The Fortunate Plight

I want to apologize in advance if I am a little more absent than usual in the next week or so. We are throwing our best friends, Claire and Brandon, an engagement party on Cinco de Mayo and I have been planning and crafting my little heart out. Time usually spent at home blogging has been spent painting and pasting! 

Here is a little sneak peek….I will share more with you after the party!

Yes, that is glitter you see. It takes a special person to warrant the use of glitter!

Happy Wednesday!

xoxo, 

jenn

This weekend I found a dead spider by the window in our dining room. Dyce was on the floor and I knew that as soon as he spotted it that spider would be all his. Protein.

I quickly went to grab some tissue to dispose of our uninvited guest and as I came back, tissue in tow, there it was; spider in chubby toddler hand being carefully inspected before consumption.

Not on my watch Dycie Doodle, not on my watch.

I began to think about how I caught it this time, but I won’t always be there to “helicopter parent” (as my brother calls it). I’m sure there will plenty of spiders, bugs and dirt consumed but I need him to break me in easy. I need to build up tolerance to this “boys will be boys” lifestyle.

I quickly reminded myself that in elementary school I ate a worm one day on the playground. It was a dare. Later that day on the bus going home I ate another one. I was dared again.  The school principal called my parents that night to make sure they were aware of the day’s events. I recall my mother on the phone exclaiming,

She did what?!

and glaring in my direction.

Busted.

In hindsight I think my parents didn’t know what to do in the situation. They wanted to laugh, but what do you say in that moment?

Hey kid, don’t eat worms.

Ummm…ok?

xoxo,

jenn

Dyce-Year One

Stats:

Length: 34 ¼ inches

Weight: 27lbs. 15oz.

Head Circumference: 48cm

Physical:

Dyce, you have always been a big boy and you gained 18lbs 10oz in your first year of life! You have actually thinned out quite a bit the past couple of months and mama’s left arm is very, very strong from carrying you around all this time. Your crooked head is beautifully round now and since getting your helmet off your hair has really started to grow. You have these beautiful, sandy blonde curls and when we brush them they tend to frizz up into a Kramer-esque silhouette. We love this! Your cheeks are deliciously plump and I am constantly checking to see if you have something tucked away in them (you never do, it’s all chub). You have so many teeth and this reminds me that I need to count them (*note to self, count teeth tonight). You have your mamas nose and dads beautiful, sleepy blue eyes. You still have little in the way of wrists and ankles. I will be slightly devastated when the roll of fat covering them disappears.

You are walking like a champ and getting into EVERYTHING! You favorite toy is anything that you shouldn’t have and so far you have managed to get trapped under…. dads golf bag, the coat rack, and the huge canvas of mamas you managed to pull off the wall. One last thing….you have perfect earlobes and one day you will know how much this pleases mama!

Personality:

You are very vocal and get this honestly as your dad is never one to shy away from a conversation. You love to throw your fist in the air and shake it aggressively  as you tell us something very important…or maybe something we did wrong. You still love giving me open mouth kisses like a baby bird (though I have yet to feed you regurgitated food like Alicia Silverstone-which btw I don’t see what the big deal is…leave her alone). You started a new class in daycare and the transition has been a little rough. You cry almost every day when I leave and it literally breaks my heart. Your mamaw keeps telling me that it’s good for you and will help you adjust better later in life. I know she is right but it doesn’t make it any easier.

You have figured out how to open the front door and “sneak” out. You pick up gumballs (from trees, not actual gum balls) and bring them into the house. I stepped on one getting into bed last night (cue cursed gumball). You have the cutest little bashful smirk when you meet anyone new, but it doesn’t take you long to warm up….especially to the ladies.

You know how to make us laugh. The other morning you were with me in bed, after dad got up to play golf, and we were trying to go back to sleep. With my eyes closed I could feel you staring at me and your milky breath in my face. Just as I thought you might go back to sleep you let out a loud “Roarrrrrrr” right in my face. Twice. I couldn’t help but reciprocate and we enjoyed a 5 minute game of lions and tigers.

