Not a baby anymore

I mentioned this a few weeks ago... but I'm really starting to notice Lexi leaving baby-hood behind and moving full speed toward toddlerhood. Every day she does new things that remind me that she is no longer my itty-bitty baby. 

Things like talking on the phone...

Drinking Starbucks...

Wearing pigtails... (!!!)

And nail polish... (!!!)

 Getting into everything...

EVERYTHING...

And climbing on things...

But sometimes, she still seems like my sweet, snuggly baby who I swear was just born yesterday...

{{The birthday countdown is on! 8 days!!!}}

Lexi's Room

****Google Reader is disappearing in 3 weeks, so don't forget to come follow me on Bloglovin!****

****Congrats to Callie from Through Clouded Glass for winning the My Girl Creations bow giveaway!****

I finally have Lexi's room painted, decorated, and done! Since, ya know, she's almost a year old now. Geez! Since we lived in a rental house for the first 7 months of her life, I never really goto to decorate her nursery how I wanted. I made due with what we had, and used wall decals to help fill in the walls. But it always felt so empty and I was never really happy with it. So, when we moved into our new house, I was SO excited to be able to paint anything I wanted! And I am so happy with how everything in her room has turned out! I've already posted a few of these pictures in my Pinterest House post, but her are pictures of everything in her new room. 

 {Shelves with verses and pictures}

 {Crib bedding that my mom and I made. And LOVE.}

 {Curtains that I made from coordinating fabric and burlap}

{Bow holder that I made out of a decorative board from Michaels and drawer pulls from Lowe's }

{Headband holders that I made by spray painting command hooks to match}

{STRIPES! These took forever, but I love how they turned out!}

{Wreath mobile I made from a wreath form, leftover fabric, and leftover burlap}

{Letters I made from 6x6 square canvases, scrapbook paper, and painted letters}

I am finally loving her room! 

And completely ignoring the fact that it won't be long before we have to change it into a "big girl" room. Waaaaaah!

Taking the train

First, don't forget to enter the BOW GIVEAWAY here!!!

Yesterday, my mom and I decided to take the kids on a little day trip to a town about 35 minutes away from us. They have a yummy little restaurant that serves delicious (and ginormous) ice cream. It's quasi-famous in our area. But the best part about it is that there is a train stop just around the corner, so you can just hop on the train to get there! 

Both Jax and Lexi had a great time on the train ride and it was so fun to see the joy on their faces. Lexi was bouncing up and down as soon as we started moving, and Jax just kept saying "I hope we go super fast", which we did, so he loved it. 

Honestly, the restaurant wasn't all that kid-friendly (well, baby-friendly), so it was a little hard with Lexi, but we still had a great time and the ice cream was yummy! Next time we'll bring a picnic lunch, get our ice cream to go, and enjoy it all at the little park across the street.

It was fun to take a trip out of town and do something different with the kids. I'm sure we'll be going back sometime in the near future!

GIVEAWAY!!!

Friends, I have a GIVEAWAY for y'all today!

And it's for my very favorite thing... BOWS!!!

How stinkin' cute are these?

My sweet friend, Lindsey, over at My Girl Creations makes these adorable bows!

Well, I suppose they are technically flowers :)

How cute is Lindsey's daughter Kaylee??

Lindsey was generous enough to give me one for my sweet girl to wear, and seriously, how adorable does she look in it?! You may recognize the picture from Lexi's 11 month post ;)

Here is another one that I bought because I just couldn't resist. And seriously, the chevron headband... LOVE!

(Excuse the less-than-perfect cell phone picture. Attempting photos yesterday was nearly impossible!)

These are beautifully made and they even have a no-slip grip so I can put it in Lexi's barely-there hair without a headband and it doesn't move.

See!

Lindsey is offering one to giveaway to a lucky reader!

{{You will get your choice of any one flower, plus headband to go with it}}

This giveaway will be open until Friday, June 14th.

Use the rafflecopter link below to enter to win!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

11 months old!!

Well friends, here we are at the last monthly update before Lexi's first birthday! It's completely surreal to me that in just a few short weeks we will be singing happy birthday and watching my sweet girl smash her cake. And I have faith that she will be an awesome cake smasher! That girl loves her sugar :)

This month has been SO FULL of milestones for her. Basically, she has spent the last four weeks turning from a baby to an almost toddler. And my mama heart is so happy, and so sad all at the same time! I feel like she was born yesterday, and yet I watch this beautiful girl crawling (yes, crawling, finally!) around our house, laughing at her brother, saying real words, and having a {strong} opinion about things, and I realize that she's not a baby anymore. Ok, now that I'm crying writing this... let's move on to all the fun stuff that she's been doing.

I had to keep a list on my phone of all the new developments because I was so afraid that I would forget something. As I mentioned above, she is finally crawling! And she is loving her new-found freedom. She goes all over the house, usually following Jax around, and finding anything that could be used as a toy. She is also sleeping through the night pretty consistently. She usually sleeps 8-6/630. She usually crawls around her crib, lays down, then crawls around some more before she finally falls asleep. She is also a full-time tummy sleeper now. She has started playing while sitting on her knees, and seriously, THAT makes her seem so big! She is also pulling to standing in her crib, on me, and any other surface that is low enough and she can get a good grip on. She says mama specifically to me or when she wants me (she had been babbling it, along with dada and bubba, for a while). She is signing "all done" and is signing and saying "more". If y'all are keeping track, that's about 10 new things all in the last month! Talk about a huge developmental leap!

I am absolutely loving this stage that she is at. She's able to do so much, and her sweet personality is starting to develop, and I just love it!

The first birthday countdown is on!!!

Jax is FOUR!!!

My sweet firstborn turned four years old at 6:56am this morning! I can't believe it's been four whole years since he was born. They have been the best, craziest, most exhausting, and completely fulfilling years of my life. I love him more than I could ever put into words. 

Jax is such a funny, caring, loving kid. He loves us and his baby sister so much and always lets us know. He's wise beyond his years and is always asking questions about the world around him. He loves to play with Legos, ride his bike and new scooter, do puzzles, practice addition using his fingers, wrestle, hug Lexi, go swimming, play with his water table, go on walks, play at the park, eat at restaurants, help me cook, go to Sunday school, taking baths, and play games on the iPad. 

We had his pirate-themed birthday party on Saturday. We had about 40 people here, and it was very busy but very fun! Jax had a great time and that's what is most important!

I made all the paper decorations for the party

I made a marble cake with cream cheese frosting. Nom nom! I ordered this cute pirate ship cake topper from a shop on Etsy. 

The party was mid-afternoon so we just did snack foods. Everything was pirate-themed and it all turned out yummy and cute! Besides these veggies and dip, we had berry'd treasure (berry salad), cannon balls (melon balls), gold doubloons (bite-size sugar cookies), and pirate's booty. 

I saw these two cute pirate games on Pinterest. 

Hook Toss!

And walk the plank!

I had a table set up with pirate gear for kids to put on when they arrived. Hats, eye patches, draw-on mustaches, and balloon swords for everyone!

He's four!

These three are my everything!

We took Jax on a date to the movies by himself yesterday after church. We saw Epic, and Jax got totally bored with it. It was a good movie, but there was too much storyline for a kid his age to follow. 

We ended up leaving early, running home to get Lexi, and heading to our local water park for a little while before dinner. 

Today we are getting Jamba Juice for breakfast (his request), meeting our friends at the splash park, then heading to my parent's house for swimming and dinner. It should be a fun birthday for my sweet boy!

Happy Birthday, Jax Alan! 

You are so very loved!!!