Help Me Decide - Circles/Dots or Not??

I need some help making a decision (imagine that) regarding the letters in Baby L's nursery.  First a little history/back story.  I LOVE decorating the kids rooms!  We did not find out what we were having when preggo with P-Nut so of course the nursery was done gender neutral and in my favorite (had this theme planned LONG before ever meeting Jay) - Classic Pooh.  I loved the nursery and was so proud of it so of course when Buh-Buh came along it was obvious he would use the nursery and we moved P-Nut into a big girl room.  Still living in the townhouse and not wanting to put any of the kids in the basement bedroom when G-Man came along he got to share our room with us for the first year.  He never actually had a theme or a nursery (just a corner) and hence it was almost 6 years since I had been able to decorate a nursery.  So of course as soon as we moved into our new home I began to plan the new nursery (and was secretly planning it in every one of the 26 houses we looked at)!  Since I wanted a baby girl so badly and was totally convinced I was having a girl I planned accordingly.  I knew I wanted something girly but not over the top girly.  I loved the browns/tans/pinks coloring and began searching based on that.  What I was most drawn to were the retro circles and simple type of themes.  Well this was great because it meant that we didn't have to spend the $200+ for a nursery bedding set (which we could NOT have afforded) and that I could pick and choose different pieces to create exactly what I wanted.  This was also great because Jay actually agreed and liked the prints.  Something I also knew very early on was that I wanted to hang the baby's name above the crib in those oh-so-cute wood letters.  I was so excited for these letters that I actually purchased them all in February (I was not due until May) for BOTH names we had chosen.  I wanted to make sure that as soon as that baby popped out I was prepared to paint and hang her name (Hobby Lobby was very nice to take back the letters for the name not chosen).  The nursery was completely done and just awaiting the baby and the name (can you sense the build-up and anticipation?).

What I had envisioned was colored letters with either white or complementing colors circles/dots/spirals.  Well once Baby L arrived I painted the letters (in the first week of birth) and asked Jay what he thought about the circles and such.  Seeing as I could hardly wait to get them hung and patience is not one of my stronger virtues; the fact that my free-hand painting skills are weak at best; and that we had decided to paint the focal wall with stripes; Jay advised that I leave them solid.  Now I just have to add at this point that all my excitement and anticipation to have the nursery "complete" was not because we had tons of visitors and people to admire the nursery - NOPE it was for my own personal benefit.  The feeling of completion; the countless times I stood in the nursery staring at the wall admiring what we had done; and of course to take pictures and share them with family and friends who were not able to see it in person!

I was happy with what we had done until a friend (and also my favorite photographer) posted a photo of what she was doing for her daughters big girl room.  So now I am back to my personal dilemma of "circles/dots or not?".  At this point Jay is like "whatever - just do what you want" so he is no help ;)  So I am setting this to a vote.

Here is what the letters look like currently:

And here is the way I was thinking of doing them (either all white or using complementing colors on the different letters):

Now this picture was "borrowed" from Cindy Stansberry (credit where credit is due) and she did a great job - so great that I want to copy her.

It may help to see the entire wall and the bedding:

And here is the whole nursery:

Now most items in the nursery do have little dots on them but I feel that it is not overkill and that since this is the "theme" it is okay to use it throughout (but I am very open to other opinions).

Finally, for good measure here is a shot I like which includes precious Baby L in her crib:

Okay so now that you are armed with all the info - what do you think?  Circles/Dots or Not???

Call Me Crazy

I was working sign-ups for fall sports tonight so I was set up at a table in the lobby of a building we use. It happened that another group had rented out part of the area tonight as well.  This group was meeting about foster care.  While the adults met in a separate room the children were playing in the gym which happened to be beside us.

A little girl came out and asked if we did cheerleading - she was adorable, probably around 3 with a cute ponytail, great smile, and the sweetest little voice.  I told her "why yes we do - do you want to be a cheerleader?".  Her response - "I really want to be a cheerleader can I have the pom poms?".  She cracked me up.  She continued to come out to ask me if she could "pretty please" get some pom poms.  Before I realized why she was there I caught myself about to tell her to ask her parents to sign her up and she could get some.  Then I realized - this little girl doesn't have parents.  None of those children in that gym who were running around, laughing, chasing each other and smiling had parents.  How unfair is that?

