For those of you who haven’t heard yet – I will not be returning to my teaching position next year in order to have more time at home with Isla. I know many of you have been following along since my “Fashionista Teacher” blog days, so you know how much of a change this will be for me! It was definitely a difficult and bittersweet decision, as I loooove being a teacher, but I’m looking forward to this new adventure!

Just wanted to share with you all today what went into my decision and a bit of my heart…

I had always planned on continuing to work after having kids, but with only a few weeks of maternity leave left, reality set in and I began thinking about other options for next fall. When discussing my options with Logan and praying about what God had in store for our future, it became clear that either decision could work for our family (working full-time vs. staying home), there were pros and cons to both and there wasn’t really a distinct path we were being led toward. I knew I would just have to make a decision (the contract renewal deadline was quickly approaching and would pass before I headed back from maternity leave) and trust that the Lord would provide in either circumstance.

The scariest part of my decision was the unknown. Teaching is all I’ve known and loved for the past eight years (more like 28 if you count the school I had in my basement and the “work” I’d force my parents and grandparents to do when we went out to dinner together!) and it’s what I’ve always felt called to do, so not knowing what’s in store for me is terrifying and exciting at the same time. The Lord is just asking me to trust Him right now with what’s to come for our little family! I have the feeling my teaching degree will still be put to good use, whether it be teaching Isla new things or another opportunity I don’t even know about yet!

I’m not a homebody by nature and go a little stir crazy when I’m home all day, so I know getting out and having some adult interaction will be important for me. I plan to substitute teach and work a few hours a week at Loft, along with getting involved in some mom groups and planning plenty of activities Isla and I can go out and do together, like zoo trips and story time at the library.

I just wanted to share this verse with you before wrapping up today’s post.  “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” – Colossians 3:23. It was one that kept replaying in my head during this whole decision making process and it served as a great encouragement for me. Whether you’re a working mama, a stay-at-home mom, or fall into a different category,  whatever it is you do, work at it with all your heart for God’s glory – that is what’s most pleasing to Him!

 XOXO, Jenna

Isla Meline was 4 months old two weeks ago, and I’m finding that moments to myself (like blogging) are hard to come by these days! Little Miss is growing and changing every day. This was a BIG month for milestones, the biggest being rolling over, lifting her head up while on her tummy and finally giggling – at the four month mark on the dot!

Weight gain has tapered off – she’s only gained about a pound in the last month, but her legs have gotten a lot longer and stronger! All of her 0-3 month pants look like capris, while her 3-6 month pants are just perfect! We’re loving her little rompers and jumpsuits for this warmer weather, like the Gap romper she has on in the picture. She weighed 14 pounds, 8 ounces (63rd percentile) at her appointment last week and was 26 inches long (95th percentile). The nurse did Isla’s measurements and left the room, and then came back into the room to re-measure her because she thought she’d measured her length incorrectly after seeing how much she’d grown since her last appointment. She was right the first time – Isla is just getting longer and longer! Her head circumference was only in the 13th percentile though – Logan & I aren’t sure if we should be worried that it’s so much smaller than the rest of her body – HA!

We’re quickly learning that the days of leaving Little Miss on the bed or on a blanket for a few minutes while getting ready or picking up around the house are over. We come back and she has rolled herself across the room toward a sharp corner or to the edge of the bed. I know crawling is still quite a ways off, but Isla is showing determination to move! She rolls to her stomach (which last month she hated), lifts her head and tries to scoot herself toward an item of interest. Last month, she hadn’t even rolled over yet or lifted her head for more than a second while on her tummy – it’s amazing the difference a month can make!

Isla loves to look at our faces and mimic the sounds we make. She likes to make silly noises with her mouth and recognizes Mom & Dad. We thought we may have heard some little giggles at various times last month, but couldn’t be sure, and now we’re sure we heard some laughter on Saturday! Logan was kissing her face, making silly noises and blowing air on her skin and she started giggling! He did the same thing again and we got more giggles! It was the cutest sound I’ve ever heard! 🙂

Her fear of missing out (FOMO) is continuing. She is still a great sleeper at night, but doesn’t want to miss out on any of the activity during the day, even when she’s obviously VERY tired. Having a nap time routine helps, but Miss Isla only falls asleep after a lot of wailing, feeding and fussing. When she’s awake, Isla has to be looking around, aware of what’s going on around her at all times. She’s a social butterfly! 🙂

Her entertainment has changed this month, too. While she LOVED her playmats for the last three months, she prefers just rolling around on a blanket in the middle of the floor with a few toys spread around to grab and chew on. She also likes hanging out in her SkipHop Activity Center and playing with all the fun toys on the activity tray.

