Giuliana is 4!

This Post is waaaay over due.. but hey, its progress! 2 posts in 2 months? I think Im doing pretty dang good! 

Our sweet First born turned 4 on the 19th.

You read that right. f-o-u-r

This little bean is 4...FOUR!

Oh don't mind me over here, i'm just in shock & might have a little something in my eye *sniff* 

But seriously, I can hardly believe it! Time has flown by.
She is the sweetest, Spunkiest, smartest {bossiest haha} girl I know! I have loved every minute of watching her grow into the strong little person she is. Sometimes I see a glimpse of her future self, because, well, anyone that knows her can attest to the fact that she is basically an 80 year old woman stuck in a teeny tiny 4 year old body.  She is very wise, and bold, & strong, yet so tender and kind. She's a free spirit, but a rule follower, how that works? I have no idea, but its the truth. Watching her with her brother, puts the biggest smile on my face, because they are so very different in so many ways, yet so similar. She is such a little mama, teaching him constantly, good things.. and bad too. I wouldn't trade this girl for anything in the world. Every day I am thankful I get to be her mama!

To celebrate our special girl, we had a get together in our back yard with her cute little girl friends {And Liam!}, & enjoyed a super girly fairy tea party! It was such a blast. We used our tiny ikea stools from our playroom, my mother inlaws, fold up tables, white table cloths & our Thrift shop tea cup/saucer finds to put this party together, & it turned out so much more special than I ever could have hoped. G was in heaven. 

Anyways, here are some pictures from Our sweet Giuliana's Birthday & Fairy Tea Party!

Giuliana & her grandma Virginia share a birthday! Every year, the whole family gets together on the morning of their birthday to eat breakfast & celebrate our 2 special girls! 

My amazing Hubby made an array of teeny tiny sandwiches {cucumber, chicken salad, Jelly} & we bought some little cookies from AJ's.

The tea was a berry/herbal blend called 'prince charming' {g's choice, after we did a taste test with a couple different flavors} from our dear family friends' fairy tale tea line. Have you had Tea Royalty yet? If not, get some! She has so many different tea blends/lines & yummy flavors for tea lovers like me! {We go through a lot of tea in our home... I may have a problem} The fairy tale line is just one of her many tea lines. She is very passionate about what she does, & they are locally owned and operated. What more could you ask for? 

Every year, I personally make their birthday cakes. It's something I look forward to all year long! Especially proud of this one! 

We played lots of 'ring around the roses' & duck duck goose! These little fairies were happy as clams! 

Happy 4th Birthday sweet G! 

You are So very Loved! 

A summary... & lots of pictures

I took a small break from blogging, as we had so much going on in our lives, I just couldn't really find the words!

In this past year, so much has gone on in our family. We've celebrated new life & death, There have been career changes, birthdays, little milestones, Broken bones, new friends, vacations,  to name a few things. We've had crazy health issues that are finally being discovered & understood, which I will talk about later.

Liam FINALLY started sleeping, shortly after he turned 15 months, & is now basically an angel baby! Mostly. After the year we had with Liam, oh man, is it amazing to see his happy & sweet personality shine through. For those of you that may be new readers, or those of you that just don't know what we went through with Liam, Lets just say that the first year of Liams life was one of the hardest years of my entire life. He cried day & night for over a year straight. And i'm not exaggerating. ALL DAY. ALL NIGHT. He only slept for 15 minutes at a time.. again, all day and all night. It completely broke my heart.. and my sanity. Friends and family look back on that year and we all nervously smile and pretend to laugh at it, but really we're all still a bit traumatized. We spent a year going to multiple Doctors, and found an amazing Chiropractor that helped a lot. Our little guy was just a grumpy, uncomfortable little dude! Like i said though, now he is such an angel and an immense blessing to our family. He has always been a blessing, but it has become so very clear what a blessing he has been. In that year, our family grew so much. We have all changed in so many ways, for the better. I'm a firm believer in that, everything happens for a reason.

Sweet Giuliana started preschool this year and is just as smart & sassy as ever! She grows more & more beautiful every single day. She has a heart of gold and is just adored by all who meet her. I seriously think she will be smarter than me soon.. and she's only 3 years old! Earlier this year, Giuliana broke her leg, & oh man was that scary. She is one tough girl!

