What an Angel!

Immy was chosen to be a beautiful angel in her school play, and guess who was chosen to make the costume. Yeah, me. I started working on it two days before she needed to wear it. Yikes, bad momma! But it all came together, and she looked so cute!

It was the standard pillowcase dress with a little slip underneath. Some white cording for the belt and gold for the halo. Her wings were batting, foam board, paint, and lots of hot glue. Nothing fancy, but she was definitely the cutest kid on the stage, at least that's my opinion.

I have some pictures of the play, but they are sadly too small to make out who is who, so here are the pics from afterward when we picked her up from the classroom.

Cloth Diapers?

What? You didn't know I had ventured in to the world of cloth diapers? Well, I guess that's new too. I have been checking in to them for several months now, but I was just waiting for the right time to make the change. More specifically, I was waiting for a deal. The cloth diapers that are available now are really wonderful, pretty easy to use, and cheaper than disposables, but they are a bit of an up-front investment, and I was nervous about spending the money just in case we really didn't like them. Anyway, the "right time" was a few weeks ago when I found 13 Bum Genius one-size diapers and inserts for $60!! I bargained down to $50 and got a diaper pail thrown into the deal too, awesome! This was a huge blessing, but the down side to buying used is that the Velcro tabs are a bit worn out, and with Lulu being on the top end of the weight limit the diapers will come undone and fall off if she is not wearing pants over them. Yeah, kind of a problem. But, now that I know cloth is working for us I am planning on investing in a new set in a bigger size for Lulu (and the older kids night-time needs too) then I can pass these diapers on to the new baby. I'm not sure if I will have the same trouble on a smaller baby, but I may try to change out the Velcro if it's still a problem. I don't want to do that unless I really need to because sewing through all that Velcro would be a little rough on my machine.
Now for the big question: Why make the switch? Well, if you are really interested, I had three reasons. First, was money. We spend about $20 a week on the diapers and night-time Pullups, and even with laundering costs the cloth is less per month than disposable.
Second, is my issue with throwing away so many diapers. We use about 50 diapers a week and these diapers take an estimated 500 years to decompose. That's a lot of diapers sitting around for a long time, and I'm not really crazy about the idea of preserving my kids poo for their great, great, great, great grand-kids.
Lastly, I like natural things. I obsess over giving my family healthy food, use NFP, nursed each baby, and do lots of other crunchy Granola type things, so cloth diapering is really not a huge leap for me, but the push came when I learned that (used) disposable diapers won't burn. Well, at least not in a burn barrel. Kind of made me wonder if I really wanted to strap something to my kids tush that was so un-natural that it wouldn't even burn after two weeks at the bottom of the burn barrel. Anyway, we made the switch and it's going well. I don't think we will switch back except maybe for trips and stuff, but the diaper sprayer is definitely on the must-have list!

Updates

Well, my computer is telling me it's going to die in thirty minutes so I have at least fifteen to scratch out a quick update for all of you.

First off, we are pregnant; Yay! Yes, it is number 4. Yes, it was planned. Yes, we are excited, though my excitement did wane a little when the morning sickness set in. (No worries, I'm sure is will be back full force when the baby starts to kick. I love that part!) The little one is due July 20th, or there abouts. I'm crossing my fingers that it comes early and hopefully around 8 lb, or 7lb even, I would take that. No more 9.9-ers! Jeesh! ( just kidding, we love you Lulu! You were totally worth it.)

Our Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful, we spent several days at my parents house and was able to enjoy the whole family since my sister was on break from the religious order she joined in August. Thanksgiving day was great too, the food was amazing as always, and we got to see a lot of the cousins who have moved away or gone off to college. So much fun! The only downside was that Lulu started getting a cold/Flu thing the Monday before Thanksgiving and we are still trying to get over it. Yuck! Immy slept through two whole days and then still missed two more days of school after the break. And I have to say, morning sickness and a cold, not a fun combination. I didn't get a thing done this past week. Hopefully we have had our share of the holiday sickness and can spend the rest of it in peace!

Not much else... we have done a few new things to the house. We put in a new back door with a glass panel (It's wonderful, let's so much more light in to the kitchen!), and painted the gables on the outside of the house. I think next we may put a better faucet in the kitchen so that I can do this with the old sprayer. We will see.

