Life, Unscripted - Our Alabama Life

New Baby Essentials (from a “veteran” mom)

Posted on October 10, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

When I was pregnant with Kyndall, I thought I needed all the “stuff” to be a good mom. I registered for, requested, and/or bought all the things: the diaper pail, the four different diaper bags, several types of bottles (even though I’m a breast-feeding mama). Libby came so soon after Kyndall that I still had all that stuff…even the useless junk I thought I needed.

This time around, while I’m no Michelle Duggar, I do feel more experienced. The list of “stuff” that I need is much, much shorter. I’ve compiled my list and have come up with 5 new baby must-haves, not including the obvious diapers, wipes, bedding and food (whether breastmilk or formula).

Here we go.

1. Carrier carseat. Some moms don’t recommend these, but it made my life MUCH easier with the first two. Drop it in the base as a carseat, use it in the cart at the grocery store, plop it in a chair at a restaurant.

2. An infant carrier. I had a Jeep brand carrier with the girls, but I’m looking at using a Maya wrap this time. (I saw a lady using one at the zoo to carry her daughter and it looked super convenient!)

3. A boppy. This half-circle-shape pillow made breastfeeding so much easier. It’s also great when smaller children want to hold the baby.

4. A medium-sized diaper bag. I breast-fed both the girls, so I didn’t have need to carry lots of bottles. But even if I had needed to, I don’t know what you would carry in those great big bags. I ordered this bag from Amazon and it is the perfect size for me.

5. A swing. My girls both LOVED this papasan-swing. It gives the option of swinging side to side or head to toe. I still have it and I’m hoping Jase loves it as much as they did!

6. A breast pump. This one is new to me, but obviously an essential. I didn’t need to pump with either of the girls because I wasn’t working, but I will have to this time around. After lots of research, this is the apparently best on the market.

And in case you are curious about the obvious things you need, we are going with Pampers diapers this time around (because that is, apparently, the ‘boy’ diaper), this crib/changer combo bed, and hopefully, I’ll be nursing again. I will have to go back to work at some point though, so I’m pretty sure I’ll go with these bottles when that happens.

Dealing with the Mean Girls

Posted on October 6, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

I happened upon Are You Teaching Your Daughter To Be a Mean girl? the other day completely by chance. It struck a nerve, though, probably because of the timing in which I read it.

I never dealt with mean girls growing up and Kyndall hasn’t had to deal with that yet, either. I would say it was age–she’s only in third grade, after all–but Libby has dealt with it, and she’s only a first grader. I think some personalities are just more susceptible to mean girls.

In response to the article, I started thinking about how we could teach our daughters not to care about the mean girls. I want my girls to know that yes, there are going to be mean girls (and boys!) in life, but we can’t give them power over us.

I want to build up my girls self-confidence so that they can, in the words of T. Swift, shake it off when someone says something mean to them.

I want to teach them that they are beautiful. And smart. And precious. And nothing anybody says about them can change what they are worth.

I want to teach them that it’s more important to be beautiful on the inside than the outside. If someone else wins the prize… the award… the position, it’s ok to be disappointed. But you also have to be happy for the other person. Especially if that person is considered a friend.

As a mom, it’s my job to teach my girls that they won’t win everything. And they aren’t supposed to. And rather than offering them a consolation prize for not winning, I need to teach them to be gracious.

We are lovers of music at my house, so I’m all about these two songs:

Any tips I missed on how to teach our children to deal with mean people?

Friday Links and Loves, 8 ed.

Posted on June 6, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 2 comments

This post happens every Friday. If you’re new here, check out the “Cool Products” tag on the right sidebar to see past posts.

LINKS:

I Can’t Believe I’m Telling You This. While breastfeeding my girls until they were 2 wasn’t for me, I totally agree with sharing things with other moms. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again– this motherhood thing is a team sport. We need encouragement from other moms-and even if it’s not something I, personally, am on board with, who am I to judge what you think is best for your own child? (FYI: I did breastfeed K until around 15 months and had to stop when I got pregnant with Libby. I didn’t have a definite plan to stop, so who knows? Maybe I would have continued until she was 2….)

The Titus study through She Reads Truth. I missed out on the Nehemiah study through the winter, but I’m all on board with this one. I didn’t order the study guide, but I do plan to order the one before the Ruth study starts. (PS: Today is Day 5 of the Titus study, so if you’re just starting, you’ll need to catch up!)

