Videos

Here are some videos from around our house lately.

Elodie borrowed the iPad from me & was “reading” my book.

Toby loves laying on his playmat in the mornings & is becoming increasingly more chatty and smiley

We have recently been switching out our fall decor for our Christmas decor around the house. This included getting rid of our pumpkins. We got a 70-something lb pumpkin & live on a giant hill, so this was the easiest way to get it to the street.

Elodie celebrated her 3rd birthday a few weeks ago and got a microphone as one of her presents. She’s been putting on performances for us ever since.

Toby and Elodie are sort of obsessed with one another. This morning, we were spending time in Toby’s room and Elodie wanted to hop in the crib with him and read him a book. Notice how he pays such close attention to her. I’m a lucky momma.

Once we get our tree, I’ll post some pictures of our decorated house.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving all.

xoxo

Ash

Tobias: One Month

Yesterday our sweet little baby boy turned one month old. This month went by way too quickly. We’ve been super busy this month, and luckily our perfect new addition allowed us to get everything done–like a very special wedding! Congrats to my BFF , Jessie, who got married! We had a great time celebrating all the things that go along with this!!

Cheers!

Ready to celebrate!

Rooftop party

But more on Toby…

1 month old

He’s still a great sleeper, doing 4/5 hour stretches between eating each night and 3/4 hour stretches during the day. He’s still nursing like a champ, which makes my life so much easier, especially in the middle of the night.

Blue eyes

I’ve tried to introduce formula because, unfortunately, I do have to go back to work in a few weeks & I don’t know if I’ll be able to pump enough at work to keep up with his voracious appetite. This has been a little battle–regular formula made him throw up, the 2 times he’s eaten it, so we tried soy. He keeps this down better, but doesn’t really like it. I’ve only mixed in an ounce of formula with several ounces of breastmilk, and he still fusses about eating it. We will keep trying to mix in formula and I’ll keep building up my breastmilk freezer stock, so he may not need a supplement after all.

Elodie is still doing really well with him too. Every afternoon when she comes home from her babysitters, the first thing she asks is “where’s my baby?” She seems to be less annoyed when Chris or I are holding him, and loves “helping” bathe him & change his diaper. She’s a great big sister. It will be so sweet when he is older & they can interact and play more.

my life ❤

Always helping out

Sweet big sister

Toby is starting to smile & coo a little bit. He has lots of awake time when we get up in the morning, and this is my favorite time all day. We talk and laugh and smile & it’s so sweet. We love to cuddle. It’s hard it get things done during the day, but totally worth it. This mommy/Toby time will go by way too quickly so I’m trying to savor every feeding, cry, diaper change, smile, coo & cuddle.

Our family has never been more crazy or felt more complete.

Mommy enjoying her babies

We are really excited about trick-or-treating & Elodie’s birthday is coming up quickly! I love this time of year.

Xoxo

Ash

More Summer Things

Here’s more of what we’ve been up to this summer.

After nearly 3 years of being married, Chris and I finally updated our bedroom furniture. We bought all new furniture including a king-sized bed, 2 night stands, a dresser/mirror & entertainment stand and a new mattress & bedding. We are loving it so far. I wish I was sleeping better, but at nearly 7 months preggo, this baby is already making me too uncomfortable to really enjoy it. Maybe one day 😉

The good news is, now that we have new bedroom furniture, our old stuff is in our guest room & ready for guests! If you haven’t come to visit us yet and see our new house, now is the time! You have a room to yourself!

New Bedding

Speaking of being nearly 7 months preggo, a few weeks ago I entered my third trimester. I honestly don’t think it’s possible to get much bigger than I am in this picture, but unfortunately it’s going to happen. I do not remember feeling this huge with Elodie, but the doc says he’s measuring right on time. Here’s to another 2 1/2 months of waiting!

3rd Trimester!

While we wait for the baby boy, we finally got around to furnishing his nursery. I’m pretty sure that by the time I was 7 months with Elodie we had nearly everything done… but I guess that’s the joys of being be the oldest child.

