a name and a blessing...

This January has been a doozy as far as weather goes. We got more snow the 3 days leading up to Charlie's blessing than we got all of last winter. And yet, this beautiful Sunday the snow squalls ceased, the storm clouds parted and the sun shined brightly! It was perfect representation of my heart and soul these last few months.  I was gently reminded what a miraculous gift this sweet, precious little soul is to me and his remarkable potential for goodness in this world. He is here and he is mine and he is a gift.

Chris, surrounded by so many of those family and friends closest to us, took this sweet boy into his arms to officially give him a name and pronounce a blessing upon him. It was beautiful and remarkable and touched my heart deeply. I love this child with every fiber of my being. I loved seeing him surrounded by amazing and worthy men that will serve as his example of what to strive for. If he turns out anything like his daddy and grandpas, he will be one amazing man.

We came back home afterwards and had a light lunch with many family and friends and let Charlie get loved on and squeezed by his many admirers. Most especially his grandmas and grandpas...

 

When it was all said and done and the crowds had left... we were happy and exhausted. 

Charlie took the lead of Daddy and Papa and got right to watching football...

He's learning already!

 Welcome to our family little guy! 

My life is infinitely better with you in it.

♥

a little kitchen for my littlemiss

It took two solid years of persistent nagging, however we (mostly he) pulled it off in less than a month. And wow, did daddy clause kill it this year or what?!

::littlemiss leah's very own little kitchen::

Honestly, as it was coming together I worried that there was a really good chance that I was going to love it even more than her. Seriously, I die! 

It started right after Leah was born and I came across this adorable re-purposed kitchen featured on blog I occasionally read. A quick search of the internet and pinterest turned up loads more. As I snuggled a two month old littlemiss, I told CJ that I wanted him to build her one for either her 2nd birthday or Christmas. I'm not sure he was as excited about the idea as I was...but seeing how he built our real kitchen.... I figured a play version was a no-brainer. I think he carried around the picture for nearly a year, hoping that I would change my mind and just buy one... but I didn't give up and I am so glad I didn't!!

It started with an old wooden entertainment center that we were lucky enough to discover in his sister's basement, that was ready to be donated.

Chris' dad is an incredible carpenter who can literally build anything. I knew that between the two of them they could make anything happen... so finally Thanksgiving weekend, we turned our garage into a satellite "Santa's Workshop"

They gutted the center console shelves and dividers, created new back and side walls with bead board, installed a back-splash, removed one of the glass doors, building a new bead board replacement and cut the hole for the sink all in the first few hours!

We still needed a fridge for the little kitchen, so they built and added that on from scratch...

A simple piece of scrap wood became our stove-top...

and then it was ready for paint and the fun stuff.

We used a sprayer for most of it, which was super duper fancy fast. We did, however have to do lots of touching up with a roller/brush and the counter and stove tops were obviously painted by hand.

After it was painted, we moved it inside and had a couple of late night date nights working on the details and making it perfect!!

Finished fridge with hardware and baskets in the doors.

(Ikea)

Stove Top & Oven

Ikea Coasters =Burners

Vintage Inspired Sprinkler Knobs = Controls

We replaced the glass in the door with a piece of plexi-glass for safety's sake.

They made a guide for the oven rack (jumbo cooling rack/amazon) to slide in and out of.

Ikea Utensil Bars works great for little kitchens too!

Pantry/Cabinet Storage

I found a stock photo of a simple, perfect tree swing printed to 16X20 and framed it in an inexpensive Ikea plexi-glass frame to make the kitchen window.

We even included a battery operated lantern as the light fixture.

We found an old bar faucet for the sink and finished it off with some crystal cabinet pulls as the faucet knobs.

An old mixing bowl became the sink.

An old Ikea end table got a new paint job along with some new chairs and dishes to finish her "dining room"

My incredible mama offered to make the amazing window valance and dish towels for me. She got carried away and ended up making her a perfect little hot pad and ridiculously adorable matching apron as well. 

I couldn't love them more!

Details, details, details. It's all the sweet, little details.

Every single last detail turned out even better than I had envisioned it! 

And let me tell you, I spent a lot of time envisioning it! 

And based on her reaction on Christmas morning... it was a success!

I think it's safe to say that she loves it easily as much as I do.

Thanks again Daddy Clause

and Pop

and G-mama

It's a perfect little kitchen for my sweet littlemiss!

three months

Not only are we celebrating and welcoming in a new year and but we are also celebrating three whole months with this little chunk... both of which have me feeling reflective, a little sad and a lot hopeful. It's hard to believe he's already three months old. Although it seems to have gone so quickly, I can hardly remember life without him, though I am certain that in that life I was sleeping way more. Life as a family of four is starting to feel a little more normal all the time, though our new "normal" is a little more chaotic and crazy. However, I am so smitten by this little guy that I wouldn't have it any other way. I have a crazy, serious crush on him! ♥

At three months old he continues to grow like a weed. I suspect he is somewhere between 15-16lbs and not slowing down. Though he has a handful of 3-6m clothes that I can still stuff him into, he is comfortably wearing 6-12m. What?! Slow down little guy.

He is starting to (inconsistently) sleep a little better and we have even had nights where he slept 8+ hours. That's life changing for a mama!! It's not every night yet, but I am hopeful that I will in fact get a good nights sleep again someday soon.

He smiles, laughs and giggles constantly in his sleep and it's adorable. I can't wait to get those kind of full on laughs when he is awake. I wish I knew what he was dreaming about. Fluffy Lion Cubs? Tasty Corn Dogs? Bunny Rabbits? Or maybe just chuckling at how hard he's been on his mama?

He's not a big fan of tummy time yet, though he is getting better and stronger. Mostly, he just tolerates it and waits for it to be over. (It's not easy pushing those chubby cheeks off the pillow, folks)

He loves bath time and is starting to splash and play. We usually have a huge, wet mess in the bathroom by the time we are done.

He is happy and smiling most of the time, which is a huge relief, especially after our first several weeks. I am still off of dairy and soy and it still sucks...but I have gotten used to it, more or less, and a content baby is more than worth it. 

Honestly, he just seems to get sweeter and cuter by the day. And his mama seems to fall more and more in love with him by the day as well!!

Happy Three Months Little Man! 

xox

Sunday Duds - old man sweater, seersucker, moccasins.
swoon