green kiddos

win an ergo from heavenly hold!

2010-09-10T08:46:00.000-04:00

Win An ERGO Performance Baby Carrier!

ERGO's newest baby carrier is the Performance. It's 1/3 lighter than the standard ERGO and has Cool Max mesh lining on the inside of the body for a more breathable, cooler babywearing experience.

WIN a Performance from Heavenly Hold by entering our September Contest now!
5 Entries per person:

1. Become a Facebook Fan of Heavenly Hold (yes, it's that simple!)

2. Suggest Heavenly Hold's FB page to your FB Friends
(email Amber to tell her you've done this...honor system!)

3. Blog about the contest and post a link to it (email Amber with the link)

4. Tweet about the contest (email Amber with the link)

5. Post a link to the contest on your FB page (email Amber with the link)

Contest will end Sept 30, 2010 and winner will get to choose which color ERGO Performance they like!

what mom does......

2010-08-19T22:55:00.005-04:00

apparently she doesn't wash clothes, cook meals, pack lunches and read stories. she plays bunco. with a drink in hand. which was illustrated for his teacher at a small christian school. great. sure i made a great first impression. oh and now i'm 44 (or so he thinks, but is not quite sure).

thanks for the laugh bubbie. i will save this one forever.

bento? what's a bento?

2010-08-17T07:38:00.004-04:00

in case you haven't noticed... i've been mia. why you may ask?? well we've been very busy sending this boy,

to KINDERGARTEN!!!

and along with the joys of starting school has come the joys of making lunch each day (except wednesdays because that is pizza day and bubbie is excited about that).

we bought this lunch box: (the one on the left), but that's not really ours, that's the one from the pbk's website, ours is red and blue to match our uniform.

the first week of lunch making went fine, except i noticed all those pre-bagged snacks i bought weren't being eaten. i asked him why and apparently he can't open them and no one has helped him. i was inspired by bento lunches before but thought they looked too hard, too much work, but while at wally world last night i found the perfect plastic box to fit in his lunch box (and it fits to a T!) so i thought i would give it a whirl.... here's what i came up with

dinosaur pb w/ honey sandwich on raisin dirt, with pretzel trees, whole grain goldfish and some cookies. i couldn't do any wet fruit yet because my silicone cupcake liners haven't come in from amazon.

so what's a bento you ask? well mine is as bare bones as it can be, but a bento box is a really tightly packed, cutely presented lunch. there is tons of inspiration online to get good ideas. here are a few sites i have found:

http://bentolunch.blogspot.com/

http://bentoforkidlet.blogspot.com/

http://lunchboxlimbo.blogspot.com/

have you made bento lunches? i would love some inspiration, so please share your links and ideas! check back I will post some more as i get a little more daring and creative!

sweetness

2010-08-05T21:41:00.004-04:00

i love this picture. i love the looks on everyone's faces. it wasn't planned to come out like this but it just looks like it tells a story. pure sweetness.

back from the beach.....

2010-08-03T20:40:00.006-04:00

with a not so lovely souvenier....

it all started wednesday night at the beach. bubbie, mema and uncle frankie were the first victims. i think mr.bear had a touch while we were there too. then friday night it hit super dad and saturday aunt mel. i thought we were finally turning a corner. super dad was returning to the land of the living.

i should have known something was up when i told sass she didn't have to nap but could just play in here room where she promptly fell asleep on the floor. after the impromteu (and had to be uncomfortable) nap, she meekly came down stairs and snuggled up on my lap. she mentioned her tummy hurting, but often that just means she's hungry, so i attempted to get her to try a bite of granola bar. big mistake. the volcano erupted all over my kitchen floor. and my feet. yuck.

super dad brought home some pedialyte and we let her start sipping some. big mistake number 2. the kitchen floor took another hit. lucky for me, this time it was super dad's feet that fell victim. oh and one of our recliner chairs (not the one she puked in the last time this winter that took weeks to get out the sour milk smell, now we have matching puked on recliners).

all afternoon she insisted on laying on top of me. the only person who has yet to fall victim to puke bug 2010. what are the odds that i'm not puking in the next three days? i'm praying hard that i have an immune system of steel as friday is bubbie's first day of kindergarten and i will be devastated if i can't take him. pray healthy thoughts over this mama please.

okay, so that's all. sorry for writing the most disgusting post ever. i promise for a more appetizing post next time!

bumgenius 4.0s..... the lowdown

2010-07-24T21:50:00.003-04:00

first off... no i did not get eaten by the disaster of my bedroom. it actually looks amazing, but my camera phone just wasn't cuttin' it to take pictures and i honestly have been super busy this week and haven't had a chance. you will have to wait a few more days to get to see the amazing transformation that took place and unleashed a cleaning, purging monster. we still have a few things to go through, a book shelf to buy, etc. but the progress is fantastic. i'm in love with my new closet. it makes me happy! LOL!

okay onto bumgenius 4.0.... the official review. my sweet friend amber owns a great online carrier store called heavenly hold. she also sells bumgenius products and i have purchase probably 90% of mr. bears diapers from her. i own flips, 3.0s, sized AIOs, and elementals (organic aios). i love them all for different reasons.

i used 2.0s with sass until i wore them out, so i upgraded to the 3.0s with mr.bear. these are great diapers for babysitters as they go on just like a sposie (except when some one in the church nursery puts one on inside out. as in the PUL facing the baby. as in the cloth on the outside.... craziest thing i have ever seen... sorry i digress). then sweet amber asked me if i would like to try out a 4.0 and write a review on it for her. ummm.... YES! ( ps. that is my disclosure that i did not purchase my 4.0 from her, but have purchased many many other diapers from her prior to this gift, there you have it FCC). Wow, this is a long post and i still have yet to review the diaper, sorry about that.

okay so i chose a noodle (aka... off white) 4.0 w/ snaps. i do have to say as a lover of the brights, i was taken aback by how drawn to the noodle color i was and i really like the name. it is a nice neutral and will be perfect under some of our "church" clothes that brights show through. the inserts haven't changed at all, nor had the inner, but that is fine since i liked both already. i'm loving me some snaps. i keep several aplix on hand as they are better for others who aren't use to cloth diapers ( well usually, see above mentioned nursery story) but i love my snaps for me (and super dad has gotten quite good at puttin' snaps on if i do say so myself). i don't sew so i don't really understand how the whole replaceable elastic feature works, but i'm sure if i get to that point, i will appreciate it. i have a fairly good rotation though, so i would be surprised if i had to replace elastic. other than that, the fit is the same ( i know they say it will fit bigger babies, but mr. bear is a string bean so i really couldn't tell the difference). if mr.bear was a mrs. i would be all about the bubble color, but lavender doesn't really suit him.

so the bottom line (no pun intended).... not too terribly different from the 3.0s, but i'm okay with that as i love my 3.0s. all my bumgenius diapers are bullet proof. they wear well, are super trim and last a long time. the snaps are a fabulous up grade. so happy to have them. and prints are supposedly ( i totally say this supposably... apparently i've said it wrong all these years) around the corner so i am holding out on those. right now our medium aios still fit fine, but once we out grow those i will probably replace them with 4.0s since they have snaps and i find them better for older babies.

have you tried out a4.0? what are your thoughts?

ps... if you are new to cloth diapers or are curious about trying them, bumgenius is the place to start! they are so simple and trim and work great. i highly recommend them!

keepin' it real

2010-07-20T09:29:00.003-04:00

okay internet. you've seen bubbies pretty bedroom all cleaned up. you've seen my cute, organized playroom but you ain't never seen what i'm about to show you. i'm all about keepin' it real. don't want you putting me on some sort of pedestal or anything. so with that said....

proceed with caution....

the images below are disturbing....

no this is not a recent episode of hoarders,

this would be the contents of our master bedroom closet.

yes we had all of that in our closet/office/ gift room/ baby storage. a big closet is not what it is always made out to be. ours was our dumping ground. an easy place to drop some clutter when we wanted the rest of the house to look nice. just close the door and no one gets hurt. well not no more! closet systems have been purchased. the dumping ground has been emptied out. holes are patched. super dad is ready to paint and put in our new system and i've got a morning of sorting to do. watch out ebay and craigs list. here i come with lots of junk to give you!

super dad is busy on a call in his newly cleared out office (um i mean closet?)

day 1 mimi and pop camp - project playroom

2010-07-19T19:59:00.004-04:00

the big kids are at mimi and pop camp this week (hip hip hurray!) and i have a list of projects to complete while they are gone. today was tackling the playroom. i ran to ikea yesterday and got one more storage shelf. i'm in love with these shelves and wish that was all we had in our playroom as they hide the mess so well. last night i made labels for my buckets and today i cleaned out, rearranged and organized. i am really happy with how it turned out. i need to make a few more bucket labels, but besides that this room is now mr.bear safe and ready to go. all small pieces have been put away and he has free range to play in there with the big kids now.

still have some art work to hang up on this wall, as soon as i find my sticky tack.

sorry the lighting is so bad in this one. i took these with my camera phone because i'm lazy like that.

don't you love my magnet wall? another great ikea find! now my fridge is free from all those darn leap frog magnets

close up of my tubs and labels

if you can't tell just by looking the room, i use to teach 1st grade. this room now kind of feels like my old classroom with everything labeled and organized with a specific place to go. it's my happy place right now (unlike my closet which is a wreck and the next project on my list). i printed my labels on cardstock and super dad dropped them off this morning to the office max to have them laminated for me. i than used sticky velcro dots to attach them to the buckets. my thought is that way if i need to move stuff around it's just a quick rip of the velcro and viola! buckets are changed. i know, it was a genius thought, occasionally i have those.

so what do you think? turned out pretty good, huh? now off to help super dad clear out our closet... new organizational system coming in there asap!

babies and banana bread

2010-07-15T11:57:00.003-04:00

we made banana bread today. i doctor up the box mix from trader joes. it's yummy. mr.bear liked it. sass though bitty baby would like some too. so we set her up. mama sass and her baby just like me and my baby. i love when they imitate life!

so much better

2010-07-14T14:53:00.003-04:00

we did it! it took over an hour. about 8 million redirections. several sneeks out to the trash can when he wasn't looking. but it's done. whew! i feel so much better!

ps. not sure why this last picture insists on being sideways in both post. i have turned it in picasa but both times it came up sides ways.... so weird!

my little junk collector

2010-07-14T10:29:00.002-04:00

okay mom. you may not take any pleasure in what you are about to read. i know it's sweet revenge for all the years i had a messy room. just sayin'.

so bubbie is our little trash collector. every piece of paper. every little container has a purpose to him. he needs to save little thing because he might could use it for a project. he is a builder. he has an incredible imagination. but his room is always a mess. i mean there is stuff everywhere. i go into a panic attack every time i walk in there. he tries to straighten up, but i really don't think he sees the mess. to him it makes sense. to me it makes me a little crazy.

these pictures are of his room in it's current state. this was after he cleaned up. yes really. i. can't. take. it. anymore. we had a come to Jesus moment this morning. when he gets home from camp i am going to attempt to help him actually clean the place up. i don't want to hound him. i hate being a nag, but really? it's a death trap. do you know what those tiny little legos feel like on your bear feet. it's enough to make a grown man cry.

does anyone else live with a junk collector? is he doomed to be on an episode of hoarders later on in life? we need help! what can i do to encourage him to take pride in his things and keep his room tidy? i don't need it to be white glove clean, i just want to be able to walk in there and not risk breaking a limb while trying to get him out of bed in the morning.

be on the look out. i will post some after pics if i get a chance.

where oh where has yo baby gone??

2010-07-13T22:44:00.003-04:00

okay my friends. i'm on a hunt. i can't find yo baby yogurt anywhere right now. for a few weeks now everywhere i have checked is sold out. not a publix, kroger or whole foods. what is going on? is there a yo baby shortage? i have googled to try and find out. i asked the guy at whole foods who was stocking the yogurt shelf.... pretty sure he thought i was crazy. are they discontinuing it? (surely not!) remarketing it? what's going on! mr.bear loves him some yo baby, but it's no where to be found!

in the mean time we've been getting creative with the plain whole milk stonyfield farm yogurt mixed with fruit, but i do love our little containers for on the go. yo baby please come back to us!!

wow what a morning!