Now I know that those wonderful people on the other side of the building were likely in there discussing how they were going to care for those precious little ones in the gym and I hope and pray they do.  But for an instant I thought - we have enough love in our hearts and home for a child like her.  I wanted to grab her up and give her a big hug and tell her everything was going to be okay.

You may be thinking why in the world would someone so blessed with 4 amazing babies feel the need to add another?  Well I guess because I just couldn't stand the thought of a child not having parents or knowing what it feels like to be loved unconditionally.  I also think in the back of my mind I always considered it was an option for us.  Most of you probably know but we didn't always realize how blessed we would be.  We had many problems trying to start a family and went through years of fertility treatments and disappointment.  We were at the point of accepting we would probably not have biological children and decided we would adopt (even started the paperwork).  That is when we got our first blessing - Payton :)  After that we knew we wanted a large family and once again turned to fertility treatments - this time it was better and along came our second blessing - Cole.  The true blessings are Graham and Lilah Grace who we were able to have all on our own!  Each of them a precious gift that we will never take for granted!

So as I looked across the table at those cute brown eyes and little smile I thought to myself maybe we still could.  Of course when I relayed this story to Jay and told him my tiny little thought his reaction was enough to say not right now and I am a bit crazy :)

Lilah Grace is 3 Months

I still cannot believe it has been three months since our baby girl arrived!  The days are flying by and she is growing so quickly.  Although I don't enjoy how fast it is going I do look forward to our photo sessions with Cindy Stansberry Photography to document the milestones :)  Last week it was time for Lilah's 3 month session and I had done a lot of planning and preparation for it.  Jay had the day off so it was just Baby L and I headed down to Griffin for some pics.  It was a nice car ride just the two of us even with the Atlanta morning rush traffic (nothing compared to DC).  After our session we headed into the big city to get Mommy a new badge for work and for a brief moment I actually missed working in Corporate America (more on that in an upcoming post).  That ended quickly once we got back into the car and took 16 turns to go a few blocks and get out of the city ;)  Then it was back up north for a little outlet shopping and back home to a board meeting.  It was great to have some time alone with Lilah Grace and the older kids had a blast with just Daddy that day!

So I guess you want to see some pics now huh?

We received this quilt as a gift for Lilah Grace from Jay's Aunt Barbara (she made it just for Baby L).  As soon as we opened it I knew I would use it in photos :)

In my countless hours on Etsy I discovered these adorable ruffle butt bloomers and knew they would be perfect with the quilt.

But how could I possibly use the bloomers without an amazing flower headband??  So, several more hours spent and I knew the EXACT flower I HAD to have for this to work.  BUT - they were way more than I was willing to spend on them!  And that moment is when I discovered how to make them myself!  I knew my mission and I chose to accept it.  I went to every craft store in town with photos of the flower I wanted until I found the perfect batch (yes I went through several in the process).  I practiced (see my previous post about hair accessories and my obsession with them) and finally decided to try the one that would be used for her  session.

Yep I made the flower, added the jewels and even dyed the elastic for the flower to attach to (and did a pretty good job matching the quilt).

Lilah wanted to show off her head control and rolling skills for Cindy.

No self-respecting tiny diva would show up for a photo session with just one outfit!  So, I had seen these on some of Cindy's other clients and became a fan of her friend Nicole at Wild Child & Co. (she makes the cutest stuff).  I had these planned before Baby L was even born ;)

Since most everything she wears is pink I opted for something completely different as her dressy outfit and it worked out even better than I expected.

Cindy did a fantastic job of capturing Lilah's expressions and her little personality!

It would not have been complete without me bringing along some ideas I had come across and wanting to mimic them.  

Lilah Grace did great and amused us for as long as she could but when she was done she let us know ;)

These are from my "sneak peak" and I cannot wait to receive all the photos as I know there will be so many that I love!!

