Five on Friday - the last of August

August just seriously flew right by.  We spent our month soaking up all the new baby goodness, celebrated our 10 Year Anniversary, a broken collarbone, a trip to Disneyland, and Ellie's Open House for KINDERGARTEN!!  Tomorrow will begin September and then we can all truly start enjoying All Things Fall while we're weeping in sorrow that Summer is Over 😩

::ONE::

How is he already 1 month old?  I can't get over how cute he is.  I mean we made him (technically the embryologist did that) and we couldn't be more in love.  Our hearts have multiplied tremendously and I am so thankful that he is finally here, our sweet Rainbow 🌈  He is 21.5" tall, weighs 8lbs 6oz, makes the most adorable grunting sounds, loves to nurse all day long, sleeps long stretches at night, and wears size 1 diapers.

::TWO::

Ellie had her open house at her school this week and seeing her run around the playground, making new friends, and meeting her teachers!  It was so fun to see her walk the halls of the school (well, one of the schools) I used to teach at and one of my former cheerleaders is a teacher there so she's going to keep tabs on Ellie for me 😉

::THREE::

I've mentioned oils on here over the years and I honestly cannot tell you how much they have changed our lifestyle!! Ellie loves to help apply our Wellness roller not only to herself but to Thomas and myself.  Our diffuser's are going every night and our sleep has been so great, I even brought one to Disneyland with us and I've never slept so well in a hotel room.  We also have our diffuser's going throughout the day to support our immune systems as well as our emotional state and we've seriously had the best summer ever (Séamus has helped too).

I wanted to let you know that today is the last day to take advantage of my End of Summer promo, when you sign up (here) for a Premium Starter Kit I will send you a welcome package, just like I always do, but I will also send you a set of roller bottles and a bottle of Fractionated Coconut Oil so that you can start making roller's with your oils!!  In your welcome package you'll receive a recipe card for roller blends and diffuser blends!! 

Here is the breakdown of what comes in a PSK!!

::FOUR::

Finnley has been cracking me up lately. She is adjusting well to having a broken collarbone, we go in next week for another xray to check on the progress, and is still trying to do all the dangerous things.  But she has also really been into sunglasses.  She finds all the pairs we have around the house and puts them on (usually upside down) and then will push them up on her head like a headband.  She walks all around the house making a duck face and all we can do is laugh, which makes her day so she just keeps doing it.

::FIVE::

Like I said above, we love Diffusing our oils in our home.  I love that by using our diffuser's we are still getting some great scents in our home from the essential oils but eliminating the toxins that come with candles and we are supporting our health and emotions!!  Often times candles are scented with "fragrance" which is a chemical substance that has toxins which are released into the air when the candle is lit.  

Diffusing Essential Oils takes that out of the picture and you get so many great benefits!!  Often times I am diffusing for seasonal support or to keep the calm...because 3 kids.  But now we are approaching Fall which is when we all want to burn all the candles, so we have oils for that!!  When you Oil with me you'll get to have all sorts of resources at your fingertips, like these great diffuser blends!  So what are you waiting for? Come Oil with Me!!

♥ Ashley

In case you missed it:
a post all about Ellie
Séamus week 5
 

Oh Friday - October Vibes

I am in serious disbelief that October is nearly over.  I mean I guess I shouldn't be too surprised because when you pack you days full (by vacuuming everyday because of all the dog hair and cracker crumbs) and live life for a certain time of day, life tends to go by pretty quickly.  We've been making the most of our October and it really is one of our most favorite months of the year.

ONE

We've started on a pretty crazy journey this month! We are trying our very last option to having a biological baby...yep that's right we're doing IVF!! It's all been moving so quickly - which is good because it hasn't really given me time to think about it all 😉 but also that we're getting that much closer to the end of this chapter.  IVF was in the talks before we adopted Ellie but our desire to become parents was too strong for the gamble of IVF not to mention my mental/emotional health was really thin.  So here we are 7 years, 2 daughters and one fallopian tube down and we are giving science a go.

one of many blood draws

all my meds

injection training

my nightly dose of injections

I first met with our doctor in the middle of September, then we went to Disneyland and I started on birth control, then I went in for a couple of uterine scans and blood tests when we came back from the Happiest Place on Earth.  Then it was time to go to my injections training and the arrival of a huge box of stimulation meds that I have to inject myself with 2 meds every night at the same time and starting this morning I have to add in a morning shot as well.  I've had some more blood tests and ultrasounds and everything is looking pretty normal.  I've been giving myself shots for 5 days and it's actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be...but I guess my morning injection is the real kicker so we'll find out about that in a couple of hours.

