2016, the year I will document the real Grigsby life

There are SO many updates to write, but here's the quick and dirty. David and I are the parents of 4 (WHAT?) kids now! Ellie is 5, Cameron and Kyle are 3 and sweet baby Jane is just 6 weeks old. Life with 4 kids age 5 and under is madness, exhausting, busy, chaotic, beautiful and the best thing we've ever done. You think adding that 4th child is going to be absolutely crazy, but for us it just adds beauty and joy to our already crazy life!

I share loads of pictures of my kids on social media, but I haven't taken the time to write the stories behind the pictures, shared my thoughts and feelings of motherhood and really documented our lives. I'm going to share the real Grigsby life here for anybody who wants to read it. The good, the bad and the ugly. I hate reading about and seeing seemingly-perfect lives because they put the idea into my brain that I'm not good enough, organized enough and fun enough, so that's not what you're going to get here.

I hope you'll enjoy reading about the crazy Grigsby life as much as I know I'll enjoy writing about it!

Ellie's Room 90% finished

I finally took some good pictures of Ellie's room! I love how it turned out, and I just need a headboard, dust ruffle and a bean bag chair for the corner, then we'll be set! Possibly thinking of making a cute bunting to go on the wall somewhere, but not 100% sure, yet!

 I picked up the white frame at Hobby Lobby on our girl's day, and I LOVE it. Also, I LOOOVE that picture of Ellie. She was (and still is) such a little cutie!

 The dresser that I refinished last summer. Not perfect, and I learned a LOT if I ever decide to do one again.

I had these wall stickers for her nursery when we lived in Utah, but they were so trashed after being on 3 different bedroom walls! I found them at Hobby Lobby! Woohoo! I love that I found them again because I love the little touch the add to her room.

I'm considering dying the blackout curtains a dark brown, but I'm not sure how the fabric will take it so that project is on hold for now.

Her quilt is so cute, and while it is FAR from perfect, I am glad I took the project head on and decided I could try it. It took way longer than a quilt should take, ha ha, but it's done and that's all that matters!

I think Ellie's room is probably the most decorated/cutest room in the house. Someday I'll get to furnishing and decorating the rest of our house...

Ellie's 2nd birthday: part 2

On the day before Ellie's birthday, we took her out to breakfast to Cracker Barrel. She had a ton of fun & loved looking at everything in the store!

The morning of her birthday, I made pancakes, and I made a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake for her. She LOVED it!

 

We had some fun and played with her during the day, but it was a pretty typical day.

We had Mexican casserole for dinner, which is her favorite meal, and she ate a TON of it, like always.

I made her a boiled black cake, and we FaceTimed with Grandma & Grandpa Timothy so they could help sing Happy Birthday to her.


 

She loved the attention and only wanted the ice cream (just like last year!!) until her hands got way too cold for it!



We had a great low key day and had a lot of fun with our sweet little girl! Happy Birthday, Ellie! We sure love you!

Girl's day out

This mama needed a break from having babies attached to me at every moment of the day, so on David's day off last Friday (2/1/13) Ellie and I had a girl's day out!

David was sweet enough to make me some scrambled eggs & toast for breakfast and bring it to me in bed. :) What a happy start to a fun day!

First up, we went to OP Nails and Ellie got her fingers and toes painted, while I got a lovely pedicure. It had been about 11 months since I last had one, so it was LONG overdue!

Ellie didn't like holding still, and the poor guy kept saying, "Hold still, Ellie. No, Ellie, like this" ha ha!

Pink fingernails!

Ah, cute toes and feeling rejuvenated!

After that, we headed to Kingsport and ate at Panera. Ellie loved her Mac & Cheese, and we each got a Valentine's cookie to enjoy after lunch. MMM. Panera is one of my favorite places to eat! I especially LOVE their Broccoli Cheddar soup!

After we ate lunch, we headed to Hobby Lobby, where I was hoping to find some cute glass bins for the laundry room, but they didn't have quite what I was looking for, so we bought an adorable white frame, and some wall stickers for Ellie's room.

We headed home after shopping because we were both tired, and the babies were getting hungry and I didn't have another bottle for them. Ellie fell asleep on the way home, like I hoped, and we had a good rest of the day.

