A New Ritual

A mug I love.

A creamer that makes coffee worth drinking.

A stillness in the house.

A prayer journal and my favorite pen.

A site to help me navigate the Word.

A new ritual.

Wake up & read Truth.

Baby Miller - Six Months

Birth: 6lbs 8oz, 19 3/4 in long

1 Month: 8lbs 10oz, 21 in long

2 Months: 10lbs 12oz, 23 in long

3 Months: 11lbs 10oz, 23.75 in long

4 Months: 12lbs 7oz, 25 in long

5 Months: 13lbs 12oz, 25.5 in long

6 Months: 14lbs 14oz, 26 in long

Oh, this boy. I am IN LOVE.

CLOTHES & DIAPERS

• Miller is in 6 months or 6-9 month clothes now. Sometimes even 9 month onesies too! 
• Yeah... little miss cloth diapers over here is having a hard time sticking with it right now... :) Giving myself some grace and maybe we'll be full-timing again soon! (size 2 disposables)

EATING

• Miller has been on formula for a little over a month. And can I just say that life is so good? I have not regretted this decision at all. God truly guided me with making the choice and has given me nothing but peace about it. Miller is happy and so we are all happy. 
• He's still eating about every 2-3 hours, and takes about 4.5-5 ounces each time which ends up being somewhere between 24-30 ounces a day. (Nutramigen formula, in case you were wondering.)
• He's still getting Axid twice a day for reflux. We tried about 5 days without it, and I just feel like he still needs it. He was spitting up A LOT and seemed to fuss in the evenings more than normal.

SLEEPING

• Oh, this last month was ROUGH in the sleeping department. I was just looking at last month's and thinking HA! Yeah, I WISH he was sleeping that well now! :) More often than not, he will go to bed about 7:30/8pm, sleep for 3-4 hours, wake to eat, sleep 3-4 more hours, wake to eat, then sleep until 7:30/8am. 2 feedings a night isn't terrible, but it's still really exhausting to get such broken sleep.
• The big change this last month is that we moved him to his crib completely - naps and nighttime. I also have been trying to have him go to sleep at night without his pacifier. Yiiiikes. It's tough, but if he can learn to fall asleep without it, I think he will be a much better sleeper. And so I'LL be a much better sleeper.
• Oh, and we're not swaddling anymore. This kid has had some big changes lately. :)

AND...

• He's rolling over (front to back and back to front) all over our new living room rug (hence, why we got the rug - hardwood ain't good for babies). 
• He's doing a lot better sitting up by himself, but isn't ready to be 100% "unassisted" yet. 
• He LOVES to stand up! I feel like I could almost let him stand by himself easier than sit by himself! (Don't worry, I won't.) 
• His laugh is getting more adorable! Once he gets going though, he always starts squealing like a crazy person.
• He has really been noticing his hands and feet, and his coordination with his hands is getting better. He loooves to put everything in his mouth, and he's drooling a lot, but still no teeth (Jack's 1st tooth was at 7.5 months).
• Also he has been taking your face into both of his hands. It. Is. Precious.

Here's a video of Miller for his six month mirthday:

Here's a side-by-side of my boys at six months:

Big Brother Jack at 6 Months

Have you checked out the new page on the boys? 

Look at the side-by-side progression at the bottom!

Project Life 2013: 1 - Before Baby #2

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to show you some of my favorite pages from my Project Life 2013 album!

Click this Project Life link to see all my pages!

Looking at this page makes me smile. I can remember Jack leaning over and kissing my belly often, and how my sweet baby would kick and move all day long. It was the middle of February, and I wrote this blog post: Thoughts in the Last Month, thinking that I still had about a month before my 3/13/13 due date. 

As the card says "little did I know that just 4 days later..." What a fun time! I didn't realize these pictures would be some of the last pregnant pictures I would take! And our sweet family of 3 would be 4 even sooner than I expected.

Aren't you thankful for the day-to-day pictures like these? 

Mid-Year Blog Updates

I can't go TOO long without updating my blog design. 

Not too much has really changed (except going from "Gooey's got SKiLs" to "Sarah's got SKiLs"), but things have been updated with current information and new pictures. 

Here are some links to check out that have been updated:

About/Contact Page

Updated with newer photos and stats for the boys, since Miller wasn't even born when I last updated it!

Our House Tour

Still need to update a LOT on this, but never before seen bathroom pictures are at the bottom!

Our Pregnancies

Updated with BOTH pregnancies! :)

Our Boys' 1st Years

Miller finally gets his months added to this page. Yay Miller!

Trying to pick up and dust some things off over here. Glad you stopped by!! :)

Project Life: Wedding Album Pt. 1

So waaaay back in April, I told you that I was going to be doing a Project Life album this year, documenting the day to day events that can sometimes get overlooked. Well, I haven't kept up with it completely, but I am slowly catching up. 

In the meantime, I made a Project Life Mini Album with our wedding photos for our 4th Anniversary (August 8th)! You choose your album (I picked lime green) which has the dividers already in it:

then pick a mini album kit (they had this awesome wedding kit that is black and white cards):

...then print your pictures and put it together! The picking of the photos was definitely the hard part. I was trying to just go through and find my favorites, but the album is best suited for horizontal photos, so I needed a game plan. 

You may think I'm crazy, but I'm telling you - this was the way to do it! I made a little blueprint for myself and planned out every single page. It helped me figure out which pictures should go where and if I had a vertical picture that I loved, I put it into a template (in Photoshop Elements) to where it would print 2 different 3x4 vertical photos to put into the smaller sections. (Look at the picture below and then the actual pages even further down, to understand what I'm saying.)

I printed all my photos at Snapfish (I just use whoever is running the best special on 4x6s at the time), and then when they were delivered, it only took me about 1.5hr to put it together because I had my pages already planned! 

Okay, so here is part 1 of our wedding album - Engagement & Pre-Ceremony:

I have more pages from my wedding album to show you over the next couple weeks! 

I find myself flipping through it often and reliving those sweet moments! I have REALLY enjoyed doing PL stuff (promise, this is not a plug for Project Life - I just love it!), so check out the website if you're interested. They even have it at Hobby Lobby now!

Do you like the idea of Project Life?

Where In the World Have I Been?

It’s the question everyone is asking! Okay, I’m flattering myself a bit, but I have heard it a lot over the past month or so. “Where in the world have you been?” And it’s hard for me to say, because there’s the easy answer – “We’ve been busy this summer and out of town some.”

But then there’s the real truth – July was the most challenging month of my parenting life.

I shared a little bit with you in my post about mommy guilt. I told you how we found out Miller wasn’t gaining weight well while I was nursing, so I started nursing him more frequently, which actually made him throw-up 11 times over a 5 day period. Then I told you in his 5 month update that I made the decision to switch him to formula. A tough decision, but one that has slowly pulled me out of the funk I was in, towards a better attitude about my new mom-of-2 job.

When people asked about Miller, I’ve felt compelled to tell them that so far, he has been harder than Jack was… He has reflux, colic, and dairy sensitivities. He cries a lot. He’s either happy or he’s not. Why did I feel like my acquaintances needed to know this? Wasn’t “Yes, he’s a very sweet baby” enough to answer the question?

Since Miller has been on formula, he is happier. I am happier. The whole family is happier. I don’t feel the need to explain Miller’s life story to people anymore, because that’s who he was, not who he is today. And I feel like I’m different too. We are learning about each other, and I wouldn’t trade this sweet, 6 month old, cuddly, raspberry blowing, squeals-while-he’s-laughing baby boy for anything. 

So, I may not try to catch up on what I haven’t written about this summer, but I am going to try to post a couple times a week going forward. Here’s what you can expect from me coming up soon:

Project Life – documenting the everyday moments
Getting Up Earlier – morning time alone, #SheReadsTruth, #HelloMornings
Tot School – intentional teaching through playtime
Life SKiLs – a myriad of topics by some of my favorite people
Links I Love – letting you know some of my favorite go-to blogs

What are some things you'd like to read about? 

Have you missed me? (Thanks for raising your hand, Mom! :) ) 

Jack's Actual Birthday - 2 years old

I told you in this post that Jack, Cara, and I made a cake for Jack's birthday, but I never posted this video of us singing to him! What a sweetie!

Jack's 2nd Birthday Party!!

Jack celebrated his SECOND BIRTHDAY at the Miller's new pool on August 4th! It was SO MUCH FUN!!! My sweet boy was truly excited about every single person that was there - all 27 of them (including babies)! He never got overwhelmed, he was just happy! 

I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Our big present for him was a play kitchen that my mom's grandfather made for her! She had it as a child, then passed it to me, and now it's Jacks! He is CRAZY about it. His favorite thing to "make" is ice cream. Some pretty gross flavors (onion, tomato, etc), but definitely yummy! :)

I went for a pool party theme and got lots of different kinds of Goldfish. Did you even know that there are multiple kinds of Goldfish? We got smores and pretzels! And of course, original with a blue swimming pool (onion dip). And mom painted a rainbow fish for the table that is now on Jack's shelf at home!

Sweet babies! John Luke and Miller at 5 1/2 months.

Swimming!!!

Mmmm... pizza.

These cousins got tuckered out.

Just kidding - I'm awake!!

Here's a few videos from the day. 

"Jack, how old are you?"

Opening some presents:

Happy Birthday! But we couldn't keep the candle lit!!

It was a wonderful day with our whole family. Great weather, yummy food, and sweet fellowship!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jack!!!!!