One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my almost two years of motherhood is to never say never.
Before marriage, my anxiety told me I’d never want to carry or birth children. After marrying the man of my dreams I said I’d love to carry a child but that I’d never birth a child without drugs. Then once I was carrying my precious little man, after years of infertility, I did everything in my power to bring him into the world naturally, and I succeeded in my goal. After bringing him home, listening to outside advice, I uttered the words that I would never nurse past a year because of the judgment against moms that did. That was until I learned about all of the health and emotional benefits that come in the second year of life from a healthy nursing relationship. It was these large moments in my life, as well as many little instances peppered in between, that taught me to get my proverbial foot out of my own mouth and stop saying “I’ll never…”

Read the full story here on West Valley Moms Blog

Mamas, let’s talk about OUR gifts.
I’m not talking about our gifts by way of our talents.
I’m not talking about our knack to be able to DIY a palette into a bedroom set or our ability to meal plan like a champ.
I’m not talking about our gifts in the marketplace, or what we offer when it comes to our careers.
I’m talking about physical gifts. The material things we give. In particular, I’m speaking of the gifts that we give to our children. 
Rewind to Spring when I was celebrating my baby’s first Easter. Now, as a Christian, Easter to me is of course first and foremost about Jesus and His sacrifice and His resurrection.
In celebration of this occasion, I put together a humble little box for my son. One that simply contained a baby Bible, a storybook for bedtime and a stuffed bunny...

One of lifes greatest treasures is being given a blessing we didn't even know to ask for. 
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A blessing that God knew our hearts needed long before we ever existed on this vast Earth. 

My darling son Grey is  one of those very good things. 

Growing up in a family of girls, I wasn't exposed to brothers, male cousins nor did i have very many male friends. It was tea parties, princess dresses and spa days all around. When my sister and I would play house, our kids were always little girls, I nannied for little girls and as I grew older, I guess I just expected I'd also raise little Mini Mandi's. 

When Doug and I spoke about children while we were dating we both expressed that we'd love to raise a daughter together. (He also comes from a family of 5 sisters, he is the only boy) and it just felt natural to both of us to assume that's what we'd be best at. 

In truth I was scared to raise the sex I wasn't familiar with. I hate bugs. Neither Doug nor I watch any sport. I'm delicate and dainty. A girls girl. How would I raise a boy into a man that this world needs?

And then, God gave us a son. And from the moment they placed that little boy on my chest I knew. I just knew. He was meant for us. He would change our world for the better. He would stretch us. And grow us. Inspire us and move us to love so big and so wide, that any preconceptions of what we thought we "needed" flew right out the window. 

And with that great, wide, deep love came the peace from our Lord that I cannot raise a boy into a Godly man alone. Only God can help me do that. Only can God can equip me for a role that heavy.

And it is He that placed a Godly, strong, kind, gentle, manly man in our home as husband and father. It is through Doug that Grey will learn what it means to be a good man. A good husband. A good brother. A good father. All the things that I've never been and can never be and therefor can never model. But Doug can. And I count myself blessed to have him as my partner, raising this little boy by my side.

I, as his mother, can show him how to nurture, care for his home, work hard, follow dreams and teach him lessons, big and small, day in and day out, all while modeling Christ to the best of my ability right here in these four walls. That's what I can do. By the help of our great God in heaven, that's what I can do. 

As my fears started to fade away, carried into the distance by the ever present peace of God, room was made to dream of what I could share with our son. I've waited years to play cars with a little one. And now I get to do that every day. I'm learning about superheroes and Star Wars and bugs and dinosaurs. I do chores wearing super hero masks and get the tightest, squeeziest hugs from a little boy who loves me more than life. 

And my breath catches, and I wonder, goodness how could I have EVER lived without this? Without you? YOU are our family Grey. My little boy. Our perfect little puzzle piece. Thank you for loving us unconditionally. We will spend our whole lives loving you the same way. 

