Big 30 Floral and Rose Gold Birthday

This party was put together for my sister in law, who was turning 30. All the inspiration was from pinterest and picked out by my mother in law. I just helped put it together and decorated the cake table. All the decor was purchased on Amazon which was Table cloths, cake toppers, balloons, cheers to 30 years sign and Mylar rose gold 30 balloons.  Cakes were from Publix and my Mother in law decorated them with fresh flowers and cake toppers from Amazon.

I ended up wrapping the hoop in gold table cloth from Five Below, because the weather wouldn't let me spray paint.  I hot glued it in sections then hot glued the balloon strip after I added big balloons to it.  I purchased greenery and flowers from dollar store and Walmart.

Thanks to the hubs for helping set up and to my father in law who came up with the hanging device for the hoop. 

Hope you enjoyed this post.
God Bless,
Lea

Girls Lego Themed Party

This party was for our daughter. After our kiddos turn 4 or 5 we usually stop doing parties and take them on trips instead, but since the last 2 years had been very crazy and busy with our toddler. We decided our awesome girl needed to have another cool and awesome party to celebrate how awesome she really is.

We chose to have it at home because she really wanted to rent this super big obstacle course and decorate it with Lego's everywhere. We told her we couldn't do the obstacle course she wanted and told her we were just getting a smaller one. Since she took that very well. We ended up surprising her with the super big one anyways .

For Favors she wanted to do Lego's. So we went to Walmart and the dollar store and stocked up on girly colors for the girls and boy colors for the boys. I bought this printable favor tag and put them in zip lock baggies and they looked so stinking cool. We also made some cheap goodies bags in white and added some key chains and lego bracelets from oriental trading company.

For food she wanted pizza so we ordered pizza. My Mom made chicken salad sliders and macaroni salad for the adults. Cake and cupcakes were from publix. We also made lego brick candy from a mold to decorate table and to do as Mommy and daughter time..

For entertainment we did building legos, a minute to win it cup staking game, and the obstacle course.

For decor I went with orientals trading companies girly lego themed brick cups,  plates, silverware, candy and backdrop pictures. I had my daughter make lots of the lego decoration and also showcased lots of her lego creations.  We wrapped lots of boxes in gift wrap to make the big fake color bricks on the cake table. I also made 2 balloon arches that she wanted.  I also went with plastic tablecloths and table skirts from Walmart. Kept all decor under $100 goodie bags were about $50 for 13 kids. Cake and cupcakes $40 and pizza $50.. All and all pretty affordable. The most costly thing was the obstacle course but kids and adults got to enjoy it for hours. She had a blast and that's why we love doing these parties..

Well I'll just upload the pictures.  I will put links up later for all the cool stuff we purchased.

God Bless,
Lea

Floral First Birthday

When our little girl turned one.  I knew i wanted to do something with florals.  I had pinned so many beautiful floral girl birthdays, after we knew that we were having a girl. Since having her was a true miracle from God.  We wanted her first birthday to be special and beautiful. 

I usually start planning at least 6 months in advanced, but we had some things come up. So I ended up planning this one with only 2 months to go before the party.  So I really didn't get a chance to incorporate everything I initially wanted to do. I also knew I wanted to incorporate balloon arches and this party would be my first time doing them. 

Once I had my theme down.  I just went with some cute pink and blue boxes with the number 1 on them from oriental trading company. I just filled them with lots of dollar store favors . 

The entertainment was going to be an above ground pool but hubby decided against it. So we just did 2 big homemade slip and slides and made a PVC pipe changing station outside. Sorry like I said not much time to plan and less time to try and take pictures on the process of building it. You can get lots of ideas on pinterest for outside PVC cabana. 

The food was some nice yummy subs from Publix and the goodies were cakeballs, chocolate covered oreos, cup cakes, donuts and 2 beautiful cakes made by my friend.  We also did a little sundae making station. Since her birthday is in the summertime.

Other than that i just used alot of things i had on hand around the house or in my leftover parties stash.

 We also made some cute picture favors for each family to take home, with pictures from her 6 month photo shoot.  

Other things in the decor were her first year of pictures made into the number 1.

I printed pictures of her with all of the family and friends attending and hung it over the gifts to see right when they walked in.  I also hung up all the cards from her baby shower for everyone to see.  Since that day was such a special time for us. We wanted everyone to know we truly appreciate their time and gifts for baby Faith. 

