Adventures in Diapering

So since I'm now a WAHM (work at home mommy), I thought with Poppy Seed I might try cloth diapering.  Now I wanted to do this with Elizabeth, but 1) I didn't think I could keep up with the wash being a full time lab worker bee, 2) Our daycare would not have them.  Call me a hippy mom, but I really think it will be better for baby and even better for our wallets.  The biggest savings, I'm hoping to make them rather than buy.  So it's time to fire up the sewing machine and get cracking.  However, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to systems etc. that may have worked better for them over another.  I've heard good things about the pocket systems and of course, there are the old standbys.  If you have a suggestion leave a comment below.  Also if you have extra absorbent fabric lying around let me know.  I can use a lot of old towels etc. to make inserts for the diapers.  I'll keep you all updated to how it goes. 

Merry Christmas!

So I hope everyone out there has had a very Merry Christmas!  We certainly had a good one, even with some ups and downs with the weather.

The view from the bottom of my brother's driveway, before they got hit with MORE snow.

 

 

 

Our Christmas started with a wonderful Christmas eve, though we did have one small hiccup.  I finished some cooking for the next day, and we actually went out to eat for lunch.  Surprising I know, but it was nice because we knew we would be eating a great dinner in a few hours.  Also because Big Idea did not get my package to us in time, we did a few last minute shopping trips for the Nut.  (I'm afraid I left a nasty message for Bob and Larry- hope they can forgive a mad mommy)  Elizabeth opened her first gift that day from Amie and Brandon.  She got a super cute hat, art book, and earrings.  She absolutely loved the earrings, and was so cute in the hat.  She is still looking at the art book.   After that we cleaned up and got ready for church.

Most adorable hat!

Do you think she has enough on her ear?

 Mom, Melissa, Dad, Elsa, and April joined us for church, where we had a very simple communion.  This is my favorite family tradition, as it keeps the real reason for the season in the forefront.  After church we headed to Mom's where we had yummy lasagna.  Mom makes the best lasagna ever!  Dinner was fabulous, and we read the Christmas story afterwards.  Mom asked who the baby was in the story and Elizabeth answered "baby Jesus".  I was super proud.  She opened her gift that night and got some great dvds from Mom and Dad.

Elsa, myself, and Mom on Christmas Eve after communion.

Elizabeth showed Elsa her very own Christmas tree in the den.

Opening a gift from Elsa.  Thank you!

Opening her Christmas Eve gift.

I got DVDs!!

Melissa got Mom this beautiful angel, which Elizabeth declared was hers.

Pop reads the Christmas story, with some help from the Nut.

Cutie Pie under the tree!

We went to see the Christmas lights in the neighborhood and then headed home.  Mark read us all a few Christmas books and Max took advantage of the snuggle time.  After we got Elizabeth to bed, Santa got to work.  He evidently came because the milk and cookies were consumed.  Plus check out all the gifts!

Snuggling in to read some stories.

Santa came!

Santa's elves had some more work to do so it was a late night for some, with last minute wrapping etc.  However, all of us got to bed and even slept in the next morning.  But that morning...toy overload for the Nut.  I don't think that she knew what to think.  But she loved all her toys.  We even got a call into Ma and Papa to say Merry Christmas and open some of their gifts on the phone.  Here are a few shots of the craziness.

Checking out what Santa brought her.

That's Tinkerbell.

That's my umbrella Daddy.

Can't wait for rain!

Riding her pony.

Wow, that's Snow White.

Now I'm Snow White.

Matching Aprons, Thanks Daddy!

Let me help you with that, Daddy.

 Next Grammy, Pop, and Melissa came over to have Christmas morning breakfast.  After we ate, we opened the rest of our gifts.  We had a lot of fun!

Getting some help from Pop.

Wow, it's Belle!

Mom must have liked that gift. ;)

Looking at the Nut's photo book.

Costume change, thank you Aunt Melissa!

A very happy Daddy!

A little Nut book for Aunt Melissa.

Aunt Melissa is the best.  Baby Girl #2 (aka Poppy Seed) got some nice clothes!

