Spring favorites

I'm still not shopping in light of Lent and it's been pitifully hard! Here's some pretty pieces for Spring! It's all about easy breezy lightweight and colorful items.

Everything Oldnavy, pink skirt-Anthro, mint jeans and bag-jcrew

You don't want to miss this giveaway {Sweet Praises}

I'm sharing some amazing favorites of mine from Sweet Praises today plus a gorgeous giveaway.  Sweet Praises is a wonderfully inspiring shop filled with items you will love and treasure, promise.
Check out their refreshingly different home items, uniquely personal stationary, and treasures for little ones too! 

Take a look at my favorites:

Perfect for hosting loose jewelry on top of a dresser.

Love this necklace and such a powerfully simple message.

Such a refreshing take on a cross necklace.

This might be my favorite item, I adore the antique look and every home needs angel wings, don't you think?!

Perfectly in time for that Easter gathering!

You could easily teach your children the story of Noah with this beautifully crafted toy.

And here's the giveaway from Shawn we've selected with you sweet ladies in mind, 10 flat notes inscribed with, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." And the cherry on top....fuchsia lined envelopes.

Giveaway Rules:

1. Simply visit Sweet Praises and subscribe {enter your email address at the bottom of their home page}

2. Comment here on Johns Journal telling me your favorite item.

Winner will be announced this Saturday, Good Luck!

I can't get this out of my head

Yesterday I heard a sermon and a verse that I just can't get out of my head, it really should be my life verse. John 3:30,"He must increase, but I must decrease." 

I was one of the rare girls growing up that didn't struggle with insecurities I erred on the other side of the spectrum, ugly pride. Since God blessed me with athletic talent I was often at the top of the podium winning medals and awards. While this is a great self-esteem booster as a child, it has been my detriment as an adult. Trust me its not pretty! Just when I think I'm in the clear, tricky pride sneaks in and wants all the credit when truly it should go to Him.

Favorites Friday: Colors & parties

Its hard to drive straight these days because of all the beautifully colored trees on the side of the road! Looking forward to this weekend, how bout you? We are attending a baby shower and a birthday party, I love celebrating life's moments with a party!

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Perfectly pink bedroom

I like this dining room too

Cardboard box birthday party

And a pretty office

Happy party weekend!

The power of spiderman pjs

Many many months ago, I bought G a pair of spiderman pj's to my chagrin after much begging at the store. I hate when he begs and even more when I relent. Anyway, no sooner do we get home and he refuses to wear them, says he's too afraid. Huh? I'm so confused, but it's not the first time I've been confused as a parent! I do understand fear very clearly and will no way make him wear them if he's afraid. 

Every now and then I sneak them out for him to wear pretending like he's not afraid or praying he's forgotten that feeling! But he remembers every time and quickly tucks them back in the drawer. Then yesterday, it happened. I pulled them out and he comes running out with them on, exclaiming, "Mommy, I'm not afraid anymore." I'm in shock thinking....just like that, huh? It was just a choice to him and just like that, I said to my fears, when husband is gone and its dark and I hear stuff in the night I'm not gonna be afraid either! Bam, take that fears.

The studio details and your opinions

I'm shooting to open my little dream studio/shed by the end of April! This my friends, will be one pimped out little shed, so exciting. The idea is to create a studio that offers so much more creativity, depth, and inspiration than the studio chains. Essentially my vision is use my love of interior design and translate that into a studio setting both in the actual studio itself and most of all the portraits. This whole gig started because of a few bad experiences I had at the mall chains, mostly just receiving average photos all while trying to keep my kid from running away into the mall! I'd love to hear any ideas and opinions you have on the matter such as what you would look for in a studio and any other tidbits you have for me pretty please. I've already had requests for a variety of backdrops and will by all means avoid the "pretend forest" and  variations of "neon swirl" you see in the school pictures!

The bottom row are backdrops that I fancy and the chairs and chaise will be used as props as well.

8 months old plus our Spring pictures

This was one of those rare times when the light plus location was just right. I found this little Spring flowering field right beside a busy road, but you would never know it by the looks of these pictures! Ha, fooled ya!

Boaz is moving right along at light speed I might add, two more teeth up top and standing on his own. I find myself losing him in the living room quite frequently, he's a quick one.

And yes I did bribe my children with an Easter egg hunt and candy to get these pictures, I highly recommend it!

Our un-vacation {North Carolina}

We started our little trip sick, both husband and I were fighting sinus infections and our 5 year old was coughing, but we pressed on nevertheless! It was a quick 2 hour drive to Great Wolf Lodge, which seriously blew me away. If you haven't heard of it, picture a huge hotel made for kids....huge indoor and outdoor waterpark, over-sized characters walking around, buffet line kid-sized, spa for little ones, and even daily story times. This place surpassed all my expectations. I couldn't get Gideon to even stop and eat, he played in the waterpark for almost 4 hours straight!

