Blue-Eyed Bride

some blips!

by Blue-Eyed Bride on May 8, 2012

1. My mom is still here and we’re loving having her here! It’s just nice to have some adult company during the day. And someone to entertain Hudson when he’s bored with me.

2. I took Hayes to the ENT today for a tubes follow up appointment. His ears look great and he passed his hearing test with flying colors. Yay!

3. I wore my Cora earrings from Bridier Baubles today. I love these so much! They are the perfect pop of color. I have a few other orders from them coming. I can’t get enough! (And I totally took this picture while sitting in the parking lot at the ENT’s office)

4. Have you tried the chocolate chip cookies from Chick-fil-A? Oh my goodness. They’re heaven in a little brown bag. It is incredibly dangerous to have such delicious chocolate chip cookies via a drive through window. Chick-fil-A, I love you, but my hips don’t.

5. We had an amazing dining experience last night and I will blog about it tomorrow. And my mom and I are going to see The Lucky One tonight.

6. My good friend Anna and I have a nice little system going. She tells her daughter that “Miss Erin said to do something” and I totally used her today and got Hudson to hold her hand to walk to the car after preschool. Since he refuses to hold my hand. Hey, whatever keeps him from getting hit by a car.

7. I’m taking full advantage of having my mom in town and trying to take care of any appointments that are difficult with children. My hair appointment is tomorrow. Hello, summer blonde! I’ve missed you!

8. My dogs are out of control. Just hyper and barking like crazy. Maybe they’re allergic to toddlers.

9. I have mentally moved in to a house that we love. Please, St. Joe, help our house get sold.

10. Hudson’s legs look like a game of “connect the dots” without all the connecting. His little legs are so bruised up. But he is constantly running into things and falling down.

11. Mother’s Day is this weekend. I actually get to spend Mother’s Day with my mom for the first time in about six years. I’m really looking forward to it.

12. I got sunburned this weekend at Hayes’s party. I hate getting sunburned, but it’s amazing how quickly my face is so clear after getting a little sun!

13. And because it’s so dang cute to me, you have to see these two pictures of my baby boys.

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what’s on your packing list?

by Blue-Eyed Bride on May 8, 2012

I feel like there needs to be a packing list that comes inside every diaper bag. When babies are teeny tiny, they need so much stuff. It’s all little-bitty stuff, but it’s still needed. And good grief, if you forget just one little thing, you have a tiny time bomb that could go off and change the course of your whole outing!

Hayes is completely unpredictable on even the smallest outing. He could go through as many as 5 diapers on a two-hour trip. Not even joking.

Hudson and Hayes both need a spare change of clothes. I have started putting a spare set for Hudson in a large plastic bag and leaving it in the car. His most common accident is spilled milk. And it’s not that uncommon for us to use Hayes’s spare clothes. I put his change of clothes in the diaper bag and usually need a new set of clothes packed in there every few days.

I pack a bottle because you just never know when you’ll need it. I also have a small formula dispenser that I keep in the bag, and I’ll just put however many servings of formula I need in the dispenser.

When Hayes was born, we received a really cute wipes container. It is covered in adorable car fabric, and I just refill it every few days or so. It doesn’t take up much space in the bag.

I try to have the diaper bag all ready to go at all times. If we’re just running errands, I’ll throw my wallet into the diaper bag with a couple of my little pouches that hold lipstick, a makeup compact, pens, etc. If we’re going to church and I need to leave the diaper bag with Hayes, I have a different plan: I pack the diaper bag for Hayes and leave it in his nursery room. I always have things for Hudson in my diaper bag, too, but when I’m dropping them off somewhere, I pack Hudson’s small little backpack with a cup and a couple of diapers and wipes to take to his nursery room. And then I pack my purse for me.

Even if we’re going on a very short outing, I just know I can’t leave the house without a diaper or two. We’ve had plenty of scenarios when I’ve either forgotten to refill the wipes container or forgotten the bottle but packed the formula. Time bomb goes off.

So what’s your strategy? Do you leave all of the essentials in the car so you know you have plenty, no matter what? What lessons in diaper bag packing have you learned? Do you pack up the entire nursery or just dash out of the house with one diaper

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What to Expect Giveaway from Dr. Smith’s

by Blue-Eyed Bride on May 7, 2012

I think because our first pregnancy was unexpected, I, in turn, didn’t have any expectations. I’ve mentioned before, but I took the whole pregnancy with Hudson one day at a time. I had a friend come to me and tell me that I had to buy “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” because it would help me feel less stressed over all of the changes.

