Useful Baby Websites and Apps

Useful websites:

Kellymom.com This site is great for breastfeeding information, such as which medications are "safe" to use while breastfeeding.

Wholesome Baby Food This is a great guide to making your own baby food at home. I also liked my William's Sonoma Baby and Toddler cook book. These are both very simple guides, but it was nice to have as some foods I didn't even think about giving my baby.

Pinterest Follow my Pins

Fun Apps for your phone:

What to Expect Fertility

What to Expect Pregnancy

What to Expect Baby

Fisher-Price Shapes and Colors

Fisher-Price Animals

Fisher-Price Lets Count

Fisher-Price Where's Puppy

Look Baby!

Bubbles

Peekaboo Barn

Peekaboo Ocean

Seuss ABC

iBaby Feed Timer

White Noise

Crocheting:

I am still learning to crochet, but I am enjoying it. I made my daughter a blanket for her first birthday. It isn't perfect, but she sleeps with it every night. Its warm, and has plenty of ventilation so I'm not overly concerned with SIDS and the use of this blanket. I've also crocheted several hats, though none of them have come out perfect quite yet. And I have crocheted one scarf that I made for my mother-in-law for christmas. Etsy has a plethora of vendors who sell crochet patterns. They are all super cute and seem to be all the craze right now with my generation of momma's. Here are some pieces I have crocheted so far...

HAIR, Hair, hair...

So for the past couple weeks I have been working with my hair a bit more. And most of my inspiration has been from links I've found on pinterest.

My latest try was the sock bun. The sock part was super SIMPLE. The making of the bun was a bit more difficult. I watched several video's to decide which method was best for me (goodness there are many different sock bun methods!), but this video tutorial is the one I liked best:

She shows two methods of doing the sock bun, I preferred the second method she demonstrates.

I will try this again, but my first attempt was a complete FAIL. I have very naturally curly hair. So before trying this method, I washed my hair, dried it so that there was some dampness still, straightened it a little bit to settle fly aways and get rid of any waves after blow drying. Then I put my head upside down to put it into a high ponytail on the TOP of my head. And followed the second method instructions from the above video. My sock bun looked like the girls' in this video. However this morning, when I took it out, I had a crease in my hair from the ponytail holder, and my curls were very large so that only the ends of my hair were curled. And then within an hour, my curls were completely gone.

I am not sure this sock bun will work for me as my hair is naturally curly, and if I tried this method without straightening, I think my natural waves might take over and my frizz would be out of control (which is why I straightened it a little to begin with). But I'll let you know how attempt number two goes.

Here is my sock bun:

Another hair style that I have adored is natural, big waves. Here is a tutorial I found during my hunt:

I followed this tutorial, but I didn't find that it was much different from how I had been styling my hair while curly. The biggest point for me was learning HOW TO curl my hair... starting up high and not curling in the same direction with EVERY curl made. Overall, I was super happy how this hairstyle came out, and it lasted two days... a third was possible but I chose to wash my hair. Here's how it came out (day 1):

Another style I tried is a low "fancy" bun. I found this on pinterest and its a hair tutorial from TBD (The Beauty Department, also another Lauren Conrad site/blog). Here is a link to the tutorial: Prim and Proper TBD Bun

This is how mine turned out:

Another hairstyle that is very popular right now is the side french braid, there are a ton of variations. I followed a hairdresser's blog that is flooding pinterest. And she is GREAT. Here is her blog: The Small Things Blog

I was never taught how to french braid, so I needed a little help, and here was one you tube tutorial I found:

It was very simple, and I've been doing this every few days now when my hair is borderline greasy but I don't have time to wash it. Here is my first time trying it:

I bought some clear, small hair ties instead of the one you see in the picture. And I generally pull my hair back into a messy bun. Here was my inspiration:

The last piece regarding hair is the products you use. My two latest purchases include Moroccan Oil and Soy Tri-Wheat Leave in Conditioner.

Madison's FIRST birthday

Her FIRST birthday has come and gone... but here is how it turned out! (Oh my gosh I have a one year old toddler!!!!)

Madison's Birthday Outfit. It was gorgeous. It fit perfectly, and washed nicely after her party. It will be a great keepsake for her special box of goodies.

Here is the link to the etsy shop that I bought her outfit from: Blooms N Bows

Madison and her smash cake. She was NOT interested. The only reason we got this picture of her touching the cake is because we put some of her yogurt puffs on the cake. This is her cake smash shirt so she didn't get her birthday outfit filthy.

On this table we had lemon-cucumber water, punch (pineapple-orange-banana concentrate, lemonade concentrate, strong earl grey tea, and ice cream), powered jelly donuts, and jawbreakers. The photo's on the back wall were from her birthday invite, and we just reused them on the wall display. It turned out GREAT!

Her sweets table. We had mints, cake pops, hershey kisses, hershey chocolate bars, coconut jelly beans, yogurt covered pretzels, white cheddar popcorn, marshmallows, and a two-tier cake.

Pink, white and silver balloons to decorate. With a BIG silver "1" balloon.
This was the top of our christmas tree, we spray painted with silver paint. Got some christmas light balls, and felt to create a winter wonderland feel.

I used christmas snowflake ornaments to decorate the wall. Sticky tack was used to stick them to the wall. It left no residue and did not stain the wall after I took them down. Her birthday banner was made of construction paper, spray glue, and silver glitter.

I had her birthday invite mounted and displayed for everyone to sign that she could remember who made it to her first birthday party. By the end of the party, everyone had signed it and it looked great!

We used our cake cutting set from our wedding, which matched our decor perfectly. The paper plates were from ikea. And the goodie bags are dressed up with some silver snowflake stickers.

My table center piece and entry display piece were clear glass circle vases filled with silver ball christmas ornaments and bells. These were great because I could have them out all winter seasons, so I actually threw them together in November and have had them on display for a few months. I will probably reuse this each winter season for decoration. My labels were stamped with a silver snowflake and I just used a silver sharpe to label things.

A New Direction

For the last 5 months I've been going through a self-help period, with some help :-) But I am FINALLY starting to feel like doing some self-improvement now that my mood is more upbeat! So with that... my latest indulgences and sweetest pleasures:

1) Starbucks! I am thinking of investing in a hefty espresso machine. And though, as much as I wanted to not need coffee, in order to keep up with my daughter, work, housework, and keeping myself together, I need some caffeine!

2) Lemon-Cucumber water. It's AMAZING! Delicious, healthily, tasty, and easy to make.

3) Pinterest-I planned my daughters first birthday from many pins I found while searching "Winter ONEderland". The party was beautiful and a success!

4) Laurenconrad.com- I am thoroughly enjoying the tidbits I have discovered on her site thus far.

5) Pinterest-Hair and Beauty... SO many links to videos and DIY hairstyles. I will share some of these on a new post.

6) Julian Michaels 30 day shred- while this is not a new find, I am *thinking* about committing to it more daily now because I want to feel good about myself when I look in the mirror

7) Nail polish-My nails ALWAYS chip after two days, so I hate doing nail polish. But with one application I feel more like a woman, so I think I will buy some remover and try to keep up on my nails.

8) Crock Pot-LOVE IT! Learning to cook has been fun

9) Diamond Candles!! I love them! Check them out!
10) More to come...