In LOVE with this song!

7 Months (Already)

HAPPY

Healthy

Toothless

Fruit and Veggie Lover

Hip Rider

Sippy Cup Sipper

Finger Sucker

11 Hour Night sleeper

People Lover

Jump-a-roo Jumper

Full Belly Laugher

Hyper

Curious

Adorable

Wordless Wednesday

The Mama Files: Projects

I'm such a bad blogger. *sigh* If only there were more hours in a day.

I have all these little mini projects vying for my attention lately. I'm not a fan! I'm trying to prioritize my time.

Here's a list of things we're doing right now (and by we I mostly mean ME).

1. Getting ready for a vacation in Virginia to have a family reunion with most of my dad's side of the family (my children have never ridden in a car for longer then 3 hours before :-/).
2. Cleaning up the yard
3. Praying for a little itty bitty heatwave
4. Gearing up for Baseball
5. Purchasing footwear for nearly every member of our family
6. Planning the decorations for a wedding I've been hired to decorate
7. Laughing at Shoshannah's crazy super funny and hyper antics
8. School, school, and more school
9. Running (both literally and figuratively)
10. laundry and dishes

And here's the list of things I WANT to be doing

1. Re-tiling my bathroom ceiling
2. Sleeping
3. Laughing at Shoshannah's crazy super funny and hyper antics
4. Photographing things
5. Running (literally)
6. Organizing my basement
7. Eating bon bons and watching mindless television (do Bon Bons really exist? Cause I've never seen one and I have been a Stay-At-Home-Mom for 9 years now! I thought they were supposed to be one of the job requirements.)

Happy *almost* Hump Day!

The Dirty: on Diapers

If you follow me on facebook I'm sure you've noticed that I have been experimenting with several different brands of diapers over the last few months. Unfortunately diapers are very subjective and my opinion will not be the same as other's in the "diapering business".

These are my conclusions:

Huggies™- AWFUL!!!! I might as well have been putting Shoshannah in training pants. She would soak through these EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And apparently she pees quite often (like every hour or less).

Luvs™- Not much better than Huggies. She would pee through these within 2 hours. Which did not bode well for nights at all. BUT, I might try giving these another try since Shoshannah was on the top end (2# from it) of the weight limit for the size. Plus, the super cute monkey on them is, well, super cute!

Top Care™- Gave Sho a terrible rash! 'Nough said.

Pampers™ Cruisers- The best I've found so far. She does manage to pee through them at night a few times a week. But at least it's not EVERY diaper change. Unfortunately they are one the most expensive. But I think a full night's rest and empty laundry baskets are worth the extra cents!

Diapers I still want to try: Target brand, and Luvs™ in the next size up, Pampers™ Baby Dry. I just hate paying $7-$10 for a pack of diapers when I'll know the verdict by using approximately 3 of those diapers.

As you can see I based most of my above opinions on leak value. But I will tell you this Huggies were fairly soft, Luvs and Top Care are very paper-y, Cruisers where soft and thin.

***Side Note***

I have found that my ALL TIME favorite wipe is the Luvs™ Sensitive. They are fairly inexpensive, super soft, and gentle. I can only find them at 1 store, Family Dollar. At least it's a store that is in my area.

Daily Nuggets:

• I rarely get very sick, but when I do LOOK OUT! I came down with Strep Throat on Monday. It was awful. Thank goodness we have lots of family near by, because I had to call in the reinforcements. After getting an antibiotic I'm feeling much better.
• I LOVE my new camera! I still have lots to learn on it, but so far it's amazing!
• Leia's foot is healing great! She can start putting weight on it! However, talking her into doing so is a bit of a challenge.
• Shoshannah is a crazy little monkey girl! I'm thinking she's going to be very active when she is more mobile. When I lay her on the floor on her tummy she moves her arms and legs like she's swimming. (Hm, I wonder if she could swim if I put her in water?!) :-)
• I'm gearing up to put on a new picture theme on our church website! The hosting site we use is launching some new things the beginning of April and I'm excited to make some changes!
• Apparently Marc and I talk about promoting our church in our community a lot. Because the other day Xavier says to me. "Mom, do you think if I make a Little Big Planet [video game] world of our church it will help promote it?"
• Gaius has been super stoked to not have to wear snow pants when he plays outside! He tells me so every time he's getting ready to go out to play.
• Perhaps my next blog won't be completely baby related. Yeah, probably not.