We bought a dresser and crib and I think we decided on bedding, which we still need to order. Once we get the bedding, we can paint & etc. At least this is a start..

Baby boy crib

Baby Boy Dresser

Elodie is beyond excited to meet her brother. Every day she tells me “I want my baby brother to come out now. I miss him.” I tell her that I feel the same way but he needs to get a little bigger & stronger before he can come out and meet us. She loves him so much already. She’s such a sweet baby girl.

2 going on 13

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned this or not, but my sister, brother-in-law and nephew moved down here this summer from Nashville. They are both teachers and were able to get jobs in Chris’s school district. They stayed with us temporarily while they found a place to live & we enjoyed having a house full of family.

Hanging with Family

Josiah

My mom also recently moved a little closer to our new house & now we’re all within 20-25 min of each other. It’ll be really nice to have everyone so close when the new baby arrives.

Seeing Monsters University–first movie in the movie theater

We took Elodie to see her first movie in the movie theater. We saw Monster’s University. Elodie loves Monster’s Inc., so we were really excited to take her to see the second one. She’s 2 and a half, and obviously didn’t sit through the whole thing, but she did have fun and enjoyed her popcorn. She was really well behaved and just jumped around from my lap, to Chris’s lap, to her seat & jumped around some more in between. I even took her to see Despicable Me 2 a few days ago by myself & she did even better! What a fun new phase in her life.

I can’t even express how thankful I am to have this summer to spend with Elodie, just the three of us, before our new addition arrives. We need to be sure to set aside Elodie time, without the baby.

Hubs Pre-Peachtree

Just like last year on July 4th, Chris ran the Peachtree Road Race again. I wished I would have been able to, but it didn’t seem too appealing being pregnant & all. I did sign up for it, but ended up transferring my number to someone else. The weather forecast was less than favorable, so Elodie and I didn’t go cheer everyone on, but Chris said the rain held off for the majority of the race. He pulled a muscle in his calf while he was running, and is still somewhat recovering. I guess it was a pretty eventful day. I hope to be back out there next year! I’ve been anxiously awaiting being able to start running again.

After the race, we spent some time celebrating the 4th with some good friends. Our friends Jessie & Ben live right in downtown Atlanta and their building has a perfect rooftop view of the Centennial Park fireworks–some of the only fireworks that didn’t cancel because of the weather.

July 4th Celebrations

Elodie loved watching the fireworks, so it ended up being a great evening.

We only have 2 1/2 weeks left of summer before we go back to school. During these remaining days we will celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary, make a trip up to the beach with Chris’s family, and Chris will finish up his summer semester of grad school. We’re staying busy, but we’ve been enjoying ourselves.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

xoxo

Ash

Lately

I am really in a rut with this whole blogging thing. I’m too busy during the week to write anything and then on the weekends, we are enjoying our time together/running errands/doing stuff around our house, so I quickly run out of time then too.

Also, I suck at taking pictures.

There are a few things I have managed to capture in the past couple of weeks, so here it goes.

Elodie’s knowledge/vocabulary just grows exponentially by the day. She’s saying 3-4 word sentences (her favorite of which is “no, my do it!”),  she repeats e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g we say, she’s learning to count, she knows some letters (pretty much just O & W),  she knows almost all of her colors, and she loves “reading” books to herself.  Her favorite things to do around the house are jump on her trampoline, have a tea party, push her baby dolls around in a stroller, color, draw and paint.  She also loves Skyping with Grandma & Grandpa on the iPad.

Blow-drying her hair after her bath like a diva

She’s gotten so sweet with us. Every afternoon when we come home or pick her up from her babysitter’s, she runs to us & screams “mommy! daddy! miss you!” She gives the best kisses, tells us “lub you” all the time, and after a long day she cuddles up to us and says “mommy/daddy need you.” What toddler says that?! How adorable!

This is a cute video  I took the other day of her “counting.” For some reason 7 & 9 are favorites.

