Love this girl!

I love my girl! She has such a wonderful personality and spirit. Every day I am thankful to God for gifting my daughter to Alan and I. Because that is what she is, a gift from God.

I don't want to give a false impression that Adeline is a perfect baby all the time, of course she has her moments and she wakes me 2-3 times a night. But I can deal with all of that, because she is my baby and I love her.

Adeline loves to ham it up for the camera.

Adeline has already figured out how to tease and play with Marie.

Today Adeline got to visit Maw Maw at work.

Ribbon Blankets/Lovies

I started making these cute little blankets last year. I made my first one for my friends little boy, Logan,  and then one for Adeline (not pictured). They are super easy to make and I get tons of compliments and people asking where I got Adeline's at! I like the 10x10 or 12x12 size and only a few ribbons or a lot! Just whatever I think looks good.

Here is the one I made for Logan in November 2011.

Here are my recent projects:

Need a baby shower gift? Send me an email for custom requests or visit my Etsy site for already made items.

Adeline's Busy Social Calendar!

For a 8 month old she has a pretty full social calendar and I love it. We are part of a local Mommy's group that has 2-3 events planned most weeks. We don't make it to every event but when we do Adeline loves watching all the other babies so I try to get her out as much as possible. She also gets tired of being home with mommy. Well last week we were busy busy! Saturday was our busiest day!

In the morning we went with dad to Smith Park so he could fish, so Adeline and I walked around the park for a bit before our next event of the day.

Next we went to Hits Frozen Treats for a 1 yr old Birthday Party! Adeline had a great time and had a taste of ice cream. The birthday party was awesome, the decorations were exactly what I would have done for Adeline, owl theme! I'm thinking by November when it's Adeline's turn for a Birthday Party we'll be ready for a new theme - so it was great to see an Owl Birthday theme done great. Wish I had gotten some pictures, but you'll just have to believe me that it was great! Here is Adeline playing in the balls at the party!

For the evening we attended a 50th Wedding Anniversary Party for Willard & Sylvia, they are my husbands Great Aunt & Uncle. It was a wonderful party and I am so glad that Adeline was welcome to come. Here is Miss Adeline with Alan's Mom, Reba.

I actually got my husband to dress up in something other than khakis! Take a look folks, only happens once in a blue moon.

DIY - Tablet Sleeve

My wonderful husband bought me a ASUS Tablet since we both try to share the laptop (which doesn't work very well!). I'm very happy with the tablet but there are not really any cases for it like there are for iPads. So I decided to make my own.

I've never written a tutorial nor did I remember to take step by step pictures. But basically I just measured the tablet and cut out the fabric an inch or so larger - 4 pieces total, 2 of each fabric. Then also 2 pieces of interfacing for padding. Here is the fabric I used. The stripes is for the inside and flowers on the outside.

Next I sewed the two flower pieces and interfacing together (flower side facing each other) with the top side open then trimmed and flipped out. And I know this is probably not proper sewing, but then I sewed the two inside pieces together and stuck it inside. I had cut it a bit longer so more would stick up, then I folded it over and made my own binding for the top with the inside fabric. It made the opening a little tight, but not too tight and I'm happy with the sleeve! Next time I'll make it a bit longer so I can use snaps to secure the opening.

Reynolds Family Reunion

Sunday was our annual Reynolds Family Reunion in Newport, VA. The reunion is a gathering of the descendants of James Madison Reynolds.

Picture taken by Alan Helms

In years past we have had the reunion at the Newport Recreation Center but the past couple years we have decided to seek out air condition and a kitchen and found that at Level Green Christian Church in Newport, VA. The new location is wonderful.

I remember when I was little there were a lot more people at the reunions, almost 100! Sadly we are happy now if we reach 50. It's always great to see those who are able to come, and I've rarely missed a reunion in my 29 yrs in the family. It's always great to see those distant cousins who you haven't seen all year and when I was little we didn't have Facebook or the internet to keep up with each other.

I wish I had time to pull and scan the pictures from long ago, but I don't! So here are some pictures from the recent past that are already on my computer:

2008

2010

Only one decent picture of this year!

2012

While looking through the pictures I saw so many missing faces from the previous years - some are just not there, some are ill, and others have passed. I miss all of those people and hope those ill or missing will come back in the future. I want my daughter to grow up surrounded by family as I have and look forward to these reunions. 

8 Months of Beautiful!

Adeline is 8 months old!

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and beautiful baby girl. Right now she loves to stand up and can pull herself up with minimal assistance with my fingers. She can pull herself up to sitting while holding my fingers as well. She can get up on her knees but doesn't know what to do once she is up, so no crawling yet! She scoots backwards right now and maneuvers side to side while on her tummy. She loves to roll over and back and forth. She loves books and get so mad if you try to help her with them! 

