A Girl Can Never Have Too Many Bows

Remember in this post when I talked about the millions of bows I was making while pregnant?

Well, I wanted to share our little bow holder we made for our little miss.

This is by far the easiest little project to do and can add so much character to your baby's nursery.

When picking the frame for the project I knew right away which one I would choose.  

A little backstory:

Two years ago {I can't believe it's been that long!} I was doing my daily Goodwill shopping for random goodies for my wedding decorations.  It was then that I stumbled upon the cutest little wooden frame and I knew right then that I needed it!  

Now, as most of you know, it is important when shopping for thrift store treasures to be sure to look past what an item currently is and to see what it can become.

This was true for this frame.  It had the most ridiculous picture of a cardinal in it.  But I looked past the ugly print and saw the beautiful treasure!  I snatched the $6 frame and happily skipped home knowing it was going to be a perfect addition to my rustic decor.  

I wish I had a better picture of the frame itself but you can see it there in the back. 

We threw that ugly bird print straight in the trash and printed up this cute saying:

Come as you are

Stay as long as you can

We're all family here

So there's no seating plan

I originally wanted to keep the frame to put a wedding picture in it but the glass unfortunately broke on it's commute from Ohio to Alaska.  Bummer.

  

But, fortunately, it was still put to good use...

Which brings me back to the point of this post!

I know, I know,  you can say it

"FINALLY!"

To start with I took some lace ribbon I had laying around (another left over wedding item) and stapled it to the back of the frame.  

I had to be stingy with it because I only had just enough ribbon to make it work.  But if I had more I would've put more rows in there and made the strips longer so I could have used more staples.

Now, my husband doesn't allow me to use a drill {for good reason!} so I had to recruit him for this next part

He drilled evenly spaced holes all along the bottom of the frame

Next, We manually screwed in these little cup hooks that we also had here on hand for the ribbon holder

These were a great size to hold headbands!

I quickly realized once it was on the wall that it looked pretty bare without any fabric or anything behind it.

I grabbed a piece of foam board from our office and cut it down to fit in the back of the frame



I took the last little bit chevron fabric we had on hand and simply hot glued it onto the board.  I just barely had enough fabric to cover the whole surface so to cover up the trail I added some different lace on either ends too

Ta-Da!  I love how it adds a little rustic touch to her room.

I put the bows Lyla wears most often on there and the other bows are stored nicely on her bookshelf in a little birdcage that was left over from one of my bridal showers

I'm very pleased with the way that the project turned out.  

And even more pleased with this little number--
Total project cost: $0

For the win!

6 months!

So I've decided to mix things up with the way I post Lyla's monthly stats.  I think doing it this way will make looking back at her growth a little more fun.

{Props to Jessica for the idea!}

Who knows, maybe this format will help me actually finish her baby book?

..... Right. Like that'll ever happen!

Age

6 months

Stats 

Weight: 16lbs 4oz (54%)

Height: 27.25in (94%)

Head: 42.8cm (68%)

**Who is surprised by that height?!

Clothing size

6month

Milestones & Firsts

Eating solids (here) and sitting up unassisted (here)

Sleep habits

Lyla takes two 1-2 hour naps and sometimes a 3rd catnap in the evening.  She goes to bed between at about 8pm, has a dream feed at 10:30, and then sleeps until 8-8:30am.  She is such a good little sleeper!

Favorite Toys

Sophie the Giraffe:  Lyla chews on this thing all day long.  It really is the perfect toy for the teething babies.

Bumbo: We sit her in here and put a bazillion toys all around her and she is entertained for days



Jumperoo: She love love LOVES this thing.  Sometimes she jumps so hard in it I swear she's going to jump right out of the thing!!!



Favorite Words/Sounds
 Jesse and I swear we are raising a child who is part dinosaur.  All she does all day long is make grunting, roaring, or this high pitch squealing sound (And sometimes, somehow, it's all three of those at once!).  It's funny how babies figure out a new sound and then get fixated on it for a few days in row. Then its really ridiculous when it sticks around for weeks.  Her other newest discovery is wheezing.