You love your daddy. For so long it was mama 24/7, but recently you have started to follow dad around the house and bang on the windows as you watch him mow the lawn. You light up with excitement when he comes home from work and it literally melts my heart. (Dyce, file this away in your future file….Nothing is as sexy as a man who adores his children. Nothing.)

Odds and Ends:

We are transitioning you away from the bottle and pray it goes smoothly. I had to start supplementing with formula when you were 10 months, after my last bout with mastitis. I stopped breastfeeding altogether about 3 or 4 weeks ago. You had no problem with this and I think we were both ready to stop.

We flipped your carseat to forward facing and thought you would like this better but it just seems to annoy you more. You want to be in the front where all the action is!

You absolutely LOVE your plastic golf clubs and often whack us (and Rya) upside the head with them. You also love to play with dad’s golf balls and will put one in each hand and crawl around on the hardwoods. We can hear you coming a mile away with all the “click, clack, click, clack”.

Also, your palms are ticklish and this delights us!

Sweet love, thank you for saving your dad and me from the life that we once knew. It seems, in hindsight, meaningless and purposeless.  We look forward to filling your life with love, happiness, laughter and excitement.

Love, mama and dad

I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring.  ~Liz Armbruster

p.s. if you guys get the urge to show some love…

I know it has been a while since doing these but it is seriously so hard to remember to take outfit posts each day….so I don’t. Here is a glimpse of what I have been wearing the past few weeks…

Anyone else notice that apparently I like to look down and to my left? The only one I am not is a picture my husband took. I must be embarrassed….ha!

Dyce has his one year check up today so I am pretty excited to see just how much he grew in a year. I flipped him upside down the other night and held him against my stomach as I asked him if he remembered being in there. Is that creepy? Oh well, he won’t remember that either. :)

xoxo,

jenn

My personality has always been more like my dad’s but the older I get the more I think being a little more like mom wouldn’t hurt.

When I was growing up my mother took my bedroom door off its hinges and stored it in the basement for a week. In fact, she not only did this to me, but to my brother and sister as well.

I love hearing my Dad tell the story of him coming home from work and finding my mother frustratingly hammering away at our doors and lining them up by the basement entrance. He wasn’t sure what was going on and I don’t think we really were either. She was mad. So mad, in fact, that no one wanted to ask her what was going on.

I’m sure it was Dad who addressed her first,

Honey, what’s going on?

I remember hearing her,

I’m tired of these kids not cleaning their rooms! I’ve decided that until they do, none of them will have doors. If they don’t care what their rooms look like then I’m going to make sure everyone sees it. 

Dad helped her carry the doors to the basement.

I remember sitting in my room and looking directly across the hall into my brothers room. He was staring back at me and although we didn’t speak, I know we were thinking the same thing,

I’m going to have to get dressed in the bathroom.

xoxo, 

jenn

It has been a few weeks since I shared my recent favorite links around the World Wide Web. Hope I didn’t overdo it…but there’s some good stuff here! Enjoy (btw, you will only get this title if you open all the links)….

I love this post from Audrey! I truly wish I could be a part of something so liberating! 

The most delicious tea bags I have ever seen!

No words for these…they speak for themselves!

I have really enjoyed the creative recipes from The Mennonite Girls in Fresno.

I recently found out that a friend of mine has a blog and I have greatly enjoyed reading her beautiful words! Visit Life Lived Out Loud!

Sweet Jess from BohoBabyBump just opened her shop, Charlie & Nell, where she is selling her gorgeous handmade dolls!

I know I mention her a lot, but I was so inspired by how my friend Cheyenne spent her 31st birthday!

A great read about how Your Children Want YOU!

Cute little Etsy shop. You can’t read this without singing it in your head!

What I am reading right now.

A beautiful bed.

For Fun. 

For Food.

For Goodness Sake?!

For A Trip To The ER.

For Fun Photos!

For Emily. THIS.

For a Good Laugh.

