Happy Birthday my littlest love!

Lula Bug is 6 months old today. She's been sitting for about a week and a half now, she's fabulous for Sheri during the day, and she has all three of us head over heels in love with her!

She gets so very excited to see each of us, her chubby little arms and legs go crazy and she gets a huge grin. I think she's going to be a little blend of the three of us. Stella is a little firecracker who loves to be the star os the show. She's dramatic and can rally as late (or later) than most of the adults. Lu is more like Mama. I think she might be a bit quieter and she definitely hits her wall and wants to be home in her jammies sleeping. While she may be less dramatic and a bit quieter (and at only 6 months old it's tough to really be sure), when she does get mad she gets MAD. Nobody will be pushing her around.

She's getting big enough to start playing with Stella and it's quite common for Stella to be running around like a crazy person while Lucy is in complete hysterics. I just can't get enough of these two.

We hit the Dr today and she's 27 inches, 17 pounds 3 ounces. She's the same length Stella was but 2 pounds heavier. It's so strange to have a baby in the 84% for weight, Stella was always in the 20's!

She's happy, she's healthy, funny, and beautiful. We are so very lucky to have the opportunity to know her and to be part of her life.

* On a totally different subject, Stella wants "something new" in her hair and I have no idea what to do. I'm a ponytail girl! I think I need to find a website with ideas...

A little crafty love for the girls' rooms.

Stella had a mobile on her crib, but we never really used it.  When it was time to decorate Lu's nursery I didn't even bother with one.  Then... I saw one on Pinterest (of course) and knew I NEEDED to make her one.  Of course, you can't do something for one and not the other little one these days so I made one for each of the girls' rooms. 

They're just simple little pinwheel mobiles.  Here's a shot from below:

I didn't hang it above her crib, but above the glider.  (which I LOVE by the way! Perfect for those middle of the night feedings now that we finally had to move her to her own room).  She loves it and it's so pretty when they spin.  The only drawback to having it here is that on the rare occasion we actually nurse in her room durning the day she gets distracted by it!

In family news, we braved the Puyallup Fair Saturday evening.  What a mistake!  We definitely need to remember NOT to go in the evening and NOT on the last Saturday ever again.  It was so crowded and Lu ended up getting pretty crabby and tired.  It's so funny how different these two girls are.  I swear Stella can rally through anything.  As long as she's up and there are people around she goes (and happily).  Lucy on the other hand is probably more like her mama.  When it's time for bed she's DONE and she wants to be home in her own bed.  It will be interesting to see how she handles an upcoming wedding and then the holidays.  Yikes!

Daddy having fun with his girl:

The third year these two have been able to go on the Giant Slide together - they both love it!

That's the face I get when I tell her to smile... nice!

Stella and her cousin at her grandma's wedding.  Someone asked if they were twins.  I see the resemblance I guess, but not to the extent of twins!  He's a little blonde and she is NOT blonde! ;)

Frivolity...

Do you have a signature style?  I think I have a signature look, but it definitely cannot by called "style".  I love all sweaters, but I'm am completely nutball crazy over cardigans!  Long-sleeved or short, with or without a belt, cabled or fine knit, fancy buttons, hand-knit, I have and love them all.  I was missing my "old-man library sweater that I knit and about had a meltdown.  Literally, I was close to tears 3 or 4 times...  I actually CHEERED when I found it a few weeks ago and almost cried again!  I don't think anyone else who saw it would like it at all but I'm in serious love with it (and the smell of the wool, why don't more wool sweaters smell like wool?)

