A fresh coat of paint

A fresh coat of paint makes anything look better.  Take our dining room (or new front door) for example.  A fresh coat of paint and it looks like a new room.  I love it!
Here is the dining room picture I had from the previous owners before we moved in-

Then we moved in our furniture-

The walls just looked a little blah...  We needed some color.  So after a fresh coat of paint I am loving our new dining room!

The paint looks great with the existing chandelier, and helps high light the blue delft-like design.  We bought the rug from Overstock.com to help pull together the yellow in the curtains (that the previous owners left and I dried cleaned because they are very high quality curtains) and the blue chandelier.

Four Months

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Yikes!  Time is flying!  One of the things I LOVE about now having two children is comparing them.  And not comparing them in a negative way, but it is really fun to watch how two children with the same genetic make-up (nature) and the same parents (nurture) can be so different.  It is very fun for me to go back and look at PFB's monthly updates (PFB Four Month Update) and see how different or similar Haddie Grace is.

From our Four Month Visit- weight- 14lbs 7.5 oz (50th percentile) length- 25.5 in (84th percentile)

Eat- Haddie Grace is eating about every 3 hours during the day.  She takes between 4 and 5 ounces.  She has actually started to get a bit finicky about taking her bottle.  Sometimes she will only take it if she is in a quiet dark place (a bit of a challenge with a toddler running around...) or if she is sitting in her car seat.  Weird, right?  But we're going with it.  Much of the time she seems to take the first 3 or 4 ounces fine and then will finish the rest of the bottle 20-40 minutes later.  (I keep working to get her to finish because you can bet I don't want to waste of drop of my precious breast milk.)  I have still been able to give her exclusive BM thanks to Anna's donor milk, but I will run out of that probably in the next week or so and then we will supplement with formula.  I realize this is a lofty goal, but I really would like to try to continue to pump for a full year this time so that I can continue to give her the breast milk through the winter and flu season, but we will see what happens. I am going to start her on solids around 5 months.  With Phoebe I could not wait to start making baby food for her- it was such a novel thing.  But since PFB only would eat baby food for the longest time I got very sick of making it and quite disillusioned with the whole process.  All that to say, I am not looking forward to the process this time around...

Sleep- Haddie Grace doesn't sleep at night as well as Phoebe did at this age.  Just after she turned three months she started waking up to eat in the middle of the night again.  And I would say she does this about 5 nights/week.  She will only sleep 8 or 9 hours without eating.  When do they start sleeping a solid 12 hours?!?  Please let that come soon :)  She also wakes up multiple times/night because she loses/wants her paci.  I've been waking up and going in to give it to her, but I really need to start letting her cry and figure it out because getting up so many times each night is killing me.  I typically don't swaddle her anymore at night, but will still occasionally swaddle her for a nap to help her settle down.  I do put her down to sleep on her back, but she always rolls over to her belly and wakes up on her belly. She takes a good 2 1/2-3 hour nap each afternoon and in the morning she just goes with the flow and sleeps whenever she can.  We are on the go most mornings so she doesn't really get a chance to take a solid morning nap.  The joys of a second child.

Play- Haddie Grace is SO active!  She has found her feet this past month and loves playing with them and sucking on her toes.  (How appealing does that sound?)  She reaches and grabs for everything and has started not only sucking her her hands and fingers a lot but also anything else she can get a hold of.  I feel like I need to watch her and PFB closer now because Phoebe loves to give her toys that may or may not be safe for a 4 month old to be putting in her mouth....

She has also started getting up on her knees.  Now that is a SCARY thing...  I don't think PFB ever got up on her knees.  (Really, we eventually had to have PT to teach her to crawl at 10 months...) She loves her bouncy swing and the exersaucers in the church nursery.  She could be entertained in one of those for hours!  Shame we don't have one.

Yellow It Is

Remember when I was wanting to paint my new front door?  Well friends, I've done it.  Or should I say my live-in-painter, a.k.a. husband has done it.

Yellow it is!

I must admit that I was a bit self-conscious when we were painting it because it looked SUPER bright.  I kept worrying about what the neighbors would think as they drove by; he way our house is situated everyone who drives into the neighborhood can see it.  (And now you can't miss it.)  It took 5 coats of paint and a couple days to cover up the black.  I wasn't sure if I was going to end up liking it, but I LOVE it!  It is bright and fun and you can see our door way down the road.  It is fabulous.

It even matches our indoor rug, (which was there before we painted the door).  And we choose to keep the fish door knocker.

