Frontier Order!

I got a lot of fun stuff this month in my Frontier order. I had to take a couple of the items out of the picture because they are part of a baby shower gift!

This months order included:

Surf Sweets organic gummy worms and watermelon rings
Simply Organic turkey gravy (2)
Unbleached coffee filters
Aura Cacia reviving shower tablets w/ peppermint essential oil
Aura Cacia Pillow Potion essential oil mist
Aura Cacia First Response essential oil
Xylitol toothpaste for Taelyn
Frontier course sea salt

Hensley: 5 months!

Weight: My little chunky monkey is growing like a weed! I'm sure she has tipped over the 18lb mark and last we measured, she was 25 inches. She seems to grow and change a little every day.

Food: My little lady is such a good nursling. She does like to fidget and feel on things while she is nursing. Sometimes I have to hold her hand to keep her from scratching me! She gets one bottle while I am at work and she does well taking that too. The other day my mom was watching her and put a water glass up to her mouth because she kept grabbing for it. Tae scolded her and told her that Hensley can't have food yet, ha! Again, we are not starting Hensley on anything anytime soon.  You can learn more about skipping the cereal here and baby led weaning here.

Ha! Papa and Hensley...does she look like she is starving!?!

Clothes: She is still fitting in 6 month clothes, but we have rotated in some 9 months and other than long sleeves, they fit really well.

Sleep: Sleep has been a little off ever since the time change. She's been wanting to go to bed super early and then is up at odd hours and wakes up pretty early in the morning. She usually takes two naps during the day. They are anywhere between 30 minutes (yikes) and 2 hours (yah!). She's still in the bassinet and comes to our bed in the middle of the night. We need to start thinking about transitioning her to her crib soon, but we might hold off for another few months.

Movement: Sitting up is our newest addition in our movement category. She is a little wobbly, but does pretty good at steadying herself. She can scoot now too and can move pretty fast if she wants to. The other day she scooted about 3 feet to get to the Kindle :)

Product: I don't think we've gotten anything new this month. She really loves her jumper and has become very interested in toys, especially ones that make noise!

Highlight: Sitting up is a pretty big highlight this month. She also really loves little kids and will just giggle while she's watching them. It's so much fun seeing her become so interactive!

Taelyn: Oh my sweet Tae. Not only is she turning 5, but she is also becoming a great big sister. She is always so loving and kind to Hensley it just melts my heart. I often here her ask Hensley, "what's the matter my love" or "watcha doin' my love"....ah my heart just might explode!

Blessing: I think one of the biggest blessings this month is that Hensley has seemed to finally come to terms with being in her car seat. She doesn't cry nearly as much as she used to and for that I feel blessed. Another sweet blessing this month came when our whole family got a pretty yucky cold. Hensley ended up getting a stuffy nose and that was it! I'm so thankful that my breastmilk is helping her immune system!

Taelyn's 5th Birthday Party

I love planning and putting together birthday parties! I don't like doing popular themed stuff, but as Tae has gotten older, that seems to be what interests her. This year she picked "Littlest Pet Shop" since this is one of her favorite toys. I thought I did a good job of not buying into to all the licensed party decorations, and instead made my own.

My sister helped me make the sign and banner using her fancy cutting machine. Tae also picked out animal print decorations and other items that matched the color choices.










We had goody bags for all the kiddos. We put stickers, organic candy, a wooden toy, and fruit leather in the bags.

My mom did an awesome job on Tae's birthday cake. She asked for an orange flavored cake with a lot of different colored frosting. The cake tasted just as good as it looked!

We had lots of yummy snacks at the party. From fruit and a veggie tray to bunny crackers and salted caramel popcorn. We even had local cheese curds that were delicious! I made these little signs for the food and had Tae's little pets all around.


Hensley was ready to party!







