Friday Favorites: Minted

It's no secret that I enjoy sending (and receiving) real mail. December is such a fun month to check the mail because we get a steady stream of adorable cards coming our way. I enjoy all the cards but the photo cards are my favorites. I love all of the seeing sweet, smiling faces! This year I noticed a few cards we received, and a few shared in the blog world were ordered through Minted, and they were all so nice!

I have spent a little lot of time browsing the Minted website since the holidays, and they have some amazing cards and other stationary for other events too. I loved planning our wedding. I wish I had known about Minted back when we got married, because their wedding stationary is great, starting with save the date cards. Here are a few of my favorites.

Many of the designs, including the one above, are available in different formats, including magnets

Of course, I love the cards with photos. For a save the date card I think a photo can be really helpful for friends and family who may not know either the bride or groom.

I also like that there are multiple options for the back of the card, or inside if you do folded cards.

My preference is for photo cards, but I wanted to share a few of the no photo options too. Each card has a few color options, and most coordinate with wedding invitations

I had to include this one because we got a very similar designed invitation to a Christmas party this year and it was beautiful. The paper was a nice quality and the colors were great.

A little Minnesota love...

I really love the timeline option for the inside of this card.

And, really, how cute are the envelopes?!

With my wedding over, I have my eye on a few other Minted pieces, like the Valentine's Day cards (and classroom valentines), birthday party invitations, notebooks, and the Mommy calling cards (or more traditional business cards).

Because these are a few of my favorites, I'm linking up with Katie for Friday Favorites today. Head on over to see some of her Minted favorites too!

Full Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Minted, but all opinions are completely my own.

Baby C: 5 Months

And now to get caught up. Sweet Baby C is 5 months old. She was baptized, celebrated her first Christmas and had her first cold. A busy month for all of us!

Personality: I can't say it enough, Baby C is the most content baby! She's very sweet and content most of the time. She's been smiling, laughing, squealing and making some strange alien sounding noises this month. I also have noticed she'll wake up talking rather than crying (a much better sound).

Likes: I think Baby C's favorite thing right now is E's popping noise. All 3 girls have liked it, but if Baby C is crying and E makes the popping sound, she'll stop right away. E sent me a video of him popping while he was out of town and that video can stop crying too. Awesome! She also likes to eat Daddy's nose. A little strange. The other people who get big smiles are Miss A and Little J. She loves her big sisters. She also giggles so much when we kiss her little cheeks. Baby giggles are the best! I think she's also a little ticklish, because she's started laughing if you tickle her tummy. She also really likes to arch her back/lean back when you're holding her. Silly girl!

Dislikes: Baby girl did not like being sick very much. I think it was hard for her to eat and suck on her pacifier when she was congested. Thankfully she didn't seem to get as sick as the rest of us, and she bounced back pretty quickly. She's still a bit congested a week later, but not too bad. And let's face it, we're probably doomed to be a little sick throughout the winter with three kids.

Sleeping: What a night and day difference! At Baby C's 4 month check up her doctor suggested letting her cry it out for a night. I felt a little guilty about letting my sweet little girl cry, but in total I think she cried about half an hour that first night, and since then, she's only waking up once or maybe twice a night. Occasionally she will wake up earlier, but she settles down again within a few minutes and wakes up to eat someone between 2 and 5am. She goes back to sleep for a few more hours after that. Baby C sleeping better means that I am sleeping better, which makes for a much happier mama. She still doesn't like to sleep flat, so she spends most nights in her swing. We used to leave it in the living room by us, but now when she's ready to sleep she likes to be in the dark to fall asleep (still swaddled and with her pacifier).

Eating: Still nursing well, and eating about every 3 hours during the day. Then getting a bottle before bed and sleeping a longer stretch.

Baby C: 4 Months

So, this really late, but I didn't want to miss it. Baby C is actually 5 months now, but here's a little update about her 4th month.

