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 ;)