Leo's Nursery Reveal

Leo has the sweetest nursery!  We went with a lion/jungle theme without it being too over the top.  Lots of neutral colors with jungle creatures mixed in.  This room was also Fletcher's nursery.  The wall of built ins and the wood floor just screams boy to me!  Now that he's 19 months, I figured I really needed to take pictures and share this space.  We got the house ready for showings so it was the perfect time to document this space.

Welcome to Leo's nursery.

This wooden dresser was in my nursery when I was a baby.  My parents bought it, stained it and it's been in all three of my kid's nurseries.

I loved collecting items for his nursery over the past year.  The LEO wall letters were the first item I bought with his name on it.  I picked it up in the Fall before he was born because I just knew Leo was the perfect name for him.  A few weeks later we settled on Leo and I already had this ready for his nursery.

I decorated with Leos' newborn pictures and some sentimental items.  Those are my baby shoes.

We love this sweet lion art.  Leo roars at it every time he sees it.  This room doubles as our guest room so we made sure to add some jungle pillows to the neutral bedding to tie everything in.

Leo's lion new born picture is one of my favorites.

All the crib sheets and diaper changing pad cover were from Target.  I love the mix of greens, oranges and grays for his room.

He plays in his room often with all the toys and the cats love napping in here, too.

Leo 7-9 Months

Our sweet Leo is busier than ever these days.  The months are flying by and his first birthday will be here in no time.  We remind him often that there is no need to rush all these milestones and that he is still a baby.  He seems more determined than ever to keep up with the big kids.

Leo // 7 Months

You love anything on wheels, any food you can get your hands on and all fruit purees.  You army crawl all over the house and pull up on things.  You figured out how to use our scoot boards after watching Olive and Fletcher.  You climb on and scoot all over the house.  It's impressive.  We often find you "stuck" under chairs or tables not able to get yourself out.  Tears shoot out of your eyes and flood your face any time you are sad.  We've never seen waterworks like yours.

We fish tiny toys out of your mouth all day long.  Being the baby of the family means lots of little pieces everywhere.  You get mad when we take them away.  You had several teeth pop through this month.   Your hair is coming in dark and people always comment on your handsome dark eyes.

You weigh 23lbs and love to play with toys.  Bath time is the best time. 

 

Leo // 8 Months

You are captain chaos.  Nothing makes you happier than destroying something Olive & Fletcher are working very hard on building.  They often ask me for help containing you.  You always have lots to talk about babbling the day away.  You have a sleeping song that you sing when you get tired.  You've turned into a belly sleeper and have fangs!  You have three bottom teeth and two fangs on top.  Your front teeth have yet to make their debut.

You love the kittens and love chasing them.  You're taking two naps a day  and are very fast.  You love a tray full of finger foods and are happy to sit and eat for a long time.

You got to meet Santa, visit family for Christmas and meet some family for the first time.  You preferred playing with the wrapping paper on your gifts over opening your gifts.

 

Leo // 9 Months

You ended up with 7 teeth this month.  When you are really happy, you smile very big and show your bottom three teeth.  You love to climb on anyone that sits on the ground, open and close cabinet doors, pull up on everything and like when we sing to you.  We caught you playing in the toilet several times this month.  You were very pleased with yourself.

You've learned to wave bye bye, give kisses, play peek a boo and say Da-Da this month.  You went sledding and enjoyed playing in the snow!  You are a little snow bunny.  You love to dump everything and we still call you Captain Chaos.

Olive and Fletcher have decided that you have the best name because it's short and sweet.  Swaddle blankets are still your favorite and pacis are only for chewing on it seems.  You are weighing in at 25lbs and topping all the charts.  We bundled you up all month long and kept heading outside.  You didn't seem to mind as long as your belly was full and you were warm.  

 

I cannot believe I only have one more monthly Leo post to write.  The time sure does fly :)

Best Surprise Ever

One year ago on September 19, 2019.  We found out that I was pregnant with Leo.

Remember this post: Surprise... Baby #3

It'll go down as one of the biggest surprises ever for our family who struggled for years to get pregnant with Olive and Fletcher.  A surprise pregnancy wasn't even on our radar anymore.  It's wild to me that God will surprise you with an answer to prayer YEARS after you started praying for it.

We are so thankful for Leo and can't imagine our family without him.

I thought today would be the perfect time to share his birthday announcement with you as well as a new piece of jewelry.  

I LOVE sending out real snail mail baby announcements.  It's one of my favorite new baby traditions.  I always order card stock announcements from Snapfish.  They're my favorite.

It's top priority to me.  I've done it for all the kids.  Thanks to COVID we had to cancel all of his newborn photography sessions and I had to take his pictures at home.  I was really pleased with how they turned out.  I opted to include all three kids on his birth announcement because we were all so excited to meet our new baby.  My favorite pictures were of Leo and his siblings.  That's the perk of being baby #3 - you're always surrounded by LOVE.

All the kids have changed since these pictures were taken back in May.  Olive has lost teeth, Fletcher has some shorter hair and new scars and Leo has changed the most.  Babies just don't keep.

 

Fletcher Baby Announcement

Olive Baby Announcement

Then sometime last Fall when we were starting to throw around baby name options, I mentioned Leo among others.  Kevin later asked me if I knew that there was a Leo Diamond when Leo was starting to stick as our front runner name.  I had never heard of a Leo Diamond and went to check it out. It's a diamond with many extra cuts in it to make it the brightest, sparkliest diamond on the market.  You can get it in a variety of shapes.

Kevin insisted that I get one for my Christmas gift last year.  He scoped them out at a local jewelry store, I went to try them on and selected my perfect Leo diamond.  It was really fun to try on all the different shapes and styles for a right hand ring.  Ultimately, I went with a princess cut diamond to go with my wedding ring.  Inside the band it says Leo and it makes me smile every time I wear it.

He said, "You know having our last baby feels like a big milestone.  We need something special to commemorate this!"  He's the sweetest and will forever be the romantic one on our relationship.  I love wearing it and am excited to have this fun piece of heirloom jewelry.

We love you, Leo!

Strawberry Picking

Happy Fri-YAY!!

Many of our favorite events have been cancelled this year, but I'm happy to report that strawberry picking was still an option for us.  It's outdoors and everyone can spread out.  We took the whole family on a little road trip up to our favorite spot in Rosedale, IN.  Ditzler Orchard is our favorite place for strawberries, apples, cider and pumpkins.

I've taken the kids strawberry picking for the past 3 years, but Kevin's always had to work.  This year he's working from home much more and was able to get away with us.  The weather was gorgeous yesterday - cool and sunny.  It was the perfect time to head to the strawberry patch.

Olive and Fletcher LOVED it.  They taught Kevin how to pick berries an easily filled their mouths and baskets.  We can home with tons of berries.

Leo HATED it.  He didn't care for his sun hat.  It was too windy.  He didn't want his paci.  Didn't like riding in the wrap I was wearing.  You name it and he wasn't a fan.  He was just grumpy about the whole event.  Good thing berry picking is quick.  He's just like his big brother.  Fletcher cried almost the entire first time we came here with him.  Maye he'll enjoy it more next year when he can get some of the berries :)

We all agreed that eating warm berries in the sunshine was delicious.  The berries just taste better when they're freshly picked.

We've enjoyed finding fun ways to eat our berries - strawberry lemonade was a bit hit with dinner, fresh strawberries and bowls of berries + whipped cream.

Hope you have a sweet weekend!  See you back here on Monday :)