Year in Review

I had a lot of fun putting together 2012's Year in Review, mainly because I got to remind myself of all we experienced in 2012, I thought I'd do it again.

2012 was very special for us as we welcomed our first child into the world and watched her grow.  2013 was even better as we started the year moving into our new home, celebrating our baby turning 1 and developing more personality and learning more than we could imagine every day, and of course ending the year by adding our second daughter to the mix and completing our family.  We are so full of gratitude and our hearts are so full.

January

Kicked off the year with my 30th Birthday.  Ashlynn started waving and cruising.  We closed on our new home.

February

I shared the "before" home tour (which reminds me I need to share all our updates!).  Ashlynn started full out crawling, clapping on command, trying out standing solo, and walking with her walker.

March

I got my crafty on with 1, 2, 3 sewing projects.  Ashlynn met Peter Rabbit.  Threw our annual St. Patty's Day Party. And the biggies - finally some teeth and her First Steps.

April

Ashlynn turned 1 and we had a great confetti themed 1st Birthday party!

May

I finally finished putting Ashlynn's toddler room together. And we announced our pregnancy!

June 

Ashlynn's room was selected as Project of the Week on Project Nursery.  I got my cook on with lots of recipes (frittata, kale mashed potatoes, dirt pudding, veggie lasagna) I recapped my 13 month breastfeeding journey with Ashlynn and shared my honest thoughts and concerns about transitioning from family of three to four.  

July

I finally made Ashlynn the DIY teepee I had been dying to make and of course shared the tutorial.  Ashlynn finished her swimming lessons and I threw a sprinkle shower for a friend.

August

I opened my etsy shop, Mallow & Graeme, and kicked off the On Wednesdays We Wear Pink series.  Reflected on how quickly time passes and started making progress on Kenley's nursery.

September

Co-hosted a link-up party, joined a mommy group and almost lost poor sweet Bun, and recapped our Anniversary family outing.

October

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, opened up in honor of Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month, and really starting thinking about the arrival of baby#2.

November

Started the month recapping Halloween, which was such a blast, and ended with Thanksgiving and of course delivering Kenley Drew.  

December

Introduced Kenley to the world (aka the internet) and shared her Birth Story, started to share our life with two under two (resuming next week), prepped for holidays with baking tons of cookies and watching Santa come by on the fire truck, participated in a blogger Secret Santa, and celebrated our first Christmas in our new home as a family of four!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year's Eve and send lots of love and light for a fantastic 2014!

Teepee Takeover

While I gave birth to the most precious baby this year, I also welcomed another new creation... the start of Mallow & Graeme.  When I created Ashlynn's DIY Teepee and posted the tutorial, I never expected any of the amazing feedback I've received.  Aside from the all of repins on pinterest, I've been lucky enough to have the tutorial featured, twice, on Hawthorne Threads newsletter!  Such an honor.  

On top of that, the community support through Instagram has been overwhelming.  I never imaged completing 46 teepees ever, let alone in 2 months time before breaking for the arrival of baby K.


I enjoyed making them so much, but I also enjoy seeing the ones readers created themselves using the tutorial.  Here are some of the beauties readers were so kind enough to send along!

Jennifer F

Natalie

Amy F.

Amy G

Christmas 2013

Just a little holiday recap, mainly through (too many) photos.

We had such a great day, just the four of us.  I greeted Ashlynn in the morning saying "Merry Christmas, Santa came!" and while we've had all the presents under the tree since we took our family photos two weeks ago, I was shocked when she made a beeline for it when we got downstairs.

We opened a few presents taking time to play with each one before moving to the next and took an intermission to eat some baked french toast (my favorite) which Ashlynn was pretty obsessed with.  We went back to opening and playing with presents and that took us almost the whole way until nap.

It was a great first Christmas in our new home, even if we picked up Chinese food instead of cooking a special fancy meal.  Ashlynn had such a blast and I can't wait until next year when she actually "gets it" and can find items she requests of Santa under the tree, as opposed to things we picked out that she didn't even know she wanted, let alone existed.   Also having a mobile Kenley to grab and steal all of Ashlynn's new toys will totally make a for a fun and exciting day.   It's only going to get better from here.

went straight to the one gift that was added the night before, smartie pants 

showing Kenley her gift from Mimi

big jammies | lil jammies

LOVES her Fancy Nancy!

someone woke up and joined the party

I hope everyone had a memorable and fun day with their families and loved ones. 

