DIY garland for under $15

Hey y’all! So as you’ve probably realized by now, if you want the “good” Christmas decor then you have to start shopping for it at the beginning of November. I made the mistake and did not and then was unable to find garland that I like that wasn’t $30 a strand. So I decided to buy what target had- the cheap $4 garland and spruce it up myself.

Since this garland is very thin on its own I bought two and tied them together with the metal pieces that are at the end of each strand to give it a more full look. After fluffing the garland out I wrapped these lights around the garland and hung it on my mantle (I may or may not have used thumb tacks). After it was hung I went back in and added some berries (similar here) that I had used in my tree a few years ago so I decided to cut those up and add them to the garland to just give it an extra pop. I cut them longer than I needed them and just stuck them into the garland where I wanted them. From start to finish it took me 15 min which the majority of the time was spent fluffing the garland. But there you have it! 

I hope you enjoyed this short and sweet post!

xoxo

Preparing for trips

Happy Friday everyone! We are currently on the way to Atlanta because tomorrow we are going to the beach! You really don't realize how much stuff you need for a week until you have to pack it all... especially with an infant. Y'all should have seen Coreys face when I told him all the baby gear that was mandatory to bring- he thinks I'm insane haha. BUT its better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

About a 3-4 days before our trips I always make a list of what needs to be packed. I make everyone their own section and put the number of the item that I need next to it. Ex: Shirts (7). I start a few days in advance because there's so many of us and if I don't I will forget something. I remember things down to the morning of that need to be added to the list because packing for 6 is A LOT. As I pack I put a * next to the things that have already been packed instead of deleting them/ crossing them off so then I have the same list when we're packing to go back home.

Side note: I make a list for EVERYTHING. Errands for the day, trips, grocery, what I'm getting people for Christmas/ birthdays.

I'm very particular when it comes to packing suit cases. My kids will unfold every last piece of clothing in order to find something then just shove it all back into their bags *insert hand over face emoji*. So, over time I have figured out a way to eliminate that. I first lay everything out on the bed that they are going to need for the trip. Then, I pair all of the outfits together so they will know this shirt goes with these pants etc. I then put them into their bags in the order they will wear them- so the last day will go on the bottom and I work my way up. I put their socks, underwear and the girls bows in the zippered pouch so they don't accidentally get mixed in with the clothes causing their suitcases to look like a tornado came through lol.

Corey and I have separate toiletry bags but in mine I keep all the travel sized necessities such as toothpaste, shampoo & conditioner, a soap container, toothbrush containers, contact solution, body wash, lotion, razors ect. Already having the majority of the stuff we need in there is so nice because its just one less thing that I have to do.

(My little helper is so excited for her first beach trip)

I hope some of my tips help make packing for your trip easier!

xoxo

How to keep your littles busy at home during the summer

Yay for Friday! This week has just flew by and today was Jaiden’s last day of school! Since it’s now officially summer break for us, I wanted to share some of my ways of keeping my kids busy during the LONG summer days :)


Last year I was beyond nervous as summer was approaching. I had no idea how I was going to keep two very busy toddlers and a 6 year old from going stir crazy all by myself. After scouring the internet and getting advice from my mom and mother in law's I was able to come up with a plan that worked.. on most days :)

I went through their toys and separated them into plastic tubs (and freezer bags for the smaller things) and would rotate what I gave them to play with every couple of days. It's so funny how excited kids will get to play with their current toys if they haven't had access to them in a few days. I did this in order to keep things exciting. Playing with the same thing day after day can get boring. Imagine watching the same movie over and over again or reading the same book back to back. Not very interesting.

Our neighborhood has a pool but taking three kids to the pool by myself isn't ideal and honestly gives me anxiety just thinking about it. If the girls could swim without their puddle jumpers it'd be a different story. I bought a blow up pool from Walmart for around $20 and got bunch of pool toys and would also switch those out every couple of days. We also have a water table that the girls LOVE.  I would sit on the back patio as they played for HOURS at a time and when they began to get bored I would give them a popsicle. By the time they were done with their popsicle they were ready to play in the pool or water table again.

We will also play with water balloons from time to time. Corey is VERY particular about the yard and isn't a huge fan of water balloons all in the grass. The solution to this is you keep all of the water balloons in a bucket- when they pop the ones they have they have to bring back the same amount of popped balloons as they want you to give them. That way they are having fun and cleaning up after themselves at the same time.. MOM WIN!

