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