March Wrap-Up!

March was a great month for our family! We had a few weeks of gorgeous weather! We decided to clean up the yard when the weather was first starting to be nice! The girls were more than willing to help us out!

Playing in the front yard with sticks!

Vivian watching her big sisters!

Caity and Rosie walking along the planter stones!

Vivian and I relaxing!

We decided to reward the girls afterwards with a dilly bar from DQ! (I know that rewarding with snacks is somewhat controversial, but Caitlin asked for some ice cream when we went back inside for the day. I felt she deserved it! And so did Rosalie!) The girls really enjoyed their treats!

On the 10th, Vivian hit another milestone! She ate rice cereal for the first time ever! She did very, very well with it! I started noticing her cluster-feeding and not being content after nursing. I decided it was time to start feeding her rice cereal!

I had my first trial run with Caitlin's birthday cake. She wants a Belle party and with that comes a princess cake! I looked online for different ways to make a dress cake without having to buy a cake mold, but I didn't have the appropriate bowls and cake pans to do so. I broke down and bought a Wilton Dress Cake Pan and it's glorious! The recipe called for only one cake mix in a box, but I'll need two in order to fill the entire pan. I made the yellow gown and it was a lot easier than it looks! I think it turned out fantastic! It was a little disproportional, but Caitlin just LOVED it!

We took the girls out to to park for a picnic and they had a BLAST! Aside from the occasional screaming and throwing sand at each other, they had a fantastic time!

Photo taken through the branches of a pine tree!

On St. Patrick's Day, I made the girls green pancakes with eggs and bacon. They got impatient when it came to the bacon and eggs, so they ate their green pancakes first!

I made Corned Beef and Cabbage for supper. The girls didn't really like it, but that's alright! They ate the potatoes!

For the next few days, we enjoyed the nice weather and took the girls to the park every evening. Caitlin is getting stronger and braver! She can climb a latter all by herself now! Before, she'd need me to stand by her and hold her sides, but it finally clicked! She's getting so big!

It rained a few days, and with the warmer and rainy weather, it means more bugs inside our house. Mainly, spiders. Our house is older and the basement is scary. It was once an outside basement and so there are a ton of bugs and critters (sometimes). Killing spiders has become a regular routine in our home. Let me make one thing clear. I. Hate. Spiders. Absolutely hate them. One morning I was getting ready for a shower when I looked into the tub and found a huge spider trying to climb out. After about 5 minutes of me being completely grossed out, I decided to put it in a jar to show the girls. I wanted them to know what they look like and that if they see one, they need to get Mommy or Daddy to get it. They all had a fun time counting the legs and even naming the thing! Itsy Bitsy!

He met his death when the girls went down for nap. The rule for spiders and other insects in my home is simple. If you're inside my house, game over. They can run, but I tell them, "May the odds be ever in your favor!"... but inside, I'm lying. I don't want them inside my house at all. Ever.

I snapped some cute pictures of Miss Vivian while my other girls were off playing with the spider in the mason jar! Aside from the weird eye reflection in one eye and not in the other, this photo is well captioned! See:

Do you have tickets to the gun show?! I'm all muscle!

Her arms made me laugh! She's so healthy and happy! To be 18 lbs at 5 months is quite an accomplishment! She's just huge! We call her Chubbers! She's rolling all over the floor and kicking herself across the floor! Caity and Rosie get a kick out of her rolling around! They will all lay on the floor and giggle!

Caitlin turned three on March 24th!

We had a fantastic day! I'm dedicating a blog post to her and her party, so I'll leave the details out for now! But I did snap a photo of her after the party! Her and I sat on the porch and she decided to catch our cat Leo!

We're still working on getting her potty trained. We've tried about everything we can think of, but still no progress. One of the perks of potty training her is that we bought her some undies. I can't tell you how hard I laughed when they were being used for the first time...

At least they are being worn! Rosalie just cracks me up! Caity will wear them (the correct way) but only if they are over her diaper. Hopefully she will want to train soon, but that's one of the perks of having the cloth diapers! I don't have to worry about constantly buying diapers! WIN!

I don't really have a reason for this next picture, except that my baby is the cutest baby EVER!

I just love her!