T'was the Night Before Christmas...

and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...



except for the newborn who's hit the trifecta having a diaper blowout mid-change, peeing on me halfway through that clean up, and just now covering me and herself in vomit - not spit up, vomit.  Thankfully Santa has already come by, eaten all our cookies, stuffed our stockings, and spiked our eggnog.   We're going to need it!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and hope it's a special and memorable day.  Our's has already made it in the baby book hall of fame!

Weekend Wrap Up

I was going to post a Five Things Friday post on Friday, but Thursday night I came down with what ended up as mastitis. So, well start there -




#1 - Mastitis.

Bummer.

I had clogged ducts twice while breastfeeding Ashlynn.  Both times they started out seemingly in the mastitis category of symptoms - chills, aches, the obvious breast soreness but no fever.  And both times with about a half day's rest, the flu like symptoms faded and I was just left with a very apparent clog.  This time, it just got worse.  Chills for hours, yet still having my post partum night sweats, headache, fever, and muscle aches so bad I could barely move out of bed.  So now I'm 4 days into my antibotics, feeling fine and just waiting for the final bit of breast pain to work itself out.

However, now I'm a bit terrified of Kenley (and/or myself) developing thrush.  Just can't win.


#2 - Santa!

Growing up, Santa always came around on the firetruck to wave to all the good girls and boys before setting off on his voyage to deliver all the toys.  I remember always decorate giant gingerbread cookies while we waiting to hear the sirens before running outside in our jammies to wave to him.  My mom gave me the giant cookie cutters (a gingerbread man, woman, snowman, and house) a few years back and I was so excited to finally have an excuse to use them - children!



Although, our local fire department sent Santa out during the day.  I'm glad we were home when he came, around 11am, but I wasn't prepared with the cookies.  I'm hoping to make them with Ashlynn either today or as an activity tomorrow.  But at least we still got to see Santa ride by in the fire truck.  We also got candy cane which I think Ashlynn was even more excited for, repeating "cane!" over and over for until it broke into too many pieces inside the wrapper and I took it away. (#meanmommy)


#3 - Christmas Cookies



We may not have decorated gingerbread cookies, but we sure did get our bake on this past Thursday.  We made my family's chocolate ribbon cookies (a holiday staple), peanut butter blossoms, and Natasha's hot cocoa cookies.  I'm pretty sure I've actually gained back baby weight in the last 3 days.  I'm not looking forward to my post partum follow up appointment.

True Life: I am a cookie monster.

...And apparently Ashlynn is taking after me.  She's also quite the baker!


#4 - Family Outing

On Saturday after I finally started feeling myself we wanted to get out of the house.  We toyed with the idea of heading to the mall and maybe getting Ashlynn face to face with the big in the red suit if the line wasn't too insane.  We hit the gas station on the way out and realized, we only had our one and only stroller.  There was no way we were going to be able to carry Ashlynn through the mall or hold her while waiting in line.  We also didn't want to be carry Kenley in the carrier and I didn't have the moby with me to wear her.

Then it really hit us.  It was Saturday before Christmas and our local mall is the largest shopping mall east of the Mississippi.  It's the most insane place to be during the holidays, I'm not sure why we were crazy enough  to think we'd take a toddler and newborn there.

So kiddos all dressed up and no where to go.  We hit up Starbucks for their Buy 1 Get 1 holiday drink special and treated Ashlynn to some chocolate milk.  Nice little family date, even if Kenley decided to snooze through it (no complaints here).  After dinner we drove around and saw all the (big houses) Christmas lights.


#5 - Mommy

Ashlynn is officially calling me "Mommy" and it is the cutest thing I've ever heard.  My heart melts every time she says it.





Hope everyone enjoys their Christmas Eve's Eve and if you are on your way 'to grandma's house' you have safe travels!