Frugal Friday: Cloth Diapers

Since Ellie is almost 5 months old, I figure it's time to start using cloth diapers. I had intended on using them since she was born, but never got around to getting some. There are just so many choices out there! It can be kind of overwhelming. I did get lots of advice from some friends who have used cloth, and did lots of research on my own. The other day when I was browsing on craigslist (I LOVE craigslist!) I came across someone selling some gDiapers. I had seen these in Whole Foods before, but didn't know much about them. So I looked them up on Google to find out more.
They are totally cool! Basically they are a cover that you can put either a cloth insert or a tossable/flushable/compostable insert in. I thought that is totally something I could do! We could use the cloth inserts for at home, yet have the convenience of disposables on the go. So, I decided to get a couple from the gal on craigslist to try. Much cheaper than ordering new, so I'm not out much if I decide I don't like these ones.
Now, I just have to get some inserts and we'll be good to go! Will let you know how it goes and if they are any good. I hope they work well. I really would like to stop using disposables. We could save so much money by not buying diapers every month! That excites me! Frugal, frugal, frugal! And the added bonus: gDiapers are sooo cute!

I would love to hear about YOUR cloth diapers if you use/have used them!

Music to my ears!

Now that we have been finishing up some of our projects and getting our house back in order we were finally able to move our piano inside!
Hooray!!
Hannah had been praying for a piano for awhile, and her prayers were answered about a month ago. A friend of ours works at a group home and she was trying to get rid of the piano and posted it on Facebook...for free!! So we borrowed a trailer and went and got it. Of course, it had to sit in the garage for awhile since our house was turned upside down. But now it is finally inside!
We need to get it tuned and hopefully we can fix a couple of the keys. However, Hannah has been enjoying it nonetheless and it has been fun to listen to her play. I've also played it a little bit when Hannah lets me have a turn. Feels so good to "tickle the ivories" as my Daddy would say. I'm excited to have music be more a part of our house than ever before.

Oh, and Ellie loves to listen to it too. She was sitting on my lap watching Hannah play the other day and it almost sounded like she was singing!

Update:

Hannah did it!!! She went poop on the potty this afternoon!!

(Wow, you can really tell I've become a mom...all this talk about poop and pee!)

Potty Time!!!

This week we started working on potty training with Hannah. She definitely seemed like she was ready for it since she was telling me when she was going in her diaper. So I took her to Target on Sunday night to find a potty seat and another package of panties. (We already had some panties from last summer when we tried working on potty training). She picked a Dora Princess seat and Elmo/Sesame Street panties. She was VERY excited to try it all out! Unfortunately, when she woke up Monday morning she didn't want to have anything to do with it and ran and got a diaper out of the drawer and started throwing a fit. Not sure how we eventually got around that bump, but we did and she conceded to wearing her panties. Yay! We started with just setting the timer for about every 40 minutes, and went about our day. She had a couple of accidents, but that is to be expected. She was very good about stopping her play when the timer beeped and running to the bathroom for "potty time".
For the last two days Hannah has stayed completely dry with no accidents! AND she is telling me when she needs to go! No more timer!! I do try to keep an eye on the clock to make sure she is going regularly though. She has even managed to keep her diapers dry at nap time and when we have to go out. One night she even stayed dry all night!

I AM SO PROUD OF MY BIG GIRL!!!

Now we just need her to go poop on the potty...............

Craft "Room"

Hello, all! I've been so terrible at finding time to write daily on here, so there's lots of catching up to do. (Who really has time when you have a 4 month old, and a 2 1/2 year old???) Anyway, I'm doing my best. I've found this week that nap time is my best time to write a few words. And my goal is to write everyday M-F, but please forgive me if I miss a day...or two. Anyway, I just HAD to share with you about my new favorite place in the house! Along with remodeling our entry way, we also had another project going on: turning our big hall closet with shelves piled full of stuff into a neatly organized craft "room". Okay it's not really a ROOM, but it is my own space to work on my crafts...sewing, card making, scrapbooking, etc. Yes, I know, quite ambitious...or wait, was that crazy? Either way, our house was a complete disaster. I had never lived in such disarray before! LOL I tend to be a perfectionist, and to have piles of stuff all over my house, and dirt and dust piling up everywhere because we couldn't get to anything or clean anything was almost too much. I kept reminding myself that this was all for good, and in the end we'd be even more organized than before. And we are. You already saw pictures of the entry way and our lovely new shelves in there. Here's some pics of my new craft area. I'm terrible at remembering to take "before" pictures until we're already well into the project, so there's only one to kind of give an idea of what it was like before the transformation.
Oh, can I just add, I LOVE Ikea!!! Okay, that's all. Have a blessed day!

