper, so that I could write a little title. I also had to cut the rectangle smaller after I wrote out the title because I am terrible at centering anything! Glue your little title on the cover and now its time to put it together!

Next I cut two pieces of ribbon (way longer than what was necessary…oops). I took a three-hole punch and lined up the cards to the bottom so that all the holes would easily line up.

Loop the ribbon through the back cover and then through each card individually. Attach the front cover and tie cute little bows in the ribbon. Make sure you don’t tie the loops so tight to where you can’t look through your cards. I also took a little bit of glue and dabbed it on the bows so that they would stay tied.

And Ta-Da!! All done!

Hope you guys enjoy and are able to do something with all those cards lying around! I’m planning on making one for her first year too, with all of her first holiday cards.

Love Always,

Sam

Charlotte’s 3 Month Update

My little girl is officially no longer a newborn! (Insert mom crying) These past three months have flown by and I cannot believe how much she has already changed and grown. Her hysterical little personality is starting to really surface and it is so fun to find out who she is as a little person. Oh man, though she most definitely got her momma’s sass, that is already evident. Keep me in your prayers for when I have a toddler.

A few of Charlotte’s Favorite Things:

• Screaming to hear her own voice while playing
• Giggling at mommy’s silly faces
• Bath time and floating in the bath
• Kicking her legs like a future soccer star
• Practicing her standing (and making mom and dad’s arms feel like they are going to fall off from constantly doing this)
• Getting her belly tickled and fart kisses on her nakey belly
• Eating her milk, duh
• Staring at her daddy in awe and wonder (and confusion as to what his beard is)

 

This month has been a pretty awesome month, I have to admit. She slept through the night about half of the time, so needless to say that’s been amazing. Seriously who would have thought that 7 hours of sleep would feel like a vacation! She is an early riser, though, like 5 am early. I’ve learned that the better she naps during the day, the better she sleeps at night (that was a learning curve, let me tell you). She’s reaching up and trying to hold her bottle, and she has found her hands, ladies and gentlemen! Oh my goodness does that girl suck on her hands and fingers. She is a drooling machine because of it, too.

We’re excited for this next month because my birthday is in April! More importantly we are going to the zoo for the first time with her as my present and I’m beyond excited. (Fair warning if you follow me on instagram I will be blowing up my feed that day, April 23rd.) She is so close to rolling over so I will be on pins and needles  waiting for that happen! All the new things that this next will bring has me so excited.

What are your favorite memories of your little ones as newborns? If you’re expecting your first, what early milestones are you the most excited for?

Love Always,

Sam

Expectations Versus Reality

Let’s talk about my Easter weekend for a second. You guys I had such high hopes, and I was so excited for everything that I had planned for the entire weekend. Reality then set in, including the Pacific Northwest living up to its rainy reputation.

Here is what I had planned:

• Saturday morning I wanted to leave our apartment around 9 to make it to a (free) egg hunt at a local park
• After the park we were going to get lunch at our favorite Mexican place (Charlotte could nap during this too)
• After I wanted to head to a different park full of Cherry Blossoms to take some family photos (my sister-in-law was in town)
• We would call it a day Saturday and head home to relax
• Sunday I wanted to wake up and do Charlotte’s Easter basket, and take super adorable photos of her giggling and smiling while grabbing her new toys (totally unrealistic I now realize).
• The rest of the day I just wanted to play and snuggle as a family
• That evening my parents were coming into town and we were planning to go to their hotel and have Charlotte have her first time in a pool
• And then end the day with a nice dinner

So literally none of this went according to my “grand plan.”

First off Saturday morning it was POURING rain so out went the egg hunt. We thought about doing pictures with the Easter bunny at the mall but honestly it was expensive and I’m not super into the bunny photos. We  decided eventually to head out to the town where the egg hunt was to at least still get some yummy Mexican food. We drove around afterwards and tried to find something Easter-y to do but we were literally too late for everything we drove up to! Not going to lie I had a complete melt down, like it probably could have been considered a temper tantrum (not my proudest moment). I wanted to make all these memories for Charlotte’s first Easter and nothing was working the way that I wanted them to and my husband definitely heard about it.  The rain finally stopped so we did end up getting some cute photos at the park near our apartment, but it was freezing. By that point we went home and watched movies. I got over my melt down and we had a snuggle filled evening.

