:: 35 before 35 - #4

Well, I've been pretty bad about posting the completions of my 35 before 35,

 let alone bad at posting . . . period . . . on this little ole' blog of mine.

But my lack of posting might have to do with

 completing #4 on my list . . . to have another baby.

On March 15th I gave birth to this sweet little boy.

9lbs 3ozs of preciousness.

And we love him to pieces.

Although it wasn't the perfect pregnancy this time around

and ended up being very stressful until I actually delivered him

 (due to findings on the ultrasound),

I feel so blessed to be able to have children and to have had healthy children so far.

It's definitely something I don't take for granted.

These pictures I took (on my couch!) when he was 5 days old.

He is such a sweet little baby.

And I finally have a child with hair!

:: Little Ones - a greeting from the white house

A few years back, I posted about how to get a

"welcome to the world" note from The White House.

I'll definitely be doing this for Anson once I finish his birth announcement.

No matter who you voted for, it's always cool to get something in

the mail from The White House, right?

You'll need to send the announcement to the address below:

White House Greetings Office

Room 39

Washington, D.C. 20500

{On the back of the announcement, put the name of the baby, name of the parents,

 address you'd like it to be sent to and the baby's date of birth.}

We've done this for both of our girls.

What a special note to put in their baby books!

And I hear you can do this with wedding invitations too!

:: Inspiration Board - baby boy nursery

The little man will be arriving in 2 short months.
So excited, so nervous, and feeling so unprepared.

We decided to make the guest room into his nursery.
And I'm so excited to decorate it.
Not sure where our guests will sleep now, but we'll figure it out.

Who knows if it will end up looking like this,
but this is what I've come up with so far.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

:: And it's a boy!

I don't think I've announced it on this blog,

but we're having a boy!

And we are so excited.

This house needs a little blue in it.

Do you have a special way of telling your other children what the baby will be?

Well, when we had just found out that Reese was a girl,

we went to the store and bought a pink balloon.

We picked her up from our friend's house and told her the news.

I think she was more excited about the pink balloon than anything.

So, we decided to do the same thing this time.

I told Ava that if I picked her up from preschool and she saw 

a pink balloon, we'd be having a girl. 

If I had a blue balloon, we'd be having a boy.

Well, this whole time she's been telling me we'd be having a boy.

{when I thought that it was for sure another girl}

And after telling her this, she said she hoped we were having a girl.

Surprised, I asked why and she said it was because she wanted a pink balloon.

Of course.  That's my Ava.

But when I picked her up and she saw the blue balloon,

she was so excited!

Reese, on the other hand, didn't quite understand what this balloon thing meant.

She was just excited to be getting one.

But we are so grateful to be adding another little one to our family

and we are so excited that he'll be adding some blue to our home!

Milk and Cookies Baby Shower

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Something's in the water where I live because I have so many friends that are having babies. Just one after another. So of course that means there are gonna be a ton of baby showers.

Well, a few weeks ago, me and a few friends put on a baby shower for two friends that are due around the same time and are both having boys.

I'd seen this party here and then had seen all of the milk and cookie parties around blogland and wanted to do something similar to those.

So, between the three of us we made 8 different types of cookies and put each one in a cylinder vase/jar. I also had three milk jugs that I put fat-free, 2%, and chocolate milk in {found at local thrift stores}.

Here are the details:

I tied ribbon around each vase and found the tags {found online for free - - forgot where, I'll keep on looking} that I just printed out, cut, put a ribbon on, and taped it to the ribbon on the vase. The tissue paper I had already had {thrift store find}, the eclectic white plates I'd found at many thrift stores in the past 2 years, vintage stroller to hold all the gifts {found on craigslist for $20 to use as a photography prop}, tissue pom-poms I made {tutorial to be up this week}, glass cups found at ikea for cheap, paper straws I found here {groupon deal}, and take home paper bags I made. So simple.

We had a few games here and there, opened up presents, and just mainly socialized . . . of course. Love baby showers.

Milk and cookies . . . the perfect treat.

I'll be linking to these parties here.

A greeting from the White House.

What happens when you send one of these . . .

to this place?

(obviously taken in the winter - - everything was brown!)

Well, you get one of these.

No matter who you voted for, how cool is it to put some stationary from the White House in your baby's scrapbook! All you do is send your birth announcement to this address here:

White House Greetings Office

Room 39

Washington, D.C. 20500

{On the back of the announcement, put the name of the baby, name of the parents, address you'd like it to be sent to and the baby's date of birth.}

And then a few weeks later . . . you'll be receiving one of those greetings!

{I'd done the same thing for Ava in 2008}

I'll be posting to a few of these linking parties here.

photography: embrace the camera - 03.03.11

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the LDS culture {aka: mormons}, once a baby is born they are usually given a "name and a blessing" sometime during the first 6 months. It happens during the church services by one who holds this.

Little Reese was given a beautiful blessing by her father earlier last month and she behaved perfectly (although . . . she was a little blotchy all day long due to a reaction to the lotion I put on her - - the same lotion we'd used many times before . . . baby Aveeno lotion - - luckily, I'd taken a ton of cute pictures of her before the blotchy reaction)

Can you tell the hubby loves his picture being taken? Too bad he's married to me! Cause I like to embrace the camera constantly! And Ava would've rather been playing with her cousins at that moment than sitting on my lap.


Reese wore the dress that I was blessed in almost 30 years ago (can I really be that old?) and she also wore the slip that my great-grandmother made for my mother to wear when she was blessed almost 60 years ago. How cool is that?

"What I'm Loving" Wednesday

When I was pregnant with Ava, a cousin of my husband, suggested that I read this book. It made sense and I decided to follow the things they suggested. After implementing their ideas, little Ava was sleeping through the night at 11-12 weeks. And when we'd put her down to take a nap she'd just go to sleep, usually, without crying. I was amazed!

So with Reese I knew I'd be doing it again. I was a little bit more frustrated this time around cause it didn't seem like she was catching on as quickly. And during her second month, she was a needy little one. Always wanting to be held and crying if we didn't. But at 12 weeks she is now sleeping through the night and we're loving it.

Is there a book that you read that helped you prepare for your little one? Would love to hear about your experience!

{Now, I know, I know, I know. I've heard it many times. There are a lot of people who don't like this book. But this has worked for our little family and we love it!}