CHALK AND BUBBLES!!! You can never go wrong with either of these. Jaiden and Scarlett would stay outside forever if I let them but Ophelia on the other hand... well she's my little drama queen. She hates getting hot and sweaty. We usually do chalk on the driveway so I will set up a fan in the garage so when she gets hot she can sit in there by the fan to cool off.. literally and figuratively lol.

Since Jaiden is older he doesn't last long with chalk and bubbles but he always ends up getting his sisters to "race" him across the yard. All 3 of them are very competitive so not only do they race each other, they also like to beat their own times.

If you’re okay with your kitchen/ table to get really messy, Publix sells a make your own personal pizza kit in the deli section. It comes with 4 crusts and all of the ingredients needed to make them. My kids love making their own pizza and then they have lunch. It's a win win.

This one is my kids favorite- but who am I kidding... it’s my favorite too lol. I bought cookie cutters  and the writeable icing. The kids get to make the shape cookies they want then decorate them with icing and sprinkles when they're done baking and cooling off. This does tend to also get messy but it keeps them busy and happy.

If its raining out we do a movie day. I let the kids pick out the .99 boxes of candy that they want from the store and I pop some popcorn and we watch a movie that at least 2 out of 3 of them agree on (you can't always please everyone LOL). When they get tired of watching movies we will usually play a board game or pop the pig.

What are some of the things that you do to keep your kids busy and happy?

xoxo

Lactation bites

Happy Friday! In honor of meeting my 3 month breast feeding goal I wanted to share my favorite lactation recipe thus far. As I've mentioned a couple of times before I have struggled with a low milk supply in the past so this time I have been super proactive about the situation. I'm constantly researching ways to increase my supply, maintain my supply and switching up my diet in order to insure that I am successful at breastfeeding this time around. With that said, I've tried A LOT of different things but the one recipe that I've come across that works AND tastes good is the one I want to share today. I love to bake- always have but I feel that even if you aren't a "baker" this recipe is really simple and you really can't mess it up.


Prep time: 15 min
Cook time 12-14 min

Ingredients

• 1 cup of peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of softened butter
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon  of vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1-2 ripe bananas, mashed (I use two to help offset the taste of brewers yeast)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda (Corey was confused about this one LOL)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 3/4 cups of old fashioned oats
• 1 cup of ground flaxseed
• 3 tablespoons if brewers yeast (I bought it at GNC)
• 1 1/2 cups of dark chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the mashed bananas and mix just until combined.
3. Mix in the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the oats, flax and brewers yeast until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips
4. Drop large balls of dough onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes (one of my batches took 14 because the balls were larger) until they are set and starting to brown. Let cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheets the transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Notes
With my first batch I separated the bites a good bit because the balls were large and I didn't want them to touch. The recipe originally called them cookies but I believe that is an inaccurate description of them. They only expand a tiny bit so 2 inches apart is plenty of room for them. The original recipe also said it makes 24 'cookies'... I ended up with 27 lol.


If you try this recipe please let me know what you think and/or what you did or didn't do :)


xoxo

Why I sent my toddlers to preschool at 2

Happy Friyay! Corey and I attended the girls art show this morning at their preschool. Each child had the pieces of their 'best' art and a hand print hung on the wall in the sanctuary. It's so much fun because you have to basically walk the entire room in order to find each of their artwork so naturally you look at all of the other children's as well. One of the things that I love most about the drawings at this age is their stick people lol. Ophelia now gives her people a body and fingers and toes but Scarlett's is a head with arms and legs, no body LOL. SOMETIMES, she includes eyes and a mouth but when she does the eyes are always blue like hers.

We've been blessed to have not had to send any of our children to daycare. Jaiden attended mother's morning out when he was 3 and 4 at our church in GA. Unfortunately they didn't offer a pre-k program so he attended at a daycare but they had a different building for Preschool. I felt that it was important for him to be socialized with other kids his age because he was an only child and the only other child interaction he had was with my younger sister who is 5 years older than him. He has always enjoyed school and never threw fits getting out of the car which was a HUGE blessing. My brother and I were THAT kid that screamed and cried and even faked being sick to avoiding going to school when we were in pre-k and kindergarten (sorry mom).

We moved to NC in May of 2015 so Ophelia was 1 and Scarlett was 3 months and at that time preschool obviously wasn't needed. We found a church that we loved and one of the first things I asked about is if they offered a Mothers morning out (preschool) program. They don't which was fine but I knew I needed to keep looking for future reference. My mother in law's neighbor told her that the church that they attend has a preschool program so I looked it up and checked the reviews. The reviews were really good so I made an appointment and checked it out. I instantly knew that it was a good place for the girls to go to when the time was needed.