And no, I did not get this update out in 15 minutes. I actually was distracted by three contractors, two kids, and then I had to plug the computer in and go pick up Immy from school. I didn't get back to my computer for another few days, then my cold turned in to a horrible sinus infection, and I was down for another few days. After that I just spent the next week playing catch-up. Sound familiar ladies? Oh well, we do what we can ;)

If you love it, support it!

Here is a wonderful post from the blog Innovate! It's called The 3/50 Project:

Their concept is simple and the numbers that back up their cause are staggering. The 3/50 project is an organization focused on saving the wonderful mom-and-pop stores throughout the country. I often see small stores that I appreciated close their doors and comfort myself by thinking, ‘Well, I can’t keep them all in business on my own.’ True, but it is quite amazing the profound difference each one of us can make in supporting our local economy. According to Project 3/50, here’s how it is done:

3

Think about which three independently owned businesses you would miss most if they were gone. Stop in and say hello. Pick up a little something that will make someone smile. Your contribution is what keeps those businesses around.

50

If just half of the employed U.S. population spent $50 each month in independently owned businesses, their purchases would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue. Imagine the positive impact if 3/4 of the employed population did that.

68

For every $100 spent in independently owned stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home.

1

the number of people it takes to start the trend… you.

The website is full of great resources, images, t-shirts, etc. to help you show your support! Print out a couple of the fliers and take them by one of your ‘3′- my guess is you and the owner will be smiling after your visit.

I love this idea, and to add to it a bit I would say that we also need to take a closer look at the national chain stores and restaurants we use. We all need to shop at them eventually, but we rarely stop to think about them the same way we would a local business. Do I like the owner? Are they good to their employees? Are they using funds to support things that are against my morals and values? If the answers don't add up to somewhere you want to be putting your money consider switching to a different store. Just ask yourself "where would I shop if this store was not here?", maybe you will find a wonderful shop or restaurant that you had never considered before, and undoubtedly you will feel better knowing what your money is supporting after it leaves your pocket.

Who is human?

I read a fascinating post on the blog Conversion diary several weeks ago, and I have had it on my mind ever since. I wanted to share it with you. The author, Jeniffer Fulwiler, tells of her conversion from being "vehemently pro-choice" to pro-life. Here is an exert from her post:

Back in college I remember reading about how in certain societies throughout history, I believe in this case it was the Greeks, it was common for parents to abandon unwanted newborns, leaving them somewhere to die. It was so deeply troubling to me, and I could never figure out what was going on there: how on earth could this have happened?! I mean, I knew lots of people, and nobody I knew would do that! In fact, in our society you only hear about it in rare cases of people who are obviously mentally disturbed. How could something so obviously evil, so unthinkably horrific be common among entire societies?

Because of my deep distress at hearing of things like this, I found it really irritating when pro-lifers would refer to abortion as "killing babies."

It is a wonderful post, and you can read the rest of it here at: Who is human?

I also recommend How would you know? which goes along with this image:

This picture haunts me:

Both of these are well worth the read!

Happy Halloween!

Ok, now that I'm done pouting over the candy I'll show you some pictures of my adorable kiddos in their costumes! Would you believe I made all these costumes? Haha, no really I only made the Superman one. The girls let me off easy, and we borrowed their's. They were fairies, so cute!

JP's costume was pretty easy, because I was lucky enough to find the perfect blue colored pants and shirt at Walmart, $9! A steal when you consider they are charging $20-$30 for cheaply made kids costumes.

The cape I made with some material I had at home; some silky red stuff, difficult to work with, but begging to be made into a cape so I had no choice. I was going to make the red superman underwear out of this too, but he had a pair of shorts that worked perfect. It's a good thing too, because I don't think he would have gone for the wear-your-underwear-on-the-outside look. Good boy.

The Superman "S" was made out of some paint and a sheet of yellow foam I had at home. I sewed the "S" on to the shirt, attached the cape with snaps, and since the shorts were not a permanent part of the costume, I attached the belt buckle with tape.