It was a much needed break, and I am so thankful that my sweet husband stayed home with our boys so I could get out and have some freedom!

I should have taken a picture of us while we were doing other things, but I only got pictures of our feet and Ellie during our pedicures.

I'm looking forward to the next girl's day I have with my little sweetheart! She loves the attention, and needs the one-on-one time, since she doesn't get it at home as much since the babies are so needy.

Ellie's 2nd birthday: part 1

We celebrated Ellie's birthday while we were at the guest house in Oneida, and we had a lot of fun with everybody.

Ellie is really into Minnie Mouse, so we let her wear her Halloween costume, which is a Minnie Mouse dress, and she loved it. We let her open presents & she got so many fun things from her cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents & mommy & daddy. 

We sang to her and had cake and ice cream, and she had a GREAT time!!

Here are some pictures of her birthday party in Oneida:

Grandpa Grigsby, Grandma Grigsby & Ellie

 Having so much fun opening presents!

Precious moments 2 year figurine

Brave coloring book

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

 Lego Duplo set

 Maggie and Ellie playing

I had planned to do a cute cake & maybe cupcakes, but we left Oneida early for a few reasons, so Ellie's aunt was nice enough to pick up a cake and balloons from Wal-Mart and we celebrated anyway!

It was a great day, and Ellie loved being the center of attention, maybe even a little too much! I'll have to come back and add the video later, when I get it uploaded. She was hilarious to watch!

Ellie: 2 years old

Two years ago (and a little bit...) I did the hardest thing I had done yet, and welcomed Ellie RaNay Grigsby into this world on her due date!

It was a perfect day, and EVERYTHING went exactly how I wanted it to go. Life was perfect, and we had our beautiful little girl!

Two years later, every day is a new adventure full of tantrums, whining, the occasional laughing fit, DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA, and a hug and a kiss whenever possible.

Notable things about Ellie at age 2:

• Everything is "Ellie's" and she points to herself when looking at something and calls it her own
• She has quite the vocabulary and is starting to put more words together
• She LOOOOOVES her baby dolls
• My Russian Nesting dolls are her favorite toy ever
• She loves to be girly and have her nails painted, hair done, and wear dresses and bracelets!
• She LOVES her cousin Isaac and talks about him ALL the time
• She loves to play with Grandpa Grigsby and asks for him
• She loves to FaceTime with Grandma & Grandpa Timothy
• Dancing is her favorite way to get around
• She is clearly addicted to television and Netflix. Working on changing that...
• She is VERY active and has tons of energy. She loves to go outside and just RUN RUN RUN!
• She likes to sing songs and will sing along with any song playing, and she'll get the hymn book and sing songs from it
• If either one of us is on the phone, she will grab her play phone and talk on it while we're talking
• She is getting better at saying prayers and repeating things, though sometimes she just sits there and says "amen" until you get to the end
• She is wearing size 24 month clothes, size 6 shoes, some 2t size clothes, size 4 diapers and only has a mild interest in potty training.
• She still takes a 1-2 hour nap, and I am SOOOO thankful for this!
• She sleeps in a twin size big girl bed and LOVES it. We think she's fallen out a few times, but she always gets right back in and goes to sleep, ha ha!
• Her favorite foods are: scrambled eggs, apples, blueberries, Greek yogurt, green beans, goldfish crackers, milk and smoothies. She is getting better at eating meals and will eat a lot more meat than she used to.
• She is SUPER obsessed with putting her shoes on.
• She loves her little brothers, and is always trying to help, even when her help isn't wanted...
• She loves taking baths, and anything else to do with water
• Her favorite toy is her Minnie Mouse car
• She is a pretty good listener, and talks ALL the time
• She's good at carrying a tune!
• She loves to help me whenever she can, and I love to let her learn how to do simple chores around the house
• She's very much so a mommy's girl, but she gets SO excited when daddy comes home from work, she runs and gives him a hug.
• She's always asking, "Hold it" when she wants me to hold her, or if she wants to hold one of the babies.
• She likes to lay down next to the babies, and thinks it's the neatest thing ever
• She says, "Down you" when she wants you to lay down next to her
• She's extremely possessive of her things. The babies CANNOT play with her old baby toys, or use her blankets AT ALL.
• She can almost get herself dressed, and she can put certain pairs of shoes on her feet and 85% of the time gets the right feet.
• She loves to go "buy-bye" with me and usually behaves extremely well when we're out and about
• She can count to 10, with just a tiny bit of help
• She knows a LOT of her letters
• She knows lots of colors and I think her favorite is either pink or green. Not sure yet...
• She has a GREAT imagination and uses it all the time when she's playing by herself
• She is getting MUCH better at playing by herself
• She loves to go to church, and specifically, Nursery

