As Seen On TV - A Review

Hallie was born fuzzy, she had some amazing fuzz on her back, bum and thighs. The poor girl has stayed fuzzy, actually a better word for it is HAIRY! She is only 9 years old, but she has the hairy legs of a full-grown MAN! Yes, she knows it. I told her that is the way God made her, too embrace and love it, but really how can a girl enjoy being hairy?

I really don't want her to be shaving yet...Hallie with a razor, not a good combination. I could hear the blood curdling screams now. And heaven forbid she cuts herself. So, I thought about getting her an electric razor, but I don't know very much about them and wasn't sure about spending the money on it. After all, the girl is ONLY 9! Anyway, on TV I saw an infomercial for "Smooth Away" and I thought why not give it a try. But, I am always leery of buying things off of TV. I have heard horror stories of ordering things and then getting on monthly auto shipping and it is a nightmare to get them to stop charging your bank account and sending useless items. So, I figured that if it was any good that eventually it would be in the stores.

My Sister called me a couple of nights ago and told me that she saw this in Wal-mart, so tonight while doing some shopping I picked up a pack. Hallie was so excited to give it a try that she ripped open the package and started attacking her leg in the car on the way home. In the 10 minute drive home most of one of her legs was SMOOTH! She was so excited, she ran in and tried to make Trenton feel her leg, he looked at her in disgust, no way was he going to touch his sister. She came up to me crying about how Trenton was being mean, I was laughing at this whole conversation.

Hallie was so excited that she wanted to take a picture of it, so we did. Here are before and after pictures.







Hallie is also super excited to go to school on Monday and show her friend Addysen that she doesn't have "man legs" anymore.

Flashback Friday

I can't believe that tomorrow Jack will be 2 years old! Just thought I would share a little photo collage of the little dude from conception to about 6 months old.

ENJOY!

Thankful Thursday

Just for kicks, this was taken 5 years ago! He sure has changed a lot since then!

I have been wanting to post about this all week and haven't gotten around to it, so today is the day!

I am so thankful for TRENTON! He is such an awesome kid and is such an example to me. On Sunday morning he woke up and got ready for church. I never have to wake him or encourage him to get ready or argue about going. Because he is part of the Deacon's, he has to be at the church 45 minutes before it starts. This alone is a feat, because our sacrament meeting starts at 8:30am. Every single week, Trenton is there, helping set up chairs and get things ready for all the meetings that are to take place that day. He takes this responsibility very seriously. This last Sunday, Jack had a cold, Addy had been up 1/2 the night crying, because she too has a cold and can't breathe very well and Hal had a headache. I was tired from being up most of the night with the kiddo's and so we opted to stay home from church. Trenton however said he was still going. Hal took him over at 7:45am and then the rest of us including Hallie went back to bed. Trenton stayed for all 3 hours of church. When I was his age I would never have gone to church by myself, I would have stayed home with the rest of the family. Sometimes I feel guilty for being his mother, he deserves to have a mom that sets a better example, that would do more to encourage him to be a righteous priesthood holder. I feel like I have let him down a little. We read our scriptures, have family prayers and once in a while do family home evening. I am not a scholar when it comes to doctrine. I don't push scouting, although he does go every week. I don't focus as much as I should on the Lord. I don't deserve to have a child that is this spiritual, righteous and an all around good kid. But, I am ever so thankful for his example to me and because of his example I can see the things that I should focus on and become better at.

Trenton has been so helpful this last week, he has been helping Hal out in the basement, he cleaned it all up and did everything Hal asked him to do. He is really focusing on getting some really GREAT grades this term and has just been really pleasant to be around. In fact, I can't wait for him to get home, and that is saying A LOT!

Wordless Wednesday

Hallie's 9th Birthday!

Hallie turned 9 years old yesterday! She had a super fabulous day!