So here goes the pictures. Please understand all pictures were taken on a phone. So forgive the poor lighting and quality.  Plus im using my phone to make this blog post and the site isn't alowing me to change the fonts and positioning.  So please forgive my layout for this post. 

 

             All prints were from etsy

          #1 birthday crown from etsy

Garland hanging on wall from Hobby lobby 

         3 tier stand from hobby lobby 

     Number one cake topper from etsy

    Rose cupcake toppers from Michaels

        Milestone frame from Michaels

   Boxwood balls from oriental trading

    Balloons for arches from party city

Gold number one mylar from oriental trading

Hope you enjoyed this post and please feel free to message me any questions. 

God Bless,

Lea 

Two-tti Frutti Birthday Party

Hello blogging world.  It has been a minute since I've had a chance to blog. Chasing around a toddler is no joke.  When planning parties, I tend to start getting ideas right after the holidays. Then I narrow it down and start purchasing the decor little by little. I pick favors first, then I start with cake table decor, then onto the guest tables. This party ended up being a lot of work and it cost a little more than we wanted to spend, but in the end it looked great and the kids had a great time. 

Here is our beautiful baby girls 2nd birthday.

Theme

Now on getting a theme for the party. That wasn't to difficult . We knew she loved fruits and we wanted to do something colorful and fun. Her first birthday was more lighter and floral (which i will share with you on another post). I found all my ideas on pinterest and I ran with it. So Two-tti frutti it was, since she was turning 2 after all!

Favors

I saw these cute watermelon slice favors on pinterest and I ran with it.  I also did the pineapple cups as goodies for the older kiddos to have. They were a lot of work and  took me over 2 months and many hours to complete them, but they were a big hit with the kids. I even made empty ones to decorate the tables. Now I really wanted to take pictures of the step by step, but i never got around to it.  I purchased a big pack of paper dinner plates, cut them in half, hot glued them to where the bottom had an opening , and then stuffed them with goodies. I bought fruit mini notebooks, stickers and erasers from Oriental trading and some other dollar store goodies added shredded paper, then started closing them and decorating them. I will provide a link to where i got the idea to make them. 

watermelon slice favors

Cake and Goodies

I ended up going with cupcakes, fruit shaped cake pops and a small smash cake instead of a big cake due to the cost of the party and ordered some really cute fruit cookies from a local baker . Then I made little shooters out of  different fruit flavors and jello out of different fruit flavors.  They all were a hit and I will share the recipe links with you for the shooters.

pineapple shooters recipe

strawberry shortcake shooters recipe

Outfits

This year I wanted to really tie in the whole look and have us all in coordinating outfits. So we could take some really cute family pictures.  On the day of the party we literally took not one entire family picture. I had asked a photographer friend of mine to capture the day, but she was unable to attemd   I was really sad about that, but we did all coordinate. I will share where we got her super cute fruit dress.

Entertainment

Every kids party. We really try to focus on the kiddos coming and really do something fun for all ages. Since her birthday is in the summer. We went with a rainbow water slide and I made some skeeball games for the little ones to play inside. I did not get many pictures of them.

Food 

We didn't get to take any pictures of the food, but we served tuna slider, chicken sliders and turkey and cheese sandwiches for the kids. My Mom made them on dinner rolls from Costco. They were so stinking good. Thanks Mom!

So here goes all the party pictures. I'll try and link all the stuff I bought down below the pictures.

Fruit Mylar balloons:  Amazon $30

Fruit  table cloth on cake table Walmart $39

Strawberry pinata: Walmart $19

Prints on candy table: etsy 

Big banner: etsy $40

Fruits behind cake table: free printable found on pinterest https://www.minted.com/julep/2015/06/08/diy-fruity-party-printables/

Fruit cups i made form clear cups from Amazon and then fruit printouts also from amazon  double sided taped total cost $30 for over 75 cups

Fruit plates and napkins : Amazon $20 for 12

Fruit garland on gift table : amazon $20

Colored straws :amazon $9 for 100

Balloons on arch: Walmart

Pineapple favor cups:Amazon $20 for a dozen

Favor tags : etsy they coordinated with the invitation 

Drink containers actually had fruits on the front : five bellow $5 each

Fruit table cloths on guest table: party city $2.50 each they only have them during the summer but oriental trading has similar ones now

Fruits on the chairs and wall near guest table: Dollar store in the teachers section $2

Cupcakes and cake pop: chiquis sweet cakes

Fruit cookies: baked_by_cookie https://www.intagram.com/baked_by_cookie

Green plates: Amazon $10 for 3-12 packs

Red cutlery: Dollar store

Fruity dress: etsy $49

Fruit bathing suit and watermelon bib : buybuybaby bib suit from Marshall's

Cupcake fruit toppers: amazon $10

Hope you enjoyed this party!!

