Good Bye April

This time of year is always so crazy busy.  I say it every year and we don't even have kids in school yet.  But while it IS so busy it is also so fun!  Graduations, weddings, parties, yard work, sunshine, and summer plans prep.  The days having been flying by and I haven't posted as much as I should.  So here is a quick update on our lives and hopefully I will come back later with more details.

Declin turned 7 months old.  That just seems so old to me.  The boy has a love/hate relationship with the new foods that he is trying.  He definitely does not like textures so we are rethinking our introduction to foods plan.

Jensen is LOVING playing outside.  He prefers no shoes and I love that he will play barefoot.  Also if you are near him in the next few weeks, ask him to say "ball hoop" (basketball hoop)  cutest words ever! He points out every basketball hoop that we see whether we are in the car or in the middle of sacrament meeting.  Oh and he screams/crys/wails whenever we pull into the grocery store parking lot.  The kid hates that I still make him sit in the seat in the cart.

Adalyn asks everyday who we are going to see that day or who is coming to our house.  The girl is just so social and thrives off of being with friends and family.  It makes it kind of hard to be a homebody and not go anywhere when you have a 3 year old who wants to go "somewhere" everyday.  I feel kind of bad that she is not going to an official preschool next year, but I also know that she does not need help with her "social" skills.  We will have fun doing our own preschool and I already have a few play dates/ friend parties planned out in my head.  So she should be good.  She is also into gardening like mommy and daddy.  We bought each of the kids their own little shovels so they have been digging a lot.

Kajsa.  I have found a good daily routine that is working well for us.  I am staying up on the laundry and dishes better then I ever have in the past.  Although on the flip side taking care of 3 kids is getting harder, not easier.  They have me running in 3 different directions these days and their is just not much room for anything else.

McKay is pretty busy at work and has been traveling a little bit more then normal.  He is such a good example to me and has been doing a no sugar challenge at work.  He has stuck to it and in turn has helped me cut back on the sugar stuff that we have around the house.

Our house is in desperate need of a de-clutter and hopefully we will do that in the next few weeks.  Too much stuff makes me a little crazy!

Our yard is to the fun stage and we get to add bushes and curbing this year.  I am so excited!  We planted a few flowers last night on a whim and I have regretted it all day.  I know it is WAY too early to plant here in Idaho, but the warm weather was just whispering in my ear to "do it!".  Maybe we will get lucky and a few of them will survive.

We are also in the middle of refinishing our kitchen table.  Doing this project has made McKay and I realize that we really don't have time for projects these days.  Hopefully we will get it done soon!  It will be nice to not have that lovely oak color for our table anymore.  :)

Hope you all had a good April too!  


     

*Little Things* #2

Did you know that we have two Jensen's living in our house?  No?  Yeah it took me a little while to figure it out too.  

A few months ago Jensen started asking me "Where's Jensen?"  (in his quiet little voice).  I thought it was cute and assumed that he was just playing a game.  But after a few more times of him asking me I realized that he was really asking where Adalyn was.  Then I thought that maybe he was confused and just thought that everyone was called "Jensen".  So I tried to explain that her name was Adalyn not Jensen.  But turns out he just couldn't pronounce Adalyn so he decided to call her Jensen.  The two of them are really good friends so he is always concerned about where she is and I think it frustrated him that he couldn't say her name so he just changed it.  :)

So these days Adalyn responds to the name Jensen whenever he calls her.  Silly guy, someday he will learn to talk full sentences, but until then we will continue to try and understand his wants and needs through his own little language and dramatic voice fluctuations.  

 

And this girl.  She is a great big sister.

    

A New Family Tradition

After listening to general conference over Easter weekend and feeling the spirit so strongly I had a renewed desire to read or listen to the words of our modern day leaders more often.  I get this feeling after every conference and always start out great.  I will read maybe 3-4 talks in a week or two and then sadly I would fissile out and not read the rest.  6 months would go by, conference will come again, and the cycle would start all over.  Well this time is different.

A few weeks ago we start a new family tradition that will help me be able to re listen to many of the talks from general conference.  We started watching one conference talk each Sunday evening (that we are not traveling).  This is a simple goal that will only take 20 minutes a week, but that is good since that hopefully means we will stick to it!  Living away from family our Sunday evenings are pretty low key and we don't usually have any plans.  So this was a perfect time for us to have a new tradition.