On Big Kid Adoption. Ya’ll. These big kids have my heart. Every single time I hear someone mention adoption, they are looking for babies. Possibly toddlers, but most definitely not “big kids.” And that is definitely OK. And trust me, I understand all the concerns. Justin and I have had these conversations ourselves. But guess what!! Those big kids need love too. They need the support from a family, too. Big kid adoption is certainly not for everyone. But thank goodness there are families, like this one, who are willing to love these big kids.

How I Don’t Do It All. I shared this link on Facebook, but didn’t include in in last week’s L&L post. It’s so easy to look at other moms and compare ourselves. But the truth is, NONE of us have it all together.

LOVES:

These Sanuk Yoga sandals. Cute and SO comfy!

This BOSE Mini Speaker. Let me clarify–Justin is loving this. I’m thinking it’s the perfect Father’s Day gift.

Grace For the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life. I’ve shared Emily’s posts before in my links section, but I’ve not listed her book in my loves. This book stepped on my toes in so many ways. In the first chapter, Emily explains that by being a good girl, she struggled with understanding God’s grace. She still felt like she had to PROVE her worth. Guys, I could have written this book. If you haven’t read it, you must.

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Project Life Tuesday

Posted on June 3, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

This post brought to you from the beach–rainy weather and all. (Hopefully, the weather will clear up sometime tomorrow!) Last week’s PL layout had fewer pictures, but I think I like it that way. I still have weeks 2, 3, and 5 to complete to be caught up and finishing those layouts are first on the agenda when we get home.

Week 22

Week 33, left side:

Journaling: This week was MY last week of school. The girls didn’t have to go, so they spent the ENTIRE week away from home. This is extremely unsual, becuase I don’t like them to be away for too long. Monday and Tuesday nights, they stayed with Gra-Gra. Wednesday night they came back
home so that I could take Libby to school to have her picture made by her first grade teacher. (When she had taken the picture on Move-Up Day, Libby’s eyes were closed.) And then Thursday night, they stayed with Meme and Papa. On Friday night, we went to watch Miller play T-ball, and then went to eat with the Rabb family at Chili’s. Saturday morning, we headed BACK to the beach, this time with my side of the family.

Week 22, right side:

I would love to see your layouts! Share them with me, or share your link in the comments below!

Project Life Tuesday

Posted on May 29, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

I took it way back to Week 1 this time. Week 1 and the current week, 21. Week 1 is completed with the Kraft kit, but I pulled out the Amber Edition with Week 21. I know now why I struggled using just one kit–I feel like I repeat my favorite pieces over and over. Having multiple kits is a good thing, as long as I don’t get too carried away with it.

Week 1

Journaling, left side middle: We kicked off 2014 with good friends. The Johnsons, the Smiths, and Madi 🙂 We made it to just afer midnight before we’d had all the fun we could take! The above photo was taken at exactly 12:01 on January 1st, 2014. The girls and I went to the movies, just us, to see Walking With Dinosaurs. They are loving these blue sweatshirts and pink scarves that Gra-Gra got them.

Journaling, right side, top: The girls asked for a Family Game Night with everyone (meaning Gra-Gra, Pops, Mal-Mal, Trey, Robin, Ali, Meme, Papa, Mama, and Daddy), so that is what they got! We all played a few rounds of HeadBandz before moving to Cranium. It was so much fun, and so very FUNNY. Watching my dad and papa act things out, or attempt to sing, was side-splitting. At one point, Trey even picked up Justin and shook him around to model the ‘heimlech maneuver.’ We hope to make Family Game Night a monthly tradition.

Journaling, right side, middle: Sunday lunch at Red Lobster–one of our favorite places to eat! The
way we are sitting is so typical, because Libby usually demands to sit by me, while Kyndall is just fine with her daddy.

Week 21

Journaling, left side, middle: Last week, the girls went to the dentist and we found out that Libby had FIVE cavities. On Tuesday, we visited a pediatric dentist. It was a horrible, awful experience. We went to a different pediatric dentist on Thursday, and it was a total difference. The dentist on Thursday was AMAZING!

Journaling, left side, bottom: Another busy week! On Monday afternoon, Libby rode the bus home with Riley for a long-overdue play date. We also had a faculty meeting after school, so Pops picked Kyndall up for the afternoon. After the meeting, I was left kid-free for a few hours and hardly knew what to do with myself! Tuesday, Libby had an appointment with a pediatric dentist in Decatur
to see about taking care of the worst cavity from last week. I left the office near tears–it was a very traumatic experience and I hope to never replicate it. Wednesday, school was a buzz. We had Move-Up Day, and both girls got to meet their teachers for next year. Libby had Splash Day, Kyndall had her year end party AND the Pride Program.

