Author: alixbenton

6 month update

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

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Short and sweet on this one- but giving a 6 month update on E!

He LOVES food. But it has to be cold. If its warm he wont eat it 🙂

He actually only has one tooth. I was telling everyone he had two because it was breaking through about a week ago, and now it’s vanished!! I don’t know whats going on there, but there’s definitely only one tooth now!

He weighs 18 lbs and is 27 inches long, fitting best in 9 month clothes now which is great because we had just stocked up on 6 month clothes 🙂

Yesterday he started saying mama and I could die.

He isn’t quite with the sitting up yet. He’s gotten so good at doing everything on his belly that he really doesn’t care to be sitting. He can get just about anywhere by rolling over multiple times and pivoting in whatever direction he wants to go. But, he has been getting himself in crawl position lately, so maybe he’ll crawl before he sits up. Lol is that right??

I just changed his transitional sippy cup from the transition nipple to the straw to see how he did with that, and he was more successful with that than the nipple because he doesn’t have to to try and tip it backward!

So- I have a big, food loving, straw drinking, tooth smiling, mama calling BOY (hardly baby) and I melt for every second of him!

Mom & Baby Favorites

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I’ve been wanting to do a review post on all of the baby related things I love for Ellis and myself both. Some of these things hes already outgrown, BUT, for anyone with infants some of these may be helpful!

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One of my first

purchases before El arrived was his/my Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. Six months later and I am still in love with this bag!! I get so many compliments on it. I love the design- It can be used as a shoulder bag or a backpack which is the way I use it. When sat on a surface, it stands up right and you can zip down the front of the bag and it folds out into a changing mat with pockets for diapers and wipes. It’s so neat and convenient. This brand also carries some very stylish/manly diaper bags for men as well 🙂

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I would say our second most detrimental baby item we have is the Baby Bjorn Bouncer we inherited. This particular bouncer is discontinued, but you can still get them on amazon! I truly don’t know what we would have done without this thing. Not saying that it would be perfect for every baby, but El had so much fun kicking and making himself bounce, or just being able to relax and chill. The block attachment toy is also a fan favorite- it may not seem like much, but it is just enough to stimulate without being overwhelming. The chair is just great for whatever amount of effort the little babe wants to put in at the time. Unfortunately, I think we’ve run our course with the bouncer. El has a lot more body strength now and just tries to sit up completely straight in it which doesn’t work. But hey, 6 months is pretty good!!

11863431_10207472100861255_1834030221157844486_nOne more lengthy review: The Ergo Baby Carrier – I also inherited this item and I am so thankful for that. Being born in August gave El and I a few solid months of outdoor walks and adventures with the carrier! This carrier came with an infant insert that was just like a little pocket for him when he was very small, and as he grew, we just took the insert out and started working his legs out of either side of the carrier. One thing I loved about this carrier was that it has a pocket in front so you could store small items (keys, phone, etc.) and that was very handy! It also has a little hood you can clip over the babes head for sunshade. The only thing we ran into with this was that of course, El grew out of wanting to face only inward. But easily fixed- we have the Ergo 360 ordered and on the way! 🙂

Other items I couldn’t have gone/go without:

Small shops to checkout:

back to school, back to school

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(in my best Billy Madison voice)

Really though, the new semester did start today which means my organization is working at an all time high. I have a few resolutions for 2016 and one of them is to try and stay organized and ahead in my classes. Something that usually helps is writing all of my assignments out in a planner so that I can see them in front of me all of the time. It also helps to have an adorable planner- little things like that keep me motivated 🙂

school station(Also loving my desktop background right now! I found a website called May Designs that offers adorable desktop and iPhone backgrounds for free!)

I’m actually excited about school starting today. I have found that I’m a lot happier and feel a lot better when I stay on a schedule, and school is one of the things that help form my schedule. Obviously being the mom of a five month old means I’m mostly on his clock- but we’ve done well establishing something that works really well for us! And bragging moment, El has been sleeping in his crib successfully for 5 weeks now!! It was actually kind of magical.. the first night we put him in his crib, he just took to it, and has been in there ever since!