We had Littlest Pet Shop coloring pages out and the craft was to decorate your own pet carrier to take home. All the kiddos enjoyed this. We also played a game similar to musical chairs called Musical Lily Pads. I had three prizes, so we played three times. The kids seemed to have fun, even though some got a little upset when they didn't win. Tae actually won the first game and picked out a set of puppy erasers!

 Taelyn got tons of awesome birthday presents and we enjoyed spending time with our family and friends. I still can't believe my baby is going to be 5 in just a few days. Seems like only yesterday she was that little bitty baby that stole our hearts.






Halloween 2013

I am super bummed that I don't have very many pictures of Halloween. My cat knocked my camera off a chair onto our tile floor while we were carving pumpkins and the lens broke :(

I did get some pictures though and the rest I stole from my mom....thanks mom!

 Hensley had a fun time watching us carve our pumpkins. We usually do it outside, but this year it was a little too cold to do that. We laid out a bunch of newspaper and got to work.

 

 

Here is Hensley with her pumpkin! Hers was too little to carve, so we bought this nifty sticker kit. I love how she cheeses for the camera now!

 

This was the last picture my camera took :( I was sad I didn't get any of our pumpkins all carved. They turned out so good.

 

I had to work a few hours on Halloween night so my mom and dad kept the girls. Hensley took a super long nap which was good. Tae enjoyed watching The Crood's, passing out Halloween candy, and even got to visit with her cousins when they came over to Trick or Treat!

 

When I got back, I took Tae out trick or treating. Hensley came along in her stroller and she did so good. We probably went to about 15 houses or so and then Tae decided she was done and she had to go potty.

 

When we got back I looked through her candy and she got to pick out a piece to eat. We do the "switch witch", so she ends up with mommy approved candy/treats the next day. It was a Happy Halloween!

Lately.....

This is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love the cooler temperatures, hoodies, cuddles, crock pot meals, Starbucks' salted caramel mocha, all the fun movies on TV, family time, and all the birthday's and holiday's that come in the fall and winter (Tae is one of them!). We have already had a busy start to the fall. My aunt and uncle came in for a visit from New York. We had a lot of fun hanging with them. We also celebrated my oldest nephew's 18th birthday. Tae's been having loads of fun in her homeschool PE class. She loves getting to play with all the other kids. I have been on fall break this week. I am so blessed to have a job that gets so many breaks throughout the year. I love spending this time with my family.

Tae has been a lot more interested in holding Hensley lately. I think she likes that Hensley is a lot more sturdy and more social. Tae has a lot easier time getting her to laugh than Aaron or I do!

We tried out the back carry in our Boba for the first time the other day. Having her on my back makes it a lot easier to do things like cook and clean. She seems to like it, but has yet to fall asleep this way. We tried the back carry on Aaron and she was not having any part of that!

 Of course, we Oklahomans are all ready for the start of basketball season. Here is Hensley sporting her Thunder onesie from her beloved Aunt Lyndsey.

 I love how Tae is always posing for pictures. She is so sassy and sweet. I can't believe she is going to be 5 less than a month from now. Time has gone by so fast and it makes me scared to know that it will go by just as fast with Hensley.

Coming up in the next few weeks we have Early Bird classes (kindergarten prep), a couple family birthday's, Halloween, and of course, my Tae bug's birthday.

Hensley: 4 months!

Weight: We don't have our 4 month check up until the end of the month, so I don't know officially how much she weighs. I would guess she is somewhere around the 15lb mark. She is still a little chunky girl and I love it. She has the shortest legs (I blessed her with that) and it makes her look pretty short. I think she is about 24 inches.

Food: Mommy's milk is still the main (and only) thing going on in this house. We've gotten down to a pretty good schedule and she nurses about every 4 hours. She is almost always content after feeding on one side too! I think there is a lot of misinformation about starting cereal at this age and I personally will be skipping the rice cereal (or any cereal for that matter) entirely. It really has no nutritional value and it is not advised to add anything other than breastmilk (or formula) for the first 6 months of life. I will be doing baby led weaning with Hensley. You can learn more about skipping the cereal here and baby led weaning here.