The weather here has been horrible. As I’m sure most people are, I am SO SICK of the cold weather. It’s been ridiculously cold (for GA) and we’ve been hiding out inside as much as possible. We went to the Children’s Museum the other weekend and finally got a membership. I’m super excited that we can go there whenever we want now for freeeeeeee. It will definitely be worth it over the summer when the weather gets miserable for another reason.. the dreaded heat. Dreaded heat + me being really preggers will not be a good combination this summer. Indoor activities will be welcomed 🙂

The Children’s Museum

dress up @ the Children’s Museum

Speaking of cold weather.. the past few days we’ve had snow flurries. Yep, it’s March… and we live in GA.. and it was snowing. What?!

Snow! On March 1!

A good friend of ours came into town this past weekend and we went out. I chauffeured everyone around in our awesome minivan & it was a great night.

Playing bocce ball

In the meantime.. we’re on the hunt for a house so keep your fingers crossed! Here’s hoping we have some good news soon!

xoxo

Ash

Pinterest Challenge: Counting the Weeks

If you missed the news, I just recently announced that we’re expecting baby #2. Since good ‘ol Pinterest wasn’t around with Elodie & life was crazy back then, I didn’t really document the first one. I knew I wanted a chance to document this one! Thanks to Pinterest, I found the perfect way to do so…

This Pinterest challenge came at a great time for me for me to share the shirt I made.

I pinned this shirt tutorial a while back and I was hoping I’d get a chance to make it soon. Not long after I found out I was pregnant, I knew this was the first thing on my to-do list.

I went to Target & bought a plain white maternity shirt, then to a craft store to get stencils & fabric paint. Unfortunately, unlike the tutorial, I don’t have the supplies to make 1-40 stencils like she did, so I had to do them all separately using 0-9 stencils. Mine was probably more time consuming than hers, but it turned out great! Also unlike the tutorial, I didn’t make my fabric paint; I just bought red & black paint.

Fabric Paint

The stencils I used

Once I placed the first couple of lines.. it started off well!

The first few weeks

Making Progress

But then, using the stencils over & over again with the fabric paint.. I ran into an issue.

Whoops!

So my smart hubby suggested that I use a fabric pen instead. Great idea, right? Except.. you’ll need more than 1! BUY SEVERAL!

After a second trip to Target to get another plain white shirt.. I was back in business again.

Fabric Pen

It was smooth sailing from there & turned out great!

The finished product

I added the “due: 9.25” as an extra touch! You like?

I was about 5 weeks when I finished this… and looked like this

5 weeks

And 5 weeks later.. my belly has definitely “popped.” People tell me that’s normal with baby #2, but I’m not ready to be in maternity clothes quite yet.

10 weeks

10 weeks

Please excuse my hair in these pictures… it’s been a long day! Anyway, there’s my project! I’m so glad to finally share!

Check out these other wonderful ladies projects: Sherry, Katie, Megan & Michelle

Also, just for fun, here are the other 2 Pinterest Challenges I’ve participated in: Pillows & Dinner.

Happy Pinning!

xoxo

Ashley

January

Well, this month has kind of gotten away from me. I apologize for the absence.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to chat about. The weather here has been cold and gloomy. We’ve been hanging out inside a lot, watching football, working and etc.

Here’s a snapshot of our lives the past couple of weeks.

Catch Air has been our best friend due to the yucky weather.

Elodie at catch air

We brought in the new year in style.. with donuts!

Enjoying a doughnut

Elodie is looking awfully grown up in this one!

Princess Elodie

Just playing with the iPad

Messy Elodie after eating a cookie

We moved Elodie up into a big girl class at gymnastics. She’s no longer in the parent-tot class, but a 30-mintue class all on her own! Luckily we have the same teacher, so she’s adjusting to it pretty well. This past week was her 2nd week and a few of her friends from the parent-tot class also moved up with her. They were so stinking cute.

Elodie in her new big girl leotard for gymnastics

The past few weekends in a row, we’ve had friends come over to watch the Falcons’ games. We love spending time with our great friends, especially when they entertain our child 🙂

Hope you all are well. Don’t forget about us over here, I’ll get better about updating more often!

xoxo

Ash

Christmas 2012

We had a small Christmas this year. It was just us, my mom, and the Williams (my sister, bro-in-law and nephew, Josiah.) We loved spending time together and watching the kiddos interact. Elodie was filled with pure joy for days as she opened up and played with all of her new goodies. Experiencing Christmas through a child’s eyes is so much more magical and exciting than I ever remember experiencing myself. I can only imagine that it will get better and better as she grows up!

