6 months

Bailey turned 6 months on December 5th. That is the same day as her Grandpa Rick's birthday. It's kinda fun that she can share her half birthday on his birthday! She had her 6 month appointment on that day and she sure is a tiny little thing! She weighed 12lbs 6oz and was 23 3/4 in long. She is in the 5th percentile for weight and 10th percentile for height. She is so petite and dainty and I love it!! Even though she is little she is go getter and wants to be and act bigger than she is! She does a scoot/crawl and can get anywhere she wants to go and she does! She is into everything! No more little toys or papers can be on the floor because she immediately sticks everything in her mouth! Her favorite things are paper, magazines, napkins and my phone. When she sees any of those things she is a magnet to them! She started pulling herself up on furniture a couple weeks ago. Thankfully she hasn't started walking around on them yet! Every time I go to get her out of her crib she is standing up in it now. She looks so funny doing it because she is so tiny! I love her to pieces! She is always so happy!! She will smile at anyone who gives her attention! She loves her big brother Nate and loves it when he pays attention to her! She is funny when it comes to baby food. She prefers the veggies over the fruit...kinda weird! Her favorites are squash, sweet potatoes and carrots. She has never refused them! Sometimes she is good about eating bananas and other fruit medleys but she sometimes wants nothing to do with them! I have fed her oatmeal with mixed fruit out of two different jars and both times she has thrown up all night! She must be allergic to something in it. I am thinking its the wheat grain because that was just about the only difference between the oatmeal with mixed fruit and just mixed fruit. I have been scared to feed her anything else with wheat in it because its so sad to see her throw up and be so sick! She brings so much joy to our home and we love having her as apart of our family! I have been so blessed with the two sweetest kids and love them with all my heart!!

Bailey and Nate in the waiting room at her 6 month appointment

Bailey is in love with the dogs! Anytime she sees them she heads straight for them! Max stays outside all the time now except when it rains so here she is with him one day when it was raining.

Just hanging out

Oh Christmas Tree

Setting up the tree

Decorating the tree

Making the No Sew Ruffle tree skirt I found on Pinterest. It was originally made on HGTV. You can find theirs and the directions here. I bought a cheap felt tree skirt for $4 and bought 4 yards of cheap solid fabric at $2 dollars a yard. Total cost of project was under $15 and I love it!!

The finished product

Hogle Zoo

We spent Thanksgiving up in bountiful this year with Skyler's grandparents. It was actually at his Aunt Wendy's house. Nate had fun playing there with all their fun toys! They decorated the tables for cute and the food was delicious! The next day we went out shopping a little at Ikea and one toy store but we didn't get to much into black friday shopping! The day after that we took the kids to Hogle zoo for the first time! I think Nate was in heaven! He loves animals! He was so excited to go from cage to cage and see all the different Animals. He was a little disappointed that they didn't have any elephants, rhinos, bears, or lions there, but he loved seeing everything else! He also loved riding the train they had there! It was the perfect ending to a fun zoo trip!

Jubilee

We went to the Jubilee of trees with Skyler's cousin Lex and his family. All the trees were so gorgeous! It was fun walking around and getting ideas and seeing all the different themes! Definitely want to go again next year!

Backyard

We have lived in our house for about 2 and a half years and we have had a dirt backyard until just recently! We have been so blessed with family and friends helping make it possible for us to get our backyard in! Skyler cousin Lex helped us out a lot finding someone to donate the sod and get a good deal on curbing! After the curbing was put in. Lex, Nick, and Jed and their friend Brady came over and helped Skyler, Jesse and Russ put rock along the side of our house for a parking pad and then they installed the sprinkler system and laid down sod in our backyard. It is so nice looking out and seeing green grass instead of dirt!! We love having it done! Hopefully in the spring we can plant trees, bushes and flowers in the planter areas in the front and backyard! Thanks again for everyone who helped with it!!

First stitches!