When I woke up yesterday it was to a 9 year old girl standing next to my bed, she was beaming! I looked up at her and said "Happy Birthday Hallie!" She giggled and thanked me. She then looked over at her Dad and asked when he was going to get up and tell her happy birthday, I told her to wake him up. She walked over and poked him in the arm and said in a very bossy with attitude way "What do you have to say to me Dad???" To which Hal replied, while trying not to laugh, "Happy Birthday Hallie!"
Hallie insisted that she be picked up from school because this was her special day, so Hal went and picked her up while I finished a little last minute shopping. Hallie was actually a little bit hard to buy for this year, she didn't have any real requests other than toys that she changed her mind about every few minutes. I finally settled on getting her a new comforter set for her new bed. In the end it was a huge hit, she loved it. I also bought her some silly presents to open, like a 12 pack of sprite zero, goggles (we were going swimming for her party), a bottle of body spray, the new Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus CD and Trenton got her a HUGE Hershey Bar (her favorite).
Hallie's dinner request was "Wendy's", how easy is that! LOL! Hallie also wanted to decorate her own cake, so I let her go at it! She had a blast!
We ate dinner really quickly and then it was time for her party. She wanted to go swimming at the Lehi Legacy Center, so we loaded up the car with her little friends and made our way over. We picked up a couple of girls on the way and finally got to the pool at about 7pm. Lucy, Barrett and Aunt Michelle met us there and were waiting for us to get there. The girls (and Barrett) had so much fun and all of them kept saying that Hallie should have her party here every year because it was " WICKED AWESOME".
I finally gathered the girls up and had them dry off really quickly and then we loaded back up in the car, it was raining, but not super chilly, the girls were all squealing and splashing in the rain. My little sister Shelley let us come over to her house for cake, ice cream and presents. She lives in Lehi, it was really nice of her to let us come crash at her house.
We ended up getting home at about 10pm and one of the party goer's ended up spending the night, so the fun lasted and lasted!

9 Years Ago!

Has it really been 9 whole years since Hallie entered the world?!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HALLIE!

Hallie's birth story. I really need to get this written down, so if you don't want to know all the gory details, know that you have been warned. Cause here they are:

9 years ago yesterday was just a normal pregnant day. I went out to lunch with Tausha, we went to Tucano's, YUM! And then we walked around the Riverwood's and checked out some of the shops. I was having braxton hicks type contractions while I walked around, but didn't really think anything of it.
I went to work at 3, I was working in the ER at UVRMC and had the swing shift that day. It was actually my long weekend to work. I was scheduled to work Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. At my last OB appointment my Dr. had scheduled an induction for the Monday after my long weekend. I would be 38 weeks pregnant on that day, my blood pressure was up a little and so she thought it would be best if this little lady would make an appearance. At work that night I called everyone on the schedule to see if someone would take my Sunday shift for me, or at very least the last 1/2, but no luck there. I was feeling a litter discouraged and overwhelmed at the thought of working 4 days in a row and then waking up to give birth. I wanted time to get my house settled and have a little r&r before the big day.
Half way through my shift, Hal picked me up for dinner, we went to Burger Supreme, the BEST, yummiest burger shop EVER! I could hardly eat, I was just feeling a little off and the braxton hicks contractions were annoying me. I went back to work and for the rest of the night I kept having contractions, they didn't hurt at all, I just noticed the basketball hardness with each one. One of the nurses with long fingernails kept joking around with me that she could reach up there and break my water, LOL! I was dilated to almost a 4 a few days earlier, so it made me almost want to do it. One of the other male nurses kept asking me if I should be sitting on a chucks pad, because I looked like I was going to burst.
I left work at 11:30pm, Hal and Trenton picked me up because we only had one car. We got home and put Trenton to bed and I jumped in bed with Hal. I forced him to ummmm, have relations, LOL! I was determined to not be induced, I wanted to go into labor on my own. Right after we were done, I had a HUGE contraction and I felt a "pop" in my upper abdomen, this was 12:20am. I walked to the bathroom and felt another milder contraction, but it felt different from the braxton hicks. I figured that if it was labor that I would be doing this for a long time, so I decided to take a bath, while it was filling, I felt 2 or 3 more contractions and figured that this must be it. I laid in the bath and tried to relax, but by about 10 minutes into the bath I was having to breath through contractions. I decided to get out and pack my bags. I grabbed a basket and started putting all of my toiletries in the basket, I had a contraction and walked out to the kitchen, the time was 1:19am, I breathed through that contraction and then went back to packing my bags, at 1:22 (just 3 minutes later) I was in the kitchen breathing through another contraction. I picked up the phone to call my mom and walked to my bedroom. Hal was in there trying to get a little bit of sleep, he had been up since 4 am the day before! He was so tired. I woke him up and told him that we needed to get ready to go. I had my mom on the phone telling her what was going on, I had another contraction and my water broke, all over my bedroom floor, YUCK! My mom said that she was on her way. I went back into the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub and shaved my legs, oh the things we do!
By the time my mom got to my house, I was hurting pretty bad, I had to have help to get my shoes on. My little sister Shelley stayed with Trenton and we left for the hospital. Hal drove like a mad man! I kept telling him to slow down, I wasn't that close to giving birth. We got to the hospital at about 2:30, they took one look at me and sent me straight to the closest delivery room. I got settled in and they FINALLY got around to checking me at 3:30am, I was dilated 5-6cm and contracting really regularly. I asked for an epidural and the Dr. came right in. I believe that I was "pain" free by about 4am. The epidural was REALLY strong, I was feeling numb up my chest and didn't like the feeling, so I had them turn off the epidural. By about 5am I was feeling a lot of pressure and asked the nurse to check me. She said that she didn't want to, she wanted to wait until 6 or 6:30, when the shift change happened. I told her that I really was feeling a lot of pressure, so she broke down and checked me. I was a 10 except for a little corner of my cervix that was left over. She asked me to push through a contraction while she tried to move it out of the way. 1 push in and she told me to stop. The Dr. walked in while this was happening. My LEAST favorite Dr. was on call, he wasn't happy about being there. He was annoyed with the nurse for having me push when I wasn't actually complete, he said I was going to swell and that he was going to be here for too long. He had surgery scheduled for 6am at another hospital and this was going to screw up his whole day. Yeah, I wasn't happy with him. He checked me and had me push once too. While I was pushing he told me to stop. I apparently pushed too hard and the baby was starting to crown. He threw on a gown and was all smiles because I was going to make this happen so quickly. I was getting ready to push again and I told him that I hadn't been cut with my 1st child and I didn't even have stitches, so I wanted to avoid that if I could. He folded his arms and looked at me and said "Well, we will just have to see about that." I wanted to slap his face! What a jerk he was being. Anyway, a couple of minutes later and Hallie was born, she was born at 5:19am, weight 7 pounds 9 ounces and I didn't require any stitches! The Dr. was so happy that he didn't even have to spend the time on stitches, he looked at the clock and said, "Oh my, I think I will make it to my surgery, Hal do you want to cut the cord?" After it was apparent that he was going to make his schedule he got all nice, seriously a jerk.