I ended up reading that book from cover to cover because I love information! As soon as I started reading it, I felt better. I had a little bit of an idea of what to expect and that made the extra unexpected situations easier to deal with.

Now, what the book didn’t prepare me for was that everyone else was going to be an expert on my pregnancy and my baby. They all knew way more than I did. (Can you feel the sarcasm?) Or that’s how they all treated me.

And I know that people have great intentions and they just want to be helpful. But it is hard to go around for 9 months and have everyone telling you what to eat, what to avoid, how to sleep, and what to buy. I definitely didn’t expect that.

Most of the unexpected advice was great advice. Motherly instincts go a long way, but the knowledge I gained from other mothers who had “been there” was wonderful!

To celebrate the upcoming premier of the film adaptation of the classic parenting and pregnancy book, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, Dr. Smith’s is giving one lucky Blue-Eyed Bride reader

1. a 6 month supply of Dr. Smith’s Diaper Rash Ointment,

2. a $25 Visa gift card and

3. a set of 3 books from the What to Expect Series: What to Expect When You’re Expecting, What to Expect The First Year, and What to Expect the Second Year.

Two runners up will win a 6 month supply of Dr. Smith’s.

To Enter, you must “Like” Dr. Smith’s on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/DoctorSmiths and leave a comment on this post. Entries will be accepted through Midnight CT on May 14^th, 2012. Winners will be selected at random.

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Hayes’s First Fiesta: The Fiesta Details

by Blue-Eyed Bride on May 7, 2012

We had Hayes’s First Fiesta at the historic home where Todd’s firm is located. They have some gorgeous grounds around the property and we held the party on the grounds. It was so green and so beautiful!

All the kids were able to just run around the whole time. It was so much fun watching them all play together! And the birthday boy was really happy!

My friend Rachel came to Columbia for the party and she took pictures for me! She did such a great job. Katie came, too, and they both ended up helping me finish setting up. So thankful they were there!

The dessert table had all of Hayes’s monthly pictures labeled with number labels from Sweet Birdie’s Nest, my go-to party goods girls! The “Fiesta” painting was done by Nat Kat Designs, the same talent behind the “Celebrate” painting we had at Hudson’s party. Natalie was so kind to do a painting for Hayes, too!

We had cupcakes, the smash cake, chocolatti cookies and Mexican wedding cookies. Oh my goodness! Everything was so yummy!

Cupcake toppers by Sweet Birdie’s Nest and cupcake wrappers are from Shop Sweet Lulu.

I used the same 12 buckets that I had from Hudson’s first birthday, but my mom and I covered them in colored paper napkins so we could get as much color as possible.

We made the yummy individual 7-layer dip cups from Pinterest. And I made the topiaries out of paper drink umbrellas. I filled the pots with dried black beans.

You can see the little cactus favors we gave to all of the guests. We found the cacti at Home Depot the day before the party. We wrapped the plastic pots in tissue paper and included the little “muchas gracias” tags from Sweet Birdie’s Nest.

The main food table included paper poms made out of paper napkins. We served a fajita bar from Moe’s. Moe’s delivers and is so easy to work with.

The little utensil wrappers and food tent labels were done by Sweet Birdie’s Nest. I love wrapping utensils while watching television late at night!

We had about six small pinatas around the yard. Todd filled them all with candy and small toys the night before. The pinatas hung really low so they were at eye level with the little kids. I think they liked them!

The adorable iced cookies were our other party favor. The wonderful folks at A Dozen Eggs came through for us again. The iced cacti, sombreros, and burro pinatas were so cute!

We had five round tables set up around the yard. They were covered in yellow paper table cloths and striped table cloths. We used a different color stripe table cloth on each of the five tables. I loved having so much color around the yard.

We topped the tables with vases of paper flowers. Each table also had a bowl of chips and some salsa.

We set up a little photo booth using a sheet hung on the outside of the house. Sweet Birdie’s Nest made the cute banner. I had about 6 large sombreros, some sticky mustaches, and maracas to use as props in the photo booth.