...

so my weekly photo idea clearly has not panned out.

good try amy good try. lol.

as much as i would love to blog consistently i think i have to accept that it's just not happening right now. maybe if i stop putting those expectations on myself it'll just happen.

but i do wanna talk right now.

for those that don't know, my little family and i moved in with alex's mom right after christmas.

we moved from my parents' where we had lived since alex graduated in may.

before this, in october we planned and did in fact start our house hunt.

we were veeeery excited to buy a house.

but after a weekend of looking and realizing our financial state we decided to put the house buying on hold.

it was hard but definitely the smart decision. we didn't want to go into home ownership with little to no savings.

so we decided to move in with april and claire where we have more of our own space and privacy.

we are working on paying off as much debt and also saving as much money as we can while we're here.

i like to spend money (ha) but i'm excited for this challenge!

something that we just started doing to keep us on track with our grocery budget is adding everything up as we put it in the cart.

it (mostly) works!

i'm amazed at the stuff i usually buy that we don't really need.

next time i might just bring cash and leave my card at home so i have no choice but to stay within budget.

but i might be too scared to do that lol.

i have also been cooking consistently since moving in here!

for me, this is no small feat.

i have always loved baking but until now i have not enjoyed cooking.

while we lived with my parents my brother cooked a lot.

and he's amazing. seriously whoever marries him is one lucky girl.

and honestly up until the last couple months scarlett was still mostly breastfeeding so

i just majorly slacked off on preparing food.

BUT now, even tho we still live with family, because of their schedules, most of the time i have the kitchen to myself.

tho making room in the refrigerator for everyone's stuff has been challenging. but we're dealing with it ok.

as a lot of you know eating whole (un processed), organic foods is really important to me.

which means i've had to suck up my dislike of cooking haha.

this is something that has always been important to me from a relatively young age...

but for a long time i also felt so overwhelmed.

i didn't know where to start. i felt like i had to do all or nothing.

and because i couldn't do it all meant i did nothing.

honestly that is probably why until recently i barely cooked.

but thank God i am outta that rut!

starting one thing at a time and making that habit proved to be very helpful to me.

simply becoming aware of the ingredients made such a difference for me.

for example, in one loaf of bread, even the "healthy" kind there are like 30 or 40 different ingredients, half of them unpronounceable and you certainly wouldn't find most of them in your kitchen. ew.

so we now pretty much only buy things that have about 5 or so whole ingredients.

we haven't cut out all our favorite junk food snacks yet.

that will be hard. but we're making progress.

 i have to say that the more informed i have become on the power of what we put into (and not only into but onto) our bodies the more excited i get about whole foods!

i have actually enjoyed cooking recently and i think when i eventually have my very own kitchen i will enjoy it even more :)

week 1

scarlett tried straightening her hair for the first time this week.
{don't worry, it clearly wasn't on when she got it}
she has been imitating everything. wanting to do everything mommy does.
so stinkin sweet is this girl of mine.

i decided i'm going to definitely post a picture of alex and i every week because
since having scarlett photos of just the two of us have not been as plentiful
so i thought it would be fun.
so here's us last night.
me, super excited about taking pictures haha
and alex completely exhausted after a stressful week at work
but taking pictures with me anyway :)

Scarlett :: 15 Months

miss scarlett is 15 months today.

tho i have been calling her a toddler for a while now, i feel like in the last couple weeks she has actually
turned into one. i have noticed such a difference in her.
 she is quickly losing her baby-ness.

 i pray it doesn't go too quickly.

she loves animals and being outside.
she loves putting on her aunt kronky's lip gloss...
or at least pretending.
she is very friendly...
she waves hi to everyone and everything.
most of the time tho she doesn't say 'bye' until you're gone and out of sight.
then you'll get lots of bye byes :)
it's hard for me to imagine her ever not loving to dance because she just continues to love
movin to the music more and more.
reading is still her favorite thing to do.
and i have just a little addiction to kid books.
thank God for Savers haha.

she is such a sweet little babbler.

i could listen to those sounds for the rest of my life. 

she has started saying a few words 

 {other than hi and bye}

like...

ball

bubble

book

dog

{she hasn't mastered the d sound yet so dog is more like "og" or "ga"}

she did say "dada" / "doddy" once which totally made alex's night...or life lol.

he has been trying to get her to say it since then but no luck ;)

she only says mama occasionally and it's not so much "mama"
as it is "ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma" lol.

she loves pointing out her (or our) belly button, nose, eye, mouth, teeth, sometimes ear and toes!

my favorite is eye.

she will say EYE, really high pitched, while sticking her finger IN your eye.

our poor dog haha...who we are not always able to rescue before it happens. 

speaking of harles...

it is the cutest thing to see her lay back on him and relax....or give him kisses on his nose.

she loves all animals but mostly dogs and pigs. and cats.

i was about to crop this picture once i saw the dirty couch because i want you to
think i've got it more together than that. buuut yeah. i had a yogurt covered couch.
oh well. i'm also sure most people wouldn't have noticed if i hadn't pointed it out.
oh well again. lol. this is growth for me, people.

at the beginning of the month we got to spend some days hanging out with this little guy.
mr jack is my oldest friend in the world's baby.
we had so much fun with him.

scarlett is so affectionate in general but with babies she is extra lovey.
she loves gently (and sometimes not so gently) laying her head slash face on him.
poor jack didn't love it as much usually. so i had to snap pics quick!

it certainly gave me a feel what having 2 kids could be like. 

kisses.

scarlett loves to play peek a boo. whether hiding under a blanket or
hiding behind her hands :)

peek-a-boo!

