Spring Style With JORD

Spring is in the air and I don't know about you but it makes me want to freshen up my style a bit. I am all about the most versatile pieces as wardrobe staples right down to my accessories. So I was really excited to have a chance to work with JORD because their watches totally fit the bill.

First of all, I was already impressed by the packaging when I received my Dark Sandalwood and Slate watch. Of course that didn't stop me from immediately opening it up and trying on my new arm candy, that is even prettier than the box! It is such a beautiful and unique watch. I'm a true jeans + tee girl at heart and I think my favorite thing about this watch is that it fits my casual style but can also can easily be dressed up. Running around with a baby all day isn't glamorous but adding that perfect accessory at least makes me feel more put together. And on that rare evening out, my watch can transition to a dressier look right along with me.

Everything in nature is blooming and a wood watch has such a natural look and feel to it. If you're ready to freshen up your spring style too, JORD has a variety of beautiful women's watches to help you step up your game. You might even spy something perfect for a Mother's Day gift or want to check out the men's watches for the special guys in your life celebrating Father's Day this year.

Want to win a $100 gift card for that amazing gift or maybe to treat yourself? Just click here to enter the giveaway. And just for entering you will receive a $25 off coupon code to use toward your next purchase! Take it from a girl who is very picky about her accessories, you won't regret having a JORD watch on your arm.

The giveaway will close 05/28/2017 at 11:59PM.This post was written in partnership with JORD but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible.  Luxury Wooden Watch

Dirty Thirty

Thirty years ago today, I was born! It's so crazy to think about being 15 and how that was half a lifetime ago. Time really does fly! I've had the best day celebrating with my little family and I thought it would be fun to share 30 things about me with all of you. 

1. I am a natural blonde. I started highlighting my hair when I was 18 and I've had it done pretty much the same ever since. 

2. I've never (probably obviously) had braces. My teeth were straight enough to forgo the hassle and expense of them. And I don't mind my slightly crooked smile one bit!

3. I broke my first bone(s) in my early 20s. Ironically I slipped on ice getting out of the car going INTO the bar. I refused to believe it until an x-ray 2 days later confirmed 3 broken metatarsals. 

4. My aunt is my godmother and we share the same middle name: Joan.

5. I never ate seafood until I vacationed with a friend in Florida when I was 16 and there was literally nothing but that on the menu at a restaurant where we had dinner. A bowl of shrimp pasta later and I never looked back.

6. I always thought I'd get married young, like 23, but I said, "I do," a month after my 28th birthday. 

7. I have a really small head (like toddler sized) and when I was a baby my parents had to take me to see specialists about it. Turns out, it's just genetic and totally normal. Fallon's is small too!

8. I always

have a favorite color of the moment but I always go back to grey.

9. I am mostly my mother's daughter but I have my daddy's hazel eyes.

10. I'm 5'4 but mostly legs so people always think I look taller. 

11. Chris and I met at a bar. You can find love just about anywhere. 

12. My dogs' names (Ares + Chaos) came from mythology.

13. I bake much better than I cook. It's shocking to everyone because....

14. I'm terrible with numbers and measurements. 

15. I'm actually athletically inclined although I'm not the least bit graceful in daily life. I run into walls in my own house. 

16. NSYNC was the first concert I went to. My fanatic teenage self would reemerge quickly if the band got back together. 

17. I don't watch the news. There's too much sadness in this world and if I really need to know something going on in the world someone else will tell me about it.

18. I do my own nails once a week. 

19. I am a proud Pit Bull mom. I dare you to say something mean about my baby.

20. I am a trusting person and have a pretty high tolerance for BS. But if you cross the line, watch out. 

21. I'm a former party girl. Now I'd rather stay home grilling out or eating pizza than hitting the bars any night. 

22. Lilies are my favorite flowers. 

23. I love distressed jeans. I'll probably still be wearing them long after I'm of an appropriate age. 

24. I love being barefoot all summer long but I have to have cozy slippers when it's cold out.

25. Fall is my favorite time of year as an adult but as a kid it was always summer. 

26. If I don't wear bug spray I get eaten alive in the warmer months. I must have super sweet blood. 

27. I went to look at and put an offer on our house while Chris was away for work. He didn't see it in person until we already had a contract.

