The Hatching Hen

One of the very exciting reasons that I've been absent on here is that I've been working on opening an online shop with my sister-in-law! We just launched The Hatching Hen yesterday and we are having so much fun! We were blown away by the response that we received from all our friends and family. Thank you to everyone who liked, shared, and bought our stuff!!! We are so grateful!

The story behind the shop is that Rebecca wanted to find something to keep her and Line busy while the other two girls were napping. She really was drawn to the idea of making teething necklaces, for obvious reasons because they are AWESOME; but also because Line loves to make jewelry and is very creative when it comes to stringing them together. A few weeks later we were doing a photo shoot together and decided that this was something we wanted to do as a team. I have been making braided pacifier clips since 2013 when Charlie was born and all four of our youngest have been using them since birth. They are seriously a lifesaver and I love the way they look. I was very excited to expand the colors of the leather suede and think they look better than ever!

The teething necklaces are seriously amazing. If you have teething children, you need to head on over and buy one now! I never had one with Charlie and I am wishing that I would have known about these before. These necklaces are made with a mixture of natural wood and 100% food-grade silicone beads so they are so great for babies to gnaw on when they are pushing through some teeth. Pip has been pushing through her fourth tooth and she grabs this thing as soon as she's in reach. Holding her is 10x easier because she has something to play with rather than my hair. Much more enjoyable for me :)

This is new territory for the both of us and we are loving it! So head on over to the shop and take a look at what we've made! You can also follow us on Instagram.

These necklaces and pacifier clips in action!

Charlie loves to help model the necklaces too :)

Breakfast

I sure do love this little boy. He's been teething still and has had a cold the past few days and it hasn't been the most enjoyable time but he is now crawling instead of pulling himself around. Which is awesome. Plus he pulls himself up onto everything he can and tries to pull down anything he can. It makes for a fun day!

Look at those chubby grubby hands? Don't you just love them?

Playtime with the Cousins

We had Line and Maggie over for an hour or two the other day and it was very fun to watch Charlie stare at them :) Line loves to play store and buy just about everything in our house and then she turned into our banker and gave Andy a pretty great investment deal. Maggie is at a great age where she is pretending to talk on the phone and also she just found her belly button. Awesome. I'm so glad that we live so close to these two.

 Loves this hat.

 Talking on her carrot phone.

Line decided that the house was a much better as a bank.

Baby Friends

This play date happened about two weeks ago and we've since seen Andrew again, but these pictures were just too adorable not to post. They are only a month apart and I absolutely love seeing them play together! Andrew is always trying to grab Charlie's hair. Charlie is just trying to avoid any other contact but failing pretty badly since Andrew is already crawling!

Aren't they just the cutest?

Sink Bath!

We just got back from a long weekend over in Seattle with Andy's grandparents. We originally went because Andy took a test for the Seattle Fire Department and then we stayed a few more days just for the fun of it. Of course we didn't end up taking any pictures, except in the car on the ferry ride home (best time to take pictures, right?). So here are some cute pictures I took of Charlie last week when we decided to start giving him sink baths. And I think he's pretty darned cute. Here's to a great week!

8 Months and Counting

Technically he is a few weeks past being eight months, but I don't think that we need to get THAT technical about it. I just can't believe that it has been eight months since we were in the hospital with that little frowner of a baby. I still remember the first night and how he would only sleep snuggled up to me. It was uncomfortable and I didn't get a ton of sleep but I wouldn't change it for the world, it was so sweet. I do miss having a newborn but I'm so glad that he is older and can do much, much more. 

You can see his teeth a bit better here.

Cozy

This weekend was spent inside with the heaters on and sweaters galore. It was cozy for sure. I tried some chai tea latte recipes and we even went swimming at the YMCA for a bit. Andy was working all weekend so I decided that it would be best spent relaxing with Mr. Charles. He sure does keep things fun though. 

 He gets so excited when he stands holding onto something. It's like he is the first person to ever do it.

 He also gets very excited to see himself in a mirror.

He is now arm crawling across rooms to get to certain things that he is really not supposed to be getting into.

Grilled Cheese and Applesauce

 This Friday it is just Charlie and I all day so I decided it should be his first day to try grilled cheese. It is an absolute favorite of mine and I was just sure that he would love it too. And he did. I mean, it's bread and cheese with butter, who wouldn't love that? And then I had to give him something "healthy" so I gave him some applesauce I made last year? I'm not actually sure how old it is, but we've been eating it for a while and it's still good.

 Look at the teeth! Do you see them?

This kid is my favorite. His laugh is the greatest.

Teeth, Coming Through!

This little guy has been teething for the past few days and I'm kind of over it. He hasn't been too bad but it's just thrown him off schedule a bit (I know, I'm all about the schedule). But he does have two teeth coming in and we are very excited for his new smile. Other new things that have been going on around here is that Andy made an awesome desk and we got some new rugs for our living room. I am very excited about both of these because now we can have bright colors in our living room, yay! I stayed up late last night trying to arrange everything and I think we've come up with some good changes.

I just put these two loaves in the oven and I'm very excited to try them. I might just share the recipe tomorrow :)

First Runny Nose of the Season

Well it's here and (hopefully) almost gone. That first runny nose of the season. It hasn't been half as bad as I was expecting it to be. He still sleeps about the same at night and it doesn't seem to bother him too much during the day. He's still his happy little self, which is a huge relief. Bad news is that I just woke up with mine :( What a bummer. Oh well, I'm sure it won't be here for too long, and plus we get to go to the fair this week, how can you be sad at the fair? It's just not possible. 

Also, notice his adorable shoes in the above picture, the best right? Yes, the best.

Plus these overalls are my favorite.

Play Dates and Popsicles

You can never have too many playdates. They are the best excuse to get out of the house with your baby and sit and chat with other moms. What's not to love? For this particular playdate we sat in my sister-in-laws back yard and ate cucumbers and pizza, great combination. We watched the older two kids run around the pool trying to play with the soccer ball and volley ball while not having to share. It was very entertaining. I hope to have many more playdates in the near future.

I just love those cheeks!

Daniel was having a bit of a hard time eating his popsicle without it getting all over his hands.