DIY Homemade Baby Wipes

My midwife and every nurse I've seen has asked about how to make our homemade wipes. It's so easy! So much cheaper than store-bought wipes. And so much better for Audrey's skin.

This is how we make ours.












You will need:

1 Roll of paper towels
1 Tablespoon baby shampoo
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup of warm water
A round sealable container (large enough to hold a 1/2 roll of paper towels)

This recipe is for one half roll at a time.

-Cut the paper towel roll in half using a sharp knife. I used a bread knife. Place the half roll into your container.
-Mix the olive oil and baby shampoo in the warm water. Stir it quickly to make sure it's nicely mixed.
-Pour the mixture over the paper towels in the container. Let the paper towels rest about 5 minutes to soak up all the liquid.
-When the paper towels have soaked up the liquid remove the cardboard center carefully from the roll. Pull out the paper towels from the center. Your wipes are now ready to use!

We really love these wipes! I really prefer them for Audrey's skin. I find that her skin reacts better to the homemade wipes and her little bum stays soft from the olive oil. I tend to add a little less baby shampoo and a little more olive oil.

I've also used them to remove makeup. They rule.

Enjoy!

xoxo
Talia Christine

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So We Can Be All Matchy Matchy and Stuff

My Mom and Grandma used to always buy me and my sister matching dresses. On special occasions, all three of us would match. Me, Mom, and my sister.

When I was 12 I thought it was soooo embarrassing. Then I got over it and me and my sister started matching again. As adults. Lots of adult sisters do that. Right?  Ahem.

As a kid I didn't understand the whole matching thing. But now, oh now I do.

When I found a little pint-sized navy and blue shirt that matched my very favorite shirt in the world, I didn't hesitate to buy it. So now me and Audrey can match. I'm pumped.

xoxo
Talia Christine

My shirt: Anthropologie
Audrey's shirt: Cotton On Kids

Spring Flowers & "Petal"

Can you feel it? Spring is just around the corner. I know it is.

This will be our first Spring in this house and we were surprised to find some flowers popping up in our old veggie garden. We thought we got all the flower bulbs out but found a few sprouting here and there. They're beautiful! Though I don't know what kind of flowers they are.

Kind of gives me hope that warmer weather is on the way. I can't wait to take little Audrey to the park down the street and have little picnics together.

(The neighbor dog Petal was unimpressed with me walking around the yard taking photos. Pretty menacing, eh?)



(So I snapped a photo of her as well.)

xoxo
Talia Christine

Dear Audrey,

You have a cold. Your first cold. I feel like this is a milestone in your life. The first of many colds to come. You are a bit fussy, but considering, you are handling it so well. You coughed a bit at first but now you just have the sniffles. It's pretty cute, actually. So it can't be that bad. I might have freaked out just a tad when you started coughing. I might have overreacted a bit. But I'm okay now. We're okay now. Okay, so I'm a little nuts. It runs in the family. You have a lot to look forward to.

Anyway, I love you. Feel better soon. And stop freaking out when I wipe your nose. It seriously isn't that bad.

Loooooove,
Mom.

DIY Beer Crate TV Stand

In a spur of the moment whim, me and Phil decided suddenly that the living room needed a bit of rearranging. It wasn't quite right. It needed fixing. We immediately turned our attention to the TV area. Our TV sat on a low coffee table that was awkwardly shoved into the corner of the room. It was so not nice, but we didn't really have any other options.

We played around with the idea of putting the TV on a large old fashioned radio. It was neat, but still not quite right. Then we dreamed of making a TV stand out of old crates. We only had two, but the idea seemed perfect. In a snap decision, Phil went to the nearest liquor store and purchased four empties beer crates. The bottles went to our recycling bin and we got to work. While Audrey was napping we stained the crates with Briwax to give them a more finished look. When they were dry we ran them inside and rearranged the crates to get the right look we were going for. Beautiful. Exactly what we were going for. Our living room felt right. Complete.

I love our new TV stand. Whenever I see it I look at it with appreciation. It was a quick and easy project and it has a rustic homemade feel to it. Perfect for us.

Now our living room is comfy cozy.

Home sweet home.

xo
Talia Christine

2 Months Old

I got all set up to take photos of Audrey but it wasn't quite right. She was very fussy and was not up to having a camera in her face.



She wasn't having it.

So we abandoned the camera and opted for cuddles instead. As soon as I picked her up to soothe her she promptly puked all over herself and down my shirt. Poor baby! Her tummy had been bothering her. We got cleaned up and went to our bed to settle down and cuddle. She was feeling right as rain in no time! So I managed to snap a few more photos.










