Oh Hey, Friday! {Link-Up}

I'm linking up for the first time with September Farm & The Farmers Wife for oh hey, Friday!!  So let's get started with my 5 random things (my iPad keeps asking me if I want to change "things" to "thongs" - really?!)

1.  We officially have a 2 year old in the house again. Yesterday we celebrated Hayden's 2nd birthday. Go here to read all about Hayden!  It's crazy to us every year that passes! We are in full 2 year old mode which includes tantrums and fighting sleep in our household. Although our almost 4 year old does those exact same things!  We didn't do anything extravagant - went to see some friends and then had dinner with both of the grandparents.

2.  We got Hayden a full train track set for her birthday. It didn't come assembled, so I was lucky enough to put together that bad boy. If you ever want to feel really dumb and get really frustrated or angry go buy it and put it together. 

But the end results are totally worth it!

3.  We are headed to the beach tomorrow for a week and we couldn't be more excited!! We haven't been in a few years and it will be Hayden & Harper's first time.  I don't have any posts planned out yet, so you might not hear from me on here. I'll definitely be posting to Instagram though!

4.  I’m all over Pinterest finding inspiration for our half bathroom remodel.  Here’s what I realllyy want to do with the walls::

via

Follow along to see if we actually end up doing something like this! Here's my inspiration board so far - Half Bathroom.

5.  Earlier this week I had one of those days where you feel like all you do is yell. The day started off great and gradually got worse.  No naps didn't help, but the girls tend to go to sleep better at night with no naps.  I hate reflecting on the day and feeling guilty.  Do you guys ever have days like that?

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Hayden is 2 Years Old!

Another year down in the books! Hayden is the big 2! She’s a firecracker for sure.  Hayden can be the sweetest little girl, but can also be mean as well.  She has a big sister to stand up to!  Hayden is so fun and determined and we love watching her grow!

Hayden currently goes to school 3 full days a week and will continue with that schedule probably until she starts preschool.  She was doing really well and not crying when I dropped her off, but then she started crying every morning a couple months ago.  They have a “biter” in her class, and she’s been the victim a few times.  I think the crying started at the same time she got bit.  That was a few months ago and no biting incidents, so it’s just a phase {and manipulation of me cause she’s fine the entire day}.

Hayden is our eater.  She loves food and is definitely not as picky as her sister.  She sometimes is finicky, but it’s just a mood.  She loves mandarin oranges, cheese, doughnuts, chicken, and LOVES any kind of sauce you’ll give her {including soy sauce}.

Hayden is our little mother.  She loves baby dolls and playing mother to her babies.  She pats them on the back to burp them and when putting them to sleep.  She will even cover Hadleigh up and pat her on the back when they’re playing.  It’s really sweet. Hadleigh & Hayden play well with each other and truly love each other.  They fight often and don’t share very well, but that’s kids for ya!  Hayden has learned from Hadleigh and loves a good bag to carry her toys around in.

Hayden still isn’t talking too much.  We went to a few speech therapy sessions, but I felt like they weren’t doing anything different than what we were doing at home.  So we ended the sessions.  She will pick up talking on her own pace.  She’s saying a lot more than she was, but it’s still slow coming. Hayden still has her beloved bippy {pacifier}.  It’s going to be a big struggle to get that thing from her.  When she is at school she only gets it for nap time and does wonderful.  When she is home with Daniel and I, she wants it all the time.  We are suckers and usually give in.  We will work on taking it away within the next 6 months probably.

Hayden isn’t potty trained, but is interested in the potty.  She likes to go “pee-pee” and just sit on the toilet and wipe.  They take them to the potty at school every now and then and she usually just sits there as well.  When I picked her up last week, her teacher told me she actually WENT! Woop woop!  She’s not fully ready, but showing signs so I’m pretty excited!

Funny things she says/does:

She loves any kind of sauce and always wants “Mo” {more}

How she pats your back when she wants you to go nite nite

She waves her finger at you and says “no no!”

She will put her hands up in the air and shake her head as if she is saying “I don’t know”

She has the funniest and most animated facial expressions

Mommy, Daddy, Hadleigh, and Harper love you so so much!!

New House Project - Half Bathroom

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen that we've been working on another little house project!  {If you don’t follow, you should. You’ll see a lot of cute little girls. You've been warned.}

The ½ bathroom off of our utility room needs some serious lovin’.  Take a look at the before pictures – the wallpaper was ridiculous and the vanity took up so much room in there.

Daniel and I started taking down the wallpaper by using our clothes steamer ;) It totally worked for the top layer.  There was still some left on the wall, so we got out a spray bottle and filled it with 1/3 water & 2/3 fabric softener. Worked like a charm. It scraped the rest of the paper right off the wall.