Every 6 months, my church has a world-wide broadcast of General Conference. Since Charles and I have been married, we've watched it at his parent's house. We have never had cable or internet. Since we purchased internet a few months ago, this General Conference was different! We were able to enjoy it in the comfort of our own home with our children! We watched it on the computer! The girls did very well! They started off sitting in their chairs, but after about 45 minutes, they wanted to color! It was a wonderful conference!

Now we are welcoming April 2012 and I'm very excited for Easter! I have some fun stuff planned for the holiday and can't wait to share it with you all!

Happy March 2012!

A lot has happened since I last posted about the start of cloth diapering our girls. I've been going through a lot and it's been hard to put my feelings and emotions into words, let alone update our blog, my Facebook, my craft blog... But I needed to take some time to figure some things out. Before I start in on that, I want to wish my baby girl a Happy 5 Months! Vivian Rane has been with us 5 whole months! Seems crazy! Time has flown by! Here are her 5 month shots!

Caitlin had a hearing test on February 15th, and she failed both tests on both sides. I'm incredibly frustrated with the entire ordeal... Caity has failed every hearing test since she was over a year old. Generally it was because of an ear infection, but when the lady looked inside her ears this time, she said they were really red but clear of wax. I got Caity an appointment on the 17th and took her to see Dr. T. He looked inside her ears and said that they were completely full of wax. (can you see why I was so frustrated?!) Needless to say, he prescribed her some ear drops and we picked up her prescription on the way home.

She did very well when I put the drops in her ears! She stayed still for the drops and the draining!

Rosalie even pretended that she was getting drops! She's so funny!

We are taking Caitlin back in for another hearing test in a week or so. Hopefully she passes...

On February 20th I went to see my doctor for what Charles and I thought was postpartum depression. Turns out, that is exactly what was going on. I have postpartum depression. That was hard pill to swallow, so to speak. I think that in our day and age, people look down on women who have postpartum depression as a sign of weakness or wanting attention. It was hard for me to understand because I am so happy with my life. I have a wonderful husband, three gorgeous daughters, and wonderful support system... nothing is really "wrong" in my life. Why would I be so depressed?! Well, the one answer I got was: It's all chemical. Dr. T put me on an antidepressant/anti anxiety pill that is safe to take while I'm breastfeeding Vivian. I came home from my appointment in a better mood and with a better outlook.

I'm owning it. I have postpartum depression. It sucks. But I'm getting through it.

The little things in life that make me fell better are these things:

Caitlin's drawing of a spider with a belly button!

Vivian trying to eat her feet!

Rosalie's smile and laugh!

My wonderful, handsome hubby!

I have been trying to look on the positive side of things and find things to do that keep me happy. It's been tough... I'm not gonna lie. Some mornings I don't even want to get out of bed. But I know I will be greeting smiling little girls yelling, "Good morning MOMMY!" and that helps me! I think God knows that they keep me going and has allowed me to recognize the blessing in their little smiles!

On February 28th, Caitlin and I had a brand new experience together! She got her hair cut for the first time EVER in her life! I think I was more nervous than she was! As we were getting ready to go, I wanted a picture of her "before" hair and she was upset because she just wanted to go! As you can see here:

Once we got to Smart Style in our Walmart, she did very well while waiting for her turn! She was very excited to get into the chair and wear the "cape"!

Then things got started! She listened very carefully and did everything Nicole asked her to do!

She got about 1 1/2 inches cut! Before Nicole cut her bangs (which I REALLY wasn't too sure of... I HATE bangs), I got a picture! Here's her "Before" and "After" shots!

Before

After

She did so good that we decided to celebrate by taking her out to eat at A&G's Steakhouse! She got the chicken strip kids plate! She enjoyed it! So did Rosalie!

That brings us into MARCH! I've really got to get better about posting this stuff as it happens! Maybe someday I'll be better about it!

Vivian is rolling over! Although I haven't gotten a good picture of it! Her pictures are of her getting fussy after she rolls over! Like these:

The other good side to March finally being here is that our local Dairy Queen reopened after it's winter break! We celebrated that by taking the girls to get a cone! They really, really enjoyed it! Rosie dove right in while Caity took her time with a spoon!

March 2nd was a big day for Rosalie! It was the day she ran out of her disposable diapers and got to wear cloth for the first time! She LOVES the diapers!