History Repeats Itself

So last year right before we were about to head to Disney World for a family vacation Cole decided it would be cool to try out Daddy's beard trimmer.  As you can imagine a few chunks later we had no choice but to buzz his hair.  This was a good lesson for not only the kids to not cut their own hair but also for Jay and I to be more careful about what gets left out and not locked up.  So we started locking up the trimmer (not so convenient for Jay who uses it every day but certainly to avoid further damage).

As with anything time erases our memories and we get lazy.  I wondered why Buh-Buh was wearing his hat all night and even slept with it on.

So this morning when he still had it on we asked him why.  He acted very weird and did not want to take it off.

So, just like last time it was right in front with no choice (not even a hawk) but to buzz the entire head.  Daddy got out the big clippers and went to work.

He was not happy about the result.

But at least he looks more like Daddy now (and they can be mean together).

I guess that takes care of the back to school haircut...

Painting the Driveway...

...with chalk!

So I came across this idea at the beginning of summer on one of the many blogs I check in on (I really wish I could recall which one to give credit but unlike most of my other finds I did not bookmark this one) so let's just agree this was not my idea :)  I thought it was so neat and couldn't wait to try it out.  I gathered up the chalk, sorted it by color, put it in ziploc bags and began smashing away.  Now, this is a great way to use those small broken pieces of chalk but I will admit most of ours was new chalk.

Well that is as far as it got.  They sat in the ziplock bags on the edge of the kitchen counter for months now.  The kids kept asking and bugging me about it but I just couldn't bring myself to sit out in the miserable heat and have the sun bounce off the driveway (I know what a terrible Mommy I am).  Today we finally got some relief and it is actually kind of nice outside so I thought let's do this! 

First I put the chalk into cups.

Then I added some water and mixed it up.

Then it was time to let the fun begin...

And the finished works of art.

Not bad for zero cost and plenty of smiles :)





Crazy for Hair Accessories

When P-Nut was a baby I NEVER put anything in her hair or on her head.  This was mainly due to my mother telling me how silly it looked to have bald babies with hair bows taped to their head.  But also because I just was not into the frilly girly stuff back then.  Well after having two boys (who are PURE boy) I changed.  I suddenly found myself wearing pink (and loving it) and then became obsessed with purple.  I told Jay that if we were blessed enough to have another little girl I was going to do everything different.  I was going to put bows and flowers and headbands on her every day.  I was going to dress her up all the time and her wardrobe would look like a bottle of Pepto exploded on it.

I always looked at baby girl clothes and accessories and waited for the day that I could buy them for another one of my own.  So as soon as we found out we were expecting a baby girl I couldn't wait to start the collection.  On the way home from the ultra sound appointment I had Jay stop by a little boutique I had scoped out previously and I purchased the first hair stuff for Baby L.  Then it continued - it seemed every time I went to the store I picked up another hair bow or flower.  As you can imagine this adds up and gets expensive.

I spent hours on Etsy drooling over all the adorable headbands, bows and flowers and trying to locate the perfect one exactly how I imagined for an upcoming photo session with our amazing photographer.  I found a couple I liked but they were way more than I was willing to spend so I decided to Google (why didn't I think of this earlier) how to make hair flowers and headbands.  Wow was I surprised to discover how incredibly easy they are to make!  And of course this unleashed the inner craft junkie in me (she has been hibernating for a while) and in typical "Taryn fashion" I go a bit overboard :)

The kids were troopers as we spent a very hot day running all over town searching for all the supplies and that perfect flower.  Here is the first batch of supplies which we picked up:

Who knew that I could take simple silk flowers (the best selection from the dollar store) and turn them into this:

The girls also got customized flowers for the 4th of July.

And I even made some bow holders so they can all stay safe and be displayed on the wall.

I ordered a large batch of elastic from ebay and used needle and thread for the first time in years to make headbands to attach the flowers to.  I even successfully died my own elastic :)

And here are the supplies for our fall hair accessories so stay tuned...