Charlotte's 7 Month Update

Eating - Charlotte eats a vegetable AND a fruit for lunch and dinner. She drinks water with her solid foods which isn't her favorite, but she tolerates it. She can even hold her bottle all on her own! We started practicing motor skills with puffs and she has already come a long way in just a few short weeks. She can pick them up one by one and feed herself, which comes in super handy to tide her over between meals.

Sleeping - We are so blessed in this department. Charlotte goes down between 7 and 8 without much of a fuss (last month she had to cry it out, but now she goes right down). She gets a bath then a little bottle and down she goes. We won't hear from her again until around 6 the next morning!

Charlotte loves to talk and make noise as much as possible. She doesn't like being hungry or dirty diapers. In fact, that is really the only time she fusses. She is so close to crawling and gets frustrated after a while when she can't reach the things she wants to. She can scoot, roll around and get up in the crawling position, but not quite ready to crawl. 

Still curious about Minnie, but not as perplexed as she used to be!

We are loving every minute of this sweet baby and I can't wait to see what the next few months bring. My favorite time of the year is just around the corner and I can't wait to celebrate all of Charlotte's firsts! Not to mention we have two more Disney trips planned for the remainder of the year, so being excited about the next 4 months is an understatement by far!

Check out her other month updates here:

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

Linking up with Molly for Let it Shine Monday!

High Five, Y'all

1. Gymboree was having an awesome sale so I couldn't resist picking up this little sailor outfit for Charlotte. I've decided she looks like a little Donald Duck and will have to wear this in Disney next month!
2. I am the worst about refilling my water bottle at work during the day, so I got this awesome pitcher to keep at my desk. I definitely drink more water but have yet to drink the entire thing in one day....it's 148 ounces!
3. Football season is finally here!!!!! My friend and I went to the preseason game last night against the Patriots and we won! Even better news - since we scored more than 20 points and it was a home game, you can get a free sub at Subway today! Get the coupon and enjoy an almost free lunch (still have to purchase a drink and chips).
4. My weakness....a giant chocolate chip cookie! Ordered pizza with my family earlier in the week and somehow was convinced this was a good idea. ooops, oh well, it was delicious!
5. I spent a few late nights this week implementing a new blog design! I love change and was itching for something different....what do you think? 

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth for H54F!

DIY Ring Holder

We all do it, we take our jewelry off in random places around the house in an attempt to protect it, but in reality we end up misplacing our favorite pieces! Ring holders are a necessity in my house. In fact, I realized I needed more than just the one I had (I need one at every sink in my house), so I set out to make my own - with the help of Darby Smart, of course.

What you'll need:

Plastic figurine - those small plastic critters or monuments you can find at craft stores

Gold paint pen

Ceramic dish - you can use a saucer or petri dish

Glue

Simply take your paint pen and paint your figurine all one color to give it a classic look. Then paint your dish. You can do geometric shapes, sayings, your wedding anniversary or anything you can think of. All that's left is to simply glue your figurine to the dish and wait for it to dry! Voila!

In other news, notice anything different?! I have spent the last few nights working on my blog template, so hopefully you can forgive me for being a little MIA on the posts this week. Let me know your thoughts on the redesign!

Disney Inspired Jamberry Nails

I kept hearing a lot about Jamberry Nails so I thought it was time to see what the big deal was about. I perused their website and thought the patterns were cute, but nothing to write home about (a lot of them just weren't my style and I had a hard time imagining all 10 of my nails with an intricate pattern). That is until I did a little googling and stumbled across Disney inspired Jamberry nails! I found a consultant via Pinterest that had all sorts of custom designs that I could totally see myself rocking during a Disney trip. I HAD to give these a try!

After exchanging a few emails with the consultant, I had placed my first order! Even though she lives across the country, within a few days they were in my mailbox. I quickly saw that I could easily get two manicures and two pedicures out of the one sheet....totally worth it!

Now the hard part, figuring out how to apply these things. I wanted to practice so when it was time to do them for Disney, I was a seasoned veteran. I will admit, the first go at it was a HUGE learning experience and didn't even last 24 hours before I peeled them off. The second time, I did some research and watched a few videos online to master the technique. I'm still no pro, but I'm definitely getting better.

I found the key was in the prep. Make sure to push down your cuticles, clean your nails with an alcohol pad and file the tops of your nails to make them rough which will help the adhesive adhere better. That last step is super important and one that isn't advertised.

I chose not to heat the wraps before placing them on my nail as I saw that you can omit this step via Jamberry's tips and tricks video. I also learned from my first experience that fitting them to your nail is super important and you should always chose the wrap that is slightly smaller over the wrap that is slightly too big. The reason being is that you don't want the wrap to touch your skin at all as this breaks up the adhesive and makes it more likely to lift up.

Once you place them on your fingers, you will want to press down firmly and make sure you have no wrinkles or bubbles. Using the cuticle pusher is handy during this step. Then I heat each nail wrap and pressed firmly again. I waited until they were cool before I began trimming. Now that they are adhered and trimmed, I went over them again with the heat to ensure a tight bond. Now all that's left is to file them down to smooth out the tips.

Overall I found these to be a refreshing change from the standard nail polish routine, but just be prepared for a learning curve if you've never done them before. I must say, I LOVE all the options you can get including designing your own via the Nail Art Studio! 