Speaking of cloth diapers, I'll give you an update! Things are going really well! I've gotten into a rythm about it and it's working out very well! I wash the diapers right after the girls go down for the night and hang them up to dry before I go to bed. They are ready to go in the morning! We have to order 14 more diapers to keep up with all three girls needing them. 24 was barely working. We were able to get the "lovelace" design that we wanted with the first round of diapers, but cottonbabies.com was sold out of. We ordered them yesterday and they should be here by Thursday!

Caity is close to being potty trained, but we're still working on it.

Rosalie is now letting me do her hair! Up until now, she'd pull anything I put into her hair out. It was frustrating! But she's leaving her hair alone and I'm LOVING IT!

I went to the rerun shop on Saturday and found some great deals on Easter dresses for the girls! I bought a bunch of clothes for under $10! So I decided to put the girls in one of their Easter dresses for Church this past Sunday! Rosalie looked like a cute bubblegum machine and Caitlin looked like Alice in Wonderland!

Vivian is playing more and becoming more mobile! It's a lot of fun to watch her! But it's even cuter when she tuckers out on us!

I've been on my antidepressant for 2 weeks and I'm already feeling much better. Everyday is hit or miss, though. Some days are really good! And some are really bad. But I'm glad I have a wonderful husband to help me through it all. My family and friends have been wonderful to me and I couldn't thank them enough!

As of now, I'm planning Caitlin's 3rd birthday party! Beauty and the Beast theme! I'm pretty excited!

Cloth Diapering Starts NOW!

I don't know exactly when I decided that I wanted to start cloth diapering my kids, but I know it was around the time after Vivian was born. Charles and I need diapers for each girl. When the total was over $60, I looked at him and said that we needed to do some serious changes in how we diaper our girls. We talked to a few friends about switching from disposable diapers to cloth. Now, cloth diapers are not like the ones used back in the day! They are new and awesome! We decided in December that we would use our income tax money to kick-start our new adventure with cloth diapering.

I looked online for some tips and what would be needed to start cloth diapering. I was overwhelmed in a matter of minutes. It is a lot of work. A lot. But having to choose between gas and diapers was becoming a standard issue in our home. Caitlin is still potty training, but she is not ready just yet. We simply cannot afford $120 worth of diapers a month when our extra income is only about $40. Although I was overwhelmed, I found that Cotton Babies was an amazing site that gave me all the information that I needed to start cloth diapering. I also stumbled upon Mama Natural and she has got a ton of YouTube videos that inspired me to want to make the change. That woman and her husband are amazing people! And funny!

I signed up for Cotton Babies and started to fill our cart up with the basics that we'd need for our girls. We bought:

1 x	Flip Potty Trainer Pack 1 trainer, 5 organic cotton pads   - Shell Color / Side Panel Color: Lovelace / White		$34.95
2 x	bumGenius Flannel Baby Wipes		$23.90
1 x	bumGenius Freetime All-In-One One-Size Cloth Diaper 24-Pack		$399.95
1 x	bumGenius Diaper Sprayer		$44.95
1 x	Flip Insert: Stay Dry 3-Pack		$11.95
1 x	Wipe Warmer		$29.99

Then the issue of washing came up. I posted on Cotton Babies' facebook page and asked other Mommas out there what they used for detergent. We found a fantastic deal with Amazon.com for our detergent! We bought:

  Bac-Out w/Foaming Action Sprayer - 32 Ounces - $11.51
 
  Country Save HE Laundry Detergent, Powder, 160 load, 10-lb Boxes (Pack of 4) - $74.99

After some hunting around, we found a good deal and a HUGE drying rack from Walmart! We bought:

  Honey-Can-Do 3-Tier Mesh Top Drying Rack - $28.47

Dealing with the dirty diapers had us trying to decide if we wanted to buy a diaper pail or a hanging wet/dry bag. So I posted on Cotton Babies' facebook page and asked the Mommas what they used. I was referred to Planet Wise Inc. and told that they have some amazing products that make dealing with dirty diapers quite easy, whichever way I wanted to go: diaper pail or wet/dry bags.

We went with the wet/dry bags. Only time will tell if we made a good choice, but we wanted the ease of being able to carry the bag with us to the toilet to spray off the poo from the dirty diapers! We ended up buying:

  Owl Hanging Wet/Dry Bag - $29.99

  Orange Woods Hanging Wet/Dry Bag - $29.99

  Orange Woods Wet/Dry Bag - Medium - $21.00

  Owl Wipe Bag - $10.99

  Lime/Chocolate Wipes - 10 pack - $12.99

All that was left to do was wait for our stuff to come in the mail after we ordered everything! The total cost was around $800, but we will never need to buy disposables again! We are very exited about that!