The holidays are a mix of magic and remembrance for us. 

Magic, now that our miracle baby is here with us. Remembrance of what the holidays were to us for the years leading up to him joining our family. I remember the past holidays full of "when will you grow your family?", seeing the joy of other families with little ones and the added "babies look good on you two. It's time." Each comment crushing my soul a little more. We'd been married four years, and everyone in the world (or so it seemed) wanted to see us with children. 

The thing that most didn't know at the time was that we WERE trying. And we too wanted to see us with children. We had been trying. For three years we tried, both with and without medical intervention, to grow our family. 

​The Christmas season of 2015 brought much joy when we found out we were expecting, however, just three short weeks later we'd learn that the baby was not viable and we experienced a great loss a week before Christmas. In those moments I was grateful to be surrounded with family, holiday obligations and business, but my heart ached for the "almost". 

A year later, almost exactly to the day, we found out we were expecting Grey and I literally fell to my knees in gratefulness and pure joy. We had changed our protocol with our doctors and something worked to bring us our sweet boy. 

Fast forward to this year and we are celebrating our second Christmas with our sweet little guy and we are now looking to the future and what we ultimately want our family to look like. 

We know there is a realistic chance that we could, again, struggle and are open to options that may help us conceive faster in natural, non-invasive ways that don't cost the large pricetag that IVF and other methods bring along. 

Which is why I'm thankful for discreet over the counter options like Stork OTC. Found at Target in the family planning aisle, Stork OTC is a product that aids in helping couples with certain issues conceive faster, naturally. It’s cervical cap insemination technique helps deliver sperm as close to the cervical opening as possible, increasing the chances of fertilization by up to 20%. 

Just $59.99 at most retailers, (I got mine at Target, because I practically live there this time of year), it's a small price to pay for a higher chance of us growing our family. To me, I can't put a price on that. 

You can also find it online at www.StorkOTC.com. 

This month has brought on  A LOT of new tastes to little man's palette and many more opportunities for him to sample foods outside of the house. This has made going out, and bringing him along on our date nights, much more fun and easy. 

Not having to bring so much external food from home makes it easier to be spontaneous and I'm thankful he is eating so many fruits, vegetables, healthy oils and meats now because we can order something for him at almost any restaurant I can eat at. 

He's moved to having lunches and dinners that are unique to what we are having, so moving forward you will see separate breakfast, lunch and dinner sections for even more meal ideas. 

We also introduced, GLUTEN. (insert shocked gasps here), for many reasons, that I will talk about in next months post, but you will see some bread included in the meals below. 
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​*Note that these are the meals he's served from breakfast, lunch and dinner. He also gets two-three snacks a day. Snacks include apple slices, pear slices, organic teething cookies, organic puffs and vegetable based baby food purees

As we dive deeper into Baby Led Weaning, I thought it would be fun to share the meals that little man enjoys. He's got SUCH an appetite and it's no surprise he's our child, since he's a foodie through and through. We stick to organic, healthy choices for him, and as of yet he's still dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free and pretty much Top 8 Free. We are going slow with introductions and now that he's almost 1, we will be introducing more and more for variety and nutrition. 

I've posted some photos of the meals I put together for him, and I plan to share along the way, leading up to toddler meals. These are the meals he's currently enjoying at 10 months of age. 

I would love your ideas too! If you have some great infant or toddler food or meal ideas, feel free to share. Any recipes of a specific dish I make for him, I will link to the recipe here on NoshandNurture.com! 

*Note that these are the meals he's served from breakfast, lunch and dinner. He also gets two-three snacks a day. Snacks include apple slices, pear slices, organic teething cookies, organic puffs and vegetable based baby food purees. 

The beauty of eating clean, whole foods, is that Grey can usually eat some of what I order. 

When traveling in Long Beach, we stayed at the Westin and for breakfast I ordered scrambled eggs, gluten free toast and avocado. 