she weighs about 30 lbs.
and is slowly starting to thin out a little.
she's wearing mostly 3T...tho all her pants need to be 4T or 5T to fit around her waist.
her hair is starting to get long! especially in the front....she doesn't usually like to keep clips in it
but i don't want to cut it yet....

i may have to add to this later for my own sake but i'll leave it at this for now.

we love you, sweet girl.

mommy daughter time

i love my girl.

and something i love doing with her is dancing.

i don't know when it happened but a nightly dance party is now apart of our routine.

in the hour before alex gets home from work, i put some fun music on --

recently it has been christmas!

as soon as it is on scar knows what's comin and she reaches excitedly up for me to pick her up.
we dance, i run her around and slide across the wood floors.
that's her favorite.

it is also a great work out for me ;)

it has become such a special time for us and i look forward to it every day.

this was us sliding...i really wasn't trying to push the camera away :)

good baby. bad baby?

"Is she a good baby?" 
This is a question I get fairly often from a lot of different people...from old acquaintances to random strangers in the grocery store.

And every time I hear it my insides get a little tense. 

I almost never say what comes to mind...
 I just smile and say "she's the best."  

"Is she a good baby?"

 {What does that even mean?!}

Is your puppy cute?! Of course your puppy is cute! All puppies are cute -- even the ugly ones!
What kind of a question is that??

For whatever reason this question really bothers me. If you're asking if she's good that means you think she could be bad. What makes a baby bad? Seriously. I'm curious.

Maybe what they mean to ask, "Is she a happy baby?"

That is what I think most people are really asking... is she happy? 

But if that's the case, then are you saying

 if she's not happy (i.e cries a lot or doesn't sleep well etc.) she is a bad baby?
And that is the part that I dislike the most. The thought that being happy is equal to being good, insinuating that if your baby fussed a lot or didn't sleep well he/she was bad {because she was too much of a bother to her parents}.

I doubt most people think of it that way when they ask.

I'm sure it is mainly a way for people to make small talk. I'm sure they mean well.
I'm sure I'm just a crazy person lol.
But it really does get me thinking about the mindset so many have towards children...
that they are less important -- their feelings, their wants, their needs
And that makes me sad.. 

I really want to help change the way our world sees children.

I'm excited :)

photo credit: Jenni Photography

learning at home

little s is over 14 months old now. crazy.
she loves doing new things. i'm always trying to keep her toys rotated and coming up with new things for her to do.
thank God for pinterest. if i'm not taking an exact idea that i found on there i am inspired and come up with something else.

this is one of those inspirations.
so simple.

i used an old parmesan cheese container and gave her q-tips to put thru the holes on top.
i showed her how to do it and she caught on and did it right away with little trouble.
sometimes asking me, with her grunts and pointing, to hold it steady so it didn't fall.
sometimes we use straws or dry beans. she likes the noise the beans make and will shake it
until they all fall out.

i love using stuff around the house to play and learn!

today was an extra chilly morning so we stayed in our pjs a while!

i love being a momma to a toddler :)

Scarlett's 1st Birthday Party!

we celebrated miss scarlett's 1st birthday on september 9th.
the day turned out perfect. i am really so happy with how it turned out.
especially since i am a procrastinator... and tho i had been thinking seriously about this party since scar was 5 or 6 months old, i didn't start ordering and making things until the two weeks prior.
so i did heap a little bit of stress on myself by doing that. mostly worrying that it wasn't going to be everything that i imagined. i could have done with a little less of that ;)
but it was perfect.
even scar's nap time worked out! i was most worried that she wouldn't nap beforehand and then be exhausted or she would just nap through the party lol. but she woke up from nap right on time! it was a beautiful, sunny sunday afternoon.

i don't think it would have mattered if the cake had turned out the wrong color or if i hadn't gotten to making the banners or i used mason jars as glasses or plastic cups...
 it was perfect because it was a celebration of the sweetest blessing in our life.

this woman is responsible for these amazing photos! she is one of my best and longest friends
and she is seriously one of the BEST photographers i have ever seen. if it hadn't been so important
to me to have her in my wedding, i would have hired her to photograph it! you can find her at Jenni Photography!.
check her out.
seriously.

my grandma was here when i was making these and she ended
up helping me sew them which helped the process go so much faster.

i ended up hanging up more pictures than i planned because they were all so cute, i couldn't choose!
i also randomly hung up photos of alex and i at the same age.
(this is still hanging on the wall, btw. my mom told me to leave it up)

i had everyone sign a couple pieces of pretty paper for her birthday book.
this is great grandma wimmer.

all the food is thanks to my lovely mother in law, April, who made all of it!
i picked up this lace tablecloth for $1 at a garage sale over the summer.
so i guess i didn't put everything off to the last minute haha.

getting ready for cake! 

enjoying the singing one second...

not so much the next. poor sweet girl. it may look like we're laughing at her
but i promise we're not. :)

all better! enjoying cake for the first time.

sharing her cake.

it took her a couple minutes but she got pretty messy.

present time! 

all she wanted was to chew on anything and everything.

she wasn't to into unwrapping the presents but she did want to play with everything once it was unwrapped.

a pretty winter jacket!
(that she has already worn a couple times)
she got a full fall wardrobe thanks to this party.

one of her favorite friends, gavyn! who came all the way from champaign. 

this was a surprise present from daddy that i didn't know about...he brought it into the house after
all the other presents were opened and she squealed and screamed for like 10 minutes
and eventually we went outside, she would not get out and just laughed the whole time
she was in there.


we are so blessed by her.

we are so blessed by our families.

we are so blessed by our friends.

they came from iowa and texas and champaign and the chicago area to be with her.
and that means the world to us.

thank you.