28. I eat peanut butter every single day, sometimes just by itself.

29. My name means cheerful.

30. I've been a vegetarian for 2.5 years now and I don't miss meat at all.

Babo Botanicals

I recently shared 7 facts about myself over on Instagram. #2 was that I'm the anti germaphobe. Germs don't scare me. But what does scare me are chemicals. Give me dirt every day of the week over toxins. It's disturbing how many icky chemicals are found in products we not only use on ourselves but that are marketed for use on our babies. 

As a mom, I'm always trying to find truly safe options for my daughter. Enter Babo Botanicals. I was beyond thrilled to give a couple of their products a test run after checking out the company's fantastically informative website. Chris and I immediately agreed that Babo met our standards and were blown away by all the testing that is done to ensure that not only the products but also the packaging are safe. You can even read exactly how everything is tested! They aren't hiding anything and that speaks volumes to me as a consumer and a parent. 

We've been using the hand and face wipes and not only do they have my baby and her mess wiped clean with one cloth, they smell amazing! I've typically shied away from scented products but the smell is not derived from artificial means and doesn't cause a bit of irritation on Fallon's sensitive skin. We even used them to wipe our dog's muddy paws!

The other Babo product we can't say enough good things about is the diaper cream. Wow is this stuff amazing! Fallon has been teething like crazy and battling bouts of horrific diaper rash. I'm talking a blistered and even sometimes bleeding little booty. I know it's part of childhood but goodness I do feel so bad for her. The first time I used the Babo diaper cream her rash had severely diminished by the next diaper change and was zapped altogether just hours later! I could not believe it. I love that it's a thick cream but spreads easily and one good swipe does the trick. 

If you want one less thing to worry about as a mom, because God knows we worry enough as it is, head over to the website and see for yourself why we're so in love with this brand. 

The items reviewed in this post were sent c/o Babo Botanicals but all thoughts are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible. 

Leggings To Live In

I don't know about you guys but I absolutely love that it's cool to wear leggings. I sleep in them, work out in them and wear them with a casual outfit (which is like 95% of the time). Every mama needs a good pair of black leggings but it's nice to switch it up sometimes. Lately I'm into fun details like moto leggings and side ties. I will always be a jeans + tee girl at heart but leggings are the easiest thing to run around in with a baby all day. So I thought I'd share some of the pairs I've been living in lately + a few I wouldn't mind adding to my collection. 

I definitely do not shy away from white just because I have a baby. I was getting things all over my white clothes long before I became a mom and that's why God made stain remover. These are thick so they aren't see through and I love love love the moto look, it's a fun way to spice up a classic neutral. 

Blush is everywhere right now and I have totally hopped on the bandwagon. Abercrombie & Fitch was oh so popular when I was in high school and I am pretty pumped to sport this brand again a decade later. Plus the stripe down the side on these is just cool. Right?!

Grey is my jam. Everything grey. I've already worn these leggings 4 times in less than 2 weeks and they are oh so comfortable. The ties on the side do not pinch your legs and look so cute! I had so many mamas asking me about them at the zoo this week. 

Like I said, every girl needs a good pair of black leggings. These are just amazing. Period. They somehow make all the lumps you don't want to show off disappear and the ones you do look amazing. 

I love GAP gFast capri leggings. There are always cute prints or details, they are almost always on sale and they're so breathable! I'm loving these cut outs and this print. 

Happy Thursday friends!

9 Months Of Fallon

Fallon's 9 month check-up was yesterday morning and our pediatrician said she's all legs, eyes and brains. Can't ask for much more. Our baby girl is now 17lbs 8oz and 27.25 inches tall. She has 8 tiny teeth in her mouth and isn't afraid to use them! We're still going strong with breastfeeding so yea, the teeth are a little scary. But mostly she just uses them to chomp on all the food she's eating. Green beans are her least favorite but she's still never met a food she won't eat. Whose kid is this?!

She's hated tummy time and being on her back (except for sleeping) for months, girlfriend just likes to be upright. But in the last week or so she's become mobile in her funny little half crawl, half scoot way. She can pretty much get where she wants to go and get there pretty fast! I will take chasing over screaming every single day. She's often trying to push up to stand and pull herself up on, well, everything. Her little voice is so cute and we get to hear it all the time as she babbles away, happy screams and tries to mimic the sounds we make to her. 