2010-07-12T15:15:00.003-04:00

today was a day for the record books for us. bubbie started "manly man" camp this morning. today was pirate day. he was excited. we get to the church to drop him off. we notice right off that the lobby is smokey, but have our worries calmed by being told they were using a fog machine to practice for a show. so i heave up the stairs with an 18lb baby on my hip and two little ones by my side to the third floor. just as we get up there, the fire alarms start going off, strobe lights and all and we are told to head down the stair well, so me and my three climb back down three floors to get outside. luckily the it was just because the fog machines had set off the alarm, but off we were to climb up the three flights of stairs again. i start to wonder if i can write this off as my exercise for the day. bubbie successfully gets dropped off to camp and we are on our way.

the little guys and i stop to do an errand on the way home. mr. bear is beat and so ready for a nap, so as soon as we get back home i run to change his diaper and get ready to throw him into the bed. he surprises me with a poop diaper, so i leave him for just a second to clean it out and throw it in the pail when it dawns on me that i might not have clicked the gate all the way (being that i had planned to just throw him in the bed). just as i head that way to check i hear the worlds worst sound... my baby tumbling down the steps. now thankfully, we have a spilt stair case, so it's only six steps to the landing, then six more. and they are carpeted, two things that worked in his favor. i immediately scooped him up and comforted him and he calmed down pretty quickly, so i was thinking that he had been protected and we were blessed to escape what could have been a lot worse. well we are blessed that he wasn't seriously injured, but as soon as i put him down to crawl and he went to bear weight on his right arm, i saw him just crumble under the weight and knew something was wrong. i was sure he had a broken arm or wrist. super dad raced home and my sweet friends came to my rescue taking care of sass and getting bubbie from camp so off to children's we went. six horrible xrays later (xraying a 10 month olds arms in six different positions is kind of like wrestling a wet cat, he was MAD), my nursed and now napping baby was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his clavicle. thank you Jesus for protecting him and letting that be all! unfortunately there is not much we can do for him, but let him have some motrin and heal up. he is already figuring out how to bear most of his weight on the other arm and is on the move again, but boy this mama has had a long day!

friday fun

2010-07-09T09:05:00.003-04:00

it's friday. we are ready to have some fun. we have a pretty busy day filled with gymnastics class for sass and a swimming playdate right after. than tonight super dad and i are going on a date night (he hates that phrase). but this morning we are in no hurry. we're building blocks. well mr.bear is doing more destroying of the block building than anything, but now he is down for his morning nap.

i love old classic toys. alphabet blocks definitely fall into that category. mr.bear likes to tap them together. the big kids spelled their names. they tried to build a super tall tower. they made color patterns out of the letters. they fought over who had more blocks. we had a little math lesson about equal as i divided up the blocks between the two of them. blocks are fun. fridays are fun.

simple snack mix

2010-07-08T14:57:00.002-04:00

if your pantry ever clutters up like mine does (okay maybe yours never looks as bad as mine does) than this is the simple recipe you have been looking for that your kids will gobble up! you know all those almost empty boxes of snacks and cereal that clutter up your shelves? well i've started keeping this cereal tub full of "snack mix". i take all those almost gone snacks like cheerios, raisins, annie's bunnies and throw them all in the tub and give it a little shake! i also occasionally add a little treat like chocolate chips or m &ms in there for an extra surprise. the kids think it's the biggest treat to get snack mix and i end up with a less cluttered pantry (not that my pantry would EVER be cluttered, no never!). it's a win win!

bumgenius on the Today show tomorrow morning!

2010-07-07T20:35:00.002-04:00

last week the Today show did a segement on "designer" disposable diapers that are going to look like cloth. well the creators of my favorite diapers, bumgenius, are headed to NYC tomorrow to flood the street crowd with babies in cloth diapers. i've got my tivo already set! i so wish i could be there! if you are in NYC, you can take your baby down there and let them flaunt their fluff. if not, you can send a photo of your baby in his or her bumgenius watching Today to their facebook page.

here is all the info you need to know!

ice cream for breakfast?

2010-07-07T08:59:00.003-04:00

i read a recipe on my friend shelly's blog yesterday (you should check out her blog.... she's crazy!). i immediately knew we had to try it out this morning because it was ice cream for breakfast... and you will actually feed your kids this! she took great pictures. i was in too much of an excited hurry to get to the finished product to pull out my camera so you will have to go to her blog if you need visuals.

so now to the important stuff. this is a perfect recipe as it only calls for two ingredients, frozen bananas and a splash of milk. i already had two bananas in my freezer so i was ready to go (note to self, next time peel and chunk banana up prior to freezing otherwise a hammer is needed to open them. no i am not kidding.) chunk up your frozen banana and add a good size splash of milk into your blender/food processor/ magic bullet (my preferred method!). whip it up and voila! breakfast ice cream. i did have to take a spoon and mix around the banana a few times before the bullet really got going and giving it a good whip just as a heads up.

now normal kids would be thrilled to try this out. mine, well not so much. it could have something to do with them seeing their father take black bananas out of the freezer and beat them with a hammer. next time i will prep this when they aren't around. the baby on the other hand devoured it.... he wasn't afraid of a hammered up banana.

i am curious to try this out with other frozen fruits. peaches maybe? frozen pinapple... sounds yummy! let me know if you give any other fruits a try and if they whip up to the same creamy consistency!

bumgenius 4.0s.....

2010-06-29T15:31:00.002-04:00

UPDATE! i have heard that brights are coming back and prints are in the making! can't wait now to get my hands on a 4.0! when I do I will be buying mine from my sweet friend Amber at heavenlyhold.com. if you are looking for a place to get them I highly recommend her site. she is a reliable, stay at home mom, who runs a great business! i buy all my carriers and bumgenius diapers from her!

What's new:
Larger sizing
Updated hook & loop closures
Replaceable elastic
3 new (pastel) colors: Sweet, Bubble, Noodle

And SNAPS are available!!

what do you think? discuss please....

great sale on biokleen products at drugstore.com

2010-06-13T09:55:00.002-04:00

drugstore.com has all their biokleen products for 40% off plus free shipping over $25! i just got a ton of natural cleaning products for $26 shipped! i highly recommend bac out for laundry needs. i originally bought it for my cloth diapers to help with stains but now use it on all kinds of things. it's great! do you have a favorite biokleen product? which one?

saturday morning breakfast......

2010-06-12T07:51:00.002-04:00

yum.

lunch a la our garden

2010-06-05T14:19:00.002-04:00

We are lovin' all the fresh tomatoes and basil.... yummmmm!

beachin' it.....

2010-05-31T09:31:00.005-04:00

sorry i've been away......

we've been beachin' it

wow! i was featured on I'm a Lazy Mom.....

2010-05-31T09:24:00.002-04:00

i'm SO honored!

i discovered i'm a lazy mom a few weeks ago and instantly became hooked. she has super tips that i've already worked on implementing at our house (check out color coding you kids.... genius!).... anyway after inventing simple s'mores I sent the recipe over to her and she featured it! thanks so much! what a treat!

simple s'mores

2010-05-21T22:00:00.004-04:00

school's officially over. summer's officially here. we kicked it off with simple s'mores today.... make them now. thank me later.

quiet

2010-04-23T08:36:00.003-04:00

i am blogging this morning while drinking coffee and watching the today show and my house is quiet.

the big kids had a spend the night last night with their grandparents. my husband and i went out to dinner with mr. bear. it was so easy. it was quiet. we got home. i nursed the little guy and out he went. our house was so quiet. no bedtime baths or pajama struggles. no bed time stories, tuck me ins or please snuggle for just a minute mores. it was so quiet.

this morning we woke up and came down stairs and made coffee (okay so that always happens). no brush your teeth, put on your clothes, drink your milk. it was quiet.

right now mr.bear is in the exersaucer and here i am typing a way. no ones asking me to put her cinderella dress on or check out the latest lego ship he built. i had breakfast with this sweet little guy and am enjoying the quiet.

you forget what life with just a baby is like. you don't appreciate the time you get with that little one the first time around because you don't understand that you will never get that opportunity to focus on just one little person ever again. this morning life has slowed down for just a little bit and it's nice, but the noise will be back soon and i will appreciate it a little more after it's been missing. and hopefully this isn't the quiet before the storm.......

flash mob + glee music = smile on my face

2010-04-21T21:12:00.002-04:00

i was reading one of my favorite blogs tonight where i clicked on a link about a flash mob. i had never heard of a flash mob before but apparently its where a whole lot of people do something completely random in a public place. i googled it and found a flash mob of people frozen for 5 minutes in grand central station and a flash mob of people wearing no pants on a subway. crazy, yet pretty entertaining stuff.... but this one has to be the best of all.... i could watch it over and over again! enjoy and thank me later (well actually thank rage against the minivan for sharing it with me so i could share it with you.)

meal plan monday... ummm i mean tuesday!

2010-04-20T13:15:00.002-04:00

so i'm a day late.... we ate in last night though so i will just post date that meal for ya. better late than never right??

monday- balsamic grilled chicken, baked sweet potatoes and sugar snap peas

tuesday- homemade veggie pasta sauce w/ thin spaghetti , salad and those yummy looking wheat rolls from Faithful Provisions. (image from FP's)

wednesday- church

thursday- whole wheat soft tacos, rice pilaf and sugar snap peas

friday- concert night on the square! i'm making yummy sausage baked beans to take

sittin' in my highchair

2010-04-16T09:10:00.006-04:00

a while back i found a super cheap wooden high chair at a consignment sale. i have been wanting one since i sold off our hunk a junk plastic one because i never liked it. it was huge and plastic and not cute!

so anyway, i found this cheap (as in $20 but still great quality) wooden one but it was the honey color of resturant high chairs, so not cute. i gave super dad a mission... make my high chair cool please.

well super dad isn't called super for no reason! he did a SUPER job! so we had an impromptu photo shoot this morning in the cute new high chair (he helped make that super cute baby too!). thanks super dad! you did great!

( this picture was taken by bubbie... pretty cool huh?!)

a super easy way to help out sixtyfeet.org

2010-04-15T20:57:00.002-04:00

so here's another easy peasy way to help out sixtyfeet.org.....

all you have to do is go to facebook and become a fan of firesense. for every 50 fans they get they are donating a $100. they have already donated $200 today! this is such an easy way to help out so I ask that you click the link below and help these babies in uganda!! thanks!
http://www.facebook.com/FireSense

- until Friday April 16 5 p.m. EDT and they will donate to
SixtyFeet.org. They are up to $200 so far - let's help them help
SixtyFeet.org.

sixtyfeet.org - helping the children in uganda

2010-04-14T08:58:00.004-04:00

some incredible daddies i know are going to uganda. these men are leaving their families, their babies to go and help some babies that need more than our children will ever know or understand. what they are doing is amazing. you can help them. you can help them by shopping at neema. you can help them by making a donation. but mostly you can help them by praying for them. you NEED to read why they are going. it's important. it's critical. it's heartbreaking. please pray for these babies. please pray for these daddies. please pray for their families while they are gone. please visit sixtyfeet.org and find out more.

neema.... shop for change

2010-04-13T09:48:00.003-04:00

wanna score some super cute stuff and make a difference?? then you totally need to go check out neema and help out some babies in uganda..... wow!

UPDATE!!! Neema shop is having a give away! win a cute board like this:

run now to their blog and check it out!!

eta: this is from my friends fb...

http://www.theneemashopstories.blogspot.com/ - from today through April 22, sales from the Neema shop will help Dan Owens & Michael Lines as they head to Uganda to help Kampiringsia! & a new artist has joined! Check it all out http://www.theneemashopblog.blogspot.com/ & spread the word

back on track......

2010-04-12T07:45:00.003-04:00

i've been a bad blogger. i know it. this three kid thing kind of rocked my world. but i'm going to get back on track. i have taken some photography for mom classes over the past few weeks and i'm loving playing with my camera, therefore i need an outlet to show off my fun pics, so i'm going to get back on track. the kids are growing. getting bigger. saying and doing funny things. i need to document those, so i promise..... i'm going to get back on track.

until then though i will leave you with two fun pics i took this week.... remember i had a baby niece born right after mr. bear? well she's grown up....4 months now and mr. bear is 7. they went on spring break together to mimi's house (the mommy's went too.... they're too little to travel alone). they are really cute, kinda like irish twins.... except they aren't irish and they aren't twins, but they sure do look it in this field of clover.

baby v loving the clover

mr. bear..... ummm not so much

fancy.

2010-01-29T16:12:00.000-05:00

that's just how she rolls.

busy.