That's Ellie at 2 in a nutshell. I know there are probably more things, but I cannot think of what they are right now. She's a little firecracker that keeps us on our toes, but she is so much fun. Even though she makes the days really hard, I am so thankful that I have her in my life. She brings our family so much joy and happiness!

Ellie: 23 months

Less than one month and my baby girl turns two!? How has time gone by that fast!!?

Ellie's a sweetheart, and we love her to death! She has really grown up these past few months since I was on bed rest and the babies got here. She is a good little helper and at times she throws the biggest fits, but hey...she's 2...

Here are some things about Ellie at 23 months:

• She wears 24 month clothes, size 5 shoes and size 4 diapers.
• She loves to eat bananas, apples, clementines, dried apricots, raisins, peas, green beans, yogurt and pretty much any other fruit! She's starting to eat meat more, and loves rotisserie chicken.
• She's very accommodating and has done surprisingly well with the twins' arrival.
• She no longer uses a binky! WOOHOO! Mostly due to the fact that my mom was strict with it while she was here. There were times I wanted to give in, but my mom wouldn't let me and now I'm glad because she's off of them!
• She sleeps in a twin size bed and LOVES her bed!
• She loves to talk all the time and most of the time we have no clue what she's saying.
• She loves to hold her brothers and help out any way she can.
• She also loves to scream when they scream and mimic them. It's super annoying.
• She loves to dance and play with anything.
• She has great rhythm and likes to tap her toes to the beat of a song.
• Netflix is her best friend and she totally knows how to play stuff if it's already turned on. This is a good and a bad thing.
• She frequently plays baby with her dolls and loves to put them in the swings, car seats and bouncy seat.
• She waits until we go get her to get out of her bed in the morning and for naps. It's amazing. 
• She sleeps from about 8-9 and usually takes a 2-3 hour nap.

My time is limited, but these are the most memorable things I can think of about her. She is a sweetheart even though she keeps us super busy. I love that she is getting better at listening, even if it's just for a short time! We love her so much and are so happy she's a part of our big little family.

Ellie: 21 months

Now that half of October is over, I suppose I should update about my sweet baby girl who isn't much of a baby at all anymore!

She turned 21 months old (gasp!) on Oct. 1st and seeing as I was in the hospital at the time, I didn't update ANYTHING about her on the blog. And because of circumstances being as they are, I have virtually NO pictures of her for the month! I need to have David take some of her so this month isn't completely lame! ha ha

Here is one pic I managed to get before going on bed rest.

Ellie LOVES to play with her baby. She takes such good care of it and loves to put it "night night" and take it with her everywhere. She also loves to put it in the doll swing we have and push it around in the doll stroller. She's such a girl! :D I'm hoping since she loves her baby so much she'll love her little brothers!!

She is growing up so much and loves to chitter chatter ALL DAY LONG! Don't get me wrong, it's cute, but sometimes I want to just say, Ellie, can you just stop talking for five minutes!? Totally my child! She's rambunctious and very full of energy. She keeps us on our toes most of the time and she's always thinking one step ahead!!

 Pic at the hospital when Ellie and David came to visit me! Daddy even did her hair all by himself. I'm proud.

