cloth diapers

I've been asked to share our adventures with cloth diapers, so here goes!

When I was pregnant I was interested in cloth diapers, but we weren't sure if thats the route that we wanted to take or not. There are reasons not to, its different, therefore scary, its messy, its not the norm... plus its just more work. And you have to handle poop.

We got so many diapers from showers and my in-laws that there was no point in not using them. We are getting to the point now though that we are having to buy diapers. Its roughly $70 a month for G's diapers, and once I realized that, I knew it was time to try out the cloth diapers.

They came in today, so I'll post our adventures with them. We only have 4-ish diapers, so we aren't fully converted, mainly just trying to see which brand/styles we like best. They have to be washed several times before being used, so they are currently being washed again. And again.

There were three brands that I wanted to try:
Softbums (good for chunky legged babies)
bumGenius (brand that everyone I know uses)
Fuzzibunz (the one I haven't bought yet)

at the moment the Softbums are our favorites, at least before use. They are two-in-ones... they have a waterproof cover and each one comes with 3 snap in inserts, along with a soaker. So when we change him, the cover is still fine, we just snap in a new insert.

I'll let you know how it goes once we get them on the kiddo!

I'm a little behind, here's Christmas!

I hadn't been posting b/c I was waiting on the time to get this one posted. Here are our Christmas pics... so this will be long!

playing in his bumbo on Jen's counter while Mom, Jen & I have our Christmas cookie making party

playing with an ornament in his cute Christmas onesie from Aunt Cheryl!

another shot of the onesie :)

Christmas Eve Eve - dinner and Christmas lights

at Buca. This is my fave pic ever of the two of them!

their side of the table

Bartzes!

Jen (in her cute boots!) walking around the Christmas light place with G

after looking at lights

Christmas Eve party at Gary & Rhonda's. For some reason I didn't take any other pics!

Now Christmas morning:

Christmas morning! Opening his present. Although it was more to shove the tissue paper in his mouth than it was to see what was inside :)

more presents with Daddy

He got a Sophie! his favorite thing to chew on! Well, second to his fingers

not sure about this puppy, it knows his name!

opening gifts wears out a baby!

his Christmas PJ's

from here we crashed the Barron's Christmas breakfast that was at Jen & Kyles. But I didn't bring my camera in.

Then we headed to B's grandparent's house

playing with Papa

all the guys playing with the little man

5 generations!
There is another picture somewhere of 5 generations where Brandt is the baby! I hope it turns up

all the guys

playing with Mimi & Papa

then we were off to my parent's house!
(with a pit stop at Mimi & Papa's for a nap. I may have taken one with him lol)

the best present: dinosaur ball pit from Jen & Kyle!

playing with the dinosaur :)

balls!

can you find the baby??

ball pit

happy baby!

hope yall had a wonderful Christmas!

I saw this today and thought I'd share. I refer to B all the time as a superhero, but I know he never feels that way himself.

Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."

Teef!

our Christmas card

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas survey

also stolen from the lovely Emily

once again, if you are reading this, you are tagged! Do it! NOW!

What is your religion? Christian. As far as denomination, that's up in the air. Raised Catholic, sort of unofficially switched to Baptist while we were dating, but we are really interested in Methodist. I could care less what I am labeled, that means nothing to me, I just want to find a good church family and a preacher that speaks to me. You know what I mean :) B's schedule makes it hard to try out churches, but we are working on it.

How do you celebrate Christmas? Christmas Eve get together/white elephant/food/games at B's parents, but my whole family comes too. Then gifts with his fam after everyone leaves. Christmas morning with the 3 of us, lunch at one set of B's grandparents with his whole fam, then dinner at my parents. Thank goodness his whole fam live on the same street, less than 5 miles from my parents!

Favorite Christmas hymn? We 3 Kings, O Holy Night

Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells

Absolute favorite thing about Christmas? family, giving, relaxing wiht everyone, happiness, joy of the time of year. and lights!

Did you get your Christmas shopping done early this year? I had my gifts wrapped before our tree was up.

