lfh creative

glory!

2011-12-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Uncomfortable

2011-12-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

I am torn over Christmas this year, torn between celebrating a holy holiday and all the stuff, business, and over-everything that Christmas has become. There is not a single thing I NEED from any store yet I get all panicky and excited about sales. There is nothing my children really desire but I am tempted to lavish them with gifts just because I can and it would be so pretty and fun. We need nothing and have more than enough for several families already. The more God shapes my heart for the the things he cares about the more the manic and over-indulgence of the Holiday season grates me. Jesus came as a babe to poor teenagers not to prosper the world but to save it. I can imagine I much more fitting way to honor his sacrifice than to indulge in excess while ignoring his precious children around the planet but yet I still get sucked into the holiday merriment. My heart is so torn.

A far more eloquent article on many of the things that have been rambling through my head this month: Read it! Do it!

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/11/29/the-christmas-conundrum

Silent Night

2011-12-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Last year, I celebrated Christmas in the hospital with pre-term labor and a 2 day hospital visit spending every minute praying and hoping little shock and awe would stay put just a few more days. They stayed put for another 25 days and this year I have these precious two gifts under my tree enjoying their very first Christmas. Sweet babies may you always know Christmas is a holy day, the day we celebrate the birth of the best gift ever given to the world. No gift anyone will buy you will ever compare to Jesus.

fluffy butt

2011-04-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

We are cloth diaperers, or more aptly we have been and will be again. At least once a month someone wants advice so I will answer it here once and for all!

When to start:
We wait till little people sleep through the night before adding cloth diapers into the mix. Reason 1, newborns are exhausting and less laundry is good! Reason 2, most one size cloth diapers don't really fit well until babies get a little chunky. Cloth diapers have a considerable upfront cost and it just doesn't make sense to shell out $200 bucks for newborn cloth diapers that will be outgrown in a month. Shock and Awe are 4.5 months and we will start cloth this week, we are down to our last package of pampers.

What we use/used:
In general, we have found that pocket diapers and snaps work best for us. Pockets are easy for babysitters and grandparents to use and velcro left us with a naked Ella Bella.
14 Bumgenius 2.0's and 3.0's- These were pretty much all we used with Ella Bella. The velcro on them as seen much better days but otherwise they still work great. They would be in better shape if we didn't put the covers in the dryer. Lesson learned. I am trying to rework these for nighttime training pants since the velcro is shot.
3 smartipants- work great, no complaints. They do run a little smaller than Bumgenius. Made by mamas in the United States.
2 gdiapers- HATE these. Super cute on and a great idea in theory. Reality is they are all the work of cloth diapers and more expensive with more pieces. They leaked like crazy too. Sold mine too a friend that loves them. Too each their own :) I kept my pink ruffled ones and bright blue ones for photos. They are really cute.
22 sunbaby- ordered these for shock and awe. They are crazy inexpensive and come in patterns and solids. I haven't used them yet but know several people who have and are happy with them. These fit shock and awe when they were only 6lbs. Note, they are manufactured and shipped directly from China. Most cloth diapers sold in the US are also manufactured in China but this is a real hang up for many parents. Edited 12/5/11- After using these for several months, eh, they are ok. Ours leak through much quicker than any other diaper we have and when the babies were on an all milk diet we were having to change them every 2 hours and even then had multiple outfit changes a day. Now that they are older and eat more solids they work much better but always double stuff if you use sunbaby inserts.
1 flip- a smarter and cheaper gdiaper. In theory you can just change the insert on these, we always had to replace the whole cover since the insert shifted around.
1 happy heiny one size- works just fine, a little pricey.
2 happy heiny trainers- cloth pullups. We use them at night and they run HUGE. Should have ordered the smallest size even for my 3 year old!
2 thirsties duo wraps- work really well with just an insert or over crappy disposable diapers.
1 fuzzibunz- eh. It's just ok.
9 newborn diapers- these are homemade and were a hand me down from a friend. They are adorable and I used them for photos, but that's it. 9 diapers really isn't enough for even one day with a newborn, let alone 2 newborns, so we didn't use them. But they are really awesome doll diapers :)

16 econobum by bum genius: These work pretty great. Stuff them with whatever you want and just go. They aren't as well structured as the flip but so far no leaks! I got ours BOGO for 9.99 for 2 covers and 2 organic pre-folds, so $5 each.

Quantity
We got by with just the 14 bumgenius for Ella Bella for a year doing laundry every other day. We have 42 one-size diapers now and that should easily get us to washing diapers every third day. A lot of people use cloth wipes too, we haven't. We use disposable ones and just toss them in the trash. It's very un-tree-hugger of us, but it's how we roll.

The Setup
We have a changing table in our kid's bathroom. All the clean diapers are stuffed and ready to go. Change the baby, dump any solids in the potty, flush, toss the diaper in a diaper pail and you are good to go. You can't use diaper rash cream with cloth, but you probably won't need too! Our kids got hardly any rashes with cloth. We just used a cut up receiving blanket to line the diaper when they had a rash and then tossed the scrap after each change.

The "ick" Factor
Yes, poop is gross. It's nasty. And if you have a baby or babies, you have to deal with it. Often. Disposable diapers are notorious for newborn baby poop blowouts leading to stain treating cute clothes and washing blankets, sheets, ect, ect. With cloth diapers, yes you do laundry, but it's at least things that should be pooped on. We have never had a blowout in a cloth diaper. Ever.

Laundry, Laundry, Laundry
Dirty little (not so) secret. I don't wash the diapers. Hubs does :) love him! He uses Purex free and clear liquid detergent.
He has a very exact way of washing them. This is what he does.
1. cold rinse with 1/4 cup detergent (1/4 of what you would normally use for a load)
2. Hot wash with 1/4 cup detergent (again 1/4 of a normal load)
3. Cold rinse, I think he usually adds a generous splash of vinegar here to help prevent soap build-up.
4. inserts into the dryer, shells hung on a drying rack
5. Stuff while watching sports.

Stripp-ing
Get your mind out of the gutter! Sometimes the diapers get a funk to them. The stink even after you wash them or the repeal liquids making them ineffective. If this happens you need to "strippp" your diapers this involves wash them in HOT HOT HOT water with a squirt of dawn dish soap and then rinsing until there are no suds left in the water. I think we have done this 3 times max over 2 years of cloth diapering. Using the right ammount (ie not too much) detergent and vinegar in a rinse helps avoid the need to stripp. Intentionally spelling things wrong so it doesn't come up in google for the other use of the word!

Practicality
We use disposables diapers on Sundays and vacation and any other time we won't be the ones doing diaper duty and we are away from home. It's easier and way nicer for the nursery workers. I worked in a nursery for many, many years and it was so rare that we had a kid in cloth diapers that no one knew what to do with them and most of the caregivers were apprehensive about changing them. So, we just don't :) And traveling with cloth diapers.... NO THANKS! At home with a system down it's really not much more work than disposable diapers and is so much cheaper. We have spent about $400 total on diapers and have more than enough to get shock and awe to potty training. We aren't militant about cloth diapering, if we are really tired or sick or lazy, it's disposables. It is way cheaper and we aren't ever out of diapers! It saves us even more money by keeping us out of the stores for diaper runs. Less opportunity for impulse buys at Target :)

*****Local girls, there is a brand new cloth diapering site for LBK! Bitsy Bottoms They are just getting their online store up and running but they will also come to your house and show you the cloth diapering ropes or do a diaper party. Check them out!

the mommy shift

2011-04-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a bit of a misconception that life is a idyllic around here, a regular Norman Rockwell painting. Stop reading now if you want to continue thinking that!

Ok, I think they have left. This is what's real. There are a lot of super precious adorable moments around here these days. Tiny babies learning how to smile and preschoolers exploring the depths of their imaginations. We love it. It's a fleeting stage and we are embracing it. It's also messy, exhausting, and repetitive. This blog is supposed to be a place to showcase creative stuff but the most creative thing I have done lately is mix darks and lights in the laundry. Wildly creative! This a pretty typical 25 hours of solo mommy duty. Not terribly interesting ;) but some day I will be busy running 4 kids hither and yon need to be reminded of when I was an entirely different kind of busy.

5:05 Hubs heads out the door
5:08 Play a riveting game of hi ho cherry-io with Moo and Ella Bella
5:30 Nurse Awe
5:35 Shock wakes up screaming
5:36 Try to nurse Awe while giving bottle to Shock
5:38 2 screaming babies
5:39 let Awe scream, feed Shock
5:50 burp Shock put him down, nurse Awe
5:51 Shock screams in pain while Awe nurses, Burp him while feeding her
6:10 kick Awe off 6:12 make dinner for Moo and Ella Bella
6:25 dinner for Moo and Ella Bella
6:26 eat dinner on floor while holding Awe and talking to Shock
6:30 Awe in swing for nap
6:40 Shock in swing for nap
6:41 pump while getting Moo and Ella Bella in jammies, 4.5 ounces.
6:50 put in cartoon, more pumping
7:15 bottles for Shock in fridge
7:20 finish eating dinner
7:30 big kids brush teeth, story, bed
7:50 phew, rest
8:20 get bottles warmed up
8:30 feed Shock
8:45 Shock screams from gas pain
8:49 Shock pukes on me and him, new clothes all around stops screaming
8:53 quality time with Shock
8:59 Shock pukes again, another new outfit for him
9:04 Shock is swaddled and in bed
9:20 Ella Bella bashes Moo in the eye leading to both of them bawling
9:24 Force big kids to potty and then put them back to bed
9:38 Shock wakes up ???
9:40 burp lay back down
9:50 Shock fussing. Yay. Let him fuss it out.
9:58 Awe is up and she can SCREAM
10:03 Shock screaming. His arms attacked him
10:04 Awe gets a bottle
10:16 Awe finishes and is happy, Shock screaming again
10:22 all 4 in bed sweet quiet
10:25 pumping time, 6 oz
10:50 choke down 7 pills and climb into bed.
10:59 haha just kidding. Shock is up.
11:05 feed Shock
11:29 go to bed. Shock is wide awake so we'll see....
11:32 Shock crying from gas pain
11:34 Shock spitups on the floor and the sound of puke hitting the floor wakes Awe
11:38 still screaming gas drops to the rescue
11:45 still wide awake, I am going to bed.... Hoping they sleep till at least 2
11:47 move Shock to bouncy seat, Awe fully awake... drat
11:57 finally get Shock settled down, the second I get in bed the screaming begins. Arg.
1:46 Awe is up, feed her in bed where we both fall asleep.
4:03 feed Awe
4:21 Awe back to her crib
4:36 Shock awake
4:56 back to bed. Both babies wide awake... This probably won't go well
5:01 both are screaming. Yay!
5:03 give Shock a pacifier, put Awe back in bed with me feed her.
5:18 Seth fussing, awe still eating
5:21 realize Moo and Ella Bella's baby monitor is off, turn it on.
5:22 Ella Bella is singing. wonder how long she has been up. Oh well....
5:23 all is quiet, hoping everyone sleeps till 7:30
7:06 all four kids are up. Ouch. So. Little. Sleep.
7:15 bottle warming for Shock, feed Awe, big kids cartoons and cereal.
7:52 Shock has completely soaked through all his clothes and blankets. 3rd outfit today.
7:58 give Shock a bottle
7:59 Shock chokes on bottle and spits up oh his clean outfit. 4th outfit of the day...
8:08 babies are done eating now awake time.
8:09 pump while talking to Shock. Moo and Ella Bella play with Awe.
8:30 finish pumping and put Awe down for a nap, knowing she will scream! 3.5 oz
8:40 both babies down for a nap. Shock smiles when laid down, Awe screams. Typical.
8:45 must load dishwasher. Not a clean bottle left in the house.
9:05 dishwasher running, babies sleeping, big kids coloring. Shower time!
9:47 laundry laundry laundry
10:08 babies awake
10:15 Shock fell back asleep after removing his screaming sister from his bed, nurse Awe
10:44 protect Awe from over loving from Moo and Ella Bella
11:08 laundry with 2 crazy kids. Where are those grandparents???
11:30 Gran and Papa come!
11:40 feed Shock again, scream, burp, repeat
12:00 Gran made us lunch :)
12:34 Ella Bella pees on the floor, help her clean it up
1:10 feed Awe
1:11 let my parents entertain the kids ;)
2:30 feed Shock
2:38 Ella Bella down for nap
3:13 Gran and Papa leave
3:20 pump, bleck 12oz
4:02 finish pumping, I despise the black bag o torture
4:30 Moo and Ella Bella are up and hungry. Snacks, fighting, timeout, and playmobil!
5:34 Awe is up and ready to eat.
5:57 Shock wakes up
5:58 hubs aka super dad walks through the door! HOORAY!!!
6:00 make dinner and feed Shock.

time flies when you are perpetually feeding babies

2011-03-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Shock and Awe are six weeks old today. When I started this post they were 6 weeks old..