Here are some notable things about Ellie at 21 months:

• She is about 31.75-32 inches tall and weighs ~24.5 lbs
• She's fits into size 18 month clothes, but due to weather changing we've had to put her in some 24 month and 2T, and while it's big on her, it's not too bad.
• She wears size 4 diapers and size 5 shoes. (And size 6 and 7 and Mommy's size 8)
• She's obsessed with shoes. She loves to put them on and take them off but if she gets frustrated she will scream and bite the shoe or bang her head on the floor. I wish I knew how to stop the head-banging. We've been trying lots of different things, and I think it's getting better somewhat. She just doesn't know another way to show her frustration, darn it!
• She loves to watch shows but boy is she picky. She'll throw a giant fit if you didn't pick what she wanted. She also may or may not know how to run Netflix and the Wii remote...oops!
• She is incredibly smart and pays attention to detail. She likes to organize her blocks in a particular way then knock them down. 
• She's still a picky eater, but we're branching out to some new foods! I need to get her to eat more veggies, but with all the stress that's going on in our family right now I don't want to freak her out more by trying to change up her eating.
• She had her 1st dentist appointment at the end of September and her teeth are perfect! She hated going to the dentist and cried a ton when they were checking her teeth and cleaning them. Poor girl :( Hopefully she doesn't remember the next time we have to go! She at least got an awesome big red bouncy ball for going!
• She loves to make up little songs and hum them all the time. It is super adorable, and if you hum a tune to her, she can hum it back keeping on tune. I'm proud she has my ears and possibly my sense of pitch! Yay.
• She gets very intrigued watching complex things, like someone playing the piano, the Drs. and nurses at the hospital doing anything. She also loves to take pens apart and tries to put them back together. It makes me think she has her daddy's engineering brain.
• She's a champion sleeper most nights as long as she's not feeling sick or teething. Only 5 more teeth before she's done! Hallelujah! She goes to bed at ~7:45 and gets up anywhere between 7 and 8:30. She usually takes a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. 
• She loves to give hugs and kisses and will give them to anyone willing to accept! Yikes! 
• She especially loves to come give hugs and kisses to mommy's belly and talk about the babies!

She's a sweetheart, and we love her so much! Despite all the naughty things she's been doing lately, she is handling the stress of everything going on so well. I feel guilty for having to be on bed rest and let David's mom take care of her, but I know she won't remember me not doing things for her and she'll have plenty of mommy time someday again!!

Videos of Ellie

Ellie: 20 Months old

Ellie just keeps growing up and I can't believe how fast it's happening! Yesterday, she turned 20 months old! I can't believe she'll be 2 in 4 months! That also means Christmas is in less than 4 months! CRAZY! This year has FLOWN by!!

 

Ellie has started a few new phases that I'm not particularly fond of. One of them is when we ask her to be nice, she will do the exact opposite and start throwing things, hitting things, you name it! No idea why the sudden change from real nice to mean "nice" started. Another phase she has really been into lately is throwing things when she's upset. Not just like picking it up and dropping it, either. I mean like FULL-ON throwing something across the room. It's annoying. I don't see her growing out of them any time soon, so I guess we will just try to figure out how to deal with her bad phases and get her to be good!

Here are a few things about Ellie at 20 months old:

• She loves to watch TV. However, if you try to turn something on that she DOESN'T want to watch, you better watch out...because she will throw a huge fit. For example: if I start Super Why! and she really wanted to watch the Cat in the Hat, she will scream NO and "HATTIE!!!" until I change it to what she wants. Ugh.
• She is almost done getting her 4th molar, and she has gotten so many teeth in the last month it's crazy! Yet, she still has no I teeth. They'll come, I'm sure.
• She can fit into size 3 diapers still, but we've moved her up to size 4 for the times she's in 'sposies and not cloth (which to be honest is more now that I have less energy and desire to deal with washing diapers)
• She wears size 18 month clothes, but can fit into some 24 month clothes depending on the brand and size 5 shoes.
• She is getting really good at communicating with us and is learning lots of new words every day.
• She can recognize 5 different letters, B, E, I, O and Q. Who knows how Q got into the mix...I think it was either Super Why! or Leap Frog Alphabet something or other on Netflix. Hey, at least I can feel less guilty for letting her watch shows when she's learning from them.
• She loves to scowl if she's the least bit upset with something going on, and it's hilarious. It's always hard not to laugh when she gets mad because she makes the cutest mad face.
• She's obsessed with the Talking Tom app and asks for it EVERY day!
• Eating has become better in the last couple of weeks. She's been willing to try new things (especially if I make sure she hasn't had too many snacks before lunch or dinner) but she is still obsessed with her regular foods: bananas, blueberries & strawberries.
• She is still super clingy most days and wants "monie" not daddy. I wish I could get her to let David do more things for her, because I have no energy by the time he gets home from work! 
• Her favorite place to be is outside exploring.
• Her favorite animal is a cat and she will meow at a picture of a cat for what seems like an eternity.
• She loves to look at a flashcards app I have and repeats every word and animal it says. It's really quite impressive!
• She loves to sing nursery songs and dance to just about any music. Although LMFAO Party Rock is still her favorite!
• She loves babies and every time she sees a baby she says, "Baby. Cry."
• She is a sweet little girl and she is nice to everyone as long as she gets what she wants! HA HA!

