BPA Free

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One thing I try to do is make sure that everything the kids eat/drink out of is BPA free. I got new bottles for Taylor, and I think most of the kids bows and sippy cups are BPA free. We try to use glass when we can, too… if it’s a situation where it’s less likely to break, like sitting at the table for dinner. However I want to try and find a good stainless steel waterbottle for each kid. I have seen some cool looking custom water bottles with straws that I would like to order. I want two different ones so we can tell them apart. Bailey likes pink or purple but that’s not a requirement. If I could get their names on them that would be fabulous but also not required. I’d love to hear any recommendations if you have a waterbottle you like.

Wordless Wednesday- High chair

Filed Under Seven Months, Wordless Wednesday | 2 Comments

Isn’t he big sitting in his high chair?

Carolinas Vacation

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We are always looking at different vacation ideas. One thing we have never done as a family is to rent a condo, beach house, etc. Next year we are planning on going to Disney so that takes up most of our budget for travel… and then some. But one place I wouldn’t mind going eventually is the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There are some great rental properties there. Carolina Designs Realty offers some rentals for around $795 a week (except for peak/holiday weeks). So if we went somewhere like that we could drive, do food on a budget, and have a relatively inexpensive vacation. I have always wanted to take the kids to the beach too. Obviously after Taylor is past the sand-eating stage

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Filed Under Clothes, Five Months Old- Taylor, Posing for Pictures | 1 Comment

Do you like my Very Hungry Caterpillar jams?

Swimming at Bluebird Pool

Filed Under Five Months Old- Taylor, Outings, Outside, This Rocks, Three Years Old | 2 Comments

Finally remembered to take my camera to one of the last toddler/preschool swimming events of the summer. This is at Bluebird Park’s splash pad- lots of fountains and a wading pool at one end. The kids had a blast and we were joined by several friends that day. Taylor had fun trying to catch the water!

At three years and three months old…

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Attitude, Talking, Three Years Old | 2 Comments

Bailey said, “Mom, you messed up my very whole life!”

You want to know how? I wouldn’t let her sit and watch tv instead of taking a nap. I can hardly wait to see what the tween/teen years have in store for us.

But she is still the most wonderful little girl in the world and always will be, no matter what she says or does. And THAT is spoken with a mother’s love. God gives us blind love for our children, I really believe this.

Taylor’s Dedication

Filed Under Big Sister, Church, Family, Four Months Old- Taylor, Three Years Old | 2 Comments

I have tons of pictures for this one. Taylor was dedicated at our church back in July. Basically what that means is that as parents we committed to raising him in the church, teaching him about Jesus, etc and the church promised to support our family with that. It’s not the same as infant baptism because we don’t believe that it actually “saves” the child. Anyway we did the same thing for Bailey when she was about four months old. So there was a ceremony at church (which we have videos of, but I am not going to post because there are also other families in the video and first/last names are used for everyone).

We did take a few pictures beforehand at church. Taylor was a doll during the service. Bailey had a last minute panic about going on stage- shocking if you know her- and kept her face hidden in Daddy’s neck.

We had a lunch at my parents house. I felt guilty not doing a party for him like we did with Bailey… but then I realized that it would be more for me since he wouldn’t care what was going on, as long as there was milk! We had dessert and ice cream after lunch- Bailey’s favorite part.

And played more hockeyball!

But Taylor just watched…

And then we opened some gifts. Of course Bailey offered to help! She was so sweet with Taylor. She showed him each present and told him about them.

Awwww, one last shot of me with my babies…

My Dad’s Birthday

Filed Under Birthdays, Four Months Old- Taylor, Grandparents, Three Years Old, Video | Leave a Comment

We celebrated my dad’s birthday a few weeks ago… Taylor wore his sharks outfit since my dad is a shark junkie. My dad actually used to scuba dive and my mom even joined him a few times. I think their honeymoon was to Grand Cayman. Oh and Shark Week was a big deal at our house growing up.