Literally within 2 minutes of pulling into this glorious hotel, we heard a loud pop with the sound of quick leaking air to follow. Flat tire. With my arms stretched out to the hotel I'm crying out, "let me out, please hubby just drop me off". Because he's awesome he lets me and the kids out while he goes and waits 3 hours at Walmart fixing one tire. Poor guy.

The next two days we enjoyed time with close friends, which I cherished every bit of conversation and fellowship. However, by the third day baby Boaz woke up with the distinct barking seal cough, so straight to urgent care we went to confirm my suspicion of croup. The next day we headed home, but despite our trip being cut short and the entire family's collective cough it was a treasured time. 

From this point on I will not call these adventures vacations, but trips because traveling with small kids feels nothing like a vacation, but definitely well worth the effort!

I barely broke out the camera, but here's some pictures captured with my iphone at Great Wolf and then with the fancy camera along a lovely riverfront feeding the animals!

Favorites Friday: Spring break

We're off this weekend to North Carolina with a stop at Great Wolf Lodge on the way, my 5 year old can barely contain himself. I plan to unplug, reconnect with friends, and take in some beach hopefully.

Should be fun times, be prepared to be flooded with pictures when we return!

Links:

Darling nursery

Must make these stat

Chicken, avocado, and bacon

See everyone Friday!

Spring family picture looks

I'm about to kick off spring family picture madness with 5 families booked! Whoop whoop, so excited. Around these parts the cherry blossoms are on the brink of blossoming and absolute beauty is about to ensue, particularly around the Washington D.C tidal basin. Family spring pictures are such a great idea and those blooms create the perfect backdrop. Here's some ideas for what the family can wear for their closeup!

mom-piperlime, kiddos-children's place, dad-bananarepublic

My number 1 goal this Spring

First on the to-do list for Spring is to grow a garden! Since my bit of luck last Spring/Summer with growing plants proved to be somewhat successful I'm hoping to do a box garden with fruits, veggies, and flowers. Now, I need all you green-thumbed people out there to send me your tips, pretty please!

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"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow"

-unknown

Pretty little life

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Were almost half way through our Revelation study and the last session was quite an awakening for me. Its  so easy for me to get comfortable in my pretty little life, meanwhile so many are without food, home, and clean water while I figure out which purse goes with my outfit. (ugggggh)

 A dear local friend of mine (a high schooler at that) is hosting a walk to raise money for a well in the Sudan, go here to get information on that walk in Fredericksburg, VA. And then on a more worldwide note, Humankind is partnering with Walmart to raise millions for clean water wells. All you have to do is go here to vote starting tomorrow to participate in providing clean water.

I have seen first hand the effects of third world poverty in Africa, India and the Philippines and its a sight you never forget. Lord, help me to remember daily that despite the daunting numbers we can still do something every day.

Favorites Friday: Marvelous light

There's been some pretty light outside lately, love capturing it! Yes, Spring you are welcome here.

The daffodils have bloomed and I couldn't be more thrilled. Up next, the cherry blossoms make their appearance and I plan on being in D.C to view that sight this year!

Some sunny links:

Staying out of God's way

This chicken looks good

A Spring shower

Have a Springy weekend!f

How to get your baby to sleep through the night {mostly}

{Boaz as a newborn}

So I"ve mulled over this post for quite some time now because I realize this topic opens a can of worms and if you don't believe me just google it! I'm willing to go there and share because of my terrible experience with getting my first kiddo to sleep. I beg you not to send me any mean comments or emails with reference to this topic, I"m merely sharing my experience with hopes to offer others relief! Also, I am not an expert on this topic, although I am a nurse I worked primarily with cardiac patients and have zero extra knowledge with babies and kiddos! And one more thing, keep in mind there's more than one way to get to Philadelphia, just like there's more than one way to decorate your house and cook chili.

Here we go....Before giving birth to my first child nobody and I mean nobody warned me about the lack of sleep or the challenges that teaching a child to sleep may hold. I just assumed they would know how to fall asleep and obviously sleep through the night like adults. There are lots of babies that do this all on their own, God bless them and their mothers, but unfortunately I do not grow that kind! My children tend to be very active, wide-eyed wonders who don't have time to sleep because they are much too busy discovering the world. {My mother said I was the same way!} So I tried everything with my first, I bought every book out there on sleep from babywise to no-cry to you name it. I even co-slept since we were nursing, which may have worked except he would wake up every 45 minutes to eat and that bought me zero rest. For napping, he would only nap on me so during those times I couldn't even answer the phone and honestly most of the time I napped too! By 5 months old I was ready to jump off a cliff and my husband had just deployed to Iraq. I'll never forget a dear friend running into me at subway and she merely asked how I was doing and I broke down in sobs, I mean the horrible ugly cry. So with my husband's encouragement and many friends I put him in his crib around 6-7 months let him cry and after three nights or so he finally put himself to sleep. But then just a couple months after that he climbed out of his crib and we were really back to square one! So I went back to nursing him in the middle of the night 1-2 times probably up until he was almost 2! Yes, craziness. My sleep patterns have been forever altered and I regularly took melatonin. Good news is putting him to bed now is a non-event. We read him books, say prayers, put the nightlight on and walk out. That fact has given me great hope because after everything he sleeps perfectly normal and we have no issues. But when you are a first time Mom stuck in the dreadful season of un-sleep, its hard to see the light at the end of tunnel.