There are so many more things I could write about Ellie. She's such a joy to have around and I'm so happy to be her mommy! I am slightly worried about how she'll react to the twins coming, but I know she will love her little brothers and help mommy when she can!

Ellie's 18 month stats

We finally got in to the pediatrician this morning for Ellie's 18 month check-up. Don't worry, she's almost 19 months old ha ha. Oh well!

She weighs 23 lbs 15.5 oz and is 31 1/2 inches tall. Both of these put her right around the 50th percentile mark. She's still my little girl, that's for sure! Her head was just over the 50th percentile, so she's very proportionate.

Everything looks good with her development and growth and she didn't have to get ANY shots today! Bonus! She did have to get her finger pricked for some blood though, but she did remarkably well with that. They will call us if anything is abnormal, so let's hope it's not!

I wasn't 100% impressed with this pediatrician, because he wasn't very thorough. He asked me only a couple questions, but I felt like he was rushing us, which I hate when going to any Dr. Maybe we'll try someone new for the next visit?

All in all, our little Ellie is healthy and doing well. She's going through some anxiety with sleeping in her bed and I think it was triggered by taking the side off of her crib. She did super well the first night, but then she wouldn't take a nap in her bed or go near it. We put the side back up, and she STILL didn't want to go near the bed!When we got back from our early appointment, I made her take a nap, because she didn't go to sleep until 11 and was up at 7! She screamed for a while because I put her in the crib but hopefully this phase passes because she's always been a GREAT sleeper, and I'd hate for that to end now!

Time to go do something productive (or maybe just look at things on pinterest to make...)

Ellie loves to dance!

We got video of Ellie dancing tonight, and it was hilarious. She would copy anything we did and David was dancing with her. We'll probably be putting this one in dance classes!!

Ellie: 18 months

I can't believe my little Ellie is 18 months, but she is! She's getting to be such a big girl and is growing up more and more every day!

She's a busy little girl that keeps me on my toes 90% of the time and I just love her!

Here are some things about her at 18 months:

• She has 9 teeth now! One tooth came in right as we were going to Utah at the end of June, and she's got two molars coming in.
• She is addicted to her binky and has to have it everywhere. I was hoping to get it away from her by 18 months, but no such luck. Maybe after this round of teething is over?? She calls it her "ginky" and always knows where we hide them!!
• She has recently become a picky eater, but will still eat goldfish, grapes, bananas, cheese of any kind, turkey lunch meat, bread (sometimes), pretzels, peas, rice, pasta of any kind (except mac & cheese), watermelon, apples and sometimes bell peppers, cooked or raw. She won't eat much meat, especially not beef! I have no idea why.
• She is wearing size 4-5 shoes, size 3 diapers and 18 month clothes (though the few 12 month things I haven't put away yet still fit).
• She can say a big variety of words and is now especially good at saying "mine" since our visit to Utah. She and her little cousin who is almost 2 years older than her didn't always play super well, and she picked up mine pretty quickly! She loves to say "hewwo" when picking up a phone, remote or anything else she thinks is a phone. She jabbers all the time, and sometimes I can understand what she wants/needs.
• Her favorite show is Curious George (thank you, Netflix!) and sometimes it allows me to get some quiet time for 20 minutes/clean up uninterrupted, do what I need to do!
• She always wants to go "buh bye" and if we forget to lock the front door, that's exactly what she'll do!
• She loves giving hugs and kisses and isn't satisfied unless she gives you a kiss on the lips.
• She loves to sing and dance and twirl around the room.
• Her favorite toys are her stuffed kitty, her baby and the doll stroller. She will push that thing around forever, and also try to get inside it, too!