Done. We styled JP's hair too, he looked so great! We don't have any pictures of that though, because by then we were already late for the party.

Where's my candy!?

Would you believe that after all that "Halloween candy" talk i did, we didn't end up with any Halloween candy!? Not a bit! We went to two parties where they gave the kids nice sensible toys and trinkets in their goody bags. Then we went to a festival, but again no candy because my kids didn't play the games. Forget the kids, they had a great Halloween; I feel totally cheated! (Ok, there were lots of sweets at the party, but that's just not the same thing!) I was looking forward a full night raiding the candy bowl after the kids went to bed! I have never been into the Trick-or-Treating thing, but we are so going next year.

Kids

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

JP and I made some cookies while Immy was at school and Lulu was napping.

He felt so special, and was delighted that he didn't have to share the "licking spoon" with anyone else!

The cookies were really good; oatmeal, chocolate chip, and nuts! Yum; and the girls were thrilled to find out we were having cookies for snack time! We found the recipe here at Allrecipes.com. I love this site, it is great for finding and saving recipes.
Immy had last Monday off from school, so I took the kids to the library. They all love books, so the library is a favorite spot of theirs. After we got home I caught JP and Immy sweetly reading together; I just had to take a picture so I could remember it later when they started fighting again.

Here is one more of our morning outings. I like to take the kids out to activities after we drop Immy at school; this morning we did a coffee break (none for the kids :) at the Burger King with our moms group.

This worked out great also because I had to be back at the school mid morning for our first parent/teacher conference. Immy is doing great in school, particularly in math and reading, so it was a good day all the way around!

So much fun!

We had JP's birthday party on Saturday. The kids had so much fun, and it was robot themed. So cute! This is the only picture I have right now because I let everyone else take the pictures.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip!

JP and I went on Immy's field trip last Thursday. Here is her class at the park right after lunch. Immy is in the front (second from right) next to her new best friend (front right).

Here they are at the Pumpkin Patch. This was the first activity station, where they dropped pumpkins and gourds in to a bucket to see which ones float.

This was the last station where they read a story and then got to feel inside a pumpkin. There were also snack and craft stations, and the kids all got to pick a small pumpkin to take home.

It was lots of fun, but JP was a bit of a rascal. I was there to help chaperon, but spent most of the time helping him or chasing him down. Next time I will leave him with the sitter and just spend the day with Immy.

Dinner on the Beach

Dh and I left the kids with my parents on Saturday night and went out for dinner and drinks with some friends. It was so much fun! The food was great, and although I have been completely spoiled on well made cocktails, the drinks were pretty good too!

Here comes the candy!

After the kids have brought home their loot on Halloween night what do you do with it all? Our yearly tradition is to let the kids stuff themselves full of all the candy, sweets, and treats they can stand on Halloween, but the next day it all goes put away. Every year we have found a different creative way to use it all up (without me eating it all ;). Here are a few of my ideas; what are yours?

Freeze the leftover candy and use it to decorate a kit gingerbread house at Christmas; those kits never have enough candy!

Freeze some to use in a home-made advent calendar at Christmas.

Take some of the extra candy to an office as a thank-you. Banks, Doctors, Fire or Police departments, Daddy's office, and even the staff at the Dentist usually enjoy getting a sweet treat!

Fill some gold paper cups with the candy then wrap them up to give out as "trophies" to the winners of your Thanksgiving day football game, scavenger hunt, etc.

Send it to our brave troops overseas with a note of thanks and encouragement.

Photo credits to http://www.realsimple.com/

First Day of School

Immy had her first day of school about two weeks ago, and she is loving it! She started late in the school year because of the move, and there was a little delay over her immunizations (sorry school board, I just don't agree with your required shots list.), but she has fit right in with her grade level and is doing great! She has even begun to make some friends.

I think the transition was the hardest for me, I had gotten so used to her being around all day (For the last five years!). When did she get so big, so smart, so independent? She was so ready for the challenge! Letting go was really hard. I cried, several times that first week. I'm sure it was mostly because I was so tired, I'm still not used to getting up at 6am! But now things are going really well, and as usual, my joy for her far outweighs any of my sadness to see things change.