BLW (Baby Led Weaning) is going great. We are not feeding solids at every meal, only if she's awake when we are eating and depending on her mood and last milk feeding. Her favorite foods are anything she can suck on to get the juices - watermelon, peaches, tomatoes, etc. We haven't ventured into meats yet, veggies and fruits for now. Oh and of course she loves bread (she wouldn't be my daughter if she didn't...). 

Here are some pictures from her 8 month photo shoot:

Here is the month progression 1 Month to 8 Months:

11 Things About Yourself Challenge

One of my blogger friends posted the "challenge" to answer the following questions:

1. Do you love your body?
2. Do you respect yourself?
3. Do you consistently set goals for yourself and work towards them?
4. Are you outspoken for what you believe in?
5. Do you listen to both sides of the story with an open mind?
6. Do you read to the news and know what's going on in the world?
7. Are you respectful of others, even those with radically different views?
8. Do you regularly judge other women for how they look?
9. Are you getting enough sleep and eating well?
10. Are you in the habit of doing one nice thing for yourself each day (and one for someone else?)
11. Are constantly trying to educate yourself on new things? 

So Andrea (@ Strawberry Mohawk) I'm meeting your challenge!

1. Do you love your body? No way! I didn't have great body image of myself before pregnancy, and still don't - maybe even a little worse. I really need to work out, I frankly just don't have the will power.

2. Do you respect yourself? I do now. In college and the years after I obviously did not respect myself enough. I won't go into the details, but when I finally started to respect myself I realized I deserved a good guy who loves me for me. Then I met Alan, the rest is history.

3. Do you consistently set goals for yourself and work towards them? Nope, I'm not a goal setter and doubt I ever will be.

4. Are you outspoken for what you believe in? Not as much as I want to be. 


5. Do you listen to both sides of the story with an open mind? I try to, it usually depends on the subject.


6. Do you read to the news and know what's going on in the world? Not anymore. I used to read the news every day while at work, now my work is to stay home with my baby and not be on the computer (well not as much as I would be at a desk job...).


7.  Are you respectful of others, even those with radically different views? I try to be respectful of everyone, I can't respect ignorance though.


8. Do you regularly judge other women for how they look? I am a people watcher, so I am constantly looking around and seeing people. I don't know that I would say I "judge" but I do look at other women and try to determine what type of person they are. I do sometimes think too harshly at times I think, i.e. - Was at the movie Magic Mike and saw a bunch of 40-60 year old women all dressed to the 9s - I called them Cougars. I think I was being harsh. They were probably just a group of friends who decided to dress up and go out to the movies.


9. Are you getting enough sleep and eating well? I'm getting enough sleep most nights but I am not eating well. I hate to cook and plan meals with all the food groups. I'm also a picky eater. 


10. Are you in the habit of doing one nice thing for yourself each day (and one for someone else)? I try to have me time, usually whenever Adeline is sleeping - I consider that a nice thing for myself. For someone else, I try to be the best mom possible to Adeline.


11. Are constantly trying to educate yourself on new things? Whenever I see a stance on something (i.e. circumcision) I read up on the subject to determine what my stance is.

Cloth Diapering #2

We decided to go with pocket diapers to make it the easiest on dad and grandparents. I chose BumGenius OSand Fuzzibunz OS Diapers! I have a few other diapers too - a couple WAHM (The Diaper Addict) AIO/AI2 and 2 TotsBots Easyfits. Basically pocket diapers require inserts that go into a pocket and you can add additional inserts when needed. At night we use BumGenius OS Velcros as they are easier to use when you are half asleep! I use a regular insert with a doubler for nighttime, and just the insert for daytime in the snap diapers. 

I would love to branch out and try other types of diapers, but we decided to use Cloth Diapers for cost savings so until (IF) we have 2 in diapers no more diapers for me! We also use Cloth Wipes with homemade wipes solution (2 tbsp baby shampoo, 2 tbsp EVOO, 2 Cups Water) that I put in a spray bottle - small one for diaper bag and big one for changing table.

For wet bags I use Planetwise. I have 2 hanging Wet/Dry Bags and 2 Medium bags for the diaper bag. I also have 3 more small wet bags for extras. Now that we are dealing with solid poop I'm wishing I had a trashcan for diapers as its a pain to pull out inserts from poopy diapers and put in a wet bag before taking to the bathroom to spray clean, but oh well. So I would recommend a diaper pail instead of the hanging for that main reason. I just don't want to spend more money when I can just "deal". Later on I'll post about our Diaper Sprayer Alan made for us (well me really).

Here is my gorgeous baby and her Cloth Diapers:

This was my newborn stash (various brands) plus the BumGenius' in the plastic containers for once she fit into them.