{So basically we are raising an asthmatic dinosaur}

Favorite Activity 

Sitting in a highchair at restaurants and riding in the cart at the store.  Both a new things for her and she looooooves to people watch.  Girl after my own heart right here.

Favorite Food 

So far she's had (and loved) rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, green beans, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, applesauce, bananas, pears, prunes, and avocado.  This girl LOVES to eat!

Daddy of the Month

While showing me how Lyla could sit up on her own he got distracted and she face planted right on the carpet.

Mommy of the Month

I was the distraction.

Playtime Fun

Peek-a-boo, patty cake, and itsy bitsy spider  

Blowing raspberries on her belly and neck

Ticklish on her neck and thighs

Singing our silly song to her:

I love Lyla

I love Lyla

Lyla Mae

Lyla Mae

Lyla is my baby

My pretty little baby

Lyla Mae

Makes my day

Nicknames
LyLy, Lulu, Lyla Maesies, Tumpkin

Top 5 this month

1) Going to see the sled dogs 

2) Finally putting Lyla in one of my outfits from when I was little.   I love that we have this picture.  It does crack me up that I was so much younger than her when I was wearing it.  What a chunk!

3) How much this girl loves Ernie.  She loves to pull at his ears and will laugh so hard when he is just walking past her.  Sometimes I think she might like him more than us!

4) I've recently discovered how much she loves to sit by the window and look outside.  This is now what she does while mommy or daddy are on the computer

5)  My all time favorite is how Lyla wakes up from her naps now.  She will just lay in her crib blowing raspberries and talking to herself until we go get her.  Then when we finally go in there she squeals with pure joy when she sees us.  It is by far the cutest thing in the whole world and makes your heart fill with so much love you might actually explode.

Lyla is:

Such a happy baby.  She is all smiles all the time and is constantly making noises and moving around.  She is very social and loves to meet new people (and usually wins them over immediately with her sparking eyes and long eyelashes).  I am so happy to have such a great baby!  We couldn't be more blessed and more in love.

Easter is a comin'

If you're not yet in the Easter spirit you need to take yourself on a little trip to Target.
Talk about some cuuuute stuff!

 I could've brought home the entire Easter aisle last week but somehow I escaped with only purchasing these little gems

Every time I go to the store I can't help but drool over the incredibly cute Easter dresses that are out.  Seriously I'm obsessed.

If I could have it my way Lyla would have a dress for every hour of Easter.

... And if I could fit myself in one of these I would!

Here's some of my faves:

pink/aqua/ivory

The big thing in the works right now is Lyla's first Easter basket. I already know I'm going to get her one of Thirty-One's adorable Mini Utility Bins for the basket itself. 

And I'm not just saying that because I'm a consultant either!

{But here's the expected plug-- Visit my website here!}

 I mean, how could you not get one of these cuties for your cutie?!

I've collected a few things for her basket already, despite Jesse's constant reminders that she's only 6 months old and won't remember Easter.

....Like that would stop me.

Here's the start of her collection:

bibs/book/sleepers/duckies

Obviously I still have more shopping to do!

Too bad this little one isn't big enough to run around searching for Easter eggs yet. 

I AM curious how that works here in Alaska.

Does everyone snow suit up and dig in the snow? 

St Pattys Day

Another fun holiday for this little lass. St Patty's day was an overall relaxing day for our family. Jesse and I started our morning with what else but a big ol' bowl of Lucky Charms.

I had bought this box the night before in order to make a little treat for the holiday but my first bowl was just too delicious and I had to pour another heaping bowl full! After breakfast I realized I would've needed to refrain from my trip down my childhood memory lane in order to make the goodies so... That was a bust.

But I don't regret it.

One of my flight attendant friends had a layover in Anchorage that day so our whole afternoon was spent visiting with her. I did however have time to make Lyla a new bib to use at dinner that night.

Don't look at that picture too closely because I make it in like 15 minutes.

Anyways, our night ended with Lyla showing off her new skill of sitting up on her own! She's been able to do it for like 3 Mississippis {the technically term} for a while now but this time she did for about 10 Mississippis!!! Total awesomeness.

