5 Months of Eloise

This little lady is growing so much, I can't believe in just one month she will be 6 months old! She learned to squeal and scream so that's happening a lot now. She has lungs, and I mean lungs like Nick thought her screams were a tea kettle for a minute the other day. She's smiling all the time, laughing sometimes and tells us immediately when she's tired or hungry-- she definitely knows what she wants and still can go from 0-100 in 2 seconds. She already has an adventurous soul, and I know we are going to be following her around once she's on the move.
She is getting more hair, and it's still red! Her eyes are magical and the prettiest blue I've ever seen, just like her dad's. And her thighs and cheeks grow everyday :).

At 5 months, Eloise:
↟Is wearing 3-6 month clothes, and can fit into some 6-9 month. Still in size 3 diapers.
↟Loves watching Sesame Street, especially when Elmo comes on

↟Loves putting everything in her mouth, including her feet

↟More interested in Lucy and likes to watch what she's doing

↟Is eating pureed bananas and apples

↟Is finally taking 2-3 really good naps during the day if we really help her go to sleep, and sleeping 4 hours at a time at night (sometimes we get lucky and she does 6, but that's rare)
↟Loves her jumper
↟Is so interested when we eat and drink
↟Loves to grab at our faces
↟Smiles when we sing to her

Minimalist Lifestyle

I wouldn't say we are minimalists already, but Nick and I definitely are conscious of what we buy and what we keep. Maybe it's because we've moved around so much and are forced to go through all of our things every couple of years. This week, I've become more inspired to take minimalism to another level after I found @mytinytribe on instagram. She is an inspiring women in so many ways and I really enjoy following along with her life even though we have never met. She has a plan for a different room each week that you can follow along with, but her take on it is: shifting the family values away from things and focus more on experiences, purge what you don't need or use, and only keep just enough, no extras. For example, I swear we have 100 blankets in our house, but how many do we really need? It's better to love a couple than it is to keep all of them and barley use them. How many sets of sheets do you need? Socks? T-shirts? What are you keeping in your house "just in case"?  She literally goes through each room in your home and helps you get into the mind set of less is more.

Because less really is more. Having less things gives us more time for memories, experiences, adventures. Less to clean up. Less to maintain. Our world is so materialistic, but I honestly can say that gifts that create memories are truly the best gifts to me. You can retell a story and bring back memories for a life time, but a new shirt or movie will get lost in the shuffle of life eventually. Nick and I have been doing this for each other since we started dating. We give gifts that create memories, we plan trips for all special occasions and it's so fun to talk about all the things we've done together. It works for us.

@mytinytribe says "I've realized what a burden "things" can be. But things that remain in my home out of guilt, are an event greater burden."

If this interests you, please go follow her instagram account and start this journey with us. It is so freeing knowing our house isn't filled with extras and we have exactly what we need.

Reason, Season, Lifetime

I've heard this saying my whole life, that we have friends for a reason, a season and a lifetime. But it wasn't until recently, like this past year, that I really understood what this meant and how to be okay with friends who fall in the reason/season category. 

Military life and moving around a lot come hand and hand. Unfortunately, Nick and I have witnessed how easy it is to be "out of sight out of mind." When you aren't around people you have relationships with, it takes so much more effort to make those relationships work. You can't meet up for coffee or have people over for dinner. Instead, you have to make time to catch up and grow together in your relationship without seeing each other, and that's hard for a lot of people. When the effort is there mutually, your friendship can grow, even if you haven't seen each other in months/years. 

I really believe people are put into our lives for a reason, a season (like for me recently, when Nick was deployed, pregnancy, and now being a new mama) and a lifetime. Sometimes, those that you meet for a reason and stay for a season end up being lifetime friends, and some do not. And I've learned that I need to be okay with the fact that not every person I meet will become a lifetime friend. I think I expected that for a long time and was constantly disappointed when a season of my life was over and the friendship didn't progress. I need to let go of those relationships that haven't continued, appreciate the ones that come and go naturally for seasons of my life, and be forever thankful for the few that have been there for all of my seasons and I can call my lifetime friends.