Bath Time

When I was pregnant with Nolan I remember having a conversation with Gracie in the car.  She was asking about her baby brother and I was telling her the fun things they would get to do together.  She could help me change his diaper, hold him, and get him dressed.  She was so excited about all of this.  She asked me if he could play with her in the bath and I told her now for a long time.  He will have to be able to sit all by himself before that can happen.  At night while Gracie takes a bath I usually give Nolan a bath not with her.  One night I decided to put Nolan in with Gracie, now this was not an original idea.  My mom had done it while she was in town visiting in January.  Gracie loved it.  She wanted to show him all her toys and he loved watching her and loved just laying back and relaxing.  He is a little water baby and she loves helping me.  The other night Troy helped me by taking pictures while I held Nolan.  He loves, loves being naked and the water, now only if he could eat at the same time;)

Ouch

Just for us.  The other night Gracie was...well crossing her legs in a crazy pretzel.  Troy thought it was so funny and took a picture.  I never have shown Gracie to cross her legs in any way but like all kids she has learned from observing.  We love watching her learn.

Cousin Love

The past year has brought a lot of new babies to your family.  One of the our additions came last August.  Miss Nora!  Gracie always asks about her "friends" Sawyer & Nora, very cute.  When we look through pictures she can name all of her aunts and uncles but will refer to some of them as that is my friend.    Recently I got to keep Sawyer and Nora for a little bit.  They both showed off there siblings and showed each of there cousins love.  Sawyer got to hold Nolan which I have no picture of, not enough hands.  And then Sawyer, Gracie & Nora got to have some love.

Sawyer & Gracie holding Nora's hand.

Nora not care about who holds her hand.

Gracie Kissing on Nora.

I am sure once Nora can walk and play Gracie 

will have her playing any girly thing she can.

Gentle

Since Gracie has had hair she has this one section that always ends up in nots.  At bath time it is essential that I use lots of condition on the not and then I have to brush it after we get out.  This ends up being the hardest part.  I brush Gracie's hair out in section and I am always telling her that I am being really carful.  So when Gracie asked to brush my hair it was only far I said yes.  She did such a great job. She held my hair as she brushed so she would not pull it and then she talked to me about not talking to strangers.  I think I must give gracie advice during the hair brushing section of each day.  It was so funny to hear here telling my things I should do.  Things I know we have talked about.  At least I know she is listening.

~sorry my hair is dirty

My Little Man

I can't get enough of the smiles and coo's from Nolan.  He is such a fun little guy.  It is crazy how much love I have for Nolan and how much love I have for Gracie.  Never imaged I would be able to have so much love to share with them.

Gymnastics

My little Gracie Girl is growing up.  I thought this winter it would be fun to keep my little lady active by getting her into gymnastics class.  I thought it would be fun, I thought it would include some tumbling, and it did not.  It truly is gymnastics, bars and balance beams.  Either way she loves it.  The girls in her class for some reason all dress with tutus.  I have no idea why but Gracie of course wanted to as well.  Here are a couple cute pictures of Gracie checking her self out before class.

Game Time

One thing that is said with baby number 2 is that you don't take as many pictures and this is so true.  But in an effort to try to be at least close I am trying to make sure I get some good ones to fill his book.  Ones that I remember taking of Gracie and loving.

Here is my little man in his baseball outfit ready for another walk. We have gotten lucky with the random warm weather that comes in ever so often.  It allows for us not to be stuck in the house too long.

what mom?

your so funny

serious face

Winter Pictures

So by now you should now I love photography and snow, love it!  We finally had a beautiful snow fall and I was excited to get outside and get some pictures of Miss Gracie for her 3 year photos.  I called my friend Rachel from Rachel Ann Photography and we headed out to get some cute shots of our girls.  They turned out so cute!

3 Months

This 3rd month we do not have a well visit, the next one is not until March.  But based on our home scale it looks like Nolan is weighing over 13lbs not quite 14lbs yet but close.  As for height we will just wait until the doctor gives us his real stats next month.  You still have dry skin on your forehead and scalp but for the most part it is pretty cleared up, mommy just has to keep up with brushing it during each bath.

What Nolan is up too or still doing:

• Seems to be hungry all the time
• Loves being naked more then anything
• Smiles all the time
• When you are awake you want to be talked too
• Making bubbles
• Sticking out your tongue
• Favorite person by far is Gracie.  You smile the most for her, you loves her high pitched voice.
• Eating every 3 hours sometimes 4 and at the most 5
• Sleep schedule - most of the time you are in bed no later then 10 or 10:30
• You continue to spit up.  Although it has slowed down.  Not as much as before and when I think you have kicked this bad habit all together you surprise me with spit up;)  The other night you came home from being baby sat and smelled terrible from spit up.  I can smell it a mile away, yuck.  I know you have no stopped.
• nicknames: little man, squirt, buddy, pumpkin