Super girl onesies made Mommy laugh.  Too Cute!

Our favorite, Llama Llama!!

Grammy, Pop, and Melissa left after we opened gifts and headed up to NC.  The weather was a little bad, so Mark and I came later prepared to stay over.  We had a nice dinner at Jon's and then headed to Melissa's to stay over. It was a scary drive, snow and ice were everywhere.  I wish we had 4 wheel drive.  But here are a few pics from the day.

Showing Paw how to dry his hair.

Is that Santa? or Uncle Jerry?

Time to fix up that car.

Nice purse!

Santa likes Camaros.

New Christmas pjs and Cinderella shoes.  What a cutie.

Mommy and baby relaxing on the couch...long day.

The next morning there was tons of snow, but most of the roads were scraped.  After playing in the snow awhile Mark and I decided to head home. 

Ready for the snow.

Snow angel.

Daddy and baby.

Making snowballs.

NC was suppose to get another 5-7 inches on top of the 8 inches they had.  We thought it might be better to go than stay...I'm not sure we were right, especially when we got to the TN side.  All I can say, is TDOT dropped the ball.

Our drive from NC to TN (on the TN side of the mountain).

But we got home safe and sound.  We've been relaxing at home ever since.  Elizabeth has been in toy overload even with some of her toys put up.  But we couldn't have asked for a better Christmas.  I hope yours was just as wonderful.

Babies R Us

So this post is probably in bad taste, but I'm doing it anyway.  No one has ever accused me of having exceptional taste anyway. ha ha. 

Mark and I are starting to gear up for the arrival of Baby Girl #2, aka Poppy Seed.  Yes, I know we probably should be focusing on a name, but that's another issue.  Anyway, we're pretty sure we have the colors for the nursery picked out (a pale yellow with green- pooh bear border in between).  I bought an extra curtain for the window, and we're going through Elizabeth's old stuff.  That said, we've realized there are some things missing etc that we might need or want.  Because of that we created a registry with Babies R Us.  Now this isn't your traditional registry, but really a wish list of products we would like to have, we're not stuck on brand or even if the item is new.  This is just the easiest way to let people know what we might want.  If you would like to get something for the baby, please don't feel that it is necessary to buy off this list.  This is just to let you know what it is we're looking for.  (I'll be doing a lot of consignment shopping myself and we've already gotten a two seater stroller).  As always feel free to call contact us if you have any suggestions or questions.

Like I said, probably bad taste posting this for baby #2, but it's here if you want to check it out.

Babies R Us Registry

Ever expanding belly bump

I don't have many pictures of me pregnant, but I'll probably post a few (Enjoy the bump only photo below).  I'm not much on seeing yourself preggo...I mean my distorted body image makes me think I look great, not gaining much weight.  However, when you see pictures, you really realize how much fluid etc. you've packed on. 

But as for the doctor, she is very happy with how things are progressing.  No more pains, and my weight gain is right on target.  My doctor is a big advocate of not gaining more than the recommended amount.  Anyway, I had my glucose test and more blood work done.  Good news, no gestational diabetes.  Bad news, my red blood cell count is really low, so more iron for me.  I had the same problem with Elizabeth, so it's not so bad.  As long as my blood pressure stays ok, I'll be really happy.  With Elizabeth, my blood pressure dropped and I had to wear these oh so fashionable white compression socks.  They weren't exactly fun... 

My view of Baby Girl to Be.

Max comes home!

Our other kitty, Max, has been staying with my sister until we were able to move (Thank you, Melissa!!).  The week of Christmas we were finally able to bring him home.  Aunt Melissa dropped him off on Thursday night and he settled in fairly nicely, although a little anxious.  Since then he has returned to his old self, and seems very happy.  He and Elizabeth are still buddies, only now Elizabeth constantly wants to know where he is...which is unfortunate for Max's sleeping schedule. :)

Curling up to hear some Christmas stories on Christmas eve.

Elizabeth showing Max a toy he can play with.