I am not the only one that is trying to get used to the new schedule, we are all having to get up earlier now. I just wish I could take a nap everyday too! Lulu surprised me the first few days by falling asleep for her nap much earlier than usual; I had set her on the bed to read some books and when I turned around she was out.

One of the nice things about the new schedule is having one-on-one time with JP when Lulu is napping. We have been able to do some fun things just for him like bake cookies, read stories, and just give him some attention. He has been missing his sister a little during the day, but we do a lot of activities, so it is neat for them to take turns telling each other what they got to do on the way home from school.

Government run health care?

Here is a great video from the new CatholicVoteAction.org!
Big government style health care? Why not!

House

Yes it's ours! I know, I know this post is really late, but I have been painting, moving, and unpacking for the last month. The house is finally starting to come together, and look like our home; it was really nice to get all of our things out of storage. Here are some of the pictures of our progress!

This is of course a picture of the moving truck delivering all of our stuff. Yay!! Almost everything ended up in the living room, it seemed like a sea of brown boxes for weeks.

Here is a picture of the house shortly before we got it,...

and the beautiful door painted an ugly brown.

This is after painting the door and some yard work. We replaced the pine straw with mulch and switched out the plants along the drive.

Here is the paid help. (He is so cute, even with his shirt on backwards.)

We paid the kids a penny for every leaf they could pick out of the gardens. JP got 133 leaves. Immy got 255 leaves, and Lulu got lots of mulch which she then threw in to the yard.

Here is the picture after the shutters went up. The shutters match the door. I love it; it really adds color to the house. And of course I love blue, so that's even better!

Ok, moving on to the inside of the house.

Here is one of the bedrooms we painted. Before: brown

After: yellow
This room is all mine! For now. It will eventually be the girls room, but I am using it for a sewing/office until they need it.

Bathroom before: brown

Bathroom after: lovely light green!

Another bedroom before: brown

After: 3/4 green, 1/4 brown

We made this room the playroom! (Future little boy's room) The brown and green are divided with a shelf that goes around the whole room; it is painted a darker shade of green and will eventually hold toys and decorations. The white shelf was going to go against the wall for toy storage, but while we were painting I realized it would make a great room divider. I used it for toy storage on one side and put a playhouse set up on the other.

The rooms not quite finished, but I think it has turned out really cute so far!

Here is the living room, the only change in here was the can lights that Dh and the electrician put up.
In the kitchen they also put up can lights, installed a new light fixture, and replaced the pendants over the bar. They were busy!

The kitchen before: dark brown and light brown (same as the rest of the house)

The kitchen after: bright blue

I told you I like blue right? Well this turned out to be too bright even for me, so...

after much anxiety and color swatches on the wall, it was repainted to a more subtle grey/blue and brown.

Here is a more recent picture.
The bar was painted a darker shade of brown to make it stand out against the wall. I LOVE the kitchen now, and it was totally worth the near heart failure I had trying to pick out new colors.

Laundry room before: brown

Laundry room after: blue

I love this color. It's way to bold to go in any of the main living spaces, but it really brightens up the laundry room. The guys also replaced a light fixture in here.

The kids bedroom before: brown

Kids room after: lower half blue with a wave pattern border.

This room is so big, it made a perfect kids room. We are letting the kids share until they get older, then we will move them in to the other two rooms and this room will become the playroom.

It's not done yet; I have more decorations planned to make it fun and beachy, but you can see the wave pattern here over the reading area.

Here is the master bedroom. Dh and the electrician put up the can lights in here too. I was against it and totally thought it was unnecessary, but I have to say, I love it now. It is so nice to have the extra light over the bed for reading!

I am really glad we were able to get all of this done before our stuff was delivered because it made such a mess!

Here is the master bathroom before: brown walls and glass sinks

Master bath room after: We painted a lovely light blue and put in more traditional white sinks that I think really "pop" against the dark counter tops.
Later we painted the brown accent wall over the sinks. I don't really care for it, but Dh likes it, so it stays. We also put in a shower door (below).

That's all for now, but I'm sure there will be more. We are learning quickly that with a house there is always more to do. :)

Also, big thank-yous to everyone who helped us make our house a home! We love you guys!