freshly picked moccasin review

Ever since my kids were born, I've been a fan of Freshly Picked. I remember I started following them on instagram, and would get excited when Susan would post a picture of someone famous with their kids wearing FP moccs. A female entrepreneur who built herself up starting with some scrap leather she bought at a yardsale? Yes, I can get behind a lady like that! Then when I saw she was appearing on one of our favorite shows, Shark Tank, I just knew this would be her tipping point. She signed a deal with Daymond, and watching from my living room I felt so happy for her. Is that creepy? Haha, whatever... Since then she has expanded her line to include carryalls, clothing, and even crib-sized moccasins (adorable!!).

cutest packaging ever!

My kids had a BLAST with the emoji stickers that came in the package. They were a huge hit. At one point Henry and George both teamed up against me and covered my back with emojis. I have to admire their teamwork ;)

Because I wanted a pair of moccs that would match almost anything George wears, I got a pair of Swimmin' With The Sharks in a size 4. They fit George perfectly and have a little bit of room to spare in the toe region. The elastic design at the opening makes it simple to put on his feet but also stay put, all while not cutting off the circulation to his fat little feet ;). 

The leather is both soft and durable, and George has even walked around comfortably in the desert of Arizona in them. No stickers or "pokies" even made a dent or scratch on the sole!

Overall I've been very pleased and impressed by this pair of moccs! I will say I've owned a suede pair of FP moccs as well and while they are still very durable, the material developed a scratchy look rather quickly, and the original pattern is hardly visible. If you are considering buying a suede pair, I'd just save them to be used as a dressier pair of shoes (if you want them to stay in their original condition).  These leather ones have been used for some serious playing, and I'm happy to report they still look pretty close to perfect! 

I know for a fact that you will all be seeing a lot more of George in these fabulous shoes. Also, almost everything in her shop today is 20% off for Cyber Monday! Go check it out! Also, keep your eyes peeled on my Instagram account, because I will be hosting a giveaway for one lucky person to win moccs of their choosing!! Happy shopping friends, and I hope to see you tomorrow on IG :)

George's well visits: 2, 4, and 6 months!

Obviously since I have been terrible at blogging, I've missed putting all of George's stats up on the blog. So here we are: the results of his well visits from 2, 4, and 6 months old!!

8 week appointment: 
Weight: 13lbs 11oz (94%). Height: 24.25" (93%). Head circumference: 16.25" (86%).
Finally out of the newborn sleep-all-the-time stage and just getting out of a two week hardly-sleep-ever stage. A champion eater and growing fatty.  Unlike Henry, hardly spits up, and generally super chill.
 

i know this picture isn't that flattering, but i still love it because FATNESS!!

4 month appointment:
Weight: 16lbs (73%). Height: 27" (97%). Head circumference: 17.25 (87%). 
Still a champ eater. Co-slept with us which was cute to wake up to but annoying the rest of the time ;).  SUCH a happy, smiley, chill baby.

pinchable! #amiright

6 month appointment:
Weight: 18.05 lbs (65%). Height: 28.5" (97%). Head circumference: 17.75 (84%).
Still loves to nurse, but refuses to eat baby food. Also will not sleep unless attached to me (holding or nursing). I asked the doctor about starting cry-it-out because I was nearing my wits end (he agreed it was a good idea). I brought up the fact that he hated baby food, and the Dr recommended to stop trying baby food for a few weeks and starting it again (I'll post more about that later).

sitting up on his own and everything. such a stud.

George has such a delightful, chill, happy personality. He is seriously such a joy to be around, and can always be counted on for a huge smile. He loves music and playing games like patty cake. He loves being in the Ergo and will almost always fall asleep in it [in a matter of minutes]. Henry and George love each other and are so sweet with each other, and my favorite thing is when they do something silly that makes them both crack up. I love my sweet boys!! 

Flashback: George's baby blessing

On November 3rd, George got blessed at church. It was not only a special occasion because of his blessing, but also because our friends and family came to visit. My parents drove up from Arizona, Josh's parents and sisters family drove down from up north, and our BFFs Jeff and Darci also drove down. It was a party! On Sunday our friends Ryan and Natalie also came to the blessing. The weekend was definitely a whirlwind, but we all had such a great time. There's not much better than being surrounded by your favorite people ♥

snuggling with Grandma

My mom made George's blessing outfit, and it had that cute vintage feel that I love. He was a major stud :)

always a happy camper

family picture! complete with Henry's shiner

with Mimi and Bear

with Grandma and Grandpa

the funniest face ever

We had a wonderful day and a fun-filled weekend. We're so grateful for all the sweet people in our lives who give so much love to our boys.  Thank you to our friends and family for being a part of our special day :) To our friends who couldn't make it because we now live super far away (sorry), we missed you! ♥

flashback: October fun

October was a fun month around here. George turned one month old. He was still in the newborn stage (sleep, eat, poop, repeat) until he was about 7 weeks old. He was such a fatty that I didn't have to worry about waking him up in the middle of the night to feed him. He would often sleep for 6 hour stretches overnight, which was awesome!! His 7th and 8th week were not quite as lovely, as he started to "wake up" and break away from the newborn stage. He got a bit more grumpy, especially at night before bedtime, and his naps were pretty short. Thankfully this grumpy stage only lasted about 2-3 weeks, and then he turned back into a sweet little angel (although naps didn't really get much longer...but at least he's such a happy baby that it makes it easy to handle).

The weather stayed pretty nice for October, and we would often take trips to the park on the weekends. George would get bundled in the Ergo, and we'd go chase Henry around the playground. Our favorite is Discovery Park, and here are some pictures from one of our many visits there:

cutie in action

this little bridge is his favorite--he runs back and forth over and over

heading to the toddler section of the park

boo!

king of the slide!

scary selfieeee ahhhhhh!! ;)

In October we went to church for the first time with George. We stayed away for a few weeks to avoid germs of course. He was about 6 weeks old, and I got him dressed up in an adorable outfit (lent to us from Darci, thanks girl!). He was so chunky that it was almost too small already, even though it was a 0-3 mo outfit.

looking dapper

Since George was born, I have LOVED seeing how Henry interacts with him. He is so sweet, and such a loving big brother. He gives him love and hugs alllllll the time. If he hears George crying (ex when he wakes up from a nap), he'll say "Oh nooo! Baby!" and then go with me to make sure he's ok. Sometimes at bedtime I'll put George in Henry's bed. Henry thinks it is the funniest/awesome-est thing ever. It really is adorable.

babies in bed

And how does George feel about all the attention? He loves it. He is constantly entertained by his brother, and never complains about the often occasional smothering love. ♥

George's Birth

Disclaimer: I'm being pretty thorough in this birthing story, so I remember everything. And I use words like dilated and stripped membranes. If that grosses you out, please don't continue reading :)


On Monday, September 9th, I was 41 weeks pregnant, and exhausted. I woke up feeling defeated, and like I just couldn't hold out anymore. I had my appointment with my midwife (Laurie) at 8am. Thankfully my mom was in town so she watched Henry while I went to my appointment. When my midwife checked me, she told me I was still a 3+ and 80/90% (I had been dilated/effaced for a month by this point). I started crying. She asked what I wanted to do, and she was very sensitive to my plan to have an unmedicated birth. I told her I still wanted to wait (vs getting induced), just to better my odds of having the natural birth that I wanted. She said ok, and scheduled an induction for Thursday. We agreed if he hadn't come by then, we'd just go ahead with the induction.

I pulled myself together and headed down to Labor & Delivery to get my stress test and ultrasound (since I was past my due date). For some reason I thought it would take about 20 minutes. Wrong...it lasted for over an hour in total. They had me hooked up to the monitors and I almost fell asleep in the hospital bed. Then they did the ultrasound to check to make sure there was enough fluid in there. After the ultrasound the nurse went to discuss the results with my midwife. Cue more waiting... When the nurse finally came back (I really was almost completely asleep at this point), she went over everything with me. There were variables in George's heart rate...the way they described it to me was that they knew everything was fine in the moment, but the presence of the variables could mean that something could go wrong. So my midwife recommended that we induce the same day, while we knew he was doing ok--and said there wasn't any reason to wait and we wouldn't want anything negative to happen before Thursday. I agreed and then it hit me that I was going to have a baby. Ahhhh! The phone calls and planning stages commenced.

I ran home before we started anything because I had Henry's carseat. I also grabbed my hospital bag, and stuffed my face with all the Italian bread we had left over from the previous nights dinner. I knew from experience I didn't want to be hungry going into labor, and that those meanies don't give you any food (although I really should have eaten even more than I did!!). Josh was figuring out his truck/work situation so he could leave, and my friend Natalie said she could take Henry (thank you, dear lifesaver!). I headed back to the hospital by myself, and once Henry had been picked up my mom and Josh would come join me.

First I went to my midwifes office (located in the hospital), and it was around 11AM. Laurie stripped my membranes. That was a little glimpse of how uncomfortable this whole natural birthing thing might be ;) After she did this, I had progressed to a 4+. Laurie felt great about the progress, and said that I was going into labor on my own. She said it would be an "augmented labor" vs "induced labor", which made me feel a bit more confident. She sent me down to Labor and Delivery to get all set up, with the instructions that she'd check on me a bit later. I got set up in my room and Josh and my mom joined me shortly. Then it was the waiting game. I had contractions (about 10 minutes apart), but nothing super crazy. They hooked my IV (I had Strep B so I was on antibiotics) on a rolling thingy so I could walk laps around the wing. It was a small wing, so all the nurses became pretty familiar with my beautiful face ;) I was lucky to have an amazing nurse, we'll call her K. She was funny, down to earth, supportive, and all around awesome. Which helped a lot.

off for a stroll!

After waiting around for things to happen for a couple hours, Laurie came in to check on me around 1PM. I was still a 4+ and my contractions hadn't picked up that much, so she decided to strip my membranes again and break my water. That was lovely....more discomfort, but nothing too terrible. After that I was a 5, and contractions started picking up a bit. I was using my hypnobirthing breathing, and everything was going pretty well. The contractions were uncomfortable, but manageable. Around 3PM or so (I think, but wasn't really keeping track), they checked me again and I was a 6. At 4PM they checked again and I was a 6+. I decided I wanted to try and hang out in the tub for a bit (all the labor rooms had jetted tubs in the bathroom). By 4:20 they had decided to start me on 1 milli-unit of Pitocin. Allegedly that dose is almost nothing, but they thought it might be enough to tell my body to get a move on. And let's just say my body got the message. Right after that the contractions were closer together, and getting stronger with every one. Being in the jetted tub was kind of helpful, at least in the fact that it was a tiny bit distracting. And sometimes the jets helped with the pain. Because at this point, the "discomfort" had elevated to pain. I was trying my hardest to focus on my breathing during every contraction, and occasionally remembered to tell myself I'm strong like a tiger and I can handle it.

My nurse, K, checked me one time in the tub and I was still a 6+, but she thought I was going up to an 8 during contractions. The baby would just need to move down a bit more for it to stay an 8. Right around 5PM she asked if I wanted to be checked again. Contractions were pretty intense by this point and I just shook my head and she said she'd wait for a little bit. One more contraction happened, and it was the worst yet. I kind of started hyperventilating and K talked me through it and told me to go to my happy place. In my head I was going "I'm a tiger! I was made for this! I'm a tiger!" hahaha (whatever works, right?). The next contraction came almost immediately afterwards and all of a sudden I felt the baby coming out. This is when I temporarily LOST. MY. MIND. It's a little hazy but I remember yelling and saying the baby was coming out. K was like "right now?!" and I was yelling "YES! HE'S COMING! AHHHH!!!"

Now...I was still in the tub at this point. And at this hospital it's against regulations to have water births (and to be honest, I didn't want to have one either). So that was a bit of a problem. K was telling me not to push, and was frantically trying to pull the drain while simultaneously trying to get help. I kept yelling...I just kept saying that the baby was coming, I was pushing and couldn't help it, and I couldn't get out of the tub. K sent Josh to the nurses station to get help, and soon there were two nurses telling me I needed to get out of the tub. All the while I kept yelling I couldn't get out. The nurses ended up pulling/helping me out of the tub, and somehow making it to the hospital bed. I have no idea how they did it, because I legitimately thought I would be giving birth in that tub.

In the midst of all this chaos, Laurie came running in, and asked me if I wanted to birth standing up or laying on the bed. I said (ok...I may have yelled it...oops) on the bed because there was no way I could stand up. So that was that. I was on the bed on my back, and the baby was on his way out. Laurie knew I wanted to "breath the baby down" (vs holding your breath and pushing), so she coached me along and let me do my thing. Which was a mixture of yelling and breathing. Haha. I definitely failed the hypnobirthing method in terms of how much noise I was making--in hypnobirthing they tell you that you don't need to make noise, you just need to relax and focus on your breathing, etc. I honestly tried to be quiet, and it was not happening. I even apologized a few times (in between contractions) for yelling, and finally Laurie said "If you apologize one more time I'm going to be mad at you!!!" I also still had my wet tank top and bra on from being in the tub, so while all this was going on, people were also trying to help me take them off so I wouldn't be all wet when George came out (to do skin-to-skin). This might be TMI (what about birth isn't, really? haha), but I remember Laurie telling Josh to take my bra off, because he should be able to do it easily. He was at a weird angle though and one of the clasps was giving him trouble, and it was pretty funny. I think I might have even laughed mid-contraction.

I don't think I did so great at the breathing him down technique, although Laurie and the nurses said I did. I say this because there was no way I could prevent my body from pushing. After a little bit, Laurie told me they could see his head, and to keep going. Around this time George's heart rate started to drop. Laurie calmly told me that I needed to get this baby out, because the cord was around his neck and he could be in trouble if we took too long. She said I had a minute or two if I wanted to keep doing what I was doing (breathing/yelling/sort of pushing?), but that I should just try and push my hardest so he could get out. I agreed. Someone (Laurie? K?) told me it would hurt worse than anything I've ever felt before, but to keep going and pushing harder where I felt the pain. The next contraction came and I pushed as hard as I could. They told me to look down and see my baby, to help me push harder. All I could see over my belly was a little tuft of hair and I exclaimed "he has hair!! I see it!" They laughed and said "Yes, good, now push him out!!! Push harder than you ever have, this will be the last time you need to push--just get him out!" So I pushed like a crazy person and yelled "Come on George!" and FINALLY his head came out and they unwrapped the cord from around his neck. I said "OH MY GOSH THAT FEELS SO MUCH BETTER!" because seriously, it did. I barely even felt the shoulders, the rest was easy as pie and he came right on out. I remember saying "I did it...I had a baby...!"  I had a moment where I just felt so immensely proud of myself for being able to do it [unmedicated], and was kind of in awe. George was born at 5:32PM!!! And it was amazing :)

After making sure George was alright, they put him on my chest to do skin-to-skin. I love that moment when they first put the baby on you. It just feels so magical. Then they did all the after stuff... the placenta came out easily and they pushed my abdomen and all that [not very] fun stuff. Because they knew that I hemorrhaged after Henry's delivery, they were very attentive to that and stayed on top of the bleeding.

I feel kind of obligated to say something about the pain of childbirth... Because in hypnobirthing they say you don't feel pain. You feel "pressure" and "discomfort", or some bologna like that. There was pain. To be completely honest (and graphic, sorry) it felt like everything in that region was covered in hemorrhoids, and they all exploded. That's my personal experience, but I got through it and it was totally fine. It didn't hurt like that the entire time, just when I was trying to push his head out. In hindsight I am glad I took the hypnobirthing class, because I do think it helped me to handle the contractions better.

we did it!!! and he looks just like Henry!

George and Grammy

I held him for about an hour and then they did all the stats, etc

look at all that hair!!

George Douglas was born at 5:32PM, weighed 8lbs 5oz, and was 20 inches long. He was born with lots of brown hair, and looked like Henry's twin (with darker/more hair). Josh and my mom were there the whole time, and were a wonderful support system. I am so happy they were both able to be there. ♥ Welcome to the world, George!!


Sorry that story was such a novel, but I wanted to write it all down so I can remember it. Plus I know some people are really interested in birth stories, so there you have it ;) I'll write about the rest of our stay in the hospital in another post.

due date shmue date

Yesterday was my due date, and George still hasn't shown his face to the world. I think that maybe he's waiting for all the Royal Baby hoopla to die down (since he stole his name, after all!).

40 weeks pregnant. silly pic with a silly kid :)

I just went to my midwife this morning, and I keep progressing slowly but surely. She asked if I wanted to be induced and I said no for now. If I make it to my next appointment on Monday then we'll do a stress test and ultrasound. But so far everything with George still seems to be going well.

I've gained five pounds in the past week, so now my total weight gain is 38 pounds. Just two more pounds and I'll be tied with my pregnancy-weight gain with Henry. I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for about three weeks now. I never had that with Henry, I only started feeling mini contractions with him the day I went into labor. It's amazing how different each baby can be. I had it set in my mind that it would be so similar to Henry's birth, but the joke is on me so far. I thought George would be born three weeks ago!!

There really hasn't been a whole lot of other exciting news around here, we're all just waiting for George's arrival :) I will, however, be posting the winner of the Diamond Candle giveaway soon, so stay tuned!

pregnancy update: 36 weeks

Hello...is anyone still out there? Blogging slacker big time over here. Blogging when Henry is awake is impossible though since he thinks the only purpose of the computer being open is to watch Elmo, which means I'd have to blog during his naps or at night. Usually I nap when Henry naps, so that's out. And by night time I'm sort of lazy haha. Anyways, I have some time tonight and figured I'd fill you in on pregnancy so far.

36 weeks. Photobombed by the baby daddy.

I am 36 weeks pregnant now. It's gone by pretty fast, which is kind of nice. Since Henry was so early, we all have it in our heads that George will be early. But you never really know, so I'm trying to accept the fact that it could be longer. I still need to pull out all the baby clothes and everything to be ready for him, so I shouldn't try and rush anyways (who wants to come help?!).

Last week at my doctors appointment everything looked good. I'm going back this next Monday. I've gained 27 pounds this pregnancy. Which isn't a ton considering I gained about 40 pounds last time. Maybe all that exercise from chasing Henry around is contributing ;) I've been trying to go on walks, and last week we pulled out the exercise ball for me to sit on. Henry finds it very entertaining since it's a giant ball, so it's both a chair and a toy at the moment :)

I still haven't gotten any stretch marks (knock on wood!) (don't hate me!), which I contribute to my favorite pregnancy product OF ALL TIME: Earth Mama Angel Baby Natural Stretch Oil. You can find it HERE on Amazon. I used it when I was pregnant with Henry too, and never got a stretch mark. It's magical. It is an oil so it will stain fabric, but if you just wear something you don't care about to bed after you put it on, it's no big deal. It's all natural and it's amazing.

I also can't remember if I've talked about this before, but we took a hypnobirthing class that was offered at the hospital here. It was.......interesting.... to say the least. I like a lot of the general concepts, and I think the relaxation techniques will help me in labor. And I just tried to block out any weird stuff they said that I don't really agree with. Like that babies remember their birth, and it affects the way they turn out later in life. Umm...that's fine if you believe that, but I personally don't. At least not the way they were describing it. And in all the birth videos, the women looked like complete zombies the entire time. I don't want to be a zombie...except just during contractions? I don't know.. Anyways, there were some weird things like that, but overall I am glad I took the class and I do think it will be helpful. I'll update you afterwards ;)

baby bump update: 19 weeks

I haven't talked too much about my pregnancy yet on my blog. Probably because I've been so busy with work lately, and we had so many people visiting I had to blog about those first :) Yesterday marked 19 weeks pregnant. I got an ultrasound on Friday, and got to see little George--my midwife's office even called me yesterday to say they looked over all the ultrasound pictures and everything looked good. 

19 weeks. Pretty sure my pants are unbuttoned in this pic. I need Josh to find my maternity clothes soon.

So that's a big difference with my last pregnancy: this time I'm seeing a midwife. I went and saw an obgyn here in Cedar (w/decent google reviews), but didn't really get awesome vibes from him. Not knowing who else to go to in a new city, I decided to do a google search for midwives. I found an amazing one whose office is in the hospital, and she also delivers in the hospital. Once I found out she delivered in the hospital (I don't want to do any home birthing, that frightens me!), I was sold. On my first visit with her she chewed me out about my eating habits. I was feeling so sick that it was hard for me to eat, and I was popping Zofran twice a day. She talked to me about improving my diet and increasing my food intake, and explained how that could actually help my nausea. While she was very blunt/direct, it's what I needed to get my butt in gear. And since then, while I'm still somewhat nauseous, I've only had to take a Zofran once or twice in the past 2 weeks, and only threw up once. Gigantic improvement! While my morning sickness hasn't been as bad as with Henry (thank goodness!), I still was throwing up usually once a day.

"hello, mommy and daddy!"

sorry if 3d freaks you out, but here he is all smushed in there :)

Oh, I'm also planning on delivering without medication...... Ahh! While it makes me super anxious, I think it will be a better experience than my epidural experience with Henry. I'm going to take a hypnobirthing class starting in June. So wish me luck and send good thoughts my way when that time comes ;)

All in all, so far so good. While I've gone through specific food-obsessed phases, I haven't had any bizarre cravings. At my last appointment I had only gained 4 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm sure it's increased since I've been forcing myself to eat more/better. I've already started having to get up in the middle of the night to pee, and have to pee a lot more often than when I was pregnant with Henry. It's funny/weird how even pregnancy can be different. We'll have to wait and see how different the actual children are from each other! We are so looking forward to getting to meet this sweet baby in person, and we're just about half way there. Thanks again for everyone's kindness :)

Henry has something to tell you...

Henry is going to be a big brother, to a little boy we're naming George, due September 2nd!

Yes, we have defied science for a second time. And we are absolutely thrilled, of course! We are so excited to have two little boys running loose around here :) They must have been absolutely determined to make it in our family, because there really isn't any other explanation. Thank you to everyone who has been so sweet and supportive to us, we really appreciate it!

5 things i've learned in the first year of motherhood

The other night I could NOT go to sleep. And somehow in my insomniac brain I started to think of how I've been a mom for over a whole year now, and what I've learned in the process.

1. Baby sleep is one of the biggest mysteries ever in the entire history of the Earth. Why else would there be five million different "methods" just on how to put your baby down to sleep?! Everyone has an opinion and a method to their own madness, and really it all boils down to figuring out whatever hybrid method finally works for you. Thankfully I found the website Troublesome Tots, which has helped guide us through multiple sleep dilemmas.

2. Even though I always promised myself I wouldn't become one of "those" moms whose facebook gets overrun by baby-dom.....it totally happened. Like, immediately. Oops? I guess what I've learned about this is you just need to accept your own craziness, and embrace it. Obviously I am obsessed with my son. And I own it now. I figure that if people don't like it, they can block my baby-obsessed feeds from infiltrating their facebook newsfeed. :)

3. It's a little more complicated to go out than it used to be. We've only seen a handful of movies since Henry's been born. We used to go almost every single weekend. At least going out to eat isn't that different, you just need to bring a packed diaper bag and roll with the punches. I already always carry huge purses, and now I also carry around a huge diaper bag. I look like I'm going on vacation every time I go out ;)

4. People give lots of advice. Mostly unsolicited advice. Even from complete strangers. It's interesting... haha. You just have to learn to be polite, and be open to learning new things. Some people do super cuckoo things with their kids, but you might find that something crazy works for you and your kid too. Having a kid makes you a lot more polite to other people, in this aspect, because it's like an ongoing test to politely/graciously accept all the advice that will be coming your way.

5. I never knew how amazing being a mother would be. I figured it would be pretty cool, but really hard, and I was worried I wouldn't know how to handle it all. I've learned that I am a lot more capable as a mom than I ever thought, and I'm pretty proud of that. Ultimately, I am amazed how much I can love a tiny little person. I seriously love his guts!! He's adorable, hilarious, sweet, stubborn, and perfect. I love that he calls for me when I'm not around, and that when he sees me (in the morning when I get him up, when I walk back into a room that he's in, when I come back from running an errand, etc) his face lights up. And all the little hugs and sweet attention that comes from him. Thats love, yo. ♥

I am in love with being a mom. I truly hope that all my friends are able to experience this amazing journey. And in my opinion, it's even that much sweeter if you had to struggle to get here. Even when I'm being driven crazy and want to scream obscenities, I still love the crap out of that little munchkin. And after a few deep breaths, a sneak of chocolate (for me, not him), and a little bit of Elmo time, everything is better once again. I can't imagine my life without Henry, and I am so grateful to be his mother. ♥

Merry Christmas

Want to see a bunch of blurry ipod pictures of Christmas? You do?! Great, here we go:

Henry was SPOILED!!!

Grover "remote control" from Mok and Pok. He loves it.

Toy explosion...

Playing w/his wooden ABC blocks from Mok and Pok.

Lots of fun toys from his cousins (and handmade wooden car from my parents!)

Henry thinks this personal massager is pretty awesome.

Musical toy from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Sarah.

His face when I opened the wooden blocks for him. I wish it wasn't so blurry, he was SO excited!

Cute Christmas face :)

Also, one of my presents was Sensationail! It's an at-home gel nail polish kit that comes with an LED lamp. After researching a lot of at-home kits, I decided this is the one I want. And Joshy is so nice, he got it for me! He also got me a Kindle (yay!). Anyway, I opened this kit on Christmas Eve and did my nails immediately, and they came out SO NICE!!! This manicure is supposed to last about two weeks, and I'm not obsessed with the color, so I'm sure I'll be redoing them soon enough haha. Up next I want to try using regular nail polish between the gel layers, and see how it lasts.

two days later and they look exactly the same

Anyways, I know this post is all about gifts (mostly Henry's), but we really have loved all the quality family time that we've been enjoying. Luckily we have two weeks off of work, and it has been amazing so far. I LOVE VACATION!!!! How has your holiday season been so far?

PS: If you want to see adorable pictures of Henry with Santa, click here!

I have a one year old...

Mind blown! Right? See the blog post HERE. Happy birthday buddy!!! We love you :)

cloth diapers: why i do it

I've pretty much always known that I was going to use cloth diapers whenever I had a baby. And thankfully my sister-in-law has used them for 3 kids, so she knows the ropes and helped me along. We ended up using BumGenius 4.0 w/snaps. Maybe I'll do another blog post sometime just about using the diapers themselves, but for now I want to talk more about why I wanted to go cloth. [Disclaimer: I realize this is a personal choice, and I don't judge other people for using disposables (cross my heart). But I may try and convert you to cloth, because I think it's awesome ;)]

Henry has one in this pattern. So cute!

There are four "C's" of cloth diapering, and each one of them is a major factor in my decision to go cloth:

1. Conservation: Every baby that wears disposable diapers goes through one TON of diapers in their first couple years. That is two thousand pounds! That's like 200 Heidi Klum's. Whoa. Every year about 27 billion diapers are thrown in landfills (just in the US). The sad thing is that I can go on and on with crazy figures and facts and statistics, etc, but I don't want to bore you (if you're interested, do a simple google search, or email me). Basically, the raw materials, energy, and waste from disposable diapers is astronomical compared to cloth diapers. Also, an important concept of conservation is to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Cloth diapers essentially fit into all three of those categories. You can buy 16(+) cloth diapers and be set for the rest of your children for the rest of your life. If you follow the care instructions and purchase durable cloth diapers, you can even resell your diapers once all your kids are potty-trained. Awesome, I know. ALSO, lots of people like to argue that the water you use to wash the diapers cancels out any environmental benefits/advances over disposables...false. Disposable diapers use 8 times the non-renewable resources, and 90 times the renewable resources than cloth do in production. They also get dumped into landfills, where they will take at least 450 years to decompose. Using water to wash the diapers is a renewable resource, in the sense that the water can go back through a filtration cycle and into municipal use. It does take energy to wash them in your washing machine, but if you use an HE washer, the impacts are minimal when compared to the energy (not to mention crude oil) that goes into the production of a disposable diaper. Also, you can line dry all your diapers (it's actually recommended to do so), which takes no energy (except for your arms to hang them up).