2010-01-27T13:50:00.003-05:00

that pretty much sums up our life these days, hence the lack of blogging. life here has been full. preschool is back full swing. gymnastics takes place one day a week also. t-ball is fixin' to start. bible study is just getting back into the groove. we've been playing hard, cleaning out and organizing to start our year off right. blogging has not been a priority.

so here's an update on us:

bubbie is doing great. still working on a little reading here and there. building lego ships like crazy. doing better about picking up his room each day with a little encouragement from mom. just put in for two potential schools for him to attend to in the fall. i can't believe kindergarten is just around the corner. praying hard to figure out what will be best for him.

sass is sassier than ever. constantly dressing up. enamored with all things "princess". took her to see her "first movie", the princess and the frog. she loved it and was too cute. her tiny little self wasn't heavy enough to hold the seat closed so she kept getting shut in it! officially in full time panties except at night (although she usually wakes up dry). this is a good thing except she seems to have way more accidents than bubbie did. i guess she doesn't want to risk missing out on anything. she moved up a level in gymnastics and loves all her little friends in her class. she is counting down the days until her third birthday (still two months away!) so she can have a princess party!

mr. bear is growing growing. at 4 months he was 14 lbs. still hates bottles. sleeping great. nurses like a champ! loves to chew on his fingers and is starting to be able to hold toys and chew on those too. he sits in his bumbo now on the kitchen table during dinner time, so cute! he is sweet and smiley and an absolute love bug!

as for me my plate is full too. i am chair elect of a 5k for the junior league here that is rapidly approaching. i have started back to my mom to mom bible study, what a blast of encouragement i get each week from it! i am attempting to work out daily during nap time to a jillian michael's dvd since the gym is next to near impossible to get to these days. i'm ready for spring and summer and warm weather and playgrounds and the pool. between my commitments and my kiddos we are go go go!but it is fun, i can rest when i'm dead!

wishes for 2010

2010-01-03T14:16:00.003-05:00

i read on another friend of mine's blog (thanks garrett!) about having wishes for the new year instead of resolutions... i love this idea, especially since the new year is also my birthday, wishes seem so much more appropriate.

my main wish this year is to be more intentional in everything i do. to have purpose.

here is my "wish list" for my 32nd year of life:

have weekly movie/homemade pizza night with the kids
spend more time in the word / family bible study
go on a monthly date with super dad
commit to a get away with super dad every 6 weeks within 6 hours of our home for 36 hours
exercise daily
take a weekly family bike ride ( i got a new bike for my birthday and a trailer for the little bitties!)
cook more, including one new recipe a week
start a one on one day with each of the kids once a month to do something special
simplify- declutter, get rid of all the extra junk in our house
have the entire neutral area of our home repainted and our carpets deep cleaned
limit my time on blogs and facebook!

so that's my starting point for my wish list..... what are your wishes for the year?

it's been a busy week....

2009-12-11T16:46:00.004-05:00

as our family has grown by two more feet!

i haven't been around much this week as I am no longer just a mother but now an AUNT too!

meet baby "V". she came into the world at 4:27am on 12.8.09 weighing in at 7lbs 80z and 19.25 inches long. and best of all i was blessed enough to be there for her arrival! what an amazing honor my brother and sister in law let me have by being by sil's side through her labor and waiting in recovery to be one of the very first to lay my eyes on her. i am so thankful for that experience!

welcome to the world baby "V"! bubbie, sass and mr. bear couldn't be happier to have you join in on the fun precious little one! we love you!

watch me grow - 3 months old!

2009-12-07T10:06:00.003-05:00

I can't believe three months have passed by already! Bubba bear is getting big and quick, please slow it down! I used a very scientific method to figure out how big he is now yesterday by weighing myself and then weighing myself with him. If my calculations are correct mr.bear is about 13 lbs. He is super smiley and sweet now. We have pretty much nailed down a three hour schedule during the day, but he is not a great napper, only giving me about 45 minutes to an hour. I have got to get him stretching out those naps a little longer. About a week ago I introduced a sound machine to help him which does seem to help a little. Last night I started running a humidifier too b/c he is a snorty piggy and I think it's because his little nose dries out. It seemed to work last night as he nursed at 7, went in his crib and I woke him at 11 for a dream feed and moved him to our room where he slept until 4:30. I popped the paci and he went back to sleep until 6:15!! YAY!

Our little bear has really woken up this month. We get tons of smiles and coos now. He loves to chew on his fingers and suck his thumb but when he wants comfort it's the paci he goes for! He is doing super nursing. We are just so in love with this boy!

1 month old!

2 months old!

3 Months Old

major diaper stash sell off....

2009-12-06T15:42:00.007-05:00

Ok now that I have confirmed that bubba bear is not a girl and have played around w/ numerous brands of diapers I am selling off everything I don't just love of his and Sass's (yeah for potty training!!).

All of these diapers come from a non smoking pet free home. They have been washed in rockin' green. Pocket diapers don't include inserts but I am happy to add one for $1. If you want to purchase multiply diapers I am more likely to bargain with you as I will be combining shipping costs. I am listing these to the best of my ability but have a ton so I could possibly miss something. Please ask questions if you are unsure about anything! All prices include shipping and paypal fees. I only ship to the US. I am open to trades but am only looking for new version bumgenius AIO's in small or medium no girly colors!

Alright here's what I've got
size small fuzzibunz
some are version 1 and some are 2 and I don't know the difference! all are in VGUC and are
$9 ppd (the light green has a very small stain that should sun out!)

Two size small swaddlebee AIO's bought new by me EUC $11 ppd

Thirstie's AIO's xs periwinkle s blue s yellow VGUC (xs periwinkle was bought new by me!) $10ppd
Thirstie Fab Fitteds all size small VGUC $8ppd

Covers- listed in order
xs Imse Vimse organic stripe cover $8 VGUC s Thirsties Cover in butter EUC $9 s Bummis Super Brite EUC $9 m Blueberry minky VGUC (some pilling) $11 size 1 thirstie duo in green like new $10
newborn lightwrap $4

White xs thirsties NWT $10
AIO's all stuffable all in VGUC

m swaddlebees in periwinkle $10
m blueberry in pale pink $10
l swaddlebees w/ organic velour inner $12

Pockets:
GAD's
both bought new by me w/ organic velour inners and are like new EUC $11

Medium hot pink KND VGUC $9
Floral Tailfeather Designs Sm $8
Pink Captian FluffyPants Sm $8
Blueberrys all VGUC

M Seaspray $9
M chocolate minky w/ pink dots $10
M pink/lavendar/sage dot minky $10
L bubblegum $9
L Seaspray $9

Swaddlebees (all snaps except the dark green and they were all bought by me except dark green)

S forest green GUC $5ppd
M butter EUC $9ppd
M white (2) EUC $9ppd
M peach (2) EUC $9 ppd

ES baby Apple and Pears fitted and cover set size newborn EUC
the fitted has a snap in insert for faster drying, loved this! $20 for the set

Like I said, I have listed these the best I can. None of the diapers have any major flaws but there could be some slight staining on a few . I tried to list them as I remember, but if you have any questions PLEASE ASK!

week of thanks fail + dinner this week

2009-11-30T10:34:00.003-05:00

Okay so I totally FAILED at my week of thanks! last week was crazy w/ bubbie having strep throat and then thanksgiving and I just never got back on here, but at least super dad got props! LOL!

But now it's time to get back to buisness, So whatcha eatin' this week... I am halfway through with my grocery list and have our meal plan laid out for the week...

Sunday- Thanksgiving leftovers
Monday- Homemade mac and cheese w/ left over ham and salad (going to google and see if I can find a good crock pot recipe other wise I will use my ol' faithful).
Tuesday- Mini bbq meatloaves, greenbeans and mashed taters
Wednesday- Chicken Pot Pie
Thursday- spending the night out to see christmas lights
Friday- homemade pizza night (thanks to our friends the Shochs, going to steal their recipes!)

So what are you eatin' this week?

a week of thanks- day 1

2009-11-23T20:12:00.003-05:00

In honor of Thanksgiving this week I am blogging A Week of Thanks. The Lord has blessed me in ways I could never imagine, so this week I want to make an extra effort to be thankful for these blessings. I would love if you would join me this week and share what you are thankful for too! So I can't think of a better place to start than with ..... dun da da dun..... SUPER DAD!

I wish I could take credit for giving Super Dad his name, but I can't. Actually a very close friend of mine started referring to him this way quite a while back and she is so right, super dad he is! I have never met a guy more involved and loving towards his children. He doesn't want to miss anything! He goes to gymnastic classes and class parties and plays, even if he one of the only dads there! He plays games with our kids and has the patience of Job (most of the time!). He is incredible because he does bath and bedtime pretty much every night. He sees that as his special time with them. He is an encourager. He is a great leader. He takes the time to teach them what's important. My kids have great Bible knowledge because their father takes the time to tell them stories every single night. No matter how tired he is and how ready he is to get bedtime over with, he never skips their Bible story. He really is super!

I am so thankful to have a husband who works hard all day and then picks up extra programming jobs at night so I can be home with our kids. He sacrifices so much for us and I don't know if he knows how much we appreciate him. He loves his family and puts us and our needs before everything else and for that I am thankful. I am thankful my sons have a great role model of what a man should be and my daughter a model of what a husband should look like. What a blessing!

So tonight not only do I say "thank you God for blessing us with this wonderful man", but I also say " thank you honey for all you do for us!".

I'm so "flippin' excited to try out flip!

2009-11-22T09:41:00.005-05:00

I'm 11 weeks into cloth diapering a newbie. With Sass I didn't start until 4 months so I didn't know much about cloth diapering a teeny tiny. Well 11 weeks in and my all time favorite diapers are our bumgenius AIO's. They are super simple, super absorbant and we haven't had a single breastfed poop explosion in them. My second favorites would be my gdiapers. I love the fit of the gdiapers and the concept, but I don't love the cotton g pants. Well actually I do love them but I don't love that they feel damp after wearing them for a while and I don't love that I have to snap in those silly liners and change them out after pretty much every poopy diaper. But other than that I do love them and I have purchased 4 more covers in the next size along with a bunch of g cloth.

All that to say, I'm now super excited to try out the flip system. It may be the best of both worlds. It's similar to a g diaper system as you use the same cover multiple times and just lay an insert (either disposable, stay dry or organic) inside. But it's made like a bG! one size with snaps, so hopefully being made of PUL won't feel damp after a while. And it's a one size so more economical than purchases multiple sizes of what ever system you do like. I have heard too that my gcloth will work in the flip system which is good since I have a dozen or so of them!

So now that bubba bear is growing like a weed, I have sold off all our xsmall diapers and used that money to invest in a one day pack of flips, plus an extra single flip in ribbit green (my all time fave!). I also ordered a pack of the disposable inserts to try out and compare against the gdiaper inserts. I do like this option for when we are out and about all day long and I don't want to haul dirty diapers around!

This is the perfect time to try out the Flip system ( or any other Bumgenius diapers) too because bumgenius is allowing a rare sale. And if you purchase from Kelly's Closet today you can get free shipping too on orders over $50 using the code FORFUN.

Click here to visit Kelly's Closet

I'll be back to update once I get them in and do a full comparison between Flip and gdiapers.

mommy thinks i'm cool

2009-11-19T09:07:00.004-05:00

yup. that pretty much sums it up.

wordless wednesday

2009-11-18T08:54:00.005-05:00

Yes, I'm THAT mom. You know the one who thinks it's really cute for all her kids to match. Cheesey, yes. So stinkin' adorable, yup that too! And I will do it as long as I can get away with it!

dinner dilemmas

2009-11-17T19:18:00.003-05:00

Is dinner a battle at your house? Are you stuck in a food rut with your kids? We are. I'm tired of cooking the same things. I am tired of cooking new things and only super dad and I eating them. I don't know where I went wrong.

From the get go, I pureed my kids food. I have offered them all kinds of table food from early on. I expose them to numerous things, yet they still only like "kid" food for the most part. It is so frustrating. With bubbie, it was very definite when he quit eating whatever was put in front of him. I remember being on bed rest with Sass and he was just over two. We put his plate in front of him and he politely handed it back to us and told us "no thank you"! This was a child who ate EVERYTHING! He would eat peas and carrots by the bowl full, couldn't devour a sweet potato fast enough, loved all fruits. Sass was always picky. The girl would never eat any meat besides chicken (and that is still debatable), but still she use to eat more than she does now and I think a lot of that is because she follows Bubbie's lead.

I'm not a short order cook though. Whatever I prepare for dinner is what they are served. I do always put some sort of fruit on their plate so at least if they don't eat their dinner they will get a serving of fruit and a glass of milk in their tummies.

Tonight I made chili and baked potatoes. I put butter and cheese on their potatoes. You would think I served them a plate full of bugs. Sass would have nothing to do with any of it. She ate her peaches and that was it. Bubbie did take a few bites, though amidst a flood of tears. Who knew a cheesy potato could make someone cry?!

What are you tricks? How do you get your kids to try new things and not fear new foods? (and just for the record, dips don't work with my kids. they don't even really care for ketchup! crazy!).

I would love your feed back, your tried and true tricks!

