Fiesta like there’s no mañana

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

And just like that… the months of planning, hours of preparation and the days when my baby wasn’t one are all behind us. I have loved every second of it though! And I’m not as sad as I thought I would be. I mean sure, I miss him being a tiny little squishy baby, but I am so excited for him and all of the amazing adventures he will get to go on as he continues to grow!

Bur this day was going 100MPH until the party started. Everyone was decorating, cooking, cleaning or trying to help me keep El fed and watered until fiesta time! My family was, as always, such a huge help. I literally rely on them for everything. Jordan cooked, my Dad among others also cooked, my Dad’s Girlfriend helped me decorate, my little sister took pictures, and the rest of my family and friends played with Ellis and kept him uberly happy making everything go without a hiccup. Not that Ellis will remember this day, but we sure will. And it will be the fondest, most perfect birthday memory so far 😉

So- without further ado- welcome to the inside of Ellis’s First Fiesta!!

IMG_3686 (2)

IMG_1057

IMG_1058

(These chalkboards have literally been more useful than any craft I’ve ever made)

IMG_1053

 

IMG_1241

IMG_1121.jpg

IMG_1081

 

IMG_1205.jpg

IMG_1206

IMG_1250.jpg

Balloons- Bargain Balloons

Paper Flowers- Homemade

Cookies & Cake- Bearded Fox

Blanket, Maracas, Papel Picado, Mini Donkey Pinatas – Amols

El Pato Cans- Jet

Ellis Banner- Hooray Everyday

Sombrero Pinatas & Streamers-  Party City

Streamer Backdrop – Homemade

First Haircut

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Hey, remember me? The girl who says she wants to blog and then week after week just doesn’t? LOL. In my defense, the last month has been a very busy one, mentally and physically! Since I last posted, Ellis has gotten his first haircut and turned ONE- and I’ve been to LA and back! So lets start at the beginning: The Haircut 🙂

IMG_1001

We went to Lauren at Heritage Hair Studio and she was amazing! She also does Jordan’s hair, so it was an easy choice. But I still felt like she did very well handling Ellis swinging his head all around her scissors to see what she was up to. We also didn’t get very much cut off, just trimmed up his mullet a bit. Which was nice because it also didn’t make him look too much older, just cleaner:)

IMG_0985IMG_1000

This will be different for every kid, but if your kid is a maniac for food like ours, BRING FOOD! Our savior for this trip with definitely yogurt bites. And Mamaw of course:)

IMG_1006IMG_0992

Overall, his haircut was such a fun experience. We had our entourage there to watch/entertain/take pictures which was super helpful and made it more fun for him I’m sure. And Ellis even got a sucker out of the deal. So everyone wins.

IMG_0961IMG_1018

IMG_0974.JPG

 

CELEBRATE!

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Two big things to celebrate today- Fourth of July & Ellis turning 11 months!! We spent our weekend with family and friends, food and fireworks! And due to a combination of weather, and me popping our car tire with a screw today, we spent Monday happily confined in the house. Luckily for Ellis, that made it much easier for Mom and Dad to shower him in extra special eleventh month old kisses 🙂 And when I say luckily for Ellis, I’m not at all joking. His favorite thing to do is give kisses! He will kiss anything and then look to me for a huge smile of approval. It’s the sweetest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. His second favorite thing to do is eat, followed probably by sleep,  and then playing. So a day in the life of an 11 month old Ellis- kiss stuff, eat stuff, sleep and play. It’s perfect:)

Short and sweet today, but had to check in for the holiday and El’s monthday! I’ll be back soon, swear this time!!

x,

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

 

Primping

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Processed with VSCO with t1 preset

I’ve started a few different posts in the last few weeks and they have all been demoted to the draft folder where they will collect web bunnies and start to smell like Granny’s basement. My creativity level has been at an all time high lately and I can’t seem to get any of it down on a post without feeling overwhelmed! So- I’m taking a step back today and going in a little different direction. Beautification is something that almost all women (and some men) do- whether it just be washing your face with your favorite face wash, or slapping on ten tons of make up (which I’m not knocking)- we all have some favorites in this area. One of mine is Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. This stuff is a god send, really. I’ve gone through different skin types since high school- from really greasy, to really dry during pregnancy, and currently tame- this stuff has always worked magic. My second and newest favorite face product is the ever lasting Cup O’ Coffee mask from Lush. Lush is, as many ladies know, just the most absolute. From bath bombs to face scrubs to numerous soaps- they have it all in the bathroom world. Not to mention they are 100% vegan, fighting against animal testing and all of their products are handmade with a little sticker on each product telling you the name of the person that crafted your purchase. Other items that I use almost every day are:

So there’s a little look inside my every day prep! Not that you asked;)

xx

 

 

Zoo Babies

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

I can’t wait to do so many fun things will Ellis this summer before our schedules get crazy again! I am going to try to make it a point to go do something new and exciting for him every week. Whether it be a pool or a new park, I’d like to spend the summer discovering all of the child friendly places of Bloomington!

DSC_0096

Last week we went on our first summer adventure and it was spent at the Indianapolis Zoo! I have always LOVED the Zoo and hope that Ellis will love it just as much someday! But for now, I think it’s still a little early. I think the biggest difficulty we had was the stroller. It’s hard to get up to the window to see the animals with any amount of other people there at all. And when I take him in and out, he doesn’t really like that:) It was also EXTREMELY crowded with last week of school field trips- so I realize that that many people/children isn’t the norm. But besides that, I think it was a pretty successful trip! El got to see lots of fun animals- but the highlights were  getting to meet a friendly flamingo, admiring giant giraffes, eating french fries and trying dip n dots! I definitely see another Zoo trip in this summers future, and maybe one where Dad gets to join!

 

DSC_0128

DSC_0087DSC_0114

DSC_0039

DSC_0119

.NET!

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Ah! I’m so excited! I am now the proud owner of my blog!! Before now my URL included wordpress.com at the end, meaning that WordPress owned and could take down my site if they wanted. But, I finally took the plunge and made this site my very own! I’ve also verified my website with Google, so give Elandcompany a Google and see if it doesn’t come up as one of the first options!! 🙂 I’m really not much of a tech gal. All of the coding and direction honestly gives me a HUGE headache, so making progress is wildly exciting for me!

Anyway, I want to celebrate by taking a post suggestion! So comment and give me some suggestions and if I feel capable, I will put something together on the matter!

As always,

IMG_1894.large

Where have I been!?

~ alixbenton ~ 1 Comment

Ohhh I’ve missed this. If there is anything this blog has taught me, it’s that time management is hard! Taking care of El, going to school, and nurturing my social life are about all I can keep up with. Tack on something like kidney stone removal surgery and I’m out! My lord, what a nightmare. I won’t go into all of my frustrations about the kidney stone thing- I’ll just say this- If it’s a week before your birthday, and they want you to get surgery that will involve having a stent placed for a week, and they tell you the stent WON’T be a problem whatsoever, and you’ll totally enjoy your birthday still- DON’T LISTEN. I’m not saying they are wrong in all cases, but they are definitely wrong in some. Because I went through something called stent syndrome, which is where your body rejects the stent and will land you back in the hospital for pain meds and fluids 🙂 But- that’s water under the bridge now.

I don’t even know where to pick back up now! El has turned 8 and 9 months old since I’ve been away from the blog- he is so much fun!! 4 teeth and working on 2 more, crawling- fast- laughing so hard he can’t breath, and clinging to his Momma.

DSC_0018DSC_0019

What else is new….

It’s summer break! So that’s a huge relief. I’m so excited to spend the summer getting to focus 100% on Ellis! I have lots of exciting plans for us, so I will have lots to post about 🙂

But other than that right now, I’m just checking in! Letting everyone (including myself) know that I’m getting back into blogging action!  And as always, some of my favorite pics of El from the past few months, X

 

Galaxy Shirt DIY

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

img_1585

Little DIY for everyone!! I looooved making these shirts, way cooler than tie-dye in my opinion because the shirts are black and everything is better in black. It was also super simple and pretty low cost!