Hal left pretty quickly after Hallie's arrival, he was so tired. I called work to let them know that I had my baby and wouldn't be coming in. I called at about 6:30am because all of the grave shift people were still there, it was so funny to hear them, they couldn't believe that I was at work just 6 hours before she was born.
They moved me to the postpartum unit and took Hallie to the nursery. I was missing my sweet baby and wondering when she was going to come back to my room. My Grandma Julia came in at about 8:30am and we walked down the hall with her to find my baby. She had her first bath and they had put a little bow on her head, all the nurses were admiring her CURLY hair! I took her back to my room and my grandma and I swooned over her, taking in all of her sweet little expressions and drinking in her newborn smell.
Hal brought Trenton over to see his new sister and also so he could spend some time with his new daughter, they didn't come until about 1pm, Hal needed a little bit of sleep. Trenton wasn't sure what to think of Hallie, but after a few minutes he decided that she was okay.
The OB that I love came into see me, she went oncall at 7am, she asked me why I couldn't have waited an hour and a half for her, LOL! I so wish I could have. I told her what happened with the delivery, she said that if I had another baby that she would give me her beeper number and that she would make sure to be there for my next delivery. Needless to say, she did deliver Jack and she left the practice with "the Jerk".

Doing Dishes

These are the kind of "dishes" I don't mind doing.



I love bathing my babies in the sink, especially when they can sit on their own. It uses little water, the sink is at the perfect height, no bending over, kneeling by the tub. I also have the sprayer kitchen faucet, so showering them off is easy.

This morning Addy had a MAJOR blow-out! Dang disposables if she had been in cloth this wouldn't have happened. She has been saving up for this occasion for days! So, into the sink she went. Jack was jealous, so I let him take a bath too. He loved it!

And just because I thought it was funny. Last night Jack was SO tired. He hadn't had a nap, his cousins came over to play, so a nap was not in the cards. During dinner he ended up like this:

ADORABLE!

Look what I got today!!! My sister Marci knitted it for Addy, I am so in love with it! This sock monkey skirty is 100% wool, so it makes a PERFECT soaker for cloth diapering. I used it today with pre-folds and it worked so well! I just think that Addy looks so cute in it! Marci is going to also knit a top to go with it, so pics of that will be coming soon.