I will leave you with a list of food that they actually will eat.

string cheese
peanut butter and honey (s will eat jelly, b won't)
waffles
grilled cheese
black bean and cheese quesadillas
pumpkin pancakes
regular pancakes
muffins ( pumpkin and blueberry are faves)
cheeseburgers (b only)
turkey and cheese (b only)
hotdogs (b only)
chicken
ravioli (s only)
mac and cheese
mandarin oranges (s only)
bananas
grapes
apple slices
peaches
pears (s only)
spaghetti
chip and cheese dip
cereal w/ milk
cheese pizza
oatmeal (s only)
baked beans
sweet potato fries (baked)
meatballs (b only)

I try to make all these things as healthy as possible such as using whole grain breads and pastas. Looking at the list I guess they eat a little more than I thought but I would still like to get them to try more. I would love to get them to try soups, more pastas, obviously more vegetables (umm.. I mean any vegetables). Mostly, I want them to not fear trying new things. I don't care if they dislike things, I just want them to not have a fear of trying new foods. Give me your feedback!

supper planning sunday

2009-11-15T16:30:00.003-05:00

Woo to the Hoo! I have not only meal planned for the week but already done my grocery shopping too. Way to start the week off right! Here's what we've got going on this week, share your menu with me in my comments if you please! I'm not actually cooking the first two nights ( I know, I know, don't laugh!), but I am the rest of the week! Also, I am going to start to try and cook at least one thing a week that I can halve and freeze so I can stock my freezer with some ready made meals.

Sunday- Marachi night at the La Pa ( our fave mexican joint!)
Monday- Dinner at my moms
Tuesday - chili (freeze half) and baked potatoes
Wednesday- fettucine w/ broccoli (no fettucine sauce, instead a little olive oil and parmesean cheese)
Thursday- orange chicken, brown rice, corn on the cob
Friday- Tacos

So what are you eating this week? Oh and let me know if you have any good freezable recipes!

a saturday afternoon hike

2009-11-14T19:08:00.005-05:00

what a better way to spend a saturday then snugglin'

while hiking up a mountian

on a beautiful fall day

with you favorite friend

and some chocolate milk

discovering cool things

and climbing trees

with those you love the most!

a new playgym for bubba bear

2009-11-09T20:30:00.004-05:00

While visiting super dad's hometown a few weekends ago, some sweet friends of ours blessed us with a babies r us gift card for bubba bear. Being he is number three, we don't need much as far as baby gear goes so usually gift cards get used on essentials like pacis, wipes and baby wash. I decided to treat bubba bear though to a new activity gym. He deserves to have at least one thing that no one else has used and spit up on! Our old activity gym wasn't cute, the bar stunk at staying up and good gracious if I had to hear those tunes it played again I might have to have myself committed. So tonight I had to run to good ol' BRU for saline drops and menthol baby wash as croup and colds have hit our house and since I had no little bitties with me I took a few quiet moments to peruse the store and see what I could find for mr. bear to entertain himself with. I stumbled across this super cute playmat. You can't tell from this picture but the fabrics on it are very Amy Butler-ish and super cute! Besides chocolate brown, turquoise and orange are my favorite color combo right now and polka dots are always a hit with me!. I love that it also folds up easily so I can stash it out of the way quickly and pull it out when needed. Seriously if you are on the hunt for a play mat or a baby shower gift check this on out on amazon and zoom in on the cute prints! Things sure have come a long way since bubbie was born 5 years ago and everything was either pastels or primary colors! Oh and I will mention to that it's a good bit cheaper at BRU than online!

two months old

2009-11-09T08:04:00.001-05:00

Each of my kids have a special friend that they sleep with. Bubbie has "monkey", Sass has "bunny" and now bubba bear has "mr. giraffe". Mr. Giraffe is going to help us see how Bubba bear grows each month! Look how he has changed already!

1 month old!

2 months old!

Bubba bear's 2 month appointment was last week. He was 11.6 lbs (70%ile) and 24 inches long (90%ile), a perfect string bean!He is super smiley now right after he eats. He is gotten into a good routine of eating, being up about an hour and then napping until his next meal which occurs every three hours right now. He takes his last feeding of the day around 9pm and then sleeps until 3ish and then hopefully until 7ish, although the second stretch of sleep is never as solid and peaceful as the first. We have just moved up to 3-6 month clothes, though some of our 3 months still fit, mr. long boy is too long for a lot of it now! We finally started his vaccines this visit too. We declined Hep B in the hospital so he hadn't had anything yet and we are doing a delayed schedule so this visit he got the first dose of rotateq and his DTAP. We will go back in a month or so for another vaccine.

For comparison to his siblings; Bubbie was a whopping 15lbs and 24 1/2 inches at 2 months and Sass was 11.9 lbs and 23 1/4 inches at 9 and 1/2 weeks. And before you are too impressed that I actually know this I will share my secret.... When I was pregnant with bubbie a friend gave me a great medical journal at one of my showers. I took it to each of his dr visits and recorded all the important info in it such as stats and vaccines received. I also would write my questions for the dr in it ahead of time so I didn't forget to ask him anything and I tried to record milestones in it. It's the closest thing to a baby book my kids have! I then googled it when pregnant with Sass and ordered her one. The one they have is no longer in print I discovered while pregnant this time around, but there is a new edition which I ordered for Bubba bear and his soon to arrive cousin. This is one of my favorite gifts to give now! I can only find them on amazon, so check it out if you are interested!

read bubbie read!!

2009-11-06T10:49:00.002-05:00

I am so proud of our Bubbie! He has taken a huge interest in reading and is really soaring! This morning I remembered about starfall.com. If you have a preschooler or early elementary child in your home this is a great website to learn everything from letter recognition to word families. Bubbie thinks it's super fun and is learning a lot. It's so fun to see him become an emergent reader!

wordless wednesday- mr smiles

2009-11-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

xsmall diapers for sale!

2009-11-02T14:03:00.004-05:00

Our little bubba bear is getting big quick and these are some great diapers that have barely or not been used at all! Hopefully they can go to a good home! These all come from a pet free, smoke free home. All prices include shipping and paypal fees! If you are interested you can email me at greenkiddos (dot) com @ gmail (dot) com. I will sell the whole lot for $130 or prices are listed below!

xs thirsties fitteds 6 periwinkles, 1 white, 1 celery
EUC, most of these have just been washed, a few were used once or twice. Retail is $14.50 a piece. $12 ppd or $85 for all 8!

Covers
NWT white xs thirsties cover $11.50
baby blue and sage green thirsties covers xs EUC $9 ppd
Imse Vimse farm cover preemie GUC $6
white prowrap sm GUC $4- SOLD
lamb litewrap newborn $5
or
all covers minus prowrap $44

meal plan monday

2009-11-02T13:36:00.003-05:00

I'm back and going to try and blog more regularly again! So here is my menu for the week! (which also means I'm back to cooking dinner... guess I should get on that now that we are 8 weeks in!)

I am trying to use up surplus food this week with out over shopping so here is what I've got!

Monday- chili stuffed baked potatoes using left over chili from halloween

Tuesday- hot dogs (also left over from halloween), baked sweet potato fries and baked beans

Wednesday- spaghetti w/ meat and vegi sauce (left over and in freezer), salad and bread sticks

Thursday- crockpot BBQ chicken sandwiches, onion potatoes and corn

happy halloween

2009-10-31T09:08:00.001-04:00

from my little farmer and his crops

mema with her favorite farmer and daisy

our sweet daisy!

this little pea is organically grown!

one day i will blog again....

2009-09-22T15:56:00.002-04:00

but not today as I am fighting mastitis and possibly thrush (which I am not convinced yet that I or baby have but lactation seems to think I do). My fever was up to 103.3 earlier today but is coming down and I am feeling better plus I've started some antibiotics. I have never had this like this before and am shocked at how bad I felt and how quickly it all came on. Let me know if you have any great healing tips!

tiny fluff friday

2009-09-18T08:38:00.001-04:00

So there hasn't been a whole lot of blogging going on these last two weeks. What has been going on is a lot of nursing, diaper changing, napping and just trying to get adjusted to having three kids now instead of two!

Our newest little man is two weeks old today! I can't believe two weeks have past already! It makes me want to cry.... which doesn't mean a whole lot these days because everything seems to make me want to cry. Lovely hormones!

We did break out our teeny tiny fluff this week and started giving it a try. Only a few things fit so far but here are a few pics because what could be cuter than a newborn in a cloth diaper!

Teeny Tiny Orange G Diaper (really liking these!)

XS Thirsties Fab Fitted w/ an XS Thirsties Cover

XS Bumgenius AIO (probably my favorite!)

Hopefully next week I will be back into the groove of blogging and give you some more frequent updates... .I do have some fun give aways in store, one to start next week!

wanna know what I've been up to since my post on friday.....

2009-09-09T19:36:00.003-04:00

So my check up on Friday led to a little more than just a check up.....

I got this instead....

Bubbie and Sass are super excited that "little bitty buddy" has joined our family

And when I no longer feel like this all day, I might just start blogging again!

spotty....

2009-09-04T07:34:00.002-04:00

In case you haven't notice, the past week or so posts around here having gotten a little spotty as to when they show up. I want to be a diligent blogger I really do, but when you feel and look like a hungry hungry hippo and are anxiously waiting around for the arrival of your newest child, blogging sometimes just isn't on the top of the priority list.

Here is what has been on my priority list this week:

packed a hospital bag for me and for new baby
typed up the kiddos schedule from last Sunday until next Sunday just incase I had to jet off to have a baby real quick
bought and sent in snack to sass' class cause wouldn't you know my snack day is the day after I deliver (aren't I on top of things!)
purchase and had my mom's birthday present wrapped since her bday is like a week after baby is born
washed cloth diapers, stuffed g diapers
went on a shopping spree to BRU to get all the last minute essentials for baby (and why in the heck does NO one have 0+ month mam pacis in stock... has there been an influx of newborns needing these, it's the only one my other two would take and I'm on the hunt, specifically for latex ones!)
shopped and had lunch with some great friends while our kids were at school, we laughed a lot and it was great!
purchased and wrapped "happies" from the baby to the big kids
started packing up summer clothes, yes i know it's still 90 degrees here in the hot south but there something wrong about wearing flamingos or sand pails on your dress in September
and I actually cooked a huge meal for my family once this week, yup once, that's all. Other than that we have had mac and cheese, grilled cheese or pancakes for dinner. My kids think this has been the best week ever! LOL!

Today I have my final OB visit. Today is also how far I was in my pregnancy when my water broke with Sass. Tomorrow is how far along I was when my water broke with Bubbie. So if I haven't had a baby by Sunday, this will officially be my longest pregnancy ever! At this point I hope I make it until Wednesday, so new baby can have a super fun birthday (and one I won't forget!). Until then I go around town feeling like a walking time bomb and planning my escape route in my mind just in case my water breaks where ever it is I am at the time!

H1N1 Tips for Staying Healthy

2009-09-02T15:40:00.003-04:00

With all the debate of the vaccine and fear of H1N1, I want to post an email I received today with some great tips to staying healthy. I didn't write these, but also didn't have a reference to credit in the email I received.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps - not fully highlighted in most official communications - can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc/bioflavonoids to boost absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

H1N1 vaccine - what are your thoughts

2009-09-01T14:48:00.002-04:00

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks, I am sure you have heard all about the H1N1 vaccine. Under normal circumstances this would be a no brainer for me. I'm not for trying out new vaccines on my children and myself without knowing all I can about them. But this fall isn't normal for us. I will have two children in preschool and a newborn at home. Being a new mother puts me in the "high risk" category for the vaccine. I won't tell you my thoughts on it just yet, as I am still reading and researching as much as I can, but I would love for you to share your thoughts.

How do you feel about this vaccine? Will you get it? Will your children? Why or why not?

Let's chat~ leave me a comment and share your thoughts!

supper planning sunday aka meal planning monday!

2009-08-31T07:37:00.002-04:00

Yeah, so I didn't get this posted yesterday. And I really don't want to make up a meal plan, because I would rather have a baby instead, so these are my thoughts for the week.... they may or may not come to fruition and the chances of them being fixed in the order I post them are slim to none! Just being real with ya!

Sunday-

Left over roast, mashed taters and corn on the cob

Monday-

Baked pasta w/ fresh basil from the farmer's market this weekend (freeze half pan for after baby)

Tuesday-

Chicken w/ broccoli and cheese and brown rice or go out (bubbie's first t-ball game!)

(cooking chicken in the crock pot for two recipes this week)

Wednesday-

Homemade Margarita Pizza w/ fresh tomatoes and basil

Thursday-

BBQ chicken quesadillas w/ left over shredded chicken from Tuesday

Friday-

I quit!! I would like to have a baby by then!

chili pot roast from faithful provisions - super easy!!

2009-08-28T18:38:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite blogs to read is Faithful Provisions. She hooks me up with great coupon tips that I check weekly before I grocery shop along with other great steals and deals! Well tonight she also hooked me up with a great dinner!

The picture above is her chili pot roast, but mine looked pretty much just like it! I made mine with mashed potatoes and green beans and since I'm not suppose to be on my feet and cooking, I cheated and we just had crescent rolls. This dinner was super easy to throw together and was delicious. And even better, we have enough to have it again this weekend! Although if you didn't want the same dinner twice, she posted another post showing how to turn your leftovers into enchiladas. Click here to check out that recipe.

