Long time, no see!

Needless to say, I am slightly ashamed of the length of time that has slipped by since my last post!  I cannot believe how long it has been.  

I went back to work teaching full time after 8 months off (bed rest and maternity leave), and to say it has been an adjustment would be the understatement of the century.  This year I was moved up from kindergarten to first grade, looping with my kids from last year.  It was so great to see their happy faces when they showed up on the first day of school to see I was their teacher again.  For the most part, it is the same class, but there are about 5 that left and then 10 new ones added in the mix.  It has been a very rough adjustment for me.  Spending all of that time at home with my precious angels and then having to say goodbye to them so abruptly really took its toll on me.

My class is truly wonderful, but there have been a lot of new challenges I have never had to face before and it has made everything just that much more stressful.  It's taken all I have in me just to make it through each day.  God has blessed me with a job doing something I love, and it is only because of HIS grace and HIS strength that I've been able to complete the first semester. All of that to say, I am sorry for my huge leave of absence in blogging, but I'm thrilled to say, I'm Baaaaack!  

My last post was Kellan's 4 month update.  Eesh... Kid is now nearing the 10 month mark and I've already started planning for his first birthday!  Truly, where does the time go??  Here are a few pictures from the past few months of our little man.  He has grown like a weed and is already surpassing his sister's one year weight by leaps and bounds.  Kellan is ALL boy, and I couldn't love him more.  I wish there were more pictures of Callie, but she is a two year old FULL of personality and energy who loathes standing still for more than .5 seconds...

~*~ 5 months ~*~

"What an incredible month it has been! We went on our first family vacation and you experienced the beach for the very first time. You're a wonderful sleeper and eater and have become so alert and love to interact with us. Those dimples are going to be the death of me! Same with your cheeks and lashes. You are SUPER talkative and love when we sing to you or put our faces right by yours. You are definitely my snuggle bug and LOVE to be held and played with. Unfortunately you had your first illness this month, but you battled through it like a trooper. We love you Kellan!"

 

 

~*~ 6 months ~*~

"Your smile brightens every room and those baby blues melt me completely. You LOVE to snuggle and Mommy hopes you always will. You are still a quiet little guy unless you get excited and then the whole world can hear your happy squeals. Callie is the ONLY one who can get you to belly laugh. You love her more than anything. We started solids this week and your little shiver after each bite makes us giggle. We adore you, more than ever, Kellan!"

~*~ 7 Months ~*~

 "You're such a relaxed little guy, full of smiles, fun sounds and LOTS of snuggles. You adore your big sister, and she adores you fully in return. We are so proud of how big and healthy you've become! At 16 and 1/2 pounds no one would ever know you were nearly two months early! We love you so much Bubba!!!"

 

~*~ Eight Months ~*~

"You're the most chill little dude, Kellan! Your favorite place to be is in mommy's arms snuggled up and smiling, you adore Callie (no surprise there) and eat food like a champ. Right now your favorite foods are pears and green beans/carrots. You've mastered sitting up by yourself and have even started scooting, but you HATE being on your belly, so crawling isn't in the near future. We think you'll just go straight to walking! This month you'll experience your first Thanksgiving and we cannot wait to start new traditions with you, Little Man. We adore you and are so thankful for your health and your sweet life. "

 

~*~ Nine Months ~*~

"You love to babble and are an expert with saying "Mama" and "Dada." You scoot everywhere, but haven't shown much interest in crawling yet. You'll do it when you're ready! We love watching the way you explore the world around you, always watching, always taking things in. You continue to adore your sister and are particularly loving this new season of Christmas. The lights and the wonder have a way of lighting up your beautiful blue eyes. Still no teeth for you, but mommy isn't complaining since you still nurse like a champ. You adore food of all kinds, especially chicken/potatoes and pears, or anything with carrots. We love you little man! "

That pretty much catches us up to now! Our Christmas was such an incredible, magical time for our family this year.  Watching it through their eyes has been like nothing I've ever felt before.  They are so full of wonder and excitement with each light, present and new kind of food.  Here are a few of the pictures from the holiday.

 

 

One of my few New Year's Resolutions for 2015 is to make some time for blogging at least once a week, so hopefully I'll be seeing y'all shortly for more fun with the Morgans!  Thank you for hanging in there with me during my leave of absence, I'm looking to many more great memories yet to be made in the coming days and months!  Happy New Year!!!!  

Kellan Joshua - 4 Months

So I realize this post is a tad late considering little man will be 5 months this week, but as I've always said, better late than never! 

 

You are ALL boy, full of stinky smells, silly sounds and are really packing on the pounds! Your favorite thing is to lay on the couch and watch the ceiling fan, you'll talk to it and laugh at yourself... it's ADORABLE!! We've been blessed with another great sleeper, most nights you're sleeping 8-10 hours! HALLELUJAH! This month you even rolled from your tummy to your back... So many changes! We love you Bubba!

 

Weight: 13 lbs, 13 oz

Height: 24 inches

Head circumference: 40.5 cm

Percentile: 25th (combined)

Eating schedule:  You're nursing every 3-4 hours for 8-20 minutes. 

Sleep:  Holy moly have you become an incredible sleeper!  Naps during the day are usually about 2 hours long and there is typically one in the morning and one in the late afternoon.  I haven't gotten you on a strict schedule yet, but I'm trying. :)  You're also sleeping 9-12 hours at night which is a total blessing!!!!!

Favorite things: You've become a lot more social and love talking to anyone who will put their face next to yours.  Your neck control is much better and you love spending time in your baby Einstein jumper.  Hands down, though your favorite thing is a ceiling fan.  You can sit and talk to the fan in the living room for hours, just smiling and cooing away at it.  Super adorable. 

