40 day fashion fast | Lent begins

Every now and then, I like to share a non-Pier related post on this space :).  Today, I want to tell you what I'm doing as my fast this Lent (because I'm really really excited about it)!!  I know it's kinda strange to be excited about fasting, but hear me out:

When I began to pray about what to "give up" for Lent I felt called to do more than my usual no sweets fast.  It's true, I do love my chocolate chip cookies (and donuts and pie and king cake), but I also struggle with a lottttt more than my gigantic sweet tooth.  One of the biggest hurdles I face is materialism...always wanting more and thinking (fill in the blank) will satisfy all my needs. 

Like emotional eating (which I'm totally guilty of), I notice that I can tend to be an emotional shopper as well.  Feeling sad?  A quick trip to anthopologie will cheer me up!  My mom//bff is in town?  Let's celebrate by buying something new!  It's a very slippery slope that happens more often than I'd like to admit. 

SO I decided to not only give up shopping completely (I'm looking at you $1 section at Target...must.fight.urge.), but also commit to only wearing 10 items of clothing for the entire 40 days. Why 10 items? Ehhh I just picked a random number.  Actually I only had 8 wooden hangers, so that made things easy! Here's what's left of my closet:

My List:

• plain grey shirt
• plain black shirt
• green jacket
• chambray button down
• stripe shirt
• flannel dress (mostly for Sunday mass...super cute and feels like pjs!!)
• jean jacket
• camel cardigan
• jeans (not pictured)
• black pants (not pictured)

Obviously this doesn't apply to accessories, shoes, or my winter coat but I think it's a pretty solid list!  The only thing I might change is my flannel dress when (if?) it gets warmer, I'll switch it out for a midi-length black skirt. Just in case you were worried about how I would handle a sudden temperature shift ;)

So there ya go!  I'm trying to make this year less about the stuff that gets in the way with my relationship with Christ so that there can be more room for Him in my heart. 

The thing is, I know I don't need a new dress to wear for an upcoming event.  I have plenty of dresses to chose from, but I just end up not being satisfied with what I already own.  Why is that? 

When I'm shopping for my wants and not my needs, that's when I know that what I'm desiring for is not a new outfit, but Jesus. He is the only thing that can fill that void, and a new floral skirt just won't cut it.  By eliminating excess, I'm hoping to focus more on what matters and simplify my life so that I'm free from the distractions that keep me from growing in holiness. 

I'm praying for you, friends, and hoping that our little sacrifices will help us look more like Christ after these 40 days.  God bless you!

"Detach yourself from the goods of this world.  Love and practice poverty of spirit: be content with what is sufficient for leading a simple and temperate life" + St. Josemaria Escriva

month 7

Hi Month 7!!!!! This month has been so FUN.  Seriously, I've had a blast with the little dude especially now that his personality is coming out more and more.  Also, I should note that he's discovered his tongue and now it is impossible not to take a photo of him with it sticking out.  That boy...

We've had quite the month....a 2 week trip to Louisiana, TWO new teeth, and a newfound reverence of the solid food.  Yep, we've ventured into solid food territory with peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, and bananas! The boy loves to nurse so I wasn't sure how he would take to pureed peas, but so far he's been rockin it. 

^ Those photos happened after his first few bites.  Shock, awe, wonder....every thing a meal should be.  I think he likes it? Although, he does this thing where he sucks his thumb after each bite...I'm thinkin the food is tequila and the thumb is lime and salt?!  I posted a video on the instagram if you wanted to see it in action.

Let me catch y'all up now...

He LOVES Gertie the Cat.  He always giggles when he sees her and when I pet her, he tries to pet her too.  Although, being the Queen that she is, Gertie is more indifferent than ever to Pier's affections.  But I must brag and say that we've had successful pet petting so far and the cat has remained neutral sooo you go baby Pier!

He HATES napping.  But really.  He's giving me such a hard time with the naps I've just given up and accepted the fact that baby sleep will forever be one of life's greatest mysteries. And when he does sleep it's only for 20-30 minutes! As frustrating as it is, he gets in these intense giggle fits every time I walk into his room while he's boycotting the napping process and it pretty much makes my life.  It's pretty hard to be mad when your baby is so stinkin cute. 

Speaking of laughing, the BELLY LAUGHS.  Oh my goodness, they are seriously the best.  Right now, he's loving peek-a-boo and seeing himself in the mirror.   I get the best laughs when I run at him or dance.  He reallyyyyy thinks it's funny when mama does dance cardio in the living room (you probably would too if you witnessed it).

Some of my favorite things he's doing lately:

• When he's nursing, he will raise his hand high in the air and the slap it on my chest.  It hurts but man it's cute.
• I call him Mr. Professor because he analyzes all the things.  He's always concentrating hard on his toys or when he's discovering something new.  He furrows his brow and everything too! Again, the cuteness.
• When there's snow outside, he giggles because it's so bright he can't open his eyes
• He prefers to play with wipes and burp cloths over toys.  He's gradually warming up to certain toys like balls and things that make noise, but give him a container of wipes and he's good to go. 
• He's fascinated by different textures and always opens and closes his hand on every surface he can touch

My sweet baby Pier, I will never forget how you light up when I enter the room or the giggles that await me when I pick you up from your "naps".  Thank you for loving me so freely and completely.  I treasure these days with you and I know it will just keep getting better and better and better.

month 6

Happy Half Birthday Pier Francis! Yesterday marked his 6 month birthday (he shared it with Jesus King of the Universe no big), and I just have to keep pinching myself because I can't believe we've come this far.  During his newborn days, I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that I would have a six month old at Christmastime.  Six months seemed so far away...like we would NEVER get there... but now I see how fast each month goes.  I'm trying to soak it all up, savor those sweet baby smiles, and enjoy the snuggles while I can! 