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo,

jenn

1.Sleepy Boy 2.Sunshine Boy 3.Shipping Boy 4.Hungry Boy 5.Veggie Sushi 6.Too Fast For You 7.Itchy Anus 8.Thank You 9.10.11.Be Very, Very Quiet 12.Pink Pants 13.Pink Eye 14.New Hair 15.Blue Pants 16.Date Night 17.My Husband The Photog 18.Surprise Flash

Feel free to follow me on instagram @thefortunateplight for more thrilling photos. :)

xoxo,

jenn

Easter Sunday we headed to my parents home after church. Things tend to get a little crazy with 7 kids under ten running around but it’s always fun, especially since Dyce is getting old enough to start playing with his cousins.

My sister made a cute monkey cake for the birthday boy! 

Sunday night things started to go south for little guy. He started with a fever and woke up Monday still not feeling well. Monday morning I was on the phone with Brad’s mom, trying to set up skype so she could watch Dyce open his gifts, and I heard his screams coming from the living room. Brad came running to me and said that Rya had accidentally knocked Dyce down and he hit his chin on the coffee table. Blood was everywhere….seriously, SO much blood!

We did manage to skype for a bit after everything calmed down and one of the gifts Dyce got from Grammy, Grampy and uncle Jed were these cool books…

They show artwork from various artists and each painting has different textures for Dyce to feel as we read….too cool!

We had planned on taking Dyce to Monkey Joes and letting him play but since he wasn’t feeling well we only made it out for a quick lunch at Mellow Mushroom. You can see evidence of his busted lip….

Dycey Doodle ended his first birthday by taking a 3 hour nap with dad. 

We still have a cupcake with his name all over it. Maybe tomorrow he will feel up to trying it. All in all I think he had a pretty good first birthday. We were happy we decided to not have a birthday party….it just became too much in the way of preparing and planning. We decided we would much rather put that effort into a birthday he will more likely remember (plus the fact that I am slightly neurotic when it comes to planning and I would have undoubtedly gone overboard). It was nice to just spend time together and enjoy his special day. 

xoxo,

jenn

Phew! 

This past Saturday we decided to take Dyce to the Zoo for his birthday. We assumed that because it was Easter weekend the Zoo would be like a ghost town. People travel for Easter, right?

Wrong.

As Murphy’s Law would have it, we chose the busiest weekend the NC Zoo has every year! How were we supposed to know this?! Man, we are such amateurs!

Long story short…by the time we got there at 11:30a.m., and waited for Brad’s family to get inside as well, it was already around 1:30p.m. The place was so packed that poor Dyce barely got to see any animals. 

We did manage to snap a few photos of our day…

Watching the elephants (I love that they seem to have the same reaction)…

Dyce and Grandpa…

After leaving we grabbed a late lunch and Dyce got to open his first birthday gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Davis!

It was a long day and after we got home little guy started feeling bad. We finally took him the doctor today and he has a double ear infection and the beginning stages of pneumonia! The bad news is that he was sick on his actual birthday (more on that later) but the good news is that he seemed to be feeling a little better before I put him down for the night. 

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and I will share a little more of ours tomorrow. :)

xoxo,

jenn

p.s. is it just me, or did anyone else’s children seem to get sick a lot as soon as you stopped breastfeeding? weird.

 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

A little Easter wardrobe inspiration! All of the clothing and accessories featured here are less than $50! Check out some of these great sites for inexpensive online shopping. 

This weekend we are taking Dyce to the Zoo for his birthday! I have not been since I was in Middle School, I think. I have a little anxiety about how I will feel seeing the animals being kept in captivity, but Dyce is too young to think about those things. In due time. 

We will be spending Easter morning at Elevation church for their Seven Mile Miracle. The 11 a.m. service was sold out, so wish us luck in getting out the door in time for the 9 a.m. service!

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

xoxo,

jenn

It’s so crazy to think that this time last year I was EXTREMELY pregnant and spending every day praying that I would go into labor. Dyce will be one year old this Monday and I wanted to take a moment and write myself a letter, the me that existed one year ago today…. the “me” before “him”.