Anyway- just wanted to check in, request that everyone wish me good luck on this semester, and in return show you a few pictures of my baby 🙂

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Coffee Cuteness

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

First of all, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year! Santa was great to Ellis, and I can only assume he will get greater as Ellis gets older! I was so thankful that Christmas Eve and New Years Eve were on Thursday this year because that meant that Jordan got two long weekends in a row 🙂 I love having him home with me and I know Ellis enjoyed it! But reality is almost completely back in it’s place with him back at work regularly, and school starting back up on Monday. I’m not ready 😦 But here are a few of my favorite holiday pictures!

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Now, I’ve been in a little bit of limbo as to what to blog about. Our family has had a lot going on with the recent health decline of my Papaw.. he definitely deserves a post, but I want to wait until I have all of the perfect pictures/videos in their best quality to get together the best tribute. So before I get into that… I have something a little easier to post about: My new homemade (dad made) shelf!! I am in love love love with my new shelf. He is going to have to make me another to go under this one because I love it so much. My dad has always been the best at just taking a picture of whatever I show him, and then making it come to life perfectly. So, he built what I asked for, and then I found some awesome hooks on Etsy to make this shelf really come to life! I love looking around and seeing my ideas as physical things:)

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Faux Fireplace

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First and foremost- I’M FINISHED WITH THE SEMESTER! Gaah I am so happy right now. During the semester, I think at least once a week I told Jordan I was dropping out lol but now that it’s over, I feel very accomplished and honestly pretty proud of myself ! So all I have to do is remember this feeling for next semester when I’m telling Jordan that I’m dropping out again 🙂

Now onto the fireplace- As I’ve mentioned before- I live on Pinterest.

Definitely not afraid to admit that a lot of my ideas aren’t completely my own. Of course my outcomes are always a little different than what I’m going off of, but I’m happy about that . So I originally saw a crate with greenery and wood and lights all piled together looking super perfect. I knew I could get pretty close to it so I sent the picture to my dad (who I wouldn’t be able to do any of my bigger crafts without). He actually went hunting on a friends old pine tree farm, so that was just lucky that he could get my logs from there. I got my greenery from the tree farm we went to this year for our Christmas trees. Accompanied by a set of 100 string Christmas lights and some loose pine cones, this project turned out better than I could have expected. The crate is my favorite part- which I also got super  lucky on. My dad had a crate that his printer was sitting on that he had gotten years ago with beer in it! I saw it and had to give it better use than being a printer bench. You could maybe find a similar one here : Google Shopping

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There really wasn’t much assembly to this- the logs were kind of hard to get to stay together and upright. I just used thin rope and stuck a really fat magazine in the back to act as a splint, and they are super tight and upright now! Other than that, just organize the greenery however it looks nicest and accentuates your firewood, drape your lights in there, add a few pine cones and you’re finished!!

FINAL

I’m still here!

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Holy cow. I knew it would be hard to mom, school, life and blog… but I didn’t know it would be IMPOSSIBLE! Sheesh! But here I am- still alive and missing my blog. So a few updates since I’ve been away..

El has turned 3 and then 4 months old! Obviously inevitable.. but I’m definitely not ready!! He is growing out of his love for cuddles. I can sneak some in here and there but mostly he wants to be entertained. Which is perfectly fine with me because I love to try and entertain him. ( emphasis on try 🙂 ) He is getting soo big too! I am slowly but surely becoming incapable of rocking him to sleep. The 5 lb weights I’ve been exercising with aren’t helping anymore! We have his 4 month checkup on Thursday and I can’t wait to see just how big he is!

 His hobbies are: chewing on anything that fits in his mouth, mostly his hands- he loves his hands! He has also starting spitting! Like where you stick your tongue out and make that kind of fart noise? Lol I don’t know how to explain it. But I did that to him one day and he copied me, so we’ve just been spitting at each other ever since 🙂 He still loves to kick. We’ve started giving him fruit and veggie purees and his favorite so far is peaches:) He is still super happy, but will only giggle when you tickle his armpits! Ugh I’m sure no one cares, but right now he is napping and typing this is making me miss him!

In other unbaby related news- I have one more assignment today and them I am DONE with this semester! Looking forward to having a break before the next one starts. Also- I have a couple of crafts to post- so stay tuned for that!