Enter baby boy number two. I was determined to improve and not feel so hopeless. One of the secrets of getting your baby/child to sleep longer stretches is helping them to learn to self-soothe and put themselves back to sleep when they inevitably wake themselves up. By the way the definition of a baby sleeping through the night is 5-6 hour stretches. I threw out the idea of having my baby sleep all the way through the night like 8-10 hours because babies will be hungry especially if they are nursing. Also mine are typically on the small size and move a lot burning off calories quickly. I think its important to be realistic and manage expectations. One of the main problems with my first is every single mother would ask me if my baby was sleeping through the night and quickly brag how theirs did. This made me feel guilty, inadequate, and like a total failure. Why do women do this to each other?

So here's what I did with Boaz, he slept in our room in the pack-n-play until 3-4 months, then around that time I put him down for naps and bedtime in his crib while still awake. I put the white noise machine on and a little music player attached to the crib and waited to see what would happen. To my surprise and delight, he cried max 5-7 minutes and fell asleep. Now, if he did cry longer, I would go in pick him up, rock him and sing then put him back down. If you can take note of their tired cues and he also took a binky (paci) and could put it in his own mouth that was helpful. Again, lots of Mom's don't allow binkies, I sucked my thumb forever as a kid and don't have a problem with it. So at this point (7 months) he has slept through the night a handful of times, but mostly wakes up at least once and I feed him. He's in the 7% for weight so I don't mind giving him extra nourishment in the night. For naps he takes twice a day for 2 hours long each! I hear him wake up and he puts himself back down. So I basically took the best information from all those books and found a grove that worked for us. Babywise's feeding schedule was impossible for us, my baby needed to nurse more frequently because of reflux, but I do follow the general concept of scheduling naps or at least watching for those sleepy cues and putting him down at that time.

So to summarize, I started putting him down awake, but sleepy around 3-4 months, put the white noise machine on plus music maker and binkies available in the crib. I'm in such a better place than before and have found what works for us, hope this helps you in anyway!

I'm getting married {again}

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I'm getting married again to the same guy! Were thinking of renewing our vows on our 10th year anniversary (next summer). This time I plan on having more than one bite of my wedding cake, taking our time with pictures, having an outdoor ceremony in a vineyard with a backyard reception, and dancing the night away with children included! Sounds dreamy, right? Let the planning begin! I was inspired by this post and here's my renewing vows board on pinterest. 

"I am my beloved and He is mine" 

Song of Solomon 6:3

Two teeth & cruising {7 months}

I failed to get a picture of the two teeth on the bottom, but honestly its a miracle any of these were captured. He is fast and on the move. In pure desperation I resorted to tantalizing him with the sock monkey to look at the camera. Yep, sock monkey works every time.

Favorites Friday: chirping birds

The birds were seriously singing yesterday morning, I felt like I was in a cartoon, a really good one! Let me tell you how big of a skip in my step those birds gave me. It was a huge skip and will add a click of the heels jump too because its the weekend.

 Its take two for the photoshoot that didn't happen last weekend because of a stomach flu I didn't see coming! Add some well needed family time and I've got myself a perfect weekend. Hope yours is too!

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Baby food jars never looked so pretty

My favorite pasta

What a door

Have a lovely one!

I'm the worst at dressing little boys

We are attending my cousin's Spring wedding and you should have seen me scramble trying to figure out how to dress my boys. I'm seriously not good at it at all, of course all the antics that go with trying to dress my five yr old in things other than t shirts don't help. Thank God for stores like children's place that give you outfit ideas, what a relief!

My secret anecdote to winter blues {guesting at Rose 'alamode}

Head over to the sweet, inspirational and fashionable Linda's blog, Rose 'alamode where you'll find some colorful replies to winter blues!

Lent experiment

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I've never felt more ready to embrace the Lent season, which may sound odd but simply I'm looking forward to a time of intentionality. Frequently I feel swept by emotions and whims which typically leads to rash decisons particularly in areas of shopping and managing time! Hopefully by halting any shopping and focusing my time it will be a fruitful period of growth and faith renewal.

I plan on partaking in this 7:14 experiement challenge too, check it out.