Here is her recipe:

Chili Pot Roast

favorite pot roast, flank steak, or other beef
1 jar chili sauce
1 large onion sliced

Throw it all in the crock pot on low for the day.

If you aren't already a reader of hers, I suggest you subscribe to her blog. It's a wealth of money saving info!

wordless wednesday - back to school

2009-08-26T06:55:00.002-04:00

nothing's better than having your big bubbie walk you in our your first day of preschool

can you hear me now??

2009-08-25T20:25:00.003-04:00

This weekend I went into false labor. Discussions of bumping up my c section, putting me on bedrest, dilation, so on and so forth went on. And I became impatient. I either wanted to have a baby NOW or wait two more weeks, but hated the limbo of being in between and just not knowing. To top it off my parents are leaving town tomorrow until Sunday and my Dr. is leaving town Thursday until Sunday. I have declared that I am doomed to have this baby while some of the most important people to me are not going to be here.

Fast forward to tonight. Sass and I went to dinner at my mom and dad's while Bubbie and Super Dad went to T ball. We got home late so I quickly threw her into the shower and brushed her teeth and was ready to rush through our Bible story. I asked her which devotional she wanted to read out of and she picked her God's Little Princess Devotional Bible. I really wasn't in the mood and was just wanting to rush through it. I hastily flipped through and just landed on a story and started reading. Ha! God had picked that story for me! That's when God said "can you hear me now"?

The story was from Luke 1. It was about Zechariah and Elizabeth and how they wanted to have a baby but were to old. Zechariah didn't believe and lost his ability to speak but Elizabeth rejoiced it to all. They obey God and named the baby John and God gave Zechariah his voice back. John later became known as the famous prophet John the Baptist.

Following the story was the "lesson". Um... can you hear me now???? Here is what it said (taken directly from the devotional):

"Do you have a hard time waiting for good things? God has his own schedule, and we need to follow it. When you find yourself in a hurry to get your own way, ask God to forgive you. Ask him for patience to wait on him. God's timing is always perfect and brings the greatest blessing."

Uh, yeah.... can you hear me now?

It amazes me that I can be too busy to spend time with God and yet He will still find a way for me to hear him. Tonight He did it through my 2 year old's devotional.

Yes God.... I hear you now!

and the winner is......

2009-08-25T06:52:00.004-04:00

J MOM!!!

Congrats! You have won the six piece soap bit sampler from Wee Essentials! I have your email already from you comments so be on the look out for an email asking what 6 scents you would like to try!!

not my kid monday

2009-08-24T07:38:00.002-04:00

We are putting a spin on Not Me Monday this week. You get a week off from confessing your own "sins" as a mother and get to rat out your little ones and all the things they did not do this week! Head on over the My Charming Kids to join in on this fun blog carnival today!

Last week was our official last week of summer as preschool starts tomorrow. We packed our week with fun which lead to some great funny moments. Here are a few highlights:

I have recently taught Bubbie how to unhook Sass from her car seat. Once the new baby arrives they will both be in the back of the van and I will need his assistance in this for carpool. As he was helping her out he most definitely didn't squeeze her tiny little thighs and tell her " you need to go work out at the gym, your legs are all squishy"! (good thing he hasn't seen my thighs up close lately!!).

Sass just completed her third week of "nymnastics". She has a mind of her own and does what she wants most of the class but the teacher doesn't seem to notice because she is one of the only ones who doesn't wander off so while the teacher is herding back the others, she is doing her "nymnastics" her own way. The teacher has recently been working with them by gently raising their toes up to the bar while they hang from it. Well little monkey girl absolutely did not pull her feet up all by herself and then do a full back flip while holding on the bar totally unassisted not once, but twice, while no one was watching her!

Bubbie also started t-ball this week. Wouldn't you know that the night it is suppose to start the rain started to come. Not being much of an athlete I had no idea really what to expect when we got there. I should have realized lots of red dirt would be involved, which turns quickly to mud once it gets drizzled on, but what did I have to worry about Sass HATES being dirty. She would never sit in this damp, red dirt and play and play and play all while wearing a white outfit. Not my priss pot! And she certainly would not have enjoyed it!

While we are speaking of Miss Sassy Sass, remember all our potty training debacles? Well they are still going on. She knows what to do and will do it when she wants to but there is no making her. I still put a cloth diaper on her at nap and bedtime. The other day I walk into her room after nap and before I could say one word to her she did not tell me her first "lie" ever!! Not my child! At not even 2 1/2 she would never be deceptive enough to say " mommy that is NOT pee pee in my diaper, it's just some water." ( and I would never have to turn my face to not laugh at such a story!)

And lastly, one confession of my own.... as we had a false alarm thinking our newest baby would be here this weekend which ended up just landing me on bed rest, I most definitely did not allow my two year old to nap with me downstairs instead of up in her bed just so I could get a little more snuggle time with her before she wasn't the baby anymore. Nope, not me!

wee essential soap bits giveaway

2009-08-21T07:40:00.003-04:00

I am so excited to share this fun and yummy giveaway with you today!! I "met" Candice on Twitter and she makes these super delicious all natural/ 99% natural (depending on the soap) soap bits and she wants to share some with one of my lucky readers! YAY! She has a great etsy shop called Wee Essentials. I knew we were meant to work together when I saw her motto was Green Living for Moms and Babies!

What do you do with a soap bit you ask? Well, lots of things! If you cloth diaper, you can dissolve one bit into a cup of hot water, let it cool and you have a great wipes solution. I have been using it on Sass this week, who has the worlds most sensitive skin and it's great! She is super soft and no rashes from it.

I also made foaming soap with some of the soap bits that Candice sent me. If you double up your bits to water and dissolve and then refill one of those foaming soap bottles, you have a much less expensive, much healthier for your skin foaming soap. I will admit, I was skeptic when I read that this could be done. I didn't think it would work, but it did! I am so excited to because my kids are much more excited about washing hands with foaming soap and I didn't like any of the brands on the market because none of them were natural.

You can also use your soap bits in you child's bath, when you travel, or on a soap dish as "one guest" use soap! There are tons of yummy scents to try out to. Candice let me pick a few to try out and I chose snuggles, baby love and cherry vanilla. I expected cherry vanilla to be my favorite but actually I have fallen in love with baby love. It smells so clean and fresh! I can't wait to use this solution on our newest arrival instead of chemical laden baby wipes!

Here is what her site says about her soaps:

All undyed Essential Oil soap bits are 100% natural. All other fragrances are made with high quality phtalate-free fragrance oils, but since they are synthetic, the final product is only 99% natural. As well, any of my FDA-approved dyes will lower the percentage another 1%.

Candice wants to share some soap bits with one of my lucky readers! By entering our giveaway you can win a soap bits sampler!! You will get to choose 6 scents to fill 6 small jars. One small jar holds about 15 bits, so you are getting a lot of fun soap! I was amazed at how many bits fit into a jar and how little you have to use to make your soap solutions at home. This stuff will last!

And for all my other readers who want to try out Wee Essentials Soap, Candice is being so sweet to offer FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $15!! Use the code FREESHIP when you check out. This makes for a great deal being that a small jar is only $3 and a medium jar is $7! Think about what one bottle of foaming hand soap cost and you can see the savings!

Here's how to enter: (remember, for each thing you do, leave it as an INDIVIDUAL comment to count as a chance to win!!)

1. Check out Wee Essentials and leave me a comment telling me what scent you would like to try

2. Become a follower of GreenKiddos and leave a comment (or let me know if you already are a follower!)

3. Follow @greenkiddo on Twitter and leave a comment (or let me know if you already do!)

4. Follow @weeessentials on Twitter and leave a comment

5. Tweet this giveaway and leave a comment with the link

6. Blog this giveaway and leave a comment with the link

7. Add my button to your blog and leave me a comment with a link to your blog

I will draw a winner using random.org next Tuesday, so share this contest all weekend long with your friends!!

not in the mood

2009-08-19T13:42:00.002-04:00

That about sums up how I feel this week. Between Bubbie being sick, me being a gazillion months pregnant, and the humidity and heat here in the hot south raging, I have not been in the mood to do much of anything this week. So blogging has been on the back burner. I am officially in count down mode. I am ready to have this baby and get back to normality, or at least our new normal. I am ready for the kids to start preschool next week. I am ready for routine. So I apologize my dear readers for my lack of enthusiasm these past few days. I just have not be in the mood.

On another note..... A super yummy smelling contest is coming on FRIDAY!!! Be on the look out! I might not be blogging about much this week, but you don't want to miss this! I have been "testing" out this yummy surprise all week and am so excited to share it with you! Check back soon!

not me monday - sick day at home

2009-08-17T19:24:00.002-04:00

Not Me Monday is brought to you by one of my favorite blogs, My Charming Kids. This is a place where blog mamas can unite together and confess all their imperfections as moms, you know... all the things we would NEVER really do! ;)

Today Bubbie woke up with a fever and yucky nose. I did not use this as an excuse to allow my children watch entirely way too much tv and lay around on the couch. I also did not let them eat a cereal bar for breakfast, and again right before lunch knowing good and well that then they wouldn't eat much real lunch.

And after hearing of my friends going through one of our favorite drive throughs tonight, I did not scrap our dinner plans of a home cooked meal so we could chow on some really yummy chicken fingers. And I absolutely did not polish off those chicken fingers with a few girl scout cookies that I discovered stashed in our garage fridge the other. And I would never be complementing just going off and finishing off the box so they don't tempt me any more!

I most definitely have not been bribing my four year old with some "coke bottle" gummies every 4-6 hours to get him to take his medicine. He happily obliges to taking medicine with no prompts from me at all times.

And lastly at no point in this past week did I allow my two small children to have at it with a Little Mermaid sticker book just so I could have a few minutes to myself. I would never let them do this to themselves just so I could get some things done!

end of summer surprise

2009-08-15T08:16:00.002-04:00

What could lead to a smile like this?

Or a look of pure surprise like this?

Why when Super Dad shows up on a Friday afternoon with a swing set for our backyard!

and that leads to smiles like this!

and lots of giggles!

and being creative!

and squeals of summer time joy!

friday favorites - loopy do inserts

2009-08-14T09:26:00.002-04:00

I am a pocket diaper lover. They are my favorite because once they are stuffed they are as easy as an AIO and with the right insert they can be super trim yet absorbent. It took me a while to find an insert that I liked, but lo and behold loopy do's are my all time favorites!

Loopy Do's are a hemp/ microfiber combo. The micro fiber absorbs quickly, where the hemp is super thirsty and holds a lot all while keeping the insert super thin. They also are sewn in a loop so dry time is minimal! Normally these inserts are $6.95 a piece, but right now Kelly's Closet has the 1G inserts for only $3.95!! And as if I needed one more reason to love these inserts, they are pre washed and prepped, ready to go!!

After trying out loopy do's I purchased a couple super do's for night time and they are bullet proof! So if you are on the hunt for a new insert to try, I highly recommend these!

Hurry now to check out these inserts before they are gone. They will go quick at this price!

Click here to visit Kelly's Closet

precious

2009-08-13T07:26:00.002-04:00

Psalm 139:13-14

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's
womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Yesterday I gave Bubbie a little dry erase board and marker to use during rest time. He is usually not big into drawing or coloring but when he came down from his rest he was SO proud to show me his creation. The above picture is our family. He was quick to tell me that the first person was him, the next was me, then Super Dad and then Sass. At first I didn't notice one more person in the picture, a tiny little detail, but he made sure to show me. Look carefully at me...... do you see new baby? He included new baby in our picture! How stinkin' precious is that?!  I was completely tickled by this not only because he added new baby to the picture but I have never seen him draw full people with bodies like that. So cute!

wordless wednesday - not so good at being wordless!

2009-08-12T00:36:00.000-04:00

two bitty babies

reading books

in matching dresses

what a wonderful way to spend the day

crockpot mexican chicken

2009-08-11T08:07:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was Super Dad's birthday ( isn't that a great pic of him? One of the kids took it!!) . He didn't want to go out to dinner but couldn't really tell me what he wanted for dinner either. I had no idea what I wanted to cook either, I just knew that I didn't want to haul to kids to the grocery store with me in the 8 million degree weather, so it was creativity time!

I took a package of chicken breasts from the freezer and tossed them in my crock pot. I added two cans of cream of chicken, a jar of salsa, a can of drained black beans, half a bag of Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn and half a bag of Trader Joe's frozen tri color bell peppers. All of these things are favorites of Super Dads. I let it cook all afternoon and once the chicken was good and cooked and pulled it out and chunked it into bite size pieces.