Clothes: She fits perfectly in 6 month clothes. I can still squeeze her into the bigger 3 month onesies and such, but not many. I think we are about to get some cold weather and I'm super excited for her to wear some cute cooler weather clothes!

Sleep: She is still sleeping in her bassinet up until her first feeding around 3:30ish. I've been leaving her in the bed after that, but I'm okay with that for now. She is still only waking twice to eat once at about 3:30am and then again at 6:30. She then sleeps until about 9am. She loves to fight her naps during the day. It is very rare that she takes longer than an hour nap before 4pm. I don't think she wants to miss out on anything.

Movement: Rolling over is officially our favorite thing to do. She rolls from her back to her tummy so easily that she even does it during diaper changes! She can also roll from her tummy to her back, but not as easily. She has also really started to scoot and can spin herself in all directions on her play mat.

Product: I think my favorite product this month has been this new teether we got her. The little fingers are rubbery and Hensley loves to hold it and chew on them. We also got out all of Tae's old baby toys and have been having fun going through all of those.

Highlight: We finally have a laugh! It takes a special kind of talent to get her to laugh, but she can do it and it's the cutest thing ever. Tae was playing "this little piggy" on her toes the other Tae and she was hysterical laughing. She has also started to coo and talk more and loves to talk to the news anchors on TV. I think she things they are talking to her, haha!

Taelyn: Taelyn has started to really enjoy interacting with Hensley. She loves to sing her songs and play games with her. She is getting so excited that Hensley is learning to play back. She is so gentle and caring with her little sister and she thinks and talks about her all the time.

Blessing: I feel truly blessed to have such a calm natured baby. Taelyn was such a fussy baby and I feel I missed out on enjoying a lot of the baby stuff. Hensley is so happy go lucky and almost nothing makes her upset. I am also blessed that Tae has so easily adjusted to her sister being here. She goes with the flow and is always so nice and sweet to Hensley!

My favorite things: preschooler edition!

My oldest daughter Taelyn will be 5 in a little over a month (can't believe it!). I've been having a lot of fun on the posts about my favorite products and I think it is a little overwhelming, with all the products out there, to find things for your family that are both safe and effective. Here is a list of some of my essentials for our preschooler!

 

A good sunscreen is a must, especially when you have a pale strawberry blonde little girl. I really like these two and you can find them here and here.

My poor little girl has bad reactions to mosquito bites. They turn really red and get huge. I really like this bug spray because it is made with all natural ingredients. Find it here.

I love our stainless steel sippy cups. The Kleen Kanteen ones come with either a sippy attachment or a sport cap and the Crocodile Creek ones have a pull up top.

 

 Kids love treats and my child is no different. We didn't introduce sugar until she was 2, but now that she knows what it is, it's hard to keep it away! We usually set treats aside for dessert time which she gets after she eats her dinner. I love the products from Yummy Earth. They are made with organic and natural ingredients. They don't have artificial colors or flavors either!

 

Two things Tae takes every day is a multi-vitamin and a probiotic. We are currently using this vitamin and she really likes them. Probiotics are great for digestive health and immune support. Make sure your probiotic is refrigerated. I really like this one by Garden of Eden because it is vegan and organic.

 

My daughter has a lot of hair and it is pretty long. I've tried a lot of different types of hair products and I really like this shampoo and conditioner by Jason.

Because of her thick and kind of curly hair, I've been using a separate detangler. This one by Little Twig is awesome and smells so good!

Kiss my Face has a lot of great products. They all work really well and smell super delicious. I love this body wash/bubble bath.

Regular bubble bath can cause a lot of irritation and it is just not good for little ones. I like this foam bath from Aura Cacia. It smells yummy and is made with essential oils.

My daughter loves to brush her teeth. She would do it 20 times a day if we would let her. Sometimes we use a fluoride toothpaste from Tom's, but this is what we are currently using and it is fluoride free.