Now for Easter morning. Charlotte woke up cranky because that is what a 2 month old does sometimes. My husband took his sister to the airport at 4 am so he obviously came home and went back to sleep. My idea of a cute Easter morning was not happening. We ended up waiting and doing her basket when my parents arrived that afternoon, and she had no idea what was happening and the pictures just didn’t even happen because there was so much going on. On to the pool and Charlotte hated it (I think it was more that she was hungry), but she screamed the whole time! Luckily dinner went well, but this weekend taught me so much.

Life does not go according to plan, especially when a child is involved. I need to learn to roll with the punches and to not get upset when my plan doesn’t work. Honestly this is much easier said than done for me. I am a “planner.” I always have all these expectations for “special occasions” and then I am almost always disappointed because life never works the way we want it to. My husband tries to remind me constantly that we have much more fun when we do things without my “grand plans,” but I just can’t help myself sometimes.

Hopefully I can work on it but I am positive that I will have at least a few more tantrums in my lifetime over plans going horribly wrong. But here’s to trying to limit the amount!

Do any of you have similar issues when your expectations don’t match the reality?

Love Always,

Sam

This is my wonderful sister-in-law Katie.

Buying for Baby on a Budget

So I’m a college student (on a bit of a break with baby but I start again with an online class over the summer) and my husband is a (very hardworking) logger which means we are on a tight budget …

Dressing for Those First Weeks Postpartum

   Let’s just be honest here for a second, your body right after having baby may as well be a foreign object! Like seriously, are you sure this is my body?! The day after having my daughter when I finally went …

Charlotte’s One Month Update!!

How is she already a month old!? They weren’t lying when they said that time would fly by with your newborn! I cannot wrap my head around the fact that she is actually a month old already and she has …

Being a Mom to a Little Girl

Being a Girl Mom

So first off let me start by saying that I am so stinking excited to have a little best friend for the rest of my life. I still want a boy(for a laundry list of reasons) but let’s be real here for a second, I was and still am relieved that my first is a little girl. For some reason it just felt a lot less intimidating as a first time mom to have a little girl. As I start to think about her future I have to admit that I do have some fears regarding how to raise her and the type of woman that I hope for her to become.

Strong, yet feminine:

I want my daughter to know that she can take of herself, that she can changer her own tire, shoot a gun and hunt with her dad, and basically be a tough girl, however I don’t want her to forget her femininity. Like how about some pink camo or hunting gear with her daddy? There’s nothing wrong with a girl who can handle her business but let’s just be  honest for a second I don’t want her to “butch.” How do I convey that a pretty little girl in dresses and hair bows and can get dirty and be tough too?

Confidence without the Attitude:

Alright so we all have had those encounters with women, young girls, or teenage girls that are just a little too full of themselves, like they are fully aware that they have it going on. I don’t know about you but these are females that I do NOT want to be around. More importantly I don’t want my little Charlotte to be one of these either. On the flip side I also don’t wish my daughter to be meek. In my dreams she is humble, yet fully confident in her abilities and her strength. How do you teach a little girl to be self-assured without being “full of herself?”

Pride in her Appearance, Minus the Vanity

We are all aware at this point that my little girl has a momma who loves style and shopping. As a (strong) female I hope she always takes pride in what she puts on her body and how she presents herself to the world, but that is not to say that she needs to dress for anyone else but herself. I’m not asking for her to be a sheep or to dress to fit a mold, but I also hope that she doesn’t go out in the world everyday in dirty sweatpants and messy hair (now we all have those days but on occasion). With this pride in one’s self I hope she avoids the traps of vanity and materialism. A cute handbag or pair of shoes is never more valuable than the experiences of life. So ask how to teach to take pride appearance without it becoming the most important aspect of her life?

 

The Ability to Navigate this Crazy World with Grace

This modern world is getting nuttier and nuttier by the day and being a female there is added stress. How do I teach about being aware of her surroundings in order to protect herself without causing her to live in constant fear? How do I explain why a man still makes more than she does? What do I say when her first boyfriend breaks her heart and she never wants to date again (by the way according to my husband she is never allowed to date anyways)? My little girl is my whole world, but I want her to build a full and multifaceted world for herself, where she experiences adventures, is aware of the dangers of this modern world, and at the end of the day knows who she is and adds a little “pretty” where ever she goes.