I threw my new concoction on top of some brown rice and topped it off with some cheddar cheese. It was really yummy and super duper easy! The other good thing is it made a TON of food. I sent Super Dad to work with a serving for lunch and froze two dinner size portions for us to eat after baby comes.

Here's the weird part. I KNOW I took a picture of our yummy dinner last night before putting it all away, yet it is not on my memory card this morning.... maybe the camera ate it??

[update - superdad's computer consumed the memory card and then formatted the card and put it back into my Nikon this morning] here's the pic.... yum! it was tasty!

gro baby contest winner!!!

2009-08-10T09:30:00.002-04:00

Congrats to SARAH J!

Lucky number 13!! Random.org choose your number! Please contact me at greenkiddos dot com @ gmail dot com with your mailing address and I will get your diaper right out to you!

Thanks to everyone for such a great response! I hope to have another giveaway in a week or so. If you are ever interested in having your product given away just let me know!

not me monday..... wedding edition

2009-08-10T07:50:00.006-04:00

Bubbie was asked to be in his first wedding this past weekend. In celebration of this milestone, I thought it would be fun to do a "Not Me Monday - Wedding Edition"! Enjoy!

Bubbie looked precious in his tux. He was thrilled to be part of the wedding and while waiting for the festivities to begin he was on all his BEST behavior. He certainly was NOT wandering through woods, playing with sticks and dirt just moments before the ceremony. No, not my precious boy!

During the processional, Bubbie had to walk down only about 30 million concrete steps to make it into the gardens. I was NOT holding my breath the entire time. I knew with out a doubt that he would do EXACTLY as he was told, you know being a four year old boy and all!

And during the ceremony I NEVER once had to give him the "eye" to make sure he stood still, and didn't bop any one with the pillow. He absolutely didn't try to hand off the pillow to the Bride numerous times while she was being given away and didn't make a single silly face at me through the entire sacred time. Not this sweet boy!

While we are discussing what angels my children were through out the entire wedding, obviously completely due to my wonderful parenting skills.... let touch on this little person for a minute.

See that sweet little angelic face..... not one time did I have to tell her to be quiet during the ceremony. I absolutely didn't keep handing her things like fans and water bottles in attempt to keep her seated and silent. And it wasn't me who finally resorted to pulling out my Iphone so this tiny little one could play Tinkerbell just to keep her from throwing a massive fit during the vows. What kind of mother would resort to that? Not me! My children always sit and be silent when asked!!

As a matter of fact, my children were perfectly posed through the entire event. I never once worried that they would knock over the cake while running through the reception, or that Sass would have an accident in her beautiful white dress. In fact when we attempted to get a picture of the two of them, they immediately stopped running around like little monkeys and posed beautifully, just like this:

It would never take me jumping up and down and bribing with lollipops to get timeless, cherished shots that I will hold onto forever. And I would never trick them into a photo that they will both hate me for one day just so I could have a precious memory. No, not me!!

win a grobaby shell set in mandarin!

2009-08-07T04:00:00.002-04:00

If you haven't already heard there is a great new one size diaper on the market call Gro Baby. I have been super lucky to be a Gro Baby tester via a request on Facebook and I won a Gro Baby on Twitter. I liked them so much I emailed them and asked if they would send me a sample for my cloth diaper workshop to raffle off. They were doubly nice and sent me two, so I have an extra mandarin one to now giveaway here on GreenKiddos!

Gro Baby is a unique system. The outer shells of these diapers can be used numerous times in a day, while you just change out the snap in organic insert. I like this concept a lot and I really love the shells. They are waterproof yet breathable and have the best Velcro system I have ever seen! It is super easy to get a great fit with these diapers.

The shell set (which is what I am giving a way) comes with one shell, one organic soaker pad and one organic booster. I have been using these on Sass at night and have yet to have a leak. They really work great!

As with any product, I want to give you the pros and the cons. The are just a few downsides that I have found with this diaper. First off, I hope they will eventually come out with two sizes of snap in inserts. As much as I love this diaper on Sass, there is no way it will fit new baby for a while with the insert it comes with. Someone from Gro Baby suggested just using prefolds with the insert until baby gets bigger.

Secondly, remember how much I said I love the easy Velcro system on this diaper?? Well apparently so does Sass. Unfortunately a diaper can only catch what is deposited in it and when your two year old repeatedly removes it herself before nap or bedtime is over it can lead to a huge laundry load of sheets and blankets. I have to make sure to have pants on her or she will take this diaper off. (Gro Baby has come out with a snap version of this diaper though, we just don't own one!).

Lastly, maybe I am just doing something wrong, but it seems that sometimes the soaker pad is bunched in the middle when I take it off of her. Now this hasn't caused us any leaks or anything, just seems like it would be uncomfortable!

Gro Baby is a truly economical way to get started with cloth diapers. It's even more economical if you have two in diapers because you wouldn't need two sizes. If you are just starting to cloth diaper and wanted to make a one time investment, Gro Baby offers a package with everything you need for only $375 ( do you know how quickly you would reach that number in disposables?). This package includes 12 shells, 24 soakers and 16 boosters. That is plenty of diapers to get by washing only every other day to every two days depending on the age of your child.

Okay, so enough about the diaper. I love it. You want it. Here's how to get it!

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite color of Gro Baby
2. Follow me on twitter, leave a comment letting me know
3. Become a reader or already a reader, comment and let me know
4. Share this contest on your blog, leave me a comment with a link
5. Twitter this contest, comment w/ a link to your tweet
6. Post my button on your blog, comment with a link

Make sure you leave an individual comment for each thing you do, as I will use random.org to choose a number on Sunday to choose a comment to win. Each comment counts as an entry!

aap recommends rear facing until age 2

2009-08-06T07:30:00.002-04:00

My friends will all probably tell you I'm a little crazy when it comes to car seat safety. ( For example, yes my almost 5 year old is still harnessed!) It completely amazes me that one of the most important pieces of baby gear you will purchase comes with such little direction and is often used so incorrectly. Sure all car seats come with a manual, but have you every really sat down and read all of it and if you have, did it really all make sense? If I had my way, all car seats would come with an instructional DVD showing proper installation and usage. But that is not the way it is, so I depend on the internet to keep me up to date with the latest in car seat safety as most pediatricians are not and those car seat people at the "baby" store (you know where I'm talking about) usually have very little knowledge of the product they are selling.

Therefore, I feel as a blog writer, when I learn something new about car seat safety I should share it with you! Most people know the basic rule that your baby should ride rearfacing until 1 year AND 20 lbs not either or, yet many turn their children before reaching this minimum. The AAP has now changed that due to research proving how much safer our children are rearfacing. The new minimum is a child should rearface for 2 years or until the weight limit of your seat has been reached. Even I, the car seat crazy one is breaking this rule right now. Sass' convertible seat can rear face up to 33lbs (or maybe 35). I will be lucky if she weighs that much by first grade, so at 20 months we did turn her. ( at 28 months she is still only 23 lbs).

The myth around town is that if your child's feet hit the back of the seat you need to turn them or they are at risk of leg/ankle injury. The opposite is actually true. If you were ever in an accident severe enough to break their legs rearfacing, it's also severe enough to break a neck foreward facing. That was about all I needed to hear to decide to extend my children's rear facing time.

The other myth I hear is that people turn their baby early because they are so big, they are ready ( Bubbie was big like this, 28lbs at a year, he rear faced until 18 months). This too is untrue. Being safe forward facing has very little to do with how big your child is. It actually has to do with the strength of their spinal cord. Until children are over two, their heads are still not proportinate to the rest of their body. Therefore if you are in an accident foreward facing that big ol' baby noggin can pull on the spinal cord and risk internal decapation. I know, not a pretty thought, but this is a serious serious risk to foreward facing too soon.

Here is an article stating the AAP's new stance on rear facing. I highly recommend you read it.

I also HIGHLY recommend you taking 3 minutes out of your day to watch this short clip (this clip was made before the AAP changed it's stance so it does say 1year and 20lbs which is no longer correct!):

breastfeeding is offensive

2009-08-05T14:19:00.008-04:00

A friend of mine just shared this with me..... absolutely love it! What do you think??

This is not my original content, rather I found this and am sharing it from here. I could not find an original author to credit, but if you are the author contact me and I will credit you!

I'm thankful for not having ta tas thrown in my face all the time by offensive and indecent breastfeeding mothers like the ones below:

Wait...Well, this is a bad example. Let's try again.

Hmm...Just a minute. I'm sure I can find better ones than these...

Eh, still not offensive enough. I'll check one more time.

That is better. LOOK AT THAT! I see about a half inch. DISGUSTING.

UGH. Look at that indecency! She must be from some third world country to be exposed like that!

Now that's just...There are no words to descripe how inappropriate that is. Something needs to be done!

But why stop at breasfeeding women? There are ta tas everywhere. Beware! If you thought the above photos were offensive, you WILL DEFINITELY be offended by the photos below.

Not this one, though. This one was in plain view on news stands and in mail boxes in 19 countries world wide!

Not this one, either. This one actually won an award!

Oh, and I guess this one is fine too. Everyone knows you can't sell jeans without someone being topless.

Or beer, for that matter.

Or sunglasses.

Or movie tickets.

Or CDs...

You know what? Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that someone mixed up some photos here. The first batch are offensive, but the second batch are just fine and dandy???

People who live in glass bras:

Shouldn't throw stones:

If you think women have the right to breastfeed their children no matter where they are, please repost this...comment vote it popular whatever . Support breastfed babies and their right to eat in public!

and soon there will be three

2009-08-04T07:25:00.001-04:00

We have officially hit the count down. I'm down to five weeks and can't believe I will have three babies under 5 in my home before you know it. I am so stinkin' anxious to have this baby. I am officially dying to know who he or she is! I don't know that my tummy can physically get any larger with out popping. And these little guys above are so ready to meet their brother or sister.

Faith and trust have been the lessons that I have learned this pregnancy. With Sass, I learned a lot about faith and trust do to my blood clot and the chance of her not making it for so long. Also, when your are flat on your back for weeks on end, God has time to teach you a lot! But I also had earthly comfort in having a million dr's visits and ultrasounds through out her pregnancy. So while I had to trust God like I never did before, He sent me constant reassurance through these visits.

This pregnancy has been fairly uneventful. Sure I puked on a regular basis for the first 20 some odd weeks, I have horrible heartburn now and am fairly uncomfortable in the dead heat of summer here in the hot south, but those are normal pregnancy discomforts. I don't see my OB weekly (well, I'm starting to, but again, under normal circumstances). I haven't rushed to the Women's Center numerous times thinking for sure I finally lost the baby. No hospital admittances. It's been fairly easy, yet I have had to trust more than ever because the earthly comforts of extra dr. attention isn't there.

Over the past year I know of/ am friends with three people who have lost babies at term for no reason. This is a HUGE fear for me. Another lost their two year old. Totally out of their control, everything was fine and then it wasn't. WOW. God if I could ask you to explain something to me, that would be high up on the list.

I am not a good scripture memorizer. It's not my gift, but song sticks with me. I can hear a praise song once or twice and then be in a situation at a totally different time and verses from a song will flood me. I figure if the song is full of scripture than surely that's a close second best to memorizing the actual scripture. I actually want to go get a c.d. my friend Alison told me about called Songs for Saplings, because I can already see that Sass learns through music like I do, so instead of her memorizing the wheels on the bus, why not have her singing truth!

The Lord has sent me songs as comfort this time. Casting Crown's Praise You in this Storm is one I find myself singing often. The chorus is Psalm 121:1,2:

I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

I also find myself singing a good ole praise song we sang in college ministry all the time:

My Life is in You Lord
My Strength is in You Lord
My Hope Is in You Lord
It's in You, It's in You

So 5 more weeks of trusting and hoping and having faith until our newest little one has arrived and then there will be three. And who am I kidding..... that's when trust and faith will have to kick in like never before.

supper planning sunday

2009-08-02T16:21:00.004-04:00

I have totally slacked in the meal planning area these last two weeks which has lead to a lot of nights eating out! We are getting back on track this week, even though it's a short week for us meal wise....

Sunday- Dinner at a friend's house

Monday- Homemade mac and cheese, green beans, apple sauce

Tuesday- Grilled hot dogs, baked sweet potato fries and baked beans

Wednesday- Baked pasta ( ground beef, mozzarella cheese, veggies pureed into the sauce, this makes a ton so I will probably freeze some into small trays for after baby comes)

Thursday- Bubbie is in a wedding so we have the rehearsal dinner

Friday- Wedding

Saturday- Super Dad's birthday at the pool, BBQ for dinner!

What are you chowing on this week? Use MckLinky below to link to your meal plan for the week! Just click on "you are next" to enter your blog info!

Kelly's Kids... order today TAX FREE!