Journaling, right side, top: Thursday morning, Libby had an appointment with a different (and MUCH better) pediatric dentist. He pulled the tooth that was so decayed (it was a baby tooth
anyway) and we made an appointment for the following week for further dental fixes. Bless her poor heart, she is just going to have bad teeth. After her dentist visit, we headed south for some beach time and much-needed West snuggles. Seeing Aunt Kristi and “Aunt Luke” was just an added bonus 🙂 The girls LOVED West near to death–Kyndall changed his diapers and they both fought over who was going to get to feed him his bottle. They were such good little mommies and our beach trip was SO much fun!

Project Life Tuesday

Posted on May 20, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

My summer countdown is at T-minus 7 days and counting. I promise to get completely caught up on PL pages as soon as school is out. This week, I was only able to complete the current week.

Week 20:

Journaling, left side: Week 20 in review: Monday–Ankle recheck with Dr Riehl. Everything looked great! Tuesday- dentist appointment. K’s teeth looked great but baby girl had FIVE cavities.
Wednesday- relaxing evening at home, playing with neighborhood friends. Thursday- End-of-year field trip for K to the bowling alley Friday- School-wide field day. So much fun! Saturday- breakfast with Papaw and Carter’s birthday celebration at the Huntsville Stars game. Sunday- lunch at Gra-Gra and Pops house.

Journaling, right side: Kyndall left this note for Gobe on her bag of money. I think her Daddy has her scared that Mrs. Gobe is going to throw her stuff away!! It was too cute! PS: I love how Gobe wrote her back 🙂

If you are interested in PL but aren’t sure if you can handle a full week’s spread, there’s an app for you! It’s the Collect app–get it here. It is basically a photo calendar. Each day you choose one photo and enter one short line of text. Every so often, print the ‘pictures’ and slide them into photo sleeves. Ta-da! Instant scrapbooking.

If you need inspiration for the full layout, try Becky Higgins, Ali Edwards, or Family Bees (AKA Jenny).

Friday LInks and Loves, 5th

Posted on May 16, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 2 comments

LINKS

Love and Marriage at InCourage. Interesting article. I’m considering hosting a ‘book club’ type thing with this book. Would any of you be interested in participating?

This article has been floating around Facebook for a while now and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Numero Uno: Should a “pastor’s wife” use cuss words? Numero Dos: Who made that word a cuss word, anyway? It’s certainly not biblical. Numero Tres: While I agree with their ‘be your own person’ attidute and not beating religion over their kids heads, I can’t help but think I would be heartbroken if my children claimed to not believe in God. As a Christian, I want to see everyone saved, MOST of all, my own children. Feel free to discuss in the comments 🙂

This touched my heart this week. We so often TRY to have something to say in the midst of tragedy, when what we need to do is just be there. Say I’m sorry, hug the hurting, and just be. Don’t try to understand their grief, don’t attempt to compare or identify, just be.

Until I read this post, it never crossed my mind that this type of foster care was an option. Justin and I have been doing lots of foster/adoption research lately, an this idea has stuck with me.

LOVES

I’ve been super busy this week (I promise that’s the last time I’m going to say that), so I haven’t been doing much shopping. I ALWAYS have a few loves though 🙂

The Antelope In The Living Room. I’ve never read this author before, but I think this book, especially, would be an interesting read.

I’ve been shopping for external hard drives (to keep up with ALL these pictures) and this one is catching my eye right now. I don’t know much about these type things though–any suggestions are welcome!

I have a new shampoo that I am LOVING. It is Deva Curl No-Poo. Not only is the name extra funny, it is also awesome on my super-damaged hair. No-Poo is a zero-lathering shampoo, and I was afraid that it would make my hair oily, or dirty-feeling, but it hasn’t. My hair actually FEELS better than it has in a VERY long time.

Project Life Tuesday, Digital Edition

Posted on May 13, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

This past week has been extremely busy. The good kind of busy, but still, busy. I didn’t get to catch up on any layouts–I barely had time to complete this current week. I really need to do better about limiting my photos–maybe choosing only ONE photo per day, or one per ‘happening’. I’ve made myself a deal that once I’ve completed weeks 1-25, I can have them printed. Hopefully, this will motivate me to make time. If I’m being realistic, these next few weeks are going to be pretty busy, so I’m not going to pressure myself too much. I’m just going to keep on keepin’ on.