Personality: Still the happiest, sweetest baby during the day, but not such a happy girl at night. See sleep below.

Likes: This month Baby C was so much more smiley! She's also squealing and laughing. On the night she turned 4 months old, Baby C went with me to our neighborhood Christmas party with me and one of the ladies had her rolling. It was the sweetest little sound! We started going to the gym this month and she seems to do really well in the day care.

Dislikes: Anyone leaving the room. If you walk away from her she starts talking to herself or, more often, crying. She also dislikes sleeping more than an hour at a time at night.

Sleeping: AHHHHH! Baby C was sleeping really well until early November, then not. At. All. Baby girl woke up every 1-2 hours during the night, and would only go back to bed if I fed her. Not cool. She was still great during the day, but nights were a total mess.

Eating:  Baby C was eating so much, or at least so often at night, and still eating well during the day. Baby C eats about every 3 hours during the day. Her last feeding before bed E gives her a bottle. At Baby C's 4 month check up she was 15 pounds, 12 ounces so she is a big baby! (Also 25 inches long.) None of my girls have been small babies, but Baby C was a full pound bigger than Miss A at the same age. I guess eating all night will do that to you.

Feeling Thankful

Wow... where did November go? And the start of December for that matter? I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted. November was a crazy month. E had a really busy start to November, Baby C's sleep was ridiculous and Little J turned 3. So many updates to get to. But first I have to share our November thankfulness project. 

The start of our thankful tree

In the craziness that was our November we took time to talk about what each of us was thankful for each night. I put up a construction paper tree on our sliding door, and as each family member said what they were thankful for, I would add that to a dot and add the dot to our tree. I really enjoyed spending this time together every day, and the girls continue to talk about the things they're thankful for even though we've stopped adding to our tree. Every night Little J would say, "I am thank you for..." Miss A picked it up by the end of the month.

Our finished tree

A sampling of things from our tree...

• dance parties
• milk & cups (Little J)
• warm house
• Little J, my best friend (Miss A)
• Christmas
• pictures
• dessert
• squeeze hugs 
• healthy kids
• friends
• time at home together
• kitties
• family
• grandmas & grandpas
• friends
• memories
• God 
• our church
• birthday celebrations
• our neighborhood
• Como Lake
• Miss A's teachers
• the blue sky
• fun & our house
• YMCA
• Netflix
• Little J's smile when I give her hugs
• morning snuggles with Miss A
• that I can play & learn at preschool (Miss A)
• the color purple
• birthdays & birds that sing
• long weekends
• blankie
• to be able to run & play
• ice cream
• that I can feed the baby
• Daddy-daughter days

Treat Yourself Tuesday: Birthday Treats

It's now been just over a month since my 33rd birthday so I today I'm linking up with Becky to share some of the ways I treated myself during my birthday month.

A babysitter for girls night. I set plans with some girls from school, and then E had last minute travel come up. Normally I would have tried to reschedule, but knowing that I was going be on my own with all three girls for a few days I checked with our babysitter and she was able to watch the big two while Baby C and I headed out for dinner and dessert. Because at Cafe Latte you have to do dessert :)

A babysitter for date night. We were out of town a lot around my actual birthday, but we were able to set up a babysitter for later in the month. We had gift cards for the Blue Plate Restaurant Company, and decided to check out Scusi. We ended up sitting outside, and it got a little chilly, but the food was good (the zeppole we had for dessert was super tasty!) and the service was even better. Baby C was along for date night, so the waitress told us our drinks were on the house to celebrate our new little lady. So nice!

A bunch of washi tape from Freckled Fawn. Thanks to Heather for telling me about the sale! One dollar washi tape was too good to pass up!

A haircut. My hair is thick to start with, so during pregnancy it gets a little extra crazy. My hair finally started falling recently, and I am so thankful. I was also thankful to get a night away to get my hair cut recently. I only had a few inches taken off, but it feels so much better. Any curly haired Twin Cities friends, I highly recommend checking out The Hive.