Nate got stitches for the first time a month ago. I have to say we ended up going a lot longer then I thought we would without getting them! If you know Nate he is fearless and there have been some close calls! The funny thing is he wasn't even doing anything dangerous ha ha! We were bringing Alena (my sister) home from babysitting my kids one night and I had to go to the bathroom really bad! I asked Nate if he wanted to run in for a minute and say hi to grandma while I went to the bathroom. Of course he did! He got out of the car and was running up my moms porch stairs and tripped and fell. He got a big deep gouge on the edge of his chin. We cleaned it up as much as we could but the blood was just flowing so we put some gauze and a big bandied over it and headed to the ER. We got there about 10 and I knew it was going to be a long night because I could tell Nate was so tired! When we got there he was really good about letting the nurses take his blood pressure and vitals. Then we headed back to a room and he was good until they started ripping the bandaid we had put on off. I guess it was really sticky and it didn't want to come off! He was freaking out!! Once the doctor looked at it she said he definitely needed stitches because it was so deep! She said we should probably sedate him considering how much he just freaked out when she took the bandaid off. It was late and he was tired and already on edge! I was ok with it at first, but then she started explaining that he wouldn't wake up from it for about 2-3 hours after giving it to him and I just had this awful feeling about it! I asked if there was anyway we could just try to do it with out sedating him first and she looked at me like I was crazy so I agreed to let them do it. They left the room to go get the things they needed. Apparently I was tired and emotional too because I just started to cry. We said a family prayer, but I still didn't feel good about the situation. He ended up falling asleep because by now it was 11:30pm and we had been waiting in the room for an hour for them to come back with the things they needed to put the stitches in! He was completely zonked out! I asked Skyler if he cared if I asked them to try to give him the stitches now while he was sleeping instead of sedating him. He said go for it. So I walked out found the nurse and asked them if we could please try it without sedating him now that he was asleep. They told me he would wake up once they started things and would probably freak out, but we could hold him down. I said thats fine. I can handle him freaking out for a little bit rather then be sedated for a few hours! So they got there things and came in right away. They wrapped him up to help hold him down and when they started working on the wound he woke up. Poor guy did start freaking out! He was saying some of the funniest things but it was really sad to see him so upset!! I wish I would have recorded it because I can't remember everything he was saying, but he had us all cracking up, but feeling so bad for him at the same time! It took them about 15 minutes to stitch him all up. He got two rows of stitches, but I am not sure how many total he ended up getting. I think it was about 10 though. Once it was over they gave him stickers and we took him to the store to get a car because he made it through it. It was such an answer to my prayers that we were able to give him the stitches without sedating him!

New Park

They just built a new park down by our house. It has a big beautiful pond and lots of grass to run around and play on. There are soccer fields and a playground going in behind the pond, but they haven't finished those yet. My friend invited us to go down to the pond to fish with them. It was a beautiful day and the park isn't very far so we decided to walk down. I loaded up Bailey in the stroller and Nate hopped on his bike. He loved riding his bike all the way to the park! It was such a fun day! We were there for a few hours and the kids loved it! They ended up catching a fish! Nate was hesitant to go near it at first, but once it was dead he was fine :)

Halloween

It's weird writing about halloween when thanksgiving already passed and I just finished putting up my christmas decorations, but I want to get it all on my blog! Thankfully Nate was not sick anymore when it was halloween day! He was so excited to go out and go trick or treating! We had a neighborhood potluck that night and then we all dispersed once it started getting dark and went trick or treating. I brought Mummy wrapped hot dogs and they were a definite crowd pleaser! We had a great halloween and the kids looked oh so cute in their costumes if I do say so myself :)

