The Age 2.5, & 28 Weeks Pregnant

Everett is 2.5. So crazy. This age is so so fun. He is so smart and funny, it blows my mind. He talks so much I can barely keep up.
He loves Santa Clause, Mickey Mouse, Daniel Tiger, puzzles, blocks, playing Dr (one time he put the stethoscope to my baby belly and said "whomp whomp whomp" like a heartbeat, like seriously so cute), chocolate milk, whole apples, bike rides, the zoo, his friends Ava and Ryan, his daddy, the iPad, and he loves me of course :) He is so into Christmas this year it is wonderful to see it through his eyes. I feel slightly sad that he will no longer be the center of our world come the spring, but I am excited to see him as a big brother.



I am feeling very pregnant. This baby moves a ton! We go back for an ultrasound on the 23rd to check on a couple things, and I'll make sure to ask to see the gender again…ha. We haven't done a thing to prepare for this baby, minus buying clothes here and there. We had the nursery together and a diaper stockpile for Everett when I was around this far along, poor second baby! No names either, looks like the same thing will happen that did with Ev, going in with two names and deciding when we see her. There is something about a surprise name that I love! But seriously, we don't talk about it. I do have guilt that I haven't recorded much about this baby on here. This pregnancy is super similar to Everett, but also so different. Its not consuming me and my mind. Life is so busy right now with a toddler and a busy photography business. We are blessed for sure, but I still feel sad that this little girl is getting forgotten about a bit.

What happened in 4months?

I cannot believe it has been 4 months since I posted anything here. What on earth.
When google reader went out, I stopped reading all blogs. I used to read them on my phone every morning, but then the app was deleted and I forgot about blogging. I also deleted flickr from my phone, and twitter, and vine...you know, just trying to get rid of all that extra junk I was doing. Time wasters (well flickr just took up too much memory).
ANYWAY, the point being, when I stopped reading other blogs, I stopped caring about mine. And that made me think I was doing it just because other people were, or because I wanted to impress others. That is not who I want to be. I won't be posting here regularly, but I do want to update my few readers on several life changes that happened.
Since June, we:

Sold our house. It went on the market in June, and we sold it in July and moved out July 31st. We were living with our gracious family for 8 weeks while the new home was being built. We just moved into our new home a week ago (this pic is old, obviously). It is only a few miles away from where we were. We love the new location so much. It feels perfect here!




Found out we were expecting #2! We found out in July we were pregnant. We had been trying to conceive since January and had a few bumps in the road. We were thrilled but cautious to share the news. I am now 18 weeks along. I have been feeling so great lately. During the first move (packing our old house up), I was so so sick. Just super nauseous and exhausted. Thankfully it didnt last too long!





Also, we found out its a girl!!





Exciting couple months around here! If you want to follow me on instagram, my name is @shayworley and I post there almost daily I am ashamed to say. Belly pics, house pics, Everett pics! So thats where I am most active right now.

DIY high waisted swimsuit

This is by no means a tutorial- I am an amateur seamstress at best. I can do a few straight lines and thats pretty much it.

I have been wanting a high waisted swimsuit for a while now. I was having trouble finding one that would cover the belly button. I usually wear one pieces because I loathe my belly button so much. I always have- I even pierced it at 16 in hopes that that frowny looking thing would look cuter but NO. Now after pregnancy it is stretched out and scarred from my piercing.

Alas.

The suit.

I bought this suit because it is SO CUTE. Ugh I love it so much. It was hard to cut it, trust me. 

I got the suit here and when it arrived I was so bummed because the cups were gapping open. I am super flat chested so there was really no fixing that. I did remove the padding to see if I could replace it (which is why in the before the left side is so sad looking) but no luck there.

So I cut the top portion off, double folded it and sewed a straight line. Then cut off the extra fabric.

I also had to take the sides in about an inch on each side because they were loose.

There you have it. Nothing too crazy or hard to do. I paired it with a top from Target. 

Dining Room & My shutter!

Our dining room is open to the rest of the house, and while at first we didnt see a need for a formal dining room we now love it. Of course, its far from formal! We redid the dining set and I am so in love with it. The shutter was given to me by our neighbor- he is actually pretty grumpy and recently moved but this shutter will always remind me of him. Awesome but not awesome. The initials I have been wanting to do for so long. The W is from our wedding, still holding strong after 6 years and several paint jobs. And it looks like we can squeeze one more initial there next to the E? Just one more is all we want! Hopefully soon!

Here is the before:

This is from right after moving in 3 years ago.

We stripped the chairs and table and did a grey whitewash on the wood. 

