Never Grow Up

It's no secret that I love planning parties. Everything about it is fun for me. Picking the perfect theme, making decorations or finding cute things for cheap, and planning food. I also know that many people think it is ridiculous to go all out for babies birthdays, and that is great for them. I am under no illusion that my kids are going to remember these parties from their first birthday, and that's OK. I think it is more for us as parents. A celebration of their sweet life of course, but also a celebration of surviving and somewhat thriving in that first year of their life because that certainly deserves a celebration.

I knew pretty early on that I wanted to do a "Never Grow Up" Peter Pan theme for Lincoln's first birthday. As my last baby, I am two-fists-tightly-gripping onto his baby-ness. I'm not wishing it away this time so "Never Grow Up" has been my motto for him since day one.

I love Peter Pan and the movie Finding Neverland is one of my all-time favorites and makes me sob all the ugly tears every time. I wanted to run with the theme but not in a traditional Peter Pan and Tinkerbell way. So, I just subtly went with feathers, arrows, moss and trees, teepee, pirates and treasure. We had chocolate gold coins and gummy tick-tock crocs for the kids to make goody bags out of as their party favor and black tape leading to the red "X" marks the spot on the front porch. Some "Lost boys rules" and a bunch of photos of our sweet boy through his first year completed it all.

We did a taco bar because tacos are always a good idea. I prayed the rain away (although it showered on us for a few minutes) and we enjoyed having an outdoor party with a bounce house. Lincoln was a pro at the cake smash which was hilarious and I was so glad we were outside for it as he started throwing cake on the ground after shoving his face.

I swear by these words "Little boys should never be sent to bed, they always wake up a day older and then before you know it, they're grown." To my little boy who just keeps growing, I love you.

"Never Grow Up" print: Etsy {I asked the shop to format it to 18x24 poster size and did an engineering print at Staples}

felt star garland: made by me

felt leaf garland: Target

felt feather garland: Etsy

feather cupcake toppers: Etsy

tick-tock croc dummies: Amazon

chocolate gold coins: Target

"Lost boys rules" wood sign: made by me

"One" high chair banner: made by me

"1" gold balloon: Hobby Lobby

real feather garland on teepee: made by me

square photo prints: Parabo Press

"Never Grow Up" shirt: Etsy

Peter Pan felt hat: Etsy

fairy jars: made by me

invitations: Etsy

baby book

One of my favorite things that I have done for my boys is their baby books. I know it's a running joke among most parents that they kept up with it for their first child and each subsequent kid got less and less when it came to the baby book. I'm a little proud that I have managed to keep up with Gideon and Nolan's, at least for the first year of their lives. And now I get to start on Lincoln's.

I'm so sentimental when it comes to physical things. I remember grabbing everything out of the hospital room before we took Gideon home because it all felt so special. Every bracelet we wore, his hat, blanket, bassinet name tag. I took it all. And I glued those suckers in his baby book. I love having it to look back on now.

I had this baby book on our registry for Lincoln and a sweet friend gifted it to us.  The fabric cover and beautifully done pages are incredible.  I love filling it out with stories of pregnancy and birth and I know I will be so grateful to have it in the future.

One of my favorite things in each of their baby books is their birth announcement. Gone are the days of announcing a baby in the newspaper, which is really sad for this Journalism major. But, we have such a fun alternative in printed birth announcements to mail out to family and friends. Tiny Prints has beautiful ones specific for gender or neutral. If you haven't figured out that I love paper goods then you haven't been reading my blog for very long. I love how sturdy these are and am glad I will have them forever tucked away in these books.

I've heard people say that they don't think their kids will care about the baby book when they are older, but I have always viewed the baby book as something for myself.  Yes, I think they will enjoy looking at them down the road, but in all honesty I think I will be the one who keeps them and pulls them out to ugly cry amidst the prom dates and college packing.  Do your future self a favor and write just a few things down that you don't want to forget about these stages.  Print a birth announcement to look back at and save the little treasures that you never want to lose.  It is so worth it.

Here are some things that make it easier:
+ I do monthly photos and keep them organized on Instagram with a hashtag.  Then around their first birthday I use a site like this to print them out and put into their book.  It makes it easier to do all at once.
+ Washi tape is your friend.  It makes it quick and easy {and un-messy} to put things into the book and brings another fun aspect to the pages.
+ Write little things down throughout the month or keep a running note in your phone of "firsts" like smiles, clapping, steps and the dates they happened so that you can go back later to fill in the baby book.  You probably have your phone more accessible.


*birth announcements were provided by TinyPrints

Lincoln's nursery

Since we bought our first home in October, the thought of having complete creative control of a nursery for the first time was thrilling.  And overwhelming.  I could paint.  But what color?  I could do anything to the walls.  Let's be real, ship lap was at the top of my list.  I was excited, but also didn't know where to start.  I really didn't want to have a ton of work to do and didn't want to spend a ton of money.

I grabbed some paint samples and stuck them on the wall to observe in different light. Ultimately, I decided to leave the walls as is because our builders said they would return after a year to fill in cracks once the house settled and I would prefer to not have a ton of paint touch up to do.  But, I wanted some color.  I found Sigh by Valspar and knew it would be perfect to go on the ceiling.  Subtle but a pop of color especially during the day.  Painting the ceiling was a chore {on the neck} but it brings a fun element to the room.  I also, decided to add some focus to one wall with some decals.

I love how the room turned out and it is my favorite nursery of the three {sorry first two kids!}.  I love to sit in here and rock by myself in the mostly quiet house.  Our cat loves the room too and has found that she can effectively hide from the boys by staying in here.

A bunch of things were just re-used {all the nursery furniture, shelves, frames, mobile} and then I added in a few new decorative things.  The big boys have the galvanized letters in their room too, so I love that it carries through.  Can't wait to put a tiny baby in here!