I then talked Daniel into pulling up the hardwood in there, so we could put new flooring down.  I wanted to be able to start from an empty room, so we could do whatever we wanted.  We've already decided what to do with the walls, although I need to decide on a color.  We are going to wait to take a trip to the tile shop and decide on a new floor then.

Stay tuned for more updates on Instagram and then the final result!!

The Blogmopolitan Quiz

I couldn’t resist this when I saw it on Two ThirdsHazel and then again on Mal Smiles J I’m a sucker for a good quiz! Head on over and link yours up!

July 4th Weekend!

We headed to the river for the holiday weekend.  Both of our parents have a house on the Rappahannock, so we got to spend time with family and friends in the sun J

 The girls always have a blast down there – playing in the water, riding the golf carts, and driving their Barbie 4-wheeler.  Hadleigh’s a pro at driving, although she gets distracted very easily!  Hayden is just learning the gas pedal on the 4 wheeler and has yet to master steering. The community had a band and fireworks, so we enjoyed those for a little bit on Saturday night. Hayden doesn't like the fireworks, so she clung to daddy the whole time.

We even made some S'mores one night!

I dressed the girls in festive outfits on the 4^th – I can’t help but have them match when I get the opportunity! 

 We also took a nice boat ride.  I forgot to pick up a newborn life-vest, so Harper stayed with my parents while we took the older girls.  They loved it and were both asleep within 10 minutes.  If only it was that easy at home! 

What were your plans for the fourth?

Did you dress in red, white, and blue?

30th Birthday Girls Weekend + Favorite Things Party

This post is long overdue!  Back in February, I had a girls weekend away to celebrate all of us turning 30.  I’ve been friends with this group of ladies since elementary school and we've talked about girls weekend for a long time.   Most of us still live in Virginia, but we have one in Pennsylvania and one in North Carolina.  We decided on the mountains and rented a cabin in Wintergreen, VA.  It was perfect.  We didn't turn the TV on once.  The best thing about these girls is that we pick up as if we were still in high school spending every day with each other.  Most of the time was spent upstairs in the common area chatting away. 

Reading so many blogs, I really wanted to do a favorite things party.  We originally had planned on drawing names and buying a birthday gift for the name we chose.  I convinced all the girls to jump on the ‘favorite things’ bandwagon J Many of the girls were a little skeptical, but afterwards said they were looking forward to next year’s favorite things party! Woohoo!  We were going to wait until Saturday evening to have the party, but as we were chatting someone would say, “man, I wish I had some chap-stick” and it would make us excited to give our favorite things out to everyone.  So, we decided to just give all of our gifts to each other around midnight Friday night. Everyone went and explained their gifts to everyone.  There were 9 of us (one of us couldn't make it), so everyone brought a favorite thing for all 9 with a budget of $0-$5 per gift.

Saturday was spent relaxing and chatting all day.  We finally got motivated to shower and get ready in time to head to Devil’s Backbone Brewery for dinner, drinks, and music.  Three of us (myself included) were pregnant, so no drinks for us!  

The night ended on a game of “leaving” two girls from our group at the brewery because they weren't coming when everyone else wanted to leave.  Hilarious. The rest of us packed into the car and pretended to leave them there.  Bitchy, but so funny all at the same time.  It was fun pulling the cars into a convenient store parking lot waiting for them to call and freak out that we had left them.  They never called.  We ended up having to go back in and get them. Womp Womp.

We made a promise to do girls weekend every year, so I cannot wait until next year!

1 Month Comparison

 I have taken pictures of all three girls in the same outfit on their 1 month birthday.  It happens to be the exact same outfit my parents brought me home in.  Apparently, I was a huuuggee baby (not really, only 7 pounds 13 ounces) because the outfit swallowed all of my girls until they were a month old.

 We always thought Hadleigh and Hayden looked so much alike – and they did in the hospital.  Then Harper was born and with that light hair we weren't sure she looked like her sisters.  Hadleigh & Harper look more similar in this picture and even in person.  All have some similar features, but we think Hayden will be the one that looks a little different.

I found these other pictures of them in the same blue onesie, so I decided to do a side-by-side comparison here as well.

Do your kids look like each other?

Professional Pictures as a Family of 5!

I knew I wanted to get professional pictures done with Nikki after having Harper.  If you remember, we got pictures done with her last year for the girls’ 1^st & 3^rd birthdays.  This year we wanted to get them for a few reasons: 1) Newborn shots of Harper 2) Pictures of Hadleigh & Hayden since their 2^nd & 4^th birthdays are coming up and 3) to get a family shot of the 5 of us.

 

Nikki is amazing and got some great shots!  I was pretty nervous during the shoot.  Having three kids to cooperate is a little stressful and chaotic, but Nikki came through!  If you’re local to Richmond, you need to book a session with her – you won’t be disappointed.  Also, go see her blog for some more pictures from our session here.