March

Just when we think we have finished all of the home projects we want to do we come up with another one. We were never huge fans of the brick, so we decided to drywall over it. I am in LOVE with the result. Taylor built me some floating shelves for the wall, and I seriously could not love it more.

We did learn that we are not meant to work with drywall. So much harder than we thought it would be haha.

Don't worry we are more than in compliance with the fireplace code.

A home renovation project meant way too many trips to home improvement stores.

At least Hudson made the best of the trips.

Nobody else probably cares, but we finallyyyy got a nice bed frame!

Taylor found this one on craigslist for 50 dollars! 

We have a king size bed, so 50 dollars for a bed frame that was in great condition was a steal.

And it matched our bedroom furniture we already had.

We bought Hudson a battery powered tractor, and the kid is in love with it. 

He would ride it around all day if we let him.

Which is good because it's his Christmas and birthday present for the next 5 years.

I have to include this video of Hudson seeing the tractor for the first time because he was so sweet and sincere. Taylor was at work and Hudson was napping when it arrived, so I had to get a video of his reaction to show Taylor.
I wasn't stong enough to push the pipe thing into place which is why he pulled it right off haha.

Hudson loves to give Ella rides in the wagon, and Ella loves the rides.

She has the biggest smile on her face the whole time.

Hudson learned how to ride his bike. 

He does so well on it and has ridden all the way around the block multiple times. 

Hopefully soon we'll be able to take the straps off of his feet and have him peddle without their assistance. 

First day of spring (aka free Ritas day) came and went.

We, of course, had to enjoy ourselves some Ritas.

Hudson was a huge fan because we actually got him his very own half full cup :) 

 

We've been able to get out and ride bikes as a family a little bit.

Hudson loves it unless Ella is touching him like in this picture hahaha.

Ella is still a little unsure of the whole thing.

Hudson and Kaiden have been able to play outside together a ton more.

It usually involves riding each other's tractor/car, playing in the van, hug time, swinging, and being a always being a little crazy.

A nice Saturday morning ride in the tractor for Ella.

What would she do without her Farmer Hudson?

Open gym came to an end in March. 

We sure do miss having this little fun escape to go to.

We'll see you in November, open gym!

I could hear Hudson laughing while I was putting Ella to sleep one night. 

This is what I came out to. 

He thought it was so funny to hold onto one foot and jump, and he did it over and over and over again.

I received all of my LuLaRoe inventory, and things got rolling with my LuLaRoe bussiness.

That meant a few crazy days spent taking pictures of hundreds of pieces of inventory.

Hudson made the most of it, and kept himself busy hiding in the clothing racks and pictured here squeezing himself under my light kit hahaha.

Can I just say how much I love being a LuLaRoe independent retailer?? Guys, I LOVE it! 

I love how busy it keeps me and how fulfilling it is to help customers and have something to do besides change stinky butts and clean up toys and messes all day long. 

I love being a stay at home mom, but LuLaRoe has helped me love my current life even more.

12 Months of Ella// Month 6

Weight: 16 pounds

Height: 27.5 inches

Diapers: Size 3

Clothes: 3-6 months, 6 months, and she still wears a lot of 3 months pants.

Sleeping: Getting Ella to sleep continues to be a challenge. She either goes down really easily or it's an hour+ battle with lots of screaming. She wakes up at least once a night, but sometimes she is up twice. She takes 3 naps a day most days, but she is starting to transition to 2 long naps a day. She is still swaddled.. She sleeps in her crib during the day, but a lot of nights she is in her rock n play because we have such a hard time getting her to sleep.

Eating: She continues to be terrible at drinking a bottle if she isn't swaddled and going to sleep. So she drinks 4-5 ounces when going to sleep, and when she is awake and hungry she will eat solids. (We're doing a mix of purees and baby led weaning with her just like we did with Hudson) She is doing great with the purees and will grab the spoon as you are bring it to her mouth and pull it in.

Milestones: Eating solids. She is starting to sit up on her own. She can now hold her own bottle.

Likes: being outside/ jumping in the jumparoo/anything she can put in her mouth/rolling all the time/kicking both her feet at the same time/being in eyesight of people/baths

Dislikes: being left in a room by herself/having a hard time getting to sleep

Personality: Ella has become so smiley and full of life. She loves attention and having you play with her. She LOVES Hudson and she lights up when he plays with her. She loves to grab him and make him mad. She is always moving whether it is kicking her feet or rolling over. She is as curious as any 6 month old is, and she always wants a toy or something in her hands to explore.