We have done it for a couple weeks now and it is working out great.

Love this new tradition that helps us keep the spirit in our home.  Happy Sunday everyone!

 





  

What I Would Buy- Newborn-3 months

Here is a list of my must have (or things I really like) baby items.  After 3 kids I am getting pretty specific (some would call it picky) about what baby items I love/don't love. We started out with lots of different things and have slowly narrowed our "baby stuff" down to our favorites.  All of the things on here I have used with all three of my kids and found to be very helpful.  If you have any of your "favorite" items that I have missed on here let me know, I am sure I will be able to use them in the future. ;)

This list is of the things that I use for my babies when they are newborns to 3 months old. 

1. Carseat and stroller combo.  We have this chicco Car seat (although ours is a different color).  I started out not loving the chicco carseat.  It seemed extra heavy and doesn't click into the grocery carts.  But over time I have grown to love it and will probably will buy a Chicco again (although I might get a Britax, the jury is still out).  The fabric on it is wipe able, washable, and super durable.  I have tried to take good care of our car seat and after 3 kids it still looks really good.  Buy a car seat/stroller combo seriously!

2. Crib.  I don't have a lot to say in this area.  We have 2 cribs and both of them are used (they even have drop side rails... gasp!).  We made sure they were both the same color so that we can mix and match them in our kids bedrooms.  One of our cribs can turn into a toddler bed and we really like that feature because who wants to store a toddler bed and a crib?  Jensen is still in a crib and so is Declin.  We took Adalyn out of her crib early, and we will not make that same mistake with Jensen :)  He will have to climb out before we change it to a toddler bed.  Ya we are wimps...

3.  Burp Cloths.  You need lots of these.  I have cute ones that go in the diaper bag with us when we leave the house.  Then I also have a large stack of Gerber Cloth diaper prefolds from Walmart that sit next to the chair that I nurse in.  I use them all the time in those first few weeks of my milk coming in.  I leak a lot when my newborn and I are adjusting to nursing.  I also use them for diaper explosions, the endless amounts of spit up, and nose wiping.  They are great.  :)

4. Swaddling blankets.  I like having light thin blankets to use when swaddling a newborn or when I need a quick nursing cover.  We have Aden and Anais ones from Target but may get some from the Little Unicorn company in the future.

5. Other Blankets.  I love homemade blankets for my babies.  I could look at homemade quilts and blankets ALL day.  Seriously my favorite.  We have been given several beautiful blankets.  But when we need a few more blankets to fill in the gaps I find that Ross and TJ Maxx have the best prices on cute ones.  I don't like too thick of ones because I find that we don't use them very often.  

6.  Swing.  A swing is a great thing to have with a newborn.  We have an older version of this Graco swing and it has been great.  It is battery operated which can be a problem when they run out, but so far ours have lasted a long time so it hasn't been a big issue.  I like a swing without a lot of gadgets, but ours does have a white noise/music maker attached which my babies have all loved.  Especially Declin to drown out the sounds of the older kids while they play.

7. Bouncer.  Along with the swing a bouncer is nice to have to move around the house or yard with you so that you always have a place to put the baby.  Our bouncer was a used one from a family member and it worked great for our first 3 kids, but we will have to buy a new one on our next baby.  Ours had a vibrator on it and Adalyn LOVED the vibrator.  Sadly it broke half way through Jensen's turn with it and we have missed it ever since.  Having a toy bar on it is nice too for when your baby is interested in looking at things but can't quite get their arms to grab a toy yet (about 2-4 months old).  I am thinking of buying this one or maybe this one. 

8. Pack and Play.  We travel lots and so we knew we wanted a pack and play to use as a portable crib.  It is also nice to have around the home for the first few weeks of having the baby home too.  With Adalyn we had an upstairs and a downstairs so we set up a little changing area downstairs to have her nap in and to change her diaper.  With Jensen we would put the bouncer INSIDE the pack and play to keep him safe from Adalyn in the living room.  With Declin we used the pack and play as a bassinet in our room that he slept in for the first 4-6 weeks.  So as you can see it has many options.  We have one like this and love the extra cradle thing.  Our babies have all slept really well in the cradle that comes with it.   

