Friday, February 28, 2014

five on friday

I'm linking up with the good life blog, a. liz adventures, carolina charm, and hello happiness for Five on Friday. So here's the randomness that is my mind...

[ONE]
ZOO TIME


The Nashville zoo is easily one of my favorite places to go. I've missed it over the winter months. It's definitely less appealing to when it's below freezing outside. I can't imagine the animals are very fun to watch then, either. Thankfully, the weather is finally starting to warm up around here so my friend, Whitney, and I are venturing out there with our babes today.

Can. Not. Wait.

[TWO]
SPRING TV

So many of my favorites are coming back on this week. I can hardly keep up! Thank goodness we've got DVR... for now. The end of March will be a sad day in the Lamberth home when we cancel our cable.


[THREE]
SLEEP

Little man has been sleeping through the night consistently for weeks (besides the night of his birthday party, but the amount of sugar he ate would keep me up too!). It took a little while, but I finally feel like a new woman. It's amazing what normal, uninterrupted sleep will do for a person!


And yes, I'm totally the mom that sneaks in her kid's room at night and watches him sleep. Creepy? yes. Do I care? Absolutely not.

[FOUR]
IPSY*

I read about ipsy in a mom group on facebook and totally didn't believe it would be worth much, but figured it was worth $10 to give it a shot.


Well, I'm 5 months into it an LOVING it. Every month I get a package in the mail with a cute make-up bag with 4-6 items chosen for me by a stylist based off a quiz I took when I signed up. They've all been spot on. I've gotten a ton of nail polish, lip color, eye liner, eye shadow, and other random make up and skin care products. I would've never been able to buy everything I get in a month for less than $10. And the little bags you get have made it so much easier to keep all of my make up and small toiletries organized. Check it out!

[FIVE]
BEDROOM MAKEOVER

Our bedroom is in desperate need of some help. Like, in a major way. We started painting it when I was 7.5 mo pregnant and when we got to the wall behind our king sized bed, we "took a break" until a friend could help Clint move the bohemoth of a bed since I couldn't lift anything that heavy. Well, our break hasn't ended yet.

And it's awful looking.

The mirror that's supposed to be over our dresser is in the hallway where it's been for the 2.5 years we've lived in the house. The fan blades have a horrible paint job going on on the ends of them thanks to a previous owner and are now covered in dust thanks to our nightly use of it. Gah. I hate even admitting all this. The shame...

So. I'm getting sick and tired of it and I've got some big plans in my head for what I want it to look like sooner rather than later.

via
via
via
All with a more masculine flair, since I do share the room with a boy. ;-)


So that's that! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!



*Ipsy has abosolutely no idea who I am. I genuinely think it's just an awesome concept and have been looking forward to my next bag so it's been on my mind. If you decide to sign up through my link, I'll get points, but it won't cost you anything extra.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

breastfeeding diaries at The Girl in the Red Shoes

Men- be warned. This is a girly post. You probably don't want to read it or follow any links in it. Might as well exit the screen now.

Ok, ladies...

I'm over on Julie's blog, The Girl in the Red Shoes, today chatting about my breastfeeding journey. It was one heck of a time, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to share my story and encourage women in their own!


If you're visiting from Girl in the Red Shoes, HELLO!!! Take a look around and I'd let me know you stopped by!

Monday, February 24, 2014

scraping a rock on a sunburn

I finally got my tattoo finished Friday afternoon. I got the outline done in October and meant to get the color done a few weeks later, but once Halloween hit, money and time disappeared and they've just reappeared now that 90% of our yearly celebrations are behind us.


You can read about the meaning behind the tattoo here.

Let me start with saying this: it's absolutely perfect. It's better than I imagined it being and I couldn't love it more! I don't have a single shred of regret for getting it.

But it hurt. BAD.


Especially the parts on my shoulder and collar bone. I think I toughed it out pretty well, honestly, but it was hard to not freak out! I wasn't expecting it to hurt since the lines seriously didn't. I think it was the times he was blending colors into already tattooed skin.

I'm flinching just thinking about it.


It seriously does feel like a dull rock scraping up against the worst sunburn you've ever had. For 2.5 hours straight.

Whew.

But it's done now! And I love it! And I'm so, so, so thankful to have a daily reminder of God's goodness and grace on my arm for the rest of my life!


Friday, February 21, 2014

worth it.

Sunday was just one of those days.

Clint was leading worship, so he left before I really woke up.

Reuben fussed on and off from 4:00AM on so, before Clint left, I had him bring Reuben in bed with me. Great idea to get more sleep... until Reuben (who's basically my alarm clock) decided to sleep until 7:30.

So we woke up late. Rushed to get ready. Reuben fought his diaper change and putting on clothes tooth and nail. No time for either of us to eat a real breakfast, but no cash to pick up something on the way. We live 15-20 minutes away from church and we got in the car 10 minutes before service started.

We walked into the worship center during the last chorus of the last song of the worship set and turned around and left to walk into the choir room to see Clint and go into the mother's room to listen to the sermon/nurse/try and squeeze a nap in for Reuben.

