Growing so fast

I can hardly believe how fast Jordan is growing. He changes so much in such short amounts of time. It's so fun to see him grow in his independence as well as his abilities! He crawls like a pro. He can pull himself to stand so easily now, and lets himself back down with ease [almost] every time. He can chew food. He can find the toy he wants out of the toybox. He is learning to stop when we say, "no!" He even showed us some great stair-climbing skills yesterday. Such a blessing to get to be with him all day to experience so much of his growing and changing as well!

This picture from yesterday makes me smile every time I look at it... Such a big boy!

My parents got him this toy for Christmas and we got it out this weekend. He can push himself backwards on it a little, but we only put him on to push him around on it, which he loves!, otherwise he gets all giddy just sitting on the floor playing with the different do-dads or pushing it around. I just can't get over how big he looks sitting on it!

Simplify {and Circumstances}

A friend of mine from Grace has started to write more blog posts recently as well, and I'm beginning to realize why there are SO many mommas blogging out there... for so many of us it is most definitely relaxing! :-) As I got myself hyped up about blogging again, I started to think of some ideas for posts, so there will at least be a few more posts this month, and then maybe I'll continue to stick with it further into the year, too, hehe :)

My thoughts today are about simplifying. This word has been rolling around in my brain and heavy on my heart basically since I went back to work when Jordan was 7 weeks old.

Ohhhh, where to begin. And can I make a long story short? We'll see. Probably not!

From Wife to Mom

To become a mom, all you have to do is have a baby, right? Oh, so very, wrong. Though that is definitely a necessary first step, becoming a mom is about so much more than just having a baby join the household.

Transitioning from wife to mom happened deep within, in my heart, as I quickly learned that love takes on new meaning when you bear a child, and that it grows so very much so very often. That silly little things my son does bring up so much more love and joy in those moments than I knew possible!

Easy Bib Storage!

Here's my solution, if you don't feel like reading my ramblings :-) Looped a strip of cloth through the top strap holes.

Our house is not very large and is really lacking storage. I've been storing the bibs in with the burb clothes in Jordan's room... it's not that far to walk to grab a bib, but I knew there had to be a better solution for bib storage.

Enter: google.

DIY Crib Rail Teething Guard

{Leave me a note you stopped by! Or let me know if you use the tutorial & send me a pic!}


Well, my little J-man has started pulling himself up to his knees in his crib... so since I had the material to make teething guards for his crib, I thought I had better get them done sooner rather than later! 

I decided to make my own because the cheap plastic ones don't fit the rails on my convertible crib and buying a cloth one is ridiculously expensive. I am oh, so very, pleased that I made the choice... even though it did take me a little more time than I initially thought it would! :-)

So, there are multiple tutorials for this online, but I didn't find any that included pictures and details for the way I wanted to make mine (specifically, with a layer to make it waterproof), so I took some pictures as I went so I could post a tutorial, too! (Here is the tutorial I kind-of went by when I made mine, FYI!)

My Birthing Story

This is long, so if you don't feel like reading a lot, you can exit now :-)

Pregnancy and giving birth are experiences that go beyond what words can describe. Yes, there is discomfort and pain, but that is DEFINITELY not what I think of when I think of those things! (Don’t ask Josh, though, haha…) When it came time for Josh and I to decide what kind of experience we wanted to try to have for the birth experience, I came to the decision that I really wanted a natural birth. We signed up for the Bradley Birthing class – 12 weeks of 2 hours a week. That ended up to be an… interesting… experience, but we learned quite a lot from it, and felt quite prepared for a natural birth, even though we opted not to go with a midwife to help us through. I wanted no induction, no medication, no interference, just my body doing what God made it to do. That’s not how things turned out. Though at times I think, If we would’ve just done this or that, maybe I could’ve still had a natural birth, I know that we made a wise choice in order to get Jordan into our arms. This is our story.