Okay, I promise my next post will have NOTHING to do with cd'ing, LOL!

Suzie Plays With Poo

Got ya with that title didn't I!

When I first started thinking about cd'ing (cloth diapering) I never thought that I would actually find joy in it, I thought it would be something that would save me a little money, but that it would be a pain. In all actuality I thought that I wouldn't fully commit to it and that I would have spent money on something that I hated and gave up on and in the end LOST money on. I didn't realize that I would actually like it. I love looking at my kids in their cute diapers. I love how soft they are. I actually love doing diaper laundry, some how it has become rewarding to figure out a wash routine that works for me and our hard water. I love having stain-free diapers. I love that I have learned so much about doing laundry - I always thought that laundry was as easy as whites on hot, dark's on cold and everything goes in the dryer. I never worked at keeping my clothes stain free or following label directions. I love that it has brought out a different side in me, I like that I am doing a little something to help the planet. I like that it has challenged me to pick-up a sewing machine. I like researching all the different diapers, the brands, styles, materials. I am even having my sister knit me a couple of wool soakers (they are going to look something like this) so I can try out the au'natural approach. Yes, my husband thinks I have a OCD problem, he might be right, LOL!

I love my new hobby!

Here is a picture of my stash:



3 Bumgenius
3 Cherisa made diapers (a friend in my ward)
7 Coolababy diapers
4 DryBee's All in One's (2 for Jack & 2 for Addy)
12 pre-fold diapers (3 are embellished by me) and one Snappi (I am getting another one for Jack)




Inserts - They go inside a pocket diaper, this is the absorbent part of the diapers. I actually really like the micro-fiber towels, I buy them at Wal-Mart in the auto section, they are $5 for an 8 pack. I also bought some Zorb and have made a few of my own inserts (they are the pink/green polka dot ones). I also have a few other micro-fiber inserts from cotton babies and other various places.

I have also started using cloth wipes, mine are just baby wash cloths, but they work GREAT! So much easier than trying to pile poopy wipes on top of eacho ther and then transferring them into the garbage. Now everything just goes into the wash basket.

I have tried using Bummi's liners, I thought that it would be nice to be able to flush all the mess down the toilet, but they just seem to bunch up and not really help anything, so I had Hal make me a diaper sprayer!



Hal followed this tutorial on how to do it.


Addy just grew out of her All Together Diapers AIO's She had 12 of these, so I am needing to replace them with something else. My friend Cherisa, she is amazing, she has a great pattern for diapers and has found all the wonderful places to buy materials for them. She is even making little packets of diapers ready to be sewn! And she is willing to teach me how to sew pocket diapers, I have 6 that are going to come from that project, althougth I don't feel confidant in my sewing skills, so I have enlisted my step-MIL's help with these, she is a seamstress, so she should have NO problem whipping me up a few. I think they will end up costing me about $3 a diaper!

My wash routine is pretty simple.

First I pull out the inserts and then I rinse poo diapers with my diaper sprayer (Jack's only, Addy's don't have to be rinsed). I toss them into a bucket in my laundry room where I forget about them until it is time to do laundry. I then toss them all in the washing machine making sure that the Velcro laundry tabs are secure and all the snaps have been undone. Then I run a load on cold using Allen's Naturally, but this is going to change, I am going to start using Purex Free & Clear, it is cheaper and from what I understand it does just a good of a job. I also fill a downy ball up with vinegar and toss it in the wash. I run the wash with the extra rinse at the end, when it is finished I pull out the coolababy diapers because those aren't supposed to be washed on hot. I then run another wash cycle using HOT water and no soap. Then I throw all of the diapers (including the coolababy's) into the dryer, unless I notice a stain, if it is stained, then I lay it out in the sun, a sunny window works GREAT! The sun is magical, it makes those stains literally disappear before my eyes! When the dryer is done the pre-folds and AIO's are not dry, so those get laid out on a drying rack and I stuff and fold the rest of the diapers so they are ready for cute little bums.

Crafty Crafty!

So, after an absence of almost 14 years, I used a sewing machine! I think I need to find a class and take some lessons, because I don't remember much and had to play around with the machine for a while to try and remember how to use all the pieces. So, after working for a few days on some scraps, and putting together a couple of really UGLY diaper inserts, I finished a (cute) project!

I embellished a pre-fold diaper! Isn't it pretty, and isn't the model just super adorable!