Saturday, October 29, 2011

First Halloween with Noah :)

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 This is our costumes for Halloween. I am proud to say that we spent a grand total of $0 on all 3 costumes. Thats right zilch, nada, nothing! Sean is a lumberjack, notice the axe in the other picture. The shirt he already owned and the suspenders we borrowed from Andrea. Noah is of course his daddy. This is my favorite costume. All we needed was a bread which I made from felt I got from my mom's sewing room and sewed to his pacifier. In case you couldn't tell what I am, I'm the sky! I know oh so very clever. I already owned the dress and leggings and with felt I got from my mom I cut out the sun and clouds and safety pinned them to myself. Last night we had our group gathering with friends again. It was a blast. Hillary and Ben planned this months. We had a trunk or treat and then went back to their house for chilli and fixings and just hung out for hours. Seeing all the fun costumes was delightful. I just love getting together with everyone.


All the mamas and our babies






Again with the Breaking House!!

Warning: This is a ranting post but it needs to be said.

Due to events at the house we are renting we have come to the decision that we will NEVER own or rent an old house EVER again! Its seriously ridiculous. Its like the house has an evil vendetta against us and all the appliances and parts to the house have a pact to break one after the other. Kay maybe its not an evil house but it is an old and yucky one. What has caused this rant to come? I'll tell ya.

The oven broke and then 2 weeks later (oven still not in working order) the hot water heater broke! Thats right, the thing that allows us to not feel like our home has turned into a 3rd world country with no hot water  :( Guess how long we have been without? 2 days?, 4 days? nope 1 week and 1 day! You may ask: Isn't there laws against landlords allowing renters to go more than 24 hours without water, heat, electricity ? If you thought yes, then you are correct. Does that matter to our landlords? Nope guess not. In the beginning our landlord/renter relationship was great. Now not so much. There has been too much going wrong. I know it's not there fault this house is falling apart. Its no ones but the evil house! But it is in their complete control to get things done in a timely manner. Instead of getting a plumber out the day the hot water heater broke they decided it would be better for THEM to have the work done for free. First they ordered a part (without consulting a professional) and left a message on Sean's voicemail that they expected him to fix it. They didn't consider that he has midterms this week and needs to study, or that he isn't comfortable doing a repair that he isn't sure if it will fix the problem in the first place. Tired of waiting for them to just send someone out to do the repair Sean put the part in. This act was to no avail because the part wasn't even what was broken. So they had their brother come out and look at it. He did, and had no clue what was wrong with it. Turns out he isn't even a repair man. How was he supposed to know what to do?

Can you tell I'm upset over this? Could you blame me? We went a week without hot water. This is not just a problem because lets face it, hot showers are like a million times better than freezing ones but also for these reasons: 1. We have a baby that needs to be bathed and not frozen 2. We have cloth diapers that need to be washed in hot water to be cleaned properly 3. Dish washers are pointless without hot water 4. We have grown accustom to having hot water on a daily basis.

We called our landlords last night and informed them that we were upset (no worries we weren't rude or anything just straight forward) We asked why a plumber wasn't just sent out last week. Their reply was that they already spent $5000 for repairs this year and want to avoid spending anymore and that they know we "probably aren't causing any of this but that its hard when they are so far away" Really? "probably aren't causing it" Do they think we like not having water? Thats just silly to say. Plus if they don't want to do repairs then they shouldn't have bought such an old house. We thought the house was so cute when we first moved in and now we know that looks are deceiving. The quaintness of the house covered up the dirty inside with corroded pipes, braking gas lines, and who knows what else. Well now a plumber was finally sent to the house yesterday and we now have hot water, finally!! I love taking hot showers :) 

I'm just happy to say that in one month we will be moving out once and for all! More on that news to come.
I feel like I should end with something happy to make up for all that ranting. Here ya go its a cute picture of our Prince Noah :)

He is just getting bigger and bigger and cuter and cuter! Our little guy can now grasp things on purpose (not just us putting things in his hands) and he focuses on our faces more and reacts to our talking. He is rolling over lots more and trying to sit up. We just love him!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Cloth Diaper Experience

We have been using cloth diapers for a couple weeks now. Here is what we think:
Noah and I love them! Even though it has added two loads a week to my laundry schedule, but I don't mind laundry. In fact its one of my favorite chores. I love how incredibly cute the diapers are. How can something a baby poops in be so darn adorable?! I don't know but they just are.