 Here you can see the ceiling color!

Where from?

changing pad cover | etsy: finley baby
wall decals | etsy: poppet hollow shop
wall organizer | target {only in store}
mirror | hobby lobby
"hello handsome" | hobby lobby
side table | tj maxx
basket | tj maxx
mobile | etsy: the red bird shop
"little seeds" print | etsy: sweet face and co
large galvanized "L" | hobby lobby
pillow | tj maxx
lion | jellycat {bought locally}
arrows | DIY from my shop
long live boyhood pennant | wild plus bear
curtain | IKEA
bookshelves | IKEA
growth ruler | DIY by my dad

30+ week thoughts

+ It's about seven weeks until we meet this guy.  We are planning on being induced at 39 weeks for several reasons (I've been induced twice and know exactly how my body reacts plus the 45+ minute drive to the hospital is scary with number 3, and several other things), but I told Taylor the other day to take it with a grain of salt, but I'm not sure I'll even make it to then.

+ This go round has brought tons of lower back pain and symphysis pubis dysfunction, also described as someone trying to pull my legs off at my pelvic ligaments.  So painful!  I started seeing a chiropractor a couple of weeks ago. Glory, Hallelujah.

+ I'm internally panicking because I really have a lot to do in the next month.  Breathe.

+ I also feel beyond lazy because I can't seem to do anything at nap time/quiet time other than nap myself.  I am sleeping terribly at night so 45 minutes of snoozing during the day sounds better than anything else and usually wins out.

+ Girl Scout cookies are coming this week.  T-minus 5 weeks until I cut dairy.  Pre-baby this time to cut down on newborn discomfort.  Give me all the chocolate, pizza, and ice cream right now.

+ I kind of officially hate going to any kind of store.  Every grocery store visit contains this conversation multiple times on repeat:
   - person: Oh, are you having a girl this time?
   - me: Nope!  A boy!
   - person: Wow! Three boys!  Wow!  You can always try again for a girl.
   - me: Nope.  We are done!

+ I've never been a leggings as pants person, but I'm at the point where I just do not care.

You're welcome for the all the random things today.  The end.

A baby name & PinkBlush

It amazes me at times that I am this far into my third pregnancy.  It's so true about third pregnancies; you have zero time to really think that much about it.  I know I am tired.  My indigestion has been terrible since week six, but I keep chugging along because that's all I can do.  I had to actually break out my phone on Friday to calculate how many weeks I was because I. could. not. remember.

One thing that has been harder for me this third time (and it shouldn't be.  I should be expert by now) is maternity clothes.  I was pregnant in a completely different season with Gideon and was also working so my wardrobe was different than what I would wear now for preschool drop-off and to be a personal snot rag.  With Nolan, I borrowed most of my maternity clothes from an amazing friend, who sadly has moved away!  So back to the drawing board and figuring out what to wear for six-ish months.

I was so excited to discover PinkBlush and love the versatility of their maternity clothes like this poncho.  I am a get the most for your money type of girl, so any clothes that I can wear while pregnant and post-partum, sign me up!  This fit the bill.  They have really great basics too, like the long sleeve white shirt I'm wearing that I ordered a few months back.  So soft and the perfect length! And I have teamed up with them to give away a $75 giftcard over on my Instagram (psst. great news is they have way more than just maternity clothes!!!)

Oh yes, and a baby name! I'm not one of those people who can dilly dally over baby names once they find out the gender.  I can't just say things like "I'll wait til he's born to see what he looks like."  I can't do it. I'm OCD, Type-A all the way.  For me, naming each of our babies soon after finding out the gender has helped me bond to them in a new and deeper way other than just the tiny thing making me pee all the time and constantly kicking me.

So, baby boy number three is...  Lincoln Asher.
Lincoln has been a favorite on our boy name list for a while.  It was easy to pull it back out and decide quickly that it was what we wanted to go with.  The middle name is always where I struggle. Taylor really wanted to go with a Biblical name since both of our boys have one.  He started throwing several out and Asher was one of them.  I immediately said no and moved on.  The next two days the name Asher kept bizarrely appearing in places around me.  I looked up it's meaning and it is simply "happy."  We feel like that perfectly describes how we feel about finishing our journey of biologically growing our family.  We are content with three boys and we are HAPPY!



poncho | c/o PinkBlush
onesie | Green Door Goods {A sweet friend owns this shop and surprised me with this gift!}

Boy number three

Well, it is boy number three for our family.  I still can't believe that A. we are halfway through this pregnancy and B. that it is a boy!

Everything about this pregnancy has been a surprise from the get-go.  We had started the conversation of when to start trying for a third and ultimately concluded that then was just not the best time.  And low and behold, our first morning on our solo trip to New York City in August, I took a test and two lines appeared.  Taylor said he should have known when I demanded jalapenos on my nachos at the Yankees game the night before.

God has definitely used our journey through pregnancy and becoming parents to constantly help me learn my downfall in trying to make my own plans on my own timing.  With both of our older boys that meant having to wait for them.  Months of prayers and loss and questioning.  This time God threw this little one at us at a time we declared wasn't right.  During our discussion of when to start trying, Taylor said we just couldn't have a baby around Easter since that will be such a busy time for him in our first year with the church plant.  After getting the positive test, I calculated my due date and it was later confirmed that our sweet boy number three is due on GOOD FRIDAY.  Hello, Easter weekend.

And to round out the surprises, I never in all my life thought I would be a mother to THREE boys.  My tribe of little men.  I don't even know where to start, but I know He has big plans in placing these three wild ones in our care.

We are so excited to meet this little one and to watch our boys grow up together.  There is nothing better than brothers.