So first things first are your supplies:

galaxy

I got everything I needed from Michaels. The large spray dye kit isn’t really necessary, It’s just the only one they had. We only used blue, purple, and pink/red.

galaxy1

So first you’re going to tie up your t-shirt just like you would a regular tie-dye.

galaxy3

Then put your shirt in the sink, put on your gloves that come with the tie-dye kit, and start pouring bleach into the center of each knot you made. (be careful not to let the bleach spill everywhere on your shirt for obvious reasons)

galaxy4

I was really almost more in love with the burnt orange color than the galaxy color lol I’m thinking of making other and leaving it like this! But- you’ll want to splatter some bleach on the shirt too to create the star/galaxy feel. I just dipped my hands in the bleach and flicked it onto the shirt.

galaxy6

When you’re done bleaching, lay your shirt out onto a trash bag. You don’t need to let the bleach dry or anything, just grab your dye and start spraying your bleached spots! I sprayed mine over and over and over again. Don’t be scared to do lots of layering and spraying. You’ll notice that the colors fade fast so really, just keep spraying.

We added flicks of blue and pink paint by dipping paintbrushes in the paint and splashing it on the shirts… although I don’t think I will do this step next time. A-lot of the paint came off while in the wash even though it was on cold and with no soap which is what was recommended. So we were left with only a couple random paint spots which wasn’t the idea.

galaxy7

The same thing happened with the white spray paint that happened with the pink and blue paint. But- I would recommend doing the white paint because even if most of it comes off in the washer, whats remaining still looks cool in my opinion.

galaxy8

Okay! Hang your shirt up and let it dry for at least 5 hours. We just let ours hang over night. When you’re ready, grab the shirt and run it under cold water until it runs clear. Then toss it in the washer with no soap and hang dry. After that you’re ready to wear and wash as normal! Super simple, kind of time consuming but it was definitely fun for a sister sleepover! Which reminds me- go checkout my sisters DIY version of this on her YouTube channel and be sure to subscribe!

For anyone trying- good luck and let me see your results!!

 

Seven Spectacular Months

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

EllisSensory

& he sits!!! ha:) I really was beginning to think he’d never sit. Now I’m wondering when he will be able to get into sitting position by himself? I think that’s when I’ll drop his crib down- I’m excited for that! Although I don’t know why because I’m fairly certain I’m too short to reach him down there. Also, he’s playing with his sensory box I made in this picture! He really only likes the plastic lid that he’s chewing on, and the box itself. 🙂

I don’t really have any new updates besides the sitting. He doesn’t say Mama anymore… only Dada (insert heaviest rolling eyes emoji). We’ve been battling sickness for the past few weeks with congestion and lots of coughing and snot. During which time he wouldn’t eat his regular solids, wouldn’t drink water from his cup, and wouldn’t do anything unless I was right beside him. But, I think we are in the clear now! (cross your fingers and knock on wood and spin around three times and whatever voodoo you do to make sure you’re right).

Other than that, it’s all same-old over here! We’re getting very excited about warmer weather so we can go on more outside adventures, and even warmer weather so we can start going to the lake/pool! And soon after that will be his birthday that I’m yes already planning and excited for 🙂

parkplaying

To leave you, here’s a picture of a baby playing in a pile of wood chips. Happy Monday! You’re welcome!

Edit: If you have Snapchat- add me @ bentonalix for mainly more Ellis 🙂

 

Rubber Ducky, You’re The One!

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

And by rubber ducky, I mean Cetaphil Baby Wash & Shampoo!  Ellis has had some pretty Cetaphildry skin this winter. He keeps getting dry patches on his arms and legs, and a few days ago I noticed that his lower back was actually peeling! I have tried Johnson’s Baby Lotion, which I hated and it didn’t help, and I’ve also tried Aveeno Baby Lotion which I liked, but didn’t seem to help either. I was complaining about this to a friend and she suggested the Cetaphil Baby Wash & Shampoo! We just tried it today, and his dry patches are already SO much softer. They obviously aren’t completely gone yet, but I’m anxious to see how fast it works! Plus, this stuff smells AMAZING. Since El’s newborn smell has worn off, this is a nice smell to carry around 🙂

*The link I tagged for the Cetaphil takes you directly to the Cetaphil website, but does list some of the more popular places you can find it. We got ours at CVS and I will definitely be going back for the lotion soon!