Christmas started a few days before when presents arrived from Grandma & Grandpa. We couldn’t help but let her open (most) of them early.

Leap Pad from Grandma & Grandpa. Apparently these are a hot commodity among the kiddos. Lucky girl.

Elodie showing off a present.

Then, the Williams’ came into town & we enjoyed their company for a few days leading up to Christmas. I know my mom was so happy to have both her daughters, sons-in-law and grandbabies under one roof for several days!

These kids are hard to get still enough to take a picture of them together

Sweet baby Josiah, 8 months

He was loving our kitties

Aunt Ashley & Josiah

Uncle Chris, Josiah & Elodie. Chris is cutting fingernails.

In the middle of preparing for Christmas, we took the front off of Elodie’s crib to turn it into her “big girl bed”

Elodie in her big girl bed

Sleeping in her big girl bed. She looks so grown up

Santa came & went and we enjoyed Christmas morning together too.

Thanks Santa

Dora DVD, her fave 🙂

Aunt Allison & Josiah opening his first present

Trampoline! The “big” Santa present this year

A doll, stroller, crib & car seat from Gigi.

She was in heaven opening e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g, including all of my & Chris’s presents

New Minnie Mouse slippers

Helping Uncle Raef open Josiah’s present: a drum full of musical instruments

Pushing her baby around

Just checking it out..

She just can’t get enough of this thing

The aftermath.

Merry Christmas to mommy

Elodie in her dress up dress with her matching doll.

And just for fun.. here are some videos we got. Notice Elodie is hanging out with her trampoline in both of them. I think Santa picked out a great gift for her this year.

This was one was hilarious. For some reason she used her “wand” to make the magic tissues jump around. This kept us entertained for far longer than it should have. Thanks for being a good sport, Uncle Raef, who invented this game.

We had a great holiday!

Thanks for everyone who sent love to us here in GA, both in cards & gifts! We love you and hope you all had a great Christmas as well!

I can’t believe it’s all over until next year. Here’s to a great 2013!

xoxo

Ashley 🙂

Last Weekend

Last weekend, because of everything going on in Connecticut, was an important weekend to spend lots of time with our loved ones. While our hearts were hurting, eyes crying, and our heads praying, we tried to enjoy ourselves.

Jessie, Katie O. and I went and saw the Atlanta Ballet perform The Nutcracker and the Fabulous Fox.

I had not seen The Nutcracker, probably since I was in elementary school and we would go on field trips. It was a beautiful performance. The dancers make everything look so effortless and graceful, and of course, the music was amazing. Watching the ballet definitely made me want to put Elodie in dance, at least for a couple of years.

This was quite the treat, as we even splurged a little bit on our tickets and had really good seats. I’m definitely not going to let that much time pass before I see it again. I will also be taking Elodie to experience the beautiful Christmas Magic that is The Nutcracker.

Saturday morning is always fun, family time.

Elodie painting sans shirt. She knows if she wants to paint, that shirt comes off… She’s going to have to learn not to do that before she starts school

Saturday night, we wanted to do a White Elephant/Dirty Santa gift exchange, so we had some friends come over with a present & food to share. I didn’t get a ton of pictures of the food or gifts, but it was a fun evening.

We made some cranberry holiday sangria, recipe here.

Cranberry Holiday Sangria

I made some tomato caprese skewers: grape tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil & drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette.

And we ate, listened to Christmas music and exchanged gifts. Some people brought silly things like an Obama Chia pet, an ant farm, a toilet bowl coffee mug, Nerf gun & etc.

Ben modeling the ugly sweater coozie he got as a gift.

Fun times with great friends 🙂

On Sunday, we had a birthday party to attend. With 6 babies at Elodie’s babysitters + lots of other friends with kids, it seems like we are going birthday parties all the time lately.

