WIWW

Between moving across the country, having everything in boxes, weather in the 90s and staying home with my new baby, it's tricky to come up with cute outfits!  Here are two outfits that I came up with recently:

1. Dinner with Friends

cardigan & tank - Limited

skinny jeans - Motherhood

Turquoise flats - TJ Maxx

earrings - Francesca's

necklace - Jackson Hole

2. Lazy Summer Day
chambray & flats - Old Navy
tank - Target
colored shorts - GAP outlet (NEW)
earrings - gift
nails - NYC Park Avenue

*a heart on my wedding ring finger in honor of our 9th anniversary

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up with

The Pleated Poppy, Favorite Fashion Friday, Casual Fridays

Power Suits

I was in the market for a new swimsuit this year and I wasn't thrilled at the prospects of postpartum swim suit shopping.  I have a reputation of shopping for solid suits and not going with a lot of color.  I didn't want to make this suit an investment piece in my wardrobe so I headed to Target.  My local (Little Rock) Target had a GIANT swimsuit section but others had puny sections.  Go figure.

I tried on several solid suits (red, one shoulder grey, black, etc) but was drawn to this suit immediately when I saw it on the rack.  Print, polka-dots, pattern mixing - oh my!  I decided to give it a try just for fun and I knew as soon as I put it on that it was THE ONE for me this season.  Even my husband said it was cute.

via spanx

It was fitted but not too tight, covered all of the necessities, comfy and it was supportive up top.  Sign me up!  I never knew that Target carried Spanx brand so this was a pleasant surprise.  It didn't hurt that they had a catchy swimsuit slogan either, "Look slim while you swim!"

Shopping Buddy

Shopping is a hobby of mine but it has become quite a challenge.  It's a lot of work to get out and go with a baby.  I have to pack her diaper bag as if we were going on a mini vacation so that I'm prepared for anything and everything that might come our way.  The car is packed with her stroller and Chicco carrier at all times just in case we'd need them.  Going to the grocery store used to be a quick errand that required very little prep but now I have to coordinate and plan using real strategy to make our errands successful.

 Lucky for us, the carrier works as a baby whisperer and Olive usually falls right asleep.  We take turns wearing her and she seems to just enjoy the ride.  This is a miracle because my hands are free, she can have her paci and I have room in the cart because it isn't full of car seat.  The only downside is that it's a little tricky to get a tiny baby into the carrier.  It goes really smoothly when there are two people to get it set up but when it's just me I have to work a little harder.

Our trip is usually successful if...

 I feed her right before we leave, she has a clean diaper on, our paci is readily accessible and she's dressed for the weather.  I definitely don't have all the answers because we've walked into stores, she starts screaming for no apparent reason and we leave only to return the next day to try it again.

It's amazing to me how much attention a baby attracts.  When we are out and about, Olive is a magnet and everyone wants to look at/talk to her.  It throws me off a bit because we have only been in Little Rock for a little under one month and I don't know anyone.  So when people approach me in the stores, I have to fight off the stranger danger vibe and be chatty with them.  I tend to be a little shy in a new environment so Olive is helping me get out and talk to people.  Our recent encounters include a lot of "God Bless Yous" from sweet older ladies, lots of compliments on her accessories and people reminiscing about when their kids were that young or saying to be sure to enjoy every minute with her because it goes by so quickly.

Well the gist of my message today is: If you see a mom shopping with her kid(s), help her out.  Hold open a door for her, get the carts apart when they are stuck, let her hop in line in front of you if her baby is crying and smile at her.  It's hard work and all mom's could use a little bit of encouragement.

2 Months

Olive turned two months old today.

She's very generous with her smiles, enjoys chewing on things, is rolling front to back, eating like a champ, out growing clothes right, swatting at things, making noises, sticking out her tongue and left and playing with toys.

She's so fun!

Announcement

I spent way too much time online looking for the perfect birth announcement.  I started keeping my eyes peeled as soon as we found out we were having a girl.  I wanted something colorful, with pattern, unique, matte paper and didn't want to spend a fortune on them.  I looked at Tiny Prints, Shutterfly, Minted and Snapfish.  I ended up going with Snapfish because I found a great announcement that met all of my criteria and they were doing a 40% off any purchase coupon code at the time.

Olive's announcement:

 Since we were moving a week after these got mailed out, 

I had our new address printed on the back of the announcements.

Snapfish doesn't charge extra for this and I was excited to take care of two things at once.  I also put my blog address so that family & friends could follow along.

I ordered some stickers on-line from the photo lab at Costco with one of my favorite snapshots of Olive so people could see what she looked like right now.  They are $3 a sheet and are such a bargain!  I used them to seal the envelope and also stamped her name on the back next to the sticker.  I addressed all of the envelopes with a mint green marker and stamped a pink return address on the front.

I was so happy with how they came together.

Newborn Pics

The whole business of newborn pictures is stressful and expensive!  I found several photographers that I loved in Utah but wasn't willing to spend $800+ to have them take Olive's pictures.  I searched on-line, asked friends for references and ended up making the decision.  I went with Bella Baby Photography.  

I was clueless how my hospital did newborn pictures and just assumed that someone came and took one picture while we were there.  I was wrong.  Our hospital partners with Bella Baby and they can do a whole newborn shoot in your hospital room.  They use some of their props and yours if you have any.  They showed us their brochure and it seemed like a great set up for us.  Most photographers that I'd researched needed weeks to edit, charged additional for CDs of pictures or made you order prints through them.  We moved from UT to AR when Olive was just 4.5 weeks old so we didn't have weeks to wait to get her pictures.