Blocks are still among the favorite toys and her activity cube, and she kind of dances to the ones that play music. She waves but almost never if I ask her to and is always smiling at other babies. She's also really into having books read to her and likes to grab them out of the basket in her room. We read Goodnight Moon every night and I Love You Through and Through almost every day. She's so curious and friendly, it would be hard not to fall right in love with her. But I'm kind of biased and I still can't believe this little 9 month old is mine. 

Confessions Of A SAHM: My Husband Works Nights

I am asked all the time who is taking all these pictures I seem to make it into with Fallon. And the answer is almost always Chris. And that's because he works night so he is home in the afternoon with us. A lot of people are surprised to learn he's a truck driver, because apparently he doesn't fit the profile. It's a pretty demanding job and he sometimes works really long shifts. So yea, it can be really hard to deal with for us as a family. But there are actually some pretty great trade-offs to his non traditional schedule. 

Chris started this job at the very end of my pregnancy, just 2 weeks before Fallon was born. It was one of those offers he just couldn't refuse and allows him to single handedly support our family. Everyone was feeling sorry for me when he went back to work the week after Fallon was born, assuming I was pulling the night shift with a newborn all alone. The truth is, it wasn't a big deal. Fallon would wake to nurse, something Chris would have been no help with anyway, and then go back to sleep. I can count on one hand the number of times she didn't go right back to sleep after nighttime feedings. And now that she sleeps from about 7-7 every night, daddy works while we get our beauty rest. 

Working when most of our friends and family are off for the weekend can kind of suck. It's harder to make plans and attend parties and events sometimes but he actually doesn't miss out on nearly as much as you'd think. And it's really nice to have a week day off to go places that are super crowded on weekends. We also run errands together pretty often as a way to get in family time while being productive. There's quite a lot of family time but not always much time for just Chris and me. But we're okay with that. Really. We've learned to make the time we spend together just the two of us really count. He has a bit of a drive home from work so sometimes he will even call me on the way home so we can catch up or make plans for when he gets home. 

The nature of his job is it ain't over til it's over. He doesn't just get to clock out at 5 every day. So sometimes things go wrong, somebody messes up, there's traffic, truck problems ect. and it takes him longer (or WAY longer) than it should to get home. When I've been holding down the fort solo since the afternoon of the day before and he's running late, it can be exhausting and frustrating. And the last thing I want to do is toss him a screaming baby when he finally walks through the door but sometimes it's the only way the laundry gets done. Doing the morning hustle to get everybody fed, let outside and dressed, often at the crack of dawn, then the dinner and bedtime routine by myself does wear me down by day 4. But we get 3 mornings and 3 evenings together so that's pretty awesome and usually makes up for the rest of the week. 

Overall, this works for us right now. There are times I wish he had a M-F set schedule. And I know he does too. But is there really a perfect work schedule? This is what we know and what we've become accustomed to at this stage of life. If anything I think it's made us more adaptable as a family and I am grateful that his job supports the kind of lifestyle we want to live. 

With A Baby On My Hip

I stand barefooted in my own front yard with a baby on my hip. If you're not familiar, that's a line from the country song "Redneck Woman" by Gretchen Wilson. And I wouldn't say I'm a redneck woman but the song immediately came to mind when I sat down to write this post so just go with it. When I found out I was pregnant and due in July I had visions of standing barefooted in own front yard with a baby on my hip. I didn't foresee all the other things I'd be doing with a baby on my hip. 

I'd probably be typing this with one hand without the magic of baby wearing and sleep training. But because sometimes nothing will do but her favorite perch, I have not only learned to do many things with hand and a baby on my hip but I've mastered them. Yes people, I have a super power. And I bet you do too. So just for fun, because moms need to have a little fun too, let's list off all the things we can do in sentences that end "with a baby on my hip". When you feel like you're failing at everything, and please tell me we all have those days, then you'll have this mile long list to remind yourself that you actually are a supermom. 

I can

Make food

Eat

Nurse

Brush my teeth

Feed the furballs

Walk the dog

Put on make-up

Brush my hair

Carry a full laundry basket

Clean

Pay bills

Write e-mails

Dance

Do squats

Take pictures

Send text

Push a shopping cart

Put groceries away

Make the bed

And most importantly

Drink coffee/wine/beer/margs

With a baby on my hip

What can you do with a baby on your hip?