Our detergent came 2 days after we ordered it! It was 40 lbs worth of detergent! Heavy, heavy box!

I got a call on the 11th that told me that the Lovelace and Albert designs for the bumGenius Freetime All-In-One One-Size Cloth Diapers were on back order. Not gonna lie, I was sad. They wouldn't send my order unless I replaced the diapers with a different color. I replaced the Lovelace with Zinna and the Albert with Moonbeam. But the color that I wanted was actually Mirror. I had the colors switched in my head! But it's all good! When the Lovelace and Albert are available, I will be buying them!

We left for Walmart and picked up the drying rack from the site-to-store counter.

We finally got our diapers in on the 13th! I couldn't wait to open the box!

I blurred our address! :) For privacy reasons!

We opened the box and got very excited to take everything out! It was so neatly packed inside!

We set everything out on the couch while going over the order list and checking off each diaper as we pulled them out of the box. Everything was right! We were happy!

One of the Cloth Diapers!

Caitlin's Flip Potty Trainer pack in Lovelace! (I LOVE it!)

I immediately read up on what I needed to do to prep everything before we used them. Luckily, I had a day to get all the washing done! I had to wash the diapers 5 times in hot water to be sure I'd get the maximum absorbancy from them! I washed the lights, then the darks.

Charles took the Diaper Sprayer and hooked it up in the bathroom. This thing is amazing! The pressure from the sprayer is surely going to get the nasty stuff off our diapers quick!

We got our Wet/Dry bags and Bac-Out Spray the next day!

Orange Woods & Owl Hanging Wet/Dry bags, Orange Woods Wet/Dry bag, Owl Wipe bag, Wipes

I LOVE both designs! I wanted a gender neutral design.

When the first 5 washes were finished, I got out the HUGE drying rack and put all the diapers on it to dry! I put the inserts and wipes through the dryer.

I put the dark diapers in the wash and got 2 cycles in before bed time!

This morning I did the last three hot washes and hung the diapers up. About noon, Caity ran out of disposable diapers, so she was the first one to try out the cloth diapers! (Her trainer inserts weren't dry yet)

Feeling the snaps and giggling!

The diaper is on the biggest setting it can be on! Good thing we bought her the potty trainer!

She's wearing the Mirror color. LOVE IT!

It was nap time then, so Vivian and I got some play time in!

After about an hour of that, she tuckered out on me!

 

That gave me some time to fold all my reusable wipes and figure out a wipe solution I could make homemade!

Wipes stored in a small storage box I bought from Walmart for $0.97!

I ended up calling the Cotton Babies hotline and talking to a representative. I posted on the website, too, and got the same advice. 1 cup of distilled water with a few drops of baby wash mixed in. Soak the wipes in it, squeeze out the excess, roll them up, place them in the wipe warmer. Use within 48 hours. Simple enough for me!

By the time Vivian woke from her nap, she needed a change and we were out of disposables for her, too! She was next up for a cloth diaper!

Happy girl! She went through that diaper in about an hour! But she's been nursing quite frequently the past 2 days! Growing girl! We went to the store and got supper, came home, I made it, we ate it, then it was off to Jenny's house for her birthday party! I was in the process of showing my sister-in-law the inside of the Freetime diaper, when as soon as I opened it up, we saw poop everywhere! I wasn't even at home to spray the diaper off! Charles and I just laughed! We had a disposable diaper leftover in the diaper bag and put that on her to get her through the party. I put Caity into her trainer and brought along a few inserts for her along with the Orange Woods Wet/Dry bag. I put the poopy diaper inside to rinse off when we got home.

As soon as we walked through the door, I headed over to the toilet to spray that beast down! It was fun, I'll admit! Call me crazy! But I think I'm gonna enjoy this cloth diapering thing!

I will continue to post about our tranistion from disposables to cloth as we go! Rosalie still has quite a few disposables left, so that will allow me some time to get into the swing of things before all three girls are wearing cloth! We are very excited and a little nervous, but I know we can do this!

We're gonna get a little dirty along the way! But this is going to be a fun ride! Buckle up!