I'm not going to lie, one of the reasons I wanted Ophelia to go was because I needed a way to get things done. It's so hard to go grocery shopping with two toddlers or run day to day errands with them. She started in the two's class and she went 3 days a week for 3 hours each day. Ophelia is very advanced for her age, she always has been. She loves to learn and its almost like she needs it. It blows me away with how much information she is able to retain and I knew she needed to be challenged. You can tell her something once and she knows how to do it or what to do- she gets that from Corey. She's also very shy with people outside of immediate family so school has helped break her out of that shell and she's more willing to talk to people she doesn't know now.

Scarlett started preschool this past fall. She also started in the 3 day two's. She basically spoke her own language for the first two years of her life and I honestly think it was because Jaiden and Ophelia would always speak for her so she didn't really have to try in order to get her point across. Corey and I would worked with her to try to get her to pronounce things the proper way and she would say it back to us the right way in the moment but then later would say it her own way again. Preschool helped SO much with this. We can understand everything she says now and its no longer gibberish lol. This is partly because of age but I noticed a huge difference within the first month of school. She also didn't like to share- she was the baby (and still in her mind is because Blakely isn't taking her toys yet) and Jaiden and Ophelia would just give her whatever she wanted. School has helped with that as well but she still has her days lol. She has two friends at school that she constantly talks about and you can just tell that she loves them so much. She actually has to hug both of them bye every time I pick her up from school lol.

Overall I think its good for kids to have their own outlet and for them to be able to interact with kids their own age. Also to be in a routine. While you can do this on your own if you have friends with kids the same age or are in a moms play group- I think kids having to listen to other adults not just their parents is important too. It's also important for us sahm's to have a BREAK. The days that the girls have school usually go much smoother than the days that they don't.


When did y'all send your kids to preschool or why didn't you? I'd love to hear your opinions!


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Keep on keeping on: Breastfeeding

TGIF and thank goodness spring break is almost over! My kids have been going stir crazy because well let’s face it... there’s only so much you can do with 3 kids when you have a newborn.

Today I wanted to share my experiences with breastfeeding. As I had mentioned in one of my previous posts, I struggled with breastfeeding with my other children. I think one of the main issues was that I wasn’t educated. I just figured there’s a baby and there’s a boob and it just works.. um absolutely not. It was very disappointing and very discouraging so ultimately I gave up. I tried with Jaiden but with me being so young I didn’t have the slightlest clue how to take care of a baby much less breastfeed. My mom had even made me an appointment with a lactation consultant because he wouldn’t latch which made me frustrated because I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t (goes back to there’s a boob and it just works mentality) and babies can obviously feel that your frustrated and it’s just not a good combo. I EBF Ophelia for 2 1/2 months but I supplemented for Scarlett from day one. She had colic so she cried a lot as is and I was just flat out exhausted to be honest. Her and Ophelia are only 13 months apart so I just felt like my body was drained. Breastfeeding Scarlett only lasted 3 weeks but I honestly didn’t give it my all.

There was never a question in mind if I would try again with Blakely. This time I was DETERMINED. I read books, articles, other moms blogs and posts on the WTE app because I wanted to be 100% educated this time. I already knew the pain of breastfeeding the first few weeks (I would cry when I breastfed Ophelia for the firsr two weeks) so this time I started putting nipple cream on before she was even born. That really made a difference in my opinion. I told myself from the get go that it was going to be tough but like I always say- mind over matter. Ive kept a positive attitude and that’s made a world of a difference.

Blakely is a big baby so she nurses a lot and on week 4 my body was struggling with keeping up. I had pinned lactation recipes when I was pregnant because my milk supply was low with Ophelia and I just wanted to be prepared because I knew I would need them. I went to GNC and purchased fenugreek and brewers yeast. The brewers yeast was for the lactation power balls I wanted to make and the fenugreek is a capsule that I take with my prenatal vitamin everyday and then I take it again in the evening to just keep the milk flow coming lol. The fenugreek works quicker than the brewers yeast in my opinion and the brewers yeast is very bitter even if you mix it into a smoothie or milkshake.

I’ve noticed on days when I don’t drink a lot of water that my milk flow is not as heavy. I’ve read several different contractions that say increase of water won’t help or you don’t need to drink more water than you normally do. For me that is false. I have to drink a ton of water. Plus breastfeeding makes me extremely thirsty anyways so it’s not really that big of an ‘inconvenience’. Another thing that I was prepared for is that one of my breast wouldn’t keep up with the other. Some moms call it the “dud boob” lol. While I don’t think one is a dud so to speak, I did notice that my left breast wasn’t getting as full as my right. But we fixed this by starting on the left breast for every feeding for a couple of days. On day two of doing this I could already tell the supply on that side had picked up. Now that she’s a little older and staying awake for the majority of the feeding, instead of falling asleep within 5 minutes, we switch sides halfway through to help encourage an even supply.