Sick day

Nate was sick last week with a really bad cough and he had his preschool halloween party on thursday. He had been looking forward to it all week and was so excited to dress up in his costume! He woke up coughing up his lungs and it broke my heart that I had to tell him he wasn't going to be able to go to preschool since he was sick! When Nate asked if it was time to go to preschool Skyler told him that instead of dressing up to go to preschool that he should dress up in his costume and come up to his office to go trick or treating with dad at the office. Nate loves going to daddy's work! He immediately said ok and was really excited! So glad that didn't turn out into a long blowout! Great idea Skyler! Skyler left for work and went and bought candy and told the offices around him about Nate and they all were so nice to help out and make Nate feel better about not being able to go to his party! We got to the office around noon and when we walked in Skyler came up and gave us all a big hug and then he asked Nate if he was ready to trick or treat. Of course he was! He went and knocked on the door of skyler's coworker, Russ, and when he opened it he said trick or treat! He got some candy and Russ gave him one of his golfballs he knew Nate loved! I kinda got teary eyed watching this. It was so nice of Skyler and everyone to do this for him! It made his and my day so much better! He then went to the office across the hall and trick or treated! Skyler also picked up a pizza and had it there for us to eat lunch with him. It was a great afternoon!

Backyard fun

One advantage to have a dirt backyard is being able to dig it up and make a fire pit whenever we want :) Skyler had some left over marshmallows from the deer hunt and had the fun idea of roasting mallows in the backyard one nice evening for a fun treat! We all hopped on the Ranger and went for a ride down to the river by our house and collected some fire wood. We came back and built the fire and roasted our marshmallows! They were so yummy! I love fun spontaneous nights like these with my family. My pictures are really bad again because it was night time, but you can kinda see whats going on in a blurry way :)

Pumpkin Patch

The monday before Halloween we went with some of our friends to Staheli Farms for FHE. They have a ton of fun activities for kids, a corn maze, pumpkin patch and a petting zoo. We didn't go until 7 so it was already getting dark so non of my pictures turned out good at all :( We had so much fun! The kids played on the bounce trampoline thing, we watched the pig races, they went in the petting zoo, played on the slides, played tether ball and we went on a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. The kids all found the pumpkin they wanted. Lucky for us Nate wanted a small one he could lift up. So Skyler didn't have to haul a big one like one of the other dads did ha ha! Plus it was cheap! We ate dinner there and let the kids play some more and headed home about 9. It was our first time going out there and it was great!

Outdoors

We love playing outside, especially lately!! The weather has been so nice! It's just now starting to get cold and I am glad we were able to have the warm weather until now! For the last few weeks we have spent a lot of time on our front lawn watching Nate ride his bike up and done the sidewalk of our street. He is finally able to reach the pedals good and he can go so fast! About a month and half ago was the first time he could really reach the pedals and go and now there is no stopping him! A few weeks ago we were out talking to our neighbors and there little boy said I just saw Nate turn the corner down there and pointed to the end of the street that turns to go out on to the main (and really busy!) road behind our house! I was like are you sure? I had just saw him right next to us a few seconds before that! Skyler went down after him and when he got to him he was riding along the sidewalk on the main road! Good thing Skyler went and not me because I probably would have panicked! He had made it about 6 houses down on the back side of our house! So scary!! Skyler asked him what he was doing and he said "I am just riding my bike dad!" As if it wasn't a big deal! In all fairness we had never told him to not go that way because he had just barely started riding his bike and we never thought he would. We should never underestimate that kid! Crazy boy!

Enjoying the outdoors

Deer Hunt

It has always been a tradition for Skyler to go on the deer hunt with his Dad ever since he was a little boy. This year was the first year he could not go with his Dad because of his passing last year. He started the tradition he once did with his Dad with Nate. I know it was really special for the both of them and it's something Nate has been looking forward to ever since Skyler told him he would take him at the beginning of October. They didn't end up getting a deer, but I know there were some great memories made! As Skyler says "It's called a deer hunt...not a deer kill!"

Carnival

We went to the Horizon Elementary School Carnival and Nate had a Blast!! I thought a lot of games might be over his head, but he could play all of them! His favorites were pumpkin bowling, angry birds (balls thrown at empty soda pop bottles), the bounce house, and the cupcake walk! When he went to do the pumpkin bowling he was behind a kid who was probably 8 and then it was his turn they told him to scoot up but he didn't want to he want to try it from the "big kid" line. He rolled the pumpkin and knocked down all the pins on his first try!! Everyone was so impressed! He did the cupcake walk and won a cupcake on his third try...he was so excited! They also were selling Durango's Salad and I bought one and had $2 left so I just bought 2 raffle tickets with the money I had left over and we ended up winning a basket! It was so exciting...I never win! We won the movie basket :) As we were leaving the Carnival Nate said "that was so fun...I love the carnival!" I have always loved Carnivals too. My elementary school always threw the funnest carnival and it brought back a lot of great memories!!