I shared my avocado with Grey, ordered him a side of bananas and brought a puree pouch of baby food to round out his meal. 

Mama + baby were satisfied. Done and done! 

Keep an eye out for What Grey Ate, every month on Nosh and Nurture! And as always I'd love to hear your feedback and what you're feeding your littles.

I also share a lot of our mealtimes, and more, on my Instagram Stories, so if you're over there, follow along! Find me @noshandnurture. 

Today I packed up Grey's Easter outfit in his baby memory box after church and my breath caught in my throat. 

I glanced in and there they were.

The outfit we brought him home in, his first Halloween costume (Donald Duck), his Thanksgiving onesie, his Black Friday attire (haha), his Christmas outfit and jammies, his Valentine's Day outfit, his dedication/blessing suit and as I placed his Easter outfit atop it all, I smiled. And then I teared up. Because it's going so, so fast. My baby has experienced all the major holidays already! My baby will soon be my baby no more and his next milestone will be his BIRTHDAY. 

Easter was so beautifully special. For the past five years, Mr. Charming and I have attended the sunrise service at our church and really did plan to make it this year. But the babes stayed up until nine and at the 5am alarm, we couldn't bring ourselves to wake him. So we planned to attend the 10:30 service. 

We got to church a little early, because the grounds are BEAUTIFUL and made for the perfect location to shoot his Easter photos and give him his Easter basket. It was a gorgeous sunny day and lightly breezy. His basket was simple, a bible book, a bunny book and a cuddly bunny. We talked all day about Jesus and God's love. 

As we finished photos we went in to get a seat and were turned away because it was FULL! (YAY CHURCH!) Which we didn't mind because we love to see our church growing and thriving and we came prepared with lunch for all three of us.  We would just hang out until the noon service.
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We sat at a table outside and enjoyed a healthy lunch while Greyson ate and watched the big kids play. After we ate we played some corn hole (our church is so fun, haha) and let baby crawl around for a while. We got our seats for the noon service and Greyson made it halfway through before he was over it. 

I took him to the Mom's Lounge and nursed him and rocked him and held him as he napped while Mr. Charming stayed in service. What was SO nice was there was a screen playing it all for me to see while he napped so I didn't miss the message. 

This year our churches focus what on the importance of the Resurrection. That you can't believe in Jesus' teachings if you don't believe in his Resurrection. That its pointless to do so, because the Resurrection is what its all about and what ultimately saved us all.  

After nap and service we took flowers to my husbands mom and she gave Grey some more Easter goodies and snuggles and we relaxed at home the rest of the evening. 

It was so perfect and special and I loved spending SO much of the day at church. I'm hoping to do that a few more times before the weather becomes too much to bear to be outside here. 

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter with your family and friends and that the message resonated with you and your soul. Refreshing you as ours did mine. 

Celebrate always! For He is Risen! 

Today our precious little bubs turned 6 months old.

Half a year old. We are halfway to his first birthday and I am feeling alllllll the mama feels today. 

As hard as the early baby days were, and sometimes still are (we will sleep good someday again right?) I am starting to see just how lightning fast all of this goes and with each new milestone I see him moving further away from being my tiny baby and more of him growing into my little boy. 

Today was a beautiful day to celebrate him, as Sundays are our favorite around here. We get daddy cuddles in the morning. Slow, delicious breakfasts, THIS breakfast was on repeat all weekend and we spent the late morning in the sunshine playing with toys. We also decided to implement a family tradition of celebrating his half-birthday.

And although he can't yet enjoy these delicious cupcakes (he seemed to love on his carrots today though) I hope he appreciates the traditions that we are creating with him. I remember growing up, being three, four, five years old and loving when I could say I was a half a year older! Always in a rush to grow up when we're young... so I thought it'd be fun to make it a fun day where we could bake cupcakes, maybe pick a special toy and have family time just celebrating him and his life. Every step of the way.