For school I wear my sweaters with some kind of khaki pants, outside of school I wear them with jeans.  JEANS, my other clothing love!  Now, I don't not have the typical girl build.  I am pretty much the same width from my hips all the way up to my ribcage and it's not the most flattering shape.  I don't have much of a backside either.  It creates quite a problem when buying pants.  If pants fit my hips/rear, I have serious muffin top happening but if I buy them to fit my waist you can grab a full fist of extra fabric in the back (and my lovely husband often does).  With the extra baby belly still this problem is even worse than usual.  When buying pants for school late this summer I was kind of between sizes but I took a risk and got the smaller size thinking that (hopefully) I'll lose weight when Lu becomes mobile like I did with Stella and I knew I'd lose a bit when I started back to school.  These new pants to give me a bit of the dreaded muffin top, BUT enter Gap's Perfect Boot:

I haven't purchased a pair of Gap jeans since my Long and Leans YEARS ago but Katie from Bower Power mentioned how well these work post-pregnancy last year and I kept that little tip in the back of my mind for after Lucy was born.  She was so right!  They sit a bit higher on the waist and that thick waistband is awesome.  A bit more weightloss and I think the love handles will completely disappear in them!   I still love my old Sevens and Citizens, but a couple of my favs are getting a bit sad looking and these are nice and dark.

Speaking of that, I saw a blog post where she dyed her favorite capris to get that nice dark look again...  I should see if I can find it and try it on mine!

Finally, am I the only grown woman who didn't know that the ridges on bobby pins are supposed to go towards your head?!?!  Seriously, the things you learn on Pinterest!  Try it, I've had a lot less bobby pin slippage since I made the change!

And just because posts without pictures of at least one of my loves are no fun for me...

A cell phone pic of Lucy sitting this weekend.  I swear I was just pregnant!  (and as much as I ADORE a little bitty to snuggle with, I was telling Jim this morning that it will be so. very. much. fun. when she is Stella's age.  I think that 4/5 age might be as fun as it can possibly get!)  I used to kind of think that if God gave us an "oops" miracle 3rd baby it would be so cool... I take it back ;)

Organization and preparation are saving my hide!

I've been trying really hard to stay organized and get things ready BEFORE they're needed.  At night I: set coffee, get my lunch/water ready, set out all of our clothes, get Stella's milk/cocoa cup ready, get dinner for the following day prepped, and get all (4 or 5) of our bags packed.  I don't really like spending my evenings that way, but it makes our mornings go so much more smoothly.

Afternoons have proven to be the most challenging time for us.  Jim usually isn't home when the girls and I get home.  All 3 of us are tired, hungry, and often a bit crabby.  Someday when Lu is a bit bigger I envision us all coming home and curling up on the couch together for a bit to unwind before we do anything. For now, I'm tyring to get Stella a snack and a show, Lula bug out of her carseat, possibly fed, and hold/snuggle her while trying to get bags unpacked and dinner started. Lucy usually goes to be between 6-6:30 so that doesn't give us much quality time with her.  Because of this, I've been trying really hard to be good about meal planning and utilizing freezer meals as well as our crockpot.  The week usually looks a little something like this:  Sunday - cook a "real" dinner, weeknights - 2 crockpot dinners, one freezer, one leftover, and one "quick n easy".  It's actually been working out really well.  We'll see how long it takes for us to get completely sick of crockpot dinners!  I warned Jim and apologized, but right now time with my loves is much more important than food.  (then again, I could easily live on cereal for dinner 5 nights a week!)

I'm in the process of making a new cooking binder to organize the dinners that we have most frequently.  I've made a cover sheet divided into the 4 categories I'm using (crockpot/freezer/quick n easy/"cooking") and the recipes are organized in the binder in sections. In addition to making it easier to find a recipe, I'm hoping that the cover sheet will make it easier for me to come up with menus. I always seem to struggle with figuring out what to have for dinner for a week.

New this week, I planned out our next TWO weeks and I'm going to try to get up early tomorrow morning to do the shopping for the next two weeks.  I'm hoping that it will cut out a trip every other weekend and thus scratch one thing from my "to-do" list and increase family time.