Hall closet before....you can see where the shelves used to be. They were huge shelves that were hard to keep organized.

After...the view down the hall.

Under the desk...storage for my fabric and stamping supplies.

Butcher block counter top from Ikea. Still have a few things I need to put away.

Elissa is 4 months old!

My little Elissa is now 4 months old as of January 1st. Time flies by so quickly! And she is growing like a weed! At her 4 month check-up she was 24.5 inches long and she weighed 12 pounds 12 ounces. She is such a good baby, and very happy almost all of the time. But she sure lets you know when she's not happy!
She rolls over from her tummy to her back and almost makes it from her back to her tummy. She holds herself up very well when she's having tummy time and loves to play with her toys on the floor. She also likes to sit in her exersaucer and play when Mommy is making dinner. And she loves to laugh at Sissy and Bubba...she thinks they are great!
I think she is about to get her first tooth. She's been waking up a lot in the night again, her nose is runny and she is constantly chewing and sucking on whatever she can get in her mouth! Hopefully soon we'll see a little white tooth poking through!

I love you, Ellie!!! xoxoxoxo

We're getting organized!!!

We've been working on a lot of home improvement projects lately...a seemingly endless list sometimes. Tiling, texturing, painting, etc. We've been doing it all. One thing I've found is that things are NOT EVER as easy as they make it look on HGTV.
And projects never get done when you think they will. When we took on remodeling our entry we thought we'd have it done in a week. Ha! Here it is 2 months since we started and we are still not done. The tile went down great, the texture and paint went up on the walls with ease. We also wanted some shelves, shoe cubbies and a bench. I drew up some plans of what we wanted and my wonderful hubby set off to try to build it. We ran into some trouble here since neither of us are so great at building things, so decided it would be best to delegate this task to Matt's brother-in-law. After all, he made our beautiful built-in shelves and entertainment center so we knew whatever he built would be awesome. And it is!!!
Matt went down on Monday to pick it up. Now it is nicely installed in our entry way, cubbies filled with shoes and shelves with baskets to keep everything organized. I love it!
Now, the only things left is to put up the new baseboard and new trim around the door and our entry way is done! On to the next project!! :)

Plants, plants, plants!

This week I started working with Hannah in a Boz the Bear workbook that somebody had given us. It is perfect for her as there are lots of Bible stories and lessons to go along with workbook pages. She loves stories and she loves coloring! Our first lesson for this week is on all of the plants that God created and how they help us and animals. We read the story of creation from Genesis, played a color game where we had to think of the different plants God made of different colors, did a worksheet coloring apples, and made an apple stamp painting. We also took a walk at a local park and looked at some plants. So glad it wasn't raining! It was wonderful to get outside!
Hannah was so excited to do her "school work" today, and I am looking forward to sharing more learning times with her.
We are not worried about being very structured as we go through this since she is only 2 1/2 right now. However, since she really enjoys "work books" and such I figured this would be a fun way to guide us a little bit in exploring our world and spending time together learning. Of course, we tell Ellie all about everything we are learning too. :)

Oh, and since we are on the subject of plants.....I got my Burpee seed catalog in the mail the other day!!! Yippee!!! Time to start planning my garden for this year and ordering my seeds. I am so excited! I learned a lot last year and am looking forward to growing another, hopefully better, garden. I'm not sure where I'm going to do it, but I'm hoping to grow my own plant starts this year to save money, since seeds are cheaper than buying the plants from the garden center. Will keep you posted on how that goes. Now, to find the time to plan.....hmmmm....

Snow!!!

Hannah and her snowman.

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope the end of your 2009 was blessed, and 2010 is off to a great start for you. We finished off 2009 by celebrating my wonderful hubby's birthday on the 28th and 5 inches of white, beautiful snow the next day that stuck around till New Year's Day. Hannah loved the snow and would have probably stayed out playing in it all night if we had let her. She and daddy made snow angels, I helped her make a snowman, and we all enjoyed some fresh snow cones with pomegranate juice. Thankfully snow doesn't stay around here too long. People out here freak out when it snows and they don't know how to drive in it. A few snowflakes usually shut down the whole metro area! Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration...

With the new year I am going to try to consistently update my blog. Although I can't make any promises. With a baby and a toddler, life can certainly take some crazy turns!

Here's hoping your year ahead is blessed!

Ellie's first snow.

My Hannah Girl. She loves the snow.

The view out our front window. Beautiful!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Praying you all have a beautiful, blessed Christmas celebrating the birth of our wonderful Savior, Jesus!
Love,
Matt, Amber, James, Hannah and Ellie xoxo


"...Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Luke 2:10-14


Jesus is the reason for the season!