She is a silly girl and we love her so much! I still have to make her 18 month appointment, so after that, I can update with her stats as far as weight/height go. I'm guessing she's about 23 or 24 lbs.

Favorite toy

Ellie is obsessed with this stroller and loves to push it all over. I got it when I was 10 or so and it still looks brand new.  I kept it hidden from grandkids so it wouldn't get ruined and now my kids can play with it!

17 Months: Ellie

I've been pretty terrible at updating about Ellie as she gets older, but here's to hoping I will do better now that we're a bit more settled in!

Ellie turned 17 months old on the 1st! I can't believe she's that big, yet sometimes she acts like she's so much older!

This is the ONLY picture I have of her this month so far...

 She loves to wear headbands, and take them off...also she loves to run around in just a diaper :P

Here are some notable things about Ellie at 17 months old:

• She LOVES to draw with crayons, pens, pencils, ANYTHING...and she loves to draw on anything, too! We bought her a coloring book, but she prefers the coffee table, random papers she finds around or things she's not supposed to draw on!

• She's got 6 teeth! Woo hoo! 

• She weighs between 22 and 23 lbs

• She wears 18 month size clothes, the tallest setting of her cloth diapers :) but size 3 of disposables, and size 4 shoes. 

• She's a great sleeper, sleeping 12-13 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon.

• Outside is where she loves to be most, it's just unfortunate that we don't really have a place for her to play here, and the grass is just full of weeds. And it's also unfortunate that her pregnant mama has a hard time being outside in the heat for more that 5 minutes!

• She loves to run around our living room, especially with a blanket on top of her head (no idea where she got this idea...)

• She's become a picky eater lately and only wants to eat "papa" (pasta) "ish" (fish-goldfish) apples, bananas, "chsss" (cheese), peas, sometimes steamed broccoli and carrots and any kind of cereal. Occasionally, I can get her to eat chicken, if it's mixed in with other things. 

• She says quite the variety of words but her new ones are, Lemonade, birds and more. I can't think of any but those 3 right now but she also says lots of names, like "Hay Hay" (our neighbor Harrison back in Utah) "essca" (Jessica, also a neighbor in Utah) "NorNor" (Friend Norris) "Nena" (Friend Brenna), "Mama", "dada", "Papa" (Grandpa. Grandma is always Papa, too...)

• She loves to sing and dance and listen to my iPod when she gets her little hands on it!

• Whenever she makes messes or does something she knows she isn't supposed to, she says, "No No No No No!" It's funny, but not all at the same time!

• She goes to Nursery now, which is SO nice and she totally loves it! The only problem is that we have church at 1, and she usually doesn't take a nap before church, so by the time church is over at 4, she is SO ornery and worn out that the second we put her in the car to go home, she's out. She usually stays asleep when we bring her in though, and will sleep until we wake her up!

• She loves to play with anything and everything, especially bowls and cake pans from my kitchen cabinets! 

• She will watch ANYTHING on TV. Seriously, anything. It's no good. Though we only let her watch for up to 60 minutes a day. That may seem like a lot, but sometimes when I feel like dying or falling asleep, I can lie down on the couch, turn Netflix on, and she'll be a good little girl and sit with me while we watch Shaun the Sheep or Curious George.

We love her SO much and she's such a joy in our lives. I don't know what we would do without her...life would probably be much more quiet and not nearly as much fun!

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend, we headed down to Dudley, Georgia to attend David's niece's graduation. Crazy! He has a niece that is not much younger than I am! Anyway, it was a great opportunity to see some family we haven't seen in a couple years, and it was also a great opportunity for Ellie to meet cousins, aunts and an uncle that she's never met before!

I don't think I took any pictures (fail) but we had a good time. We only stayed until Sunday, because we wanted to make the long (6-6.5 hours) drive back home and still have a day where we could get a few things squared away back home. 

On Monday, we did a lot of running around, as well as some shopping! We bought some flowers to plant in our little basket that is on our front porch and David and I each bought a new pair of shorts! Woohoo...maternity shorts... hah!

