E Baby's Growth Chart

From the moment we found out Elliot was a girl, I knew I wanted as much of her nursery to be custom as possible.  I knew the general idea of how I wanted her growth chart to look, but the details just wouldn't form in my head. Finally, about the time we found out we were moving to Louisiana is when I really knew how it would look, but because of lack of space and desire to do anything, I kept putting it off.  Now that we are back in Texas and things have calmed down a bit, I've finally had a chance to work on and finish this little project!

First, I ordered 4"x1/2" MDF numbers from SJA Wood Design.  If I had to do it over again, I would get the nicer wood, but the quality of what I got is perfectly fine and you can't beat about $1.00/each!  I ordered the numbers at 10:00 on Tuesday morning and by 2:00 that afternoon I got an email saying that my order had shipped.  Seriously, it was THAT quick! On Thursday, I got this box...

How cute is that?!  I painted the numbers the bottom color of Elliot's room and let them dry over night.

Next, I painted a 6'x7" board the same color as her dresser and chest.  It's Polar Bear white...or something like that (Martha Stewart).

When I was putting the numbers on the board to figure out where they went, it just didn't look right...it was too bare.  I decided I wanted a damask background and used my cricut and the Damask Decor cartridge to cut out vinyl to use as a stencil.

Once I figured out where on the board I wanted the damask (I put one behind each number), I applied the vinyl on and painted in the stencil with the top color of Elliot's room (Spring Melt - Martha Stewart).

How sweet is this damask?  I'm not really sure why I chose the birds, but I love them.  The more I was doing the stencils, the more they reminded me of my sweet Grandmom...she was an excellent gardener and LOOOOOOVED birds!  Next, I glued the numbers to be centered on the stencil..

...and I decided it was still in need of a little something. Soo...I took just the little birds from the damask, painted them between each number at the 6" mark, and ended up with this!

I really love how it turned out and hope Elliot appreciates it when she's older.  I plan to write her a little note on the back of the board to go with how tall she is, that way she'll have a little something that shows our thoughts and feelings of her growing throughout the years!

I went ahead and marked when she was born... 

...and when she turned one...

And here is the finished product...

(You can't tell because of the flash, but I did the birds between all the numbers (even the 4 and 5)!

This took me a guhzillion hours to do and I fully understand that E Baby will HATE it by the time she's twelve, but hopefully when she's a bit older, she'll learn to love it. :)

What do you do to measure your little one? Do you have a growth chart or do you use the door frame? I love the idea of using the door frame, but thought it would be impolite to leave the next owners of our house with an empty door jam when we move! 

I've got a couple more projects to share with you within the week that I'm pretty excited about!

Until then...

Jill

Profile Pictures

Jarrod and I have a pretty large living room that we are able to double as E Baby's play room (for now).  The other day, I decided to make little decor for the super boring and painful to look at empty wall that we consider her "play wall".

Anyone want to come clean my house?!

Super cute right? Thanks to Hobby Lobby's 66% off sale, I was able to do this project for less than $20!

Anywho, while I love how it turned out, the wall was still lacking a little something.  I sent a picture of it to my awesome sisters-in-law, and one of them had the idea to do Elliot's silhouette. As you can see here, our sweet girl is growing and changing quickly, and I wanted to capture her sweet profile at this age.

A while back, I had seen this tutorial by one of my favorite bloggers and put it away in my mental filing cabinet for later use.  When Lauren showed me the same tutorial, I knew it was time to do it!

The instructions said to download this program, but I couldn't get it to work, so I turned to my trusty, long time friend, Paint. It took me WAY longer than it should have, but I know Paint, and it worked. :)

After a couple hours of editing, $20 at Hobby Lobby, and a failed attempt to print the picture at FedEx (I showed up with the wrong card), I finally ended up with this sweet little silhouette.

Isn't this the cutest profile ever?! After resizing the picture, I printed it out and started to put it all together. I layered an 11x14" black/white mat inside a 16x20" black/white mat for a little extra depth, and I LOVE how it turned out with the black frame and black silhouette!

No, my curtains don't poke out like that.
A certain girl may or may not have been playing in them!

It's still lacking something on the left.  Hopefully E will cooperate and let me take her 1 yr foot and hand prints. If not, I'm sure I can find something else to go there!

Growing, Growing, Gone

"Cherish every moment with you're new baby.  Time goes by quickly, and before you know it, they're grown up and moving out!"

If you're a new (or old) parent, you've probably heard this before.  Heck, you've probably told other new parents this. And, while this is absolutely true (I can say this with my whole 13 months of experience), when people told me this, the amount of guilt I would feel if I put her down was absolutely overwhelming.  She was changing so quickly, and I was terrified of losing a single moment with her. I was determined to hold her every single possible moment, whether we were eating, sleeping*, walking, playing, etc. this baby was going to be cherished!

A few months later, I realized I could actually put her down, and not only would she be ok, but she wouldn't change so much or so quickly that I wouldn't recognize her when I picked her up! Now that Elliot is FINALLY sleeping through the night in her own crib (it only took 11.5 months)**, she won't let me rock her to sleep or cuddle with her anymore.  I miss this terribly and wish more than anything in the world that she would let me rock or cuddle with her, but alas, my independent child will have nothing of it! Rocking her to sleep in the dead of night are some of the memories I'm happy I cherished and will remember for a lifetime!

Here are a few pictures of E Baby growing:

Our newbie E Baby all cuddled up and a bundle of love!