Dear Self, 

Hi. At this point you are well overdue and have stood firm in your decision to not be medically induced. Be glad that you did that because that little babe growing inside you will let you know when it’s time…don’t worry. He (yes, you had a boy!!!) is teaching you patience and will continue to the rest of your life.

I want to tell you that you have no idea what you are in for. There is really no way for anyone to prepare you for not only the physical demands of labor, but the emotional toll it will take on you. Those couple hours spent in that large tub of water were only the beginning of what would be the longest 20 hours of your life. You will learn that your body is capable of amazing things. You will also learn there is no such thing as a perfect labor. The sooner you accept this, the better you will feel. 

You will learn the strength and power of friendships and that your love for two women in particular will be forever branded in your heart. You will rely heavily on their advice, laughter, and trust in the next 12 months. They will support you and protect your heart. They will sleep on the waiting room floor of the hospital, just to be by your side. They will cry with you and laugh with you, but most importantly love your son like he is one of their own. 

You will value your mother and sister more. You will relate to them in a way you had never been able to. You will apologize for being a brat all those years because you will finally know what selfless love is. You were many years behind. You will have a great amount of respect for them because they will guide you through your first year as a mother with a tremendous amount of care and compassion. You will feel a connection with them that you haven’t felt since you were a little girl, and you will learn to nurture and protect it.

You will need your husband. I know you have always been prideful of your independence, even in marriage, but virtually overnight you will completely surrender yourself to the family the two of you have made. It will be beautiful and painlessly natural. You will love him more with each passing day as you dream together for your Dangerous little boy. You will marvel at what an exceptional father he is and beam with pride as you see his qualities in your son. 

You will question your relationship with God. You will realize what a gift you have been given and how you have neglected your relationship with him for many, many years. You will begin to talk again, to listen, and to trust. You will pray for guidance as you attempt to sort through what you learned as a child, verses what you have experienced as an adult. You will be confused but you will not be alone. He has made that very clear.

You will sit down to write this letter, one year from now, and when it comes to the part where you talk about your son you will not be able to. You will sit in front of a computer with tears streaming down your face because there are just no words worthy of a love like that. He is your definition of perfection and he will change your life in such a way that you will feel as if you are writing this letter to a complete stranger. 

You will be a good mother. Not great, but pretty damn close.

Love, 

Future You.

I am a very visual person so instead of writing a lengthy post about marriage and how it changes when you have a baby (i’ll save that for another day), I thought I would provide you with images that depict our current situation. I’m sure many of you will understand that these require very little commentary. :)

This is how we fall asleep every night….

And, this is how we wake up every morning….

*disclaimer: we are not always smiling as depicted in these images.

Any mamas out there pickin’ up what i’m puttin’ down?

Happy Tuesday!

xoxo,

jenn

I hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was pretty low key, one of those where I looked at Brad around 3pm on Sunday and said,

I still haven’t put on a bra and i’m pretty sure I haven’t brushed my teeth today.

We didn’t leave he house all day. Don’t judge us (don’t). It was wonderful.

Lucky for you guys I was home, because I discovered a gem of a website I am stoked to share! We have been shopping around for a new couch for our television room because we are getting rid of our red sleeper set (which was great when we lived in a tiny studio loft, but it’s time to move on now). 

I wanted to be sure of the size of furniture that would fit in our space and was completely blown away when I came across Urban Barn! You guys, they have this room planner that you can plug in your room dimensions and add your furniture! You can also add different flooring, a fireplace, doors, windows, plants and pets!!! I cannot tell you how stoked I was to find this!

I rearranged our television room and what started out as this (a blank canvas)….

I turned into this….

How amazing is that?! I was able to do everything to scale and even move walls! Did that just blow your mind?! Blown!

Watch, this is probably something that has been around forever that everyone else has known about but I have finally discovered. You know, like that friend who tries to tell you about this cool new website called Pinterest! :)

I am now working on remodeling our master bed and bath because we have so much wasted space in the bedroom that could be used to expand our tiny bath. I’ll be sure to show you those when I finish. I have totally tricked myself into thinking I belong on HGTV!

Happy planning!

xoxo, 

jenn