A spook-tacular toddler recipe

I recently came across the website weelicious.com and I'm so glad I found this little gem. If you have little ones and are anything like me, than you might struggle from time to time trying to come up with meal ideas for them. 

Today I made ham and cheddar muffins during lunch for my little ones and while Layla wasn't a huge fan, (she hardly tried them or else she might have liked them), Mariam seemed to enjoy them. I would definitely read the comments and make a few modifications to add some extra flavor and they are good drizzled with honey. I love that these incorporate wheat flour and are an excellent way to sneak in some protein with the eggs, cheese, and ham.

Happy Halloween!

Don't mind me, just wearing my cheetah

{Cheetah Top: Kohl's | Leggings: Kohl's }

My mom bought this adorable set for Mariam from Kohl's last week and it's just adorable paired with her moccasins from Old Navy and this white lace headband I made for her recently. I made all three girls one but getting them together in a picture--that actually comes out decent is hard to come by.

Have a great weekend!

What does the fox say

{Sweater: Crazy 8}

I spotted this adorable sweater in the clearance rack at Crazy 8 recently and I had to have it for Layla! I was first drawn to the little ruffles on the sleeve and then I noticed the fox. So cute! Foxes and other woodland creatures are pretty popular right now and I can see why. 

Here are some other woodland creature themed apparel and accessories I'm loving right now.

{Everything above minus the top at the bottom left hand corner can be found at Gymboree. The deer and fox top are from Crazy 8.}

{Fox skirt: Ashleynneclothing | Fox onesie: Sweetjaneclothing

 Fox hair clip: CutiePieHairFlair | Fox toddler hoodie: Dollfacethreads

Fox capelet: Violastudio

The fall harvest collection is available!

I'm so glad to finally have my fall collection up and running on my website. It was a lot of fun putting this little collection together and I hope you all love them as much as I do. Here's the best thing, if you buy a fall headband, you get a FREE matching headband. That's one headband per order, not per bib, so if you do purchase more than one fall bib, there will be an option at checkout to indicate which bib you want the headband to match. The offer ends October 31st, so you don't want to miss out on this deal! 

Check out the shop to see the rest of the fall bibs. This is an example of the headband. It will be a fabric color coordinating bow on white lace elastic. 

Also, I was recently honored to be interviewed by one of my favorite blogger's Veronika at Veronika's Blushing and I'm offering 25% off for her readers. I've known Veronika online for a few years now and while she blogs about different things from home decor to beauty and style, it really warms my heart to read about her newest journey in life as a mom to sweet baby girl Harper.

Have a great Wednesday!

Pumpkin Patch!

The family and I went to the pumpkin patch this weekend and I was happy to get some great photos of the girls. When we got there it started pouring so we had to wait in the car about 20 minutes first. Most of their little attractions were closed due to the rain, but we were able to still walk around and take photos. I really thought Mariam was going to be scared of the pumpkins, but she loved them!

Surviving Hurricane Mariam

I clearly remember Mariam's first cry--it being not so long ago. It was a sound I had been waiting to hear for 9 months. When I heard it, to me it was perfect. It was the sound indicating that my third baby had made it safely into the world. With Serena, I don't remember hearing a cry and if I did, it wasn't till a minute later and must have been very quiet. With Layla, there was no immediate cry. It wasn't till about 3 minutes later which were the longest minutes in my life, and in which I thought perhaps she wasn't going to make it because she was grey at birth and unresponsive. 

Fast forward to the present day. 

Mariam has not let me forgotten just exactly how her cry sounds, and lord help me if it hasn't tried my patience a few times over these past 11 months. Mariam was and is a crier. Of course it's also her being a baby and not being able to communicate, but it's also her nature and something tells me she's going to be the most sensitive out of the three. She loves to cuddle and is very sweet. From 0-3 months were the worst with her. She was colicky so unless she was feeding or sleeping she was crying. I miss when she was a squishy little newborn, but I do not miss all the stress that those first 3 months brought. There were a lot of tears from me too. It got better around 4 months and started back up again around 5 months. These days she is much better but still cries over a lot of things.

You're taking too long with my food...

I don't want to be put down...

I'm not in the mood to have my picture taken...

It was a learning process to deal with a sensitive baby while dealing with a toddler and a 10 yr old. I can tell you that getting frustrated didn't help anybody. It didn't help me, it didn't help Mariam. It only led to guilt--that's it. A lot of the experts say walk away from the situation if you are getting too frustrated and that's great advice and something I completely agree with. However, it didn't help me too much because for one, I may have gotten about a minute of quiet, but once I'm back, the crying was still going on and I was quickly back to square one. What helped me was counteracting the frustration with gentleness and extra love. Instead of letting the frustration take over me and wanting to scream, I would just hold her more gently than ever. I would cradle her and carry her and plant extra kisses on her. That's what helped me deal with the situation and it was a win-win for everybody. If you're in my shoes, try it and remember that they aren't going to be little forever. It goes by so quickly.

Fall line sneak peak!

Originally I wasn't going to be doing a fall line for the business with so many other things I've got going on like birthdays and holidays--and life in general with three girls, but I couldn't resist working with some gorgeous fall fabrics I had to have. This will be the last line of the year as I get ready for new and exciting things come spring 2014. I will still have new bibs and hair accessories coming out the remainder of the year, but one at a time and done at my leisure. I'm also really excited about this line because it has brought on a brand new face to FHJ Baby. This is Maddie from California and she is just such a happy gorgeous little baby. 

Layla still occasionally models and Mariam will too, but Mariam is really hard to photograph these days--at least for product shots. She doesn't like to sit still and lately has been taking off all her hair accessories. Perhaps that will change later on. 

It's beginning to feel like fall

This weekend brought beautiful weather. It was in the 60's come Saturday morning and it was awe-some! Saturday we all just stayed home and I worked on some new items for the shop during naps and at night. I got a lot accomplished so it was nice. Sunday we all headed to my in-laws house for dinner. The weather was so nice that the girls played outside for awhile and I couldn't of asked for a better afternoon surrounded by family.

My heart also melts a little each time when I see H tumbling around outside in the grass with the girls. Man, do I love that guy. Even though I was irritated that he had a business networking poker game the night before, and stayed out late which means I couldn't fall sleep till he got home. It's hard to stay mad at him for too long. 

Happy Friday...and other random tidbits

Anyone else wake up this morning feeling like they were run over by a truck? No? Just me?  I stayed up way too late last night watching "The Walking Dead" on Netflix and working on some things. So sleepy! Thankfully, I finally caught up with all my orders last night so this momma is turning in early tonight. 

We don't have any plans this weekend other than just taking it easy and seeing where the wind blows us. I am going to try to work on a few new things for the business. Speaking of which, I have a sale going on in the shop for the popular Layla bib. They are available in pink, lilac, blue, and red polka dot and on sale for $10 till next Wednesday 10/9/13.

Happy October!

Let the pumpkin decorating and the candy eating commence! This year will be baby Mariam's first Halloween, and I can finally enjoy it because I'm not pregnant and all my girls are at the age where they can enjoy the pumpkin patch and festivities. It looks like I can also finally retire this shirt.

{Pregnant with Layla in 2010}

{Pregnant with Mariam in 2012}

Anniversary Trip Part 2

I just wanted to share some more pictures from our recent trip. We really did have a great time and as much as I missed the girls--to the point where I sometimes thought about picking up someone's baby and hugging them, it was really nice to have some quality alone time with H.