Favorite Christmas food? cookies. Hazel's chocolate pie. Jennifer's "MyPotatas!".
(honestly, they are too sour cream-y, I just added that to make you feel special)

Did you do anything charitable for Christmas? just some donations, which I am scrimping on this year since I'm not working. I would love to start up a new tradition so that Garrett can see and eventually participate.

What does your Christmas tree topper look like? its a star, gold with white lights

Eggnog or hot chocolate? I strongly dislike eggs. And milk. hot chocolate all the way!

How were your Santa gifts left when you were a kid? we each had our own santa paper, a few of the gifts (maybe all of them?) had tags so we knew who's paper was who's. Santa was a messy writer, sort of like when my mom writes with her left hand...

Which kind of lights do you prefer for Christmas? colored C9's or white on the house. our yard is all in colored this year, it rained too much to get on the roof. Our tree has both white and colored lights. I prefered white until we got the colored on there, now I gotta say I like the mix. We are slowing buying LED's so we can eventually use those.

Mistletoe? I used to buy it every year, but I didn't this year.

To give or to receive? I love shopping for other people! Ok, I'll be honest. I just love shopping period.

Do you like candy canes? I do. But I'll just buy a few of the tiny ones b/c we never eat them, just use them in hot chocolate.

all about me!

I stole this from Emily, I thought it was fun:

Ok, so if you're reading this...consider yourself "tagged".


Did you go to college? Where did you go? Graduation year? Major?
I started out at San Jac. I wasn't really motivated, so staying at my parent's for a few extra years was prob a good bet. I got an associates in computer programming. Then I moved to San Marcos to go to Southwest Texas State University, although it got changed to Texas State while I was there. I started out with the programming stuff, and was majoring in math. But then I decided that although I was good at programming, it was WAY too boring and I needed something more. So I switched to art. I would have rather done photography since I had been taking photog classes, but they didn't offer a minor in it. (I was pretty much done with my math major by then) so I just went with art & design as my minor. Long story. Long college career, come to think of it. I was in school a L O N G time.

Do you have kids? Are you planning on having kids? How many?
yes! But you know that. My Baby G. As far as how many... 2 for sure, up to 4. It changes. We would love to have 4 kids, but the logistics (money, house size, etc) get us (ahem, B) sidetracked. God knows what is the best for our family. I'll leave it at that.

What do you do for a living?
I work for my in-laws in their office. It has been a major blessing though, I get to stay home for a year with my little man. Now thats a nice maternity leave. (unpaid, this isn't Canada!)

Do you have any pets?
2 beagles and a kitty. Nevaeh is 5 1/2, B got her for me for our first dating anniversary. Madi will be 3 in two weeks, B surprised me with her not long after we got married. And Niko! B is allergic to cats, I grew up with them, but figured I would never be able to have another. But right before we bought our house, we decided to add a kitty to our family. He just turned 2. We got him from the SPCA and I would love to have nothing but rescue pets for the rest of my life.

a milestone?

we have discovered that baby gear is all about safety. Everything has buckles and straps... from high chairs to changing pads, to swings. I'm sort of surprised that there isn't one in the crib. Now, of course, we use them in the stroller and carseat, but the swing, meh, we sort of haven't bothered with.

For a few days now, Garrett has discovered that he can scoot by putting his hands behind his head and pushing, sort of like crab walking. And today, he tried it in his swing. Which was cute. Until he started scooting out of the swing!

So now, we no longer have to wonder when we need to start buckling him into his swing!

Garrett meets Santa!

one year ago

technically, a year ago last Saturday:

so we were talking on Saturday... last year on that day we were just finding out we were pregnant, and now we have a 4 month old. I remember it was the night before our Christmas party, we had to go to Walmart to get paper plates, so we picked up a second pregnancy test too, just to "make sure"

The next morning I had planned to meet my mom at Specs to get a few things for the party, it was odd looking at all the stuff that I knew I wasn't going to be able to drink lol.

And as luck would have it, once everyone was over that night, Kyle and Katie were going through my camera and saw the above pics... although Katie still denies that she knew what the pictures were of. Kyle knew though, and was silently pleading for me to tell Jen that night so he wouldn't have to keep it a secret. Luckily for him, I did :)