After getting back home, we fed Ellie a quick lunch, then decided to head to the lake. It was about 30 minutes away, but it was well worth it. We paid our $2 day use fee and parked on the grass on the side of the street because it was SO darn crowded! Even though there were so many people, we still had a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures

I only added this one because Ellie looked so cute...now if only I didn't look like I was in pain, or something...

Ellie didn't want to leave, but I was getting tired, and I was also burning so after about 1 1/2 hours, we called it quits. We came back home, cleaned up and assembled our little mini grill that we've NEVER used that we got for our wedding. It worked well and we had some tasty hot dogs and macaroni salad. 

All in all, it was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun!

Cloth diapering adventure

So, we've made it through 3 days of using cloth diapers 85% of the time. I haven't used them yet for naps, or night time, but I am going to use them today for Ellie's afternoon nap with a doubler.


Warning, poo talk ahead...but hey, this IS a post about diapers!

So far, so good! We did have an uh-oh moment when Ellie had pooped in a disposable and I figured she was done, so I had David put her in a cloth diaper without a liner (the liner is something that sits in between the baby and the diaper and catches solid messes, and you just take it out of the diaper and flush it) BUUUUT she decided she wasn't done and we had a big mess on our hands, since we didn't yet have a diaper sprayer. Whoa, that was a long sentence. Anywho, after finding a tutorial for a DIY sprayer, we headed off to Home Depot, got the parts and we were all set.

Turns out, using a diaper sprayer isn't as easy as it seems. At least not when you're dealing with peanut butter poop. uggh. Anyway, problem solved, we got over it and we're still learning. The diapers washed up BEAUTIFULLY, and have absolutely NO stink to them! I was worried that they would, since you have to use a detergent with no fragrance, additives, etc. But, no fear, they are perfect.

I am in LOVE with the diapers we've chosen. I only have 6 right now, because I wasn't 100% sure that I really wanted to do it, but after 3 days I promise you that I'm not looking back! Ellie really doesn't seem to notice a difference in the diapers, and they really aren't super bulky, so her clothes all fit her just fine.

We're using the bumGenius 4.0 One-Size diaper with snaps. I got them on sale with their buy 5 get 1 free, so that's a bonus! They fit incredibly well, have TONS of adjustability (it's a word, I promise :P ) and we haven't had a single leak yet! We even left her in one for 3-4 hours, ish? With cloth diapers, they suggest you change your baby more often, since they aren't filled with chemicals and a such to hold a gazillion ounces of wetness.

Here are some pictures of what they look like:

I was a total non-believer before, and I really don't know why I didn't try these earlier! Oh well. I can know that I will save my money from here on out! They are super easy, not any grosser than disposables, and they save TONS of money!

Say what you will about cloth diapering, but I guarantee that if you tried the BG 4.0, you wouldn't be unhappy!

Pictures and updates

So I finally got around to plugging my camera in to my computer so I could get pictures off of it! It's about time! Some of them are from before my birthday in March! hah!

This is my best friend, Hillary. She and I ran a 5k that our stake put on. I suck at running, and didn't actually "run" the whole thing. Maybe next time?

David and I celebrated my birthday at Tucanos! Tasty!

We took our last trip to Roosevelt before leaving to TN for Easter weekend. It was a lot of fun and we had an Easter Egg Hunt for all the grand kids! They loved it!

Grandma & Grandpa wanted a picture with Ellie before we left!

Ellie decided to learn some calculus...

David graduated from BYU! WOOHOO! We celebrated California Pizza Kitchen style!

 This is Ellie and Lexi. Lexi is Ellie's best little friend ever! She's only 3 months younger, and they love to do everything together!

 

Playing around our apartment for the last time while the movers pack us up!

Ellie stole the neighbor kid's tricycle and she wouldn't get off of it! Luckily, the other kids were all at school!

Just before leaving to TN, we stayed with my brother, Boyd and his family. This is Ellie playing in the little playroom with her cousin Scarlett.

Checking out the airport and the airplanes!

Ellie's first flight!

Only one of the fun adventures we've had in TN so far. We went and visited David's sister Alayna and her family and David's parents for a day. We all went to these fun fountains and Ellie had a blast...until she got knocked over and hit her little head on the concrete. OUCH! She was OK though and still had a pretty good day after that!