Fabric Designing, Potty Training and a Funeral

This week I created a custom fabric and entered it into a contest.  I'm excited to announce that I won; therefore, I'm getting 2 custom made diapers with my fabric. I'm soooo stoked!!!  My little man's bum will look so cute in his daddy's little helper hammer/wrench diapers.  :)

Other things this week...

We've been potty training Alayna and it's been going very well.  She's at the point where she's pee peeing on the potty on an average of 8-9 times per day with only 1-2 accidents.  She cries very hard when she has an accident and it's adorable.  I know that sounds horrible, but I find it very awesome that she cares so much about making it to the potty.  This girl is ready to be toilet trained!

Yesterday we traveled to Oklahoma City for Grandma Joye's memorial service.  It was nice to see family that we never get to see.  It just stinks that it takes death to get everyone together.  The service was nice and dinner at Ingrid's German Deli was AMAZING.

Tomorrow Colton gets dedicated at our church.  

Rest in Peace Grandma Joye

This morning, at 6am, we received a call. When your phone rings at an early hour like that, you know it's not good. Unfortunately, we knew this was a call that would be coming at any time.

Roberta Joye Thompson passed away. "Joye" is Brady's grandmother and the sweetest woman I've ever met. The mother of 8 children, she was strong... very strong. Married to the most wonderful man, Robert Thompson, who passed away a few years ago unexpectedly.

Joye was put on hospice care last month. Leukemia entered her body and after a long fight of breast cancer (which she overcame) and another disease, which I don't remember the name of at the moment. She had a long fight with her health and assured us that she had a full life. She was ready to meet Jesus and be reaquainted with her one true love. Although I'm happy she's in a better place and isn't in pain, it's still difficult.

I had a very delightful thought enter my mind about 45 minutes ago and I'm going to continue to remind myself of this when I get sad. I imagined Joye in heaven speaking to her husband, Bob. She says to him, "Bob, Brady and Shauna visited about 2 weeks ago and they have this perfect little baby boy. He never cried and was just a delight. Oh, and they named him after you!" Bob says, "This I know, dear. I sent him to them, as I did with their daughter. I would only pick out the best for them." Now that, makes my heart smile.

Our children, Alayna Joye and Colton Robert are named after these two outstanding people. I have never met any individuals as amazing as Bob and Joye and I'm so happy I was a part of their lives. Rest in peace.

Making Reusable Wipes

I'm VERY new to this, so you may be able to find some better recipes online.  I've just been using a modified version of the previous recipe I posted for disposable wipes.  You can make cloth wipes real easy, just take some flannel and sew up the sides (or buy pre sewn cloth wipes online via a cloth diaper website).  Fold or roll them and place them in a wipes warmer.  Those of you that have a wipes warmer just hanging around because you disliked it while using store bought wipes (dries them out), you will be able to use it rather than it just hanging out like a bulky paper weight.  You can probably even use some cheap children's washcloths for the wipes.  I'm going to try that next.  Soak the wipes in the warmer with your favorite wipes solution or use a spray bottle to spray them.  If you don't want to make your own, various cloth diaper sites offer pre-made wipes solution for purchase.  I use these wipes to sponge bathe my baby because they smell oh, so good!  I use them for diaper changes and also to wipe my older daughter's mouth after she eats.  She's pretty messy!  When you're finished, throw them in your laundry hamper to wash or in your wet laundry bag if you're cloth diapering.  This will make your dirties smell a whole lot better!

Making Disposable Baby Wipes

OK, so I thought I'd post information on how to make disposable wipes.  It really does save $$ and that's a big deal with the recent economy.  Honestly, it's super easy and they work TONS better than the store bought wipes.

I use the Johnson and Johnson's wash in Cucumber Melon (smells yummy) and I use Johnson and Johnson's baby oil with vitamin E and Aloe. Truthfully, your large container of baby wash will last a good 2 years, no kidding! I ran out and have started using the cheaper Walgreens version. You will need a 3 qt Rubbermaid Servin' saver container for the wipes.

Recipe:

1. 2 1/4 cups water (adjust the water according to what size of Bounty roll you use... Bounty BIG roll only use 2 1/4 and the Super Roll use 2 1/2).
   
2. 16 squirts of Johnson's baby wash
   
3. 3 tablespoons of baby oil
   
4. Dump ingredients into the rubbermaid container, put lid on and shake well to mix.
   
5. Then you take a PLAIN(no prints) Bounty BIG Roll(has to be the double or super roll) and cut in half DO NOT take out the center cardboard piece.
   
6. Put one half of the paper towel roll into the container with your mixture in it.. put lid back on.. flip container over and let the baby wash mixture soak all the way through the paper towels. 