William started working with his dad & seriously loves his job! I'm so very proud of him every day! With his new job, he is home by 5 every day, & man oh man are we loving that change! 

Here are some photos from this last year! 

 Quite an eventful year as you can see! 

Every day I am so thankful for this sweet family I have been so blessed with & the friends and support system that we have. Excited to see where life takes us over the next few years. Hopefully i will remember to document it here :) 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family & friends! 

-A

We're Back!

Almost.

We're {almost} back.

I'll be taking some time to Edit and change some things on the blog, so it looks a bit cooler. Or something like that. 

Excited to write up a new post about our family. Its been a long time coming! 

Hoping everyone has had a wonderful year so far! Can you believe its almost thanksgiving already? 

See you soon xo

{over sharer}

I Haven't been on here in a while, & honestly, it feels so foreign to be writing up a blog post right now. But it's a short one, so i think i can manage ;) 

A friend shared an article on Facebook & i just had to reshare it 

It's perfect & simple. 

These past 9 months have been trying to say the least & i promise to do an update post very soon, i just can't find the time or the right words to talk about the last few months. {I know i know i sound like a broken record.. but really it will come} 

If you're my family, friend or Facebook/instagram friend you know what has gone on, & you also know that i am an over sharer of pictures of my kids & everything mama related.

Recently, someone made a comment about how i post too much about my kids or about being a mom. It's happened before & i just ignored it, but this time it really bothered me. It bothered me because, as i state below, what else am i supposed to post about?  So when i reposted this article on my Facebook, i took the opportunity to explain why i "Over share" about the joys & trials of motherhood & a lot of my mama friends chimed in saying their lives are so so similar! So i thought i would share it with you all & hopefully encourage another mama or two out there :)
By the way, i'm not angry! So please don't think that or read this post in an angry tone. That's not my point AT ALL. It's playful & honest, that's all

Here's the link to the article by the way
& here's a link to her most recent post that just made me laugh
I wish i was that funny

This is what i wrote: 

"ok before you roll your eyes & say "there goes ashley posting about motherhood again.." I know I post a lot of mama stuff but hear me out, ....this is my life. I read everyone's posts about family, friends, parties, vacations, school, work etc & I smile & enjoy reading about your life. Really I do! If you don't enjoy reading about mine, frankly, i don't care. I have nothing else to talk about but my kids & my daily laughs & struggles. (Or my struggles that I pretend to laugh at) I post lots of pictures of my kids. I know. But this is my life, in all it's glory. My life is interesting, fun & beautiful, but in a different way. Instead of everything everyone else does, I breastfeed a 20 pound squirmy monster that has 2 new teeth (ya, ouch!) 6+ times a day while somehow trying to keep a toddler content. I am then up 4 or more times a night feeding & rocking said monster boy back to sleep.. I clean up poop & pee & vomit & I sweep random food/items off the floor atleast 10 times every day because kids are messy, in case you didn't know. I talk to a 2 year old and an infant all day about a wide range of topics.. Nothing I find particularly interesting, but I'm teaching them about life. I potty train, do homeschool activities, play games, make cookies, fight to get them both down for atleast one nap at the same time, snuggle them, make breakfast lunch & dinner. I clean up the same messes multiple times a day because somehow they manage to completely demolish the living room while I'm cleaning the dining room & vice versa. I clean ALL DAY & it's as if it never happened. I try to make them happy so I can hear their sweet laughs, I make silly faces & dance around & throw them in the air, & crawl around on the floor pretending to be a dinosaur or a horse, all while trying to do the dishes & laundry & vacuum. I do all of this every day, while i stay locked inside my house for fear of everyone seeing my unlost baby weight, uncombed hair, 2 day old makeup, & giant bags under my eyes from 3 years of 2-3 hours of sleep a night, at most. (2 bad sleepers will do that to you) I struggle daily to just keep myself together, And that's ok. Being a mama is hard!! & i only have 2 of these monsters! And also being a wife, daughter, sister, cousin, niece, grand daughter fried etc is hard. Life is crazy, it's hard to find that balance. But I love every minute & every person in my life. My point in posting all this mama stuff I post is not to bug anyone, it's to remind the mamas or soon to be mamas that are in the same situation as I am that it's ok if you haven't showered in 5 days, & your laundry is piled up. We're all here for each other, we know the truth, & we will get through this lol if anything, I hope my posts give the seasoned mamas a good laugh as they reminisce"