God bless,

Lea

Tips To Make Breast Feeding and Pumping Easier and Why I Became an Exclusive Pumper

The topic of breast feeding. Its an easy topic for some and then a rather rough emotional one for others. I am the rough emotional one and would like to share my experience with you and some tips that should make it easier for those who decide to try. A list will follow after the story

My Breastfeeding Story

Once I found out I was pregnant I knew right away that breastfeeding was what I wanted to do. I had breastfed my first daughter for 3 months and if it wasn't for the awful milk protein allergy I would have continued. I did not breastfeed with my second just because of my experience with my first, but I was determined to make it the third time around. Now I have had a breast lift in the past and had some sensitivity already and knew there was a chance my supply could be affected.

My daughter was born and right away after her birth we started breastfeeding. Yay.. I was super excited. Shortly though her latch was becoming super shallow. I'm guessing due to her tiny mouth but by the second day my nipples were cracked and I was crying at every feeding. Now on the second day babies start to cluster feed every 2 hours and they do not stop. She was on my breasts for over 22 hours non stop feeding. I had no sleep and was totally exhausted and was not ready for that at all, but I continued to push through. 

On the fourth day we were at home and the pain just got worse. I tried ice packs, breast milk and lanolin, nothing helped. So I decided to start pumping and give my nipples a break. I pumped for about 3 days and would try and put her back on the breast but every time she would just latch so shallow and take in just the nipple. I couldn't take the pain anymore. So after only 1 week of breastfeeding I became an "exclusive pumper". This truly was upsetting for me. I felt like a failure and I cried for about a week. Not that the hormones didn't help the matter at all. I especially would cry when I would spill some milk. Hint the term " crying over spilled milk"  I dropped one 6 ounce bottle on the floor and cried for an hour. Then the next day another 4 ounce bottle and cried another hour. My husband thought it was funny and then quickly realized it truly upset ted me, so he tried to console me. I became very upset with pumping, I truly hated it. Trying to bottle feed an infant for about 30 minutes, then burp them and change them every 2-3 hours and then pump for about 30 minutes on top of that became exhausting. So I decided to start dropping some sessions after my milk had come in. At the time I was over producing anyways. So I started with my midnight session then after a week I dropped my 6 am session.

Two weeks into exclusive pumping I had already had multiple clogged ducts and ended up getting mastitis at 3 weeks in. Boy was this pumping getting tough. I then decided to start dropping more sessions. Right around this time my baby started having mucus in her poo. So the doctor thought it was milk protein allergy and recommended a special formula. So we started introducing formulas. We had gone through 3 before we had very little mucus. At this point she had extremely horrible gerd and I then decided to go on a dairy soy free diet and continue to pump and give her half my milk and half formula each day. I was pumping at that point only 3x a day and my amount per session had dropped. I tried increasing my supply but due to her reflux and my crazy schedule just could not keep up with eating the right amount of food i'd need to make more milk. So I decided at 3 months in to just stop pumping all together. 

Now through all of this chaos I learned a lot of things that had I had known prior would have helped me tremendously. So below I am going to share them with you. I am not a professional at all and these are just suggestions.