Well little man was not having any of nursing or napping since he'd only been awake for an hour. So I fed him a few grapes I'd grabbed running out the door and let him crawl around while I half listened to a sermon/half made sure he wasn't destroying anything.

Then it was time for the nursery. It was his first week in a room away from me since he turned one the day before. He moved up to the "Crawlers" room, just a few rooms down from the itty bitty baby room where I serve. He started screaming the second he was out of my arms, and didn't stop screaming unless he was on the cart where all the fussy kids go. It was heartbreaking to hear my baby screaming at the top of his lungs when I couldn't do anything for him.

When it was finally time to pick him up, I realized I'd lost my pick-up tag. I went to his classroom, hoping they'd let me just take him since most people know us, but they wouldn't (which I do appreciate security wise!). He saw me leave again and started screaming louder until I got back with a reprinted sticker. He didn't even really calm down once he was in my arms. He was whimpering this pitiful little whimper and was breaking my heart all the way to the car.

We finally got in the car and he fell asleep and, of course, considered that his nap time. He didn't fall asleep again until around 1:30 and ended up sleeping in my arms until after 4:00. He was exhausted.


After all of that, I found myself frustrated we had even gone to church. If we had just stayed home and watched it online like I'd wanted to do the day after his party, none of this would've happened. It would've been a pleasant, stress-free morning.

But then God reminded me of something Clint had said the night before. He said, "Worshiping God is important to us. We have to start teaching him that NOW and making a routine of it. Going to church can't be optional. It's worth it."

Those words reminded me of a blog I'd read addressed to parents of young children in church. I went back to re-read the blog while I was holding a sleeping babe in my arms and these words stuck out:
"I know how hard it is to do what you’re doing, but I want you to know, it matters. It matters to me. It matters to my children to not be alone in the pew. It matters to the congregation to know that families care about faith, to see young people… and even on those weeks when you can’t see the little moments, it matters to your children."
So as I sat there, cuddling Reuben, I thanked God for the blessing and privilege of being the one to teach him about God. It's a huge responsibility and one that I can't take lightly. He's entrusted Reuben to me as a gift. To raise him up into a godly man who will impact the world for the Kingdom of God.

So that awful Sunday morning that we had?

It was worth it.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

birthday par-tay!

You guys.

I wish I could relive Reuben's first birthday party over and over and over again. It was easily the best day of his short life. He's such a people baby. Having a day devoted to celebrating him was his biggest baby dream come true!

We decided on "Up!" as the theme. Clint and I both love that movie and I knew we could do some fun, simple things to tie it all together.

The vanilla cupcakes were dyed blue to be like the sky and then a dumdum rolled in sprinkles looked like a ton of balloons floating up through clouds!


We surrounded his high chair with balloons. Helium just didn't seem necessary and we really didn't want to spend that much just for a few hours. Plus a floor full of balloons was apparently a genius idea, but we'll get to that later.


Food was really simple. We did a rainbow tray of fruits and veggies, popcorn ball "clouds", and mini corn dogs. Everything was gone by the time the party was over, so I'd say it was all a hit!

Ok, so back to the balloons. If you're having a lot of young kids over to your house and you have no idea how to keep them all entertained for HOURS.... use balloons. All the kids were 5 and under and they had a blast! Plus, it was so funny watching them all interact, it was perfect entertainment for the adults!

This year was the year of the blocks. Reuben got a ton of them! I can't wait for him to get big enough to build stuff with me and Clint. Blocks just seem like the quintessential little boy toy. I love them!


The cake was a hit! He wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but after his first bite, he was hooked. He was a hot mess by the end and the few wet paper towels I had weren't going to cut it. Baby boy needed a middle of the party bath!




Please. Take a second to admire the aqua-ness of that bath water...

We went back downstairs to watch the movie Up! while enjoying his first slice of pizza with any friends who wanted to stay and eat dinner with us.

I couldn't help but tear up while I was rocking him to sleep that night. We love Reuben. Like a LOT. And he's incredibly special to us. But he's our kid. Of course we're going to love him.

But to see our friends who CHOOSE to love him so well, joining with us to celebrate his first year... y'all I'm getting teary eyed just typing this. 

It's just something special.



Thursday, February 13, 2014

life before Reuben

My MIL asks me a lot, "Do you even remember life without him?" And every time I giggle to myself and think...

absolutely.


Sleep. Sweet, sweet, sleep.

Leaving the house with just my keys and wallet.

Staying up past 10:00PM without batting an eye.

A mark free stomach.

Wearing whatever I wanted. There are just some things not worth trying to figure out how to nurse a baby in.

Vacationing with just one suitcase for the both of us.

Managable hair.

Showering leisurely on a regular basis. 

Uninterrupted meals. Where I'm only responsible for feeding myself.

Eating later than 5:30PM.

Reading.

Alone time.



Yep. I remember all those things fondly.

But I can tell you this with 110% honesty...




I wouldn't trade a single second I have with Reuben for one more day of life before him.


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

almost one

I knew having a child grow up in front of my eyes would be bittersweet, but I don't think I realized how much it would impact me.

I don't even really have many words. I just can't believe my baby is almost one.




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