If you want to snag my recipe for my white cake mix that is gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free and soy-free you can click here. It's SCRUMPTIOUS. For the frosting I used Miss Jones organic vanilla frosting and dye-free sprinkles by Indian Tree. 

This month has really been a favorite with him so far. His little personality is bursting out and he makes me smile bigger and love harder than I ever thought imaginable. He's weighing in at just over 18 lbs and his chubby cheeks and chunky thighs are EVERYTHING. He is loving and cuddly and ADORES his daddy. I know they will be best pals.

He laughs and it's the best sound this side of heaven and he smiles and talks with his eyes. A trait that made me fall in love with his daddy. His sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes goes to show we really couldn't have guessed how he'd turn out (we thought it'd be dark features all the way from daddy) and listening to him "read" his little books is probably the cutest thing ever. My little smarty. 

We love every new milestone, month and experience with our sweet little Grey. 

Do you have a favorite tradition you've implemented with your littles?

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WhyPlumFormula #CollectiveBias #Sponsored

I've learned the road to motherhood can be a bit bumpy. Learning schedules (or throwing them out the window because baby's change weekly), raising a tiny human on little sleep and making sure you give them optimal nutrition to keep them healthy are all areas in which I feel we are constantly trying to navigate with little guidance and much instinct.

I remember that one of my first thoughts when Grey was born was how I was so excited to breastfeed him right away. When they handed that tiny, pink, wrinkly babe and he latched on like it was the most natural and beautiful thing in the world, my heart soared. 

However, there were circumstances with health issues in the hospital, with both him and I, that called for more nutrition, and more volume, than what I could give him. My instincts as a mother quickly shifted to making sure he got the nutrients he needed to help him thrive. All mom guilt aside, I had to do what was best to feed my baby under the new circumstances we faced. 

If you've been following the blog for a while you will know I am a MAJOR advocate for organic living and consuming whole foods with no or minimal artificial ingredients or processing and I knew I wanted to hold fast to the same standards for our new little babe. 

Having heard of and having researched their infant snacks and food line, I knew that Plum Organics® was, and is, America's number one organic baby food brand. I was ecstatic to learn they also made formula. Their organic infant formula adds no corn syrup solids, which was a huge plus for me. And since lactose is the most abundant carbohydrate found in breast milk, their carbohydrate source is from cow’s milk lactose only. In addition, the milk they use is from cows not treated with the hormone rBST**. 

I also love that they respect a woman's desire to breastfeed during those crucial, early days and I adored their understanding outlook on it. It made me feel good, and assured, that what I was giving my baby was a product that was created by parents just like me. 

In addition to their Grow Well® Infant Formula being organic, it is also non-GMO and contains essential DHA and ARA. They believe that formula is food and should be treated with the same care we'd give ourselves and the rest of our family members when seeking an organic diet and lifestyle. 

The formula can be found at Safeway and Albertsons nationwide and for those of you wanting to make the switch, I've included a coupon for you all below. 

For more on Plum Organics and their full range of products: 

**No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows.

​How do you ensure your family reaches their nutritional goals? I'd also love to talk to fellow mamas about your breastfeeding and formula journeys! Leave it in the comments below and let's connect. 

SPOILER ALERT!

If you haven't yet made your way through the 4 episodes of Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life, this post will be filled with spoilers. But seriously, how have you not binged it multiple times like the rest of us? To be kind, I waited until January in case anyone needed to catch up. 

For those of you that don't know me yet, Gilmore Girls is in my top two favorite television shows ever Friends and Gilmore Girls. I have memorbilia. I've been to Stars Hollow and Luke's Diner on the Warner Brothers set and much of my pregnancy was spent in bed binge watching the series. 