Great Grandpa got a chance to love on Taylor, too.

Bailey was so excited to give her Grandpa his gift. As we walked in, she said, “Grandpa I hope you like your movie! I didn’t mean to drop it. It was a accident!” She isn’t so smooth with the surprises at this point but I love her excitement.

She got a new set of golf clubs to play with her Grandpa. She knows he loves golf, but she insisted on calling in hockeyball. I was cracking up because my dad got more and more irritated that she wouldn’t call it golf.

Taylor watched with wide eyes. We had to cover his head a few times because of his sister’s wild swinging.

Happy birthday, Daddy! You’re the best father I could ever ask for.

A few videos of Taylor at 4 months

Filed Under Four Months Old- Taylor, Grandparents, Play, Video | Leave a Comment

I am trying to get videos uploaded as I have time. Here are a few of Taylor at four months.

Yes, his eyes are often huge like this!

Wordless Wednesday- Rub a Dub Dub, Two Kids in the Tub

Filed Under Four Months Old- Taylor, Siblings, Three Years Old, Wordless Wednesday | 3 Comments

Bailey LOVES to have her brother in the bathtub with her. Usually we use his baby tub inside the big bathtub, but this was a bubble bath day!

Taylor is 5 Months Old

Filed Under Church, Five Months Old- Taylor, Milestones, Sleep | 1 Comment

To my little Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear,

Oh I love you more each day. I think you are the cutest baby boy in the entire world. Your hair is starting to come in thicker (and it’s getting a lot lighter- you might be a blondie after all!) I love to run my hands through your fuzz, and kiss your sweet little head. You still sleep with Mommy every night. I am no longer stressed out about when I will get you out of my bed. I am just accepting it and enjoying it at this point. You will be all grown up soon enough, and I will miss these days. I love the way you stretch out next to me and make your little piglet sounds while you eat. Sometimes you dig your toes into my thigh though and that’s not my favorite. Right now you are laying on the boppy eating and clutching your little hands together. It looks like you are praying.

Speaking of hands- you are getting better at using them. You still can’t transfer objects from one hand to the other, but you can pick up toys more easily and of course you pop them right in your mouth. We have to be so careful with all the little pieces to Bailey’s toys! You also just started rolling from back to front three days ago. Then you get stuck on your tummy and do the frantic “swimming” on the floor until someone rescues you. You still can’t figure out how to flip back over. You are starting to sit up though, if we lean you forward on your hands for balance. You also enjoy your exersaucer for a little longer now. We just borrowed the Bumbo from Kelli but so far you are not a fan. I have a feeling you will like it better once we start feeding you in it!

A few of your 3-6 month outfits just fit now. You were small for so long and now you are growing like crazy it seems. You have gotten chubby and I love squeezing your legs. This is the only time in your life when it will be cute to have fat feet, so enjoy it. They are adorable! You are just over 15 pounds, so you’ve gained a little over a pound within the past month.

You also had your dedication ceremony at our church on your five month birthday, but that will get its own post. Just know that so many people love you and are praying for you and looking out for you. You are a very loved little boy. I can’t believe next time I write to you, you will be a half a year old.

xoxo

Mommy

Kenzie’s birthday party

Filed Under Four Months Old- Taylor, Friends, Parties, Three Years Old, Toys | Leave a Comment

Trying to get all updated here… have quite a few pictures from Bailey’s friend Mackenzie’s birthday party back in July! It was a really fun party and made me wish I could plan an outdoor party for my kids. (But with February-cold and April-rainy birthdays it probably won’t ever happen). They had a swimming party and got one of those huge Bonzai waterslides (I think this link is the actual slide they had, it was really cool). Obviously a big expense but you can partially write it off as a birthday party expense, right? And then have a super cool toy afterward. I have been looking for those to go on end of summer clearance but haven’t seen anything. It would be one of the cheaper ones but still…

Anyway about the party. The kids had a lot of fun and it was great for a really wide age range of kids. Instead of serving cake, the kids got their choice of ice cream sandwiches or popsicles. Bailey won’t eat ANYTHING even close to a sandwich so we told her it was an ice cream cookie treat. She loved it. She still talks about it and it makes me so happy to see her try new things. They also had hamburgers and brats and typical barbecue food, and two big tubs of water balloons, and a small kiddie pool. Everything was really well done but just laid back and casual. One of the best parties we went to this summer.