    

9. Clothes.  Obviously your baby will need some clothes.  What size to buy, in what season, and trying to guess your child's size can be quite an ordeal sometimes.  lol  I love buying baby clothes so I have enjoyed the challenge of find the perfect thing.  Some of the tricks that have helped me are to sign up for emails for some of the children's clothing stores and then you can know when they are having a good sale and you should stock up.  Never pay for shipping though.  They will always have free shipping days.  My favorite stores to get emails from are Carters, Childrens Place, Old Navy, Gymboree (only their clearance), Gap (clearance here too), and Target.  Lots of my friends love Kohls.  I have not really connected with Kohls... not sure why.  I used to do a ton of garage sales and second hand stores.  I don't love garage sales as much these days, but I still do second hand stores like Kid to Kid.  For new babies it is tempting to buy the cute little jeans and button up shirts.  I bought a lot of trendy little clothes in the beginning.  But really they are jut hard to get on your little baby and they aren't very comfortable for them to wear.  So save the fancy outfits for Sundays and just stick with the comfy basics most days (I really need to take my own advice here).  Luckily these days leggings and t- shirts are in style.  When I was having Adalyn my friend suggested to me to mostly buy 2 piece outfits so that it is easy to change the baby's diaper.  Carters has the best PJs, Childrens place has really good quality church shirts for little boys in their uniform section, Target and Old Navy have the cutest infants sections.  Buy a size ahead when the seasonal items are on clearance.  Clearance shopping has saved me a lot of money.  

  

10.  Bottles.  I mostly have nursed my babies, but occasionally a bottle is needed.  We love our Avent bottles.  They only have 3 pieces involved and they are good quality that lasts even after going in the dishwasher over and over again.  Although I did just see that they came out with a glass bottle.  So we may have to invest in some of those someday.

11.  Boppy.  I use my boppy less and less with each baby, BUT I still think it is REALLY nice to have at the hospital and the first few weeks of nursing.  Those first few weeks you are weak and not used to the nursing position.  It is nice to have extra support while you figure it all out.  Especially when each feeding can take up to 45ish minutes in the beginning.  I also love using it when I want to just sit and cuddle the baby while watching TV or reading a book.  

12. Changing pad and diapers.  We love using the top of a dresser as our changing station.  For the first year it is nice to have a place off the floor to change your baby's diaper.  After that we find that it is easier to change our toddlers on the floor since lifting them up on the changing station is more work then kneeling down.  This changing pad is really nice to have.  It is soft and comfy for the baby.  As for diapers we love Huggies for the first few months.  We have less leaks with them.  Especially with our boys.  We go through a large box (200+ diapers) a month. for newborns.  Fun right?!  Oh and we love Sams Club wipes or my second choice is the Walmart brand wipes.  

13. Bath tub.  We have a baby bath tub.  But if I were to buy one again I would just get a bath sponge that just goes straight in the bath tub.  It will save you storage space.

14. Lotion and Baby wash.  This is still an area that I haven't fully found something that I love.  Both Adalyn and Jensen have eczema and often have reactions to the normal baby wash and baby shampoos.  We have found that Cetaphil lotion works great and doesn't cause break outs (yet).  Plus all ages can use it so no more buying a million different products.  We also use Cetaphil's body wash to wash them in the shower.  But I have still not found a good replacement baby shampoo for their hair.  I am going to try this shampoo this week so we will see how it works... 

15.  Binky.  We give our babies a binky in their first 3 hours of life.  Yeah we like binkies and we want them to like binkies too.  We have used the Nuk kind with Adalyn and the Mam kind with the boys.  Each time we had a baby we brought the binky to the hospital with us and introduced them to the babies a few hours after birth.  They all had a preference of which one they would use.  None of them have liked the binky that they give to you in the hospital.  

16. No scratch mittens.  Your newborn will not have much control over their arms and hands in those first few weeks.  If you don't cover up their hands they will scratch themselves a lot.  Scratches aren't cute on your sweet little baby's face.  Buy some mittens.  My babies lived in them for the first few months of life until they gained more control of their arms.