1. Be prepared to pump: invest in a really good pump even if it cost you more. Most insurances cover a pump but you are limited on what they do cover. I went with the Medela but after seeing the Ameda would have chose that one instead because it was better for exclusive pumpers. If your little one only prefers one breast or doesn't fully empty your breast you will need to pump after so a pump is necessary. Get a portable pump if going to pump only. Because those darn tubes are really short and you will be confined to a small area if you get the mobile one you can at least move around while pumping.
2. Make a designated pumping station: This I did do and it helped me a lot. Get a spot where you will be comfortable. Mine was in my bedroom and I used my nightstand to put the pump on. 
3. Make a pumping basket: I also did this and you will add to it as your needs go up. I started with my breast pads, extra sterilized storage bottles, hand sanitizer, napkins, tv remote and snacks.
4. Go to a lactation meeting before due date: This was something I never got around to doing and thought because I had researched a lot of other blogs that I would be ok. But no, I suggest going and watch the other moms. How do they hold the babies what are their tricks to getting the baby to latch. How long do they nurse, etc. Because once baby is here it will be very difficult for you to get out of the house.
5. Store up on food: This I did not do because my husband promised to go food shopping every week, but the amount of food I needed to eat once pumping was ridiculous it would have helped us financially if I had stored up on the foods a couple months before. Here is a list of foods I suggest: Oatmeal, crackers, granola bars, frozen meals, cereal, bagged almonds, etc. You need to eat at least 500 more calories a day so you need to eat and you need to drink a lot of water. I f you don't you will not make a lot of milk and can affect your supply tremendously. So eat and stock up on what you will like to eat.
6. Hire a cleaning company: I highly suggest this and I did not invest in this until 2 months after my daughter was born and the dust was so bad that it was affecting her and I was going nuts trying to clean everyday and getting nothing done. We found a local company to dust, clean our bathrooms and floors all green cleaning as well for $60 a week. Its well worth it for me she even makes our beds and folds any clothes that are out.. 
7. Get a designated daily helper: This is the biggest help and I know is the hardest to do.Make sure you have help the first 2 days in hospital even if its to just change diapers because you will be feeding that baby round the clock. My hubby had agreed to be mine, but after a week he ended up having more side jobs and not being here at all.Plus he first 2 nights in hospital he could not stay awake past midnight. Which I was paging my nurse every hour for water and snacks. She even had to feed me twice. lol Now the helper is not for the baby, but for you. My mom got mad at me because she came one day to help and wanted to take the baby, but I wanted to try and breastfeed her and needed her to help get me food and water while I was breastfeeding . Now if you are breastfeeding this is a must because you will be feeding the baby with no free hands and will need to be eating a lot especially while feeding the baby. So make sure your helper knows what they will be doing. I will never forget my hubby and daughter left one day while I was breastfeeding and he tried calling me and I could not reach my phone or my water. I did not want to taker her off because it was hard getting her to latch properly to begin with. Man was it stressful.This will be the key to you getting pass the first month. If my hubby had did what he promised I probably would still be breastfeeding or at least pumping. lol
8. Get as much sleep as you can the last 3 weeks of your pregnancy: This is crucial and very necessary for breastfeeding success. I know those last weeks are full of anticipation which makes sleeping hard, but get sleep because if your going to breastfeed it is exhausting and taxing on you physically. I did not do this and my hubby was not much help in this department as he works a very physically exhausting job which leaves him exhausted by 10 pm and I was left alone to fend for myself while having had no sleep the week before I gave birth especially after giving birth. I gave birth totally natural and was exhausted after and did not get any sleep............

Thank you for visiting and I pray this helps you.....

God bless,

Lea

Nursery Reveal and Our Beautiful Baby Girl Faith

Here it is finally!!

Our Nursery Reveal

We started the nursery when I was around 5 months pregnant. I originally wanted a navy room or a baby pink room. My husband hated the idea of both colors. So to get him more involved I agreed on letting him pick out the paint color. Now this room was originally my oldest daughters room. She has recently moved in with her father. When I originally found out I was pregnant we were going to sell our house ad get a 4 bedroom So all of our children would have their own room. Our rooms in our house are pretty small one is 10x10 and the other is 9x10. Since my oldest moved out we decided to use her room and stay in this house for a little while longer. I decided to change the room color because it kept making me miss my oldest daughter.  Plus it took my mind off of her no longer being here.. I know sad right? 

Well since my hubby picked out this sea foam green. I had to change my original color schemes. So to pinterest I went while he was painting.... 

Most of my pictures were taken via my phone and the professional ones were taken by my friend Sam from CourtneyStudios.com.

before

After

We also painted the fan back to white..

I ended up liking the Gold, baby pink, coral, turquoise, white and fuchsia color scheme..

First I spray painted some lamps I originally had in a brass color, gold. Tutorial to follow later. Here they are below still brass..

Then was the dresser color. I went with Benjamin Moore color: Coral Buff. Tutorial to follow later.

Then I bought all my picture frames to do the picture wall from Ikea. Here is the wall finished.

Then  I purchased some quotes from paper and palettes on etsy to put in the frames..

Then I purchased her name in wood from craft cuts.com and spray painted white the font is Almibar it was 7 inch tall.

The shelves I had already had and actually made a post about. They are from Ikea and brackets are spray painted Gold.

Her bed was a gift from the in laws it's the Davinci crib from Jenny Lind and Linens were from Caden Lane

The bed and side table are from Ikea

Here is our infant shoot and pictures of the completed Nursery taken by Sam @ Courtneystudios.com

 

Thank you for visiting and a big Thank you to Sam @ courtneystudios.com

God Bless,

Lea