Our goal for this summer is to move Isla to her room. She is still in the Pack n’ Play in our room and it’s working out great, but she is starting to become more and more aware of any noises around her, so it’s getting pretty difficult to put her to bed before we’re ready to go to bed ourselves. (Spoiler alert: I started writing this a few weeks ago, and she is now in her own crib!! Hallelujah! No more tiptoeing around at night!)

If you couldn’t tell already, we love our baby girl SO MUCH and can’t wait to continue watching her reach new milestones – but time can slow down just a little! I pray every day for her to grow big and strong, but it’s happening a little faster than my mommy heart can handle!

See you back here (too) soon for a 5 month update!

XOXO, Jenna

I can hardly believe the Boss Lady is 3 months old already! Where has the time gone?! When everyone told me to enjoy every moment because it flies by, they weren’t kidding! Even though we don’t have any huge milestones for month three, Miss Isla is growing and changing SO much!

She’s still a great sleeper … during the night. We’re still struggling with napping in the crib (or anywhere else that doesn’t have human arms). We are so grateful for our 8-9 hours at night though! She has transitioned from the swaddle to Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit and it has been a fairly seamless one. I’ll have to share a picture sometime – she looks like a sumo wrestler when she wears it!

I’m really hoping teeth aren’t coming in soon! It’s still so early, but she’s drooling a ton and always has her hand in her mouth to suck on. I’ve heard it’s possible to see signs a couple months before, so we’ll enjoy this stage while we still can! Isla loves to fold her hands across her chest, too. She tends to do it while tilting her head and smiling, which is the cutest ever! She also uses her hands to grab. She grabs her pacifier out of her mouth and then cries to get it put back in, pulls my hair (and has quite the grip), and pulled her puppy’s fur for the first time yesterday. They love her so much and love to sit close to her, so we’ll just have to be extra mindful about keeping them at a distance for now.

Isla is still making great weight gain, but not as rapidly as before. We are ALMOST fittng into 3-6 month clothing. She is getting so much stronger and is soooo close to rolling. She makes it about 75% of the way from her back to stomach, but just isn’t quite there yet. I’m anticipating her reaching this milestone in the next week! Her head is getting so much stronger, too!

Her favorite book right now is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. She listens and coos every time we read it to her. I’ve even started chanting the same rhythmic pattern to calm her down when she’s upset (like in the car), and it soothes her! If anyone has suggestions for books with a similar pattern, please share! Mom and Dad are getting a little tired of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. 🙂 Isla also loves to listen to adults talk to her. She smiles and coos and even tries to mimic some of the sounds. She tilts her head, bats her beautiful, long eyelashes and gives us the cutest smile – such a little flirt!

Probably this biggest milestone this month is Mom headed back to work yesterday. Little Miss was home with Dad all day and even came to visit school in the afternoon, so it wasn’t too difficult being away from her. The great thing about teaching is you’re so busy and have so many other things to think about, the time really flies and you’re home before you know it. I’m just working on getting back into a routine and figuring out how to balance mom-life with teacher-life. Isla will be at home cared for by friends and relatives for the next five weeks until summer vacation, so that will be a huge blessing!

Thanks for reading and sharing in our joy as we watch our daughter grow! Hope to see you back here soon!

“Hoppy” Easter! This year will be especially fun with a little one! My family always starts the day bright and early just kidding (that’s a serious HAHA if you know me personally) at about 9:30 A.M. We begin the day by looking through our Easter baskets, then realizing we’ll be late for church if we don’t get ready immediately, so we scramble to put on our Easter best and rush out the door 10 minutes later than we planned. Church is usually followed by dinner at one of the two restaurants in my small hometown (I’m sure there are more than that, but not many that serve Easter lunch) with extended family. Since it’s a small town, we also happen to know everyone at the restaurant, so it’s important to look our best! 🙂 I can’t wait to dress our baby girl up in her Easter outfit and show her off!

I’m LOVING the fun spring clothes popping up in all of my favorite baby stores. I put together a collage of a few of my favorites for girls AND boys this time (totally out of my comfort zone, but how cute are these little boy pieces??) in hopes that you can find something you like for your little one … or just ooh and ahh over all the adorable baby clothes!