NEW

• You are officially sleeping in your baby bed all the time.  You do just fine but you do scoot enough that your legs end up sticking out of the bars.  
• I have gone back to work part-time.  Both you and Gracie have adjusted well so far.  You go with daddy for a half day on Monday's and to Christina's on Tuesday and Thursday for the whole day.  I cherish every minute I have with you both on my days off.  I have to be very diligent about my lunch hour so I can get things done so I have Wednesday and Friday dedicated to just you two.
• Loves talking.
• You like to be held a lot right now, you just want to be talked to.
• Trying to sit up.  I don't mean you can do this by yourself but if I am holding you, you try.  You also love sitting up in a chair or on the couch.  I think it is time to borrow a bumbo.
• Gracie has always been pretty consistent with her clothes size.  At 3 months she wore 3 month clothes.  Nolan is so long that his night time pj's are to short.  I pulled out 3 to 6 month pj's and 6 month pj's and the weight and length in them were the same.   You don't fill it out completely length wise but you need the room and the 3 month are to short.  I have started to go through all of your clothes and make sure I get one last picture of you  in my favorite outfits.  I have a couple of onsies I have pulled out that I love and the are not close to buttoning any more.  Some pants are ok on the length but pretty close.  We are officially moving you up.  This is very sad for your mommy.  If there was such thing as 4 month that is where you would be.
• I ran out of size 1 diapers and already had a box of 2's so that is where we are now.  We would have ended up in 2's soon anyway.  Please slow down in growing.
• You have just recently wore your first pair of shoes.  You are a size 1 but I just made it.  I am not sure that you will be in a 1 much longer.  
• You are growing like a weed and it is breaking my heart to see your things get packed.
• You have no problem taking a bottle as long as you are being feed you are happy.
• Starting to become ticklish or react to me tickling you.  I do stop quickly because I think it is like torment when you can't fully belly laugh yet.
• Grabbing your toys that hang down from the play mat.
• Drooling often.
• Love chewing on your hand, thumb, or paci.
• You love bath time.
• I am not in a hurry to have you rolling over or crawling so lets move slow on these, please.

Best Moments of the Last Month:

• I put Nolan down in his bed a couple of times between 9 & 9:30.  Much to my surprise he slept to 5am.  I won't let myself get use to this but thank you for the extra time.
• We love how you smile at us when we talk.  Daddy says you can find me any where in the room and grin ear to ear when you see me.  You make my heart melt.
• Watching Gracie comfort you when you are sad.  She gives you your paci and say "shhh".  We love watching the sibling love grow.

Nursing Pads

With another member in our family we continue to look for ways to save.  One things I hate doing is buying things that just seem a waste.  Now I do need nursing pads but I HATE paying for them and they cost so much.  I ordered a set of reusable nursing pads from Etsy and loved them.  So, I did what any person in search for a tutorial would do, search Pinterest.  I looked at a bunch of tutorials, two of which I have pinned to my DIY board.  But I was not excited about just one of the tutorials.  So I took what I like from each and put mine together.  The ones I made turned out great.  In fact I am getting ready to make another batch and they were supper easy.  I way have to use these as a gift for a new mom I know;)

Supplies:

• flannel fabric {side that will touch your skin}
• towel fabric {used for absorbency}
• Pul Fabric {waterproof barrier}
• Scissors
• 4" plate or cup - something close to that size
• Marker

Step 1: Find your fabric.  You can recycle a towel or flannel scraps you may already have.  I bought about a quarter of a yard of the Pul fabric from JoAnn's it cost me about $2.

Step 2: Wash and dry the towel and fleece fabric.  {It really will shrink}

Step 3: Using the 4" item you found, trace the circle onto all 3 of your fabrics. 

{you can also trace your item onto poster board to make yourself a pattern} 

{I used a little bowl and a Sharpie}

-all fabrics can be found at JoAnn Fabrics

Step 4: Cut all your circles, this is the most time consuming part.

Step 5: Layer your three fabrics.  Fleece, 1 towel layer, and the Pul fabric, pin together.  Make sure you have the color side of the Pul fabric on the outside away from the towel fabric. {1 layer of towel fabric worked great for day time.  If you are making night time pads you might want to use 2 or 3 layers of towel fabric}

Step 6: I sewed around the edges of the pad first. {see above & below picture}

{i did all of them this way first, it made Step 7 much easier}

Step 7: Using the zig-zag stitch on my machine I went around the entire perimeter of the pad.  Make sure the needle runs off the edge of the circle, binding the edges.  On my first set I only did this once but I suggest doing it twice if you have the time and patience.  This will keep the fabric from fraying or unraveling.

Step 8: If needed you can trim the edges

{The pink ones are from Etsy and the blue ones I made.  I love them both}

Side Note: 

• If you have a Serger this whole tutorial would be so much easier
• If you are interested in using scrap fabrics from home check out Hipster Hostess Tutorial.  She uses Vinyl to make her fabrics water proof.

Let me know if you have any questions.

So Sweet

You might be sick of the sibling love going on over here but we just can't get enough.  These two just love being around each other.  Nolan loves looking and listening to his sister chat away.

Big Sis, Lil Bro

A very long while back I made the below shirts.  Before I was even pregnant I made a shirt for Gracie and I made a pink shirt and a blue shirt for future hopes.  The pink shirt ended up being a gift for my niece and Nolan obviously ended up with the blue.  I finally got a picture of them wearing there t-shirts.

Sick Day

My little Gracie had a temp and a belly ache.  We did what most like to do when sick, lay around in our pj's and watch movies.  Nolan hung out with Gracie for just a little bit while I got some freshly clean laundry folded.  When I have a sick child it seems I am washing everything.