And of course, pictures-

As the evening went on, she got better at climbing up this ladder. At first it really took her a while and some of the older boys were just climbing over her.

Splash! I love this one… caught the moment perfectly.

Eating the beloved “ice cream cookie treat” with Daddy.

(Did I mention Taylor was there too?)

Okay so I just saw this picture and it occurred to me… the kids were supposed to choose either ice cream sandwich or a popsicle. I guess Bailey decided to have one of each and it didn’t even register with me at the time. Oops!

Tiny Turtles

Filed Under Clothes, Fashion, Four Months Old- Taylor, Three Years Old | Leave a Comment

The kids wore their matching turtles outfits to church. I tried my best to get a good picture of them together, but it was just not going to happen. Mainly because of a pouting three year old. This was the best out of about ten shots.

Check out the bracelet she is wearing on her upper arm. This is her style. She insists that her bracelets look cool when she wears them “up high” like that. This is at age three… can hardly wait til thirteen…

I managed to get halfway decent individual pictures of them after church when we were out to lunch, though.

Onecall

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My husband just showed me a new kind of fun shopping site. I think he is hoping that we will end up ordering something if I see how cheap stuff is. This site is called onecall coupons“>Onecall Coupons and they have all kinds of electronics stuff- tvs, video camers, digital cameras, and his computer stuff of course. Everything is priced pretty decently to begin with. They say that they have “coupons” for everything they sell. Basically it just seems like an instant rebate at checkout. We will probably end up ordering some air and water filters on there because they have pretty good prices. I will try and remember to update about the service.

Big Girl Undies Here!

Filed Under Diapers/Potty, Potty Training, This Rocks, Three Years Old | 2 Comments

I never thought I would be typing these words…. Bailey is potty trained!!! It started on June 26th, in the afternoon. My mother offered to keep Bailey overnight so Jonathon and I could go out, and then the next day we could prepare for a friend’s baby shower at our house. As I was getting ready that afternoon, my mom called and said, “Why don’t you bring Bailey’s little potty and some extra underwear with you?” My child has attempted to potty train several times, each of which has been a disaster, so I agreed but assumed it would be a waste of time.

My mom said that Bailey had ONE accident on Saturday evening, and then a second one on her way to the bathroom. That’s all it took for her to figure it out. On Sunday morning she had one accident on the way to the bathroom again. Then my mom took her to Chuck E Cheese in underwear, and she stayed dry. At this point I will also admit that MY MOTHER TOOK HER TO CHUCK E CHEESE IN PAJAMA SHORTS. And she KNEW they were pajama shorts. Groan. SHe thought they would be comfortable and easy to pull down.

Bailey was accident free for four days after that, until she “dripped” on the way to the potty one night. Since then, she has had one accident at gymnastics camp and one at her preschool. Both were situations where she was dropped off for several hours and I wasn’t there. She has even started pooping on the potty in the last few days, instead of waiting for her nighttime diaper. She does wear a diaper at nap and bedtime. She is almost always dry after nap but usually a little wet in the morning. First thing she does in the morning is sit on the potty though, which is her choice.

We discovered FINALLY that the key to her potty training is that we could not ask her to go potty. That was what was making her freak out. We had to just let her go on her own and not even ask her to try. Now, if we are leaving somewhere I still don’t have much luck asking her to try. I have to be pretty firm and say something like, “You need to go make pee before we leave. It’s not a choice right now.” But thank God, she is potty trained. At 38 months- we always joked she’d be reading before she was going potty but I guess not. And thank you, mother. Now she can actually go to preschool this fall… which is a whole ‘nother topic.