This one has giraffes on it. So fun!! So I made a post a while back about the cloth diapers we had chosen to use. Well,,, that decision has changed. The sprouts diapers are nice and we still use them sometimes but I recently found a new system of cloth diapers and bought a couple of them to try out. They are the Softbums Omni.



I love them! So now we are going to buy some more of them. They still have the elastic legs so the grow with the baby but instead of snaps it has Velcro, much easier to use at 2am. The best part is no leaks!!! With disposables and the sprouts diapers we were having a lot of leaks with our Noah bug. We have been using the new diapers for 3 days now with no blow outs or leaks. Hallelujah!  I also really like that these ones are much more slim and don't poof out as much as the others I have seen. Noah seems much more comfortable in these ones as well.

Sean's say on the diapers: Overall I like the diapers pretty well. They really aren't much more work than a disposable. My only complaints are that we have to change the diapers more often due to the fact that they are less absorbent than disposables. Also it is a little less convenient to lug the old ones around but even that isn't very bad. Overall I like them pretty well.

See good reviews all around :)  








Monday, October 10, 2011

Race for the Cure

Yesterday my family got to participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer. It was one of the best experiences. Unfortunately Robyn wasn't able to go since she lives in Wyoming. We all missed her. It was super packed with thousands of people. There were booths with free samples and information about research and early detection. First mom got to be in the parade for Cancer Survivors, then we walked around the booths and then we participated in the 5k walk. In case you didn't know 5k is 3.1 miles. (not going to lie I had to ask Sean) 3 miles is so long when you have a baby strapped to your chest. Noah was not a fan of the stroller that day. My family had a great time talking with each other and joking and laughing. It was just a great day! It took an hour and a half to walk the 3ish miles. I can't wait to do it again next year!!  Here are pictures to illiterate how marvelous the day was.





















Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Findings of a new mom

I realize I have only been doing this Mom stuff for a little over 2 months but I feel as though I have learned so much already in this time! I know there is lots more to learn and I'm excited for future adventures. The great thing about mom's is that they are always willing to give advice of what they have learned. I'm happy to join the group :) SO here it goes, the things I have learned either from other moms and some all by myself.
  • Babies don't really get dirty so they only need a bath 2 or 3 times a week. Sounds crazy but its true! They have sensitive skin and if you bathe them too much it will dry out their skin. This happens with Noah if we give him a bath everyday. 
  • You can't spoil a baby. Cuddle Cuddle Cuddle :) They are only this small for such a short time
  • Sleep when your baby sleeps. I know this advice is always given but I think sometimes we new parents take it in one ear and out the other. I know I did! I just didn't feel tired by the time that Noah would finally fall asleep in the beginning. But don't wait til you're really tired you body is already getting ready to crash at that point. 
  • Take time for your marriage, Date your spouse!!! Its important for your child for you to have a strong happy marriage. 
  • It's ok to admit you need help sometimes. This was hard for me. I felt like I needed to do everything. Keep the house spotless, always be the one to care for Noah, cooking and take care of everything else that goes on in a day. I finally broke down and realized that after I got some help I felt much better. 
  • Trade off who stays up with the baby. Sean and I trade off. If I'm up for the first part of the night he gets the next and so on. 
  • Skin time is still important! Bond with your baby. 
That's all I have for right now. More to come as I learn things  :) I just love my family <3

Oh things that are happening in the life of us: Moving back into an apartment (post about that to come soon) Sean is doing wonderfully in his classes at ASU, Halloween and dressing up!