We’re only 6 weeks in but I’m beyond satisfied with how it’s going so far. We are taking it one day at a time but I mentally set goals. Right now my goal is to make it to 3 months and once we reach that goal it’ll be 6 months and so on.

Blakely’s Birth Story

Blakely Loren Hardy

Blakely's onesie Letter Board

Now that life has started to seem some what normal again I wanted to share Blakely’s birth story. I was induced with my other 3 children so I figured that I would need to be again with Blakely. My doctor won’t schedule induction until you reach 40 weeks so at my 40 week appointment he scheduled me to be induced the following Tuesday. At that time I was only 1 cm dilated and about 50% effaced so I wasn’t hopeful I would go into labor before hand but I REALLY wanted to go on my own.

Hawthornes Pizza

My doctor had told me about a pizza that moms swear send them into labor within 48 hrs and lucky for me the restaurant was only 20 min from my house. Corey, the kids, my mother in law, sister in law and I all went there on Wednesday and I ordered the pizza which is nicknamed “the inducer”.  It’s a chicken buffalo wing pizza and the sauce on it is what is supposed to do the trick. While it did give me a lot a heart, it didn’t send me into labor. 

Friday morning I got up and took a quick shower and got the girls ready for school. On the way back home from dropping them off I started having contractions. The weren’t strong but they were a little uncomfortable. When I got home I curled my hair and got ready for the day. When I went to the bathroom I realized I had my bloody show so I called Corey and told him not to be away from his phone because I’ve been having contractions and now this. I decided to go for a walk to see if that helped make the contractions more consistent. I walked for about 45 min just up and down my street (my neighbors prob thought I was crazy lol) until it was time to go pick up the girls. While driving the contractions did start to pick up but they weren’t painful and they stayed this way for the remainder of the day.

I made Corey finally pack his hospital bag that night because I had a feeling we weren’t going to be induced after all and I made sure I had everything ready for my mom and mother in law for when we were at the hospital. We spent our Friday evening like we usually do- dinner, change kids, feed/walk dogs and watching movies. We had tilapia rice and veggies for dinner that night and while t is my absolute favorite, I wish we would’ve had something more filling lol.

Corey and I went to bed around 11:00 pm and I woke up to a painful contraction at 1:50 am. I didn’t think too much of it but it was a little odd to me because contractions had never woke me up before. I closed my eyes and started to go back asleep. 15 min later I was woken by another one, it was about the same strength as the first one so I just laid there for a while. Another 15 min passed and I had another one so at this point I get my phone and open up one of the baby apps that I used and started timing them. By 3:00am they were 10 min apart and really starting to hurt. I tried to be quiet because I wanted Corey to be able to sleep but he heard me and would rub my back through each of them. At 5:30am I was in tears and was crying as each contraction came. I made myself get up and went and got in the shower because I was clearly in labor. I called for Corey to come into the bathroom and told him he needed to start getting ready because I was going to call my doctor when I got out.

I texted my mom and told her she needed to get ready to come to NC bc I was pretty sure I was in labor and was about to call my doctor. I called the doctors office and they asked me questions and took all of my info and said they would have the doctor call me back and to keep my phone on me. The doctor called me in about 10 min and I happened to be in the middle of having a contraction when she called. She told me to go ahead and head down to the hospital. Corey called his mom and she was at the house in about 30 min to watch the kids.

We head for the hospital and I was bawling because I was in so much pain and scared that I was either A) going to have the baby in the car or B) going to be too dilated to get an epidural LOL. Corey sped the whole way there because we live 45 min from the hospital and I think he was a little nervous that I would have her in the car too haha. We had never experienced me going into labor before so we had no idea what to expect and I didn’t know how bad I was supposed to be hurting based on how dilated I was if that makes sense. We arrived at the hospital at 8:28am and were sent to triage. The triage nurses checked me and said I was 4-5 cm and that they were going to admit me. I told her ”good because I wasn’t going anywhere anyways”  lol I was in THAT much pain and would've camped out in the hospital lobby if they had tried to send me home.

