The Wednesday Weekly - Week 21

This last week just flew by and here we are another Wednesday already. Which means our sweet Finnley is another week older.

Week 21

Eats: I have a confession, I've tried giving Finnley some solid foods, so far it's only been a couple of things: avocado and feta cheese. Finn seemed to like the feta cheese more. Other than that girlfriend is just eating formula, still around 24 ounces a day. 

Sleeps: so far this week we seemed to get her back on schedule with some longer naps. Girlfriend sure is particular when it comes to her sleeping environment, she likes it quiet and dark...much to my chagrin.  But I guess when you're a SAHM/WAHM you do what you gotta do to get those naps in. Thankfully she's still sleeping close to 10 hours at night...I'm really pulling for some 11-12 hour nights though, so if you want to send her the memo that would be great. 

Does: girlfriend is rocking it at tummy time and she can roll from tummy to her back and from her back to her side. We have also been working on building up her stomach muscles and practice sitting up...hopefully she'll get to that soon.

Goes: I took the babe to the children's museum with Ellie and my nanny kids, she loved just watching all the hustle and bustle with the kids. We also went out to dinner at one of our fave pizza places, took a visit to the State Fair, my dad came home from Jordan so we had a family dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and we loaded up the dogs for a trip to an off leash dog park (we loved it so much we went twice!)

Loves: her sister, fingers, toys, and blankets. She is a mamas girl and just loves to laugh and smile. She loves to be in the exersaucer (we finally picked it up from my brother, who was borrowing it) and just looking around at everything.  One thing that Finnley does NOT love is a bath and the lotion...maybe one day she will learn to like it.

Of Note: we are on our last few size 1 diapers and have a box of size 2, so I am thinking that those are probably going to fit a lot better.  Since the babe is so much bigger than Ellie was I am having to invest in some new clothes for her despite them being born in the same season.  So I took advantage of the Labor Day Sales and EBATES and got some great things for both of the girls wardrobes.  Additionally we got Finn a convertible carseat through Amazon since they were having an amazing deal and used both our Prime for free shipping and Ebates for cash back.  If you haven't heard of Ebates before it's the coolest thing for online shopping.  All you do is go to Ebates and sign up - it's totally free and then shop at all your favorite stores through the Ebates site and you'll get cash back on your purchases!! So not only did I get some killer deals shopping online this last week but I also got nearly $15 cash back from my purchases as well thanks to Ebates!  If you're not a member yet use my link here and I'll get a little bonus and you can get a $10 gift card too!!!

Mama: I love being a mama to two girls.  They both light up my life but Finnley's smile is everything right now!!  As school is starting back up I can't help but be reminded how happy I am that I have the opportunity to stay home with my girls and be present in their daily lives.  I am so grateful for this life!!

Sister: if you ask Ellie, Finnley is the best thing that has happened to our family.  Finnley receives 100's of kisses and hugs throughout the day along with nearly as many exclamations from Ellie saying "I love Finnley so much!".  It's seriously just the best.  I love that they have an affinity for each other and that I can nurture their relationship!!

♥ Ashley

Previous weeks:

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven
twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty 

Ellie at 21 weeks

Happy Forever Day Ellie!!

It's been 3 years since we became a legal family with Ellie.  Becoming a family in the legal sense is probably not something that most families even think of but it is the final step in the adoption process and allows the adoptive families to finally breath and let it all soak in.  Of course Ellie was ours in our hearts the moment we saw her but it wasn't until 3+ months late that she was recognized as our family member in the legal sense.  

I can tell you that these past three years have been the best years of our lives and we are so blessed to have Ellie in our lives.  This day is incredibly special to us and we look forward to celebrating as a family forever!!

Ellie is kind, sweet, loving, caring, nurturing, and hilarious.  I love her humor, her laugh, and all of her silliness.  I love her love for her sister, our family, our animals, and just about everything else.  She is honestly the Best Ellie in the World, and we are so grateful to call her ours!!

♥ Ashley

Previous Forever Days

2013

2014

2015

The Wednesday Weekly - Week 20

It's hard to believe that we are at 20 weeks. That just blows my mind! Little or I should say not so little Finnley is growing, smiling, and had a bit of a rough week, but I think we've rounded the bend and she's on to a better attitude. 

Week 20

Eats: y'all I am <> this close to wanting to start feeding her solids!! (actually I tried an avocado the other day...she just spit it right out) but I know that we will probably start a bit sooner than we did with Ellie, here's to hoping miss thang starts sitting on her own pretty soon.  She is still just on formula and taking in around 24 ounces or more a day. She is more of a cluster feeder and can go pretty long stretches between feedings but then wants to eat a lot while other times she just wants a light snack, it's hard to gauge what she wants.



Sleeps: naps were totes off this week and it was awful.  Girlfriend regressed to taking 3 or 4 naps lasting only about 45 minutes each.  It may or may not have had something to do with her shots she got at her appointment on Thursday, but I am hoping that she will get back into the groove we had before.  Mama loves naptime!! Despite her lack of napping she is still rocking the night sleep of around 10 hours so I suppose I can't complain too much.




 

 Does: Finnley loves to put weight on her legs and stand up, she is playing with her toys and sticking lots of them in her mouth.  She is super observant and watches everything that is going on.  She gets extremely entertained by the dogs and is the queen of smiles.  She is still crying like a banshee and spits up at least once a day, hopefully she's almost grown out of that.