New Desk

So to help both Mark and I become successful work from home parents, we've recently purchased a desk.  It is MASSIVE!! But we both love it for that very reason.  It's a great desk for storing enough stuff for two people.  Plus we'll soon be adding a little computer for Elizabeth.  We just recently bought her a toddler keyboard and mouse...next up Reader Rabbit.  So having a big desk that can do so much is really super helpful.  We bought it at Grand's and got a great discount since it was the last one (floor model) then on top of that we got 100 off with our new neighbor coupon.  Mark's parents are also helping us buy it as part of Mark's Christmas gift.  Thank you very much, Mr and Mrs. Crow!!

The cleaning crew arrived!

Christmas season

So the Christmas season began, and we moved into the house.  Once we got settled, we went into Christmas mode.

First Elizabeth went to visit Santa.  She was great and walked right up to him.  She was shy when he spoke to her, but in the end told him she wanted "Presents" for Christmas.  We were able to get a cute picture, and she was so excited that she gave us a thumbs up. Please ignore Santa though.  He was a little bored...we were the ONLY people there.  I guess middle of the day in the middle of the week isn't when most people go (though I would suggest this to parents as the photographer is willing to take multiple pictures).  Anyway, this turned into our Christmas card this year, as we didn't have time to take any pics in front of the tree as usual.

Baking and more baking came next.

So in true Smith/Looney/Bailey women fashion, Elizabeth and I started baking as early as we could.  We started with sausage balls, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, rocky road fudge, and sugar cookies.  It was our hope we would get to take a lot of these to the library Christmas party...but unfortunately an ice storm arrived and we were stuck at home (and the library canceled the party).  We actually ended up giving away a lot of our treats, but we're glad we made people happy.  After our first round, we helped Grammy make the famous fruit cake cookies, and we made some more oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for Aunt Melissa (those are her favorites).  Soon after that came pumpkin roll, more sausage balls, pecan pie, and a lot of regular food.  But Elizabeth definitely is learning a lot.  She can already break an egg without making a huge mess and does well measuring.  Her favorite items to make so far are biscuits and rocky road fudge...mainly because she can pat the dough for the biscuits and try the fudge as we make it (that girl LOVES marshmellows).

Christmas presents

So this year a lot of our Christmas gifts were bought online or in the after Thanksgiving sale.  Not to sound cheap, but Mark and I were money saving fools this year (we have to be considering all the changes we've made this year- WAHM, new house, construction, and new baby on the way).  We brought down our cost considerably by waiting for deals etc.  I've even started using ebates, so whenever we have to buy something online I go through their site.  So far I've earned 20 cash back for just using their site to buy gifts we were already going to buy.  The only downside, no Amazon listed and they usually have the best deals when you figure in shipping etc.  I'm all about the deals now, so much so I think I'm driving Mark crazy, but I know he was excited when he got his free starbucks and extra starbucks presents for much less than usual. ;)

Mark and I also delved in stay up all night to wrapping on several occasions.  We discovered this technique because wrapping with a two year old is a little bit of a challenge, particularly when she wants to "try" different bows until it is perfect.  Plus and I'm sure others will agree, it's easier to do a bunch at once when you have all the stuff out than one gift at a time.  I have to say, two super late nights and I was wishing that stores still wrapped gifts!!

The Nutcracker

Lily, my niece, was in a production of The Nutcracker Ballet.  She was one of the dancing bon-bons and was so adorable.  Elizabeth LOVED seeing her and enjoyed the ballet.  Although she did think that Uncle Fritz was a vampire and announced this to everyone there.  lol.  Elizabeth talked about it for days and still looks at all the pictures in the program.  I guess we'll be doing ballet in a few years...

Losing a special kitty

So we've had some sadness along with the joy this year.  A few days after we moved in we brought Sam kitty home.  Unfortunately, she had been getting sick over the past few months.  The vet said she was just old...there wasn't any main problem to pick out.  That night I'm afraid we lost her.  It was heart breaking, but I'm glad we were with her. 

We adopted her in KY during our first year of marriage.  She was our second cat together (Willie being first).  She has lived at every home Mark and I have made together.  Always pretty and composed, Sam was all cat, but a sweetie too.  She will be greatly missed!!