I got this from a blog (I originally saw it on Pinterest).  I tweaked it for our house (the picture shown is the original), changing the font and the title.  I put it in a frame an it sits on the kitchen counter.  I write directly on the glass with a dry erase marker and Jim doesn't have to ask me what's for dinner anymore - brilliant!

Now if I could just figure out a way to cut the house cleaning and laundry from our overloaded weekends that would be fabulous!

Happy Friday, I'm headed home to love up on my girlies for a couple of days!

A first...

My lovely girls got into their first little spat tonight. Lucy took Stellas shoebox and was chewing on it. Stella does NOT appreciate slogged on any of her things and apparently a useless shoebox is no exception. She tried to take it from Lucy. Lu did NOT like her big did taking something from her. She held on tightly and yelled at Stella. I guess Stella wasn't expecting that because she started crying which then made Lucy start crying! seeing Lucy cry made Stella feel bad so she gave up the precious shoebox.

It lasted just seconds but I was laughing and thinking that this is the beginning of so many fights in this house. (Jim was pretty bummed that he missed it.)

I love how much they adore each other already but we've known that things won't always be peachy. The number one thing is that they know we are always a team and we always love and protect each other. We already talk about it on a regular basis.

A picture of Lucy that Sheri sent me while I wad at work. That woman is one of the best people I've ever known!

Still trying to use my phone to post...

My favorite moments

Of course I'm a huge fan of things like family vacations, holidays, etc, but some of my very favorite Mama moments are the little everyday things.  I thrive on the small stolen moments with my girls. Most nights Stella falls asleep after having her 1 show, 1 book, and 2 hot cocoas (instant breakfast) on my lap.  I know I should take her straight up to bed, but I usually sit there with her for at least 30 minutes just snuggling her and smelling her hair.  I fear the day will come all too soon she won't want to sit on my lap every night.  Last night I took her to bed awake and she tried to stall me by just talking.  It was fine with me and I just laid there by her whispering.  These are the things I'll miss most when she's grown.  She has the sweetest soul of anyone I know.

It's the little things that make me so very grateful to be on this journey with my loves.  "Talking" in bed in the morning with Lucy while the rest of the house is quiet after nursing laying down (LOVE that!), rocking her in her chair after she eats in the quiet of the night, feeling Stella snuggle up in her sleep in the middle of the night, Stella coming running into my arms crying MAMA on the rare occasion she gets up on her own in the morning, Lucy's sweet breathe and the feel of her fuzzy head tickling my nose.  I love it all, every second. 

The rest of this post is mostly pictures because that is, after all, why I'm doing this.  I've been putting it off until I get them edited, but things have gotten so busy and I'd rather get them posted unedited than wait and never get it done!

Crummy cell phone pic.  Stella runs up to Lucy's room when she wakes after a nap and crawls into her crib to sing to her and make her happy until I get up there.  The love between these two girls blows me away every day.  I'm so blessed to be able to witness it and so happy that we didn't get the boy we hoped for.  I wouldn't want to miss watching this relationship grow for anything.

All 3 girls at the beach on Easter weekend (yes, this picture is that old!)

 Happy jumping girl.

 Happy cousins - I love the way they're looking at each other and laughing.

 Daddy and his girl.

 Helping with yard work.

 An old pic of Lu, I can't believe how much she's changed!

 Jim wanted me to have my camera ready and then fed Stella sour patch kids.  We laugh everytime!

 And finally, way too many shots of Stella "modeling".  I made this bandana dress thinking that she could wear it as a shirt with black leggings and then Lucy could wear it when she gets bigger.  I was informed that it is not long enough and doesn't meet her twirl criteria.  What a picky little one.  I included so many to show the progression of her poses, it cracks me up!

I miss them.

A LOT.  Pressure in my chest, crying all of the time a lot.  I thought I'd be feeling better with a week under my belt, but I'm not.  I found myself planning our week in my head a few days ago (groceries Monday, gymnastics Tuesday...) then realized we won't be doing any of that.  I hope it gets better soon, this isn't a fun way to be.