Also, these month-by-month photos are getting harder and harder to orchestrate.  He's a wiggly one.

This was the first month I didn't feel like I was in survival mode all the time.  Mainly because PIER IS SLEEPING NOW!!!! That's right....summon the glitter, confetti, and trumpets because my child is sleeping. The first night of sleep training, he slept five hours straight in his crib.  FIVE HOURS.  I mean, considering we went from 45 minute sleep intervals to five hours basically brought tears to my eyes.  Not only that, he doesn't have to be rocked to sleep anymore for his naps and can be placed down in his crib for that too!

Another giddy surprise is that he sleeps in the car now.  Beforehand he would scream the entire car ride, but now he just falls asleep or plays.  What the whhhatttt!!! Here's photographic evidence of Pier in his crib and proof that he doesn't hate the car seat (that much) anymore:

Speaking of sleep and lack there of...Pier has his first tooth!!! He currently loves Sophie the Giraffe and eating every surface known to man.  Especially mamas face.... I'd like to think he's giving me sweet baby kisses, but let's be real, it's all the same to Mr. Pier.

Little Pier still loves his books and his bath time.  That hasn't changed since day 1!  He takes diva worthy 30 minute baths on a nightly basis because he just loves the water.  That, and he likes to soak after a long hard day.  It's a tough life eating, sleeping, and playing every 90 minutes you know. His favorite bath toy is a lion that squirts water which Pier thinks is HILARIOUS (it used to be a zebra, but we've since graduated to the lion in month 6).  We're also starting to grab the toes and eat them.  It's pretty dang cute.

Mr. Pier also loves music!  He is fascinated by clapping hands and snapping.  We love to listen to music while we play.  One day when I turned off the music he started crying and then he started smiling when I turned it back on!  Also, I should note that he really loves that Adele song.  I mean, who doesn't?

Hello, It's me...

A big milestone was hit and now he can sit up! We're working on perfecting this new skill because he can't sit up for very long, but still HE CAN DO IT I PROMISE.  He has however perfected the graceful fall when he's tired of sitting.  He rolls over all day long, looks up at us all proud of himself like "Did you see what I just did?!"

And because I wanted to show you he can do all these things, Pier and I had a photo shoot one day while we were playing.  So, here ya go:

Goodbye month 6! Hopefully next month will go a bit slower...this mama can't keep up.  We love you so much Pier Francis!

a very fossi christmas (2015)

Merry Christmas from the Fossiers! It's Pier's first Christmas so we wanted to take advantage of all the sweet traditions the season has to offer.  Here's a recap of all the fun Christmas things we've done...

Pier Fossier met Santa Claus for the first time!!!

We began a yearly tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree!  Pier was cranky, but we still had a good time despite the cold and the baby meltdown :).  Here's to makin memories!

Brad and I had a nice date night at our friends the Keinsley's Cookie and Whiskey Christmas party! I baked Kahlua Espresso cookies for the cookie exchange (they were really good).  A few days before the party, Valerie and I bought red lipstick to rock for the holidays...I can't tell you how many youtube vids I watched to try and pull it off, but I think it turned out ok ;)

Downtown Indy is one of my favorite places to frequent here, so last weekend we decided to check out a few holiday activities the city had to offer. The Catholic church downtown has this beautiful Christmas festival called Christkindl Village and we had so much fun walking around seeing all of the sights. They even had a live Nativity with a CAMEL! As you can see, Pier wasn't as excited as his parents were about it....but Brad and I had a good time!

Of course, there was hot chocolate and Christmas tree decoratin, and a cute baby to kiss underneath mistletoe.  We hope the peace of Christ fills your hearts and homes this Christmas season.  Merry Christmas from the Fossiers!

advent traditions

As we complete our first week of Advent, I thought I would share what we decided to do as a family to celebrate this sacred time.  Now that we have baby Pier, I want to be intentional about what we incorporate in our family prayer time to make this season as peaceful as possible for us. Brad and I came up with a simple way to pray together each evening, and it's been really fruitful for our family so far. 

Every night either before or after dinner we sit down at the table and light our advent wreath.  As we light the candle, we sing the first verse of Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel.  Then, Brad leads us in an opening prayer and we read a chapter out of the Gospel of Luke.  It works out perfectly because there are 24 chapters of Luke (and 24 days until Christmas! It's like it was meant to be :)).   We finish our prayers with a short meditation and then kinda sing the Salve Regina -- we end up giggling while we sing because neither of us knows it well and one of us almost always messes it up ha!

Also, on our own time and over the course of a few days, we read this book as a companion to our Gospel reading. 

Anyway, just thought I'd share!  And I am curious to know what other families are doing so let me know if you have any favorite traditions. I sincerely hope you have a peaceful few weeks preparing your heart as we approach the greatest day in history, the birth of Our Savior!