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Little 2 Man

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I’m late on this- I’d really love to blog more often! Hanging with the boy, keeping up with the outside world and also being in school is time consuming! But- I’m always going to make it a point to blog where blogging is necessary 😉

So without further adieu, LITTLE MAN IS 2 MONTHS OLD! Hims is still the best baby who ever lived. He still sleeps like a champ which is terrific for me for obvious reasons. He is smiling a lot now, which is also terrific for me for obvious reasons 🙂 The most recent discovery has been his hands- he holds them up in front of him and stares at them until he gets worn out and drops them on his poor little face. He has rolled from back to belly FOUR times!! None of which I have ever fully gotten to catch on camera, so Dad thinks I’m fibbing. Boy is also growing like a weeeed. His two month doctors appointment isn’t until the 15th, so I don’t know his exact weight and length right now, but wearing 3 mos clothes is a decent indication of where we’re at. Besides regular mile stones, he especially loves his bouncy chair, riding around in his Ergo, getting baths, playing with mommys hair (playing meaning pulling out) and kicking the crinkly spot on his activity mat.

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p.s. click on an image to find out where El gets his adorable clothes 🙂

FALLing in love

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Okay, so maybe I’m not ACTUALLY falling in love. My love for fall has always been strong. I love having a house full of pumpkins and everything that smells like fallthem, I love the color schemes and the temp outside! BUT- this year I have a special little babe and he makes me love everything so much more than I did before because I get to share it all with him! And although he isn’t old enough to appreciate all of my crafts/decor just yet, I’m still just as excited about it because at least he’s here and I’m pretending he loves it 🙂 I think I have posted most of these pictures already because like I said- the excitement- but I’ll go ahead and post them all here so they are in one place. My friend and I recently had a craft date which resulted in the wreaths- super easy! We got everything we needed from Michaels and even a little extra for our next craft:) A little tip on hanging your letter: the letters from fall2Michaels that are already painted like this one have a slick finish on them that doesn’t work very well with hot glue. But on the back of the letter there is a place for it to be hung- so I found a thick screw and wedged it into a tight spot in my wreath and just hung the letter on it. It’s surprisingly secure and was way easier than trying to hot glue it like I tried on my last wreath.

Anyway, if you haven’t yet, go outside and smell the fall front sweeping in! It’s better than my pumpkin scented candles 😉 From my family to yours- HAPPY FALL!!

1 month and counting!

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1monthSpecial Friday post to scream happy 1 month birthday to my baby boy!!! Here I am again, not believing how fast the time is going.. but it’s still crazy! We haven’t hit any crazy milestones yet. El has recently started becoming very handsy- grabbing my hair and that type of loveliness. Also, I didn’t want to jinx it (and watch me jinx it) BUT- he is a fabulous sleeper! Since day one he had a routine, and he has stuck by that almost to a T every single night. I also have to give praise to my wonderful husband who is very helpful every morning, letting me sleep while he hangs out with El until right before he leaves for work! Besides that, El is smiling… in his sleep. Lol and he’s just recently started laughing in his sleep as well- which is the BEST thing I’ve seen so far! We’re very excited for that first “social smile” 🙂

Anyway- I hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day weekend!! Stay cool, and enjoy the extra time you get with your families and friends! frying

Oh and here’s my favorite picture from our little camera experiment- guess he’s not into hour long photo shoots.

ANOTHER NEW CHAPTER!

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IMG_7935Well we’re moving right along and baby E is now three weeks old. I’m sorry, I know that babies age, but holy smokes!! When people say that time flies when you have a kid.. they aren’t kidding! Boy grows before my eyes every single day. My favorite thing right now is staring. I just sit and stare at him.. I feel like I can’t do anything else. My mind and body are completely drawn to him 100% of the day and night. Oh, and another favorite- the fact that I can’t get hims little butt powdered before he starts peeing on me/something close by.. the joys of motherhood 🙂

IMG_7939And in honor of the new school year starting- I figured I should share my view for the next semester! I’m pretty nervous about starting classes again being so new to the momma scene, but I’m taking it slow- and taking all of my classes online. I can only hope that all of my schoolwork doesn’t cut into my staring time 😉