Loves: the puppy dogs, Ellie, Mama, toys, singing songs, and going in the Ergo or Solly.  Finn has also become fascinated with my phone case cover which has come in handy for taking pictures.



Goes: we went on many adventures this week.  Nanny and Papa put an offer down on a house in the middle of our state so on Saturday we made a road trip over to check it out during the inspection.  We went on the swings at our nanny house, made a trip up North to the American Girl Place and to the Botanical Gardens right next to where we got married! Ellie had a blast pushing Finnley around in the stroller and we enjoyed just being with our girls. We also made a trip to watch Dada coach tennis practice and Ellie got a couple of hits in...Finnley was totes content just watching but I'm sure is looking forward to participating soon!!

Of Note: girlfriend had her 4 month appointment on Thursday and she is getting huge!! She measured in at 27 1/4 inches, and just for comparison sake Ellie was 28 inches at 12 months!!  So needless to say she was off the charts on her height, and she came in around 80-90% for her weight at around 15 pounds.  She got her shots and an oral and did fairly well.  Like I mentioned above her napping has been off but I'm hoping that was just a side effect of her immunizations and that she'll soon be back to a better nap schedule. Most of the time she is pretty chill but she has her parts of the day (usually between 3-5pm) where we cannot set her down...I am hoping it's a phase and she grows out of it, like yesterday would be nice.   She is also having some strange moments with Thomas in the evenings, she loves him and smiles all morning and day with him but when the witching hour comes only Mama will do.  It's actually kind of comical because she will be crying with him and the second she gets in my arms she gets a huge smile, or if he's holding her and she cries he tries to calm her down and then if I say anything she starts crying again.  We know its just a phase and she will probably get over it in a few days.  It's only been happening since Sunday so it hasn't been too bad.

 

Mama: I am seriously soaking up all this time I get to have with my girls.  I was thinking the other day how I didn't get to have this time with Ellie because I was teaching and how grateful I am to be home now.  Finnley is totally a Mama's girl and secretly I love it!  It's probably a good thing too because I'm with her all day so she better like me, but it's just the best. The girls and I had a special Mama and Daughters Day, we went to the mall without a stroller and I had to carry both of them.  It was so fun getting to have that day together and I am looking forward to many more MADs days and even MADs trips in the future!!
 

Sister: Ellie is still in love with her sister and it is adorable.  I just love watching these two together and Ellie is super ready for Finnley to start being more interactive.  She keeps telling Finnley "You need to crawl" so I am pretty confident that they're going to become the greatest of friends. Also this week's photo shoot was full of so many great shots that it was super hard to choose just one...so enjoy the highlights!!

♥ Ashley

previous weeks

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten

eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen

Ellie at 20 weeks

Hey Friday!! the last one in August

Y'all I can't believe that today is the last Friday (and weekend) of August. Quite simply that makes my stomach turn because this summer went by way too fast and our deck still isn't finished!! (Not to mention the other 1,200 projects I had)  but I digress, let's get onto this weeks five. 

ONE

Snapchat. I'm obsessed with it...mainly the filters. But also getting peeks into some of my favorite bloggers lives! Be sure to follow along (@Alifeonthefarm). I wasn't planning on going here, but I haven't even tried out the IG Stories because I heard there is no filter. Info check out the stories and really it's not a big deal to me...to each their own. The plus side is if you choose just to do IG all around you're saving storage on your phone by having one less app - that way you can take so many more pictures.

TWO 

Now that we're back to nannying we get to frequent the house that my nanny kids live in. The girl has quite the collection of baby dolls and has sparked Ellie in her love for baby dolls again!! She plays with them, wants a car seat for Bitty, naps with them and now wants to bring Bitty with us everywhere, including Finnley's Doctor appointment for a check up. 

THREE

Ellie has my old iPhone 5C since they wouldn't take it in for a trade in (no problem there!!) and since its my old phone the two are synced up, so when we both get on wifi I find gems like these on my camera roll...

FOUR

Our big project of the summer has been finishing up our deck. It has been a much more in depth process than I thought, but of course isn't that how every house project goes?? When we moved in the deck was half the size and the previous owners painted it orange!! Over the years we let the paint chip away, get peeled off and sand off. Then last year we finally decided that it was time to start making our back yard an oasis, so we doubled the size of the deck and build a cover for it, but left the old deck still standing. This year we replaced the boards of the old deck, pressure washed, swept, sanded, swept, stained, sealed, painted and added in the railing. Which was basically the longest project ever!! But y'all the light is at the end of the tunnel!! I just have to do some touch up paint on the railings and then styling and we are good to go!!! [until we decided to build the step on this end...#williteverend??!!] don't worry I'll share a whole post for the reveal! But in the meantime follow song on IG because I'm sharing on there all the time!

FIVE

We were at Target the other day and I got so inspired by all the fall clothes that I'm thinking we're going to have to have family pictures done pretty soon and I'm thinking that the girls need to wear these outfits. Then I need to find some color coordinated outfits for me and Thomas. What do you think? So cute right?!

Mushroom Blouse

Yellow Skirt

Maroon Skirt

♥ Ashley

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