We have a neighborhood Ice Cream social on Sunday night and I'm looking forward to meeting more people in the neighborhood and telling them I live in the house with the yellow door.

What do you think?   I won't be offended if you don't like it.  I'm sure you won't be the only one :)

Linking up with Just Because 

LOVE: Goat Milk Soap

Another thing I've been loving lately are these goat milk soaps from Goat Milk Stuff.  (Thank you Courtney for introducing me to them!)

Rather than water being the first ingredient in the soap (like all mainstream drug store soaps) Goat Milk  Stuff soap is made from raw unpasteurized goat milk, not water.  Goat milk soap contains: natural alpha hydroxy acids that help eliminate dead skin cells from your skin's surface, it is naturally high in vitamin A which has been shown to repair damaged tissue and maintain healthy skin, cream (duh, good for moisture), and many minerals including selenium which has been shown to play a role in preventing skin cancer.

The soap lathers well and one bar lasts me over a month with daily showers.  You can also check out tips on how to make your soap last longer.
Goat Milk Stuff also offers other goat milk products including candles, lip balm, shaving balm, laundry soap, bath fizzies, and sugar scrubs.
With over 40 different scents to choose from you are sure to find one that you love!  The Strawberries and Champagne is one of my favorites!  Goat Milk Stuff offers flat rate priority shipping so if you're as excited to try these soaps as I was you won't have to wait long!

Nursery Reveal

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I never really had the opportunity to have a nursery for Phoebe, so I have been so excited about decorating a nursery for Haddie Grace.  I found bedding that I loved on sale at Land of Nod, which by the way has a ton of super cute stuff if you're interested...

I love the purple and yellow color combination and all the different patterns in the quilt.

Chris and his dad painted her room the weekend we first moved in, and then over the next several weeks I worked on simple decor.   The chair rail was already in place, so we went with a dark purple and lavender on that wall and painted the rest of the room grey.

And then some friends of ours gave us this blanket for Haddie Grace a couple weeks ago.  It matches her room perfectly!  Thanks Courtney!!

What are some of your favorite nursery decor ideas?  Will you use the same bedding and decor for subsequent children?  For some reason I really wanted new bedding- totally not necessary, but it was a fun little splurge.

Linking up with Mom's Monday Mingle and Monday Mingling 

{WIWW} Shopping anyone?

Do you ever have that strong desire to just go buy something?  I'm feeling that right now- and its not retail therapy.  I'm not feeling sad, frustrated, angry or any other emotion that generally warrants a shopping spree.  I just genuinely want some new clothes.  The fact that I got my hair cut yesterday and ALL the stylists in the salon were dressed super cute didn't help either...
Mainly I want need some new tops.  And I do really think it is a need- albeit, a first world need...  I haven't bought many new summer clothes over the past several years.  Three summers ago we spent the summer in the slums Kenya so I didn't purchase anything.  Two summers ago I was very pregnant.  Last summer I did buy two pairs of shorts and one shirt after I lost my baby weight, but then I got pregnant again so I couldn't justify purchasing anything else.  And now when I look in my closet I have very few summer tops and outfit options.  Really, we have a HUGE and absolutely amazing closet in the new house and I have very few tops hanging on my side of it right now.  Hence the lack of WIWW posts- well that and the fact that between the baby and the move its been a little crazy around here.  
 But I did snap some quick pictures the other day.  I'm trying to be satisfied with my limited options.

Shirt- Loft Outlet (old)

Shorts- Gap (last spring)

Necklace- TJ Maxx

What are you wanting to add to your closet right now?

Linking up with The Pleated Poppy

Good Things Come out of Rock City

Have you ever been to Rock City?  I have.  And I was highly disappointed the first time I went.  It was a lot of hype and I was less than impressed.  I consider it a tourist trap.  Needless to say I don't share the same fondness for Rock City that Chris has.  
When we got married Chris had this "See Rock City" birdhouse that has been sitting on our floor for the past four years.  I admit I thought it was a waste of space and wanted to get rid of it.

Then when we moved Chris put the bird house up on a perch in the back yard.  It used to have a rotting bird bath/bird feeder on top that he removed.  I have to admit the red barn bird house does look pretty good up in the back yard- even if it does say "See Rock City"  

Well I noticed several days ago that some birds had built a nest in two of the little compartments.  When we were looking in there last week we also saw BABY BIRDS!  Yes, we have at least one baby bird!  How fun is that?!?  Now I love Chris' Rock City Bird House.  I guess it just needed to be put to good use.

I know it is a little hard to see, but that puff of hair is a baby bird :)