17. Diaper Bag.  I still miss having a cute purse, but a diaper bag is so much easier to carry when you have baby stuff to haul around.  I love that all moms start out with a huge diaper bag with their first child and then by their last they are just back to using their own thing and just throwing a diaper inside a purse.  I am not quite back to the purse stage yet since I have several little babies and toddlers I still find a diaper bag to be helpful but I have definitely toned things down from my massive diaper baby that I had with Addie.  I had a Petunia Picklebottom bag with Addie and it was very functional and nice.  Today I have a Sage and Harper bag and I REALLY like it.  My mom gave it to me when I had Jensen and it is still holding up great 2 1/2 years later.  I will probably buy another Sage and Harper bag in the future.  We will see.  Oh and yes I am crazy and color coordinate my diaper bag to my infant carseat.  Don't you? lol

  

So that is my list of favorite baby items.  Now tell me, did I miss anything?  What are your favorite things when you bring a newborn home?

     

  

    

             

     

  

   

  

    

Easter 2015

The week before Easter McKay was out of town and I was flying solo with the kiddos.  3 Kids 3 and under is actually getting harder as Declin gets older.  He is mobile now and so I can no longer set him down and walk away to chase after the other two kids.  Leaving the house by myself with them is still doable, as I hope it will always be, but it is a lot harder.  So our week before Easter was fairly uneventful.  The most exciting things that we did were go ride the motorized animals at the mall with my friend Natalie and her kids followed by a picnic at the park and then we had a few Easter egg hunts in the basement.  That was about all I could muster up the energy for.


The kids loved the animals at the mall and were actually not too bad at driving them.  Cole even gave Declin and I a ride and it was pretty fun if I do say so myself.  :)  Thanks Natalie for getting us out of the house.

Our Easter egg hunts in the basement were laid back, but the kids loved them, especially since I let them have real candy in the eggs.  We went to the store one day and they each got to pick out a package of eggs and then get some candy to fill them.  They helped me fill them up and then I hid them.  They played it over and over again.  It was good practice for the real deal on Saturday and Sunday.

Oh and we did wear our new Easter outfits to church the week before Easter.  Love matching my kids!  This year purple was the winner!

Jensen boy

 Mr Declin

Sweet Addie

They sure make life fun!

Daddy got home late Friday night and we were so excited to see him!  Then early Saturday morning (the day before Easter) the Easter bunny made his appearance at our house.  Just like McKay's Easter bunny as a kid, our Easter bunny hides the kids baskets around the house for them to find.  They loved finding them and dug right in to the jelly beans that the Easter bunny brought.  This years Easter bunny tried to not bring very much candy so only a couple plastic eggs were left in their baskets.  It was nice to not feel overloaded on sweets.  (ofcourse the next day we went to grandmas house and her Easter buuny did leave lots of candy so we still had plenty.)  lol  You just can't win!

p.s. love this picture of our sleepy Declin.  He didn't have a clue about what was going on.

Declin got some bibs and some little toy farm animals

Addie and Jensen helped daddy and I open our basket.  Daddy got the colorful wooden ball puzzle toy.  I got some new exercise capris (McKay got them for me on his trip).  We both got a bag of Cadbury eggs to share.  :)  

Jensen with a mouthful of jelly beans got a magnetic car puzzle, a mini basketball hoop, and some toy animals.  

Addie got some chalk, dot paints, and some toy ocean animals

Saturday afternoon after the first session of general conference we packed up and headed to Evanston for the rest of the Easter/ conference weekend.  We had a nice visit with McKay's dad and mom and some of his siblings.  The kids got some nice Easter baskets Sunday morning and we enjoyed watching and listening to conference.  

Declin hanging out with Grandpa

Jensen and his 2nd Easter basket.  What a sweet grandma these kids have! 

Sadly Adalyn got sick in the middle of the night on Saturday and spent all day Sunday being miserable.  The whining was taken to a whole new level and she did not want to be in any pictures.  (it was slightly painful for all involved)

The kids got to do another egg hunt in between conference sessions on Sunday.  A real live bunny even made its appearance for the occasion.  Such is life on a farm :) 

After Conference we drove home.  The drive was painful and I am just recovering from it.  haha  Addie threw up, cried almost the whole time, and it just felt down right slow.  We don't usually stop on our drives to and from Evanston, but this time we stopped in Lava and had a little picnic and went for a little walk.  We all loved getting out of the car and stretching for a minute before the last hour drive to home.  

Fun, busy, blessed weekend!  Happy Easter everyone!