Nate fun

Picture #1: Nate is a funny boy and makes me laugh a lot! You often find him wearing a cape or having his sword and gun tucked into his pants!

Picture #2: He is in a playgroup with 3 little boys from our neighborhood and we take turns every wednesday having all the boys over to play at our house from 10-12:30! So 3 weeks out of the month I get an extra 2 and 1/2 hours of me and Bailey time (or just me time because Bailey is usually napping!). It's kind nice to be able to have an extra day to get some stuff done around the house or run errands with only one kid! It's amazing what can be done with only one child at the house! I also love having his friends over once a month. It's fun to hear them play together!

The other pictures are of Nate holding a frog that him and his dad found down by the river when they went on an adventure ride on the Ranger! He was so excited to come home and show me the picture dad took of him holding it!

Eating Solids

At Bailey's 4 month appointment the Dr. said we could start feeding her solids. I waited a few weeks and then decided to give it a try. She did pretty good with it. She definitely got more out and around her mouth than in! Now she has been eating them for a little over a week and she does really good. She will open her mouth when she sees the spoon coming. She always tries to grab the spoon and feed herself too. I fed her green beans the other day and she hated them! When I put them in her mouth she would pull the funniest face and then do a shiver and spit it out! So funny! I should have video taped it, but I didn't. I started feeding her squash next and she has been really liking that!

The first feeding

Later that day we went and cheered on Jesse as he played football in the DSC game. Then we went over to my mom's house for a bit to see Aunt Alena's new hair color (so pretty!).

4 month look alike!

Bailey turned 4 months back on Oct 5th (yes it's no surprise I am behind on blogging again!) At her appointment she was 11lbs 2 oz and 23in long. She is in the 10th percentile for height and weight. Much like her brother she is a very active baby!! She doesn't like to sit still! She is always squirming and rolling around. She is getting to big to fast!! She loves to stand rather then sit in my lap and you can tell she just wants to jump out of my hands and go play! She is always so happy and will smile for anyone that gives her attention. She is such a joy to have in our home and we all sure do love our baby girl!

I took pictures of Nate in the nude in front of a blue blanket back when he was 4 months and I wanted to do the same with Bailey and compare and see how much they look alike. They definitely pull some of the same expressions and it makes them look so much alike! I think in a few of the pictures they look very similar! There is no question they are siblings :) It's funny, I think Bailey looks a little bigger and chunkier in these pictures than Nate, but at Nate's 4 month appt. he weighed 14lbs 4oz and was 25.5in long. So he was like 3lbs bigger and 2.5in longer yet she looks like the bigger one to me!

Cousins

Nate loves all his cousins and is lucky that some of them live so close! We had Josie and Dallin over the other day and they were having so much fun playing! Dallin is in love with Bailey and kept asking to hold her! It was so cute! Then when I told them I wanted to take a picture of all 4 of them Josie and Dallin where arguing who got to hold Bailey. I told them that she was just going to sit between them on the couch. They were fine with that but as soon as I sat her down Dallin reached over and put his arm around her! Adorable! Love these kiddos!

Grandparents

My Dad texted me one day and said "I asked mom why it has been awhile (it had only been like a week) since I have seen my grand babies and she didn't have a good reason so you should bring them over" I was at a football game so couldn't at the time, but they ended up coming over to our house the next day. This is Nate showing Grandma and Grandpa all his artwork from preschool.