Remember how Lyla was a special occasion show off during my pregnancy?
Well, apparently that's still her thing.
Popping on Jesse's birthday
Popping again for our gender reveal party.

Rolling on Valentines Day

Sitting up on St Patty's Day

What will she do on Easter?!

Stay tunes folks!

My favorite.

There are so many parts of my day that I love.

I love seeing Lyla first thing in the morning

I love when she blows raspberries

I love how excited she gets when eating

I love when she gets in giggle fits and laughs screams so loud my ears start to almost hurt

But I have come to truly love and cherish one part of my day. At that is 10:30pm.

For months now I have a "dream feed" with Lyla. What that means is at around 10:30 at night I sneak into Lyla's room and I give her one last feeding. This is called a dream feed because I go in like a ninja and give her this feeding while she pretty much still snoozes away.

I believe this has not only been a big key in getting Lyla to sleep through the night (she goes to bed at 8, has a dreamfeed at 10:30 then sleeps until 8) but it is also helping keep my supply up now that she is down to only nursing 4 (sometimes 5) times a day. But now that she has been sleeping so well for so long I could probably start to wean her off the feed. In fact, I have told Jesse a few times that it is probably time to do it.

But you see, this time of my day is something I look forward to more than any other time.

We all know life is busy.

And distracting.

I really do try to take time every day to soak my precious baby in but, lets be honest, it's not always easy to do.

When I go into Lylas nursery at night, it's like time stands still. I believe that this is a gift from God. He somehow makes this beautiful moment and all the emotions that comes in it happen again and again.

There's not a night that goes by that I hold her and become flooded with love for her. I sit there and stare at my beautiful child and become almost overwhelmed with feeling of love and protection. Gracefulness. Pride. Hope. Adoration. The list goes on.

Tonight as Lyla laid in my arms she started smiling in her sleep. I haven't seen her do that since she was a newborn. I remembered how someone once told me when babies do that it's because they are with angels. And I just sat there watching her smile away, so pure so innocent. So tiny. And so happy. And for every ounce of love i have for her i know God loves her that much more. And it made me start to cry.

I know I sound like a complete sap right now but I promise you I cry at this time at least once a week. I am so blessed. So blessed by my daughter. So blessed by my husband. So blessed. Life is so perfect.

I know I can't feed Lyla like this forever. Actually I'm already starting the slow process of weaning her off of it by backing the time back slowly.  So it's even more important for me to cherish these moments.  

I can honestly say that, without a doubt, I will always remember these moments with Lyla, and look back longingly at them.








God is good.
All the time.

momentous.

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  

It is to decide to forever have your heart go walking around outside your body.

-Elizabeth Stone

5 months!

We've got smiles for miles on this little babe!

We've been having a blast over here in the Elmore household.
Lyla is just a complete joy to be around and entertaining ta-boot!

Check out that tongue! I swear we spend about 3 weeks straight staring at it. She would stick it out the moment she woke up and wouldn't put it away until it was time to go to bed.
(and there would be a few raspberries in between too!)
 Ha-larious!

Another entertaining thing was the night Lyla finally found Ernie. She use to watch him from time to time but never really paid him too much attention.
Then one night, out of nowhere, she reached over and started playing with his ears!

It was so funny!

 Jesse and I held our breath as we waited to see his reaction. Just as we suspected, he didn't care one bit and patiently waited for the "fun" to be done.

We hit a big milestone this month! 

 We have a roller!!! 

 Lyla's Valentines Day gift to her mommy and daddy was showing off her rolling skills.

What a big girl! Never a dull moment here with this one.

My mom came and visited us for two weeks last month. It was great to have her here with us. We decided that, since she unfortunately isn't here to see a lot of Lyla's "big" moments, we would let Lyla have her first taste of rice cereal with Gramma!

It was a fun time with some funny faces! I honestly don't know how she felt about the whole experience because her facial expressions were such extremes. But we took about 10,000 pictures and I love every one of them!

{note: it is VERY clear now how much she LOVES to eat!!!}

I'm writing this entry 2 weeks late (of course!) and I just want to say that 5 months is my FAVORITE age so far!