Milestones: Much more alert and are responding to certain people with smiles and lots of funny faces.

Clothing/Diaper size:You're wearing 3 month clothes for the most part with some 0-3 from Old Navy still fitting really well.  Size 2 diapers.  

 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this month!  I love you Kellan!!!! 

 

 

 

 

Summer Meal Planning with Pinterest

It's been an incredibly busy Summer so far; full of family, friends and lots of FUN!  Lately, Josh and I have developed an awesome new way of planning our weekly meals and it has really helped save my sanity!  

Every Sunday we sit down together and pull up my Pinterest board with meals we want to try (most of them we've tried and LOVED and just keep there for reference).   As we finish discussing the schedule for the week ahead, we find the meals we're craving and put them on a day.  Next we pull the ingredients needed for each meal (plus the house staples) and create a shopping list with them.  This has helped save us some money because we are buying for specific meals, no more, no less.  It has made meal planning a breeze and completely eliminates the "what do you want for dinner tonight?" convo that every married couple dreads.  

Here are some links to our most favorite meals as of late!

Oven Baked Chicken Tacos

Chicken Pesto Sandwich (DROOLING)

Pizza Nachos

Garlic Lemon Parmesan Oven Roasted Zucchini

I've also had quite the sweet tooth lately... but losing these last 5 lbs is something I'm bound and determined to do, so what is a gal to do?   I pull recipes off of my dessert board and bake, bake, bake. Here's the kicker though; 95% of each batch I send to work with Josh.  I get to try out some of those recipes I've been drooling over for the past year without getting stuck with the massive amount of calories I'd inhale if they stayed lying around the house all week.  This week I sent off a festive Fourth of July candy bark that was SCRUMPTIOUS.  I posted a pic to my instagram page (@NickiLynne15) and had several requests for the recipe, so here it is! 

Fourth of July Candy Bark

Before I go I also wanted to share these absolutely adorable creations I've been working on this week!  I've been dying to order some leather moccasins for Kellan but just can't seem to justify spending the big bucks for them when I know his little chunk feet will soon be too big.  SO, what is a crafty mom to do?  Figure out an alternative!  I found a pattern for some baby booties and LOVE how they turned out.  I think they're a GREAT alternative to the moccs... for now! These are available for purchase on my Facebook Shop page if you're interested!

DIY Sequin Bow Headband

Spring cleaning was in full force at my house this past month.  Josh and I had accumulated so many articles of clothing that our closet was bursting at the seams and we weren't even wearing HALF of the clothes in there.  We knew it was time for our annual purge and over Memorial Day weekend we finally took the plunge.  I decided that if it hadn't been worn it in a year it was time to donate.  While cleaning I stumbled upon this little beauty and took a stroll down memory lane to a life pre-children, pre-mommy.  I bought this dress as a Halloween costume back when my body was just a tad bit tighter and tried to pass myself off as a disco ball.  What was I thinking?! 

Well, I'm a typical woman; completely and utterly attracted to anything that glitters and couldn't bring myself to throw it out.  Instead I decided to do a little up-cycling.  I have been seeing these deliciously sparkly bow headbands everywhere these days and decided to give it a go for myself... Here are my step-by-step instructions for those of you who would like to try, too!  

What you'll need:

- Pre-mommy sparkly dress (or any sequin material)

- Black jersey knit material

- Scissors

- Hot glue gun

- Sewing machine

- Sewing thread 

- Rotary cutter (optional)

- Cutting mat (optional)

I took my dress and did a little surgery using fabric scissors.  Turning it inside out I cut the sequin material from the black jersey material.  

Next I cut the sequin material into a 10" x 7" rectangle.

 

Next you'll take the black jersey material and cut it 5" x "17 (or however long you're needing to fit) Callie is 2 years old and the material stretches quite a bit, this fit her perfectly.  

I also cut a piece of sequin material 2" x 4" (not pictured) to act as the center of the bow.  Next you'll take your pieces to the craft table to glue and sew...

Taking your large sequin rectangle, fold the bottom up to the center (right side down).  Add a strip of hot glue to the edge and fold the top down to meet in the center. 

Turn the material vertically (so it looks like an I) and repeat the last step; fold the bottom up to the middle, glue across and then fold the top down to meet it in the center.  It will now look like this (the back of the bow).

Put this aside and grab the black jersey material.  Using your sewing machine and a zig-zag stitch sew the right sides together straight down lengthwise.  

Turn right side out. 

And now sew the ends together. I used blue thread for a visual, but of course, you'll use matching thread.

Using the smaller sequin material, glue the long edges together right side down.  You'll now have these three pieces :

 

Turn the larger sequin piece right side down and pinch length wise in the middle so that when you turn it around it looks like this (are you starting to see the bow?):

 Then using your glue gun and the smaller sequin piece, attach it to the middle of your bow (nice and tight!)

Now all you have to do is attach it to your black jersey headband.  You can also use your choice of elastic if you so choose.  I think it would look adorable on some black glitter elastic, too! You can either hot glue it to the headband or sew it on.  I choose to sew mine just to make it a little more sturdy.  Then put it on your little model and snap away!  

 

And that's it!  Pretty simple, right?!  I LOVE that it was an up-cycle.  There is still plenty of material left for other projects, too. My brain is just twitching at all of the possibilities... I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, feel free to comment with any questions as well!  And don't forget to stop by and "LIKE" my Facebook and Etsy pages, too.   Happy crafting! If you like it, please consider pinning it!