Fisher is 4 Months!

Fisher turned 4 months yesterday and had his 4 month check-up (and shots) appointment today. He now weighs 15.58 pounds and is 25.5 inches long. He is just above the 50th percentile in weight and height and is looking healthy as can be. Such a blessing!

The doc said we can start him on rice cereal whenever we'd like to just to help get him used to eating with a spoon. Once he handles that well we can then move on to baby foods. Just thinking about him moving on to solids makes me feel like is growing up so fast! I'm not sure I can handle it.

So here's what's been going on the past month:

• He has really grown this month and is starting to look different. I think he starting to look a little like me too now which I love.
• He has MASTERED the roll on to the belly and is now OBSESSED with being and sleeping on his tummy. We tried getting him to sleep on his back or side and he just rolls right back onto tummy so his crib bumpers have now been removed.
• He is super observant these days. He watched everyone at the Family Reunion and now notices the pups too. 
• He likes to stand up, "fly" and bounce on our knees. He likes to be moving around.
• He is getting better at sitting up. He can't sit up on his own yet, but he can now sit in the Bumbo seat for a bit before slumping over.
• He has started drooling more and more. Last month is was cute. This month it's more messy than cute.
• He still loves his hands. He basically shoves his entire hand in there and sometimes even tries to fit both hands.
• He is starting to reach out towards his toys. He especially likes holding onto his red ball.
• He has found his feet! I've always thought it was so cute when a baby holds on to their feet so I was excited once he started pulling on them.
• He seemed to be losing his hair, but now it just looks like it's getting lighter in color. We'll see...blonde or brunette? I'm hoping it stays dark so he looks little more like me.
• He is now (fairly consistently) sleeping through the night!  He typically wakes up around 5 am, talks to himself and fusses a bit, but he has learned to put himself back to sleep. Then we are up for a feeding and to start the day around 7:30am. (He goes to bed between 7:30 - 8pm. I wake him up to nurse around 10:30pm and then is up around 7:30am. Not too bad!)

• Fisher attended his first Kee/Love Family Reunion this month at the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was the 25th annual reunion and it was great having our little boy there.
• He also visited his first brewery! Don't worry...we didn't let him try any beer.
• This month was our first time celebrating our birthdays (mine on the 25th and Brent's on the 30th of August) with Fisher in our lives. Let me tell you, a birthday is so much sweeter with a child in your life. 
• Fisher now regularly attends the Kid's World nursery at church and does great. Everyone seems to love him!
• We still try to attend "Mother Goose Time" at the library once a week. 
• I just started a mother's group at church on Tuesday mornings so he is in childcare then too. I think it's great getting him used to staying with other people and it gives me some "adult-time" during the day. 

Here are some pictures of Fisher's adventures over this past month:

His favorite position: laying on his belly.

Celebrating Daddy's 28th birthday!

So happy with Aunt Heather!

Trying out the  baby walker for the first time. 

Hanging out at the Yazoo Brewery. 

Enjoying a visit from Momma C & Pops. 

The very first nap with no bumpers. Silly boy.

Loving on Aunt Liz at the Family Reunion.

Giggling with Nana at the Family Reunion.

Rocking his 25th Annual Family Reunion t-shirt. (This is the day he did his first belly-to-back roll.) 

Posing with Gran & Pap on the Family Reunion. 

Hanging out with Maeby.

His favorite things: chewing on his hand & grabbing his feet. 

Playtime with daddy.

Enjoying bath time. (He is so adorable when he's naked, but I'm not showing the "goods" on a blog. Sorry, guys.) 

Seriously, this kid is too cute. (In my very humble, non-biased opinion, that is.) Go check out a few more absolutely adorable pictures on my hubby's photography blog... www.snapfisher.blogspot.com. 

Until next time...