Storage for the diapers, I can fit all her diapers in these two drawers.

I scored an awesome deal on these Fuzzibunz Elite Diapers. I also use Rockin' Green - Hard Rock.

A lot of Adeline's diapers out sunning!

One of the first Cloth Diapers she wore!

Fuzzibunz

Fuzzibunz

BumGenius - Small

Flower Power TotsBots (also has Cherrylicious)

Cloth is Cool!

Love the way Fuzzibunz fits on her, it's my go to diaper most days.

The Diaper Addict - Front

The Diaper Addict - Back

The Diaper Addict - Front

The Diaper Addict - Back

Love this baby!

Cloth Diapering #1

Once Alan and I decided to start trying for a child all the various decisions started - what diapers will we use, where will we give birth, to vaccinate or not to vaccinate, etc. Most people don't even think about these issues - they just assume paper diapers, hospital birth, to vaccinate, etc. I probably would have been the same way if not for friends who made me question the "norm".

In later posts I'll discuss our other choices, but for this post let's talk about Cloth Diapers!

Way before I became pregnant I met Jenna. Jenna is my husbands best friend's wife. At the time she was cloth diapering her baby and running an online cloth diaper business with her mom. At the time I was just like, oh cloth diapers. But that planted a seed and once we became pregnant Jenna was a great source of information.

If you are wanting to Cloth Diaper and wanting more information I found lots of help on BabyCenter in the Community section. The ladies there are awesome. I also purchased the book "Changing Diapers" by Kelly Wels it was nice to have something physical to reference and not just online references. She also has a great website and blog.

Photo From: http://www.kellywels.com/

We decided to cloth diaper mainly for the cost savings aspect. However I love that I'm not putting all those chemicals on my baby's butt, and I can joyfully say we've not had one instance of Diaper Rash! Adeline used disposable diapers in the very beginning due to having very skinny legs and not having enough newborn diapers, so we basically had to wait until the one size diapers fit. She also had to use sposies (disposables) at daycare for the few months she was there. So for only cloth diapering part time then and full time now we've had a ton of cost savings!

Do you cloth diaper? What was the reasoning behind your family cloth diapering?

That's all for today, tomorrow I'll discuss the types of diapers we chose to use.

Family Day

Yesterday Alan had the day off so we decided to make it a family day. Alan has been dying to go fishing and since miss Adeline kept us up till 1am Alan didn't get to get up early and go, we decided to head to the park for a picnic and Alan to fish.

First park was basically empty and since Alan wouldn't be with me most of the time we decided to try Greenhill Park. Once we got all situated on our blanket the yellow jackets decided to come visit. YIKES!!!! We aren't allergic, but didn't want to risk any stings so tried to move, but they followed. Soooo off to park #3. Finally we got to sit down and eat lunch with no bees. After lunch we took Adeline to play on the playground.

So after all the fuss and running around it was a nice day even though Alan didn't get to fish, maybe Saturday at the lake.

Yellow Watermelon

I had no idea there was such a thing as yellow watermelon! Adeline loves watermelon so we buy a small seedless one every couple weeks. When I cut into the most recent one I discovered it was yellow! I had to Google it to make sure it was normal, of course...

Adeline still loves it so that's the important part and doesn't stain clothes red!

Chalkboard Tags

I know I got this idea online somewhere but I've scoured my Pinterest boards and can't find where I pinned it. Just know that this is NOT an original idea by me!

Adeline has a bookcase that has several storage boxes in it with handles, and I can never remember what is in each drawer. So I'm making reusable tags to hang from the handles.

Supplies Needed:

• Some sort of Tag - I used the 3.25in Diameter Wooden Circles from JoAnns and had the hubby drill holes (1/4") for the ribbon
• Chalkboard Paint - I used the Black from Plaid, but it comes in lots of colors 
• Brush - I used a small foam brush
• Ribbon - 1/8" - you can use any size you wish, just make sure the holes are big enough.
• Fray Check - to stop the fraying of the ribbon

Step One: Drill holes in the wooden circles. I recommend getting a higher quality tag as when I had the hubby drill the holes they splintered some on the backside.

Step Two: Paint! The can recommends at least 2 coats and wait 1 hour between coats. Well I did 3 coats just to make sure.

Step Three: Wait 24 hours for the paint to cure before use.

Step Four: While you are waiting (patiently of course) for the paint to cure you can be cutting your ribbon to length. I'm using 6" pieces as I don't want them to dangle too much. Also go ahead and put some Fray Check on the ends to prevent the ribbon from fraying.

Step Five: Put ribbon in tag and write with the chalk then hang for use.

Love the look in my daughters room.

May use this idea in other organization areas of the house like my craftroom!

Here is a small pot I also used the Chalkboard Paint on while I was waiting for coats dry:

Before:

 After: