Bathtime...

I love, love, love bathtime. Now that Ashlyn can sit up and splash around, it is even more fun. When she was really little, we used the "Tummy Tub" for her baths (thanks, Grandmom!). Just found this picture and she does not even look like the same baby anymore. They change sooooooo fast! She is only 8 days old here...so funny that she has almost the same amount of hair then as she does now.

But now that she is a little bigger, we just sit her in our bathtub. I guess we need to get some bath toys. She looks kind of lonely in that big tub with nothing to play with!

Aren't all her little rolls to die for? I wish she could keep them forever. Ok, well maybe not forever. But they are just so sweet I want to squeeze them all of the time.

a lovely Sunday morning...

Ahh...sleeping baby...clean house...and fresh flowers from the backyard on the coffee table. I don't have a green thumb. Not even a little. That being said, I have been pleasantly surprised by all of the flowers that keep popping up in the yard at our new house. I LOVE the hydrangea bush. And I realize how much life fresh flowers can add to a room...just wanted to share a few colorful pictures this morning...happy Sunday!

Decisions...decisions...decisions...

After LOTS of looking for a new rug to go in the almost finished office, I finally decided on this one from World Market. Have you ever looked for rugs online? It is an endless treasure hunt with hundreds of stops along the way to finding "the one". You might be wondering how I finally come to a decision. Well, I found at least 10 or 15 that I really liked (but most of them I couldn't afford...several were actually over $1,000...haha!). So, I just ended up picking the one that I liked the best in my price range. I am now hoping the room will not seem too dreary and gray but rather fresh and light...we shall see. It should arrive in a couple of weeks, and I will post some pictures then. I can't wait!!!!

Teeth!

Our sweet little baby (who has a runny nose and has been a little fussy) is getting not just one, but TWO of her bottom teeth! I tried to take a picture, but as you can probably imagine, she was not too excited about showing us her newest arrivals.

Ashlyn's new bookshelf!

Christopher was so inspired after seeing Ava's bookshelf (thanks for the fun idea, Hongs!) that he decided (well, with a little encouragement from me) to build one for Ashlyn using some leftover material from our bathroom makeover. He did such a great job...I know Ash will love it! We (ok, "he") mounted it to the wall in the sunroom and now we have such a fun place to keep all of her books!

Office Makeover

Everyone loves a good "before, during & after," right? I have been wanting to "re-do" my home office for a little while now. Saturday morning after a quick run with one of my good friends, I stopped by Home Depot to pick up a can of paint. Definitely the best $25 I have spent in a long time! :) After 5 & 1/2 years of being married, my sweet husband is no longer surprised by my "spur of the moment let's paint a room even when we were not planning on doing this today" ideas.

Some of the "befores". Very cluttered, formal gold curtains, and sage green paint that did not really go with the rest of our house.

What a handsome painter I found for hire...isn't he a sweetheart to help me paint even when he was not planning on it? The paint is a medium gray Behr paint called "Ashes". It looks so clean and fresh with the white trim!

And of course a few pics of our littlest helper...

And now for the finished office.  Fresh paint, removed the gold curtains, a few new accessories from TJMaxx, homemade bulletin board, and rearranged furniture = a new and improved office for me!

And here is what it will look like lots of days...

"Is baby ready?"

We tried feeding Ash some food again tonight with a spoon...sweet potatoes. And again, she was not too happy about it. However, we had a new game plan involving these "teething biscuits" (thanks, Ashley, for giving them to us!)

I love that the box lets you know when your baby is ready for teething biscuits and that Ashlyn meets none of the requirements (can crawl, use jaw to mash food, eat thick foods, hold small food in hand). At the rate we are going, she will be 5 before she should be able to have them.

We actually dipped the biscuit in her sweet potatoes and then let her sort of lick them off. And it worked...well, sort of. She did not make a face or spit them out.

Maybe tomorrow, we will try the spoon again! At least we are making some progress! PS...Ashlyn turns 7 months old tomorrow!

Weekend!

Ashlyn loved playing in the pool on Saturday morning. The water was super cold but she did not seem to mind at all!





We went to a wedding in Florence on Saturday night with the Hongs! Here are a few pics of the girls in their red dresses (I am sure they will love all their "matching" pictures when they get older!) I tried all night to get a picture of the two of them together when they were both looking at the camera...not very successful...

A wooden spoon

Sometimes I have to wonder if toys are slightly overrated? This afternoon, Ashlyn was hanging out with me in the office while I finished up some work surrounded by 5 or 6 different toys...and a wooden spoon. Can you guess which one she was playing with when I glanced down to check on her??? Out of every colorful object she could get her hands (and mouth) on, she selected the kitchen utensil that I am not sure how even ended up in the office...I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of her with her new favorite toy (and of course the drool soaked dress!)

A weekend of firsts...

Seth bought a baby pool for the kids to "play in" at the beach...Ashlyn really had a great time and can't wait to play in the pool again soon. Are we mean parents for making her get in the ice cold water????

We had a great weekend in Pawley's Island with our friends Dawn and Seth. Ashlyn and their 6 week old son, Owen, were such troopers for their first time on the beach! We made it about 5 hours Saturday before the wind got so strong that we had to go inside. Ashlyn was a little fussy yesterday afternoon when we came in from the beach. She was running a little fever but we just gave her some Tylenol and let her go to sleep. SOOOOO...today when we got home, we checked her temperature again and it was over 102. We called our doctor's office, and they told us to take her to an urgent care clinic. They checked her temperature there and it was 103.2! The funniest part (can there be a funny part about an urgent care clinic on a weekend???) was that she smiled and giggled the entire time the doctor was checking her. Turns out she has a viral infection and they said she should be fine in a few days. What a weekend...Ashlyn's first trip to the beach followed by her first trip to an urgent care clinic...and my first Happy Mother's Day!