{7 Months - Whoa!}

OLIVER CASH IS . . . wait for it . . . . wait for it. . . . . 7 MONTHS OLD!!!!!! WHAT!!!? I KNOW! CRAZY, right?!! Crazy.

This last month flew by way-too-fast. Oliver is such a good baby and is growing and changing everyday. We have been having so much fun. He doesn't have a Dr. appt this month, so I am not sure of his measurements, but he definitely feels heavier and is getting too long for his pants ;) so he is definitely a growing healthy guy.

He is finally starting to get used to eating.  His favorite so far is the Apple Vanilla Mixed Grain.

He actually opened his mouth for it several times rather than clenching his jaw and turning his head away from the spoon. I was such a proud mama!

And he also drank water for the first time, and from a cup. He grabbed for it, so I gave it to him and he loved it :)

We started attending a "Mom's Group" (that my sister-in-law is teaching) and Oliver was the best baby! He was content on the floor and played with toys practically the entire time without fussing.

We had a play-date with one of our best friends Elianna (her mom is my friend Elizabeth, from college).

They are so fun to watch together. They are only one day apart and are growing and changing so much all of the time. We have so much fun playing with them.

Oliver has been having fun hanging out with us at home....

 and out and about....

and he has been really good at entertaining himself too....

I have had fun picking out cool stuff for him to wear like this fun shirt ;) .....

We have been working on getting Oliver to nap better (and longer). He always sleeps so well on me (& on the boppy) after he breast feeds...

...but I have been trying to make naps last longer AND be more productive for me, so I have been trying to get him to sleep on his own. He finally (once) fell asleep on his own in his crib when he was awake and playing just before, and he only whined for a few minutes prior to falling asleep...

 

The nap only lasted 15 minutes, but it is a great start to hopefully good (long) napping in the future.

He still hasn't cut any teeth yet, and lately has been resisting bottles for some reason. He is stubborn like his mom and dad - lol!  In general, Oliver is SUCH a happy baby and really warms the hearts of everyone around him, especially mine! He smiles ALL day long and talks and babbles and giggles all day everyday. He has such an adorable happy face!!

Here are a few more pictures from today, his actual 7 month birthday :). I love his more serious faces just as much as his smiles.....

...and some with Mr. Gnome.....

Of course he is trying to eat the Gnome (along with everything else in sight always - lol) & do you notice the drool mark down his shirt? He drools all-day-long!

And on the home decorating front......the new bedding is finally on....

Ooooh....Ahhhhh! I love it!

All in all, again, it's been a great month! I hope it's been great for you all too :)

Have a great week!

-L

{Brand New Ride}

I am a "Jeep" girl. I have owned 3 Jeep brand cars so far, and I have loved each one. My most recent Jeep was a 2006 Jeep Commander. After being in a very scary car accident in December of 2009 and totaling my dark green Jeep Grand Cherokee (I got t-boned by a police car while turning left at an intersection and my car flipped onto it's side. I came out with barely a scratch. I am so lucky), I was on the hunt for my next dream Jeep - the Jeep Commander. My best B.I.L Josh (Ali's hubby) searched high and low for a long time with me and we finally found my dream Commander. I was one happy girl.

Here she is the day after I got her...all shiny and new (to me)...

3rd row seat, leather interior, 3 moon roofs (one main one and one over each second row seat), steering wheel controls for the radio, heated seats....I was on top of the world.

I was living down in San Diego (Del Mar) when I got the Commander, and shortly after (2 months) I moved up to Orange County and in with my future husband, but continued to commute down to Carlsbad for work for an entire year. I put 100 miles on my car everyday. It was nutso. Don't get me wrong, I was super happy to commute in a car that I loved to drive, but it defintiely took a toll on the car.

Fast forward to today. I am now a stay at home mom, and I am driving around and running errands with my little man quite often, but am not going very far distances anymore. My jeep has remained in great shape all of this time, but being that it is 6 yrs old, and was pushing 80,000 miles, it was starting to have some major issues that we were worried about (both for safety and for the expense). My husband really wanted Oliver and I to be in a safe and reliable car (with a warranty) while we were out and about, so the hunt began for a new "mommy car" for me.

After looking into all of our options, we decided on a Mazda CX9 Touring SUV. It is a beautiful car.....

It has leather interior, moon roof and bose speakers, a third row seat, back-up camera, sirius radio, etc., etc., etc. and is rated the #1 Safety SUV for 2012. I am so lucky!! I love it so much! I was feeling nostalgic and was a little sad to say goodbye to my Commander, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Here she is sort of used and abused (sorry Jeep)...

I love my new car so so so much! Thank you husband. I am one lucky girl!

Ollie is excited too, of course....

Happy Tuesday everyone!
 :)
-L

{Lighting LOVE}

So, we are still moving forward over here, and I am trying to keep the mojo alive.

One thing that I knew I wanted to tackle upon moving in was the light fixture over the dining room table. It wasn't bad looking, it just wasn't my style at all. See.....

 Even though it has a matching entry-way light......

 .....(that I am leaving up because I don't have a budget for a new one), I knew I wanted something new and fresh over the table. The ceiling in the dining room is very high, and I know absolutely nothing about hard wiring anything, but I figured that if I could find a light worth having, I could find someone to install it for me (well, I hoped anyway).

If you'll remember at our old place, we had a light fixture that I loved......

The West Elm Capiz Shell Chandelier. Ooooh. Ahhhh. (lol). Unfortunately, that one had to stay with the house :( ....... B-U-T.......my sweet husband saw how bummed I was about leaving it behind and agreed to get me THE EXACT SAME ONE!! :) Yay! So, I have had it in my possession for over a month now, but have been overwhelmed by the task of hanging it.

Duh....all I had to do was ask my awesome brother in law to bring a 16ft ladder home from the firehouse and to hang it (hard wire) for me. Easy Peasey Japanesey!

Here we go.....

Come on down big guy ;)

Here is how the chandelier came, with all of the shell strands individually wrapped....

Once it was up we had to unwrap the strands carefully....

Oliver liked watching us do all of the hard work too...

And finally, all is right with the world (or at least with my dining room light fixture ;) ).....

I am so happy with how it turned out. Yes, the scale is a little off (small) for this space, and yes, it's a little "white" and gets a little lost against those tall white walls, BUT, once I hang stuff up on the walls, it will POP, I just know it. And I can't wait to hear the jingle jangle of the shells clanging together when the cross breeze goes through the house. I love that sound :) the sound of my VERY OWN WEST ELM CAPIZ SHELL CHANDELIER!!! :) YAY!

Oliver is excited about it too, can't you tell?! ;)



Happy holiday weekend everyone!
:) -L
 

{Gettin' stuff done - finally ;) }

I have been dragging my feet when it comes to getting things "settled" here at he new place. I'm not sure why....? Maybe I've been a little overwhelmed by the thought of getting every area situated at once instead of tackling things one small area at a time, so I have just avoided all of it?? Yea, I think that is a big part of it. That being said, yesterday was a good day. A day of getting some things done that I have wanted to get done for quite some time (thanks to a good old fashioned cry prior to getting started (lol), and some help from my sweet husband :)).

First things first -- our breakfast nook curtains. I purchased my DREAM curtains at West Elm a couple of months ago, and we finally hung them up....

I am super happy with how they look. They are fresh and airy and stylish in all of the right ways. The window is an odd size (it's big), so the panels are exactly wide enough to cover the whole thing, and they are a touch too long (108"), but in general, I'm happy with how they fit. I won't really be closing them much anyway, so the tight fit is not really an issue :)

After seeing the look of the whole space, I am going to remove the lattice place-mats & use plain ones. It looks a little....busy.  Don't you think....?

I think the table decor needs to be changed in general, but it'll do for now.

While we were on the curtain kick, the formal dining room got some too (cheap gray curtains from Ikea).....

...but that's all I can show you in there, because besides the curtains, it's a total disaster area ;) lol.

I've been starting to put my touch on other small areas of the house too.

Kitchen window...

A small amount of my vintage citrus reamer collection:

...& some other window-goodness....

I plan on adding some more succulents up there soon. It is a greenhouse-like window with glass shelves right behind the kitchen sink. I really like it!

I also finally printed & framed a few photos to sprinkle around...

...and ordered a large (20" x 30") gallery wrapped canvas to hang up somewhere. It is HUGE and I am IN LOVE with it!

 (Newborn photo by Bubba-Loo Photography)

And one area of the house that has stumped me a little bit as far as decorating goes is in the "family room" (the room we sit in most). It is a "cut-out" that the builder decided to add to house a T.V. An old-school square tube-T.V..  Do any of you have these in your homes? Home builders in this area did this a lot, and in my opinion, it was not a good call. Why would I want someone else to decide where my tv should go and what size it should have to be, and furthermore, in my case, they put it to the right of the fireplace, and added another cut out below it (maybe for more A.V. equipment? Or firewood? who knows!), so it is off centered and random looking :/

All I know is that it is kind of a challenge to work around it, so for now, this is what it looks like.....

(The 22nd is the date of our wedding)

To the right of this "cubby" is a window, to the left is an empty space over a barely-wide-enough mantel, and below to the left is the fireplace. It's an odd set-up, but nevertheless, we are making it work (& in the small cutout to the right of the fireplace, I have put a basket with folded throw blankets. Not pretty, but functional).

So, there you have it. That is all the progress that I have made so far, but I feel my mojo slightly creeping back and plan to continue with my decorating mission until it's done :) Wish me luck.

Oh..and some Oliver goodness, because, why not!!? :)