Siblings

I just love when Nate takes a moment out of his time and notices Bailey! He is always so cute with her when he does!! He wishes so badly she could play with him more so she often gets ignored when he realizes she can play like he wants her to. Here are just some everyday pictures of the two of them over the last few weeks that are completely candid! I had just walked in the room and randomly found him holding her hand, setting up all his toys for her to "play with" and then one day I asked him to hold her for me why I was folding clothes. He started singing to her and kissing her and trying to make her smile so I quickly grabbed the camera and started taking some pictures before he noticed!

Bailey's Baby Nursery

I finally finished! She is now able to enjoy her nursery! All the hard work paid off and I am so happy with the way it turned out!! It is pretty much exactly what I envisioned!

So if you missed the post I did to the start of the room click here and check it out! It started as a completely blank normal off white bedroom. With the help of my AMAZING mother-in-law, we painted the top and bottom half of the room and then installed all the moldings! I then wallpapered the inside of the picture frame molding on the bottom half of the room with a black and white damask wallpaper. And that's where we left off on the last post :)

Once the walls were all painted, molded, and wallpapered I moved all the furniture into the room. Once again my AMAZING mother-in-law helped me out! She painted all the furniture black for me. I don't have before pictures of the furniture :( But I promise they look a hundred times better. The dresser used to be white, the crib and rocking chair were brown. She recovered the rocking chair from a brown suede upholstery to the cute pink!

My WONDERFUL mother had the crib bedding custom made for me as my gift. I went and picked out the pattern and fabric I wanted. I thank Laurie Steiner for doing such a great job on it! I love it!

I then set out on a hunt to find vintage looking frames to make a gallery wall. The big oval frame with the letter in it is from Ikea (best store ever!) My sweet husband surprised me with it one day because I told him I really wanted it! I think it makes the perfect statement piece! The rest of the frames and mirrors I found at garage sales and Thrift stores (I didn't pay more than $3 for any of the frames, except the one from Ikea). It took a few weeks to find them all, but after I got a pretty good collection I spray painted them all black. I went into her room laid them out on the floor and came up with an arrangement I liked. I then traced all the frames out on wrapping paper and parchment paper and hung them all up on the wall in the same arrangement I had laying on the floor. Once the papers looked how I wanted it to, I marked on them where the nail hole should go and started hanging them all up!

I had a print credit from vinylizeit.com and they were so good to work with me on what I wanted! I told them what it was I wanted and they sent me a few proofs of different fonts and sizes and this is the design we came up with!

I really wanted a chandelier for Bailey's room, but they are so expensive! Seeing how everything in her room is DIY. Why shouldn't the chandelier be? I can't afford a new one so I started looking for one I could up-cycle. I found one on craigslist from $20! I got some black spray paint and my awesome sister-in-law, Alyssa, found the crystals at Tai Pan (6 for $8). So my chandelier ended up being roughly $30 compared to the $200 ones at the store! I think it's perfect!

I wanted a nightstand in her room that I would be able to put next to the crib. I had some old barstools that used to be in our kitchen that I decided I could make into a cute nightstand. My wonderful mother had some black and white polka dot fabric she let me have and I covered the barstool with the fabric...so easy! Just used fabric, spray adhesive and exacto knife! Cost= free!

I needed a cute lamp to go on the nightstand I made. My mother-in-law had an old lamp she let me have and I recovered the lamp shade in the same polka-dot fabric I had left over from the night stand. I made a ribbon flower out of ribbon and string I already had! So cost of this cute lamp was also free!

My sister-in-law, Amy, made this cute banner for my baby shower and I loved it so much I had to use it in her room!

I made these tissue paper pom-pom balls to go above the nightstand.

So that's all the components that went into her room! Thanks to all my wonderful family for their help!! I was able to create my vision of this chic space and the best part is, is it was for very little amount of $$!!

The finished product...one chic baby nursery for my sweet baby girl Bailey!

Walking into the room

Right Corner

Crib

Middle Corner

Right Side


Left Side

Gallery Wall

Panoramic View

Linking up to these great parties!
Design Dazzle, French Country Cottage, a' la mode, tatertots & jello, A Glimpse Inside