2. Cost: Depending on how long your baby is in diapers, your cost for disposable diapers can be anywhere from $1900 to $2400 or more (I'm not pulling these figures out of a hat, I've looked it up, yo!). Those are average prices for the range of 2 to 2.5 years in disposables. On a personal note, we've bought 25 diapers (I think), and each one was about $14.50 (I have bought most of them when BumGenius has their buy 5 get 1 free sale). That's a grand total of $362.50, and I don't ever have to buy another diaper in my life if I don't want to (I cave in though when I see new cute/fun patterns and colors and want to buy more!). You could even be fine with just having 16-18 diapers; it just depends on how often you want to do laundry, and how much you want to invest up front. We initially bought 18, and I've just added a few here and there since then ;). So yes, there is more of an upfront investment compared to disposables... But it will pay itself off in about 5 months or less. As much as I love going green, I equally love saving green.

3. Comfort: Umm guess what...disposable diapers are basically just plastic with some paper in there too. Oh, and chemicals. If plastic/paper underwear were more comfortable, we'd all be wearing them. But we don't. Disposable diapers contain gross stuff like Sodium Polacrylate (not to get graphic but this chemical used to be in tampons, until it was banned in their production in the 80s because it was linked to TSS!), and Dioxin. With cloth diapers, it's nice, soft, breathable cotton touching your baby's butt. Which also happens to decrease diaper rash (score!), and helps in potty-training your kids faster (they can actually feel the wetness because gel isn't soaking it all up).

4. Convenience: There's a saying that goes "These aren't your parents' cloth diapers anymore!" because really...they aren't. These aren't clunky fabric squares that you [somehow] fold up and pin on your baby. They're extremely easy to use, and very similar in design to disposables. Once you get the hang of it, it's really quite simple. We use the kind with snaps which are super durable, and harder for your babies to pull off once they realize that that's possible. With diaper inserts, you can even add extra inserts for better overnight coverage. I know a common complaint about cloth diapers is poop. Especially the matter of *touching poop*. I have two comments on this: 1) if you are a parent and have never touched poop or somehow gotten it on you, that's a miracle; and 2) you don't necessarily have to directly touch any poop to clean cloth diapers (if you want to though, that's your prerogative). Oh wait, three comments: technically poop is not supposed to be thrown away and end up in landfills. Even on diaper packaging it will say you need to flush solid waste down the toilet [Sadly, most people do not do this, but that's a whole different story]. You can either swish the diapers in the toilet (by holding the clean corners--I'm not talking about dunking your hand in the toilet!) or spray off the poop (you can buy attachments for your toilet around $40-$50). And then when the babies get older and the poop gets more solid--you literally just dump it into the toilet. Bada-bing-bada-boom!

Oh, and there's another unofficial "C" of cloth diapering: CUTE!!

fluffy butt!

memorial day

for memorial day we went to josh's parents' house for a barbeque. my camera died after taking one picture, and then i forgot to keep taking pictures with my ipod...woops. i have a few pictures from the day though. mostly of the babies :)

stealing toys from eachother. fight! fight! fight!

the food was delish. this wasn't even all of it.

"party's herrrrrre!"

"back off my exersaucer, fool!"

it was a fun day, and we were very grateful for the break from work. we also love our family, so it was just a win win win!! for more updates about henry, visit his blog here. happy weekend!