I Still Don't Know How to Sew

Brent was out of town this weekend so my parents came in town to keep Fisher and I company. Since we didn't have any big plans, Momma C and I decided to tackle a couple house projects. The original idea was for my mom to use this opportunity to teach me to sew. I've had a sewing machine in its unopened box for about four years now and after this weekend...it still hasn't been used. I think we both figured things would get accomplished a bit faster if mom just took care of the sewing. 

Project One was a curtain for our kitchen window. We've talked about doing this for awhile now in an effort to hide some random ugly tile featured above our window. It isn't really noticeable, but it has still always bothered me so off to Hobby Lobby we went. We snagged a fun fabric, some ribbon and a curtain rod and went to work.

Looks great, right? So fun and the best part is it also looks good from the outside. (See below.) It adds some cheer to our kitchen and works really well with our brightly colored chairs. Pretty great.

Our other project was to recover our dog pillows in a fabric that didn't hold dog hair quite as much. The fabric we had on them was UGLY. It was an old plaid fabric that basically attached itself to every dog hair possible. Even washing them didn't get the hair off. Needless to say, it was time for an update. 

We found this great graphic pattern in three colors and since it seemed to be an dog-friendly fabric, we went with them all. Mak and Maeby are very happy with their updated pillows and I love that the style now fits our home decor.  

Thanks, Momma C, for helping me out! (Even if you didn't teach to me to sew.)

Until next time....

My First Cricut Project

So once I received my Cricut, I of course couldn't wait to test it out and start making something. I decided to send my little sister a "happy" and make her a card using card-stock I had sitting around the house and my new machine. Here's the result:

Fun, right? It's pretty awesome that the Cricut actually cut out the pattern for the envelope too. All I had to do was fold it down and glue it together. LOVE!

Overall I think it was a good practice project and my little sis already said she loved receiving it. (Although, the "S" was missing when it arrived at her door. Oh, well. It's the thought that counts, right?)

Until next time...

Fisher is 3 Months!

It's true! This little guy is now three months old which is completely nuts. He is changing everyday and it is so much fun to watch. We don't have another doctor's appointment until he hits four months so I'm not sure on his weight, but I'm thinking he's in the 14 pound range. He surely feels heavier.

Look at those chunky little legs!

Here's what's been going on the past month:

• He is giggling, cooing, smiling and screeching more than ever which we love.
• He is much more alert and observant.
• He likes to stand up. He sometimes even pitches a fit when we try to lay him back down. Stubborn.
• He likes to sit up. He can't sit up on his own yet, but his head control is getting better and better.
• He likes when we make him "fly".
• He started drooling and making spit bubbles with his mouth. It's quite adorable.
• He likes to check himself out in the mirror. Who can blame him?
• He loves his hands. He chews on his fingers and is now starting to grab on to toys around him.
• His tummy-time skills are seriously improving. He can hold himself up for minutes at a time rather than just bringing his head up and dropping it down over and over again.
• He is losing his hair in front, but seems to be keeping the hair in back. I'm thinking there is a mullet in our future.
• He is getting to be a little more fussy when he is overly tired. He arches his back and can make some serious noise. Mommy and Daddy don't enjoy that new element.
• He still sleeps quite a bit during the day and we are up (on average) once a night to feed around 4 am.



• We took our first trip with Fisher this month. We made a visit to Memphis and he did great. He was a little off his schedule, but was a good sport overall and slept the whole way there and back.
• Fisher has been away from mommy and daddy 4 times now. Once with Momma C & Pops, twice with Gran & Pap and once with a friend. It is getting easier each time for me to trust him with someone other than myself or Brent. (Fisher doesn't care either way.)
• Fisher and I now go to the library once or twice a week for "Mother Goose Time". We meet up with some of our friends to hear stories and sing nursery rhymes. Sometimes Fisher is awake, other times he's fussy or sleeping, but today he did great! He looked around at all the kids and even gave a few grins to the baby next to us. So fun!
• Next Sunday we plan to put him in "Kids World" at church for the first time. He's been sleeping through the service so there hasn't been a need to drop him off, but we figured that now is as good of time as any to get him into childcare.