I feel a little sad about that. And also victorious. We survived six weeks of newborn twins! Gold star! Six weeks is a milestone. The babies are awake and alert and sucking in their world, no longer newborns. They each have their own little personalities quite distinct from each other. Awe the little social butterfly fixated on people. Shock is generally more mellow and easier to pacify. My body is largely healed although FOREVER changed. Bikini and me will never be friends again. I am no longer an OB patient and don't plan on ever being one again. The new baby stage is one we will now watch others go through and not be in. And I am excited about that! Never, ever thought I would be excited about baby gear leaving my house!

Shock and Awe have overall been an easier adjustment than I imagined. I geared myself up for long bouts of crying and sleeplessness. And it is that at times, but mostly it's just repetition. Feed one baby, burp, change, feed next baby, burp, change, play with baby a, play with baby b, coax baby a to nap, coax baby b to nap. Repeat, often with no downtime in between. They are pretty crummy nappers during the day but they sleep well at night. While we have been figuring out nursing, I have let them do there own thing during the day. If there has been one thing that has been much harder than I thought it would be nursing. It literally sucks. There is a lot of crying on every one's part. They cry to eat, I cry while they eat. I'll spare you the gory details but lets just say it's a repetitive use injury and 6 weeks in I am still chugging tylenol around the clock with tylenol 3 at night just to take the edge off. I am trying to hang in there a little longer and at least get them through RSV season.

I had my 6 week appointment with my OB yesterday. Mister Shock's crazy delivery is one my OB will never forget and I am sure never wants to repeat. At the very least, his experience and quick actions spared my son brain damage and at the very most saved his life. There just really aren't words for how grateful we are. God was certainly there in that room protecting little shock and guiding the doctor's hands. It was cool to show my OB that Shock is great! Normal! Healthy! since last time he saw him he was still in the NICU under oxygen and struggling.

the arrival of shock and awe

2011-01-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

The little twins have arrived!

Tuesday January 18, 2011- 36w,2d
Around 4pm, I start having contractions every 5 minutes. Mild, but noticeable. The contractions stay really consistent and gradually get more painful. I have already been to labor and delivery 2 days before for a fierce headache and really, really don't want to go back unless this is it. I have a friend on standby to watch moo and ella bella if needed and call my mom around 8:30pm to give her a heads up she may want to drive over now and not in the middle of the night. About 3 am and they are both consistent and painful, as painful as they were when I got epidurals with the other 2 kids. We head to L&D and get monitored. Definitely strong contractions but after 3 hours no change. Still 1-2cm and 50%, exactly what I was 3 weeks before when I was put on bed rest! So they offered me morphine, which I declined, and sent me home. I felt so dumb, surely I would know if it was real labor! I came home and had a bit of a breakdown wondering how I could go as many as 12 more days in this weird labor state before my OB would induce me. The contractions continue about every 5 minutes for the next 2 days until I go into my scheduled ob appointment. I get very little sleep and am just d-o-n-e.

Thursday January 20, 2011 - 36w,4d
My mom and I drop the kids off at a friends so she can go with me to my regular OB appointment. Hubs is on shift. My mom had never seen an ultrasound so I thought it would be cool for her to tag along. My appointment is for 10:45 but the office is really behind and we end up waiting for over an hour in an exam room. The contractions are still coming every 5 minutes just as they have been but this is the first time my mom notices how uncomfortable I am. My ob finally comes in around noon and does an ultrasound. Both babies are vertex again (yay!) and are estimated to be 7lbs, 4oz for little miss and 6lbs, 15oz for the little mister. I am scheduled for induction on January 31 but confess to my ob that emotionally I just can not hang out in this painful labor non labor state for 11 more days. He agrees to move induction up to the 24th. He offers to do an exam just to check how things are going but I am in NO mood to be dejected with a 1-2cm again. My mom pulls the "as your mom I would feel better if..." card so I very reluctantly agree. Now it is about 12:30pm. Let's get this over with.

ob: "where is your husband on shift today?"
me: "yeah, ya know either protecting the city from fire or playing video games."
ob: "hmmm. Well you are 6-7, well 7. "
me: "I so don't believe you."
ob: "Call your husband, I'll meet you in l&d in 10 minutes, they will have a room ready for you."

Well alrighty then. Try calling hubs. He picks up but it's just static. I figure he is on scene, but will get back to me in a minute. I leave a message and call the friend that is watching the kids. try calling hubs 2 more times on the way to the hospital. We pull into the hospital parking lot and see a huge cloud of black smoke off to the west. I now know exactly where hubs is. In a burning building. FANTASTIC. Being the practical guy he is, hubs programmed fire dispatch into my phone so I could reach him on scene.

I call dispatch and get the nicest dispatcher.
me: "I have a kinda unusual request. I am in labor and I need to get a hold of my husband. And it's twins "
dispatch: "OOOOHHHH! Well let's get him! He is on the fire of his life right now but we will get him! Do we need him 5 minutes fast or a couple hours fast?"
me: "maybe about 2 hours?"
dispatch: "we will get him! Don't worry!"

I think that was about 12:45pm. Things started moving really fast.

We go up to l&d and my nurses are waiting at the check-in desk for me and the room is completely ready. I tell them my husband will be coming in full firefighter get-up and they immediately pulled scrubs and shower stuff for him. They start giving me 3 copies of every paper to sign while they put in an iv and hook me up to all the monitors. Easily a half dozen people constantly in and out of the room. At this point, I am just worried about hubs being in a burning building and in shock that things are moving so fast.

Hubs walks into the room at 1pm in bunker gear, boots, and suspenders. Oh the nurses made a big fuss over him. From his perspective, this is what happened. They got called out to a massive apartment fire around 12 (?) and the whole structure was consumed. They had gotten every one out and were protecting exposures and trying to control the fire. Hubs thought his phone may have rung but he hadn't heard in the chaos of a big fire scene. There were probably 30 plus firefighters on scene at this point. Hubs was cutting apart a fence with a chainsaw when he got a call to go to command. He was perplexed because he wasn't that close to command and there were at least a dozen other firefighters of his same level closer. He got to command and they told him I was in labor. As luck would have it, an off duty fire captain was there in his personal vehicle and brought hubs to the hospital. I guess the request for hubs had gone out over the city wide radio so he got lots of well wishes before even leaving the scene.

So Hubs got scurried off to the doctors lounge for a shower and scrubs. Soon he was back in the room and they were placing my epidural thinking my ob would be coming in to break the amniotic sac of baby a anytime. Well the epidural got placed and then everything came to a screeching halt. Not that I cared one bit now that I had drugs. My ob had delivered a baby next door and then gone back for office hours, and he would get to us later in the afternoon. So we had a nice calm break for an hour or 2 when he did nothing. It was glorious. My water never broke on it's own and my contractions had spaced way out. Just before 4pm, I told them to call my ob.... now! I remember looking at the clock at 3:58pm and then my ob came into the room and broke baby a's water. At this point there were a dozen people in the room, including someone video recording for the hospital. I had the weirdest epidural, both my legs were completely numb but not umm, the other parts. I couldn't feel pain intensely but certainly knew exactly what was going on. The started me on pitocin at this point because with multiples there is a much greater risk of bleeding out. 2 or 3 contractions and 6 or 7 pushes and baby a, miss awe, was out! Pink and screaming. 4:03pm 6lbs, 5oz 19 inches.

Time for baby B, mister shock. With twins, baby b usually doesn't do as well because they have to go through the stress of labor twice. So the plan was to let baby b, who was also head down, come in his own time. Well screw that plan. Almost immediately after A was born, baby B stuck his hand out and waved to everyone. His hand and his umbilical cord. NOT GOOD. So my ever calm OB shoved his arm and cord back up and then everything got very intense. My ob proceeded to "go fishing" and rotate the little guy internally while several nurses helped push from the outside. It just so happened my OB found feet first so mister shock came out feet first. No one was really explaining what was going on so I was quite surprised to see little feet when I expected a head! it was very surreal. I wasn't worried, but knew he had to come out now. It was so weird to be pushing out another kid while baby a lay screaming next to me. A few really intense back to back pushes and baby b was out. They laid him on my stomach and he was very pale and completely covered in vernix. My mom thought he was dead, but he was moving. Not very much and not crying but he was alive. He was put on oxygen immediately and slowly started to pink up. 4:08pm 6lbs, 6oz and 19.5inches. Welcome mr. shock!

Miss awe needed oxygen for a few hours and then was fine. Little mister shock had a very rough entrance to the world. His lungs didn't get squeezed during birth leaving him struggling to breathe deeply. He has little bruises on his legs from being pulled out. He is still in the nicu on 25% oxygen and trying to figure out how to breathe and eat. It's heartbreaking to see him there especially since he looks the picture of health. I can't wait to have them both in my arms keeping me up all hours! Hopefully soon! My recovery has been a little rougher than with the other too but still very manageable. I got pretty banged up from mister shock's delivery also. I spent so much time worring and praying over their delivery and it was over SO FAST. Ideally, I would have loved it to be kinder to my little shock, but I think he probably would have had lung and immaturity issues regardless.

thankful for my mom

2011-01-11T18:09:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for my mom every day, but 15 days into bedrest I am amazed.

Every time Hubs has had to work since I have been on bedrest she has:
-Driven 90 mins from her home to our house.
-Arrived with dinner and groceries.
-Fed my kids, played with them and gotten them into bed.
-Waited on me, even when I have resisited.
-Woken up with the kids, fed them breakfast, got them dressed.
-Entertained the kids, dealt with increasingly numerous tantrums.
-Done laundry, picked up the house, cleaned.
-Finished random projects around the house, scraped windows of paint, sewed curtians.
-Made me sit and sit and sit.
-Watched my stomach and laughed.
-Brought me magazines and craft supplies to keep me busy.
-Made healthy foods and snacks. Fussed when I don't eat enough.
-Supported our parenting style and choices when I can't follow through.
-Prepared dinner and gotten it in the oven to be ready when Hubs walks in the door.
-Driven 90 minutes home to be home with my dad.

My mom is selflessly giving her time away from home to take care of my family. She has sewn curtains, made art books for the kids, done loads of laundry, dealt with tantrums, and even cleaned my studio. She has done it without complaint or seeming inconvience. 26 hours at a time is a whole lot of babysitting your grown daughter and her kids. We are so thankful and blessed to have her help!

bedrest: day 5

2011-01-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

33w6d

We made it to 2011! Woohoo! The goal the entire pregnancy has been for 2011 babies :) I was so excited to have it be a new year this morning. Every extra day is just that much better for their lungs and immune systems.

Sitting around doing nothing ALL day is surprisingly hard. I know, cry me a river... you would love to have an entire day to lounge around and just sit on the couch. I am so, so thankful bedrest seems to be doing it's job and mister shock and miss awe are fine and growing. We would still LOVE to avoid the nicu for our little twinks. I have been pretty good about staying on the couch and bed with the exception of 2 trips downstairs and getting maternity photos done yesterday afternoon. Even that was sitting down driving from location to location most of the time. My husband, mom, and friends have been so generous with their time to take care of Moo and Ella Bella and clean, cook, and run errands. It drives me a little nuts, I feel completely fine! I want to be mom to my kids and do all the little nesting projects around the house. I am embracing that things just won't be perfect when shock and awe arrive and that is ok. I doubt they will care about coordinating crib skirts anyways. ;)

happy to be bored: hanging out in L&D

2010-12-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

I should have known it was too good to be true.

33 weeks with twins and virtually no problems this pregnancy other than mono in the first trimester.

33 weeeks 2 days and we made our first trip to Labor and Delivery after waking up to mild but very regular contractions every 3-4 minutes. Of course it had to be the middle of the night so we waited for my mom to come stay with the kids and then headed in. I got put in triage and was strapped down with 4 moniters, an iv, and some other random things. I was in labor but theye were able to stop it within 4 hours using medication. Depending on how far I progressed, I will be on bedrest either at home or the hospital until shock and awe come. My fetal fibronectin test came back negative. A positive indicates a high probability that birth will happen in the next 2 weeks, a negative result usually indicates birth is a few weeks off. We are still waiting on several more test results and a visit from an ob (mine is on vacation!) before we can even think about being discharged.

They still may be born in the next couple days, but we were able to get in steroid shots for their lungs and determine that they are both 5 ish pounds which is very good size for 33 weeks. Hopefullly they will stay put to 34 weeks, even better to make it 35 or 36.

We are thankful my mom could come and stay with the kids and that my sister and her family are in town. Moo and Ella Bella are eating up the extra attention and cousin playtime and could care less that mommy is not around. It's a bummer for me because I don't get to see my niece and only briefly see my sister and brother-in-law. I think we all agree that it is a very, very small price to pay to keep shock and awe in a little longer.

sweet blog, how I have missed you!

2010-12-23T18:07:00.000-08:00

It's a Christmas miracle! We finally, after 14 months of living at the dump, have internet at home! Where to even start, it's been quite the year.

The dump is considerably less dumpy and the interior is mostly finished.

Moo and Ella Bella are much taller and much, much louder.

And are so much a like they have matching dead front teeth. Ick and agh. Klutsy kids.

We "upgraded" to a "swagger wagon". Lower your head in disgust if you want, but automatic sliding doors are AWESOME.

I have gained a good 40 (ok 50) pounds from this time last year.

My new years resolution is to lose 30 lbs by valentines day.

Should be pretty easy after the TWINS arrive in January (ish). They are still baking @ 32w 4d.

july 13 2010

2010-07-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

July 13, 2010

Today will forever be in my memory vividly.

I am nervous. I had a positive pregnancy test about 5 weeks ago but things just seem off from my pregnancies with Moo and Ella Bella. I feel mostly fine other than battling a nasty cold for the last month. No morning, noon, or night sickness like with the other kids. No bleeding. No well.... anything. Virtually symptomless. Today my ob appt has finally arrived.

My ob teases me about getting "fixed" after this one. I reply the debate is still ongoing whether we want 3 children or 4. We laugh and catch up. The nurse comes in and has me fill out all the obligatory forms. She patiently tries to find a heartbeat with the doppler, scanning back and forth. I lay there staring at the ceiling and ponder the black fingerprints on the fluorescent lights. The nurse can't find a heartbeat. I know not to worry, I am at most 9 weeks and it's so early. I can't help but thinking it was a chemical pregnancy. Been there done that. It is what it is.

My ob comes in and says eh, the ultrasound machine is right here, let's do this. So he starts the ultrasound and a tiny little alien fetus is visible with a teensy heart fluttering away. Ah, relief.

Ob: "Only one, looks great, exactly 9 weeks."

me: "Oh good. I have been having lots of crazy dreams about twins."

A few seconds pass as my OB scans around checking things out. I glance over at the nurse. Her eyes have gotten very big and she lightly gasps. She whispers "Oh my gosh." I turn back to the monitor.

OB: "There is another one. There are two!"

There on the screen are two little babies, mirror images of eachother, filling the screen. IN ME!!!

It was a moment. Overwhelming. Awed. Scary. Amazing. Impossible. WOW.

me: "My husband is definitely going to need a picture of that!"

OB: "Well, I guess your debate is settled!"

More scanning. Still ONLY 2. Phew. Both measuring exactly 9 weeks with strong heartbeats. 2 sacks, probably fraternal (not identical). WOW. It's just astounding. No one in either of our families has twins as far back as anyone can remember. I am shaking, a little from cold, and a little from shock. Having kids has not been easy for us and now, twins? When we least expected it? God, your blessings are abundant!

My OB and I chat about how things will be different than a single pregnancy. I am thankful for a calm doctor with lots of experience. He gives me details, I love details. How delivery might go, what complications might come up, ect. I am sure I will have many more questions.

I continue to shake off and on for the next 3o minutes through all my labs. I am so amazed the lab tech got all 6 vials of blood needed while I shook. She deserves a raise!

ACT 2

I had told a friend I would come by to get some of her homemade laundry detergent after I finished at the doctor. I debated bailing and just going home to tell Hubs but knew I needed to calm down first. So I go into M's house and ol eagle eyes immediately questions the neon armband.

M: "did you just give blood?"

me: "umm yeah."

M: "oh that's so nice of you!"

me: "oh wait, no not like that......"

M: " Are you preggers?"

me: "yes. and completely freaking out."

I dig around in my purse and thrust the strip of ultrasound photos at her.

me: "check out that last photo."

M: "OH HOLY CRAP! TWINS!"

me: " yes, can I please use your restroom and can you please get me a nice cold drink? I would say alcholic but that would be a bad idea."

I am so thankful for M's enthusiasm and encouragement. If anyone can handle 4 under 5, you can. You will rock it. Twins will be awesome. God knows what he is doing. And on and on. She was the perfect first person to tell. I even forgot to pay for my soap (duh!). But it wasn't really about the soap. God knew I would need her wisdom and excitement. I settle down and M and I catch up.

ACT 3

On to tell Hubs. How?

I come in and he is corralling kids and making lunch. Moo starts talking a mile a minute about hiking that morning and Ella bella is climbing all over me. I give him the photos and just wait. He is a little perplexed why I got so many photos of the same thing. And then he sees the last photo. I hold up 2 fingers and nod yes. Two. Plus two, yeah four. Math geniuses here. He is in disbelief honestly thinking the OB performed some photoshop magic to freak him out. And then it hits him, there is no prank going on, THIS is real. We somehow managed to pull of the completely random feat of twins. No fertility drugs. Just, well, there.

Hubs: "Wow. Really? Wow. How? Are you sure? What?"

He went into shock for a few minutes not nearly to the extent I did though. Eh, he lacks all the crazy hormones. It's just amazing, overwhelming, wow.

ACT 4

People's reactions are hysterical. It is just so unexpected.

My Mom just blinked and double checked the double photo and in disbelief asked if they were mine. Indeed they are. Then just shock. My mom told my dad, I actually really don't enjoy telling people I am pregnant, my dad was surprised and thought life would get interesting around our house.

My sister said "Holy crapola! Can I tell Sarah (her sister in law)?" Sure knock yourself out. My sis also implied we should ahem you know take care of things to not have more. Totally going to sister!

My friend R squealed so loud Hubs could here her over the phone across the room. She loves Moo and Ella Bella and was thrilled we would have 2 more.

My friend L cried, happy, surprised tears. She was just so excited and thankful to God for multiple blessings. Multiple "blessings" are still kinda freaking me out. I hope I can convince her to come back to visit the itty bitties.

Intuition

I have kinda had this inkling it could be twins since the test turned positive. No explanation why, just like I needed to psych myself up for the possibility of 2. My google browser is full of various twin inquiries over the past month. I always have thought I would have boy/girl twins at some point. No idea if that part is true, and we don't know if we will find out.

the dark ages...

2010-05-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Posting on the ol' blog has been sparse these past months. Apparently, we moved to a bit of an internet black hole. We can get internet here but it will run us about $80 a month for a max speed of 256 whatever. In other words, 3 times what we were paying for 1/4 of the speed. So for now, we have decided to go sans home internet. I have an iphone and hubs has good internet at work. The only flub is I can't blog from home. So, I have to wait till I am in town sans kids to coffee shop it and blog. Blogging is cheap therapy so I don't want to give it up, but it's also not worth spending $1000 a year on. They only other thing I need internet for is updating client galleries. I will be taking down my photography site in about six weeks as well. I don't need it. I am having too much fun remodeling, traveling, and being mom to run a photography business. I'll keep taking photos for friends and family :) but you all get ahold of me through text, fb, phone or email anyways. No point in having a site!

travel adventures: Austin, Texas

2010-05-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

day 1: it is literally freezing cold as we head out and I keep waiting for the sun to come out as we drive further south. It refuses and the entire drive is cold and dreary. We have no motivation to get out and explore in the wind and cold so we speed on down to Austin stopping only once for gas and lunch. We stopped at Fazoli's at barely after 11 and I found it quite disturbing that the closer it got to the noon lunch rush the fewer people were in the restaurant. The kids did great, Ella Bella was perfect and Moo was nearly so. We quickly realize the lack of potty's meeting Moo's requirements will be an issue. Back on the road and to our hotel with no problems. On the recommendations of dozens of friends, we head out to Chuy's no. 2. Very good. Would have been so much better if I didn't get a pounding headache in the middle of dinner. But we would definately go back! Perhaps this trip! We head back for the last adventure of the day: bedtime. We hope to get the kids in bed and then watch tv while hey sleep. Yeah... not so much. We are all in bed by 8:30 because Moo can't fall asleep.

day 2: We wake up to freezing rain. What. in. the. world. That's ok... we come from up north and are undeterred by the threat of bad roadways and head out for my biannual pilgrimage to IKEA. Apparently, any bad feelings I have towards IKEA due to our memorable last encounter are healed. We get there as it opens and have the entire store to ourselves. Wonderful. The kids aew having a blast and the heavens must be aligned because even Hubs is feigning enjoyment. We checked out the mini home displays, thoroughly explored and played our way through the kids area, enjoyed $2.49 meatball lunches, shopped, played some more and then left. Because they closed the store! Due to the snow it was empty, we maybe saw 100 employees and patrons in our 2.5 hours in the store. Unheard of for IKEA. We checked out the outlets right next to IKEA and discovered even after they had been open for 4 hours, we were the first patrons several of the stores had! No awesome deals, the best score was some $5 crocs for Ella Bella. We head back to the hotel and both kids fall asleep in the car so we take the scenic interstate route to south austin and back. The roads are dry but schools are all letting out for their first snow day in a decade. I don't think the weather was even close to bad enough that a snow day was needed, but I bet those kids were so excited they were impossible to teach. We hang out in the room and then head to Baby Alcopolco for dinner.... it was quite good but Moo was off the whole meal. Saying he was cold and couldn't eat... We try half price books after dinner and he is so miserable he cries every time his dad is more than 10 feet from him. We bail on the books and take him home. He cries, his teeth chatter and the poor kid is just DONE. A little tylenol and a little veggietales and all is right in the world. Ella Bella went to bed for the night but is now up partying with us watching dirtiest jobs.

day 3:
planned for tomorrow:
state capital building
austin children's museum (free with ss pass)
flagship whole foods market
book people
rei
zilker park train
barton springs aquifer exhibit

Day 3 doesn't quite go as planned. Ella Bella is up screaming, hair pulling and definately not sleeping from 10pm to 3am. Not cool. She finally gives in to sleep and we all sleep in till 9. By the time breakfast is done and everyone is ready to go it's 10. We skip the capital and head for the Austin Children's Museum. It's free with our science spectrum pass :). The kids loved it. I had read many reviews online saying it was claustrophobic and filthy. Not so! Clean, organized and very creative. There are many small spaces because it is designed for children. We spent more than 2 hours exploring. Moo loved the train tower best but really enjoyed it all. Ella Bella loved it all but especially enjoyed the pretend grocery store, cafe, and recycling plant. Admission is a little steep but is free if you are a member of other participating children's and science museums.

After the museum, we headed to the whole foods flagship store at 6th and Lamar. Oh my granola.... It's massive! A dozen eateries throughout the store, a playground on the roof, a parking garage and escalators.... Crazy. We went for lunch and if was very busy. It was easily the kids favorite meal all week... I would love to be able to shop there every week! After whole foods, we went to the book people and REI. Both were kinda disappointing. Well, maybe they were awesome but a tired baby and a preschoolers refusing to potty were wearing me down.

We then went to Zilker Park to ride the Zilker Zypher. Moo man was about to explode from refusal to use any public potty and from the excitement of getting to go on a real train. He loved the train, his smile was huge the whole time. It's inexpensive and runs along the edge of Barton creek and town lake. We will definitely go again when we go back to Austin.

After the train we went to play on the playground and Moo freaked. Crying and shaking, demanding we go home home NOW. He wanted to use his potty no other potty would do. Oh eyeroll. Hubs said let's go and I said no way.... He will refuse to go wherever you take him. Moo hadn't gone in 7-8 hours at this point! So.... I locked him in the car with his potty seat and wouldn't let him leave until he made it happen. 15 minutes of crying ( him) and email checking (me).., success. And a vacation memory made....

We finished out the day with a long walk around Zilker Park and dinner at Kerbey Lane Cafe on Guadalupe street. We learned from the previous days and didn't order the kids anything and it was a more enjoyable experience without trying to get them to eat. I got the hippy burger, tasted good... Not sure about the texture of vegan burgers.

Day 4- everyone slept great! Breakfast, pack up the car, and head to the capital building. Parking was a breeze and the capital was pretty empty. The kids liked it.... However I was on edge. Not a safe place for little kids! Moo really wanted to go to the top of the dome. Ummm. No. The craftsman ship of the capital is just amazing. After growing up in New Mexico with it's early 1980's modern and streamlined capital building it's neat to see these massive old buildings of such detail.

After the capital, we head back to IKEA to pick up a few small things for Gran. There is a neat little playground and shopping area in front of IKEA where we stopped for lunch. Just subs, nothing exciting. Moo starts doing the potty dance and crying for home again so we repeat the potty in the backseat standoff again. This time he refuses to even try and I am livid. So. Done. We leave round rock in a hurry and are so ready to get the grumpy kids home. We stop only once to throw a diaper on mr. Not-gonna-pee-in-a-strange-potty and make it home in 5.5 hours. Hooray.

This was our first vacation without any interaction with extended family since our honeymoon almost SEVEN years ago. Which is CRAZY because we travel quite often. Lessons learned: get a suite with kitchenettes and never underestimate a preschoolers fear of strange potties. We spent HOURS sitting on bathrooms trying to dissuade that fear. Not fun. We didn't get to the State History Museum, the Cathedral of Junk, or any thriftstores. And there is always IKEA. So we will definitely go back to Austin.

super easy reverse applique

2010-03-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

A couple friends have asked for a tutorial on how I made those sweet twin onesies a few weeks back. And I am just now getting around to posting the tutorial! Not having internet at home definitely has a downside! So with out further delay...

Step 1:
Design something to make. My suggestion would be the less experienced you are with sewing knits the simpler you keep it. Also, small letters will not show up well.

Step 2:
Gather your supplies. You will need :
- a sewing machine
- an iron
- straight pins
- scissors
- a t-shirt (or whatever else you want to reveres applique)
- scrap jersey fabric
-freezer paper

Step 3:
Print or draw your design on the non waxey side of the freezer paper. You do not need to reverse the image. Freezer paper should work fine in desk jet printers but DO NOT use it in laser jets. The heat will melt the wax ruining your printer. Iron the design onto the outside of your t-shirt.

Step 4:
Turn your shirt inside out and pin the jersey to the back of your design. Because jersey is kinda tricky, pin more rather than less. If you are doing multiple clolors, you would want to do one color at a time.

Step 5:
Turn your shirt right side out and get is positioned to sew. I used a straight small stitch. You need to use a small stitch length to perforate the freezer paper. Sew directly on top of our just on the outside of all your lines. Backstitch before starting a new letter or shape.

Step 6:
After finishing all the shapes and letters in a given color, turn the shirt inside out and trim excess fabric away from the back. You don't want to trim to close to the edges, maybe about 1/8" plus around all stitches.

Step 7:
Repeat Steps 4, 5, and 6 for any other colors you want to do.

Step 8:
Turn the shirt right side out. Channel your inner gerbil and gently begin pulling off the freezer paper. The small stitches you used to sew the jersey together should have perforated the freezer paper. The paper should come off easily.

Step 9:
Using your smallest, sharpest, most nimble scissors trim away the jersey inside your letters and shapes. Be careful to not cut the layer of fabric underneath. Again, you want to trim close to the stitching but not right on it. 1/16" is as close as you want to get. The jersey will curl at the edges with wear or washing. This is an excellent activity for halfhearted tv watching.

Step 10:
That's it! Now use your new technique to applique all kinds of stuff. I haven't seen freezer paper used in any other tutorial. I like it because it keeps everything neatly aligned and takes the stretch out of the jersey while sewing. I tried tissue paper... horrible. I also tried just tracing on the shirt and that was also a huge pain because of the stretch.

If you find this tutorial useful, please leave a comment and if you feature it on your blog, give me credit :) Sorry girls it took me so long to get this up!

i heart my silly kids

2010-02-15T15:13:00.000-08:00

Another post of pics of my little darlings. Can you tell we have been stuck inside a lot this winter? I am ready to welcome spring, warm sunshine, travel adventures and getting back to taking other peoples pictures :)

happy balentines day!

2010-02-14T05:29:00.000-08:00

Some people around my house have trouble enunciating certain letters like "v". So happy balentines day! My kids were so thrilled to finally get to eat their heart lollipops. Sweet sticky mess.

january's leftovers

2010-02-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

not leftovers in the fridge, leftovers for the blog. :) A little side of playing at the park, a reheat of hopscotch in the park, and a dessert of jumping on the couch. Followed by a little confetti tossing in front of mount laundry.

crafting from the stash: toddling twin tutu's

2010-02-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

I have a dear friend from up 'north who has 2 adorable little twin girls. They are just so precious! I have been mulling over what fun thing I could send her way for her precious little girls so last week when my craft studio was finally operational I whipped up a little valentines love for her cuties. twin tutus, i heart my sister onesies and some legwarmers. Too bad they are in the midst of a MAJOR home renovation (think lifting a 100 year old house off it's foundation) and the house is a little cold for running around like a ballerina. Spring is coming!

I'll be getting a tutorial up on the reverse applique shirts up because I am kicking myself for not trying it earlier. It was frustrating to keep all the letters in place until I raided my kids art drawer....

f r e e d o m to f l y

2010-02-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

re-

2010-02-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of re-_________ going on around our house and lives this past week.

Refreshed, renewed, restored. It is lovely. I'll write more about "re-" in a later post, but this week I really enjoyed this blog post by "this the reverb." I love his site, faith, photography, food, family.... all the "f's" one neat blog.

What do you think? Do you need to be refreshed?

grandparent love

2010-02-10T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hubs parents were here last week to spoil my kids rotten. Just rotten, oh wait we made them rotten... not the grandparents. My children are so incredibly blessed to have 4 grandparents who love and adore them and want to be part of their lives, whether they live an hour away or 11 hours away. So blessed. Grandma Teeny took Moo on a hike through our backyard (seriously) and it was a great adventure for both of them. From climbing through brush, to being followed by suzy cat, being pocked by cactus, and finding a hidden cave.

engagement session in a winter wonderland

2010-02-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

It's been wet here. And foggy. And bitterly cold. At least according to my toes. Sunday afternoon was dreary, foggy, drizzling, and just barely above freezing. Not ideal for shooting engagement pictures. The weather delayed them getting to the shoot so it was nearly 5pm and the little light we had to work with was fading fast. But Jacob and Bekkah could care less. We ventured out in the cold and I worked as quickly as possible and they were completely oblivious to it all. In their own little love bubble. I LOVE it when clients are so engaged in each other that my camera is just an afterthought. Jacob left for more training yesterday in California and I hope this little glimpse of him brightens up Bekkahs's day! :) Congrats you two!

still

2010-02-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

just a super short update before meeting a friend....

We are still without internet at our house and my iphone and my computer still aren't playing nice... so no new photos to blog. Work on the dump continues, only a few boxes remain to unpack and all major life interrupting projects on the inside are done. Hallelujah. My studio (art and design, and photo editing) is finally usable. It took me 3 full morning to night days to get every little button and paper in it's place. I am loving being able to create again, it was a LONG nine months that my craft supplies were in boxes. The best part of my new work space is there is lots of room for me and several friends to work and it is connected to the playroom. I see lots of playdates/craft days in our future!

One of the things I love about our new house is how peaceful it is. I don't think I realized how stressful it was to live under a constant fear of being robbed again and always being on alert. Our new house has plenty of it's own challenges (water in the basement...) but it is calming and it forces you to be aware of nature. I love that. The sunsets are amazing. Something about removing our physical selves from the everyday craziness of living in a city (small city) has been so freeing but also so convicting. Both Hubs and I are deeply mulling over relationships, commitments, lifestyle.

all for now...

little family's first christmas

2009-12-30T15:59:00.000-08:00

love little moo

2009-12-30T15:48:00.000-08:00

This little guy drives me insane is so many ways. Insane in the ammount I love him, insane in the ammount of questions he asks, and insane with his obstinence and definitely insane with his ability to pee on the seat EVERY SINGLE TIME.

And now to embarrass the Hubs. We went out for dinner a couple weeks a go at a place that rhymes with stickeys. Yeah you know the place. ANywyas, we got the all clear of no peanut products, ordered, and sat down to eat. Not 3 minutes later Moo declares as he dances in his chair that he has to goooooooooooo. I smile at Hubs and profusely aplogize for being a girl and he takes Moo off to the restroom.

The return a few minutes later, Hubs shaking his head in defeat. Moo refuse to go in any place that is not perfectly clean and has just the right size and shape of potty.

A few minutes later Moo is back to dancing and rather loudly proclaims he has to goooooooooo. So off they go again. A few minutes later they return. And moo very loudly proclaims that he did IT! Several people snicker. Hubs is turning red.

So I do what any good mommy would do. And any not so good wife would do. Again, quite loudly and very enthusiastically. "oh honey! Yay! that's so wonderful. I am so glad you did IT. Wonderful!" Hubs got a little redder and snak in his seat.

So if I ruined your dinner at the place that rhymes with stickeys, then man I am sorry. However, I bet odds are your dinner was ruined by the food poisioning we all endured after dinner. And that some poor sole suffered in the parking lot...

color me happy

2009-12-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

All the toys have gone down to the lair, err, playroom. The kids love it and I love it. Now to get my studio space whipped into shape!

white christmas

2009-12-30T15:25:00.000-08:00

I like snow. I like snow from the warm, comfortable cosiness of my home. However, I don't want to taint my childrens opinion of the stuff so when we got wallopped by a blizzard on Christmas eve resulting in 5 inches of white fluff everywhere and some 2' plus drifts (I can hear all you Nebraksans rolling on the ground laughing... stop it...) I had to take the doodles out in it. Doodle is a good name for my children, no? Moo loved it and squaled with delight. Ella Bella was a little more cautious and took it all in but said nothing.

And then, Ella Bella fell face first into the snow and Moo relaized that this snow stuff is COLD. COLD! Their countenance changed just a little....

At this point Moo laid down on the neighbors drive way and proceeded to scream his little lungs out letting it echo through the otherwise quiet winter wonderland of the canyon. He refused to move from that spot, crying out that he would rather DIE right THERE than go back in the SNOW! I have no iuidea where he gets his flair for drama, none.

little readers

2009-12-30T15:18:00.000-08:00

One of my moms favorite photos from my childhood is of my older brother reading to me. He was 5 or 6, and I was a spitting image of my own little Ella Bella. I never knew why she liked that photo so much until I had my own kids and got to savor this little moment of sibling harmony.

second summer

2009-12-30T15:07:00.000-08:00

We had a glorius fall here, particualarly for a few divine days in November when it was just perfect. 70's during the afternoon, 50's at night. I would like that every day. Especially after the past week of snow, bleh. But, I know some of you are big snow fans so I will endure it for you with a smile... for the most part!

waking up

2009-12-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

Ella Bella is so full of life and opinion from the second she wakes up. This day it was from a long winters nap and I was anxious to get her up for a photoshoot before the light vanished. She was not amused at first but came around pretty quick. Here are some more of her kicking it in hergdiapers a few minutes later.

merry christmas?

2009-12-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

it's a little late and very impersonable. The sentiment is the same. 2009 was a hard year to be a friend as we watched some of our closest friends go through the darkness of illness, loss, divorce, and struggle. I am praying for healing in their lives and a peaceful 2010. We love you dear friends.

the dump is less dumpy by the day

2009-12-30T14:10:00.000-08:00

main living space: september 11, 2009

main living space: december 15, 2009

If you ever think it's a good idea to buy the ugliest house who you can find that needs a crazy ammount of work, let me be the first to tell you it's a BAD idea.

Ok, I really don't mean that. Yes it's been an insane ammount of work. Yes, It's been really expensive. Yes, it's been all consuming and yes living in a construction zone is a little less than convienient. However, the reality of what it has been like is not nearly all the nightmare our friends think it is. Here is the jist of many of our friends thoughts....

"It must be like camping. I hate camping"

"Your kids have slept in your room for 2 months???? No thanks!"

"You guys must be fighting constantly."

"Ya'll are CRAZY."

It has not been like camping. Luckily we finished most of the work upstairs before we moved in. The upstairs is the same size as our old house (about 1300 sq. ft) and has a huge living area, master bedroom and bath, and a laundry room. So for my sanity I pretended we were living in a loft all sharing a room and putting stuff where we could. Our kids did sleep in our room until about a week ago when the flooring went down in the basement... really lower level. And it was fine because we would work every night until we dropped and would just crash. Moo deciding he needed to see us 2-3 times a night did get really really old. Luckily, he favored Hubs side of the bed so I slept pretty good inspite of the midnight wakings.

We have had a few fights. We have only had 2 big fights and they were both about subcontractors. I'll leave it at I was right. And if you need a really expensive mediochre work crew, I know just the fellows. We have actually leardned that we are stronger and more teachable than we realized. We both have learned skills we didn't think we could handle and have been surprised with pretty good results.

We are down to just the finish work throughout the interior of the house. Baseboards, triming out windows, closet doors, and paint colors. We have too functioning, allthough still pretty ugly, bathrooms. It's cool to see this dark, smelly, dated place transform into a light, modern, clean family home. We have work to do on the outside too, but that will have to wait until spring and probably won't be posted on here anyway.

the lovely h family

2009-12-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

First let me say, I adore this family. One, for having 2 little guys who are as crazy about trains as little Moo. Two, for generously keeping Moo and Ella Bella during our move when Hubs spontaneously decided on Tuesday night we needed to move on Thursday morning. Oh yes he did. Three, being a family who seeks God and serves God. And it doesn't hurt that Ashley is a photographer, homeschooling mama, and deal hunter. :) Shooting them was just so fun, they were up for whatever. The older son was just killing me with his "modeling" faces and the littlest guy was being so charming.

halloween

2009-12-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

the first of a veritable landslide of posts..... got to start somewhere. I promise they won't all be cute photos of my kids but the grandparents must be pleased! Moo the knight in plastic and flammable armour and ella bella the ballerina in her swimsuit.

the blog lives on.

2009-12-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

dear poor neglected blog,

My profuse apologies for leaving you alone for so long. I promise it wasn't my intention to leave you empty for so long. I packed you up to move you to the new house (aka the dump) and alas no internet can be found there. At least not inexpensive or fast internet. So here I am sitting at a coffee shop to catch up with you mr. blog. There have been many things going on worthy of a good old blog post, like Moo and Ella Bella growing like weeds, cute families photographs, and of course "the dump" looking a whole lot less dumpy.

I promise to get REAL internet soon, my iphone has so many shortcomings.... the inability to blog, hates photos larger than a credit card, hard to talk on, and lousy for online shopping. You mr. blog are cheap therapy and after 2 months of living in very tight quarters I NEED some therapy.

xoxo,
lfh creative

solitude

2009-10-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

Wow. Sorry, it's been really quiet around here. I knew my lack of blogging had gotten out of hand when my husband asked why I had quit my blog! He rarely reads my blog....

Anyways... since my last post we have:
- put a roof on
- sold a house
- bought a house
- ripped out 1200 sq ft of yucky pink carpet.
- ripped out 1600 sq. ft of drywall (yeah... yikes!)
- ripped out a lovely pink whirlpool tub perfectly sized for your average house cat.
- backed into our new retaining wall with our car. The wall is fine, the car... not so much.
- our main "family" car died and was then revived
- 2 old heating/ac units out... 2 new ac/heating units in (thank you, thank you!)
- new hot water heater (thank you again!)
- fixed leaks
- removed a fireplace
- re-leveled a floor
- argued, just a little
- ordered lots of stuff
- put another new roof on
- painted the upstairs cool refreshing boring white. I am in love.
- removed all the kitchen cabinets and moved them up 8 inches.
- fixed lots of electrical issues
- built a new banister
- scraped adhesive off the floor

So yeah... blogging hasn't even been on my radar! Thankfully my mother in law (and later my father in law) came and rescued us. She loved on the kids, entertained them, cooked with them, bathed them EVERY day, and just spoiled them rotten. Rotten in a really good way. I can't imagine we would have gotten anything done without her (them) here.

We have to be out of our old (we are renting now) house by the end of the month. But... just for kicks and giggles and for me to reference back to... Here is what needs to get done before we move in:

- working plumbing drains, houses on hills need special pumps to move things where they need to go.
- the massive pile of sheetrock removed from the basement. This, will be the WORST.
- the master bedroom and bath sheetrocked
- super duper baby gates
- the bee hive removed
- 1250 ft of new flooring, we will live in just the upstairs at first.
- cabinets painted and put back together
- skylights installed
- new patio doors in place
- gas turned on
- deep clean the entire house
- pack all our crap and then move it.
- clean our old house

So, we will be keeping up this frantic pace for a few more weeks! If you need something photo related, please just email me. I will get to it, I WILL. If you need anything else call me or talk to me in November. Not even kidding.

And yes it will be worth it. And yes, we think this kind of thing is fun, mostly. But seriously we will take any help we can get with the hole drywall extrication and reapplication business. ANY.

the wagon series

2009-09-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

may 2008 - newborn

august 2008 - 3 months

november 2008 - 6 months

february 2009 - 9 months

march 2009 - 10 months

september 2009 - sweet sixteen months

My daughter has been shoved in a wagon every couple months since her birth, it's been an interesting way to chart her growth as well as the seasons. I think this will be the end of the series as she wants to move and do her own thing now. :) My girl has attitude.

bright yellow sink

2009-09-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

We have no less than a half dozen friends mid move, and a few have said that our housing perils make them feel better about,say,ugly wallpaper. So a quick update.

Our current home: this old house
-After some stern words and a early morning visit to our insurance company, an adjuster came out from the big D just to see us and voila, and our insurance will completely cover a new roof for the house and the garage. Woohoo!
- The roofers come in just a few hours, we are planning a day out to avoid the hammering.
- Closing got moves back on the buyers realization that the closing date was Labor Day. So we got an extra week to get things worked out without asking for it. God provides.

The new house: the money pit
-I am just waiting to hear our closing has been moved back because there is a surprising lack of little orange flags on the property meaning no survey has been done yet. But, as Hubs say... there are 3.5 more working days left until we close.
-We have met our new neighbors, all very nice and helpful, and discovered that the small side yard we had slated is really... well... not ours. It's quite confusing since the 2 properties have always shared the lot in the middle even though neither of the homeowners own the lot.
- The spending has already begun, a new dishwasher, freezer, and 15 gallons of premium white paint, and $1400 later.... Home Depot and Lowes are our new date spots. Sad, but true.

* yes, I will soon be the lucky owner of that lovely yellow sink and the even lovelier faux blue marble countertops. I am a lucky girl!

he is ok.

2009-09-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

Last night was a typical night around our house. Hubs went off to work, I entertained the kiddos until bedtime finally and mercifully arrived and enjoyed a couple hours of editing and then headed off the bed to watch snl. It was a rerun, so I flipped it off and fell asleep.

ding-dong

11:30pm

Agh. I HATE it when our drunk neighbors randomly ring our doorbell in the middle of the night. I peek out our bedroom window and see what every firefighters wife dreads.

A big red engine, no lights on. Quiet.

My heart started racing as fumbled around to get to the door. Please God no.

I opened the door and there stood the rest of my husbands crew, without him.

No, no, no.

Thankfully, his lieutenant was quick to say "Your husband is ok. He is ok. He is in the ER, but it's minor... he just overheated after a fire."

They reassured me they would check on him, offered to find someone to help with the kids, gave me hug and went off the hospital to check on him with a promise to call me with an update. They would have called rather than scaring me to death, but they didn't have my number.

I just stood there shaking for a few minutes. So thankful to God he was ok, but so shaken by how quickly my world could have flipped upside down.

I looked around my house... total disarray. Boxes half packed, dirty sippy cubs in the sink, random toys and other kid stuff strewn all over the house. A mountain of folded laundry and a mountain of dirty laundry. My kids are sound asleep. Can you even take kids to the ER? I have no idea, the only reason we ever go to the ER is because of the kids. I scan the list of people on facebook chat. Several who live out of town, a single mom on the other side of town, and a photographer I barely know but whom lives very close. We don't have family in town, and only have a few close friends who I would unashamedly ask to come sleep on my couch in my messy house. Most of them are out of town for the weekend or have guests or would have to leave their own kids alone to come help. So, I called a friend, no answer..... but come on it's nearly midnight by now, we should all be asleep! So I prayed for peace, for an update, for his safety.

Within 5 minutes, the phone rang. It was my husband. He said he was fine, he sounded fine, he said not to worry, and not to come to the hospital, and not to wake the kids up. Thankfully, he really was fine and was home a couple hours later. He had been running on the treadmill at work for an hour (or more) when they got called to a fire. It wasn't a very big fire, but it still required them to do a bunch of physical hose dragging and whatever else they do on scene. He started feeling lousy, took a break, tried to go back to fighting the fire, but still felt lousy, got dizzy, and possibly blacked out a little. So, they took him to the hospital, ambulance and all, to get checked out. 2 bags of fluid later he was good to go. No big deal to him. He was just mad he had to take the rest of the shift off, he would have loved to go back to work.

I am ashamed my response was to worry about inconviencing others or what they would think of my less than tidy house rather than saying I need to be with my husband no matter what. Sometimes living life with other people means they see the messy side of your life. It might mean waking up a friend and seeing them stumble over to your house to watch your kids or letting go of the little stuff.

Anyways. He is ok. He slept till 10:30am (the kids and I snuck out to church) and looked like he had a bad hangover combined with the flu but is just tired. Another day and he will be back to normal.

*sorry, that was really long. if you read all of that you deserve a treat!

simply family.

2009-09-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

I have had the pleasure of knowing this family for years and the last couple years counting them among my friends. The more time I spend with this family, the more I like them. :) Their session was filled with laughter and silliness, with only the occasional complaint (when is dinner? is it now?) and only one little tiff between the boys. I think that is pretty good for a late evening session! The youngest had to do a little impromptu roll in the grass to celebrate the end of the session and DINNER. :)

fresh

2009-09-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

get ready: photo overload is coming!

Little O is just the sweetest little ball of perfect baby. He was so easy to photograph, scarcely woke up, and put up with all kinds of wrangling from me and my lovely assistants. ;) He is the precious little baby of my dear friend and roommate during my college years (oh, we had a blast!) and it has just been the coolest thing to watch her fall in love first with her husband and now with her tiny little guy. It makes me a little mushy to watch it...

sweating it...

2009-08-31T12:21:00.000-07:00

Not a new excercise program, house selling and buying.

7 days away: close on our current house.
loving: that I don't have to pack a thing (yet) since they are letting us rent the house after closing.
stressing: a condition of the sale is we get a new roof put on (hail damage). We have had zero luck getting an insurance adjuster to come out and look at the roof. The buyer is buying several properties at the same time so pushing back the closing date is not really an option. Sweating it!

11 days away: close on our new house.
loving: ask me next month... better yet wait till 2010
stressing: SO much to do. New roof, new systems, new flooring, repairing water damage, repairing years of neglect, replacing the deck, removing a hive of bees, adding a fence, remodeling 2 bathrooms, painting 2500 sq ft inside and more outside, new lighting, repairing wiring, rerouting rain runoff. And then all the normal new house stuff.

58 days away: move out of our current house!
loving: it should be cool outside by then! :)
stressing: see above. I really think we will make it ok on the deadline. It won't be how we want it, but it will be livable.

*the picture above is of one of the "kid" bedrooms. All are pink, all have a built-in desk, all have a built-in desk that will be obliterated by me, and all have no flooring, ugly curtains, and broken closet doors, and missing light fixtures. Oh well, we would replace the lights anyways...

cute little family, sunny saturday morning!

2009-08-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

This is my second time to get to photography this sweet family! Last time we did photos (last December) little J could barely sit up and we were all fretting about his ability to sit up on a brick sidewalk. Now he is a walking, baby talking (a few real words too) machine. He did remarkably well for a one-year old considering he would have much rather been running around like a crazy man. Thanks for letting me take your photos for a second time! And just look at how charming little J is when you offer him his favorite animal crackers :)

now booking sessions!

2009-08-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

The shooting drought is over! I am thirsting to getting back behind my camera and shooting again. I needed to take the summer off from photography to get my job at church done and now I am full of new ideas to try and fresh energy! I am now taking baby, child, and family sessions for this fall!

It's also time to launch my website!
http://www.lfhcreative.smugmug.com

ruffle butt

2009-08-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

And we will call her...

Ruffle Butt

We are still cloth diapering a year later. We still (mostly) use disposables when we are at church or traveling, but that may soon end with the arrival of our gdiapers! gdiapers are the hybrid of the diaper world, cloth outside flushable liners inside. I looked into gdiapers a couple years ago and the price is crazy high if you use the flushable part all the time, it's more expensive that the fanciest diapers at non sale price. Ouch! But. I read you can use cloth inserts with them now too! Brilliant. And ADORABLE. And Hazaa the little gpants close in the back so baby Houdini can't take them off as easily. They also seem to fit her better, she has huge thighs and a little bitty waist and these are smooth and snug around her waist.

I just wish I had named Ella Bella Grace or Gabrielle :)

sweet little baby boy

2009-08-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

All this summer I have been on a break from photography, with the exception of my own kids and this precious little monkey. He is the son of a dear friend who works at our church. I was blessed to have the opportunity to do her job for the past 2 months while she was on baby leave. She even let me take some baby photos as part of my job duties. :) He is just perfection.

football frenzy

2009-08-18T19:31:00.001-07:00

Uncle Rice and Papa are HUGE Denver Broncos fans. Uncle Rice even got Moo a little Broncos hat when he was born and now that hat has been passed down to Ella Bella. Gran got her a cheerleader outfit to go along with the hat (It's a 4t...). Ella Bella wanted nothing to do with the hat...

So Ella Bella, who are you rooting for the Broncos or "da bears"?

Sorry Uncle Rice, I tried.... I really did.

Look, my little sweetie is a closet Red Raider Fan. Fight Raiders Fight! I tried to explain to her the difference between college and pro football, but she didn't care. She just kept on with her guns up...

waking up is hard to do

2009-08-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

It's rare to see this child freshly awake, more rare to see her asleep. Ella Bella is a light sleeper and wakes if we even walk past her room. But after a predawn scream-a-thon, she slept a little deeper and longer than usual allowing me a few precious moments to observe her sleeping.

baby no more.

2009-08-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

My little buddy isn't the little baby buddy he used to be. The past few weeks have seen my firstborn hurtling away from babyhood to childhood with no regard for his parents resistance to let him grow. In the last few weeks small changes have been occurring that just leave hubs and I dumbfounded. Who said he could learn that? Where did THAT come from?

He is like a whole new creation. It's mostly marvelous.

He is apparently thinking more. He talks in full, complicated, stories and his dinner prayers actually resemble a recognizable prayer. He tells me thinks that make my heart melt. "Mommy, your the best. I am the best too." "Mommy, I don't want to move to a new house and not have Ella Bella." "I am a happy helper, happy, happy helper."

He can do chores now! Hazaa! He is going to regret showing growth in that area. He helps load the dishwasher, puts up dirty clothes, removes his potty seat, cleans up his toys, and makes his bed. He can also get himself a drink and a snack without asking, umm, not such a cool thing. He gets his own clothes and can sometimes even put them on. We realized he was fully capable of taking his clothes off when our realtor was here the other day and he was suddenly in just his big boys. Niiiiiiiiiice.

And, mercifully, he can now put together an entire elaborate train track without help. A milestone moment indeed.

inquiring minds want to know....

2009-08-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Many have asked about the house situation, only to see our shoulders shrug and say I dunno know. This what I do know:

-We have signed a contract, the seller may or may not have signed it. They should sign it, we didn't make any changes to it.
-The property is a foreclosure so everything is 4x more complicated and takes 6x as long.
-We haven't sold our house yet. And that is ok, we are both calm about that. We dropped the price a couple weeks back and it has been shown a lot the past few days.
-The "new" house embodies the terms "money pit" and "fixer-upper". Bring on the sweat equity!
-We will have several weeks to several months of work to do before we can move in. Yes, we are crazy.
-Because the house needs "work", getting the mortgage and construction loans is more complicated too.
-On the project list is new roof, new hvac systems, new deck, new flooring, repairing water damage, fence, and updating bathrooms. And THEN the normal new house stuff can start... decorating, painting, landscaping, ect. My goal is that maybe by Christmas 2009 the major projects will be done and we won't be embarrassed to have people over.

And a little bonus: The seventies called and they want their firepod back.... This baby will be going up on ebay! The seventies would also like the faux pink marble soaking tub in the master BEDROOM back....

wipe balls

2009-08-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

As often as our schedules allow, we sit down and watch Wipeout, wipe balls according to moo, as a family. Both our kids love it, and obviously we love watching people fall flat on their faces and generally make fools of themselves. My personal favorite "event" is probably the sweeper. It's always good for a laugh since it's not me enduring the embarrassment or hardship.

Lately though, I feel like I am getting pummeled by the emotional, mental, and physical "sweepers" in my life and it is wearing me out. No, it has worn me out. Too much of the crummy stuff, virtually none of the "good" stuff.

"I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil." Job 3:26

Too much of me, too little of God.
Too much worry, not enough prayer.
Too much conflict, not enough peace.
Too many accusations, not enough grace.
Too much stuff, too little joy.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11: 28-30

I am weary. I am burdened. And I am sick of it. So, I am going to led God lead again. :)

summer

2009-08-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

it's really a shame, I don't think moo enjoys summer at ALL.

the real estate game

2009-07-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a little quiet around the blog, and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. We will find out today or tomorrow if our offer we put in on a house has been accepted. I suppose it should be nerve wracking, but it hasn't been.

It's a little crazy and shocking how it all transpired that we would be putting an offer on a house. About 3 weeks ago, my hubby and I had actually decided to not purchase a house anytime soon and were about to pull ours off the market. We were feeling conflicted about buying a house to fit our future needs that would really stretch us financially for a few years. We weren't impressed with any school or district we had scoped out. Between Moo's allergy issues and so much time and energy being devoted to teaching to tests, we had decided to home school for at least a few years. We still wanted a safe neighborhood even if the schools themselves were no longer a consideration. They kinda don't exist here, so we were just going to stay put and enjoy our little house for another year or two and continue to save for a bigger house in a better area. We decided we were not seeking God and allowing him to provide for our family. So we just let it go....

And a week ago, I got an email from a local realty group for a 4 bedroom, 2 bath , 2500 sq ft house listed for LESS than our current 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1350 sq. ft house. We had actually looked at the house a couple months ago when it was 50K more.

So we put an offer on it.

Now we wait.

***offer accepted, now getting estimates from roofers and setting up a structural inspector.

nebraska loves casseroles corn casserole

2009-07-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

My husband comes from a very cool family. A cool family from Nebraska that happens to be able to make virtually anything into a casserole. From appetizers to dessert, it all goes in a 9 x 13 pan. :) There is one casserole that stands above the rest and this past Easter I though there was going to be a throw down between my niece and sister in law because they LOVE this dish so much. In fact, dear Aunt Bev made a quadruple batch and it was gone in an hour. Aunt Bev also gets props for being a loyal blog reader and just a really neat lady :) Hi Aunt Bev! She got this recipe from an old Lutheran cookbook from a small town in Nebraska.

super duper totally amazing corn casserole

1 16oz can cream corn
1 16oz can whole kernel corn
1 cup dry elbow spaghetti or salad macaroni (I used 7 oz mexican wagon wheels pasta and that worked just fine too)
1 cup diced velveeta cheese
1/4 cup butter
2 T chopped diced onion

Melt butter over low heat. Stir together with remaining ingredients. Drain the corn, leaving a little bit of the liquid in the can. Bake @ 370 for 1 hour. For the first 30 minutes covered with foil, second half with dish uncovered.

hot hot HOT

2009-07-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

Proof that it's hot hot HOT. My car was even in the SHADE. Also proof that my car is getting OLD! 161,360 miles!

14 months

2009-07-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is less a baby everyday and more a teenager. I think she is going to skip toddlerhood, preschool, and grade school and move straight to the drama of being a teenager. Hubs is very, very scared of what lies ahead raising Ella Bella. This past month or so has brought tantrums, defiance, biting, yelling, screaming, and flirting with boys.

Milestones this month:
-She stands all by herself! She learned to stand by just standing up in the middle of an empty room and doing it. She also likes to clap for herself when she performs this amazing act.
-she has taken one step, just one, several times. She could do more but nah...
-Ella Bella discovered watermelon and she can go to town eating it. It's crazy! Hubs was pretty sure she had some horrible ulcer or something because her diapers were bright red after she went on a binge watermelon eating streak.
-Drama, drama, drama. The girl can throw a fit! She has flipped over her high chair in a fit of rage and goes straight to biting if something displeases her. She has also been know to speed crawl across a room and give a good chomp on an unsuspecting Moo.
- She speaks! dress, yes, ashes-ashes, hi, mom, mama, dada, me (see, teenager), more, bear-bear, and brand new today... night-night.
-she loves to accessorize. Anything she finds on the floor is game for trying on. Everything must be put on her head or around her neck. Underwear, blankets, fabric, ribbon, pants, whatever...
-she has a daredevil streak, she climbs or attempts to climb everything and thinks nothing of flinging herself backwards at any given moment.
-she loves drinking water out of hoses, the bath tub spout, and any other way that splashes obscene amounts of water on her face.
-she loves playing with her baby dolls, giving them bottles, pushing them in the stroller, comforting them by patting them on the back. It's pretty darn cute!
-she adores Moo, she follows him around and loves to play with him on his bed.
-she gives kisses, moth closed and complete with a smooch sound.

trash the dress: california dreaming Keary

2009-07-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

Lain brought along 2 friends to our trash the dress shoot, Betsy Lackey and Keary Dee Warner. Hubs and I instantly felt OLD. All 3 of these very young ladies have talent beyond their years. Keary had flown in to do a wedding here and had some extra time, which is why we pretty spontaneously decided to do the trash the dress shoot.

Keary is a sweet california girl with a heart for the country with all it's wildflowers and open space. Needless to say, I think she really like shooting here... we have wide open space and then some! She just moved and is based out of San Jose, California now. Her images have an almost dream like feeling to them. She also does some really cool things to honor the memory of her sister, check out her work and her story out on her blog and website!

trash the dress: the amazing Lain!

2009-07-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Last fall, one of my friends had her family photos posted on facebook, I liked them so I added the photographer as a friend. We occasionally wrote on each others walls or photos, but that was it. In May, I just happened to be facebookin' when she posted wanting to swap sessions with a local photographer, Lain Eubank. I sent her an email along the lines of "I am not even close to worthy, but I will take your photos if you want. And I also have this COOL idea for a photographer practice shoot for this cool group she was putting together." Anywho, to make a simple story really simple, we ended up swapping sessions. I was going to take her pictures for her blog and website and she would take family photos for me. I was so excited!

So a couple days later, when she emailed me and said, "Hey... about that idea for a shoot you had, how about next week when my photographer friend for California is here? And I'll still do your family photos."

UMM, SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

So, we trashed my wedding dress. And we trashed my husbands suit too! It was so fun! I highly recommend it for anyone who was way to tense on their actual wedding day to get any decent photos. We were game for anything and the 3 photographers had us running, laying in streams, in fields of stickers, jumping, twirling, and for the grand finale.... getting hosed down by a bunch of firefighters.

Before I show some of the rad images she took of the dress trashin', I want to brag on Lain. Not only is she a cool photographer, she is just a cool girl. She has been so patient with my lack of knowledge, offered to let me borrow gear (I was terrified to touch it), willingly shared advice, and has some cool stories to boot. Hubs and I had an absolute BLAST doing photos, it was so calm and just relaxing!

Her website went LIVE just TODAY, so go and check it out: http://www.laineubank.net/

trash the dress: the lovely betsy!

2009-07-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Lain also brought along Betsy Lackey, whom she had just met days prior to our shoot. Upon meeting Betsy I instantly knew why Lain had asked her to come along.... because Betsy is just that much fun. Instantly likeable and her eyes are brimming with excitement and joy. And, to top it off, she has some really fun ideas and got some wonderful images!

Check out her blog . I especially like her shoot of a senior who is also a diver. Very, very fun.

winner, winner, chicken dinner.

2009-06-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the great comments on the baby gear post! True to my typing, I'll send off a little thank you gift to.....

Tracy!

I can't send baby legs, seeing as Tracy has twin girls and it would just be wrong to send one of anything. I have some ideas...

self portrait

2009-06-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

sippy cup wars

2009-06-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

This from way back in March 2007, when a much smaller Moo went on a rampage against sippy cups. Those were some fun days. I posted this as an encouragement to my sister, that, this too shall pass! Ella Bella protested the sippy cups too, in a much angrier violent protest of screams and slamming things to the floor. So, we went cold turkey after trying to ease her into the sippy cup. That battle is now over, thank goodness!

my mind is somewhere else entirely....

2009-06-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

My mind is still stuck in that beautiful place. Despite the fact we have been home for 3 weeks. I must go back!

these are a few of my favorite things

2009-05-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have a bit of a baby gear fetish. At one time I had, no exaggeration, 10 strollers. 3 umbrella, 3 double, a car seat frame stroller, a fancy stroller, a bike trailer, and the horrid travel system stroller. I have trimmed it down to 2 Maclaren Volos and umm 2 Phil and Teds. One is for sale, the e3. And also my travel system is for sale. ;)

So, from left to right, top to bottom, my ravs:
1. fisher price healthy care booster seat. Easy to clean, easy to wash, easy to travel with. It's our every day highchair.
2. jj cole system bag. Has oodles of pockets and a nice travel pack for diapers.
3. Maclaren volo (triumph or quest)turns on a dime, light, easy to fold. Love!
4. Moby wrap! Seems like a huge undertaking to get on but its actually pretty easy and is so comfy for mom and baby. You can make your own quite easily!
5. Pouch sling, the one shown is the polkadot papoose sling, easy to use and easy to make! Lovely for newborns.
6. Car seat frame. I bought mine from a friend and it has made the mommy group rounds because it is just so handy. It's very light and has a huge basket.
7. Boppy. Some love, some hate. I love. Made nursing a breeze.
8. Britax Marathon- totally worth the splurge! The little extras make it easy to use and the durability and ease of installation is awesome.
9. phil and teds, also known as phillip and theodore at our house. This stroller is nothing short of brilliant. The single stroller that is also a double. We love it so much we just splurged and ordered a new one!
10. Robeez, they are cute and they stay on the feet!
11. Kidco peapod plus, a whole post of loving is a couple days back. It is just too handy!

Oops! I missed the bum genius diapers. Great colors and they do the job at hand well. Sometimes pretty gross to deal with but a huge moneysaver!

*********ATTENTION!!!

I wrote this post for a very fun friend and her hubby who are expecting their very first little bambino in a few months! What was your favorite piece of baby gear? what was a total waste of money? Give her your best tips and I may just have to give a little something away to a lucky commenter. Maybe some babylegs? :)

compare and contrast

2009-05-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

moo @ 9 months, ella bella @ 12 months

mini shopper

2009-05-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

another fun little purchase we got in the mail. I may not like it so much after Moo runs over my feet with it...

Melissa and Doug Grocery Cart

the peapod plus

2009-05-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

For the last couple months I have hardly bought anything, including groceries. Not really intentional... just with packing up a lot of stuff in our house to maybe move I wasn't really into buying more stuff to fill it again! However, this last week I have been doing some online shopping and yesterday both fedex and ups came a knockin.

We do a fair amount of traveling and therefore, I do a fair amount of dreading all the gear that we haul around to travel with 2 small kids. The stroller, the pack and play, the toys, the high chair. My least favorite being the pack in play. Oh yeah, it's GREAT once you get it set-up. Unless you want to move it into another room. But, pack and plays are bulky, heavy, hard to carry, and take up a lot of our precious cargo room. I also have nightmares about one hitting my kids in the head during a wreck.

Anyways.

I ordered a Peapod Plus for Ella Bella to use on our future trips. And it is so cool! It comes with a sleeping bag, air mattress, pump, carrying bag and the tent. It folds up to about the size of a large frisbee and weighs just a few pounds. Certainly light enough for Moo to carry it. It is easy to fold also, this coming from someone who can not fold a sunshade to save her life.

We have been using it in Ella Bella's crib the last couple night to get her used to the idea of sleeping in it and she loves it. It also has the added benefit of keeping Moo from bugging her because he can't touch he.

Kidco Peapod Plus

the great pee bath of 2009

2009-05-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

My kids have taken disgusting to a new level lately. They make a public bathroom look tame. My apologies to my facebook friends who read my utterly disgusting updates, but it's just so bad I have to share. However, I think maybe some explanation is in order. Text in pink italics is from facebook.

I have seen a new low in gross. I just found ella bella playing in her diaper pail sucking on a soiled cloth diaper. Yes. Gross. Happy Mothers Day.

I really do watch my children closely. I Promise. Close enough to know the nano second any piece of unapproved matter goes in the babies mouth. Never mind scratch that. She did suck a diaper after all. Oye. Vey. On the plus side it was just wet and I have heard pee is sterile. And also on the plus side we still cloth diaper....

note to self: lock up ALL sharpie markers. simply putting them 4 ft off the ground is not a deterrent to my little tattoo artist. and the baby really likes dum-dums suckers. Oops.

Thankfully not gross. Just amusing. A little sharpie on the arm every now and then is not going to hurt them. And the dum dum thing, that was just amusing. I might need to get it on video.

discovery of the day: my barely one year old can fully undress herself during nap time and fling all her clothes over the side of the crib. Quite the shock since my 3 year old still can't undress himself!

Judging from the facebook comments, people thought this was charming. And I will say she is pretty darn cute in her birthday suit. However, not so cute when literally every square inch of her sheet was soaked in pee and therefore she was soaked in pee. Moo thought it was hilaroius.

agh. that makes twice today my son has peed on his little sister. But on the bright side, at least this time it wasn't on her head.

That brings us to today. I hope it was International Pee on Your Sister Day because we clebrated really well. First time: Moo sprints for the potty. We have been encouraging him to do all the work by himself (pants down, on the throne, ect) this week. He has done really well. Err, had done really well. He didn't guite make it and sister had started crawling after him to see what was up. Small bathroom, bad aim preschooler, curious baby sister. Ella Bella ended up with a wet head, face, and clothes. Into the tub for her. The rest of the bathroom wasn't much better, or Moo for that matter. Into the tub for him too.

All clean, new clothes, new underwear. Dinner. Playtime.

Moo has some bladder control issues when his sister gets him hysterically laughing. It only happens every now and then, but, it unfortunately happened today as little sister was unfortunately crawling under his legs. Luckily she mostly dodged the flow on that one, only getting some on her feet.

Foot bath for her.

Mom has had enough. Diapers all around and time for BED!

moody blues

2009-05-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

I love all the little faces Ella Bella makes these days, she has become so expressive. She rubs noses with us to show affection and scrunches up her nose when something amuses her. She smiles so hard her dimples show when she is super excited. She scowls and whimpers when we have the gawl to do something that displeases her royal highness. She sucks her lip when she is bored. Oh, if she would just stay at this stage a little longer!

2009-05-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

My faithful blog readers know I "heart" google reader for keeping me up to date on my favorite blogs. However, you don't get to see blogs with their original content and design and cool links which I miss.

BUT

NOW

THERE

is

NEXT!

Google has added a new feature that allows you to view blogs in their original format. Go to settings, it's in the upper right corner of the google reader screen. Under settings, go to goodies and then follow the directions for NEXT.

I got the hot tip here, one of my fav blogs! Making it Lovely

before I forget....

2009-05-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

ella bella and moo had their check-ups today:

moo:
35 lbs, 39.5 inches
running a fever, we had no idea. Otherwise healthy.
no new info on peanuts. darn.

ella bella:
25lbs. 10 oz. ella bella chunka monka indeed
32" tall
Dr. is a little concerned she is not cruising, we are not. She is a laid back baby. It will come and as her daddy says: "She has her whole life to walk."
5 shots, MMR, chicken pox, hep a. and umm... 2 others.
Cried 30 seconds and then was happy. Woohoo!

the many moods of moo

2009-05-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

the things she loves at one

2009-05-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try to capture just a few of my baby girls favorite things as she turns one. Her brother, mama, and dada didn't make the cut. Sock dog had to be a stand in for her first furry love, bear bear. She peed on bear bear during her very European nude nap yesterday. Oh well.

1. stuffed animals, especially "bear bear"
2. books, she sneaks off to the shelves and looks through her books.
3. her air-tivity table. She finds it very silly.
4. bananas, and pretty much any other food!
5. frosting, she did not however like her cake.
6. baby dolls and their fake hair
7. glasses and other accessories. Oh goodness, the need to accessorize starts YOUNG.
8. Shoes! Again, starts YOUNG.
9. Mama's cell phone, her very favorite toy.

smash the cake

2009-05-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

happy birthday ella bella chunka monka!

2009-05-08T02:38:00.000-07:00

There just simply are not adequate words for how much we love this little girl. She makes my heart all smushy with her wet kisses, silly laugh, and head butting nuzzles.

Happy Birthday little Ella Bella Chunka Monka, Happy Birthday to you!

crafting from the stash: first birthday shirt

2009-05-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

The shirt says it all, my baby is *almost* one. 3 more days. I made this shirt using the freezer paper method, which is both easy and works really well. I don't remember which tutorial I used the first time I tried it, but there are many out there! Just google freezer paper stencil. I still need to trim down the sleeves since it is May, despite the fact I am wearing jeans and a hoodie right now! At some point in the past 2 years, target had all their white onesies and shirts 75% off and I am a sucker for a clearance sale and bought 2 dozen shirts and several packages of onesie. I think more of these freezer print shirts will be appearing on the blog soon!

divine

2009-05-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

I love soup. I could eat it every day of the year. We have had a few cool days so while hubs was at work the other day, I whipped up a big old pot of rich and delicious french onion soup. The kids decided to take late naps (till 7pm!) and so I got to enjoy fresh french onion soup topped with perfectly crunchy and melty cheese on top. Mmmmmm. Oh it was good. It was good yesterday too. And today. Yum!

I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman.

Her site is such an wonderful space full of inspiration for recipes.

Or photography basics.

Or photoshop tutorials.

Or homeschooling.

Or just having a good laugh.

Again here is the link for the soup: French Onion Soup Try it, it is amazing! I only changed it by using feta and swiss cheese on top of the bread and the broiling it for a few minutes after adding the cheese. Yum.

crafting from the stash: denim and tulle skirt

2009-05-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

I made this happy little skirt after being inspired by the amazingly creative Dana over at MADE. She made this skirt after being inspired by the also amazingly talented Chris at Pink Picket Fence. Chris made this skirt after seeing this skirt at Baby Gap. The internet has so many creative people making some really cool things! This skirt was really easy to make, although I should have taken the time to get matching thread and need to make the cut more generous in the back to fit over baby girl's big diapers. I made it for Ella Bella's birthday which is just a few days away! Now to make the matching shirt....

adorable.

2009-04-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

Miss A was the very first baby other than my own that I took photos of. She was a week old the first time and just a tiny little thing with a mess of fuzzy dark hair. Taking photos of her that very first time was much easier than the workout her and her little brother gave me the other day. :)

I think the efforts of the baby wranglers were well worth it though! Look at those sparkly eyes and spiky baby hair.

for b, a little peek

2009-04-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

ruffle pants

2009-04-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

More photos of the ruffle pants I made the other day. My friend Misty had given me the idea after she made some monkey pants for her little monkey ;) They really are very easy to make even for the novice sewer. I will definitely be whipping up some more for Ella Bella, although, next time I hope to put the ruffles on so the seams can't be seen. Sigh. I'll post the pattern if anyone wants it.

As you may have noticed, bear bear as had a very rough couple of months since Ella Bella claimed him as her BFF. I am completely dumb about stuffed animals, anyone have any tips on washing a beloved stuffed animal?

friend or foe

2009-04-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Moo and Ella Bella are starting to interact with each other more and more. Mostly it consists of Moo telling Ella Bella what she can and can not do and trying to take away things he deems are his or not for babies. Like baby toys and cheerios, those are clearly not safe for babies. Duh mom.

But there are those sweet and glorious moments few and far between when they actually enjoy each other. Like sharing a papa's old rocker while putting retro rubbermaid play kitchen toys on various parts of your head. Let the good times roll.

fluid

2009-04-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

Overall, I like being a mom. However, there is one little thing that I could totally forgo in this whole parenting business. Fluid. All the various moistness that comes from having children. Yuck. Today was a particularly fluid filled day, so here is my day by the fluids.

wake-up
1 wet little boy in one very wet little bed
1 wet and poopy little girl in one wet and poopy sleepsack on a wet bed.
son spills milk out of spill proof cup
daughter laughs and spills milk out nose.
cat vomits
Moo talks about the cat vomiting for a good 2 hours
another yucky diaper
4 trips to the potty for the 3 year old
1st pair of poopy underwear AGHHHHH*
1st bath to clean up said poop incident
3 times blowing nose of son
countless times washing my hands and moo's hands
yet another gross diaper
1 40 oz smoothie spilled all over the backseat of the car (so sad........)***
another diaper to be changed
2nd pair of poopy underwear GRRRRR
2nd bath to clean up encore poop incident

enough with the fluids, time for kids to be in bed.

Yeah, I could so do with out the fluids.

* pooping in your pants is a skill we picked up in the land o' corn. ;)
** that smoothie was going to be my sweet release from a long couple days flying virtually solo with the kiddos. Oops. I nooooooooooooo I don't drink 40 oz of smoothie myself, I drink a third of it and use the rest to make popsicles. At least that was the plan.

some people will do anything for a gummi bear...

2009-04-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

Some people will do anything for one little gummi bear including wearing girl's clothes. Ahem, I am not naming names. I made some little pants for Ella Bella. I was going for carpi pants but they go down to her feet. Oops. But, they are great size 3 capri pants. I also made her a skirt but it's too long on her for now, maybe it will fit right next year. Oh well, I'll just have to sew so more. Darn.

The pants were SO easy and made from the sleeves of one of my old t-shirts. Here is a good tutorial. Happy crafting!

In addition to being bribed with gummi bears, the little guy has being saying some crazy stuff lately.

Electricity is for Monkeys.

We DON'T put our heads in the toilet?

and the doctor says....

2009-04-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

He is more allergic to peanuts than we all originally thought. His blood test indicates that 95% of the time he comes into contact he will exhibit a severe reaction. Moo's skin and wheezing indicated that he is constantly reacting. So....

1. Start a daily allergy medication to minimize reactions from peanut particles in the air.
2. Teach Moo to be his own advocate, ie: reading PEANUT on labels, not eating foods from others.
3. Research school allergy policies and educate caregivers.
4. Epipen, Epipen, Epipen. Give it, call 911, give another after 10 minutes if needed.

It was a pretty frustrating visit. There isn't really any treatment we can do to lessen severity at this time and the allergist expects Moo's overall food allergies to get worse rather than better.

the peanut saga continues

2009-04-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

We are back from a week long romp to the land o' corn. 1792 miles of driving over 7 days with 2 tots in tow. They did great, definitely better than we would have ever dared wish for. We all really enjoyed the trip and seeing all of Hubs family. I have oodles of photos to share and random land o' corn observations. But alas, you have to read about peanuts first.

Disclaimer: I really, really like peanuts. So does Hubs. All of our dates revolve around the pesky little legume now. We eat Chinese and Thai food with peanut sauce chased down with reese's cups and butterfinger shakes. Although after the last 7 days, I may swear them off all together.

I HATE what PEANUTS do to my baby boy. And peanut dust. And peanut oil. And any product containing any atom of peanut particles.

My in-laws, God bless each one of them, went way beyond what we could have ever asked them to do in regards to keeping Moo safe. Grandpa and Grandma did everything short of ripping out the carpet and dismantling their HVAC system to get peanuts out of where Moo would be. My sister in laws scoured labels and threatened to beat up a man eating peanuts at the zoo. My nieces and nephews suffered through an egg hunt without their favorite candies. One niece even fasted in protest of her suffering. If she couldn't have pb&J she just wasn't eating.

But, it didn't stop Moo from reacting. Every night from about 7pm on we were battling to keep him from wheezing and from such intense coughing he was throwing up mucous. His entire chest was just rock hard as every muscle he had was being used to get him to breathe.

I hate it.

He is sensitive enough that if we even walk in a store or restaurant that serves peanuts he starts coughing instantly signaling it's time for us to leave. He will be so excited to go somewhere and he breathes in the air with peanut dust in it and you can tell he starts to feel bad instantly. At this point, I don't think it's reasonable to think we will be able to send him to school in 2 years.

I hate it.

I hate that Hubs and I have to be so hyper aware as parents when we really want to give our kids space to be kids. Ack. I AM the helicopter mom. I am so frustrated. I want to be able to send my kid to preschool without feeling like I am sending him into war unarmed.

We go tomorrow to get him reevaluated and hopefully some better options for treatment. Poor kid is so tired he won't even wake up for treatments or when he throws up. He put himself down for a nap today, now that's exhausted.

That was cathartic. Thanks.

wish list

2009-04-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

this poor neglected blog. I'll return soon, I promise.

I have some fun crafts to share but I seemed to have packed up my motivation with my craft supplies during operation stage this house. Yes, the market sucks and we are going to try and sell our house and move on up. So, please be praying we sell our house for a fair (ok, great) price and God will provide a home for our family to grow into. Cause let me say, having one teeny tiny (5' by 7') bathroom with a newly potty trained kiddo is LOADS of fun.

I found the coolest old rambler ranch yesterday but sigh, it's already under contract. It may have been at the limits of our renovation skills, but man it was cool and we would have had a blast fixing it up. The hunt continues.

This little house has served us well. We bought it a couple weeks before we married and expected to live here while we finished college and then move away and buy a house to start a family somewhere colder and more, umm, scenic. Living here has helped to clarify what would be really nice to have and what is just fluff in our next house.

So far our list of we MUST have that includes:
- 4 bedrooms, or 3 bedrooms and an office space. We want bigger bedrooms so we are mostly looking at older homes. None of this 10' by 10' business.
- 2 toilets. Enough said.
- a garage connected to the house.
- more than 4 closets.
- closer to people we know. Hubs is either entirely present or completely not available and it would be so nice to have some emergency contacts just a few minutes away.

And on the "Oh it would be so cool if" list:
- 4 bedrooms and an office space.
- A large open living/ dining/ kitchen area
- 2 bathrooms
- A laundry room as I am pretty sick of hearing the dryer balls and smelling cloth diapers washing. Eww.
- Close to good schools. And close enough to walk or ride bikes to a grocery store. A good grocery store.
- Lots of windows. I love sunlight and so many homes here are like caves.
- character and unique style. I love clean and modern 60's styling. Too bad I live in the land o traditional brick.
-some eco-friendly features, whether it's solar orientation, shading, xeroscaping, ect.
- wood floors. Our kids allergies have been so much better since we axed the carpet.
- ugly is great. we like ugly.

Too bad this little number isn't here or for sale. Photo from kontagmag.

sunday drive

2009-03-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

moo is three

2009-03-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

The moo man in now officially three. He had never really been to a birthday party, so the birthday thing has been a complete mystery to him. I have been asking him for several weeks what he wanted for his birthday. His requests, a blue party, a boat ride, no presents, and a long list of people who could and could not come. Well, his mama is a slacker so he got a supermarket cake from gram, 3 previously used candles, and one gift. He was thrilled. If we could only get away with such simple thrills for every birthday :) We had another party last night with leftover cake and 2 free Thomas trains courtesy of Toys r us. Again, he was over the moon. Funny kid.

poor sick baby

2009-03-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

clap your hands

2009-03-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ella Bella learned to clap last night and it reminded me of my baldy firstborn learning to clap 2 years ago!

Aren't these papers and patterns fun? They are from the fabulous Shabby Princess and can be found here. These papers are from the Moody Blues collection. Her stuff is detailed and well done and she has some wonderful downloads and tutorials on her site too! Please note her downloads are for personal use ONLY, ie: your own personal digital scrapbook.

lady rides

2009-03-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

My kids love playing "lady rides". Basically they sit on my lap and I just bounce them like crazy. They love it. And I love that I have one photo of me and my kids thanks to Hubs. I need to teach that boy how to use my camera!

I have now really lived....

2009-03-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago, my sister in law was visiting from the land o' corn. A common parenting adventure came up, one that in our 2.5 years of parenting had not experienced. A veteran parent, She was shocked by this and said:

"Well, you haven't really lived then!"

Well, dear sister in law, I have now really lived. This delightful dual bathing experience was brought to an abrupt end when for the first time ever the Moo man pooped in the tub. Even better, or worse, I inadvertently caught it on camera. I'll spare you THAT photo.

Ummm, hello, he is potty trained now! We almost made it 3 years without really living as parents.

hot date and dung stationary

2009-03-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

Our friend R is a rock star and PAID for us to go on a date and watched our little anklebiters for FREE. I am pretty sure I get the better end of our friendship. We love you R! Thanks for being our kid's "local" aunt.

It's been eons since we went on a real get dressed up, wear uncomfortable shoes, eat fancy food date. Maybe it's never happened, but it certainly has happened since Moo was just a few weeks old we left him with M & J. And that was memorable, for them!

We are rusty at dating but had fun inspite of ourselves. We ate fancy food with the wrong silverware. No one grabbed food off my plate or threw a tantrum. Heaven. We didn't even talk about the kids, I don't think.

We topped the date off with a run to wags for formula and diapers. Back to reality.

When we got home, R gave us this very fun card made out of elephant poop.

elephant dung.

And it didn't even smell.

We were both greatly amused by the elephant on the pot in the card explanation.

Hot date indeed.

ten months

2009-03-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Ella Bella Boo turned 10 months yesterday, yikes... one is just around the bend! She is changing so much right now, it's very fun to watch. Just today I noticed she has cut FOUR new teeth bringing the grand total to NINE. Watch out kids she may not be fast but she has a nice set of chompers if she chooses to use them. Notice I said she may not be fast, but as of yesterday she is MOBILE! She is a butt scooter and backwards slider. We should have seen the butt scooting coming given her love of shakin' it. See the video post from earlier today. She is devouring any food we put in front of her. She particularly loves grabbing whole rolls and mulching them up.

One of the most "aww" things she has picked up is her new bff "bear-bear" who she squeals in delight when she sees and holds all night long. Hubs put her to bed without bear-bear the other night and oh she was heartbroken. She has been playing model this past month for a local mom's etsy shop. She is a great sport about it generally, although red hats make her cry. Again, see the video post to see how much she loves bear bear.

She is still huge, other babies her same age are much smaller. She is wearing 18m and 24m clothes. Ella Bella Chunka Monka indeed. She was 22lbs 9 oz and 29.5inch at her checkup last month, judging by the pile of clothes that don't fit... she has gotten longer since then.

Current raves:
-fresh peas and roasted carrots
-peeking under and over her bumper at moo across their room.
-being naked
-eating any fun thing off the floor
-music with a beat
-digging through boxes and baskets
-bath time, again naked
-trees in the wind
-talking baby talk with you

Current I'd rather not and ummmm nooooooooo:
-being buckled in her carseat
-having anything eaten off the floor being scraped out of her mouth
-not having our full attention
-waiting for her food to be made
-sharing with moo
-sippy cups, that would be a NO WAY
-standing, walking, crawling on all floors... she screams when you try.

she likes to shake it....

2009-03-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

xoxo

xoxo

Ella Bella likes to shake it, and apparently... likes to shake it sideways since I can't rotate the video. Oh well, it's my own fault for for taking a video like I do a photo!

big boy bed

2009-03-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

You might be thinking, what in the world does infant tylenol have to do with big boy beds....

Yesterday, at just a few weeks shy of 3, we converted Moo's crib to a big boy bed. He was so excited that he could now climb in and out of his bed with ease. Wonderful. He thought it was even cooler than his crib and was excited to try it out.

Fast forward to nap time a couple hours later. We don't make him nap, but he has to play quietly in his room or our room depending on where Ella Bella is napping. He played in his room quietly for an hour. I could here him climbing in and out of bed, but that was ok. I got him up and we went about playing. A few minutes later I went to go put a blanket back in Ella Bella's crib and noticed a tylenol bottle laying on the floor.

Crap.

I pick it up. Empty. Cap is loose.

Crap.

I take it to Moo and ask, "Did you eat this? Mommy will not be mad but I need to know."

No answer.

I screw the cap back on tightly and hand it to him. "Open this for Mommy."

Twist. Pop. Tada!

"Mom, it's empty! But I drank it!"

Fantastic. Moo seems perfectly fine. Quick call to the pediatrician, who refers me to poison control. A little quick calculating just o find out that an almost 3-year old weighing 30lbs can drink 1 fl oz. of infant tylenol and be.... fine. All I had to do was keep him upright and awake and call ems (daddy!) if he got a high fever or started vomiting uncontrollably. He acted completely normal, never had a single side effect.

And yes, all "fun" things have been removed from his room. At least his little escapade wasn't as messy as, say, the child who smeared her entire room and self in vaseline.

one

2009-03-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my sweetie little niece! Little E, I can't believe you are one already! I wish I got to see you more often than every few months, but I have enjoyed every (ok, almost every moment.. I have changed your diaper a time or 2) moment that I have gotten to spend with you. You are serious and determined, joyful and engaging. Happy First Birthday!

baby boy bites a better biter biscuit

2009-03-05T01:50:00.000-08:00