What do you think? Will you give Jamberry a try?

High Five for Friday!

I seriously have no idea where this week went. I've been so busy getting stuff done and yet I still feel super behind on stuff. The work days are flying by and I find myself wishing I had at least two more hours a night to work on blogging and crafting. The truth is, I don't have that kind of time, so I'm working on prioritizing and learning to let some things go. It's ok if my house isn't clean and if I didn't have a blog post written for the next day. What is important is that I'm putting my family first and taking time out of each day to do something for myself. So in a nutshell, that's why posts have been a little thin lately.

Regardless of all that nonsense, I will always have my five highlights from the week to share because I find that even if life is crazy and not all the time good, it's important to dig down (sometimes really deep) and find the things that made you happy. And suddenly the rest of the stuff seems to not be so bad.

1. Part of being so busy this week was because my friend and I made 80 koozies for our company team day! I thought we would never finish! It was super nice to take a day off work and team build with our our company as we hosted our first ever Olympics! 
2. Ulta haul - I may or may not have gotten a little carried away but I was way overdue for a makeup revamp. I spent a few hours over the weekend watching various makeup tutorials to see what I could do differently. It of course lead me to my closest Ulta to pick up a few necessities. ;) 
3. By far the highlight of my week was getting to see Billy Joel in concert! My friend invited me along and we had a blast. Our pictures aren't the greatest, but I have some pretty awesome memories that will be hard to forget.
4. I love watching Charlotte grow every single day. She gets sweeter and sweeter as her little personality develops. I finally found an outfit and a use for my Ariel bow that I've had for 4 years! 
5. I was perusing Pinterest and stumbled across this little gem; Disney Jamberry nails! I have been hearing a lot about Jamberry these days and decided these would be the perfect ones to try. Melissa over at Jamberry designs and sells these ones in particular. She also customizes so many other patterns that you won't find on the basic website.

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth for H54F!

Disney Quick Tip - Gift Cards

Are you planning a Disney trip any time soon? Whether it's in a few months or a few years, you will find yourself overwhelmed at the cost at one point or another. Sure, you can spread out the expenses by paying for it little by little in advance (ie. your hotel room, park tickets etc.), but you still need money for when you're actually there! If you're anything like me, you will be tempted with merchandise around every corner just begging you to buy it. Or if merchandise isn't your thing, you might find yourself drawn to the various dining options in the parks. Either way, one thing is for sure: no matter how hard you try, you will spend more money than you thought once you arrive. After all it's vacation, YOLO, right?

So how much do you need? Since everything else has a set price, you are left with trying to figure out how much to bring with you for food and fun. A general rule of thumb I follow is to plan for $50 per person per day (everyone in your party over the age of 3). If you know you are going to be dining at nice restaurants and indulging in adult beverages, I would add a little more to that number.

Since that seems like a lot of money once you do the math ($1400 for a family of 4 for 7 days). you need to come up with a savings plan. I have always had a hard time saving cash for a trip because it feels like something always comes up and I end up spending that money. So over the years I've come up with a much easier way to save: gift cards.

Where do I get them? You can find Disney gift cards almost anywhere: Grocery stores, Target, The Disney Store, Walmart and the list can go on and on. Every time I find myself in one of those stores, I grab a $25 or $50 card and activate it. Now my Disney money is locked up and I can't spend it on stupid things. Before you know it, you will have quite a collection of cards! You can even save money on these by going to a Costco type store where they are slightly discounted.

Ok, this sounds great and all, but now I have a giant stack of $25 gift cards that are going to be super hard to manage and annoying to carry around once I'm on vacation. Good thing I've got a few solutions for you!

Your first option is to take them to guest services as soon as you arrive and have them combined into one card or a few if you plan on handing them out to everyone in your party. Your other option is to add them to your room so when you are charging your dinners and merchandise to your Magic Band or room key, they will automagically (see what I did there?!) be deducted and your actual credit card won't be charged until the gift cards are depleted. This option is nice because then you don't have to worry about carrying them around the parks. If you ever want to know how much you have left, you can always go to your hotel and ask to see your bill. It will tell you how much credit you have left before it will start charging your credit card.

Hopefully that helps make the expense of a family Disney trip a little easier to handle. I guess I should take my own advice and get to the grocery store to pick up a few gift cards considering my trip is next month and then again in 3 months!

High Five For Friday

1. My friend gave Charlotte her first Lilly and I absolutely LOVE the print, the only problem was I needed a matching dress. After hunting through Ebay with no avail, I stumbled upon this matching dress via Facebook! It came in the mail this week and I cannot wait to match my little Minnie!
2. As I mentioned earlier this week, I went sunflower picking with a friend over the weekend! I don't think I ever posted a picture of the sunflowers I picked, so here they are. Aren't they gorgeous?
3. We treated ourselves to a fun family breakfast where I caught a special Daddy/daughter moment on camera (they were checking out the fun cars driving by).
4. Nothing like a fresh batch of embroidery koozie blanks to keep you busy for the whole week!
5. How can you resist Batmanbaby?! I have no words, just that this is one of my favorite pictures...I think it's the cape!

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth for H54F!