Here are some pictures from the past month:

Cuddle time with Pap.

Karate Kid.

Rocking some tummy-time.

Loving on Aunt Cray-Cray.

Tuckered out on his playmat.

Spending time with Momma C and Glenda in Memphis.

Chilling with Alex (and probably pooping.)

Nap time with Daddy and Mak.

The "Dad" and the "Son.

For a few extra, super sweet photos, check out my hubby's blog @ snapfisher.blogspot.com. 

Until next time...

Momma's New Toy

My awesome hubby hooked me up with an AMAZING birthday gift and he gave it to me early! Even better, right? We are really bad about waiting til the actual day to give each other birthday gifts which probably has something to do with the fact that I'm constantly asking for clues to what the gift might be. (I'm basically a small child when it comes to gifts...so impatient.)

Alright, hold your breath because here it is:

Isn't she beautiful? For those of you who don't know, this is the machine of all craft machines. It's like a printer, but it cuts things out of the paper rather than printing on it. It can tackle cardstock, vinyl, poster board, basically everything a happy little crafter might want to use. I'm thrilled!

Be prepared for all sorts of crafty projects in the near future. Woop, Woop!

Until next time...

Kitchen Redesign

My mom-in-law was wanting to make some changes to freshen up her kitchen and asked for my assistance. She wasn't looking to do anything major so all that was needed was a bit of painting and styling of the bookshelves, counters and above the cabinets. 

She took care of the painting (I just assisted with the color choice) and I handled the styling/decorating. I added a few new items, some purchased and some made, and reused items she already had around the house. The combination resulted in a brighter, more current kitchen design with very little money spent. 

Keep in mind it wasn't a bad looking kitchen to begin with. It just needed a new set of eyes to help update it a bit. It's easy to get stuck with the "that goes there because it has always gone there" mentality in your own home. Get someone else in there to shake things up and you'll be surprised how different your stuff can look.

Here are some quick shots of the before. (Note: I didn't give her a chance to clean up before I took these photos.)

And here's our after results:

I probably should have taken a few more photos that gave a full view of the kitchen, but I was in a rush to take them all before my MIL got home. I'm sure you get the point. Every thing is a little brighter, a little less cluttered and just a bit more updated.

It was a fun project and I got to throw in a few of my photo plaques! Not only do they show off her lovely family, but they also pull the wall color down into the bookcase and break up the wood tones.

Here's what I was trying to achieve in this kitchen redo:

1. Clear the clutter on the counters. 
• If you don't need it and don't love it, toss it. I eliminated the unnecessary items and added some cute containers to house the "keeps". 
2. Simplify and freshen up the bookcase displays. 
• I tried to keep the displays minimal so your eye can focus on just a few interesting things rather than getting lost in a large grouping.
3. Brighten up the items in the bookcase with the glass doors so you can actually see the items inside. 
• The original items were just in the cabinet for storage purposes and therefore didn't contribute much to the beauty of the kitchen. I added a few things to bring in more color (like the green bird) to help pull your eye over to that area as well. I also tried to make her existing patterned mugs more prominent by setting them closer to the doors, making them more visible.
4. Add a bit more personality to the space with the items I chose to keep and eliminate some of the "dated" looking items. I did this in a few ways: 
• My MIL loves her family, but had very few family photos in the kitchen (she has tons in the connecting living room) so I added a handful around the space to better represent her personality. 
• I also chose to keep items that were a bit playful like the ceramic cow in the bookcase. There's really no need to be too serious. :)
• Finally, I tried to incorporate something that she likes throughout the room. I chose to use the birds since she already had quite a few pieces of art featuring birds. I just added a couple ceramic birds to the mix as well. 
5. Make the MIL happy. :) I think I succeeded. 

The main tip here is to shop your house when you want to "redo" a room on the cheap. 90% or more of this was done using items already in her kitchen, in other rooms or in storage. Not bad.

Until next time...