{Each piece is linked below the collages. Just click on the corresponding number.}

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11

Happy Easter and happy shopping! 🙂

XOXO, Jenna

The boss lady turned two months old yesterday and I wanted to give you a little update on her likes, dislikes, growth and new milestones since she is growing and changing so much!

(Isla’s one-piece outfit is from Baby Gap and is a favorite – so cute and easy for diaper changes!  Thank you to The Child at Heart blog for the monthly baby stat tutorial!)

Likes: Isla still LOVES her playmats – yes, she has two. She kicks her feet and punches her arms to the music. My mom noticed she always tends to lead with her left arm or foot when she’s moving, so we wonder if she might be a leftie like both of her grandpas. We are going to give “Kindermusik” class a try this week to see if she would enjoy it since she seems to like moving to music so much.

Isla has also started to prefer mommy to anybody else. I’m sure that might change once I go back to work at the end of April, but right now we just spend so much time together! I’m definitely not complaining though – I love her little snuggles!

We’ve been going to “Baby & Me” class once a week, which Isla loves. There are lots of other babies there and she looks around the room and coos the entire hour! It’s great for me, too, because I get out of the house and get to interact with other moms. There’s also a lactation consultant available and a scale to use to measure her growth each week, which is very helpful.

I don’t know if I would qualify this as a “like” quite yet, but Isla now tolerates baths. A friend saw last month’s photo and recommended trying to warm up the bathroom by running the hot shower ahead of time, and it worked! We haven’t had any tears since – poor girl was just cold!

Dislikes: Logan was so sweet to let me sleep in this weekend and woke up early with the babe. I was woken up by high-pitched screams, so of course had to go check to see what was going on. Logan only had to mutter two words before I figured it out – “tummy time.” Girlfriend is not a fan.

Isla is also not a fan of naps right now. We feel very fortunate that she sleeps so well at night, but can’t get her to go down for a nap during the day. She will usually go back to sleep right after she wakes up for an hour or two which is great, but fights naps the rest of the day. The only way to get her to sleep if she gets really fussy is letting her sleep in my arms, or running errands and having her sleep in her carseat/stroller.

Growth: Little Miss was 23 1/2 inches (92nd percentile) and 11 lbs., 2 oz. (60th percentile) at her appointment yesterday. She has been wearing 0-3 month clothes for about a month now.

I shared this on Facebook the other day, but I think Isla has been secretly using some sort of lash growing product. Her eyelashes are long and thick and absolutely beautiful! It’s funny how they waited 8 weeks to really start growing!

Milestones: I didn’t mention this on her photo because I’m not sure if it really counts, but I’m pretty sure Isla rolled from her tummy to back last week! She was doing some tummy time (yes I know, mean mom alert) and spit up a little on her playmat. I lifted her head just an inch to clean it up and before I knew it, she was on her back! I had to wake Logan up from his nap to tell him about it, and then of course she hasn’t done it since.

She has really started to smile and “talk” this month. She responds to our voices with cute little smiles and coos in the sweetest little voice while kicking her legs. We were woken up at 3 A.M. a few nights ago (which is a rarity these days) to her little voice “talking” to herself in her Pack n’ Play. It’s hard to be even the littlest bit upset about being woken up when that’s what you wake up to!

Whew! Thanks for reading all the way through! Can you tell we love being parents to this sweet girl?! I can’t wait for all of the new milestones we will get to experience in month 3! I’d love your advice for getting her to nap at home. If you have any ideas, leave us a comment below!

XOXO, Jenna

I’m really looking forward to Easter this year because it will be our first big holiday with Isla! I know she won’t have a clue what’s going on, but she still needs a fancy dress and an Easter basket, right?  So today I’m sharing some of the sweet little things on Isla’s Easter wishlist.

Shopping Guide:

Personalized Easter Basket Liner

Sophie the Giraffe Teether

Pink Stripe Bow

Aden + Anais Swaddles

Pat the Bunny Book

Bow Set

Musical Lamb

Bow Ballet Flats

While the Easter baskets and fancy dresses are definitely a lot of fun, remember the true meaning of this season is celebrating Christ’s resurrection, so that we may have eternal life if we put our trust in Him. That is the ultimate gift! Happy Easter you guys!

XOXO, Jenna