Toodles!

The Mama Files: Truth

Because of my children's ages I've been dealing with truthfulness quite often lately. I was recently disciplining one of them and explaining how important it is to be someone people can trust. When I received the one question children seem to love to ask the most "Why?" My example to this particular child was. "First of all God tells us to be truthful, even if we know we're going to get in trouble because of it. But also I want you to be truthful so that I know I can trust what you say."

This made me wonder, am I a person that is completely truthful and whose word can be trusted? I like to think that I am, but in all honesty sometimes my passive, easy going nature gets in the way. I do not like confrontation AT. ALL. Sometimes I find myself shying away from saying what I know to be true, either spiritually or morally, because I'm afraid it's going to change my friendship with someone, or because that person is going to get mad at me, or simply because I don't think that person is going to listen to me in the end.

But you know what? That's not really my problem, is it?! I'm not responsible for someone else's reactions. I'm only commanded to give them all the facts.

Ephesians 6:11-20

v. 11

Put on the whole armor of God (belt of truth v. 14) that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

v. 19-20

...that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

I was recently at the grocery store with Shoshannah and the cashier struck up a conversation about how old Sho was, etc. She then went on to tell that her best friend was pregnant and due at the end of the month. She then continued to tell me that her friend was only 16 and a junior in high school, so she would be missing out on a lot her senior year. All I said was "Oh, that's too bad". While on my drive home I was thinking about what I could've said to the cashier but didn't. I could've said "Wow, you need to be really understanding to your friend this coming year. Because she's really going to need someone that's there for her when she can't reciprocate the kindness" or even simply "I'll definitely be praying for her, she's going to have a hard road ahead of her". But instead all I said was "Oh, that's too bad".

I don't want to be a person who has to say "I should have said" anymore.

There's Just Something About Date Night...

The "Super Moon"

That:

• Renews your spirit
• Reminds you why you love your husband
• Rewards all your hard work from the past week

What's In My Diaper Bag

A couple of my friends are getting ready to have their first babies. So, I just thought maybe you'd be interested in seeing what I carry in my diaper bag. It's nothing earth shattering or anything. (Mostly it just gave me an excuse to play with my new camera!)

I have a Lands End Do It All Diaper Bag. (the older version) I Love it! It opens like a Dr.'s bag so it's stiff along the top and stays open! Plus the light colored lining makes it super easy to find stuff!

This is the changing pad that comes with it! It's large and has 2 zippered pockets that you can fit a couple diapers and wipes in. So if you don't want to bring your whole bag into the store you don't have to!

Diapers, wipes and rash cream.

A change of clothes

Toys! I don't usually carry this many, but Sho and I have been going to various events lately that requires her to sit quietly with me and toys help with that.

Bib, formula (it's in the green container), spare bottle, plastic spoons (which I JUST put in today because I had to feed Sho her baby applesauce using a straw like a spoon last night, it sort of worked)

These are actually in there to keep Gaius occupied when we're out!

Receiving blanket, and wet clothes bag (my bag came with my diaper bag!)

This is my wallet! I think the print is kind of ugly, but it's super duper convenient. I move it from my purse to the diaper bag when I need it and the strap is very handy to run into the store with when I have 4 kids in tow. It's by JuJuBee, and it's really great quality. I got mine from BabySteals , they're on quite often.