  

Not going to lie this hurts my momma heart a little..

 Happy half birthday, little one!

Hudson's 6 month update can be found here.

A Leap

Nothing is official until it's on the blog and facebook, right?

Well it's time to fully make this official and announce that I have become a LuLaRoe Consultant!

This was not an easy decision to decide to sell LuLaRoe, but I sure hope it was the right one.

I love their clothes, and I knew that I wanted other woman to see how great their clothes are.

I have loved their clothed for after I had Ella.
Leggings have been my best friend when my jeans didn't fit comfortably yet.

This could be life changing for my family.

I know it will be hard work, and I am prepared to work my butt off to ensure that I succeed.

If you want to join my facebook group so you can see all of the goodies I get you are more than welcome to! My first sale will hopefully be this week!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/lularoerachellloyd/

Here's to taking a leap and trying something new!

This will be my only LuLaRoe marketing plug on my blog, so please don't hate me or stop reading just because of this post :)

February

We decided to have a little superbowl party with some of our neighbors as well as my sister and her friend, Emily. 

There was 5 kids 2 and under and 8 adults in our little house. 

You really missed out if you weren't there :)

I think most if not all of us were rooting for the falcons, but I could be wrong about that?

I'll take any excuse to make some decorations with my cricut.

I learned how to write with my cricut, and figured this was the perfect reason to try it out. How cool is that?!

In the midst of the chaos these two snuck away to Hudson's room to play. 

It was adorable. These two are best friends one moment and fighting over a toy and hitting each other the next. It's brotherly love. I tell ya.

Just like any other holiday, Valentine's day is more fun when you have children.

We went to open gym in the morning, spent a little bit of time outside, and enjoyed the love day.

I don't think we were cute enough parents to get our children anything, but I did make them some shirts. That should count for something, right?

Carly and I shared a design and made shirts for the kids. 

Fun fact: Hudson is 2 months younger than Kaiden and Ella is 2 months younger than Emma. 

That brotherly love (insert heart eye emoji)

Ella had 2 Valentine's Day outfits because she spits up so much that I knew one outfit wouldn't be enough haha. 

Really though I got this "my first Valentine's Day" onesie on clearance last year. It might possibly have been meant for a boy to wear it? Either way I had to take a picture. 

Taylor came home from work with some chocolate covered strawberries for me.

Hudson promptly demanded one and got chocolate drool all over his white shirt. 

We won't talk about how it was before we were able to get a picture of the kids together..

My parents mom got Hudson these glasses and some chocolates, and she got Ella a little stuffed bear? Dog? A stuffed something that was red and white and valentiney.

Hudson wore these all over the place for a while including outside to go play.

This picture makes me want to remind him that they exist again.

Date night this month was a combined birthday and Valentine's date.

We ate at the Roadhouse (no surprise there considering it was Taylor's choice and we still had a gift card), and we went and saw Fantastic Beasts in the cheap theater.

Taylor turned the big 26 on the 19th. I say the big 26 because it means he got kicked off his parents' health insurance hahaha. He got a basketball he's been wanting for a long time, and a sub for his truck.

Other random less significant but I still want to have documented moments from the month: 

I taught myself how to make matching bows and bow ties thanks to a little help from pinterest, and I've spent quite a bit of time making them lately. 

Ella had her 4 month check up at the beginning of the month, and I couldn't resist this comparison picture of the two of them at the same appointment.

Dinners with the Bushes that lead to toddlers with nerf guns are kind of my favorite.

It's both hilarious and terrifying all at the same time.

Getting released from the primary presidency means these two get to have some more best friend time. It won't be long until Ella is sitting up playing with Emma.

We're getting to the point where Hudson is starting to say some cute and funny things even though he really doesn't talk much still. Eventually this will probably become its own blog post, but we have a ways to go before he talks enough for that. So here we go with "Hudson says huh?"

At church one Sunday Hudson handed a teddy graham to a little boy sitting in the pew in front of us. After handing him the teddy graham Hudson said to the little boy, "What do you say? Thank you."

We told Hudson to go brush his teeth and on the way to the bathroom he was saying
"sun beam" and jumping when he said beam. It took me a second to realize what he was doing, but he was singing Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam to himself. It was absolutely adorable. I hadn't ever sang that song with him, so that shows he is learning a lot at nursery.