2009-08-02T07:59:00.005-04:00

One of my friends and I have started hosting a Kelly's Kids show twice a year this past year. Their clothes are super cute. They fit really well, wash incredibly and hold great value if you resell your children's clothing. Plus it gives the kids something cute to wear that not everyone else in town has seen! I have posted pics of them in coordinating outfits from Kelly's Kids over the summer.

This weekend we have hosted our fall show. The fall stuff is super cute and I have picked out several fun outfits for preschool this year. I can't wait for it to all come in and for it to cool down enough for us to use them!

This weekend is Tax Free here and if you want to place an order (even if you don't live here) you still reap those benefits, so leave me a comment or email me if you are interested by this evening and I will get your order in! Check out their cute cloths here!

tiny but mighty

2009-08-01T08:14:00.000-04:00

Do you think I will be able to get this off of her before her first gymnastics class on Wednesday? She went from " I no do nymnastics" to "put my "shirt" on mommy, I do nymnastics"! And no matter how many times I tell her it's called a leotard, she insists it's a "shirt".

Oh and sorry for the fuzzy pic... it was taken with my phone!

friday favorites - a good gymboree sale

2009-07-31T07:20:00.005-04:00

I love getting good quality clothes at a great price. I have learned my lesson that yes you can buy cute, cheap stuff, but after a few washes it usually just looks like cheap stuff. This than tempts me to go buy more cute, cheap stuff and at that point I haven't saved any money at all!

I was remembering from last year that I bought Bubbie a ton of great stuff at Gymboree for back to school on a really good sale and was hoping it would take place again this year. Well it is! While I tend to find Gymboree a little too "matchy matchy" for him as a "big boy", I can get great deals on good jeans, cargos, khakis, basic tees etc and then just add in some random pieces from other places with them at a later time.

Okay, so you want to know more about the sale. Well first it's only a good deal on big kid clothes, so for once, Sass gets nothing, it's Bubbie's turn! All the big kid clothes are marked to $10, $15 or $20 right now for back to school. Where I live, it is also tax free weekend! SCORE! And if you have a $100 worth, you can do it all online with free shipping. Double Score! On top of all that, I have a 20% off your total coupon and it's gymbucks time!!

What are gymbucks? Gymbucks are a great way to save money. You earn one $25 gymbuck for every $50 you spend. Say I spend $175 on back to school clothes and shoes. Gymboree than gives me $75 in Gymbucks to use at a later time. Since I'm not buying Sass any back to school clothing now, I will save the Gymbucks to get her some fall/winter clothes. When I go to redeem my $75 in Gymbucks I can pick out another $150 worth of clothes and only pay $75 for them. And you can use them on sale items!! Basically I can walk out of Gymboree then with a $30 dress for about $9.

Another reason I prefer to spend a little extra on my kids clothing..... it resells awesome! There are some people CRAZY for Gymboree on Ebay and half the time I end up making money on the clothes I sell on there because people get bid happy. This helps me recycle our clothing budget over and over. Although I am currently holding on to everything until we find out what new baby is!

Here are a few of the items I have in my cart ready to check out:

2 pairs of jeans Reg price- $29.75 sale+coupon =$18 a pair:

super cute pullover reg price: $22.75 sale+coupon = $12

Fun stripey tee shirts: Reg price $14.75 Sale + coupon = $8

Toggle tennies Reg price $29.75 Sale + coupon = $18

Now I just have to wait for the cool weather to roll in..... in about 3 more months!

want to help baby stellan

2009-07-30T07:30:00.005-04:00

MckMama has asked that anyone who would like to help baby Stellan during this time of need to donate to String of Pearls. String of Pearls is an awesome organization that supports families during their darkest hours of a terminal pregnancy. I can't imagine any more crushing news than knowing I would never get to love on my baby because of a fatal illness he or she had in utereo. MckMama discovered this program when she was pregnant with Stellan and thinking he would never live here on earth.

So what does that have to do with that gorgeous baby girl in my post (no that's not Sass, we only wish she had that much hair!). Last night Sugar and Spice contacted me and asked me to send you guys over to her etsy store. Right now she is donating a portion of her sales to String of Pearls in Stellan's name. She will do this up until August 8th. I have never ordered from her before, but am drooling over these cute hats, so I too will be contributing to her donation before the day is over. She is running a special right now where you get a free clip if you order any three items!

I have my eye of several cute things such as:

super cute pink headband

and this cute flower clip

and of course one of those darling beanie caps!! So get to shopping and help support an amazing organization!!

organic coupons - must print before end of the week!!

2009-07-29T14:38:00.002-04:00

Our friends at Stonyfield Farms have paired up with the movie Food Inc. and are offering some GREAT coupons until the end of this week. I am so excited to print some of these off! It is not easy to find coupons on organic foods so jump on this before the deal ends. I found out about this deal by following Stonyfield on Facebook. If you aren't a follower you might want to be so you don't miss any more good deals!

Super Dad and I have a date planned on Saturday to go see Food Inc. I will let you know ALL about it when we are done!

blog with integrity

2009-07-29T07:22:00.003-04:00

A few days ago I stumbled across this article on NPR. It basically talks a lot about mom blogs and how corporations are now targeting them to do reviews or "advertorials" on their products because they know that moms are the bigger spenders in households. The article discusses whether readers are getting honest reviews or not because these mom want to keep receiving free products. It was very interesting. I highly recommend reading it if you are a mom blogger or if you are interested at all in how this side of blogging works.

This morning I have added a new badge on the left side bar that looks like the image above. I read about this pledge that bloggers can take to blog with integrity in the NPR article. I feel strongly about blogging with integrity so I have signed the pledge and displayed the badge now on my blog. By doing this you as my readers will know that I will fully disclose if I am writing about a product that I have been given by the company or writing about something I personally purchased.

My blog is not a "big" blog in the blogging world. At this point companies are not knocking down my door to get me to write about them. I do this for fun. I don't make any money off this blog as we don't have ads on here. I do have some affiliate links, but these are of stores I have personally shopped and would recommend regardless. The products I have written about in the past have been purchased by me and are used in our home on a regular basis. I will tell you though if I write about a product I was "gifted" and I will be honest in my review of it.

Would I like to make money off my blog? Sure! I think that would be awesome to help bring in some income to our family while still staying at home with our kids, but I will not sell my soul to do so. I appreciate that anyone besides my family actually cares enough to read my blog and come back to it and most of all leave a comment, so in return I want you to know where I stand.

What do you think about "blog with integrity"? Do you think it's okay for mommy bloggers to receive free products to review on their blogs? Are you a mommy blogger? Will you sign the pledge? Let me know your thoughts!

healing prayer for baby stellan

2009-07-28T07:04:00.005-04:00

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray." (James 5:13)

"For with God nothing will be impossible."
(Luke 1:37)

One thing that amazes me about the "blog" world is if you get hooked in, you realize the community that has been formed among strangers. I tend to discover new blogs through blogs that I currently read and it always amazes me to find out that a blog I read is "friends" with another blog I read, or someone I know in real life really "knows" the people I read about on a blog. But what is super impressive to me is when a crisis occurs in the blog world, how fellow bloggers will gather around and support complete strangers in their darkest hours. If only "real" life could be like that everyday. So, today is my day to support and pray for a "stranger".

I have read the blog My Charming Kids for almost a year now. I love MckMama's writing sense and we have a great deal of similar beliefs in raising children so I get tons of new ideas there all the time. Well right now she needs prayer. Her youngest of four is in the hospital with a very serious heart condition and is not doing well. From what I have read he will most likely be going to a children's hospital in Boston today and will have to have a surgery that is very risky. This boy needs some serious prayer and I'm sure his mama and daddy would love some too. Therefore, I'm dedicating today's post to Stellan and his family.

You can read Stellan's whole story here and see MckMama's latest twitter updates on her left sidebar. If you have a few moments today, would you send up a prayer for Stellan?

For I will restore health to you and heal you     of your wounds," says the Lord. (Jeremiah     30:17)

last week to get you gDiapers on sale!!

2009-07-27T07:05:00.003-04:00

This is the last week to get the everyday g's on sale for only $40. Everyday g's come with 6 diaper covers and 6 liners and the set is normally $70. Usually one cover/liner is $18.99 so this is really a terrific deal!! Use the code g1378swanson to get your gDiapers at this great price but you have to use it before the 31st when the deal ends!!!
This code only works on the Everyday G's set... click here to see the set!!

One of the great features of gDiapers is that they are biodegradable. This means if you aren't so sure about flushing them and end up just tossing the insert you still aren't hurting the environment like you are with disposables. This video shows a comparison of how gdiapers compose compared to a non chlorine diaper (ie a 7th generation type) and a traditional diaper (ie a pampers or huggies). Those things will stay around FOREVER!! Crazy!

update on little miss stubborn

2009-07-24T21:20:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately today I was unable to spend the day with Sass. I had a work commitment that I had to keep so she spent the night with my mom and the whole day. I told my mom my thoughts though and told her to just back off and see what she does. She did great. She did nap in a pull up but besides that no accidents all day.

We picked her up around 6 and took her to dinner where she drank an entire juice box. We were headed to Rita's after so I just told her that if she had an accident we couldn't stay and would have to go home. While sitting outside I noticed her doing the "potty dance" so I just gently reminded her if she need to go to tell me. She immediately said " i need to go potty" so off we ran and SUCCESS!! The Rita's man gave her a sticker for her success which made her day!

We played for a little bit after we got home when I noticed her acting a little funny. All of a sudden she goes " I have to poop!", so Super Dad rushed her to the potty. She had already had a little bit of an accident, but was able to finish in the potty! YAY SASS! Success number two!

After that we bathed and got ready for bed. I put a cloth diaper on her trying to back off and not make a big deal. While sitting down stairs all of a sudden we hear a little voice singing that she has to go potty so Super Dad ran upstairs and took her. Success number 3!!

In a matter of 3 hours she told us three times! I have to be gone again all day tomorrow, so we will see how it goes!

the epitome of stubborn

2009-07-23T22:10:00.004-04:00

I know she's cute. And she says the darn most adorable things all the time, but good gracious this girl has a mind of her own!

We have officially finished our three days of intense potty training and honestly, I don't think we are one step closer. The girl knows what to do, she's not afraid of the potty and is more than verbal enough to tell me.

She just. doesn't. want. to.

No way, no how. We have done stickers, prizes, jelly beans. You name it, we have tried it, but she wants nothing to do with us asking her, suggesting, nothing. She has to want to do it or she won't. She knows the difference between wet and dry, clean and dirty. She knows how to sit on a big potty, a little potty. She can even take off her clothes and put them back on correctly.

She just. doesn't. want. to.

This has left me in a predicament. I know she is capable. I know she can do it. Do I put her back in diapers? Do I got the pull up route which she treats like diapers? Or do I keep bugging the daylights out of the poor child telling her a million times to "tell mommy when she has to go potty?" I truly am at a loss at what the right thing to do is.

Tonight I had an idea. She's 2. Surely I can out smart the kid, right? Here's my thought.... tell me what you think. She HATES being dirty. We constantly have to have a napkin when we eat, a wet wipe when we paint, so on and so forth, yet she has no problem tinkling in her pants and not telling me because she knows I will make her go potty. She won't tell me if she is wet or dirty even though she knows what that means.

She just. doesn't. want. to.

To me, this means it's reverse psychology time. My plan is to put her in panties and pants. I'm not going to ask her to tell me, or ask her if she has to go, or set a timer, none of it. I am going to totally ignore her in all regards to the potty and let her have an accident. And when she has an accident, I'm just not going to say anything about it. I figure pants will be more uncomfortable wet than if she was just in a dress, but I am totally going to put the ball in her court and let her come to me. I know her and I know she won't like feeling wet. I have never let her stay wet long enough for her to be uncomfortable because I am constantly checking to make sure she is dry and running her to the potty. I am going a totally unconventional route. She's an unconventional girl, what else is to be expected. I am giving her a logical consequence... you tinkle in your pants, you are wet until you tell me, then I will help you solve the problem.

It might not work but I don't know what else to do to get the girl back into the game and I really feel like we made too much progress to go back to diapers, so it's worth a shot. And if you don't like my plan, please don't call DFACS on me. I promise to bathe her and clean her all up after my experiment is over and I won't let her sit around in her dirty undies all day or anything, but I want to see what she will do if I just leave her alone!

and you shall be called......

2009-07-23T07:05:00.002-04:00

The new baby needs a name.

We have a boy name, but are not settled on a girl name. I thought we were but super dad is not so sure. I figured where better to get some great ideas than from my fabulous readers! I think we both have procrastinated finding a girl name because we are so sure the baby is a boy, but just in case, we should probably be prepared with a girl name too.

So, leave a comment. Give me some of your best suggestions. What shall we call this child if she happens to be a she??

wordless wednesday

2009-07-22T07:01:00.000-04:00

potty training bootcamp update - day 2

2009-07-21T07:14:00.005-04:00

UPDATE#3!!!
Napped with out a diaper and woke up dry!