This particular party was at a place called, Catch Air. It is an awesome place for kids, and I’d say it is geared towards those 5 and under. Parents are allowed to get on all the equipment with the kids, so I think Chris and I had just as much fun as Elodie.

A panorama shot of the place

Dance party + light-up floor

Mommy + Elodie posing while making our way through the GIANT play tower

Some of the cute (blurry) babies spinning around at the party

Dora even stopped by!

The birthday girl!

Action Shot

Little cutie on a big chair

Two cuties on a big chair “hey.. whatcha lookin’ at there?!”

So as you can see, that place was pretty awesome! It will probably become our favorite hangout over the summer to escape those dreadfully hot temperatures.

Fun weekend in spite of everything going on around us. Please spend some extra time with your loved ones this Holiday Season!

xoxo

Ash

PS: if you’ve not seen this video from The Voice the other night, please watch. It’s a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Newtown tragedy. All the coaches & contestants sing “Halleluiah,” and hold up signs with the names of the victims & their ages. Mascara alert is high for this one!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-SeKsVm7YE 

Videos

3 more days of school & we can breathe and enjoy some holiday time with our family! Until then.. I haven’t had time to write about anything exciting. I have lots of posts I need to write, so check back over Christmas break!

In the meantime, I’ll post a ton of videos we’ve taken & I haven’t shared.

From her birthday: everyone singing to the birthday girl

Elodie using a “magic wand” & saying “abracadabra!” I really don’t know where she learned this from, but my guess is an episode of her favorite show, Bubble Guppies

Elodie and Grandma being silly a couple of weeks ago when she was in town

Elodie hates the vacuum, and a few mornings ago we needed to clean, but Elodie had other plans.

And the most recent: this evening we received a package in the mail from Grandma & Grandpa which contained Christmas presents. Elodie couldn’t resist opening a couple of them, so we let her have some fun. Here’s a little video of her opening a few. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa. Don’t worry, we didn’t open them all, so she still has some for Christmas morning!

Hopefully these will hold ya over until I have some free time to write some more updates!

xoxo

Ash

The Past Two Weeks….

…have been crazy busy! Here’s just a little bit of what we’ve been up to lately in addition to Elodie’s party, running a race & visiting Santa. 

We spent lots of time enjoying the beautiful weather at the park with the grandparents.

Elodie + Grandpa at the park

Elodie + Daddy at the park

Elodie + Grandma at the park

Elodie collecting acorns with her grandparents

We celebrated Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We squeezed in some down time.

Elodie + her friends “napping” on the ottoman

Diva Girl

Cutie sitting on the counter

“Really, mom?”

We decorated for Christmas.

Decorating for Christmas

We shopped & hung out at the mall.

Elodie + Grandma on the train at the mall

We went to the Children’s Museum.

If only I could be half the teacher that Ms. Frizzle is…

Children’s Museum with Grandma

Dreaming of being like Ms. Frizzle

Chris’s creation at the Children’s Museum

We adopted a new kitty. It’s been hanging around where we live for a couple of weeks, and after we fed it for a couple of days, we decided to bring it in. It seems like it once belonged to someone, because it’s de-clawed, but we don’t know much about it other than that. Hopefully we’ll find out more about it once we take it to the vet this week. In the meantime, it’s name is Fergie. I’ll explain more later…

Our new kitty… we’ve yet to find out if it’s a boy or girl, but we’ve been calling it “Fergie”

We hung out with some great friends. Chris’s cousin, Michelle & her new husband, Jack, came to visit us from Boston. We don’t see them often, but we always have a great time when we do get together. In addition to catching up & taking it easy, we took them on a tour of a local brewery, Sweetwater Brewery, and out to eat at an AMAZING Tapas Restaurant/Wine Bar, Barcelona. Fun times!

Hanging out with some fun ladies at Sweetwater Brewery (Jess, me, Katie & Michelle)

Chris, Jack & Me

So that’s been the last couple of weeks.

We’ve had a great time catching up & spending time with family & friends. The next couple of weeks are going to be just as busy, but this time of year is the best so we’re looking forward to it!

xoxo

Ash