We got out bows, blankets and got started.  The photographer did most of the work and we just handed her things or put Olive's paci in for a minute.  She took lots of pictures, asked if we had any requests, took those and then went to her computer.  She did some editing, made all of the prints in color and black/white then burned us a CD.  We paid and were done.  The process was really easy.  They also put her pictures on-line for a month or so if we wanted others to see them.

Here are some of my favorites.

Olive was one day old.

Weekly Wrap Up

We are getting settled in at our new place in Little Rock and trying to enjoy things along the way.  We are growing accustomed to thunder storms, Kevin's working hard to learn the ropes at his new job and we try to get out and about to explore the city when we can.  Here are the best parts of my week:

1. I've kept this orchid alive for 3 whole weeks!  I'm not good with plants and my cats usually devour anything green that finds its way into our home.

2. The GAP outlet has been good to me this season.  I'm loving these shorts so much so that I got the same style in 3 different colors.  They can be cuffed if you so choose and they are on display that way in the store. I tried on a lot of shorts this season at Target, Old Navy and GAP.  Most were too short and not my style but these are perfect!!

 3. My husband and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary this week.  I fixed his favorite dinner and dessert.  I LOVED how my cake turned out!!  Check back in a few days for a tutorial on how to make your own cake topper bunting.  

 4. I'm working on putting together Olive's nursery and the two meows are in love with her crib!

5. We are working hard to master the smile at my house and I think she's got it!  Olive makes funny faces 24/7 and is doing a lot of tongue sticking out, smiling and lamp gazing these days.  

Hope you have a great weekend!

Linking up with LaurenElizabeth and Life Rearranged.

Olive's BIRTH day!

We celebrated Olive's BIRTHday with fancy cupcakes in the hospital.  My cute husband make a cupcake run to The Sweet Tooth Fairy so that we could celebrate with our little girl for the first time.  She was thrilled :)

Can't believe you will be two months old next week.

Olive's Birth Story (Part 3)

The last chapter of Olive's birth story/picture overload...

We got settled into our new room down the hall and we thrilled to be alone for a bit.  Just our family of three.  We were all exhausted, starving and ready to relax.  We made phone calls to family, facetimed and took turns holding Olive.  I was still hungry and Kevin had hardly eaten a thing all day so he went to get Cafe Rio for dinner.  He didn't really want to leave but I assured him we'd be okay and that he could hurry back to us.

 My sister made this mini bunting for my family baby shower and suggested I use it for Olive's bassinet at the hospital.  She did something similar with her last baby.  All of the nurses and guests LOVED it.  They couldn't get over how cute it was and thought it was such a good idea.  My cute baby had to have a cute basinette.

Day 2 in the hospital was tough because I was really sore, tired and people were in the room all the time to check on me or Olive.  I'm not used to round the clock attention and it made me mad when a nurse would wake me up.  There should be a no waking mommy or baby rule in the hospital.  I tried to get some sleep when I could but I didn't sleep very well.  Plus I'm not used to sitting so much so my back was sore from laying in bed.  Kevin was great to run errands, get food and help out but he was exhausted too.

Some memorable times from the rest of our hospital stay:

We had a little scare with Olive's blood sugar.  It dropped really low and we basically had to feed her formula every two hours to see if she could eat, get her blood sugar up and maintain it.  My milk hadn't come in yet so she wasn't getting enough to eat.  It was a stressful time for me because every nurse was telling me to do things differently and each had their own opinion about the right way to breastfeed.  Plus Olive was so sleepy that she really wasn't interested in eating.  They pricked her heels so many times and it was horrible to watch.  Newborns don't bleed easily so they prick the heel, pump the leg several times and have to squeeze out a few drops of blood before they get one that counts.  It was traumatic for us both.  My doctor said she'd dismiss me after 24 hours because I was doing so well.  I felt like I needed a little more time at the hospital and Olive wasn't going to be discharged yet.  We ended up having to stay an extra day so that they could monitor Olive.  I was bummed at first but then realized it would be nice to have her watched closely for one more day.  Luckily, the hospital wasn't full so we got to stay an extra night too.  We had to move rooms to a smaller one down the hall but it was just fine.  I couldn't imagine leaving the hospital without her so we were very thankful.  We woke up and fed her every 2 hours around the clock and after several hours of this she was maintaining a good blood sugar.  She got a clean bill of health from the doctor on-call the following day.

A darling nurse came to give Olive her first bath.  She hated it at first but then settled in nicely.  She grabbed the washcloth that the nurse laid on her belly and would not let go!  The nurse couldn't believe it and said babies don't normally participate in their baths.  Olive's got such a funny littler personality already and she looks like just her dad.

 Our first mommy/daughter matching outfits were polka-dots!!

 Many faces :)  She got her newborn pictures done while we were in the hospital too.  They did them in our room and we were really happy with them.  More on that in a few days.

 Olive was so snuggly!  We only sent her to the nursery once to have her first slumber party on our last night in the hospital.  The nurses in the morning were so bummed when I went down to pick her up.  They wanted to keep her longer!  I had to keep telling them to take a hike when they'd come into my room to ask if I wanted to send Olive to the nursery.

 

The hospital has a special dinner for the new parents.  We chose the night we wanted to have it, we both placed our order, they brought in a special table and a delicious dinner for us.  It was so fun to have a little date night while in the hospital.  The frame on the table said, "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts".

 Olive's Grandma Barb (AKA her Utah Grandma) came to visit :)

We had such a great experience at Alta View!!  The nurses were great and were so helpful to us.

 

After 3 days, we were more than ready to take home our little bundle of joy.  The nurses loved Olive and couldn't quit talking about how pretty she was.  They said he had such a pretty face, great skin, such a nice shaped head and was so sweet.  She won them over with her cute faces, adorable headbands and snuggly nature.

We love you, Olive!!