 

As a new mom questions like these plus many more cross my mind everyday, and I look into her pretty little face and I am so excited to see her grow and become her own person. Of course these are all rhetorical in nature but they are something that will be answered as my husband and I navigate being her parents, and of course my little Charlotte will become the person that she wants to become.

Nothing but love and support to all the moms out there (and I know all you boy moms have your own list of hopes and dreams being a girl mom is just my experience).

Love Always,

Sam

and Little Miss Charlotte

 

DIY Newborn Photos

Alright so first off let me start by saying that I was spoiled for Christmas by my hubby with a new camera; he said it was so he would have pretty pictures of his little girl to look at when …

Charlotte’s Apartment Nursery

An Elephant Nursery

Alright so the nursery I had always dreamed of creating for my first little bundle of joy wasn’t able to come true for this little peanut. I had always thought I would be in a home of our own with more financial freedom to create a special, beautifully decorated space. In real life, however, things don’t always go the way you had thought they would. We weren’t allowed to paint in the apartment we are currently living and the wood trim isn’t my favorite detail, but I have to admit that Charlotte’s nursery turned out better than I had thought I would.

We are on a tight budget, so all the little pretty details I had in mind just weren’t able to come to life. My husband just always reminds that she doesn’t notice if her room is pretty, just that she is loved and taken care of, and I know that this is true but part of me still wishes that I was able to afford to make her room extra special and pretty just like her. I am so grateful to be able to have a happy, healthy little peanut but I get caught up in all the pictures of other people’s nurseries, and I have to admit that I get a little jealous sometimes.

The theme of her nursery was elephants with aqua and yellow and a little bit of pink. I didn’t want something super obviously girl-y or cliche. Of course we wanted her to be pretty, but we didn’t want to do any of the obvious themes for little girls like princess.

Her bookshelf is my favorite part of her room! I bought some picture frame ledges at Ikea and painted them Aqua to add some color. I also put one above the changing pad to keep essentials like rash cream, wipes and hand sanitizer.

This little girl does have a ton of clothes already but they range from newborn to 18 months so it’s not too bad right?

I store her pretty little hair bows in an apothecary jar on top of the shelving unit and her pacifiers are on the little basket. I found both of her prints at Home Goods for a super great price! (This is my favorite place to get those pretty little extras because their prices are great plus their stock is always changing.)

I would love some input if anyone has ideas for her room! Plus I would love to hear how you all decorated your nurseries!

Love Always,

Sam

 

Charlotte Autumn’s Birthday

January 8th, 2016

Our little girl entered this world, and we are so in love with her. Her and I are both happy and healthy and doing well at home.

Our Labor:

Okay so I have to admit that I sort of feel like I cheated for my first labor and delivery process because I had a scheduled induction. I didn’t have the panic at home or while out running errands of my water breaking or feeling my first contraction. My husband never had to rush home from work or rush us to the hospital for the delivery. We woke up early the morning of and I had a good breakfast while we packed the car and got everything together (like seriously I feel so lucky to have such a calm start to my delivery). I checked in at 7:00 am and my labor was officially started a little after 8:00 am.

See this is all of us before being taken back…pretty relaxed right?

My contractions intensified and grew closer and closer together rather quickly. My mom stayed in the room with us up until I got my epidural. I finally was able to get it a little after 11. So let me be honest here I had planned from the beginning to get an epidural, I have so much respect for those who choose the natural child birth route, but it is not for me! I wanted relief from the pain (contractions seriously are rough to go through!) and the epidural was so nice to have. Now getting the thing itself was a whole other story. Having contractions while sitting up getting prepped for the shot was so painful and uncomfortable but thankfully it only takes about 5-10 minutes to start working, and then relief sets in. Oh but lucky me! I got to enjoy my epidural for a little over an hour before I started to feel pain again as I got ready to push. (I was planning on taking a nap but between my grandma and mom wanting to say hi one last time and being ready to push so fast there was no time for that!)

I pushed a for a little over an hour and let me tell you it feels like the most intense workout of your life. The reward at the end makes everything so worth it, though! The look on my husbands face when they placed her on my chest is something that I will never, ever forget. My big, tough logger was on the verge of tears out of pure excitement and joy. We had our little girl after what felt like the longest last month to an already seemingly long 8 before that.

Happy Birthday Charlotte!!

Love Always,

Sam

P.S: Hopefully you ladies had a smooth labor and delivery too!