My new years resolution for 2017 even revolves around the famed "Friday Night Dinners" concept. 
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And I did that to my baby for his 5 month photo shoot. :) Good thing he loves me oh so very much. He's almost sitting up alone for longer than 30 seconds, he's rolling EVERYWHERE. He wants our food OH SO MUCH (but we are waiting until  months) - naps are better, night sleep is very broken most nights, he talks so much, his laugh is infectious and is the BEST SOUND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. He loves his toys, being out of the house exploring and playing with his hands and feet. He is just the light of our lives. Our little nugget.

​On to the recap...

First off, I have to say, overall - it was a mix of warm fuzzies and dissapointment. That was until "Fall". Then I felt like the cast was back into their groove and we were back home with them again. To bad it happened so late in the game. 

As you know, the four-part series visited Lorelai, Rory and the gang nearly 10 years after we watched Rory graduate Yale, turn down Logan's proposal and after Luke and Lorelai FINALLY got back together. When the revival was announced over a year ago, the countdown begun for us to see where our favorite small town folks would pick up. 

So, onto the good, the bad and the ugly. Ending with the good, as I always love to save the best for last. 

The Bad:
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• Did Alexis Bledel forget to brush up on who Rory was? The acting in Winter was forced at best and it just felt awkward. Glad she found her groove. 
• The storyline with Paris and the almost-surrogacy of the Luke/Lorelai baby. WHAT WAS that? And why, at almost 50, are Luke and Lorelai JUST now coming back around to the baby sitch? 
• I get that Bunheads was cancelled. And it was cute and all. But this didn't need to be a Gilmore Girls meets Bunheads mashup. For those of you that watched Amy's other show, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 
• The 30-something gang. What? Maybe if the episodes were 60-minutes instead of 90, there needn't have been so much filler and we could have had just richer story line. 
• Paul. Poor, poor weird, out of place Paul. 
• The weird pool scenes. And Lorelai and Rory's odd, elementary age pool boys. 
• Wasn't a fan of the rotating chef cameos. Wish Sookie could've been there the whole time :( 

The Ugly:
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• The musical number that went on FOREVER. That was just the worst part to have to sit through. I think it was the first time in the history of watching this show that I actually fast-forwarded. 
• Rory being a homewrecker. AGAIN. Seriously woman. I get it. We love Logan, but he's MOVED ON. And is now just as douchey as Dean was when he cheated on poor Lindsey. 
• Gypsy also being cast as the maid and calling it an Easter egg. Odd. Odd odd odd. Did anyone actually find this charming? Or not know it was her? Not to sure what they were trying to do with that one. 

The Good - and what redeemed the show: 
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• Getting to see so much of the original cast. It was heartbreaking to have lost Edward Herrmann, but I loved how they made him such a beautiful part of the revival. 
• The best scenes were the emotional ones between Rory and Lorelai. They really came back to who they were and we got all the warm fuzzies for our Gilmore Girls. 
• Michelle FINALLY came out. Thanks to it being on Netflix they could let him be himself and mention his husband. We always knew. 
• Luke and Lorelai were still together and very much themselves. YAY. I was going to have words with someone if they didn't stay together. Because. Luke + Lorelai forever! 
• Luke and Lorelai getting married. Could've done without the weird musical montage. What is WITH the musical montages this time around?
• Jess. 
• Dean wasn't completely obnoxious this time around. So that's something. 
• Emily. Everything about Emily. My goodness, Kelly Bishop is phenomonal. 
• The "Parenthood" cameos. LOVED them. 
• Lorelai finding herself again. Leaving Luke behind for it was sad., but doing "Wild" just fit her characters love of film and I loved seeing her come home again. 

​Final Recap:

​While I'm glad they did it, it was different than I think a lot of us expected to be. But as stated above, I loved so much of it and really do hope they continue the series after a cliffhanger like that one. 

I know some see it as the "perfect" way to wrap it up and leave Rory as the "next Lorelai" with her single motherhood-ness and all. But I would really like some of the strings tied up and I'd love to spend as much time in Stars Hollow as we can. 

Because who doesn't love small town charm, familiar faces and of course, all the Luke's Coffee we can get our hands on?