These days baby girl is bright eyed, alert, and talkative like you wouldn't believe. When I put her into her little lounger bouncy chair she happily chats away to the little toys hanging above her. When you pick her up her face lights up with recognition and a smile. It's amazing.

It's hard for me to put into words how much I love being a mother to Audrey Eleanor. Even when I close my eyes she is often in my dreams. I guess it is because she is such a major part of our lives and is always in my forefront of my thinking. I feel I am exactly where I am supposed to be, doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. Being a mom. It's not really very glamorous. I wear my sweatpants more often than I wear any other pants. Spit up breast milk is my latest accessory. My diaper bag is stuffed to the gills and I never go anywhere without it.

And life is perfect.

Baby girl is asleep in my lap right now. All I need is Phil to come home from work (and give me a kiss) and I'll be the happiest girl alive.

xoxo
Talia Christine

p.s. - Audrey slept 7 hours straight last night without waking up. BOOM! I feel like a new woman.

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A Day In The Life

If there's one photographer you should be excited about right now it's Tim Coulson.

His photos are real. Honest. Snapshots of moments in time. They aren't staged and posed. They are documenting. Capturing. Captivating.

When Tim emailed and asked if he could visit and spend an afternoon with us taking photos of our everyday I was thrilled.

I warned him that we aren't the most exciting people in the world. We are pretty boring really. But this is our life, and boring or not, it is beautiful.














I love these little moments at this time in our lives. Time is fleeting quickly and these snapshots hold these moments still for me. What I love about them is how familiar they are to me. This is normal life. Those are my books on the shelf. Those are our photos on the wall. That's our kitchen with the bright red counter tops. That's our tiny daughter who is growing so quickly. That's my husband tending the fire to keep our little family warm. All of these little things are beautiful and we are truly blessed.

We got to spend the afternoon with Tim and his wife, Kesh, and we talked and laughed and got to know one another while he was snapping photos. We asked them to stay for dinner and me and Phil cooked up a Mexican feast.

We really enjoyed getting to know the Coulson's and having them over. It was a pleasure in the truest sense of the word. If you can book Tim to take photos for you, do it. These photos are priceless to me.

I tried to pick out a few photos but there are so many I love. Check out more of the photos at Tim's blog.


xo
Talia Christine

A Day In The Life: Preview

the van der wel family | new zealand from Tim Coulson on Vimeo.

We met Tim Coulson and his lovely wife, Kesh, this weekend. They stopped by to snap a few photos. I'll tell you all about it soon. For now, here's a lovely slideshow of some of the moments that Tim captured.

xo
Talia Christine

7 Weeks Old

Little Audrey is 7 weeks old! She is smiling and talking more than ever before. I can't believe our little baby isn't a newborn anymore. She is a growing girl and weighs a bit over 9 lbs now. My arms are getting a workout.

Last Friday we went to the doctors for her 6 weeks checkup and for her immunizations. We debated long and hard about whether or not we should immunize her or not. We were really torn but we ultimately decided to get them. It's a tough decision and it's a sticky subject but I think that it's every parent's right to be able to decide either for or against. I scheduled them during Phil's lunch break and we went together. I needed Phil to be there and to be strong for the both of us. He held Audrey while I stepped outside the room and lost it when I heard Audrey cry. I've never heard her cry like that and it broke my heart. She eventually forgot about it but I cried for awhile anyway. Later that night she ran a light fever and was really fussy and out of sorts but she came right. I was on edge until I saw her smile again then all was right with the world.

So I'm kind of a mess. I know. I just really love her.

We have officially made the switch to cloth diapers now and I have to say that I love it! At first I was super freaked out by it. Just the notion of being up close and personal with baby poop was not great... but... I got over it. It's not as awful as I thought actually. I just throw the nappies in a bucket and soak them all when I'm ready to wash. Every time we use a cloth diaper I think that I'm effectually saving about 30 cents and saving a diaper from a landfill. In just a couple days we've saved 5 bucks! Awesome.

We have fallen into the swing of things and I love being a mom. I love taking care of her and making sure she is loved, fed, and well. It's hard for me to put it into words. I can't imagine anything else I'd rather be doing with my life. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be doing exactly what God has called me to do. I hope we have a whole herd of children one day. And I hope that even when I have my hands full that I am thankful I have my hands full of "good things".

xoxo
Talia Christine

P.S. - I wish that the photos above had smell-o-vision because Audrey had a bath and smells SO GOOD!

P.P.S. - Yes, we had a costume change half way through the photos. I can't help myself! She is my real live doll!!