TWO

We've been hitting up the Pumpkin Patches pretty hard this month and I don't hear anyone complaining.  Our first visit was to the farm stand we've gone to the past 3 years, then the girls and I went to another local patch for Ellie's school field trip, then we went to a U-Pick patch on our favorite island that was completely empty and we paid on the honor system into their wooden pay box (gotta love country life), and then finally I went back to the local patch with the girls for the last nice day of the week!  I don't know what it is about all those pumpkins but they make my heart go pitter patter and I love that Ellie and Finnley love them too.

she picked the biggest pumpkin in the patch

THREE

Ellie comes home from school with the cutest assignments.  She is excelling so much more than I thought she would and I love that she is doing so well in Pre-K.  We tend to butt heads pretty hard at home when it comes to working on our letters or numbers but since school has started she has really acquired a zest for learning and actually wants to do her "schoolwork" with me!! Her school work is actually just those workbooks we picked up at Costco a few months back and she does so good with them.  I am so impressed and know that she is in the right place for her.  But seriously all her school work she comes home with is the sweetest...I'm keeping it all (because I'm a borderline hoarder apparently) and got a filing box to store it all in her closet.

FOUR

Finnley turned 18 months last week and she is all sorts of adorable.  She is running around everywhere, climbing on all the things, and has multiple meltdowns throughout the day.  Finn is totally hilarious and makes the goofiest of faces.  She doesn't have very many words "Mama" and "Dada" are the most decipherable but she also says "Ella" for Ellie, "Milmil" in a very forceful tone for milk and "Ama ama" for animal crackers or just about any other kind of snack, and "woowoo" to make a car sound, and most recently she's started to say "uhoh".  She is constantly making faces and moves her tongue all around (and can roll her tongue) and makes all sorts of noises, so talking may be in her near future.  

Other notes about this sweet girl she has 16 teeth, is 33" tall and can suck down a pouch in under 3 seconds.  Her favorite things are cell phones, tv remotes, and all the breakable things 😒. Finnley now loves the bath and comes running when she hears me turn on the faucet, loves to splash and wash her hands in the dog water sink and is still very unsure of the goats.  She loves to help clean up (putting toys in baskets 🙌 but also loves to shove all of her food off of her high chair when she's all done.  She throws herself on the floor multiple times a day in true toddler tantrum fashion and gets so mad about stuff but then in 1 second she's running around and a bowl full of laughter.  She gives her emotions hard and has started kissing us and just thinks its the best ever, I do too!

FIVE

I dropped my phone the other day 🙀 which isn't anything out of the ordinary except for the fact that it cracked my phone...so it's going to cost $150 to get fixed or if I wait a few months (which I can) I'll have paid off more of the phone [we have the iPhone forever plan] and only have to pay back 1/2 of what I owe for the upgrade.  The crack isn't horrible, it just barely missed my camera (thank God!!) so I think I'll be fine with the crack for a while.  Anyways I had to take it to the mall to find out from the Apple store how much it was to replace and then to Sprint to find out what my options were and I happened upon H&M...seriously you guys they have the cutest things in right now for Halloween.  I couldn't help myself and I picked up this skirt and this top and then I saw this skirt and this top (similar, for mamas)...thankfully I have two girls so we can use these for a couple of years! And now I've looked online and I can't get over all their other cute stuff...why have I never shopped here before???

Have a happy weekend...I'll be busy waiting for my alarms to go off to give myself injections and head into the clinic for another ultrasound.

♥ Ashley

be sure to check out these posts:
the best ever Pumpkin Dessert
the best ever Pancakes
the Sugar Goblin

Fri-YAY: the one with lunch dates, a monthday and a trip to the ER

Oh hey there Friday! I am so glad you're here.

First things first, it's my sweet Finnley girls 1 monthday today...how has she already been a part of our family for a whole month?? I'm figuring out her monthly photo and I'm thinking I need to ride on Karra's coattails and use some flowers, because if you know me then you know I am all about the florals.

Let's get on to this Friday Five thang.

ONE

I feel like I've got this mama of two thing down, and we went out for our very first lunch date solo yesterday!  We went to Panera and let me tell you...we had a great time.  I wore Finnley in my new sling wrap and it worked great (heaven knows that infant car seats are the bane of my existence) and Ellie was a rock star.  Also she was basically diaper free the whole day - with no accidents!

TWO

You gotta love that farm life.  One of our favorite things to do around the farm is to drive the truck in the pasture...Ellie likes to help steer (she is terrible at it) but also enjoys being in the front seat (we only go 2 mph)  We drove the hay out the Ragtime and Ellie loved sticking her head out the window telling Rags to eat her food!

THREE

I mentioned earlier this week that we had to make a trip to the ER.  Little Miss Ellie tried to climb the gate into Ragtime's Paddock and she got bopped on the head by the horses mouth...she got two little wounds that needed some medical care (glue and a staple).  She did a fantastic job and was so interested in everything that the doctors and nurses were doing.  I cannot even tell you how proud I am of her, she was so calm, brave, and polite.  She kept saying thank you to the staff and was just overall a great girl.

FOUR

One of my most favorite things in our yard are our Snowball Viburnum bushes that the previous owners planted.  I can't get over how big they have gotten and they bloomed so early this year.  I had to make sure to snap a picture before they were done blooming and they were so full this year too!!

FIVE

Finally I have totally gotten into the who Snapchat thing (@Alifeonthefarm) and my favorite thing are all the filters.  I seriously go on it everyday to just play with the filters and here is my favorite one...the beauty filter - why can't this just be my real life??? 

HAPPY FRIDAY Y'ALL!!!

♥ Ashley