We are moms. 
This our life
We post about our kids because 
1) We're proud of them
2) They are all that we think about day & night
3) Everything we do is FOR THEM, wether we stay home or work out of the home,
 it's all for them
4) We love them so much it hurts! 
5) they are our new (&only) hobby

by the way, if you were to ask me a few years ago what my hobbies were, it would be an impressive list of fun, creative, & active things.
Now? 
My hobbies include
* Singing every word to every song on the frozen soundtrack multiple times a day
*Watching peppa pig while the kids nap because i am too tired to realize the kids are in bed & i can now watch whatever i want
* Talking in crazy voices and pretending to be a monster while chasing my kids around the house
* Trying on my pre pregnancy clothes & crying because i can't get them past my thighs 
* Putting carrots under my top lip & pretending to be a walrus because it makes G laugh hysterically  EVERY. TIME. 
*Sitting in the dark downstairs by myself speed watching Greys anatomy while everyone is sleeping so i can have some alone time & not have to think
* Pretending to have clean hair when really i haven't washed it in a week & have just dry shampood the crap out of it 
*Re washing the same load of laundry 4 times because i keep forgetting it's in the washer 
*and many other super embarrassing things that i'll save for another post

See? My kids are alive & well & so are we :) 

They grow so fast

Like i said, an update post is to come soon

Just wanted everyone to know we didn't disappear into the abyss 

Motherhood, we just take it one day at a time & hope to God we aren't screwing them up

I am an over sharer 

I will always be honest about the struggles & joys of motherhood

& that's ok

I share because I want other moms to know that they are not alone

The struggle is real! 

The joy is real too 

& so are the smiles & kisses & hugs

{diy disposable baby wipes}

Today I am going to give you my recipe for homemade wipes

But before i begin, i wanted to say thank you to everyone who wrote me emails & left comments regarding my last post. I was blown away by the response i got! I am so happy that i was able to encourage some mamas out there with my story. Thank you all so much for your encouragement as well!! 

Things are slowly getting better here, long story short, our boy has some tummy issues. We started taking him to my naturopathic doctor, & we are beginning to understand whats been going on. Hoping to get our little guy fixed up soon! & hoping he starts sleeping longer than 30min- 1 hour at a time.. Will share more as i know more

But anyways, on to the post

We are FINALLY breaking out our cloth diapers for Liam,  ready to start saving money again! & we're finally caught up on regular laundry...after 4 months haha

We saved so much money cloth diapering our daughter, & now, our son is using her diapers. Just goes to show they are worth the initial investment!

Both of our kids have super sensitive skin. Especially on their little bottoms ;) 

So with our daughter. i used cloth wipes and a hypoallergenic bottom spray.

for our son, i wanted to try something else

so i made these! & i love them! 

after ONE day of using them, his little bum rash cleared up & we've been using them ever since

I am most definitely a believer

We all know the health & moisturizing benefits of coconut oil

& if you use a good baby wash or Dr. Bronners, you can't lose!

Try them out for yourself! 

What you need:

A roll of paper towels 

Your favorite ph balanced baby wash or Dr. Bronners soap 

virgin unrefined coconut oil

water

a container with a lid for the wipes

a big knife

Begin by cutting your paper towel roll in half

Use a cutting board!  I didn't cut on my table, this pic was a fake ;)

Choose the half you want to use & remove the cardboard center

Put the other half somewhere until you're ready to make your next batch

stuff your half roll into chosen container 

Mix 1 Tablespoon coconut oil & 1 Tablespoon baby wash with 1 1/2 cups hot water 

The hot water will help the coconut oil melt

We love Honest co baby wash! It smells so yummy! Plus i trust all the ingredients 

Pour your mixture over the paper towel roll in the container

To use:

Pull from the center of the roll , tear at perforation, replace lid

easy peasy!

You will get a good sized wipe, made with ingredients you trust!

{Here's a summarization in one picture to pin to pinterest or to save you your computer :) }

Happy saturday :)