We love how it turned out- light, bright and FUN! We love it!

unprompted sweetness

Two things happened yesterday that no doubt need to be documented for my sake.
Everett and I were moseying around the store when I sneezed and he said, "bless you mommy!"
My heart was so full at that moment- like how did you know to say that? How are you the sweetest thing??!
Then at 10 pm Everett woke coughing and crying. He had a fever yesterday so I got him up to check his temp and give him tylenol if it was still high. Chris laid him in our bed and said, "you are so sweet!" and then that little boy of mine, who takes much prompting to say 'i luh you!' took his daddys face in his hands and said, "I luh you Daddy!". The first time he said it unprompted, he just knew to say it! I was a little torn between feeling jealous that he said it to Daddy before me and completely melting to a puddle right there in that dark bedroom.
That curly haired kid, how can it get any better?

He is 2.

 

Turning two has been so easy, so much fun. Turning one is sad in the "he's not my baby anymore" way- but turning two is more fun in the growing/talking/learning way. Everett is so funny. Maybe just to me and Chris, but we don't care. He cracks us up all day long. Yesterday we were walking out of Target, hand in hand, and the automatic door opened, and Everett exclaimed, "Thank you!". To an automatic door. I died laughing. I also thought, 'wow, he is so polite and we have taught him that!' So proud!

He likes to pretend everything that isnt a hat, is a hat. He will put a shoe on his head and say,  "mommy, my hat" in the most serious matter-of-fact way. Then he will crack himself up. He thinks he is funny too! He will also cover his head with anything, turn up his palms and ask "where'd he go?".

He is also so helpful. He will help me with everything if I let him. I am trying to let him and cultivate this helpful nature he has, because I like to think one day his wife will thank me :). He likes to carry every piece of laundry from the dryer to the couch. In the kitchen he likes to take his stool and stand right next to me and hand me things. He also takes everything out of the dishwasher, handing it to me to be put away. He is also very independent in the kitchen. Lately he just takes his little stool and will get in the pantry and get his own snack. Sometimes thats nice for me, but we are trying to make him ask first because he will do this at other peoples houses. Yikes, right??!

He is still a great sleeper and eater. He will go to sleep with zero fight and protest (as long as we have read 4 books and said our prayers), wake up happy, and nap is the same way. He eats almost everything we offer, and could eat all day long.

He is talking up a storm. Most of it is understandable too! He repeats everything you say. I mean EVERYTHING! It is so sweet in moments when I tell him I love him, and he says "I luh yooooou". But he also repeats me when I say "shoot" or "oh my gosh". Working on that! We have always felt like he was an early talker, or an advanced talker, but now I feel like he is right on the same page as other two year olds.
He loves the following: dogs, horses, goats, bugs, going on walks, playing at the park, coloring (or as he says 'cuttering'), giving hugs and kisses, milk, popcorn, any food on a stick, swimming, the ipad, his shows (Super Why & Mickey Mouse are his current favorites), any blanket, his cousins, his best friend Ava, going to play at Grammys school, and books before bedtime. He dislikes the following: getting his hair washed, anything dripping on his clothes, being dirty, being in the car, broccoli, when mommy leaves, sand in his shoes, loud sounds, showers and sour food.
I am absolutely loving this age. He is a blast. Everything is so fun and exciting to him. He is really funny and I love watching him absorb new information. He is a joy- my sunshine! Love you Everett boy!

Polka Dot Dining Room

Our dining set has always been a hand me down from my parents. It was great and served its purpose for what we needed, and it also gave us time to save money for what we really wanted. We have done a lot to our home since we moved in 3 years ago, and mainly done most of the work since Christmas time. Chris and I could not decide on how to paint the kitchen nook, like we got into multiple fights at Home Depot over this. He wanted a metallic wall, I wanted bead board. I think Chris caved on this one, but we finally decided on a polka dot wall with subtle metallic dots. He still makes fun of this wall and wants to do another pallet wall in place of the polka dots, but I adore this wall. This room has become easily my favorite in the whole house.

Here is was the room looked like upon moving in 3 years ago:

Its sooo bad, isnt it!

We have since retiled, repainted, and gotten the new set and light fixture. The farmhouse style table is from DownEast Home, as well as the metal chairs. The yellow wooden chairs are from Ikea, and painted. The metal light fixture is from Home Depot. 

Camping Party

I still need to do a gushy my-baby-is-2 post, but for now I want to share photos from his 2nd birthday party.

We did a camping theme. Everett is really into bugs and bees, and I know I had seen a party somewhere where they did a cute beehive piñata for a camping party. Chris always likes to use the pool at his parties (all 2 of them haha), and I thought calling it a swimming hole would work for that theme. It took a while for the theme to be sold on Chris, but as his birthday approached and we got to be on a time crunch he no longer cared :)

Entry Way Decor

Favors at the door were little hobo sacks on sticks.  

Smores Cupcakes instead of cake.  I used this recipe.  

 Food (didnt get enough photos! gah!) I tried to serve stuff in cast iron skillets! Popcorn bar  

 A fun sign on the bathroom  

 Drinks Our makeshift tent haha Piñata  

 More decor outside He wasn't really into gifts...at all...until I gave him a lollipop from the pinata.