Once paper towels are all wet.. flip right side up, take lid off and then pull out the center cardboard piece.  You will then pull the wipes from the middle. One paper towel roll makes two bigs things of wipes and they last a long time!  :)

Pure Bliss

I think the most therapeutic activity is rocking a baby to sleep, especially if it's your own.  If you're not a parent, it's hard to describe the feeling that you get when you love your child.  It's not a love you've ever experienced, it's almost more than love.  To rock your child and have him/her sleep in your arms is the most blissful feeling!  I think I enjoy cuddling with my children more than I enjoy anything else.  It's love at it's finest.  The picture I'm posting is of my son napping in my arms earlier today.  I look at it and see serenity within his expression.  I know he's at peace and in pure comfort and this makes me feel so wonderful.  I crave these moments, but what's really sad is that they don't last forever.  Babies grow up sooo so fast.

Alayna Tries Cloth

I noticed that we're getting pretty low on Alayna's disposable diaper stash and we really don't have a whole lot of money we can spend right now before next pay day, so hey... why not try cloth on Alayna, right? I also had the idea that she'd dislike the more bulky diapers and the wetness she'd feel, thus wanting to start going potty on the toilet again. She did real well and let me take my time to get the prefold and cover on just right (she's small enough to use her little brother's diapers which I bought big so he could use them longer, thankfully). She was so excited to have a purple (her favorite color) snappi holding together the prefold and she was also excited to have froggie "nee nees (panties)." Boy was I wrong for thinking she'd dislike them! She didn't even tell me when she peed b/c she didn't want to take them off.... yeah. When I told her we had to change them, she picked the jungle cover to use after the froggies. We tried to remove them for night night time so that we could put her in an overnight disposable. Oh no! She threw a hairy fit. She wanted to wear her jungles. So, we'll see if she leaks overnight or if the prefold will hold it all in. I'm kind of worried she'll wake up because I wasn't able to take it off to put a doubler inside to hold more fluid. I guess time will tell! Enjoy the pictures...

Our Recent Goals

Brady and I have been wanting to start saving, saving, saving lately. It's difficult with our economy right now and 2 kids, one being brand new. So, I will share some of the things we've been doing. If you want to ask questions, that's fine. I would love to mentor and show a positive example of saving! We've just started, so we don't have much to show, but I hope that in 6 months, we will be a great example for all.

Things we have done to save $$...

1) Eat out less. This means bringing food to work for lunches and dinners. No more quick runs to Jason's Deli or Agave for me. No burgers and fries for him. Not only does this save the pocket book, this will hopefully help us lose weight!

2) Buy smart. Sometimes the name brands are the exact same as the off brand. In fact, many name brand companies create their own off brand, so esentially it IS the same! We've been saving a LOT buy purchasing off brand. Yeah, sometimes you get some things that aren't to your taste, but then you just make note of it in your brain bank and don't get it again. We've been pleseantly surprised that most of it tastes great! We've even been purchasing the off brand laundry detergent and fabric softner, bleach, etc. None of us have become rashy either, lol. If you want to buy non-grocery items at a discount, check out Craigslist or resale stores.

3) Cloth diapering. Now, Alayna will be out of diapers soon, so we haven't invested in cloth for her, but our little man is fully cloth diapered. After research and some dear friends using cloth, I quickly got over the "ick factor." I realized that cloth diapering is soooo so so much different than I ever imagined! It's not like it was back in the 70s (or before) where you had to fold flat diapers and dunk them. Now they're made just like regular diapers and you just toss them in the wash without touching them. The laundry bag even gets washed along with the diapers! It's amazing. I will post more about different cloth techniques. If you're not interested, feel free to just skip over those blog entries.

4) Homemade disposable and cloth wipes. I've made homemade disposable wipes ever since Alayna was a little babe. These are FANTASTIC! They work WAY better than store wipes and smell better too. My husband definitely prefers them. They're super easy to make too and they last a loooooooong time. I will post the recipe in a later entry. I also just started making cloth wipes. I keep them stored in a wipes warmer and after I use them, I throw them into the diaper laundry. This saves even more $$.

Other than saving $$, Brady and I have both been wanting to lose weight. Now, this is a bit more difficult for me because I'm nursing and I have to make sure I have the correct caloric intake to maintain my milk production. I haven't quite mastered it yet, but I'm trying! If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you MUST download the Lose It application. It's free and it's AMAZING. This has helped me tremendously! Other than eating out less and eating a bit healthier, we've been trying to stay faithful with our Wii Fit Plus. Not easy and we still slack, but like I said.... we're trying. That's what really matters.

So 2010, we're going to kick your hiney and save, save, save and lose, lose, lose!

First Blog

Welcome to our family blog. I've decided to do this for friends and family to be able to keep up with the details of our lives. Everyone is always so busy and with my weird work schedule, we don't get to see friends and family on a regular basis. So, welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy the reading. :)