UPDATE #2!!!

Guess who told me mid swim lessons that she had to go potty!! She was wet and freezing but she did it!

UPDATE!!!

Guess who woke up DRY this morning!! Woo to the Hoo!!

We are about to embark on day two of our potty training boot camp. I actually hear Sass stirring in her bed as I am typing. Yesterday went pretty well. We did have two BIG accidents, if you catch my drift, but other than that it was just a little sprinkle here or there. She has gotten much better about using her words and letting me know.

Several prizes were earned yesterday. It was such a pretty day I tried to encourage her to pick things we could play outside with like bubbles and chalk. She ended the day picking two little mermaids that came from the dollar store and are now carried everywhere because they are her "friends". We kept the potty outside with us yesterday and I kept her tush exposed so she could see herself start to have an accident and then run to the potty.

Last night I read the "3 Day Potty Training" manual that you can download. It was really easy to read and gave me some great ideas. It was written by a mother of 6, so I am going to attempt to follow her method from here on out. We aren't suppose to go anywhere for the first three days, but Sass does have a swim lesson this morning, so we are going to venture out for that and then rush back home to get back to business. The part of this method that I like the best is you give the control over to your child. Instead of asking them a million times if they have to go potty, you just keep reminding them to "tell mommy if you have to go potty". We did this all day yesterday, and boy not asking them is a hard habit to break, but she was doing really good about telling me more and more as the day went on.

********************************

On another note...... a friend recently sent me this great blog called Faithful Provisions. I highly recommend adding them to your blog reader because she always has the scoop on great deals! Today's great deal that I am going to have to indulge in is a free pastry from Starbucks with the purchase of a coffee. Since I am with child, I have sadly had to give up frozen coffee drinks because they can't make them decaf. The idea of drinking hot coffee though mid July, in the deep south, at 8 months pregnant is so not appealing so, I have now become a fan of iced coffees. My current fave is a decaf, nonfat caramel macchiato. YUM! I will most definitely be stopping by this morning on the way to swimming to pick up my breakfast! You will need to either print off this coupon or show this to the barista on your handheld to get your free pastry! Have a good breakfast!

love this

2009-07-20T15:12:00.003-04:00

Ha ha! I saw this on Facebook today and it made me laugh! So cute!

************************************

Potty Training Bootcamp update:

The day is going pretty well. I have been flooding Sass so she will need to tinkle a lot which is working. I did let her go get something from her room this morning which resulted in our only big accident. Other than that she is getting better about stopping herself if she starts and finishing on the potty. For a while this morning it was so nice out, I let her play out back nekkie bottomed. This really seemed to help her see when she was starting to tinkle and then run to the potty. We are really working on using her words to tell me when she has to go potty, but still has a ways to go. Hopefully the afternoon will go well! She is napping now and I just made myself some peanut butter cookies as my reward... big mistake, they are so yummy I can't stop eating them! LOL! Wish me luck!

potty training bootcamp

2009-07-19T21:16:00.004-04:00

Sass has been potty training for several months now and we have totally hit a plateau. She will have great days and then really not so great days. She is good as long as we take her ALL the time, but she rarely tells us. Even if she has an accident she only tells us about half the time.

Since Bubbie is away this week at the beach with the "grands" I have decided it's time to go hard core on the potty training. We have been pretty laid back about it and worked on it here and there, but we are going full force now.

First thing first, we needed potty prizes. We have been giving jelly beans for going potty but they obviously aren't working. This afternoon I hit up the good ol' Dollar Tree and started stocking up! Lucky for me, my girl loves her some princesses and Dollar Tree is full of fun princess goodies. We have wands and bubbles, sidewalk chalk, new coloring books, and even pink silly string, plus oh so much more! I really should have taken a picture to show you, maybe tomorrow. Oh, and how could I forget... STICKERS! Must have stickers. Lucky for me, I found a book of 414 Ariel stickers for a $1! YAY!

We started this afternoon. I put all our surprises in a big gift bag and made Sass her first "potty ticket". I wrote the numbers 1-3 on it and started flooding the girl with diluted juice. I explained to her if she went potty in the potty she got to put a stick on one of the numbers and when all the numbers were covered she could trade in her ticket for a surprise. She took to this immediately telling me she had to go potty and Viola! she did. Sticker number 1 was earned. We took our ticket and our stickers to my mom's house for dinner. Sass preceded to then pee on the floor the next 3 times.... uh oh... maybe this isn't going to work. But finally we had two more successes.

She then came home and picked out her first prize, a pink fairy wand that lights up and makes a very magical sound. We made a new ticket, but this time it has the numbers 1-5 on it. She went potty two more times and earned two more stickers... three more to go until she gets back into the prize bag! Yay Sass!

We plan to go no where tomorrow. I am going to oj and cranberry juice this girl as much as I can and hopefully we will get better and better at telling mama when we have to go potty. I trained Bubbie this way with potty tickets and prizes, so hopefully it will work with Sass too!

Pictures and updates to come tomorrow. I'm too tired tonight to work on them!

* image from The EC Store

some people can choose just one

2009-07-17T13:20:00.006-04:00

I'm not one of them! I love trying all kinds of diapers. My favorites change on a regular basis. Since Sass only wears diapers to sleep now, there is a lot of new things to try since she was in full time cloth. Here are some of the diapers I am currently drooling over!

Smarti Pants

These are a brand new one size diapers. I have heard great things about them. They are the most affordable one size diaper I have seen around. The feature that sounds the coolest to me about these is that you don't have to unstuff them before throwing them in your diaper pail. Apparently the pocket is open at both ends and will release the insert in the wash! Pretty cool! Their special for $36.95 is only for 11 more days, so I may cave and order before then!

Kissaluv Marvel Fitteds

These new fitteds from Kissaluv are just too stinkin' cute! I don't really need them, but I want to try one! I feel like I can justify buying fitteds more when they are one size like this one because Sass can sleep in them now and the baby can wear them from birth to potty training! Kelly's Closet has free shipping right now too on orders over $29 when you use the code FACE68. Code expires on 7.19.09! Click here to visit Kelly's Closet

I just ordered a Thirsties Duo Wrap from Nell's Natural Baby. I ordered a meadow green one, so cute! I can't wait for it to come in! These covers are suppose to be as great as a regular Thirsties cover but even better because you can expand the size! I ordered a small and will be interested to see if Sass will squeeze into it at 23lbs. I'll let you know! If you want to order from Nell's click here:
Click here to visit Nell's Natural Baby.

Lastly, I want to get some gcloth to try in my gDiapers. I am hoping to order some of these before the baby is born. Unfortunately, the great coupon code that I have doesn't apply to these. It only applies to the everyday G's 6 pack, but is still a great deal. Use g1378swanson if you want to order those. As I get other good codes I will be sure to post them!

What are you wanting to try out? Is there something I haven't listed that I need to explore? Leave me a comment and fill me in on your faves!

A picture is worth 1000 MckLinky's - Name that picture

2009-07-16T20:52:00.008-04:00

Hi everyone! We're running a test tonight for MckLinky and need everyone to give us their caption of Superdad and Bubby! Just click the link under the picture titled "Click here to enter your caption" to give us your caption, thanks!

try gDiapers for only $40!! ...wait, what's a gDiaper?

2009-07-16T15:21:00.004-04:00

What's a gDiaper you say? It's a hybrid between a disposable diaper and a cloth diaper. The outside is cloth but the insert is flushable. There's no plastic to throw into our landfills.

Did you know a normal diaper takes 500 YEARS to decompose. Just one diaper! How crazy is that. The great thing about the gDiapers flushable inserts in you can trash them if your potties won't support the flushing and they will still decompose way faster than a traditional sposie. And if you are into composting, you can even compost them! YAY!

Are you curious now? If so and you want to try them out I have a great coupon code for you! Use the code g1378swanson and you can get the everyday g's 6 pack for only $40!! This is a huge steal considering just one cover is normally $18.99. You can use the code as many times as you want too and order up to 10 packs per order. I actually ordered smalls and mediums with this deal because I know when I need my bigger covers the deal will be over. This makes a great baby shower gift for anyone you know that might not want to go the disposable diaper route! Stock up now though because this deal ends on July 31st!

And for you veteran cloth mamas... if you aren't digging a disposable insert, gDiapers did just come out with gCloth!! You can also tri fold a prefold and lay it inside your gDiaper. That is what I am going to do at first!

wordless wednesday

2009-07-15T07:35:00.001-04:00

she stole his heart

and still holds it captive...

consequences

2009-07-14T07:09:00.001-04:00

See those little bandaided knees? Do you know how many times this little girl has taken off running this summer and ended up with knees just like those? Yet, she still loves to run. You would think she would have figured out the consequence by now, but you can't slow her down!

Parenting and teaching consequences is one of the hardest parts of this job. Some times the consequence ends up in skinned knees, others a sad, sad kid. We have really been working on learning this lesson this summer and it is no fun! But God calls us to shepard our children and this is part of my job as their mommy.

Nothing stinks worse than seeing your child upset and knowing you could fix it, but in the long run you wouldn't be teaching them want God wants them to know. We had an instance like this with Bubbie this week. He wants so badly to go to the bookstore and get a new "jack and annie" book. We told him the other day that if he cleaned up his playroom and ate a good dinner we could go to the store after dinner. Well after way too many reminders, pleas, etc. we had to do what we knew would crush him..... tell him, sorry, but no book. You would have thought the world had come to an end in our house. The tears that ensued were unbelievable and we could have stopped them in an instant by telling him we would take him anyway, but that was not what God wanted us to do. This was a chance for him to learn consequences. No fun for anyone but these lessons never are.

My biggest struggle is when to stick to my guns and when to give in. How to know which battles are worth fighting. Our biggest usually revolves around picking up toys and eating meals. Don't get me wrong, I think this boy is dynamite, but strong willed, messy and pack rat all come to mind too!

Everyone always warned me about the "terrible twos", no one prepared me for the "frustrating fours". Boy oh boy, it's so much harder! Please tell me the fives are fantastic!!

green kiddos

win an ergo from heavenly hold!

what mom does......

bento? what's a bento?

sweetness

back from the beach.....

bumgenius 4.0s..... the lowdown

keepin' it real

day 1 mimi and pop camp - project playroom

babies and banana bread

so much better

my little junk collector

where oh where has yo baby gone??

wow what a morning!

friday fun

simple snack mix

bumgenius on the Today show tomorrow morning!

ice cream for breakfast?

bumgenius 4.0s.....

great sale on biokleen products at drugstore.com

saturday morning breakfast......

lunch a la our garden

beachin' it.....

wow! i was featured on I'm a Lazy Mom.....

simple s'mores

quiet

flash mob + glee music = smile on my face

meal plan monday... ummm i mean tuesday!

sittin' in my highchair

a super easy way to help out sixtyfeet.org

so here's another easy peasy way to help out sixtyfeet.org.....

- until Friday April 16 5 p.m. EDT and they will donate toSixtyFeet.org. They are up to $200 so far - let's help them helpSixtyFeet.org.

sixtyfeet.org - helping the children in uganda

neema.... shop for change

http://www.theneemashopstories.blogspot.com/ - from today through April 22, sales from the Neema shop will help Dan Owens & Michael Lines as they head to Uganda to help Kampiringsia! & a new artist has joined! Check it all out http://www.theneemashopblog.blogspot.com/ & spread the word

back on track......

fancy.

busy.

wishes for 2010

it's been a busy week....

watch me grow - 3 months old!

major diaper stash sell off....

week of thanks fail + dinner this week

a week of thanks- day 1

I'm so "flippin' excited to try out flip!

mommy thinks i'm cool

wordless wednesday

dinner dilemmas

supper planning sunday

a saturday afternoon hike

a new playgym for bubba bear

two months old

read bubbie read!!

wordless wednesday- mr smiles

xsmall diapers for sale!

meal plan monday

happy halloween

one day i will blog again....

tiny fluff friday

wanna know what I've been up to since my post on friday.....

spotty....

H1N1 Tips for Staying Healthy

H1N1 vaccine - what are your thoughts

supper planning sunday aka meal planning monday!

chili pot roast from faithful provisions - super easy!!

wordless wednesday - back to school

can you hear me now??

and the winner is......

not my kid monday

wee essential soap bits giveaway

not in the mood

not me monday - sick day at home

end of summer surprise

friday favorites - loopy do inserts

precious

wordless wednesday - not so good at being wordless!

crockpot mexican chicken

gro baby contest winner!!!

not me monday..... wedding edition

win a grobaby shell set in mandarin!

- until Friday April 16 5 p.m. EDT and they will donate to
SixtyFeet.org. They are up to $200 so far - let's help them help
SixtyFeet.org.