Gownie

I got up to labor and delivery and that’s where the waiting game really began. My parents were both still on the way from GA so it was just Corey and I at the hospital. At 11:40 the nurse checked me and I was at 8 cm. My dad arrived around 12 pm and my mom got stuck in traffic- of course. I was stressing out she wouldn’t make it in time- she’d been in the room for my other 3 children’s birth and I really wanted her there again. I mentally kept telling myself I could make it until she got there. She arrived at 3:20 pm.

The epidural kept wearing off on the opposite side that I was laying it which causes excruciating pain (I was 8 cm at this point) so the nurse had me turn on my other side and use a peanut ball. I had never used one before so I wasn’t convinced that it would help relieve the pressure but it did!

Qalo Rings

Around 4:30 they checked me again and said it’s time to have a baby! After several pushes and a very tired momma Blakely Loren was born at 4:48pm weighing 9lbs 9 oz and 21.5 inches long!

I still can’t believe I had a 9lb baby much less pushed her out of me. Ophelia was my biggest before her weighing 7lbs 11oz at birth. Needless to say... I ate good during pregnancy haha. But I had a good idea that she was going to be big just based on how heavy my stomach was when I would try to roll over or get out of bed and the fact that she was 6 days late didn’t help either.

Corey was so supportive through the whole thing and him being calm always helps me be calm. He was on top of everything that day and did such a great job of capturing all of the photos that I wanted captured. He's such a great partner and father and I feel beyond blessed that God chose him for me. Needless to say, we are absolutely in love with our fourth bundle of joy and we cannot imagine life without this sweet angel.

What I’ve purchased in preparation of our 4th child

Since my pregnancy is about to come to an end I figured I’d share some of the main things that I’ve purchased so far in preparation for baby Hardy. We got rid of just about all of our baby products after Scarlett because we just didn’t have the space for it and Corey was convinced we weren’t going to have anymore babies (I knew he’d come around).

I thoroughly researched everything I bought this time around because I didn’t want to buy unnecessary things and I had a pretty good idea of what I would and wouldn’t use. The first thing that I purchased (and I knew I couldn’t live without) was the 4moms mamaroo. Unfortunately I didn’t know about this product when I had Jaiden but I had one with both Ophelia and Scarlett and they LOVED it. Scarlett had acid reflux at first so being at a more upright position seemed to help the best for her. I also had to repurchase the Newborn insert because I feel like it offers more support when they are so small.

The second on my must have list was a new car seat. This was by far my most researched item. I spent hours watching videos on each one that I was interested in and reading multiple forms of reviews from baby forums, to website reviews to even blogs because I feel like it’s one of the biggest and most important safety decisions you make for your child before they are even born. I ended up going with the Nuna Pipa in the color ‘night’ to help hide stains but the other seat that came in a very close second place was the Uppababy Mesa. I truly feel that both of these car seats are excellent and either one of them would be a great choice but I ultimately decided the Pipa is the better choice for me and my baby.

Third is the Medela Breast Pump. I had a Dr. Brown one with the girls and had zero success with it. I have a hard time keeping a steady and sufficient milk supply so I really need a good pump to help me produce more and this one has the best reviews and is hospital recommended so I feel confident it will be a good fit for me. I also purchased a couple of THESE bottles because while I plan to EBF- I haven’t had a great success in the past and don’t want to be in a situation where my baby needs a bottle and I don’t have any. They are silicone which I feel is a much better alternative to using glass bottles because they are heavy and I try to keep my family’s plastic use to a bare minimum.

I can’t forgot get about my diaper bag choice. I’m not really a purse person and never really have been so what I carry now is a Tory Burch back pack purse or just my wristlet if I don’t feel like lugging that around. So it’s a no brainer that I chose a back pack diaper bag. I ended up going with the Skip hop Greenwich diaper bag in the color ‘dusty rose’. It’s VERY spacious and has several pockets that are just the right size and actually make sense. One of the main things that made me choose this bag is the color. I mean it’s so pretty and I’m so excited to start using it. It also has latches so you can attach it to your stroller handle instead of it taking up the oh so valuable basket storage.

For a baby carrier I went with the Lillebaby 6 in 1 child carrier. I had a cheap one with Ophelia so I used it only a handful of times because it was SO uncomfortable for me. After doing research I realized that what I previously used did not offer the support for me or for baby that wasn’t needed for it to be a useful baby product. With having 3 other young kids I feel like I’m going to need this more than ever to have my hands free and I really liked the fact that there was 6 different ways to wear this including on the hip. They offer multiple different patterns and while I did want a really cute feminine one, I decided to go with the ‘mist’ color so Corey would feel comfortable using it too.


What are some of the baby products that you actually use/used? I love hearing about what other moms do to make life easier!