Week 19

Journaling, left side: On Monday Kyndall had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to have her ankle checked out. (She hurt it the previous weekend jumping on the trampoline.) The verdict? A bad sprain and a brace for two weeks. Tuesday night we had Libby’s Kindergarten program. I can’t believe she is getting ready to move to first grade! On Thursday, we took Max to the vet for his rabies shot. Earlier in the year, Mica and I produced an Anti-Bullying video for our school. Both girls were in it. Our video won the elementary division and we were all presented with an award at the board meeting on Thursday night. Friday night the girls and I drove over to Huntsville to pick up a TV for the library. While we were waiting for Justin to meet us at school and help us unload, the girls did a little inventorying for me 🙂

Journaling, right side: On Saturday, we celebrated Koby’s birthday at Mallard Stables. The girls were able to brush the horses, ride a pony, zip down the zipline, and play with some smelly pigs. After the party, we had dinner with the Johnsons and Buffalo Wild Wings. It has been a long time since we have all been able to hang out and it was long overdue…for everyone! Sunday was Mother’s Day and we began the morning with church, followed by lunch at Gra-Gra and Pops house. Later in the day we went to Nana and Papaw’s. The girls got in their first swim of the summer and Max got in his first fight :/ Apparently Dakota, Nana and Papaw’s dog, decided she didn’t like him being at her house. And if that wasn’t a full-enough day, we finished out the evening with an impromptu neighborhood pizza party at the Milers. We had a very full, but fun, week together!

Disclaimer: As I was adding this page to the blog, I realized I had not included a photo of Kyndall in her brace. There are a few other pictures I want included, so I’m going to add a 6×12 photo collage between these two pages. For now, here is K in her brace:

Project Life Tuesday, Digital Edition

Posted on May 6, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

I had fully hoped to be completely caught up with PL 2014, but that didn’t happen. I did make some good progress, but I’m not there yet. And honestly, I didn’t work on the first layout on National Scrapbooking Day. All these layouts were completed during the evenings after the girls went to bed. No #NSD10K, Becky Higgins. Sorry.

Week 4:

Week 6:

Week 18. This week had TONS of photos, so I made a separate 6×12 insert just for the journaling.

I’m not going to include the entire journaling insert, but I do want to clarify. See that photo on the right side, in the middle? The one with the arrow? The arrow is pointing to a bird. This bird has a nest there on the ground, and Every Single morning this week has come flitting out at us as we walked in to school. The girls have gotten the biggest kick out of it!

Anyone else get any memory keeping completed to celebrate National Scrapbook Day?

Friday Links and Loves, 3rd Ed.

Posted on May 2, 2014 in Life, Unscripted, 0 comments

LINKS

National Scrapbooking Day is tomorrow, May 3. {In a perfect world, I will catch up on all my PL layouts for this year and have them ready for the printer.} The idea is to create as many layouts as you can on Saturday and post them to social media with the hashtag #NSD10k. The goal is to 10,000 layouts shared.

11 Things You Can DO to Actively Encourage Another Mother Today. And while most of these points are pretty obvious (Don’t we all, always, help another mother with the door when her hands are full?) this post has my heart. I’m all about lifting other women up, mothers or not. Because this game of life, it’s a team sport, ya’ll.

One Side of A Heart–On Adoption. Because I have a heart for adoption. And because there are no ‘adoptive parents’, we are all just parents, doing the best we can.

Heart Songs <–This is part of a journaling mini-course from Simple Scrapper. I love this lesson the most because it’s these moments, these emotions, that I often struggle to get out and written.

And for a great laugh, watch this video. The girls and I have been using “Licken, honey, licken” in conversations for WEEKS!

LOVES

These long and lean tanks from Target. It’s a shame how many of these are hanging in my closet!

The Fault in Our Stars. Still the absolute best book I’ve read in a long while. I’m very anxious about the movie though… I just don’t know that they can do the book justice.

These yellow chevron outdoor pillows.

We’ve been working on our backyard/ patio area the past few days, getting ready for some major summer entertaining. While shopping for new patio furniture, I keep coming back to this Rattan Cool Bar. A table that doubles as a cooler, AND it’s super cute? I’m totally in!

I’m seriously obsessed with canvas art right now. I’m loving the above She Knew canvas above. Dee creates beautiful “faith-inspired” art and I’m coveting several of her pieces right now.

Another canvas on my “To-Buy” list (Yes, I have a to-buy list–I’m quite the list maker nerd!) is this one from Erin Condren. Her inspirational quote canvases are gorgeous.

Now tell me–what are you LOVING this week?