A gym membership. I cancelled my gym membership shortly after Miss A was born, and hadn't been back since. We got an elliptical for the house and I started running. Great options much of the time, but I decided that while I'm home for the year I wanted to go to the gym again. Best decision. I started going two weeks ago, and I am loving it. Miss A and Little J enjoy the child care activities and I like that they can burn off a little energy there, especially now that it's cold and snowy. Baby C seems to like it too, or at least is sweet to the workers. I'm super excited to be going to Body Pump again. I used to go all the time and loved it. And I still love it now.

Baby C: 3 Months

Here's how Baby C really feels about Mommy getting the camera our for 3 month pictures. Ha!

Personality: At 3 months, Baby C is very chill little girl. She doesn't cry often and when she does she's pretty easily comforted. She's getting more smiley, but she makes you work for those gummy smiles and gets very shy if the camera is out. When she's in a really good mood we're starting to get some squeals and laughs out of her.

Likes: Baby C still likes her swaddle and pacifier. Lately she's also been chewing on her hands a lot. She also likes being outside and looking at the trees, though she was less impressed by playing in the big pile of leaves with her sisters. She likes Daddy growling and watching The Walking Dead. She really seems to like her sisters. Miss A gets the biggest smiles. She's also very smiley on her changing table. It makes changing diapers a whole lot better when I get big smiles. E and I like when she sits and hold her hands. She looks like such a proper little girl.

Dislikes: Baby C doesn't like being left alone in a room when she's awake. If E is sitting with her at night, and gets up to go to the kitchen for a minute, she gets cranky. Same during the day if I leave her in another room.

Sleeping: Baby C was in a good routine of sleeping until 3:30am or later, eating, then sleeping another decent stretch before being awake. It was awesome. The past couple of weeks she's been waking up more, but hopefully she'll go back to the longer stretches soon.

Eating: She's still a good nurser, and eats pretty consistently every three hours during the day. We had a rough week this week as I developed mastitis (technically after 3 months, but close). It was a rough couple of days. I was tired and in a lot of pain, and baby girl didn't want to nurse so there was a lot of pumping and bottles. Miss A and Little J were excited to get to help with bottles, which was the only positive part.

Halloween 2014

Halloween is over and there is SO much candy in my house! And I can't stop eating it! I've eaten many times the amount I've allowed the girls to eat. I may have to make these brownies to use up some of the candy. They look super tasty!

Before I crash from my sugar high, I thought I'd share a little more of our Halloween 2014 happenings.

We visited a pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago, and finally got a chance to carve the pumpkins Thursday night (there's nothing like the last minute). Miss A was willing to help, but Little J was less than thrilled to be touching the pumpkin guts. She didn't want her hands to get messy.

Also, I couldn't resist putting Baby C in a pumpkin. She's just the right size. I thought it would be totally cute. She disagreed.

Miss A's preschool class celebrated Halloween on Thursday, and Little J helped me hand out treats for trunk-or-treat. The preschoolers were adorable in their costumes. After trunk-or-treat we went inside and her class sang a few songs for us. So cute! There were also some very creative parents there handing out fun treats. I'm going to have to step up my crafting while I'm doing the SAHM thing ;).

Tonight the girls headed out for trick-or-treating. Little J was so excited when she went to the first few houses, she would come back and say, "I got candy!" Baby C and I tagged along to a few houses on our block, then came home to hand out candy to the kiddos. Miss A and Little J stayed out with E, and they met up with some friends who live nearby. After awhile he brought Little J back, but Miss A was really a trooper and stayed out for a long time.  

I'm a little biased, but I think they're the cutest bugs ever!

Halloween was a big success! The girls are already planning their costumes for next year. As of right now they want to be the girls from Despicable Me and E can be Gru. I think that would be super cute, but I have a feeling they will go through several other costume ideas before we actually get to Halloween 2015.