Latest Reads

So i'm not a huge reader, and I don't always have the time to read these days, but it is something I like to do right before bed.

Here are some of the ones I have recently read that I have really enjoyed. I'm sure most of you know about this daily devotional, but it is still a favorite of mine.

I'm currently reading this one. It is challenging me in ways I wish it wouldn't. I have a love/hate relationship with it.

I read Jennie Allens book, "Anything" which I absolutely loved. Plus her sister Katie is one of my best friends so I know her and her family. Its amazing and also challenging.

I read "Anything" to gear upfor doing her bible study, "Stuck". I got to do this study before it was ever published and got to give some feedback before it was in book form. Its fun seeing it in real life and doing it again. Each week is over a place we could possibly be stuck in that is hindering our relationship with God. It again is super challenging and is really helping me to think about the things in my life that I need to work on.

My next 2 reads will be these next 2 books. My husband just read this one and loved it. He finished it in like 3 days I think! Love this show so much too!

  

 And I've heard great things about this book, "Unglued" is on my list as well!

Anyone else have any recommendations for me to add to the list?! 

5 months!

Well Miss Maren tuned 5 months old yesterday. This month flew by and we are just absolutely having a blast. She gets more fun, a little sweeter and cuter everyday. {I may be a tad biased, but hey I'm her mom}!
We had a some big and exciting things happen this past month.

Happy 5 months!

She loves having her tongue out!

She likes the jenny jump up!

and her jumparoo

Still loves her baths and just look at those yummy rolls!

We got our first tooth! Whaaat!? Its all the way through now a sharp little sucker at that.

We still love our swing and take most naps in it.

another big thing that happened was that we finally weaned her from the swaddle. It took a good 2 weeks, but she is doing great now with both arms out. We started off with 1 arm out for a week, then bit the bullet last week with both arms out. It took her only a couple of days to get used to it. So that's a huge relief.

Most of her days she is super happy and content.

 I'm so very thankful for that and that she has been healthy so far!

Another big thing that happened was that she rolled over both ways. She rolled from her back to belly first {and only once} then a couple weeks later did belly to back {and only twice}. She has yet to do it again, but I guess will do it on her own sweet time. She just wanted to make sure we knew she was capable I suppose. Ha. We like to call her miss independent.

Other things that have happened:
-We just moved to size 2 diapers, still a little big, but her rolls were spilling out on the ones.
-She wears 3-6 month tops and still in 0-3 pants. Most 3-6 month things are still too big on her.
-She sleeps from 9:30/10-6:15/7 then is awake an hour or so and goes back down for a 2-3hr nap.
-She stills loves her car seat
-She is super alert and just takes everything in by concentrating pretty hard
-her head control is getting really good, and we are working on assisted sitting
-I'm down to pumping twice a day so she gets more formula than BM now, but is doing great with it.
-We are probably going to giver her some rice cereal or at least try in the next few days!

I'm absolutely loving being at home with her and grateful I get to do that. I feel like I just can't get enough of her and that my heart may explode... ok not really but I'm definitely slightly obsessed!

Office Re-Do

I have wanted to do this post for awhile now but just haven't quite had the time... imagine that. So when I was pregnant we decided to do some cleansing and purging of a lot of things or at least what felt like a lot of things. So in our house, downstairs we have a room that is supposed to be a dining room, but when we moved in we knew it would never get used. We knew that from our previous house and we never used it. So we decided an office would better fit our needs. Well clearly that became a "catch all" room for all of our extra stuff. Knowing Maren was arriving soon, we decided to clean it out and make it a playroom/ extra bedroom kind of space because our living room is very small and doesn't have the space to store all of the toys/swings/seats, etc. I thought it would be perfect so that way we didn't lose any more sleep space for guests as well.

This is what the room looked like before... and it was in the middle of being cleaned out.

I sold all of it.

And After!!!

I can assure you that the room does not look like this currently. The bed is filled with her clothes, we have a pack n play still set up in there where she was sleeping and junk everywhere.

My friend Kelly {shek sewing} made these shades for me. She got creative because I didn't want to mount anything on the actual doors. They have worked out well when guests stay.

Now I'm considering selling the amazing daybed that I have in there so we can have more space. The bed takes up most of the room, which leaves no storage for toys and what nots, plus no one ever stays in there since we have an extra bedroom upstairs. I'm also thinking about getting a small desk so when I work from home I could have a little space to be at. Right now I sit at our kitchen table and I hate having office stuff out everywhere.

This space will be great for when she gets older and it can actually fully be a playroom... well until or if another baby comes along...

Thoughts on this?