Christmas time

Our Christmas spreads from the weekend before Christmas with my mom and all my siblings, to Christmas morning breakfast at our house, a typical Christmas dinner with my Dad, and then off to Western PA to visit with my in-laws. It's over a week full of celebrating, which is very exciting for a certain 4 year old in this house. This year, with my sister-in-law due any day around Christmas our typical plans changed and had a quiet day at home on Christmas day rather than rushing off to my Dad's for Christmas dinner. This gave us just enough peace before heading off to Christmas #2 in Western PA.
This was perfect, with Audrey getting a bike (a princess one at that) for Christmas, and Liam getting a push buggy we knew we'd want plenty of time to get outside and play. We had a great day as a family playing with new toys, having family over for breakfast, then going to the park to play, and finishing off the day watching Sound of Music. It was a wonderfully relaxing day while getting our things ready to set off for Western PA.

A New Niece!

We welcomed Carrie Anne Cryer...to our family on December 29th at 6:34pm weighing in at a cute and petite 6lbs 9oz. Unfortunately due to our car breaking down in Cleveland, OH we were unable to meet her on her birthday, but made sure to be there the next day.

I had a difficult time letting go of her that first day, but I look forward to having a lot more snuggle time with this precious little blessing.

Cherie and Carrie are both doing well, and were able to come home yesterday (December 31st) afternoon. Check out Tim and Cherie's blog or Brock and Becca's blog for more photo updates.

Merry Christmas

Enjoy this day as we celebrate our Lord Savior's birth!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Audrey is the talker in this house, she's four and has much to say.

Audrey: The rest of the days before I go to Heaven, I'll eat meat.
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Audrey: Can I marry Liam?
Me: No, he's your brother.
Audrey: I don't mean NOW, I mean when he's a grown up
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Me: Audrey?
Audrey: Not now, I'm dizzy
(when I'm too busy I get dizzy too)

Happy TTT!

Cloth Diaper Review

I entered the cloth diaper ring around Liam's first birthday. I was a little hesitant at first simply because anything new kind of freaks me out, but the idea of saving money was the catch for me. I've heard so many people not into disposables say they were too hard, messy, too expensive, etc... I'm no expert, but I can give you my experience and thoughts on this here blog thingy.

Liam has very sensitive skin, I had tried all kinds of diapers on him, but found Pampers swaddlers, then cruisers was the only way I could go. I didn't always have a coupon when diapers were in need, so I often bought at full price...ouch! I saw a write-up on one of the blogs I follow, and began my research. I had also talked with my Mom, who did cloth diapers with 4 very sensitive bot.toms. One of my friends does cloth diaper, and she loaned me several diapers to try (All-In-One - AIOs). This gave me a good sense of what it would be like from diapering to washing with the nicer brands.

Feeling like I was entering the ring on the late side, and not knowing if we'll have any more children to make the expensive diapers worthwhile, I felt prefolds were the best way to go. I made my initial investment with a 'package deal' of 6 prefolds, two Bummis breathable wraps, and a snappi. It was a very inexpensive way to try out the cloth diapering thing. A couple weeks later (6 diapers was NOT enough to make it worth it), I bought 6 contour diapers (they look like disposables, but need a wrap/cover and a snappi to fasten), 1 additional wrap and two fuzzibunz pocket diapers. With a dozen + 2 diapers I finally felt like I could do the diapering thing and wash every third day...not a problem. I didn't invest in any of the fun accessories they have for cloth diapering these days, since I am trying to keep it simple. Poo.py diapers were always a pain, and quite frankly disgusting to clean. I kept justifying it in my mind that every time I was cleaning another po.o, I was saving money.

My dear husband, although fine with me spending the money for diapers, was NOT on board to change and clean the diapers. So, our initial agreement was for me to use cloth during the day, and use disposables at night. This was fine for a while, then eventually he began learning how to use the cloth and would change the cloth, but refused to clean po.o. This was fine, until I was gone for an evening and Liam was NOT in a disposable, and decided then to make his finally po.o for the evening. Albert was stuck, unless he wanted to leave the diaper lying around in wait for me to get home (hours later). He took on the grotesque job! I'm so proud!

The next morning he told me of his feat, and I couldn't have been more surprised AND happy! He then told me after his experience he purchased a mini-shower sprayer to assure that neither he NOR I would ever have to dunk a diaper into a toilet again...YUCK! What a great man!

My sprayer arrived the other night, and Albert installed it. I loved cloth diapering for the money saved, as well as the results on Liam's sensitive bot.tom. I love it now, because the disgusting issues are no longer a problem, and I can enjoy the ease of cloth diapering.

We still use disposables when we're out (especially at church, where someone else would change Liam), and at night so the disposables still need to be purchased. To try to quantify what my actually spending is on disposables each month, I wrote the purchase date on my calendar. It has been three weeks with a pack of 52 diapers. That's just shy of 2.5 diapers per day. Liam usually goes through 6-8 diapers per day, so we are making a significant difference that way. I think over time I will purchase more diapers so that I'm not having to do as much laundry, therefore cutting down on the water/gas/electricity usage for washing.

Overall I'm very happy we switched. I have had a few leaks, but only because I left the diapers on entirely too long for any type of diaper. I'm always wanting to learn more about care for and better ways to be more efficient with cloth.

So there you have it! I'd love for more people to join the cloth diapering world, so I hope this encourages those of you with the slightest of interest!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Audrey is the talker in this house. She's four and has much to say.

Me: We want to hide God's word in our heart, just like we learned the verse, "I have taken your Word to heart, so I might not sin against you." It's good to learn God's Word.
Audrey: We have to hide it in our heart so that Satan can't find it.
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mocking Daddy's COMPLETE focus on his new iphone...
Me: Honey, Liam stuck his head in the toilet again...would you please get off that thing!
(please hear the sarcasm...this did NOT happen, but wouldn't put it past the child)
Audrey: Mommy, that's a pot.ty talk!
Daddy: Mommy is just teasing Daddy.
Audrey: Liam's head in the toilet is NOT a joke!!!
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Audrey: Peanut butter is made from peanuts.
Me: Yup
Audrey: And Jelly is made from purple goo.
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Audrey turned off the lights in the stairwell at school while walking with one of the teachers.
Audrey: Don't worry, I'll protect you. I can see in the dark. I'm Amazing!
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Looking at the moon...
Audrey: Mommy, do you see the cross in the moon
(there was light reflecting in the window making a cross)
Me: I do!
Audrey: That's heaven's steeple
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Audrey: Cinderella went to the vall.
Me: No, she went to a BALL
Audrey: With a 'V' (sounding it out), VALL
(I've stopped correcting her, the princesses go to the Vall)

Happy TTT!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Audrey is the talker in this house. She's four and has much to say.

Me: (speaking to Liam) Don't get in there, I don't trust you.
Audrey: Mommy, you should only trust God.
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Audrey: Mommy, what kind of fish are bugs?
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Audrey: (introducing herself to a new family at church) Hi, I'm Audrey and I'm silly.

Happy TTT!