I'm not really sure what's going on in this picture.
I kinda dig it though!

The bouncer was a sure fire way to get and keep E Baby to sleep!

Love this cross-eyed face!

The night we moved to Louisiana.
We put her in her closet so she wouldn't hear us moving stuff around!

I was cleaning up Elliot's room and she was quietly sitting in her bouncer.
I heard her squirming around, and turned around to find her head band covering her eyes!

Working so hard to sit up while Mommy does laundry!

Needless to say, this is the day the bouncer was put in storage!

Today (6/6/12)
I brought out the bouncer for our littlest nephew, Cannon.
Elliot wanted to make sure it was up to par for him!

I didn't exactly mean for today's posting to turn out like so, but for some reason this has really been on my heart lately. While I wanted to kick every single person who told me this in the shins it hut when people told me this, I'm a little glad they did.  I'm taking in ever single moment as possible while she's growing and growing, because I know that in the blink of an eye, she'll be gone and starting a journey of her own.

*I feel like I need to clarify that people telling me this was the main reason I let Elliot sleep in bed with us, and by the time I was capable of putting her down without feeling guilty, she had gotten used to sleeping in our bed.

**We are the evidence that letting your baby cry it out works.  I was against it before, but I am its biggest advocate now!

Until next time...

Love, 

Jill

E Baby's 1 Year Photo Shoot

So Jarrod has this aunt.  She's pretty awesome.  So awesome, in fact, that I claim her as my own. Seriously :) 

Anywho, Jarrod's my Aunt Shelley just so happens to be a photographer - a GREAT photographer!  Every once in a while (about every 3 months or so) we are able to con her into taking pictures of E Baby.  It usually goes something like this:

Me: Hey Shelley! Can you take Elliot's pictures?

Shelley: Sure! I'd love to!

Here are the pictures as promised.

I don't know what it is, but I LOVE when E Baby wears tennis shoes with her tutu!
Onesie: My mom
TuTu: Gift from Aunt KK and Uncle Jess (Target)
Shoes: Toms

Don't worry, her hand never even got close to the flame!

She looks like a monkey eating her banana!

Onesie: My mom
Bloomers: Ruffle Butts
Headband: Hobby Lobby
Flower: Me
Rocker: Shelley's

I adore this smile and the little girl who wears it!
Toenail polish: Essie

Parents - when you do a cake smash session and want to photograph the bath after, make sure the water is warm!
Tub: Babies R Us (we use it as her dirty clothes hamper)

Outfit: Mud Pie
High Chair: Mom and Dad's attic
High chair color: Blue Ocean Breeze

Door: Browsearoun (Pearland, TX) 

PetiRomper: Lollipop Children's Boutique (Pearland, TX)
Headband: Lollipop Children's Boutique
Flower: Me
Ottoman: Shelley's

Right before Shelley took this picture, Shelley whispered to me that she wished Elliot would lay her head down on the ottoman  so she could take some sweet pictures.  Before we knew it, she started kissing the ottomon, and this is her giving it a hug!

E Baby's 1st Birthday

This was my favorite little girl one year ago!  Can you believe how quickly this past year has flown?  Me neither, and while I'm so happy that E Baby is growing and developing perfectly, I can't help but wish I could pause time for just a while and relish this sweet girl for just a little longer!  As we approach her second year of life, I am so excited about watching her grow and learn and discover things on her, but there are a few things I wish I could keep forever (here smell, giggle, toothless grin, emotion leg, eating habits, and her face when she realizes we're playing chase...to name a few)!

Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures:

I call this "Squinty Eyes" or "Squinty Face."  It's usually used in
extreme distress or extreme joy.  Either way, it usually makes me laugh!

This is "Sippy Cup Face" - it melts my heart
Every. Single. Time!

Couldn't you just eat her?!

"Contortion" or "I Cried Myself To Sleep and
I'm Really Angry, So Maybe If I Sleep Like This
Someone Will Rescue Me*!"
*We did the "Cry It Out" Method and it totally works!
Also, we moved her - she didn't stay like that all night!

This is E Baby taunting the dogs.  It was her birthday
that day, so I felt bad telling her no.  Needless to
say, she gave Emma and Zeus some sort of complex
and we are taking donations for their therapy sessions!

So anyways, about this birthday party!  We were so excited to celebrate Elliot's first year with some of our closest family and friends!  Our daughter is beyond blessed to have so many people surrounding her with love and affection, and it makes my heart incredibly happy!

Sign in table

Oh, GiGi!

The sweets table.  I made that cupcake stand
 (the smash cake was on top!) and spent triple
what I would have spent if I just bought one.
DIY is no longer my BFF!
(Not really, I love you DIY!!!)

A fun way to display snacks for the kiddos.
Funny enough, our oldest friend, Sam, was the
only one to eat them!
P.S. I found this idea on pinterest!

Thank You suckers and the million dollar
Jelly Belly jelly beans. Seriously.
 Uh Million Dollars.
I think I was scammed!

Opening gifts

Elliot with two of her favorite friends - Corley and Everleigh!

My daughter, the bully, and her friend Corley!
P.S. Isn't that one of the cutest cry faces ever?!

You can see the rest of E Baby's birthday party pictures here.  Please, don't post them anywhere.  That would be awkward and we couldn't be friends anymore!

I'll be back soon with a few projects I've had stewing in my head!  

I can't wait to share them with you!

Love,

Jarrod, Jill, and E Baby