Other things I sometimes carry:

Nursing cover

Moby Wrap

Pacifier

Plastic bags for disposing dirty diapers

Sun block

Sleeper

Burp cloth

Isn't She Lovely?!

(The camera, not me!)

Daily Nuggets:

• There's grass...in....my...YARD!!!
• We're having Chicken Pot Pie for dinner and I'm excited! :-)
• I can't wait for bedtime so I can have a chance to really play with my new toy!
• Sometimes it blows my mind how God gave me exactly the perfect husband for me! I couldn't have planned it better myself!
• Here's Gaius' and my lunch conversation

"Mom, who made me?"

"God did!"

"I know! Who made the soup?"

" I did."

"No! God did."
"Well, yes..."

"God PROVIDED it!" says Leia, 6.

It's Here! It's Here! It's Finally Here!

My camera that is! And it's technically not HERE, it's at my brother-in-law's house (I think). So it's just in my general vicinity but I'm still excited!

In other news:

Here is what the inside of my UGLIFRUIT looks like! It was really very tasty (a little sour, but I think it wasn't perfectly ripe). On the label it said to eat it sliced in half like a grapefruit, but next time I'm peeling it like a orange and eating it that way.

I HATE croup!!! My head knows it isn't as bad as it sounds and it's just baby laryngitis. But my heart never believes it. Shoshannah is still incredibly happy even though she has a pathetic cough! Unfortunately she isn't sleeping, poor little baby girl,,.and me!

My kids literally ADORE their baby sister! I wish I could remember and document all the little kindnesses they show to her all day EVERYDAY. I hope they always feel that way about her! It turns my heart to mush watching them love on her!

This weather is REALLY starting to wear on me! In the next 10 days it isn't predicted to get above 45° and it's supposed to rain/snow 7 of those days. :-( Come on already spring! Is this the longest winter on record or what?!?

I have been offered a couple new opportunities for this coming fall. I really want to do ALL of them but I'm trying to decide if I really can handle that much on my plate.

I'm SOOO ready for a vacation! Five more weeks and counting.

And now it's time for bed...I'm SO ready! Here's hoping for a full night's rest!

Twins 73 Months Apart

Isn't the resemblance crazy?!

Shoshannah is about the same size Leia was at 4 months.

But they are definitely cut from the same cloth!

Gaius' Bucket List:

1. Go to Taco Bell
2. Go to Wendy's
3. Go to Build-a-Bear

Something New

I've decided to expand our palettes by trying one new food every week. This is what I picked up this week. Can you guess what it is?

Everyone liked it except Gaius.

This Glamorous Life

• A completely lazy, uneventful weekend! (Quadruple like!)
• Two kids signed up for baseball/teeball
• One bathroom closet completely organized!!!
• LAUNDRY!
• Too much Angry Birds
• A little Sudoku
• A few sibling quarrels resolved
• Lots of snow melted....and then some returned to us. (Oh NY you kill me!)
• Income taxes filed
• The HOPE of spring's arrival renewed
• One very excited and sassy 4 year old moves up in Sunday school ("Mom you've got to get your booty moving or we're going to be late for church.")
• Correction for said 4 year old
• 2 very good sermons that I really needed to hear (plus a Sunday school class).
• One afternoon nap.

So begins another week.

How was your weekend?!

Leia to Gaius (who wouldn't do what she asked him to do)- "Oh! I hate you!"

Me- "LEIA!!"

Leia to Gaius- "Oops! I meant to say I love you!"

Half a Year

I'm confused when Shoshannah's 6th month begins, was it yesterday? Is it tomorrow?

Oh well! Here's the important stuff:

14 lbs 3 oz.

26 inches

Wearing some 6-9 months clothes

Sitting up by herself briefly

Likes to watch TV (yuck!)

Likes baby oatmeal, rice cereal, and bananas

Still has a gorgeous gummy grin

Is fixated with her tongue (obvi.)

Sleeps for at least 10 hours every night

Super easy going and happy

Hilarious

Rolly Polly