Happies -09-

-Buying my plane tickets to Portland to see Holly after her baby is born!
-Making some fried chicken tenders with Ryan on a whim last night- they turned out better than I expected!
-Taking pictures at the Mesa temple at sunrise. I haven't been able to fully appreciate the beauty of the Mesa temple until this week and I think it's because every other time I've gone it has been hot hot hottttt outside, so I haven't done too much wandering about the temple grounds. But on Thursday I was able to go before the temperature reached 100 degrees, plus the sunrise made the temple seem to glow and it was just breathtaking. I can't wait to share the photos with you this week :)
-Seeing a chicken cross the road. You guys- A CHICKEN CROSSED THE ROAD. Like in all the jokes. I screamed with excitement (because I was alone in the car, so I could get away with it).
-Planning a cool video to make in my head involving my sister, a hula hoop, and hopefully White Sands. Stay tuned! 

Gwen Walks

I filmed this video on Sunday after Ryan helped me with outfit photos. I'm hoping that she'll be running around in time for her birthday party! 

The other day, Ryan and I were scrolling through old photos of Gwen on our phones and laptop, and Ryan realized that he only took about two videos of Gwen before she hit 6 months. This made us both sad because we like to remember how much smaller and fragile she used to be. It reminded me that I should be taking more videos of Gwen, especially with my camera (instead of my iPhone). 

After participating in the "flog" challenge I have fallen in love with making videos. It's such a neat way to document my/my family's life. So expect to see more where this came from :) 

Mom Clothes 02

This dress is a lucky thrift store find. It looked pretty small on the hanger, but the elastic waistband was kind to me. And I was surprised that it's not horrendously long! Fellow short girls can sympathize. Another thing I love about this dress is that it's breastfeeding friendly- I'm wearing a demi tee (cropped shirt) underneath and it's super ideal for easy boob access. If you're a breastfeeding mama you need a few of these demi tees, I'm telling ya.

dress- thrifted
demi tee, shoes- Downeast Basics

Mom Clothes 01

There's not much to say about this outfit, except that it's super easy, comfortable, and simple. As a Mormon gal, it's hard to come by dresses that are "modest." Sooooo whenever I see one like this in a store (that doesn't require an annoying layering tee or cardigan or slip extender) I make sure to snatch it up. 

dress, shoes, sunglasses- Target

diaper bag- Skip + Hop

necklace- Threads (The Shine Project) 

All photos taken by the fantastic Lydia Johnston of Photography Hill!  

Flog 4: Pinterest Test

The last video of the Flog challenge is here, and I am super late about it! For this video prompt we had to test out a craft or "life hack" from Pinterest. I chose to repurpose some old jeans of mine into a pair of distressed shorts. I remember when "holey jeans" first made their appearance in stores. I secretly liked the trend but didn't want to admit it because a huge part of me was like, "Why would I pay that much money for jeans with HOLES in them??" I still feel this way. So I decided to test out this tutorial and see if I'd like rocking these purposefully holey jeans after all. 

11 Months

This baby is almost a whole year old!

Gwen has been walking! She gets too excited about and tries to run, but then falls. It's cute. She learned to clap recently, too. She says "nyum nyum nyum" when she wants to eat/is about to eat and "no no no" when she's upset/when I'm upset with her. She loves to play this "game" where she hands me an object, I say, "Thank youuuu!",  she grabs it again and hands it back to me again and again. She pulls hair like a demon and has made two kids cry over it. :(  She loves flipping through and chewing on books. 

All photos in this post are taken by Lydia of Photography Hill. She has great deals for bloggers! Make sure to check her out if you're in the Phoenix area! She took some outfit photos for me that I'm excited to share with you all. 

Happies -08-

Happy things happening in my life as of late-
-Preparing for Gwen's first birthday party! Whoa, it's next month.
-Planning our trip to New Mexico. I can't wait to see my friends again!
-When Emily sent me a screenshot of her plane ticket confirmation! BLOG FRIENDS IRL. October is going to be fuuuuuuuun.
-Watching Gwen learn how to walk.
-Smoothies.
-This photo of my sisters. Why so pretty??
-Talking with another mom at Zumba about natural birth and extended breast feeding and co-sleeping.
-Monsoon season.
-My friends had their baby!!

Flog 3: Routine

I'm always late to the "flog" party. This week we are suppose to share a routine of some sort. I feel like I literally have no established routines, except for feeding, clothing, bathing, etc., my child.

This video features some breastfeeding which I thought was cool because it's national breastfeeding week! So yay!

Watch everyone's routine videos here!  

July in Photos

If you follow me on Instagram then you may have noticed my recent use of the "our project 180" hashtag- #ourproject180. My friends and I have started a photo-a-day project, not unlike the 365 project. Except we started ours in the middle of the year. It has been so fun! I love finding things to photograph each day and I'm proud of myself for not missing a day all month. For August I'm going to challenge myself to take less "hand" pictures (you know the ones! Crisp white backdrop with only my hand holding an object). While I enjoy that aesthetic, sometimes it's just the lazy easy way out. Seeing all these photos in a grid makes me excited to make a book of all the photos together once I've finished in December. 

Flog 2: "How To"

I apologize a thousand times that this video is out of focus. I thought I was sitting in the right spot.... I'm in focus for like 1% of this video. This was the second time I filmed this, so I just decided to call it good. You can just listen to the audio if it annoys you as much as it annoys me, ha.

I finally figured out a better arrangement to take videos- instead of putting my camera on the tripod (where Gwen can knock it over) I put it on top of my dresser. Voila! No camera mishaps.
I didn't talk about all the things I wanted to because I either forgot or didn't have time to go into all the details, so if you have any specific questions about my labor or attachment parenting, leave a comment. If I get a lot of them, I may make a follow up video.

THIS AWESOME VIDEO embodies a lot of what I believe regarding natural birth. Watch it! Watch it!

Read my birth story here.

Watch all the other "How To" videos in the Flog challenge!